#chensisterslookingatthings

[chensisterslookingatthings]

i got to visit the smithsonian natural history for the first time yesterday. i nearly wept from joy. i'd gone there looking for exhibits on colors, mollusks, rocks, birds, all things i'm currently writing about, and i received everything i wanted in such massive doses i had to leave before i could absorb all of it.

there's a grand rotunda with taxidermied birds that have passed through DC, including two passenger pigeons and a carolina parakeet, both now extinct. the color exhibit featured a first edition copy of goethe's theory of color (1810), information about how royal purple dye was first made (by "milking" mollusks), a radioactive specimen of fiestaware that got discontinued in 1944 bc the orange-red glaze had uranium in it.

i saw a little girl put her hand on a meteorite, teeth almost clattering: "this is really from outer space??!" i saw another girl, wearing thick coke bottle glasses, lean in close to look at a taxidermied snow owl: "i always wanted to see one of these close up..." i saw a smart couple gazing at a composite satellite image of light pollution, discussing energy-saving technologies. i saw families of all backgrounds (including a guy dressed as a cowboy) milling around, reading placards about ocean currents, coral bleaching, geologic time, and why global warming is definitely real. 

i kept thinking: this is what public funding can build. the smithsonian museums are totally free. there isn't some arcane guilt-ripping suggested donation courtship dance at the entrance. in the cafeteria, all the food is priced decently and all the utensils, plates, etc, are compostable. this is stuff you can do on a massive scale if the underlying motive isn't profit. there aren't gift stores around every corner selling terrible products made out of plastic and sugar. 

the founding impetus for natural history research museums like the smithsonian may be imperialist and problematic, but I still think there’s a lot of potential here. the smithsonian is about 60% federally funded. what if we had good public high quality museums and research institutions and libraries everywhere? i was feeling really good when i walked out, but then i turned the corner and inadvertently walked into the trump international hotel. the building had black awnings that looked like evil flags flapping in the wind. barricades had been erected all around the entrance. the people walking out of the hotel hurried into hired cars. the building had formerly been the site of a historic post office pavilion. 

it was like getting the air punched out of you to walk from a place that contained actual live butterflies fluttering around happy children, to a place that smelled like a crypt. it was really like choose your own adventure. did we want this kind of future, or that one? did we want wonder and curiosity and knowledge or gaudy gilt banisters and cold marble? 

other people were also standing outside the hotel taking pictures. mostly with their middle finger up. very telling. i guess we were all indicating with our fingers what sort of future we preferred. i kept walking. a little further down the block, i passed by the department of justice building, where i read, etched above the doorway: 

"WHERE LAW ENDS TYRANNY BEGINS."

[chensisterslookingatthings]

6-30-16

the new rivka galchen book is in this bright orange accent color in the book she talks about how she started noticing the color on her baby’s things and then she started to see the color everywhere in the city finally she sees that it’s the color of the jumpsuits detainees wear in guantanamo

that color makes me very emotional do you remember when i went on a road trip with mom and dad i was taking a nap in the back seat and when i woke up a truck was passing by it was all orange for several seconds i watched it pass by bc it was so long for some reason seeing that color made me cry

that color seems to be very powerful it’s the color of traffic cones and construction it stops you in your tracks is it the color of emergency?

no, that’s typically red it’s the color of “there’s work going on and you can’t be here”

so it’s the color of exclusion?

it’s the color of a barrier that you can’t cross maybe that’s why on it’s so many baby things and on rivka galchen’s baby’s jumpsuit

“this is mine. don’t touch it. stay away.”

are there things in nature that are this color? poppies? oranges? clown fish? oh i just googled it. it’s called “safety orange.”

[chensisterslookingatthings]

5-7-16

part of the pleasure of traveling seems to be running into things you never imagined you’d see we were walking along this narrow alley in beyoglu, a neighborhood of istanbul suddenly a man called out to us and we looked up he was standing in this cave strung up with balloons and light at first we had no idea what he was peddling it looked like an installation of some kind there was a cute dog hanging out next to a cigarette vending machine and another younger man who was smoking in the corner silently

the older man was brandishing a gun it was a bb gun. he said for 3 lira we could try to shoot the balloons the whole thing was so weird we were like ok, why not then while we were taking turns shooting the balloons (we were great shots) another guy came up and said “what’s the attraction here?” he thought the attraction was the dog.

“is that a wolf?” he asked the proprietor was laughing really hard and he said “that’s not a wolf, that’s buddy! his name is buddy! “hey buddy! smile!” buddy was smiling really happily and the guy, who turned out to be a german tourist, got his shots on the bb gun but he was terrible and he shot out the light bulb way off in the corner his aim was just terrible

“i’m a german, i don’t know about guns like you americans,” he said and all of us stood there laughing because the whole thing with buddy the wolf, the bb guns, the balloons, the german’s terrible aim, all of it was so unexpected and hilarious we were just laughing uncontrollably for about ten minutes

then it was time to leave, and as we walked up to the hotel we were still laughing everything seemed great. the world was this amazing place that was full of surprises

then we felt someone put something on our heads, like a crown it was a young boy who was holding an armful of rose crowns he wanted us to give him money we were still disoriented and blindsided by our laughing so we gave him a few lira but he said he wanted more he was syrian, he said. he had no mother, no father he had obviously rehearsed this speech lots of times he asked us where we were from in a way that seemed very adult even though he was only about nine years old

next to him his little brother was also selling rose crowns and an older brother who was about fourteen they weren’t having much luck. people mostly passed them by

i took out some US money and gave it to him. he was very excited. “all of it! all of it!” he said with a huge smile. he had a black eye and part of his face was swollen “you want all of it?” we were all still laughing. it felt like we were playing a game “do you go to school?” i asked, but he said nothing i felt like an idiot asking him that question

finally after we gave him about 5 bucks i took out all the change in my pocket it was a random mix of euros and lira and US coins, worth almost nothing he said he wanted all of it so i dumped it all in his hand, and he saw i’d saved a few quarters in my palm “all of it!” he said again. we were still playing the game. so i did. and his whole face lit up. and then he sort of saluted us.

we walked away wearing our crowns

after that encounter we were sucked back into the world this was all within a thirty minute span of time suddenly we were hyper alert and we saw everything the young girls singing on the street for money they were belting as loudly as they could, voices cracking outside our hotel another little boy was begging he was wearing an oversized jacket that was very dirty he was so sick and weak every time he sneezed or coughed he would almost fall over you know when kittens are sick and they wobble he was like that he was leaning against a parked car counting his lira over and over in his tiny palm we gave him all the rest of our lira no voice came out when he tried to say thank you

[chensisterslookingatthings]

5-1-16

let’s talk about sightseeing!

in rome i thought i wasn’t going to do any sightseeing but once i got there it was impossible to avoid just getting from one place to the next you see so many historical sites and ruins all crammed together i thought, if this obelisk was in the US it would be a huge deal but here it’s just another obelisk.

when i got to rome, i felt like i was on a film set as an american, i’m so used to imitation that the real thing just seemed like an extremely good imitation

like when we went to the galleria we said: this is the ancestor of caesar’s palace shopping forum! except here there’s a real sky. in las vegas the painted sky lights up and dims in cycles every hour throughout the day.

that part is so amazing. time speeds up in there but also seems to stop completely bc you never know what time it is.

maybe it’s not sightseeing but site collecting something to add to the itinerary we want to show that we have been there to see the real thing hence all the selfie sticks we’ve put ourselves in its proximity and so we feel a sense of accomplishment

i don’t think people are actually looking carefully but also, who cares? what would people see if they looked carefully the sight/site is simply a backdrop for the selfie

what tourists object to are the selfie stick vendors who “obstruct” their access to a pure tourism experience it’s almost like they would prefer to stand in front of a green screen or a postcard they don’t want all the hassle of dealing with real human beings

and what about your refusal to see the sights? all you want to look at are weeds in the street...

i don’t like a forced encounter i especially don’t like it when people say, “you must see this” i don’t like people to control what i see

but i saw a lot of other things: i saw an old man ripping down a billboard small collections of trash flowers growing out of the wall loose cobblestones big buildings in the distance

what is more compelling to you about these things? nobody is telling me to look at them

photo by Martin Parr (whose photos of tourists are the best) 

[chensisterslookingatthings]

3-20-16

spring starts today!

during our walk we saw a lot of animals doing their mating dances birds were gathering materials for their nests when i saw the dove on the balcony singing its song i thought of the general libidinous charge in the air when spring comes people start wearing fewer clothes

my friend introduced me the phenomenon called “cuffing season” during winter months, people stay “handcuffed” to each other to stay warm but in the spring your body can generate a sufficient amount of warmth so you don’t need to cuddle anymore

[we google “cuffing season”] “it may not be the most romantic plan, but ms. keese admits that this schedule is convenient.” “when the going get tough, the cuff gets going.”

LA doesn’t a doesn’t a cuffing season which is why i just learned about this phenomenon there is sun in LA.

[chensisterslookingatthings]

3-17-16

we were having a party in our very tiny kitchen D had to sit on the ground with the rosemary plant next to him so that somebody could sit on the sill he kept ruffling the rosemary’s head which made the room smell like rosemary

M asked: do you ever cook with it? and i said: no, because it feels like i’m cannibalizing my own child then D said: that’s ok, plants like to be trimmed, it’s like getting a haircut for them and you know what aristotle says: “trees have their butts in their air, their heads are in the ground, so you can’t hurt them”

later, we were walking along the east river and you said: “i have a new idea about resilience. we’re like weeds that you can trample on, but we can just spring back up because our heads are in the ground”

[chensisterslookingatthings]

3-16-16

things we saw in chinatown

[chensisterslookingatthings]

3-1-16

i was looking at a portrait of a young woman who appeared to be just asleep in bed actually the painting was interesting because one of her eyes seemed to be slightly open it was a deathbed portrait

[we did some research about the portrait]

wow this is a pretty epic story so this painting depicts lady digby she was a famous beauty who died mysteriously in her sleep lord digby was so bereaved he immediately commissioned plaster casts of her body parts and also this portrait by van dyck

they did an autopsy to try to find the cause of her death she had been taking viper-venom wine for headaches and when they opened her skull, they found she had “very little brain” so perhaps she had some kind of brain condition but everyone suspected lord digby of murdering her so digby had to flee

he spent the rest of his life obsessed with this portrait and writing letters about her when he died, they were buried together in this magnificent tomb but there was a fire and the tomb burned down her gilded bronze bust was reported to have melted into a puddle