Good news, dear readers! I just saved you $20. You see, the Newseum (re)opened here in D.C. this morning and for one day only admission was free. Tomorrow, it'll cost ya 20 bucks to walk through the same doors. I, being the astute journalist I am (and wanting to spend a beautiful spring morning out of the office, natch) decided to put my best reporter face forward and see what all the fuss is about.I arrived just as the bald eagle was released to fly over Mayor Adrian Fenty's bald head (I'm not making this up) and confetti rained upon the crowd. Then, a giant banner unfurled in front of the crowd and on that giant banner was a picture of the same giant banner unfurling in front of the crowd. It was like on Minority Report when the pre-cogs told the police what was going to happen before it actually did. Kinda creepy.
Anyway, I already knew that the Newseum had one great feature about it: a restaurant by Wolfgang Puck, the first in the nation's capital. Called "The Source by Wolfgang Puck," the restaurant features Puck's signature dishes and an extensive wine list. Best of all, you don't have to pay the cost of admission to dine there. Puck himself was walking down the street right after the opening ceremony, and I snapped the pic of him at left. He's just as friendly and outgoing as you'd expect him to be, but much shorter in person. It's nice to have his cuisine in town, though, even if I am a vegetarian.So what about the actual museum, you ask. Oh, gosh...do I have to? There are a few interesting exhibits, such as the daily front pages of newspapers from each of the fifty states and several countries around the world. What's headline-worthy in South Dakota might not even make the recap section in South Carolina, and all of the typefaces and titles are certainly interesting to peruse. But those pages are outside (i.e., don't have to pay admission to see them!) and there's nothing inside that's quite as creative and engaging, unfortunately.
Here's a rundown of some other things inside, in no particular order: New Yorker cartoons about the media, two gift shops, lots of television screens with rapidly changing images and no sound, a section on the Internet that features zero computers (again, not making this up,) and - finally - a large chunk of the Berlin Wall. Yep, the Berlin Wall. And that one really baffled me, I have to say.The exhibit's subtitle calls it "A Barrier That Couldn't Block Information," but that is kind of a stretch. Wouldn't the wall be better placed in the Smithsonian where anyone could look at it for free? Not that it isn't impressive and awe-inspiring. The pic to the right show my dad in front of it, which is notable for the fact that my dad is 6'7", so you can see that the sections of the wall are huge. I guess it's supposed to remind those of us who enjoy freedom of the press in the US how others around the world have struggled in their dissemination of information. In fact, the outside of the museum features an absolutely ginormous engraving of the First Amendment on the left side of the entrance. But it all seems a little forced and heavy-handed for a place that peddles fine dining and crossword pajamas by Will Shortz.
Why this foray away from fashion today? Well, it's not often that we get big events like this in DC that aren't related to someone running for office or running away from the law, so I thought I'd bring you the inside scoop. Oh, and they did have one very, very odd clothing item there: t-shirts with plasma screen TVs sewn into the front. You could watch CNN on a girl's chest. But that just felt a little odd, and taking a picture of it felt even more odd. I'm just going to leave that one to your imagination.
I'll be back next week with a fresh batch of Blog the Blogger interviews. And don't forget: the DC Goodwill eBay store is having a tremendous sale right now, with super-low starting prices on most items. Get 'em while you can!
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