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Art Bob Assorted Bob D.C. Bob Uncategorized

The moon may be high …

Our friends Anita and Emma are visiting from Mexico City, giving us a perfect excuse to have a great Ethopian meal at Etete and then jump on the Metro to see the Hirshhorn Museum turned into haunting, beautiful “liquid architecture” via artist Doug Aitken’s “Song 1.”

Digital projectors toss the work onto the Hirshhorn’s walls while traffic, pedestrians, mopeds and bikes drift through the scene, mashing up real life and art. Last night, we had an extra bonus: a full moon. Various versions of “If I Only Had Eyes for You” drive the work, which features fragments of stories, themes, ideas. The result is mesmerizing.

If you’re in D.C., I highly recommend you check this out. It runs till May 13 from sunset till midnight …

Here’s a clip where the artist explains what he’s up to

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Assorted Bob Books D.C. Bob

Imagine a world with no Macbeth

The First FolioThe New York Times recently had a good story on the Folger Library’sFame, Fortune & Theft: The Shakespeare First Folio.” In addition to prompting me to add the exhibit to my to-do list, the story made my head spin with the following paragraph:

“If it weren’t for the First Folio, there would be no extant copies of ‘The Tempest,’ ‘Julius Caesar,’ ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Twelfth Night’ ‘As You Like It’ or ‘The Winter’s Tale.’ All the world wouldn’t be a stage; no countrymen would lend anyone their ears; and life wouldn’t be a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.”

Wow. Imagine the cultural gap we would have suffered had the First Folio not been published and preserved. And then start wondering what cultural gems were lost when they weren’t afforded the same treatment …