After dropping College Girl off at the bus so that she could return to her academic career, we had a great brunch at Jaleo, a tapas bar/restaurant, and then headed off to the National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of Art, which had fine shows about Katherine Hepburn and the "Color Field" movement.
The highlight for me, however, was a visit to the Portrait Gallery's third floor bathroom, the hallway of which is the temporary home of Stephen Colbert's portrait. You could tell even as you approached it that fun was afoot; the people who stopped and stared were either overjoyed to have found their hero (as I was) or confused tourists who had no idea what was going on.
And props to the National Portrait Gallery for having a sense of humor!
After more art museum-ing, we headed to the National History Museum for the 5:45 showing of "U23D," which was pretty amazing. The technology is advanced so far that the glasses barely register, and you quickly move beyond the gimmick element to a total immersion. The band performs a (typically) blistering set, about 85 minutes of true favorites and a surprisingly successful one from the B-list, "Miss Sarajevo." (Still preachy, but less so than in the live show we saw last year.)
As a mild claustrophobe, I found some of the you-are-in-the-audience shots disconcerting (my personal hell is being stuck in a football stadium crowd, with no access to the photo pit!), but the shots where you are standing over Larry Mullen, Jr. watching him pound the skins, or when Bono reaches out, within inches it seems, to "wipe your tears away," are stunning.
If you've never seen U2 live, it may be the next best thing, and if you have seen a show, here comes a chance to relive it from the best seats in the house/on the stage.
All around, a very happy Bunny day.
No comments:
Post a Comment