UN-AMERICAN: FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL

It may surprise many of you to learn that almost 10 years after the events of 9-11, that there is still not a permanent memorial to honor the heros of flight 93 in Shanksville, PA. I don't know all the details of the massive delays, but bureaucracy and greed are two big factors. The proposed memorial site encompasses 2,200 acres of rural farmland, and after long negotiations, 8 of the 9 landowners agreed to accept 9.5 million dollars for their nearly 2,000 acres. The one holdout, a man named Michael Svonavec (pictured below left), owns the crucial 273 acres that includes the impact site where the plane crashed. He is still battling the government over the land. Svonavec originally wanted fifty million dollars for his acreage, but said later that he would accept ten million. The government is taking him to court and is prepared to use eminent domain to seize the land. This asshole even put up a donation box at the site to solicit money under the guise of raising funds for the memorial. Click here for his address. And finally, we have the dipshit pictured below right, the former Congressman from North Carolina, Charles H. Taylor, who has the distinct honor of being one of the most corrupt politicians ever. He was opposed to establishing a monument for the flight 93 heros in Shanksville. Shameful. The first of three phases of the memorial is scheduled to open on 9-11-11. They don't even have an estimate as to when the last phase will be completed. I found out all this information from a very frank resident of Shanksville and later confirmed it in this New York Times article.

FALLINGWATER: MILL RUN, PENNSYLVANIA

This past week I made my fourth visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. It is still one of the most romantic spots I know of, though I was a bit turned off by a few new developments there. The first, and this is becoming a world-wide trend, is that they have stopped allowing photographs inside the home. This is not because photos damage anything, but because of the time it takes for 15 amateur photographers per tour to take photos of everything with their cell phones and point and shoots. Your typical point and shoot camera is incapable of taking a sharp no flash picture in the low light conditions inside the house, but people try anyways, and I guess it slows down the tours (I'll blame dipshits with cell phones for this one). The second off putting thing is that the trustee of the house and property, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, has started using the tour as an opportunity to solicit memberships with their group. This is tastelessly done at the end of the tour as the guide directs you into the "servants quarters" that have been remodeled into a sitting room with a large plasma TV. For the next five minutes guests are forced to watch a promotional DVD about the organization and then a woman asks everyone to join. This might be ok if the tour was free, but my third and final gripe is that the 40 minute tour costs $22 per person! It wasn't long ago when you could go to an amusement park all day for less than that. The Conservancy also has legal language on the back of each ticket that makes it illegal to post photos of the house on a blog. The more hits I get, the more likely I'll get sued. Tell a friend.

"TO FULLY ENJOY THE PARK, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM INDULGING IN OUR PRODUCTS"

There is a great deal of irony in a theme park built by a candy company that has about five roller coasters with seats so narrow that your average overweight American can't fit into them. But in Hershey, Pennsylvania there is such a park, with singing animatronic cows that espouse the virtues of chocolate. On one wooden coaster, a mildly obese man in front of us waited over an hour only to find that his posterior would not fit into the seat. It was pretty sad watching him try for over a minute to wiggle into the seat, only to be met with defeat. This is why I am suggesting the new "You must be this high and no wider than this to ride this ride" signs. Currently 10% of the US population has been diagnosed with diabetes, and another 40% have pre-diabetes. In ten years time, I believe we will look at sugar like we do cigarettes. That means creepy windowless rooms in airports where you'll have to go if you want to indulge in a Milky Way.

MUSEUM OF SEX: NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Some people go to the MET while in NYC; Julie and I went to the Museum of Sex. It's a fairly interesting museum, though I will say watching "historical porn" surrounded by strangers is a bit unusual. The basic message of the museum is that for an activity so crucial to our existence and practiced by nearly all of us, we sure don't celebrate or talk much about sex. The animal sex section was eye opening. Did you know that lions give each other oral sex? Or that there are documented cases of mallard duck necrophilia. Monkeys masturbate! The bottom photo is a set piece from a short film by Michael Sullivan called "The Sex Lives of Robots". In the film Sullivan creates a post-apocaliptic world where robots figure out ways to sexually reproduce.

MAGIC GARDENS: PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens is a folk art environment that showcases the work of mosaicist Isaiah Zagar. Located on South Street at the site of Zagar's largest public mosaic installation, Magic Gardens includes a fully mosaiced indoor gallery and a massive outdoor labyrinthine mosaic sculpture. The space, primarily consisting of found objects and contributions from the community, covers half a city block with myriads of tiles, mirrors and other objects. Zagar has devoted himself to beautifying the South Street neighborhood since the late 1960s, when he moved to the area with his wife Julia. The couple helped spur the revitalization of the area by purchasing and renovating derelict buildings and adding colorful mosaics on both their private and public walls.

Zagar started working on the Magic Gardens in 1994 in the vacant lot nearby his studio. He began by constructing a massive fence to protect the area from harm and then spent the next fourteen years excavating tunnels and grottos, sculpting multi-layered walls, and tiling and grouting the 3,000 square foot space.

In 2002, the Boston-based owner of the once-vacant lot decided to sell the land in response to rising South Street property values. Unwilling to witness the destruction of Zagar's neighborhood art environment, the community rushed to support the artist, and over a period of several years, rasied the funds to buy the property. Zagar is also featured in a documentary made by his son called "In a Dream".

BRIAN READS THE WEATHER

Along with a gaggle of ten year olds, I waited in line at the Newseum for the opportunity to make an ass of myself for only $5.00. It was great fun, and only took me three takes. I read the text provided me by the teleprompter, even though it really didn't make sense. My only regret was that I didn't say, "Back to you Sonia" at the end. If you've ever wondered, "Who buys this shit" when you visit museums or amusement parks, the answer in me. Below is one of my favorite purchases from the Experience the Music Project in Seattle. For just over 3 minutes, my friend Seth and I were the infamous "Indiscreet Love Pumps", and damn did we put on a show.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART: WASHINGTON DC

I always enjoy visiting the National Gallery of Art in DC. Above are a few paintings that stuck out on a recent visit there. My all-time favorite paintings from the museum are Thomas Cole's "Voyage of Life" series, a poignant allegory across four canvases. Artists shown here from top to bottom: John Singleton Copley, Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, and Hans Holbein the Younger.

NEWSEUM WASHINGTON DC

I'm trying to go back to older posts and add some content now that I'm temporarily stationary and have a little time. Newseum is a pretty good museum in Washington DC that celebrates our national obsession with news. They have large sections of the Berlin Wall (third photo), the antenna tower from the World Trade Center with a backdrop of newspaper headlines from September 12 (second photo), the Unabomber's cabin, and lots of other things like Pulitzer Prize wining photographer Nick Ut's camera (last photo). He took the famous photo of the naked Vietnamese kids running away from their napalm engulfed village. The place is worth a visit.

NRA MUSEUM: FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA

Ah, the world of politics. The American reality of how just liking a thing or taking a position inevitably polarizes and separates otherwise educated people has always been difficult for me. My political views are all over the place, and I'd be hard pressed to call myself anything. One thing I will confess is that I admire beautiful guns. The really nice ones are truly pieces of art. So I was excited to learn that the NRA museum was only a mile from George Mason University where Julie studied this summer. I found the museum to be refreshingly apolitical. No preaching, just room after room of historical guns. Whether you like them or not, guns are an important part of our history. For better or worse, guns carved out our great promise land of rapidly diminishing opportunity, and as Hunter S. Thompson once wrote, "Some people stockpile food in anticipation of the apocalypse. I'm stockpiling bullets."