Autobiography: When We lived in Washington, DC our Families would come to visit and... Every Woman wanted to See The First Ladies Inaugural Ball Gowns at the Smithsonian...

 an Exhibit that I Had No Interest in... But Since They Asked, I drove and We Went! That exhibit is in the Same Building that has... Automata! Old Robots that were made in Germany as Part of Cookoo Clocks. Some are Life Size People that Dance... So there was Something for me to look at while they were looking at the Inaugural Gowns... and the Smithsonian Has... TV SHOW Props Like Archie Bunker's Chair from "All In The Family" and a M*A*S*H Tent... and Old Campaign Buttons...  The Next Building over has Rocks. and Mister Smithson Collected Rocks... His Collection was the First Part of the Smithsonian... The OPALS were the best... One was 4 Inches long in the shape of a Tree Branch... and my Uncle wanted to see the USMC Silent Drill Team Marching... That's another Event that I Never would have gone to... and we went to Colonial Williamsburg to see how People Lived 200 Years Ago. That Pace meant a lot to me Because a Paint Company Sold Housepaint in Official Colonial Williamsburg Colors... and I had just worked in a paint store for three years... Like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever... The Smithsonian has Many Traveling Exhibits. We went to see Chippendale's Doll House, that had scale model Chippendale Furniture in it... and a Japanese 3D Animated Movie "We are Born of Stars." - and a Gamelan Orchestra at the East Wing of the National Art Gallery (The Very Angular Stone Building with the GREAT ECHO) - and Leonardo Da Vinci's Silverpoint Drawings. - Buckminster Fuller's TENSEGRITIES. - Freud's Son's Self Portraits (they looked creepy with blotchy skin like looking in a mirror on acid)... I went to an installation of a TOTALLY MIRRORED HOUSE that we walked inside of and experienced infinite reflections... Every visit was different due to who else was in the room with you. In the West Wing (traditional painting) they had Classical Music Concerts. Connecting the East and West National Art Galleries is a Tunnel with a moving sidewalk ond thousands of tiny lights embedded in a silver colored wall and ceiling. I have heard that Recently they have made the lights BLINK in Computer Controlled Psychedelic Patterns. Waves... During that Time I Made Black and White Psychedelic Drawings in Ball Point Pen and Xeroxed them, Then took the copies and thumbtacked them to the wall of the National Art Gallery... Therefore, My Artwork has Hung at The Smithsonian... Sometimes the drawings would stay posted for Hours before a Guard Noticed them and Took them Down... There were MANY other ART Galleries, Shows and Museums in Washington DC. I Saw a Sculpture Called "The Awakening" that is a Giant Man arising  out of the Ground. You can see His Head, Arm and Knee but MOST of the Sculpture is Imaginary and Underground. and there was a JOHN CAGE Concert at the National Science Academy. Their concert hall is a curved room that looks like the inside of a lozenge or medical pill... That performance had a Lot of Cello playing Notes that were drawn on the Sheet music by running a pen around a round coffee cup... and in the middle of the performance, a guy had his cellphone ring... that's a kinda John Cage Type Random Sound... We also went to the Kennedy Center to see Handel's Messiah (boring), Beethoven's Ninth Conducted by Leonard Bernstein (EPIC) and an Unknown Japanese TechnoPop Group that used computers to play rhythm (they sounded silly - like a FUN Machine)... and there were Massive Rock Concerts on July 4th at the Washington Monument. 500,000 People ti see The Beach Bows with Jimmy Page and Joan Jett... at the other end of the Mall the National Symphony Orchestra was Playing and Being Conducted by Henry Mancini. 

It's Wonderful to Expand My Horizons by Driving Other People Where they Want to Go... and Sometimes It's Interesting! I drove to a Star Party way out in rural Virginia to See A Comet... with a Guy who owned a Fancy Telescope that Rotated a Complete Circle Once a Day... To Sync the Telescope With The Rotation of the Earth. I drove to an Indian GURU's Ashram with a Lady who was a Follower... and I Couldn't Understand a Word He Said... I Drove to a Hindu Wedding in the Bronx... I drove to a Laserium Show in Pittsburgh and a Hologram Art Gallery in Manhattan... and then there were the times I went alone... all the way to Key West Florida and then to Niagra Falls Canada... To Utah for the Rainbow Gathering and Seattle and The Deserts Outside LA... and Once, Coast to Coast on Highway 80 from Santa Clara to Washington DC (With my First Wife to Relocate for a Job) and then 12 Years Later, without my First Wife, I Came Back on Highway 40...

I guess that all that driving around is a part of The Past American Culture. History, Never to be Done Again... Like People Driving a Horse and Buggy... Quaint! Since Burning Gasoline Causes Global Warming, it Just Won't Be Much Fun to Cruise... Pointlessly Driving all over the Place For Fun... When will they stop having Auto Races? Indianapolis 500? Datona? Hundreds of Cars Getting NOWHERE Driving in a Circle... Polluting the Earth... Is That Fun? I did go to a Motorcycle Race in Laguna Seca Raceway once... REALLY LOUD... But I didn't go TWICE... It Seemed Bizarre... The High Point of the Trip was Listening to a Live Doors Performance in the Car as we went there... This was the Performance where Jim Morrison Scolds the Audience for Mis-Behaving at a Rock Concert. NOW, That's a Bizarre Concept, Mister Mis-Behaving Himself giving Free Advice... PFFFBT! and Now, I Don't Own a Car and Don't Go Anywhere... Unless Uber Drives Me... and THE $20 PRICE for a Short Trip always makes me Question IF I REALLY Want to GO... Maybe I'll Stay Home Instead...


Read more of my Autobiography at:
 http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html