I love watching people. The way they walk, the way they stand, what they do with their hands when they talk or sit quietly, how they act in the metro, what they do when they pass me on the sidewalk, it’s all fascinating. Today, I watched a man under the Hirshhorn as he ate his lunch and watched the fountain go up and down. At one point, he took of his leather work shoes and sat wiggling his toes for a minute before getting up. I watched another man walk from the metro. He fully extended each leg before setting it down with no give to his step at all. He looked like he didn’t have knee joints and to top it off, he didn’t swing his arms.
I love men in suits. They all look the same so they’re great fun to make up stories about. The jumping off point is whether or not they’re wearing a ring, then how old they are, etc. Sometimes they have funny, colored socks or an interesting belt buckle, which makes for more of a base for the story, but mostly they all blend together unless you really pay attention. The metro is the best place for people watching. Lots of men in suits.
I did more cataloguing today. More of the same; fixing other people’s mistakes. I’m almost done though, and then I guess I’ll move on to something else. We also had an office meeting with everyone from the Folk Life collection. It really is the most interesting mixture of people. It’s funny. At the Shelburne Museum, people kept telling me that if I thought the bureaucratic shit and the interdepartmental cattiness were bad, I should just wait until I got to a big institution like the Smithsonian. They were SO wrong. I have come to the conclusion that the Shelburne Museum is just fucked, and that any issues they might have are solely their own and are entirely their fault. The Smithsonian is a completely professional environment and everyone seems to genuinely like one another. Each department is interested in the doings of everyone else, and no one back stabs or belittles. People are kind and inclusive and understand the equal importance of everybody else. In contrast to Shelburne, where each department thinks it’s the most important and the most worthy of attention, the Smithsonian understands its role in society as a whole and the integral part that the cohesiveness of what is essentially a business plays in keeping it all together and working.
Part of the meeting was spent in laughing about “The Desk.” This is not just any desk. This is the American Idol desk. Since Paula Abdul, one of the judges, has resigned from the show, they needed a smaller desk. Hmmm… what to do with the old desk? Aha! The Smithsonian will want it because they like to collect pieces of American culture and stuff! Who knows, maybe someday it will be art. So basically, the desk (which of course nobody wanted) got passed around like a hot potato, and eventually landed in the folk life collection. Because it speaks to the history and struggle of our nation through material culture? So then, the director of the collection had to do a press release stating the reasons why we would want the desk to make it sound like we had a choice in the matter and to save face. Anyway, now the desk is on display in the castle where stupid Americans come and take pictures of it. Oh, it also has a neon sign. Yes it does. Personally, I think the archives should get it. The table we have for processing papers and artwork isn’t big enough and that desk is substantial.
Also, in reference to my very clever title, I had a conversation with Jeff Place, my temporary and very cool advisor who knows everything about every song ever, about all of the different versions of Candyman. Apparently there are actually two completely different Candyman songs and each of them in turn has been covered zillions of times. Don’t stand close to the candyman, he’ll leave a stick of candy in your hand, he’s the candyman… that sick of candy don’t melt away, it just gets better so the ladies say, say, he’s the candyman…
No comments:
Post a Comment