the mansion

I spent an evening this week in The Mansion, which is on O Street in Washington. The idea of The Mansion is to provide an escape into the world as it should be, not as it sometimes is. It is an astonishing amalgam of styles in five interconnected town houses with over one hundered rooms and including a grand ballroom.

The upper floors have been safe houses in the past as well as rooming for J. Edgar Hoover's G-men (real need to know basis stuff) and nowadays the venue hosts various people and events in a rather private way.

Simply put, no one can reach you when you are in the Mansion, unless they have a password. If anyone comes to the door or calls for a guest/member/employee, and they do not have the password, they will be told “There is no one here by that name” or “There is no group here by that name.” No exceptions. What happens at The Mansions stays at The Mansion.

H.H. Leonards-Spero (known simply as 'H') purchased The Mansion February 14, 1980, with the intent to restore its original character by reconnecting the row houses. The result is more than a labour of love and today's effec
t on entering is a magical experience.

The Mansion's rooms comprise varying architectural, artistic and design periods, from the Victorian Age to the Art Deco/Avant Garde. Highlights include a two-story Log Cabin and the secluded Art Deco penthouse with private elevator.

The whole building is filled with amazing artifacts with chandaliers a-plenty, lithographs, fine art, signed guitars, and a miscellany of magical, intriguing and unique items throughout the extensive property.

round table in Georgetown

After a few more of us had met together, we decided to head out to a nearby restaurant for an early evening supper.

Georgetown is only a few blocks from the hotel and has plenty of small cafes, restaurants and bars. I'd already been for a look earlier and had also been down to the waterfront at Washington harbour and along to the Watergate buildings.

In the event, we found what looked to be a small cafe and actually turned out to be much larger inside. We had a table for eight of us and then later a ninth person joined us. Thats the benefits of a round table, the restaurant had originally set it for six.

taxation without representation

Luckily I had spare time in Washington on a beautiful sunny day. An ideal excuse to walk around and take in the sights.

The central area is very walkable and there is a famous sight every few metres. I was based in the Fairmont and decided to start from the eastern side of the town and work my way West; so an early morning taxi to Union Station, a quick coffee and then a short walk to the Capitol to start the day.

Orientation in DC is pretty easy, with the numbering and lettering of streets in a grid (the hotel was on 24th and M, for example), and then diagonal avenues named after the states (eg Pennsylvania). Most of the buildings are low rise maybe ten stories at maximum and since the Brits burned the city in around 1814, everything now needs to be stone outside (no timber).

I checked off a few ideas on a map and just started my quest to see as many of the popular sights as possible, deciding to stay outdoors as the weather was fine. Atop the Capitol, you can just make out the statue of Freedom, complete with an eagle's feathers as a head-dress. The statue of freedom looks away from the city.

I noticed also that the registration plates (tags) on cars bear the slogan 'taxation without representation' - Washington doesn't get its own political representatives, despite all of the Senators and Congressmen in this place!

Washington

more later

blaired vision

Blair's going back to Sedgewick. Ten years of significant change. Reinvention of new driven orthodoxy.

Now time for party polemics. Across the assessments of decisions and change will be the shadow of Iraq, the five times to war, the Campbell spin, the decaying echoes of recent allegations. Blair's interventionist internationalism is a tough call. A socialist friendly with a right wing republican in a frequently mad world.

Interesting to be in the middle of a massively wired and communication rich world but not able to really sift to a kernal of accuracy. Time will write a version for the children.

And now its about the populist middle, whatever badge it has on it. Brown for a while and then new games as the pieces get reset again.

lipgloss arsonist

My temporary music system setup using an iPod connected to some tiny speakers has allowed me to riffle through some unexpected tracks generated on random play, whilst also watching television.

Pleasingly, a television advertisment for Graham Norton featuring Tori Amos tomorrow, Thursday, just co-incided with the playing of Liiee from Tori's Choirgirl Hotel on the ipod.

So in the interests of completism, here's the lipgloss arsonist remix, which takes Tori whimsically into a more dance direction and to complete a set, here's the old dance re-re-re-mix that Christina and I did of Tori singing smells like teen spirit. Ok and the piano version.

heartless creatures

Strange to see three ants crawl out of my Powerbook and walk along the power lead. Its early for ants but I have noticed a few wandering aimlessly around over the last few days. Usually I only notice ants when they decide to do something dramatic, like create a miniature interpretation of the M25 Motorway in an inprobable place. But I'm still suspicious why they are walking around in the new space in the lounge.

richard of york gave battle in vain

A traditional thing to do on a Spring Bank Holiday is to hit the DIY stores. And yes, I was that shopper. Parting with the princely sum of 98 pence per colour to obtain some match pots in preparation for the repainting of the lounge.

Of course, the paint from most of the pots only gets spread over about half the area of a postcard along with various head shaking and gasps of astonishment at the way the paint chart looks little like the colour on the wall.

So I can now admire a selection of shades with expressive names which give not the slightest hint of the actual colour.

news splash

My recent activities have not left much blogging time. Although much of my travel has been local (eg around London) it has strayed late into the evening. It sometimes seems late to write an entry for one day, when it is already the next day.

The yellow sofa continues to add extra megawatts of vibrant colour to the living room, but I have been progressively removing other items, which has strangely reduced the feeling of a paint explosion as one walks through the door to the room.

As part of the same project I am removing the current hi-fi and a few other layers of wires and so forth, with a view to generally simplifying the room. As of today, the only music system in the room is a temporary iPod connected to a tiny speaker set which will be my survival system until after my trip to Washington, which is the next practical time I can re-organise anything.

vote

Today I was Number One Voter!

I had an early start today to get to a meeting by eight o' clock. That meant I was leaving before seven and just remembered it was election day. So I diverted my route via the Polling Station and walked in through the front doors. There was a scurry of activity and the person in charge called out, "are we ready?"

They were and so I became the first person in my area to cast a vote!

And irrationally, when I realised I could be first, I then hurried to ensure I was first!

sofa and yet sofar

My new sofa arrived!

I had ordered it quite a few weeks ago and the order had buzzed its way to the Italy, where craftsmen would toil long hours to hand construct this seat of wonder. Then, further communications before it would be gently placed into the back of a large container and driven, by road, all the way from Italy, across mainland Europe, to one of the ferries from whence it could make the last part of its journey to the United Kingdom.

It would go to a depot first, where it would wait until the friendly showroom person could call me to let me know it was ready, and to arrange a delivery, thoughtfully, on a Saturday. And not only that, it had arrived at least two weeks quicker than expected.

So Saturday, the delivery truck arrived, and two uniformed delivery people brought the packaged item to the room, still swathed in cardboard, bubble pack and lots of plastic wrappering. They slit carefully through the packaging..."I hope the testo di moro brown looks as good here as it did in the showroom", I was thinking.

It was yellow! Bright yellow!

There had been a big mistake. The professional delivery folk looked on the outside of the wrapper. Was it the right name? Was it the right order? Yes it was! I had been sent a yellow sofa instead of a brown one. Hand built. To order. From Italy. Taking twelve, no, ten weeks!

My other sofa was already outside of the house. Time for the telephone and a long expanation to the store.

This morning, I'm sitting on the temporary bright yellow sofa, whilst redesigning the room and waiting for another hand built sofa to start the order process in Italy.

Yup, you guessed it...

doorstepping

I had my Member of Parliament around this morning. He was in a casual blue shirt that looked as if he added a tie it could soon be made suity again.

And why was this?

Elections of course.

On Thursday we have the local elections and I think he was trying to encourage me to vote for his party. I explained that I would be visiting the polling station. He looked a little crestfallen that I didn't tell him who I would vote for.