The Stateside places I miss the most?

I am glad to have managed to put some of my thoughts about what is happening in America on paper but I feel somewhat drained having done so and, at the same time, concerned that I am becoming as one sided as the so called ‘debate’ in America. So, I should mention just two of the many wonderful places in America that I have had the pleasure of visiting.

The first is MoMA in New York. The place is quite simply one of the greatest museums in the world. When I walked its halls I found myself constantly smiling to see works that I had seen reproductions of on hundreds of occasions and finding that, yes, in original they are far more powerful than the reproductions. I could list many names but I will try to limit myself to three: Hopper, Mondrian, Rothko. I had never liked Mondrian and Rothko and had only barely heard of Hopper. MoMA changed that for me. I often find myself yearning to go back to MoMA.

The other place is the Mount Wilson observatory above Los Angeles. When I went there I got to walk around inside the dome of the 100 inch telescope and to look over the shoulder of astronomers at work. The place is beautiful, the dozen or so telescopes spread out among the trees that cover the mountain top and one has the knowledge that one is standing where some of the greatest discoveries of the twentieth century were made.

Even though I have only glimpsed a tiny part of it I realise that America is an amazing country with more things to wonder at then one can fully appreciate in just one life. So, I hope for better days when I will go back there; back to New York, back to Pasadena and back to the thousands of places that lie in between them.