Amadeus in Bethesda- Easy Rider (2 of 3)

The next morning was a bit hectic as there were many people from Saudi Arabia staying at our hotel, and since many Saudi families can consist of one man, two or three wives, and many rugrats, there was considerable commotion. We think that there may have been 45-50 people in the group, and they were being loud well into the night. Since I am a Turkish-American myself, I am careful about stereotyping people, but there were at least a few people in this delegation that were a bit rowdy.

One of the interesting things about the Saudi group was that some women were covered in black veils in which one could only see their eyes, and some of the 'more progressive' women were simply wearing designer headscarves. It also surprised to see that many of the women were wearing European style shoes which revealed their feet and toes. I suppose there is no notion in conservative Islamic circles that a woman with a lavish pedicure can be as seductive as a woman with blonde hair.

So, we did hop on the DC Metro. Mom was a bit agitated since she decided to skip the continental breakfast. I was full, but I had just eaten one of the worst bagels in my life. We soon dined at a cafe near the Sculpture Gallery adjacent to the National Gallery.

Since we had accidentally gotten on the red line instead of the orange line on Thursday, my mom was convinced we were lost. So, I asked some tourists from Frankfort, Ky., who had traveled even farther than we had, for directions. They had a DC map; we did not. And, they made us feel secure that the National Gallery was just a few short steps away.

We got to the Gallery around 11:00 a.m. Mom demanded that we head straight to the Gaugins and 'get it over with.' There were impressive paintings that the French master painted in both his native France and Tahiti. Since Gaugin's paintings are more erotic that many artists of his generation, I have noticed that Barrucuda actually blocks some of them on Internet search engines perhaps just as the mullahs in Iran and Afghanistan would do!

Four of the Gaugins that were part of the exhibition included "The Yellow Christ," "Spirit of the Dead," "Self-Portait" (1889) and my personal favorite "Two Tahitian Women," which shows two topless women holding mango blossoms.

While researching this piece, I learned that the painting was actually 'attacked' at the National Gallery in early April by a woman who yelled: "This is evil!;" we have no idea if she was a tea partier from Fort Mill, SC. Fortunately, the painting was protected by plexiglass and no damage was done.

After seeing the Gaugins, we gazed at some paintings by the Dutch master Gabriel Metsu, including "Man Writing a Letter" and "Lady Reading a Letter," both of which were completed in 1665.

Then, we followed that up with photographs by the acclaimed, living California photographer Lewis Baltz, who is arguably best known for his hidden camera-taken photograph "South Laguna" (1972) which features a Buick as its centerpiece.

Lastly, we headed to the tower of the museum to see a small, but startling exhibit by the late South Korean performance and technology artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006) who reminded me of both Andy Warhol and David Byrne (of the band Talking Heads); the most impressive piece on display by the artist involved closed circuit tv images revolving around a statue of Buddha!