Atlanta Day 4: High Museum of Art and Midtown

Tuesday morning began with more Dekalb leftovers: a ham and cheese croissant (which survived the night well), a tomato, a nectarine, more leftover yogurts, and a dried-fruit cake.

I took a goodly number of pictures this day.

After breakfast, we headed to the Atlanta State Farmers Market. I wanted to see what it looked like when it was actually open (see pictures). There were plant, tree, and sod dealers, and sellers of fruits galore.

After dropping Di Yin at the airport, I headed to Midtown. In Midtown, I walked this route as I explored.

My main Midtown destination was the High Museum of Art. The High turned out to be a respectable but not notable museum, mostly containing modern art. I appreciated that many pieces of art had signs with stories. The museum was very paranoid about visitors: not only did I have to sign a contract to allow me to bring in my camera, it prohibited pens (and hence I had to take notes in pencil), and it (as many museums are wont to do) forced me to check my bag.

A special exhibit on loan from the Louvre included instances of decorative arts such as busts, chairs, candlesticks, tables, and rugs. There were also a few paintings from artists such as Rembrandt; most were none too exciting. One exciting one was a painting by Morse (yes, the guy who invented Morse code wanted to be an artist): Gallery of the Louvre. The painting includes images of many other paintings. What a game great Game clue it'd make!

As for the High, its collection spanned a wide range. One neat exhibit displayed photographs of things in motion: pendulums, bullets, dynamite caps, safety glass cracking, two balls colliding, etc., some with multiple exposures overlaid. Other exhibits covered folk art (including face masks), statues, glasswork, furniture, sketches by Matisse & Picasso, and American Art from the late 1800s. In terms of paintings, I spotted a Mondrian rip-off by Diller and a number of paintings, including some Monet Houses of Parliament (these are everywhere) and a Pissarro. I definitely liked the impressionist paintings (in particular Hudson River paintings, which I knew I like) and the landscape paintings done by the Barbizon school. (I wasn't aware of this inclination. I'd never even heard the word previously.)

After I left the High, I walked a bit more (as documented in the photos). Midtown seems to have very few pedestrians. Eventually I found myself at the Atlanta Federal Reserve, another place that prohibits cameras.

The Fed was pretty darn cool, one of the coolest places I visited in Atlanta. In addition to having general, interesting, detailed exhibits on the history of money, monetary systems, U.S. monetary policy, it had four things I want to point out. One, in the back of the building, behind a glass wall, was a hallway in which machines moved. These machines looked like black filing cabinets the size of refrigerators. These machines, I read, carried cases of money. No one was allowed in the hallway. The robots moved automatically. Doors opened and closed for them when necessary. Interlocks prevented two doors from being open at the same time. Only when a machine was in the correct room with the door closed did its cabinet unlock, allowing employees to get and process whatever was inside. This is how the Fed safely shipped money within its building. I wish I could've seen more of how the system worked and what each group of employees did.

The Fed also displayed 10k and 100k notes. Although not in general circulation, they're used to transfer money between government agencies.

Near this exhibit was an interactive one that asked visitors to identify counterfeit bills. Even the supposedly easy ones were pretty hard for me. The hardest ones were well nigh impossible.

In addition, the Fed had a neat map of the U.S. in which each state was made of its special issue quarter. No, I don't mean a map of the U.S. in which each state had a spot for the state's quarter; I mean a map where each state's geographical area was represented by a bunch of the state's quarters in the appropriate shape.

Finally, I returned to my car, drove a slight bit south, and walked this short route to see the few remaining sights I wanted to see in Midtown.

For dinner, found myself at Mezza, a Lebanese restaurant in a nicely forested district. Here's my review.