Eastman House, Rochester, NY

Today we explored one of the coolest things about living this close to Rochester, The George Eastman House. It is divided into two section, part of it is George Eastman's mansion he built in the early twentieth century and was his home until he died in 1932. Since the forties, it's been a museum and in 1989, the addition opened. The house has been restored to almost it's exact state during Eastman's life (he took thousands of photos in his home, which have been a benefit to restoration). The newer portion is the exhibition area.

We took a guided tour of the house and saw four exhibits in the newer portion. One called "Looking at Trees" did not impress us, the photos were only okay and the print quality left a lot to be desired.

But we really enjoyed "Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock ’n’ Roll Photographs Selected by Graham Nash" which featured more than 100 photos from the Experience Music Project in Seattle's Space Needle. We regret not seeing the Experience Music Project while we lived in Washington and we're glad we were able to see this small portion of it. The photos were selected by Graham Nash, so there were a lot of the folk rock stars of the late sixties and the seventies. A few more recent artists were included, there were a lot of great photos, but Nash's bias is quite apparent (there were definitely way too many photos of Bob Dylan).

We liked the permanent exhibit of the history of the camera. We learned a lot about the evolution of the camera and it was interesting to see the different models and types of cameras.

The final exhibit was "A Fire in My Belly," a short film that was previously housed at the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. It was "removed after protests from a religious group that found some of the content offensive" and several museums around the country are protesting its censorship by showing it. It will be here until the end of January. We found it odd and neither of us understood it but couldn't figure out what there was to censor. We tend to agree with those who protested the film's removal.

There are several gardens at Eastman House — 12.5 acres worth. Because of the bitter cold, we didn't even see the gardens' snow-covered forms. They open fully in May. In February, the house will have hundreds of tulip blooms (part of some Dutch festival). So we have reason to go back.

On a side-note, we saw the first Washington plate that wasn't ours since we were in Montana. It probably had something to do with the EMP exhibit and it was gone when we left. But it could have been a tourist just as well. We have seen a few Utah plates, but that is hardly surprising.