On Sunday I got to see the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Kennedy Center. However, since I really wanted to use my previous blog to hone in on the museum visits, I neglected to mention the event. Thus, I'm going to discuss Hedwig in this blog post in addition to the International Spy Museum that I visited today.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—colloquially, the Kennedy Center—is the go-to place for Broadway plays and musicals when they come through D.C. The place opened September 8, 1971 and is in its 45th season.
I really wanted to see at least one event at the Kennedy Center while in D.C. this summer, and after going through the performance calendar with my roommate we decided on Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical that opened on Broadway in 1998. The setting is America, but the time is ambiguous. All that is known for certain is Hedwig Robinson, the main character, was in his twenties during 1988, where Hedwig's flashback begins. The musical follows Hedwig Robinson, a drag queen originally from Germany during the Cold War. It is revealed Hedwig was originally a male named Hansel Schmidt but he underwent gender reassignment surgery so he could marry an American soldier and escape Soviet-controlled East Germany. However, upon reaching America, the soldier leaves Hedwig for another man. | Foyer of the Kennedy Center |
Alone again, Hedwig forms a band called the Angry Inch, and while in Croatia meets his next husband, Yitzhak. Hedwig feels jealous of Yitzhak's talent for drag, and forbids him from ever wearing a wig again in exchange for marriage and escape from Croatia.
Even though Hedwig is not transgender, it does not mean he is cisgender either (for those who don't know, cisgender means a person whose gender identity matches their biological sex). Hedwig recovers from the lost of his husband by creating a glamorous, feminine identity that he puts forth when performing drag. Though he is upset the surgery was unnecessary to escape Germany, he does not completely rue the situation either. Because of this, it is best to think of Hedwig as genderqueer rather than as transgender. Someone who is genderqueer is a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders.
I had never heard of Hedwig and the Angry Inch before buying the tickets, but I'm really glad I took the chance to go. The musical does a fabulous job grappling with some of these difficult gender concepts, and even included quite a few contemporary political jabs as well. :)
When I was at Wells Fargo depositing a check the other day, the teller recommended I visit the International Spy Museum during my time in D.C. Since I didn't have work today, I decided to go.
More than 750 artifacts are on display within the 20,000 square feet (1,900 square meter) of exhibition space. In 2012, the museum opened the newest interactive exhibition "Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond Villains," celebrating the Golden Anniversary of the James Bond film franchise, from 1962's Dr. No to 2012's Skyfall.
Before I get into the exhaustive list of exhibits I saw at the museum, let me highlight the picture I found most interesting in the whole place. That picture was of Duško Popov.
Who is Duško Popov? I had never heard of him before I saw his picture in the museum. It turns out Duško Popov was a German spy during WWII, who reported everything he learned to British intelligence. When he found out about the planned attack on Pearl Harbor, he came to America in August 1941 to warn the FBI. However, the FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover didn't trust Popov and ignored his warning, and less than five months later, on December 7, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
When we are told about Pearl Harbor in history class we are led to believe it came as a total surprise to the nation. To realize we had warning of it not only in advance, but five months in advance, yet chose to ignore the warning based on the suspicions of a negligent man, it makes me angry we don't chastise J. Edgar Hoover like we should for failing to report the information to his superiors.
Duško Popov and his wife. Popov enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle and had many affairs. When J. Edgar Hoover condemned his playboy image, Popov replied, "I don't think a choirboy could do my job."
The Cloak Suave, sophisticated, assured – some spies stylishly conceal their intent under a "cloak" of dash and dazzle and charm. Often, they operate unsuspected, using state-of-the-art communication devices or the elegant simplicity of codes. Virginia Hall was one of the Office of Strategic Services' most distinguished field agents. She created a spy network and helped organize and arm French commandos behind enemy lines during WWII. The Dagger The first task of espionage is to gather information. But often, the information gathered leads to deeds. That's when the spies known as "dagger" step forward. When dropped into the gas tank of a car or truck, this gas tank pill expands and clogs the vehicle's fuel line. The Shadow A spy organization is like an iceberg: most of it is hidden below the surface. The "shadows" stay in the background to collect and interpret the information gathered. These are the spy-hunters and counterintelligence agents. The robotic snake, designed by Dr. Gavin Miller for search and rescue use, was inspired by his interaction with a live python. |
The earliest-known text on warfare and espionage was by Chinese general Sun Tzu around 400 BCE. In his book The Art of War, Tzu devoted an entire chapter to spying, stressing the importance of intelligence and counterintelligence.
The Christian Bible also mentions use of espionage in Numbers 13: 17-20 The Lord said to Moses, "Send men to spy out the land of Ca'naan..." Moses sent them to spy out the land of Ca'naan, and said to them, "Go up there into the Neg'eb, and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not." |
Queen Elizabeth I's chief advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham, intercepted letters from Mary Queen of Scots and hired an expert cryptographer to decode them. The letters gave Elizabeth the proof she needed to convict Mary of treason for plotting Elizabeth's assassination. Mary was ultimately beheaded in 1587. During America's Revolutionary War, George Washington enlisted Nathaniel Sackett as his "intelligence director." In his original letter—written on February 4, 1777—Washington asked Sackett to create a spy network, pass along disinformation to British intelligence, and harass the enemy, for which Washington would pay him $50 per month plus $500 to set up the spy network. Because of the letter's age, it can be displayed for only two months each year. While in storage, a replica is put out for guests. The Balloon Corps, commissioned by President Lincoln, sailed into service during the American Civil War. Union Chief Aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe's balloonists were able to see far beyond Confederate lines and chart enemy movements, and they transmitted this information via telegraph to the ground. Despite these advantages, General George McClellan withdrew defeated from the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. The Balloon Corps was abolished in 1863. |
Harriet Tubman gathered information, recruited scouts, and identified targets for the army by pretending to be a Southern slave. In 1862 she led a band of black soldiers on a nighttime raid along the Combahee River that rescued more than 750 slaves. |
Under the direction of Vladimir Lenin, Feliks Dzerzhinsky founded the "Cheka," the secret police responsible for the Red Terror. As leader of the Cheka, Dzerzhinsky oversaw the death of more than 200,000 people. He learned the ways of terror through years spent in prisons, including the infamous Butyrka Prison. The Cheka eventually became the Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB), one of the most feared secret police organizations of all time. |
The 33 men and women of the Duquesne spy ring were eventually caught with the help of German-born William Sebold, a double agent for the FBI. He would meet with them in the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York, where the FBI set up a secret camera. The Duquesne spy ring provided a wealth of strategic information to German intelligence during WWII. |