The Wisconsin State Capitol is Ready for Its Close-ups

Yesterday I spent four hours staffing a table for the Wisconsin Library Association during the annual Legislative Day of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired.


One of the Council's critical issues for 2009 is stated as follows: We SUPPORT the State of Wisconsin continuing its contracts helping to support the Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.


Such an impressive, inspiring interior space -- 200 feet from the ground floor to the highest point of the dome's ceiling.


Many of the people I interacted with were not legislative day participants but students, teachers, and parent chaperones on end-of-the-school-year field trips -- endless waves of school groups, it seemed.

The kids loved the Campaign for Wisconsin Libraries pins, though, in truth, they would have been equally possessive of a pin that said Libraries Suck. Their concern was the medium, not the message.

A composition (above) to excite the likes of D. W. Griffith.


Maybe I need to get my eyes checked. When I first saw what's actually a badger perched on the portico over the Hearing Room, I wondered what the hell's a frog doing up there.

Imagine all the craftsmanship that went into the original construction.