Obsidian Potency 3.0
Spies Like Us
posted Monday, 26 March 2007
I also went to DC's International Spy Museum yesterday. It was interesting - even riveting at times.
The first thing they do is have you memorize a cover story for your selected 'cover' or false identity. Then you get to move on to the rest of what the museum has to offer. This includes several object exhibits and short films concerning the ins and outs of surveillance, blending in, spy gadgets, weaponry, and the consequences of spying and getting caught. You get to hear about the history of spying, and re-live some of the most notorious spies in world history. It's all very fascinating.
Well...almost all. From the moment you lay eyes on the outside of the building, you get the feeling that the Spy Museum is not a place that takes itself too seriously and cannot be fully regarded as a museum in the same vein as, say, one of the Smithsonian museums. And it's not. For instance, there is a replica model of James Bond's first Aston Martin. The exhibit indicated that many of the countermeasures built into that car for the movies have been incorporated into vehicles used to transport heads of state around. So why not show us a donated, decommissioned version of a real modified car? I didn't really need to see posters and images from Bond movies -- nor did I need to see clips from Austin Powers: International Man of Mysery. Yet there they were.
The place also gets somewhat repetitive by the end, telling us the same famous spy stories you've already heard earlier in the day. And the museum's exhibits conclude with a completely superficial, panic-button-pushing film about 'the future of spying' that felt more like a record-keeping exercise (or CNN production) than anything else.
In spite of all I just ranted about, the International Spy Museum is definitely worth the trip. For $16, there aren't too many better ways to learn that much about an industry shrouded in secrecy that the world tends to avoid acknowledging on a day-to-day basis.
The first thing they do is have you memorize a cover story for your selected 'cover' or false identity. Then you get to move on to the rest of what the museum has to offer. This includes several object exhibits and short films concerning the ins and outs of surveillance, blending in, spy gadgets, weaponry, and the consequences of spying and getting caught. You get to hear about the history of spying, and re-live some of the most notorious spies in world history. It's all very fascinating.
Well...almost all. From the moment you lay eyes on the outside of the building, you get the feeling that the Spy Museum is not a place that takes itself too seriously and cannot be fully regarded as a museum in the same vein as, say, one of the Smithsonian museums. And it's not. For instance, there is a replica model of James Bond's first Aston Martin. The exhibit indicated that many of the countermeasures built into that car for the movies have been incorporated into vehicles used to transport heads of state around. So why not show us a donated, decommissioned version of a real modified car? I didn't really need to see posters and images from Bond movies -- nor did I need to see clips from Austin Powers: International Man of Mysery. Yet there they were.
The place also gets somewhat repetitive by the end, telling us the same famous spy stories you've already heard earlier in the day. And the museum's exhibits conclude with a completely superficial, panic-button-pushing film about 'the future of spying' that felt more like a record-keeping exercise (or CNN production) than anything else.
In spite of all I just ranted about, the International Spy Museum is definitely worth the trip. For $16, there aren't too many better ways to learn that much about an industry shrouded in secrecy that the world tends to avoid acknowledging on a day-to-day basis.
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