The Pentium Era - South to North

Chapter 1656 The High Line and Skull and Bones

In the next few days, Zhang Chen and the others were busy shooting. Zhang Xiangbei took the paper and the camera according to the painters and works that Zhang Chen wanted to shoot. During the day on Sunday, the two of them went to the university again. Metropolitan Museum. After returning, Zhang Xiangbei re-numbered the painters Zhang Chen wrote about from 1 to N, and also drew a road map.

Liu Qing and the cameraman were overjoyed when they saw it. They both exaggerated Xiangbei's cleverness. As long as he followed Zhang Xiangbei's route map and took pictures along the way, there would be no omissions and a lot of time spent running back and forth in the museum would be saved.

When Zhang Xiangbei and the camera went to the Metropolitan Museum, Zhao Xin and Zhang Chen were searching for information on the Internet. Liu Qing sat aside, and Zhang Chen told Liu Qing roughly what he wanted to say one by one. Zhang Chen said, I I can’t tell you too much in detail, because if I tell you too much in detail, it won’t be exciting.

Liu Qing said yes. She used a notebook to write down all the highlights that Zhang Chen said. In this way, if Zhang Chen missed something during the actual shooting, she could remind him from the side. .

At five o'clock, they entered the Metropolitan Museum and waited in the reception room in the office area. The director arranged for a staff member to accompany them. When the museum closed at 5:30, the cleaning staff were still cleaning. They immediately entered each exhibition hall and started working.

That night and the next day, they went over what they had already shot and re-shot any deficiencies the next night.

The next day, the work was over on Monday night, and most of the content had been shot. Liu Qing asked Zhang Xiangbei to make an agreement with the museum to shoot another night on Wednesday, because they had to shoot at the Museum of Modern Art for the whole day the next day.

At 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, they entered the Museum of Modern Art for filming. Tuesday was the closing day of the Museum of Modern Art, but The Modern restaurant was still open. The door leading to the inside of the museum was locked, but it opened to the outside. The road gate is still open.

Zhang Chen and the others spent their lunch and dinner here. They also took advantage of the lunch and dinner time to go over what they had already photographed and continue to add what needed to be added.

We stayed at the Guggenheim during the day on Wednesday and went to the Met in the evening. The Guggenheim was closed on Thursday. On this day, Xiaofang and Zhang Xiangbei took Zhang Chen and the others for a day trip and saw the Statue of Liberty. They visited the September 11 site, Times Square and the Empire State Building. Xiaofang also took them to the High Line Park, which is rarely visited by domestic tourists but she likes it very much.

The High Line is located on the west side of midtown Manhattan. It was originally a dedicated railway freight line built in 1930 to connect the Meatpacking District and the Hudson Harbor on Thirty-fourth Street. By 1980, it was transporting Operations ceased after the last three carriages of frozen turkeys were shipped. After that, owners of nearby properties began lobbying the government to demolish the abandoned elevated railway.

However, opposition voices also exist, and some people even took the group who advocated demolition of the railway to the court and applied for an injunction from the court.

This left New York City with a dilemma, but the elevated railway remained abandoned and therefore remained abandoned there.

In 1999, freelance writer Joshua David and Metropolitan Museum director Robert Hammond, who live near the elevated railway, founded the non-profit organization Friends of the High Line (FHL). ”, advocating the preservation and reuse of the High Line as a public open space.

Their initiative was supported by the then New York Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council. Planning and renovation of the High Line began in 2002. When Zhang Chen and others arrived, the second section of the project had just been completed. Open to the public.

This elevated railway, which is more than nine meters above the ground, has been transformed into a sky garden after reconstruction. It is 2.4 kilometers long and looks like a green river. It passes by tall buildings or empty riverside parks and can be admired along the way. Enjoy the beautiful scenery and the Hudson River, and pass by some landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and more.

The park has up and down stairs or passages that connect it to the ground and these scenic spots along the way.

On the day they arrived, a painter's pen painting exhibition was being held on a viewing platform. When Zhang Chen saw this open-air exhibition, he felt that it was very similar to the "Stars Art Exhibition" in Beijing back then.

The "Stars Art Exhibition", which has a great influence on the entire Chinese art, was not held in any art museum, but in the open-air park outside the National Art Museum of China. A group of art lovers hung their works in the art museum. On the iron fence and on the trees, at that time, the "National Art Exhibition of the 30th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" was being held in the art museum.

Audiences from all over the country who came to visit the art exhibition were attracted by these never-seen works outside the art museum. The "Stars Art Exhibition" quickly became a topic in the art world and aroused heated discussions. These young people's exploration and The creation frightened some old gentlemen, and also received the support of a large number of old gentlemen such as Wu Zuoren.

The following year, the second "Stars Art Exhibition" finally obtained the qualification to enter the National Art Museum of China. When it was exhibited at the National Art Museum of China, it caused a sensation, with 100,000 viewers pouring into the museum.

On Friday afternoon, Zhang Chen and the others entered the Guggenheim Museum for additional shooting. After the day's work, their shooting work in the three major museums and art galleries in New York was completed.

But their trip in New York was not over. Next, they were going to do more exciting work for them. Xiaofang helped them contact some private art collectors, and Zhang Chen and the others wanted to enter their foundation. , private art museums, and even offices and homes. This is not an opportunity that everyone can get, not even CCTV.

The collections photographed are also rarely seen.

Most of these private collectors are members of the Skull and Bones Society at Yale University.

After the filming at the Guggenheim ended, they went to "Huizhen Restaurant" for dinner. Today, only the girl was there and Huizhen was not. The girl told them that the boss's wife went to Chicago today to attend the wedding of a relative's child. .

Everyone sat down around the dining table. It was the first time for Zhao Xin and Liu Qing to hear the word "Skull and Bones Society" and they were very interested. Zhao Xin asked Xiaofang, what kind of organization is this? The name sounds so scary, and it is full of people. Terrorist?

Xiaofang smiled and said: "No, it is a secret student society at Yale University. Every year, it recruits fifteen members from Yale's third-year students."

"Xiaofang, are you a member of this 'Skull and Bones Society'?" Zhao Xin asked.

"Of course not. Although the Skull and Bones Society only absorbed a female member in 1991 for the first time, it has only absorbed one female member so far. The Skull and Bones Society is a fraternity, and their newly joined In principle, members must be male, white, and come from a prominent family in the eastern United States," Xiaofang said.

"Oh, in that case, there is no hope for Beibei. You are not white." Zhao Xin said, "Oh, the boss is not in the eastern United States. You only meet one of the three points, and there is no chance."

"I don't want to participate. These old Americans are all childish. They are in college, but their mental age is still about the same as that of our junior high school students." Zhang Xiangbei said disdainfully.

Zhang Chen said: "That's because their life experience is simple and they are not as bitter and resentful as us. Zhang Xiangbei, you are the same. When we were teenagers, we went to the mountains to chop firewood and went to the fields to study farming and plant rice. There were many classmates, and we also Just farmers, do you have this experience? You don’t even know what firewood is?

"With different experiences, the formation of thoughts and world views will of course be different. We think you are more naive than us, and you think they are more naive than you, but they may die. This is the ideological understanding and attitude towards life."

"Mr. Zhang, in one sentence, hard times make people cunning, and cunning people look more mature." The camera interjected, and everyone laughed.

"It was the same when I was studying in Europe. Western students seemed to particularly like to engage in such secret societies. I haven't heard of any Chinese students who like to engage in such secret societies," Liu Qing said.

Xiaofang is right. There are twelve such secret societies at Yale, and "Skull and Bones" is the most influential. Some people say that "Skull and Bones" controls the United States.

"So powerful?" the camera asked.

Xiaofang nodded and said: "This is not an exaggeration. Members of the Skull and Bones Society have produced three U.S. presidents, two Supreme Court justices, dozens of cabinet members, and hundreds of members of the House and Senate. The CIA and even more so the Skull and Bones. In the 2004 US presidential election, Democratic candidate John Kerry competed with Republican candidate George W. Bush.

"As a result, the media dug deeper and discovered that the candidates of these two different parties were actually members of the Skull and Bones Society, so everyone called the presidential campaign that year a 'bone-on-bone clash.' It’s a skeleton.”

"It's really amazing!" The cameraman sighed.

“Not only that, the founders of the Blackstone Fund, members of the Rockefeller family, the Ponty family, the Harriman family, the Whitney family, the Lord family, and the Bush family have been its members for generations.

"The scariest thing is that the 'American Council on Foreign Service', 'American Enterprise Institute', 'Brookings Institution', 'American Historical Association', 'American Psychological Association' and 'American Economics Association' are all' Founded by members of the Skull and Bones Society, they control the mainstream thought and public opinion guidance of the United States through these societies.

"The Skull and Bones Society has about 800 living members, which is not a large number. However, it firmly controls all walks of life in the United States and has formed a huge interest group. Their purpose is to bring one of them People are pushed to the highest position, such as the President of the United States. This person then installs his brothers. The 'Skull and Bones' is also called the 'Brotherhood of Death', and their power grows as a result.

"Every new member will get a membership handbook when he graduates, which records the names of all Skull and Bones members. By getting this handbook, you are equivalent to getting the opportunity to enter the upper class society in the United States. As a stepping stone, you go to every member in the manual, and out of brotherhood, they must help you and support you.”

Xiaofang said, Zhang Chen laughed and said, "It sounds more like a gang."

"That's true." Xiaofang nodded and said, "It is indeed very similar to our Chinese gang, and its initiation ceremony is also similar. Our gang's initiation ceremony is not a blood-based alliance. Their initiation ceremony, I I heard it from a senior brother who is also one of their members, do you want to listen?"

Others were interested and quickly asked for it. Xiaofang smiled and said:

"I took Beibei to see. On the campus of Yale University, there is a three-story building that looks like a Greek temple. It is never open to the public. A few long and narrow windows are closed all year round. The whole building is shrouded in a mysterious atmosphere. With a mysterious color, this inconspicuous building is the seat of the 'Skull and Bones Society'.

"This building can park several helicopters on the roof. Many former members will helicopter directly to the roof when they return. There is a basement inside, which they call the 'grave'. There is an initiation ceremony for new members, and Those famous old members will also preach to their brothers in the "grave" when they return to New Haven.

"New members will be beaten naked on the dirt floor in the 'tomb', tied to a cross, and whipped with whips, just like Jesus, who finally lay in a coffin and confessed his sins. To talk about the sexual experience that you are most ashamed to talk about, they call this set of rituals rebirth, which cleanses your soul and body, and then you are reborn.

"After coming out of the coffin, the old members will help the new members put on their black robes, and then everyone will drink skull-soaked wine and kiss the skull. It is said that the skull was stolen from the tomb of George W. Bush's grandfather and is a Native American. The legendary hero Geronimo.”

"If you put it this way, this Skull and Bones Society is more like a gang." Zhang Chen said.

"Yes, some people call the Skull and Bones Society an 'international mafia.'" Xiaofang said, "From the way they control the political and economic lifeline of the United States, they are very similar, but because they are from Yale, there is a certain It’s so confusing that they all call themselves elites.”

"When I hear it, I feel more like a gentle robber." Zhao Xin said.

"On the negative side, yes." Xiaofang smiled, "But on the positive side, they also promoted the progress and development of American society. It's better to be a gentle robber than those Robin Hoods."

"I like Robin Hood." Zhang Xiangbei shouted.

The cameraman and Zhang Xiangbei said, "You can't be Robin Hood. Robin Hood specializes in robbing rich second-generation people like your dad and you. You can be Batman, which suits your identity."

"Xiaofang, is it your senior brother who introduced us to the shooting?" Liu Qing asked.

Xiaofang said yes, "otherwise how would I know that they are all members of the Skull and Bones Society? Although the Skull and Bones Society is a secret group, in fact, their identities are not that secret. Some people even use their identities as members of the Skull and Bones Society." Show off, but if it’s true or false, no one will know if it’s not a real member, and no one will publicly admit that they are a member of the Skull and Bones Society.”

Thank you Quadratic VC for the reward! Thank you Quadratic VC, history and geography, forgetting about the future and only remembering the original intention, 0hjklg, Lao Dibowei, the flame of morality, big brother, lenny, zpengyong1, Lao Huang, book friend 20171016173120535, book friend 20200911160109750, Gongzi Mianzhi, Dong Monthly votes for Long Dong, Zi Zeng Yue, Yuan Xi, and Shuyou 20210109105822605! Thanks for all the votes and reading! Have a good evening everyone!

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