Flitting around the Museum of Natural History

Patricia graciously invited me along to the museum to use some free tickets she'd gotten from a friend.  We went at 1 pm or so, and it was a madhouse.  Peak visiting time for sure!

We got tickets to all the special exhibits and events.  The "Dark Matter" show at the planetarium and the exhibit about the human body failed to grip, but the IMAX film about the national parks was fun to watch.

The highlight was the butterfly exhibit.  I'd been to it once before several years ago, with my mom.  The species were different this time.  Apparently, the museum does not get to choose what kinds it gets.  Instead, federal officials make the determination (based, presumably, on which populations are healthiest etc.).

Only one butterfly landed on me this time, but I suppose there's no need to be greedy.  :)

An Evening at the Met

Rather than following my usual patterns, I headed up to check out the Met's visible storage area, where things are mostly grouped by material and type, rather than as more traditional exhibits.

Rabbits...

I really liked the collection of items made of pressed purple marble glass, from Pennsylvania in the late 1800's.  I hadn't heard of this material before, but it made sense (they'd looked like maybe they were carved out of marble, but seemed somehow too fluid).  

 

There were some nice seascapes among the paintings:

Frederick J. Waugh, The Roaring Forties (1908)

Angled view

Frank Myers Boggs, On the Thames (1883)

A wonderful trompe l'oeil by Chalfant

Again, a wonderful illusion of depth on a totally flat surface...

Compare this one by William Michael Harnett (Still Life - Violin and Music),
which was deemed worthy of display in a regular gallery

 Back in the regular galleries, I took some pitchers - oops, I mean pictures:

There were a lot of works by the Tiffany Studios in this passage, some beautifully ornate all-metal tea pots, chocolate pots, and pitchers.  I'll have to go back and take some photos another time.

Cthulu Chatelaine

This painting was almost modern in its photorealism:

Charles Sprague Pearce, Arab Jeweler (ca 1881)

Other paintings struck me with their extraordinary light:

Martin Johnson Heade, Newburyport Meadows (ca 1876-81)

A delicate Victorian funereal sculpture:

And Queen Victoria herself:

Thomas Scully, Queen Victoria

 Then a quick detour through the Asian galleries:

Vase with butterflies:
"The Chinese term for butterfly ... is also a rebus for the accumulation of blessings"

View from Cold Spring (January 2nd)

Mississippi River Cruise

Through a series of unexpected events, my family and I ended up celebrating my parents’ wedding anniversary on an Elvis-themed cruise.  We weren’t quite sure what to expect, so I packed a few sequined garments "just in case" (you never know when you might need to blend in with a host of Elvis impersonators).  

We started in Memphis, where we toured Sun Studio - Elvis’s first label was the Sun Record Company - and posed for pictures in the old recording studio:

I also managed to sneak in not one but two visits to the Memphis Zoo before we embarked:

  

One of my favorites - river otters!  They roamed around, surprisingly, in a tight pack:

Serendipitously, a penguin went into attack mode just on the right side of the frame:

We also visited the National Civil Rights Museum, at the site of the former Lorraine Motel.  A wreath commemorates the site of Dr. Martin Luther King's death:

One highlight: an October 1964 journal with a cover story "The First Negro President: The Man" (described as "The New Bestselling Novel": 

Onboard, we were pleasantly surprised to find that sequins were entirely optional!  We saw no Elvis impersonators at all, but we heard an interesting talk by one of his former bodyguards (whose sister dated Elvis for a while), and most evenings, the musicians sang "Kentucky Rain" and other favorites.  

Stops on the way included Natchez, where we attended a program on “Southern Hospitality” at the lovely home of Regina Charboneau:

At Vicksburg National Military Park, we saw the USS Cairo, which was resurrected from the Mississippi River and displayed with the surviving portions mounted within a wood frame intended to evoke the vessel's original lines suggested (a method known as "ghosting"):

We learned a lot about the devastating 1927 flood, and some of the bad choices that made it even worse, including attempts by townsfolk on opposite sides of the river to undermine the other side's levees.  A PBS video (transcript) shown at the 1927 Flood Museum in Greenville, Mississippi highlighted the horrific local treatment of African-Americans during the flood.  They were pressed into service at gunpoint, and were forced to stay in a badly organized camp on one of the levees -- even after several boats came to evacuate them.

The smokestacks folded down when we went under bridges:

The paddlewheel, at night:

Elvis was everywhere!

Blast from the Past: Post-9/11 Numerology and Paranoia

In late September 2001, a friend forwarded me an item that had freaked her out a little.  I don't remember all the details, but someone had pointed out that "George W. Bush" and "The Pentagon" each had exactly eleven letters, and that the WTC attacks had occurred on the eleventh of September.

I immediately replied with a permutation of her name (first initial plus last name) which had exactly eleven letters.  Then I said:

Coincidence? I don't think so.  I'd better call the FBI "really quick" (another 11 letters) to help them "investigate" (oh no, another 11 letters - they must be in on the plot too!  AAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!).

I signed off with a common presentation of my own name that also came to exactly 11 letters, followed by a quick postscript: "And in an odd coincidence, 'coincidence' has 11 letters too."

Blast from the Past - Japan & Taiwan 1988

To justify having kept my travel notes all these many moons, I'll post a few highlights (or lowlights) here.

July 7 - National Science Museum, Ueno Park

National Museum

More Kanji ...



July 14 - tour with volunteer Anglophone student guide, Yoko, an English literature major at a local university.

She told us much about the history of Shintoism and Buddhism, and about the monks and their lives.

 

 

Another lovely (and rather reassuring) memory:



 

July 14 - Buddhist temple; Horyuji

 

 

 

July 15 - Nara National Museum

 

I was apparently disappointed in the organization of the art in this first section of the museum because it was not at all chronological, making it difficult to trace the development of styles.  (Often, "an 8th century piece is followed by a primitive 2nd century piece.") However, I noted that "Many of these countries had art superior to the medieval European art by the second to sixth centuries AD."

 

July 20 - Kyoto to Kanagawa

 

We crisscrossed the station but ultimately managed to board the correct train with five minutes to spare.  Our ride on the Shinkansen was 2.5 hours long and apparently "livened by ... an enormous gilded Buddha visible from the train, and ... three young children and their permissive parents."

 

Toei Movieland

 

Highlights included "haunted house, samurai village, trick studio, and funhouse."  My mom and brother both enjoyed lifting up a "stone fountain" (actually made of Styrofoam).

 

July 21

 

This yakittori place was certainly "under the radar" for us outsiders -- it could easily have been a private residence, as it offered no glimpse of the interior, and no hint of its purpose.  Tourist-oriented venues typically had an English word (such as "restaurant") on display, or plastic food dishes in the window, or at least images of food.  This was a relatively low-key, high-class establishment. The owner seemed to be pleased we found our way in, and absolutely doted on my brother.  He brought us watermelon for dessert (which we did not order) and gave my brother a wooden sake box to take home. As I recall, there was only one other table occupied; it was a group of Japanese businessmen.  They'd been drinking, and one of them stopped by to say initially something along the lines of it's a shame how that last war turned out; we should do it again and have it come out right this time.  I was rather shocked.  On his way back from the bathroom, he explained that he was joking.  He (and perhaps one or two of his associates) joined us for a while.

 

Taipei -National Palace Museum

 

 

 

* * *

 

Coda

 

Sadly, when we returned home, we learned - when going through the stacks of mail - that my grandmother had died.  My grandfather had, in his rationalist manner, decided not to interrupt our vacation, and the cremation had taken place promptly and without ceremony.  There was no memorial service.  He was even angry with her for a while, for not clinging on to life and triumphing over illness through sheer force of will; he claimed that she had gotten everything she wanted from the marriage (two fine sons, grandchildren, a golden wedding anniversary), and then left him.