Travel Thumbnail: Old Idaho Penitentiary

Boise landmark, once a fearful prison, now a tourist attraction and history lesson

This is the eighth of a series of periodic reports on specific places I've visited -- and which you might want see to as well.

The Place: Old Idaho Penitentiary, Boise

The Story: The Old Idaho Penitentiary State Historical Site, located on the outskirts of Boise, functioned as a prison for 101 years. Construction began in 1870 as a single cell house, with the first prisoners incarcerated there in 1872. Inmate laborers expanded it into a complex of several buildings that held, among others, Idaho's most notorious criminals. Until it finally closed in 1973, the Old Pen housed a total of more than 13,000 inmates -- including 222 women prisoners. The maximum population at any one time was 603 inmates. Eleven prisoners were executed there by by hanging. Below, an old image of the Old Pen from the page on the Idaho Historic Society website devoted to the Old Pen.

When visiting the Old Pen, you can watch an 18-minute video and look at small museum's exhibits and then either take a self-guided tour or take a 90-minute guided tour, which I highly recommend. Especially in the summer, the tour guides are historians or historians-in-the-making, largely young people who are studying or have graduated from Boise State College.

Below are some images from my visit:

Cost: The Old Pen is open seven days a week, except state holidays. Memorial Day to Labor Day, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Labor Day to Memorial Day, 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. Adult,$5; 60 and over, $4; ages 6 to 12, $3; under 6, free. 

Location and information: 2445 Old Penitentiary Road, Boise, Idaho 83712; 208-334-2844.

DAM Revisits the Psychedelic Sixties

Denver Art Museum showcases San Francisco poster art of the era

"They" say that if you can remember the sixties, you weren't really there. I do remember them only from news reports and gossip, so in that sense, it's true that I wasn't really there. I wasn't at Woodstock. I wasn't in San Francisco during the "summer of love" or any other adjacent time. I never lived in a commune. In fact, I never even visited a commune. When I tried weed a couple of times by the light of someone's lava lamp at a boring party in some grungy East Village apartment that someone dragged me to, I didn't inhale because it hurt my throat. The one time I made myself inhale (not easy, I'm here to tell you, because I wasn't a smoker), I fell asleep. I never went to a "happening" or a "love-in" or a "be-in" or anything else. From the hippie-delic viewpoint, I was out of it.

Therefore the Denver Art Museum's new exhibition, "Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-71," can take me down a road (Abbey Road, perhaps) that I never really traveled when it was newly paved. Still, even though I didn't identify with the movement, the visual images are familiar. More than 300 of them are in the DAM's new exhibit, on view through July 19.

The posters that represented groundbreaking design are part of the museum's newly acquired collection of posters promoting concerts and happenings,” record album covers, underground newspapers and even comics round out the exhibition. There's music, film and evocative activities that will let me relive the youth culture of the '60s and ’70s that I managed to miss.

Tickets for this special exhibition are $15 ($12 for 65-plus who were actually around in that era and were no longer children). Youth six to 18 are $7. That was a lot of pocket change in the '60s and '70s. Buy online or by calling 720-913-0130 (service fees added to those purchases).

Images of Egypt: Alexandria's Antiquities

Egypt's second city is captivating and gives off a somewhat cosmopolitan air

While Cairo is a river city shaped by the Nile, Alexandria is a coastal city impacted by the Mediterreanean. It is often called Egypt's "most European" city. No wonder. Instead of a pharonic past that stretches back thousands of years, this "new" city was founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great. Egypt's second-larged city has experienced periods of prosperity and decline. Later it was the capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt, the setting for l'affaire d'Antony and Cleopatra and a key port on Africa's northern coast.

After the Roman Empire, it was part of the Ottoman Empire, and still later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was under the French and English control -- or at least strong influence. Many downtown buildings and villas reflect a distinct European influence, with Greeks, Italians and Jews also woven into the Alexandrian fabric. Even though most foreigners left in the nationalistic 1950s and most local women now seem to choose to cover their heads, Alexandria still presents a cosmopolitan face -- perhaps because of its architectural legacy.

The Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, once stood guard on a harbor island, now connected to the mainland. The lighthouse itself was destroyed by the 14th century by a sries of earthquakes. Archeological divers have discovered pieces of it in the water, and an underwater museum is planned. The remarkable Alexandria Library (Biblioteca Alexandrina) is a wonder of the modern information age, a contemporary architectural landmark and an important cultural institution is a surprising attraction in ancient Egypt.

Today, many visitors are day-trippers from cruise ships that dock in the Eastern Harbor -- with never enough time even to touch on the city's many museums A(lexandria National Museum, Graeco-Roman Museum, Cafavy Museum, Fine Arts Museum, Mahmoud Said Museum and Royal Jewellry Museum), let alone stroll along the Corniche or languish at a cafe and watch the Alexandrian world go by.

Midan Saad Laghloul
Statue of of nationalist leader for whom the waterfront square was named

Memorial to the Soldiers (and/or Sailors)
Located at the Eastern Harbor

"Pompey's Pillar"

Misnamed remnant of the 3rd-century B.C. Temple of Serapis

Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa
Three-level tomb complex dug to about 115 feet

Roman Amphitheater (Dom al-Dikka)

Second century, discovered in 1965 under a Napoleonic fort

Alexandria National Museum
Opened in 2003 within an Italianate villa that was built in 1929

Fort Qaitby
15th century, built on the site of the Pharos Lighthouse

Alexandria Library

Opened in 2002 with resources from fragile ancient manuscripts to fast computers

Head of Alexander the Great

Sillhouetted against a sunset sky; located in plaza of the namesake Alexandria Library

Everthing's Coming Up Egypt

In Luxor, another tomb revealed. In Denver, city gets ready to welcome King Tut

Last year, when I visited Egypt, archaeologists and their helpers were busy excavating and sifting in dry earth on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. Some people dig. Some look through what has been dug just in case some artifact is among the sand and stone. And some cart away the archaeological detritus. "Laborious" and "painstaking" are words that came to mind as I watched.

The efforts pay off when a major discovery is made like the one just announced by Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni. A dig led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA),  discovered an 18th Dynasty tomb (1570-1315 BC) in the necropolis of Dra Abu el-Naga, on Luxor’s west bank. Memphis Tours, which has nothing to do with Tennessee but which has been organizing trips to Egypt since 1955, posted the news on their blog. According to Dr. Hawass, the tomb belongs to the Supervisor of Hunters, Amun-em-Opet, and dates shortly before the rule of Akhenaten (1372-1355 BC). The image below is from Memphis Tours' blog.

 

Meanwhile, closer to home, the Denver Art Museum is getting ready for a blockbuster exhibit of  treasures from ancient Egypt. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs will be in splendid residence at the DAM from June 29 through January 9, an extension of dates announced earlier. Back in 1978, I was one of the hordes who lined up for King Tut's first visit to the United States at a spectacular exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tut's was the only royal tomb found intact, with unsurpassed treasure, both in quality and quantity, because grave robbers had never breached it. Last year, in addition to visiting Luxor, I spent too little time in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which whetted my appetite for an encore. I only will have to go to Denver to satisfy that appetite, and the upcoming exhibit is important enough to attract visitors from afar.

The Westin Tabor Center in Denver this evening hosted a media event as a precursor to the exhibit. It is the first time these treasures will have appeared in the Rocky Mountain Region -- and considering how many millions the Government of Egypt requires to lend them out to other museums, the shipping, the insurance and security required, it might be the last time. My husband and I are museum members and have already bought our tickets, but for anyone wishing for a Denver getaway that includes line-beating VIP tickets, six downtown hotels are offering lodging/museum packages:

The Curtis Hotel

A Day In the Museum, A Night at the Curtis. Packages from $159 for one night's accommodations on the King Tut Floor (based on availability); $20 in Mummy Money (food and beverage credit for use in The Corner Office restaurant or Room Service); overnight Self Parking; 2 VIP Passes to King Tut, and a welcome amenity (either two Golden Nile Martinis or one Cairo Kid’s Pack). Book online or by phone, 303-571-0300 or 800-525-6651. Promotion code TUT.

Grand Hyatt Denver

Fit for a King. Packages from $159 for one night's accommodations, complimentary hotel parking, two VIP tickets to the King Tut exhibition at the Denver Art Museum and a welcome amenity. Book online or by phone, 303-295-1234 or 800-233-1234.

Hyatt Regency Denver

King Tut Package. From $159 for one night's accommodation in a Mountain View guest room  and two VIP tickets to the King Tut exhibition at the Denver Art Museum. Book by phone, 303-436-1234.

Sheraton Downtown Denver

Pharaohs’ Affair. Starting at $129 per night based on two-night stay; $149 for one night for accommodations and two VIP tickets for the King Tut exhibition at the Denver Art Museum. King Tut’s Treasure package includes accommodations, two VIP tickets for the King Tut exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, breakfast for two and overnight parking, from $159 per night based on two-night stay, $179 for one night. The best prices are on weekends. Hooray! Book online or by phone, 303-893-3333.

Westin Tabor Center

Pharaohs' Affair. Package includes one night and two VIP tickets starting at $179 per night; two nights and two VIP tickets from $159 per night. King Tut’s Treasure. Package includes one night and two VIP Tickets, breakfast for two and Self Parking from $209 per night; same offer for two nights from $189 per night. Also, weekends are the least expensive. Book online or by phone, 303-572-9100.

Brown Palace Hotel

Pharaoh’s Find. From $169, one night in luxury room and two VIP tickets. Booking code TUT. A Night to Treasure. From $199, same as Pharaoh's find plus two VIP tickets and enjoy luxurious accommodations accompanied by truffles dusted in 24-karat gold and valet parking. Booking code TREASURE. Book online or by phone, 303-297-3111 or 800-321-2599.

Travel Thumbnail: Oklahoma City National Museum and Memorial

This is the seventh of a series of periodic reports on specific places I've visited -- and which you might want see to as well.

On the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, this poignant memorial bears witness to a great American tragedy

The Place: Oklahoma City National Museum and Memorial

The Story: Who can forget the horror of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by two crazed individuals with a grudge against the federal government? Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols conspired to detonate an explosive-filled rental truck. Six-and-a-half years before 9/11, these misguided young Americans, whom no one would take for terrorists by their appearance,  committed a deadly act of terrorism against their fellow citizens. The blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of eight, and injured an additional 680 people..

In addition to scarring the survivors and demolishing the Murrah Building, the blast changed the face of downtown Oklahoma City. In all, 324 buildings within a 16-block radius were destroyed or damaged, totaled 86 cars and shattered building glass in a three-mile-square area. Property damage was more than $650 million, but the damage to the collective American psyche was incalculable -- partly because the tools of their terrorism were so ordinary: a rental truck loaded 

Both McVeigh and Nichols, clean-cut and unremarkable in appearance, were Army veterans. Part of the US army oath is, "...solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..." They themselves became the very domestic enemies against whom they had once sworn to protect the country.

My Experience: I arrived in Oklahoma City in the evening for a conference. On that mild autumn evening, I left the hotel and walked along quiet streets. The walk took only 15 or 20 minutes, and I didn't know what to expect. I walked up a few steps to the outdoor memorial -- a reflecting pool and sculptures of metal chairs atop lighted cubes, one for every victim -- and was not alone. Other visitors walked reverently along the paths. It is a powerful site, and I walked back to the hotel in sadness and humility -- glad to have had a solitary experience.

Later in the week, as part of the conference itinerary, I visited the museum -- powerful too but also heartbreaking. Many of the exhibit rooms were poignant and personal. Children's toys. Glasses, Keys. Shoes. Office equipment and supplies. Ordinary artifacts of ordinary lives cut short in an instant by two ordinary-looking men packing an ordinary agricultural product into an ordinary truck. How, I wondered then and still wonder, can anyone feel such rage?

Cost: It costs nothing to visit the outdoor memorial. The museum is open Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $8 for 62+, military with ID, student aged 6 to 17 or with college ID and 5 and under, free.

Oklahoma City National Museum and Memorial,  620 North Harvey Avenue, Oklahoma City; 405-235-3313.

  

Oddball Tours Highlight 2010 "Obscura Day"

Quirky "holiday" spotlights off-the-radar local attractions

Obscura Day is a day for special tours and visits to places around the corner, around the country or around the world that you might never even have heard of, and it falls on Saturday, March 20, this year. It was organized by the folks behind Atlas Obscura, which describes itself as "a compendium of of the world's wonders, curiosities and esoterica." It's a bit like Ripley's Believe It or Not meets the Guinness World Records meets Wikipedia. Oddities around the world are posted, and site visitors are encouraged to enhance, correct or illustrate the posting with additional images.

But back to Obscura Day. Twenty-five places in the US and 29 in other countries are offering special tours to unusual places. The tours and visits tend to be cheap or free, and space is often limited, but they are places most people are likely to miss. In fact, some are sold out and have waiting lists. There are a lot of skeletons and such, including The Bone Room in Berkeley, National Museum of Health and Medicine's collection of medical specimens dating back to the Civil War  in Washington, D.C.; and the Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. There are the mysterious stone ruins of Gungywamp Hill near Groton in my native Connecticut, and there are eerie streets of never-built housing developments, such as Everglades Unit 11 near West Palm Beach, now teeming with wildlife species, and California City, 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles with streets in the desert that resemble the Nazca Lines from the air.

And there are just plain  (OK, not plain) curiosities. They include the world's tallest treehouse in Crossville, Tennessee, the wild, whimsical Cathedral of Junk in Austin, Texas, the Newnes Glow Worm Tunnel in Australia; the Iceland Phallological Museum boasting "probably the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country." Probably?!?!.

Thanks to Harriet Baskas, travel journalist and Stuck at the Airport blogger, for alerting me to this, well, obscure holiday.

Henry Moore Sculptures and King Tut Treasures Coming to Denver

Botanic garden and art museum hosting two blockbuster exhibitions this year

Henry Moore was a 20th century British sculpture who is best known for his large, abstract bronzes found in important public spaces around the world, including opposite the British Parliament in London, the plaza in front of Toronto's City Hall, in front of Berlin's Kongresshalle, outside of Australia's National Gallery in Melbourne and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tutankhamen was a youthful 18th dynasty Egyptian pharaoh who ruled in the 14th century B.C. and inspired some of the most exquisite, intricate bejeweled pieces that the anonymous craftsmen of the Nile ever produced. Both are coming to Denver -- the Moore exhibition this week, King Tut's treasures this summer. I'm excited about both and hope the both locals and visitors to Colorado will see them.

Moore in the Gardens

The Denver Botanic Gardens' landmark outdoor exhibition of 20 monumental Moore works opens on Monday, March 8, and runs through January 11, 2011 enabling art lovers to see these pieces in all seasons and in diverse environments, Discover sculptures in the Gardens’ diverse landscapes including dormant winter gardens, prairie wildflowers, serene reflecting pools and the rugged rock alpine garden.. Moore found inspiration in natural environments, and the Botanic Gardens is (are?) dedicated to bringing and displaying nature in the heart of Denver and also at the Botanic Gardens at Chatfield in Littleton, south of the city.

If you need to understand more about Moore, join a free tour (with the price of admission on weekends at 1:00 p.m. through the run of the show) or special curator-led walks from May through October, $15 (check schedule later). For non-members, admission through May 9 and after September 12 is $11.50 for adults; $8.50 for 65+  and military; $8 for ages 4-15 and students, and free for children 3 and under. In summer, admission for all is $1 more. The main Gardens are at 1005 York Street, Denver; 720-865-3500.

Tut at the Museum

Denver is immensely fortunate, and honored, to be one of the five North American cities hosting Tutankhamun - The Golden King and The Great Pharaohs. Atlanta, San Francisco, Toronto, New York and Denver. It will be at the Denver Art Museum for six months beginning July 1 and closing January 2, 2011.

The art museum is devoting two large galleries in the Hamilton Building to this touring exhibition featuring more than 100 treasures from Tut's tomb and other sites. Not quite as large as most of Moore's sculptures but imposing nevertheless is a 10-foot statue, the largest depiction of of King Tut ever unearthed.  It was found in the remains of the funerary temple of two of his high officials and still retains much of its original paint. Other artifacts in this remarkable exhibition come from the reigns of other important rulers throughout 2,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, from about 2600 B.C. to 660 B.C.

The exhibition is the product of heavy hitters in the realm of culture and antiquity. It was organized by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. A portion of the proceeds from the tour will go toward antiquities preservation and conservation efforts in Egypt, including the construction of a new grand museum at Giza near Cairo.

I visited Egypt a year ago and was captivated. The tombs in the Valley of Kings are open by rotation to try to protect them, and Tut's tomb was not open while I was there. The tomb was discovered in 1922 by by Howard Carter, and while many ancient tombs had been looted of their treasure, Tutankhamun's was intact. This is not the first time that priceless artifacts from the tomb have been on tour, but it is the first time they have been to Denver. The Treasures of Tutankhamun tour lasted from 1972 to 1979, visiting the British Museum, museums in the USSR, Japan, France, Canada, West Germany and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Tut tickets are now on sale to Denver Art Museum members and go on sale to the general public on May 14. Click here for the complicated pricing schedule. The museum is at 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway (just south of Civic Center Park and on 13th Avenue between Broadway and Bannock) Denver: 720-865-5000.

Upcoming Denver Arts Week Schedule

Second annual Denver Arts Week to highlights multifaceted cultural scene

Twenty-plus years ago, when I prepared to move from the New York area to Colorado, my culture-vulture tittered about the music, art, theater and dance that I would be missing in the hinterlands. Were they ever wrong! Boulder where I live, Denver just 25 miles away and mountain resort communities among them provide more cultural richness than I could ever take in.

In addition to the regular offerings, the upcoming Denver Arts Week (November 14-22) packs a lot of offerings into a concentrated eight-day period with more than 150 events staged at seven identifiable arts districts in and around Denver. These included dozens of museums, galleries and theaters, with the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival leading off the week and the City of Denver’s 150th Birthday Celebration closing things out. Denver Arts Week encourages locals and visitors to discover why Sunset magazine enthused, “The Mile High City is remaking itself as a world capital of art and architecture.”

Fine Arts

Denver Arts Week kicks off a week early with a sneak preview of Fear No Art First Friday, a "special edition" of the monthly First Friday Art Walks that is designed for the art world newcomer and the connoisseur. From 6:00 to 9:00 pm., visitors go from gallery to gallery or from art district to art district.

The ArtDistrict on Santa Fe features Botticelli Is Not a Pasta workshops with several galleries offering free lectures on topics such as how to collect art as a beginner and art history. The Golden Triangle Museum District offers its free “art bus” that visits more than a dozen galleries and museums. Cherry Creek North galleries and restaurants will offer a family evening with dining specials, extended gallery hours and art in action, which is described as "creative art making projects." The Tennyson Street Cultural District (http://www.tscd.org/) invites families to explore their neighborhood on Fear No Art First Friday (remember, November 7), plus an interactive evening with classes on the art of buying, collecting, framing, hanging and lighting art on Friday, November 21. In Belmar Arts District, Block 7 and the Lab at Belmar are putting on exhibits and special programs.

Museums

Friday, November 14 is scheduled as Night at the Museums with free admission from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. Programming includes jazz, modern dance, lantern tours and a wide array of family-friendly activities. There is free parking at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, shuttle service between there and the Denver Art Museum and also a total of 11 participating museums. Each rider will receive the Cherry Creek Passport to Shopping Discount Coupon booklet. Also at the DAM, Ballet Ariel and the Hannah Kahn Dance Company present Contemporary Forms in Space and Time in the lobby of the Hamilton Wing, at 6:30 p.m. and again at 8:00 p.m.

Denver artist Barbara Froula will be at the Colorado History Museum for a meet-and-greet during Night at the Museum to preview her watercolor commissioned for the upcoming exhibit, "Denver at 150: Imagine a Great City." For history buffs, Colorado's past comes to life at the Black American West Museum and at the Byers-Evans House Museum brings to live stories read by Colorado Homegrown Tales in the mansion's library.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science offers the opportunity to meet cutting-edge polar scientists and explorers at "Polar-Palooza," a multimedia road show will present Earth's iciest, most remote regions. The event will also feature a 130,000-year-old piece of ice, extreme cold weather gear to try on and and an opportunity to learn an Alaskan Native dance.

The Kirkland Museum of Decorative & Fine Art partners with Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge to present of cool jazz and modern art. From 5:00 to 10:00 p.m., guests can explore the museum's renowned collection of decorative art with over 3,300 pieces from Arts and Crafts through Modern and to Pop Art and its Colorado Modernist collection and also enjoy hors d'oeuvres and live jazz from Dazzle. The Forney Museum of Transportation opens in the evening for a unique visit by lamp and headlight, as a cross-section of 200 years of transportation is lit for this night only.

Music and art combine at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver's musical performance during Night at the Museums at 6:30 pm with the Denver Contemporary Chamber Players. Museo de las Americas' their new exhibit is called Fine Line. The Molly Brown House Museum offers special tours and live Irish music, while the Children's Museum of Denver brings the past to the generation of the future with silent movies about the Old West.


Performing Arts

The “Night on the Red Carpet” on Saturday, , November 15, focuses on Denver’s array of performing arts options, including more than a dozen local theaters and performing arts groups are also “roll out the red carpet” with discounts and promotions.

Starz Denver Film Festival’s Big Night is a glitzy red carpet event with stars, filmmakers and an exciting new feature film at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The film directed by Jimmy Boylefollows the adventures of Jamal (Dev Patel), a teenager who was orphaned as a young boy and left to fend for himself in the slums of Mumbai.

Also at the Ellie Caulkins (in the lobby), Tom Noel, a will sign his new book Mile High City between 6:30 to 8 p.m. Three companies offer two tickets for $52.80. A favorite among comedy/improv fans, The Bovine Metropolis Theatre is offering the deal for Friday and Saturday improv comedy shows. Denver Centre Theatre Company $52.80 two-for pricing throughout Arts Week. Buntport Theatre; and the Denver Brass charges the same amount for four tickets.

Mexican Day of the Dead, Colorado-Style, Coming Up

Merry skeletons and plastic flowers contrast with Anglo Halloween

Right after Halloween with its spooky undertones and trick-or-treating comes El Diá de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead celebrated in Mexico, in Mexican-American communities and in parts of Central America. Actually, it is two days (November 1 and 2) and is the time when families celebrate "with" their deceased relatives by visiting cemeteries, straightening out graves, leaving bread and other favorite foods and beverages, replacing faded flowers (usually plastic, because fresh don't last) with new ones and keeping a companionable vigil that includes a merry picnic with their departed loved ones. It is a respectful day but one when happy memories are recalled.

Although the holiday is a melding of indigenous pre-Hispanic and Catholic traditions, the most distinctive iconography is of skeletons in everyday clothing and common settings. Decorating "sugar skulls" is part of the ritual. It is interesting that while Anglo Halloween traditions involve going out and getting stuff (i.e., candy) from other people, the Mexican tradition is to stay with the family, living or not, and give something to the deceased.

My husband and I fortunately happened to be in San Jose del Cabo during the Day of the Dead a few years ago, so of course, we visited the local cemetery. A display on the town plaza explained what the celebration was all about, and vendors of plastic stood set up at the cemetery gates. We walked through the graveyard, watching families perform and sensing that it was wonderful for families to remember the departed joyfully and respectfully.

I'll be right here, north of the border, for the rest of the week, but "Day of the Dead Changes, Grows" in today's Denver Post reminded me that we don't have travel from Colorado. "As it traveled north from its rural Mexican roots, the Day of the Dead has evolved from a simple Memorial Day-type family picnic to honor loved ones, into a lively public celebration of art and culture," wrote reporter Kristen Browning-Blas.

She also provided some background on the celebration and listed local places to see and get a taste of it. I think I'll try to get to the Longmont Museum & Cultural Center (right) and/or CU's Museum of Natural History to check out their displays. Longmont's collaborative exhibition was done with Ciudad Guzmán, its sister city in Mexico, and includes a series of special events, most were last week and earlier this week, but a couple, including a family celebration on November 1, are still to come. Check the museum's calendar for details.

In "Celebrating the Day of the Dead's Delicious Side" in today's San Francisco Chronicle by Gaby Carnacho, who grew up in Tijuana, who wrote, "Brightly colored tissue paper cutouts, or papel picado, decorate cemeteries as well as the homes of the deceased person's family as a signal to the soul that festivities await them on earth. The most significant offerings, though, are the food and beverages that people put on the altars; the deceased's favorite beer, candy and street foods are put on display while those keeping vigil often enjoy more traditional foods."

Maybe I'll be in Mexico or perhaps San Antonio or El Paso sometime in the future, but meanwhile, celebrations and displays right here in Colorado will hold me.

Sterling Exhibition to Open at Winterthur

Delaware museum showcases the art and craft of eating implements

A lifetime ago, when I was living in New Jersey, a magazine assignment to write about the Brandywine Valley took me to the Winterthur Museum & Country Estate. I was fortunate that my meeting with the curator who would show me around was on a Monday, the day the museum of antiques and Americana was closed to the public. The velvet ropes were down as she and I walked through the empty rooms a former du Pont mansion. Because I was with her, I was allowed to walk into those rooms and look more closely at the silver and porcelain and glassware and needlework and artwork and.....

If I were still living in the Northeast, I would plan on visiting again sometime been November 1 and February 1 to see "Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005."
The exhibition showcases of European and American dining through the designs and functions of eating implements over five centuries. I love to look at this kind of domestic treasure.

Created and curated by New York's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, the show features 300 objects, enhanced by Winterthur’s extensive collection of prints, books and manuscripts. The exhibition is organized along such dining-related themes as “Dining on the Move,” “Tools for Food” and “Dining as Celebration,” the exhibition explores how even familiar objects like utensils can reveal a wealth of information about daily life and societal shifts. Visitors will learn that traveling utensils were used before the 1700s, when hosts began providing dining implements for their guests. The modern equivalent is portable dining gear, such as plastic sets for picnics and stainless steel sets designed for airline dining -- at least before we were forced to use plastic knives when there is any food service at all.

Anne Verplanck, the museum's curator of prints and paintings, has created “biographies” for the most common tabletop tools: the knife, fork, and spoon. These utensils have long defined Western dining. The most beautiful are are aesthetic as well as utilitarian. From sublime and precious to the near-silly, the exhibition features remarkable variations on table tools. Highlights are a Northern Italian traveling set with mother-of-pearl handles from 1590, silver chopsticks from Tiffany and Co., double- and triple-bowled spoons by contemporary designer Andre Zweiacker and traveling flatware by Anne Krohn Graham (above right).

Winterthur is the former home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969), an avid antiques collector and horticulturist. In the early 20th century, he and his father, Henry Algernon du Pont, designed Winterthur in the spirit of 18th- and19th-century European country houses. A visit to Winterthur immerses visitors you in another time and place. You might feel as if you have traveled abroad without crossing an ocean. I did.

Adult admission to the museum, galleries and gardens (lovely and tranquil even in winter) is $20; students and 62-plus, $18; children, $10. The annual Yuletide display, November 22 to January 4 (closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day), is extraordinary. Winterthur Museum & Country Estate, Route 52 (5105 Kennett Pike), Winterthur, Delaware 19735; 800-448-3883, 302-888-4600 or 302-888-4907 (TTY).

Temple of Isis Pylon Raised from Sea Floor

Alexandria retrieves a centuries-old treasure from the days of Cleopatra

Having visited Egypt earlier this year, I felt a connection when I read today's wire service report datelined Alexandria about archaeologists who raised a nine-ton, 7-foot-tall pylon from the bottom of the Mediterranean (AP photo below). The massive quarried stone once was at the entrance to a Temple of Isis that is believed to have fallen into the sea following fourth-century earthquakes that also destroyed the famous Alexandria Lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Divers have discovered the remnants of a city beneath the waves. 

Egypt has planned an ambitious underwater museum to showcase the sunken city.The temple and also Cleopatra's palace complex are part of this underwater realm. The pylon was part of a Ptolemaic palace where Queen Cleopatra courted wooed the Roman general Marc Antony  in the first century. The lovers committed suicide after they were defeated by Augustus Caesar. Remember the asp?

The palace complex as next to the Temple Isis, a goddess of fertility and magic. These buildings are believed to have been built is at least 2,050 years ago -- perhaps much earlier. Archaeologists believe the pylon came from red granite quarried in Aswan, some 700 miles to the south. A single standing column is Alexandria also came from the Aswan area.

Some 6,000 artifacts lie beneath the sea in the harbor, with another 20,000 are elsewhere off the coastaccording to Ibrahim Darwish, who head Alexandria's underwater archaeology department. These inlcude sphinxes and pieces of what is believed to be the Alexandria Lighthouse. The pylon is the first major artifact extracted from the harbor since 2002 when removal operations were halted to prevent damage to the antiquities.

This retrieval was done with painstaking care. Dr. Zahi Hawass, who heads the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the media, "The tower is unique among Alexandria's antiquities. We believe it was part of the complex surrounding Cleopatra's palace. This is an important part of Alexandria's history and it brings us closer to knowing more about the ancient city." Next April, Dr. Hawass hopes to find the long-lost tomb of Antony and Cleopatra, which he believes it might be inside a temple of Osiris about 30 miles west of Alexandria.

An underwater museum, currently in the planning stages, would enable visitors to walk through underwater tunnels to see sunken artifacts. Similar underwater tunnels to view marine life exist in several cities, including San Francisco and Victoria. Such an underwater museum would be a joint project between Egypt and UNESCO. Until that happens, the Cairo Museum's display of the project gives visitors a notion of what it will be like.

Big Bling in Washington

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to display two fabled blue diamonds

If the US had a monarchy, the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond (top right) would be part of the crown jewesl, but we're a republic, so the priceless gemstone belongs to all of us. The 31.06-carat Wittelsbach-Graff (below right) Diamond will soon be on view for the first time in more than half-a-centry. These two fabulous blue diamonds will be displayed together for the first time at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History from January 28 through August 1.

The Hope is known to have been found in a mine in India in the 17th century, while the Wittelsbach Diamond surfaced in the 1660s when Philip IV of Spain presented to his daughter, who was betrothed Emperor Leopold I of Austria. According to the Associated Press, "In 1722 it became the property of the Wittelsbachs, the ruling family of Bavaria. It disappeared after World War I, resurfacing in Belgium in 1951, and it was auctioned last year by Christie's in London for more than $24 million. It was acquired by jeweler Laurence Graff, chairman of Graff Diamonds International Ltd."

If I were going to be in the Washington, DC, area in that timeframe, I'd go and gawk.

Berlin Wall Sections: A Fragment Here, A Fragment There

November 9, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall

With so much strife on the planet, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall gives hope and celebration. After all, not long before the Wall came down in 1989, it seemed as if it would be there forever. I passed through Checkpoint Charlie on a one-day visit to East Berlin on my first trip to Europe a lifetime ago, and it was one East German guard's later opening of one checkpoint that opened the floodgate and changed modern German history.

As passed through the checkpoint into East Berlin, knowing that I could leave in a few hours, I realized that I had taken the freedom of movement for granted. It was eerie to walk down East Berlin's empty streets, past rubble and weed-choked vacant lots still left from World War II. I have not been to Berlin since, though I hope to visit next year during a planned trip to Germany, and I know that the gleaming, modern creative city bears only the slightest resemblance to the one I wandered around.

Berlin has a lot to celebrate, and celebrate it will. The Festival of Freedom starts this evening at 5:00 p.m., local time at the Brandenburg Gate, and an open air exhibition called "Peaceful Revolution" continues through October 2010.

I have seen segments of the Wall in Rapid City, South Dakota (above), and Portland, Maine (and probably elsewhere as well), but I didn't realize how many portions of the Wall have been erected as memorials. Click here for the list. Interestingly, there are 36 in the Americas (four in New York City alone) but only 13 in Europe -- just two in Germany itself. In Berlin, a line of cobblestones follows the original footprint of the Wall. News footage of the fall of the Wall was telecast over the weekend, and I think Berlin is commemorating the event, but I wonder how many other places with segments have organized something. Do you know?

Guanajuato's Mummies: Halloween-Style Fright

36 Mexican mummies touring US museums, starting in Detroit

When I was a child, I once had a skeleton Halloween costume. It was a one-piece black garment with bones printed on the front and sleeves. The back was all-black. I can't remember why I wanted it at the time. Even as an adult who accompanied many a grade-school field trip to the Denver Museum of Natural History (now the Denver Museum of Nature & Science) and other displays of dinosaur bones, skeletons of long-extinct animals don't bother me. But mummies give me the willies. I don't really like to see their exhumation, unwrapping and examination on television documentaries, and when I visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo earlier this year, I had plenty to look at without going to the mummy room.

Needless to say, I was less than excited to learn that one of the supposed highlights of a tour of Guanajuato included the city's Mummy Museum.
The museum backs against the municipal cemetery, where relatives could pay a one-time high fee for the grave or pay a lower fee each year. The mummies displayed were "evicted" from their crypts when their survivors or other relatives (if there were any) could not or would pay a tax or fee for the continuing occupation of the grave. The mummies displayed date from between 1865 and 1958, when the grave-tax law was changed. They are known as "the accidental mummies," because natural conditions created mummification, rather than a deliberate intention of mummifying human remains.The museum collection comprises 119 mummies, some standing, some lying down, some erect, some contorted, some clothed, others not. But to me, they were all creepy.

I managed to hold it together until I reached the room with the small children and babies. Then, I snapped one photograph and fled. Those small mummified bodies really creeped me out.

The parking area in front of the museum is lined with small businesses. Early in the morning, this "Mummy Sweet Shop" was not yet open.

Numerous souvenir stands sold all the regulation Mexican tourist schlock-- plus skulls of various designs.

According to the Mummy Tombs website, which describes mummies in various lands and is clearly maintained by someone who does not share my antipathy to mummies, 36 Guanajuato mummies started touring the US on October 10 and will visit seven museums before they return to Guanajuato. Some have reportedly never been on public view before, even in Guanajuato. The Detroit Science Center is the first stop for "The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato" exhibition, which closes there on January 31, 2010. I haven't had any luck finding out which other six cities is is supposed to visit. If one happens to be Denver, I doubt I'll go to see them.

Tributes to Cowboy Culture

The iconic West lives on in museums showcasing Western art, rodeo and entertainment

When I was in Oklahoma City recently, I spent not-enough-time in the National Cowboy & Western Museum, one of the wonderful institutions throughout the West commemorating, memorializing and sometimes romanticizing the cattle and the cowpokes who have worked them under the big blue dome that covers the Western prairies, valleys and canyons. A montage of cowboy and television cowboys provide a "hey, remember that!" pop-culture connection to what is a far more comprehensive display of American West -- Anglo, Hispanic and black cowboys at work; rodeo as a social connector for ranchers on the West's vast open lands and as entertainment; the US Cavalry; the art of the West; excellent children's interpretive sections, and even beautiful gardens. The image below shows the rear of the museum, as seen from the gardens.

As a born-and-bred New Englander, I continue to be captivated by Western art and culture. In addition to the National Cowboy & Western Museum, here are other excellent museums with significant permanent, rotating and visiting exhibitions that celebrate and enlighten about various aspects of the American West:

• Buffalo Bill Historical Center (five museums, including the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Plains Indian Museum and the Whitney Museum of Western Art), Cody, WY
• Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, CO
• Cheyenne Frontier Days' Old West Museum, Cheyenne
• Colorado History Museum, Denver
• Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa
• The Journey Museum, Rapid City, SD
• Leanin' Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden of Western Art, Boulder, CO
• Mormon Museum, LDS Museum of Church History and Art, Salt Lake City
• National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque
• National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY
• ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Colorado Springs

I've enjoyed visits to and been fascinated by them all

Denver Art Museum's iPods -- Plus

21st century museum adds 21st century audio -- and light meals now are served across the plaza


No museum in the nation made more of a recent splash than the Denver Art Museum did in 2006 with the opening of the radical Daniel Liebeskind-designed Hamilton Building, a dramatic angled structure clad in titanium. During a recent visit, I noticed the addition of iPod stations (with instructions on how to use the device and seats to plunk down on while you are doing so) to provide interpretation in as modern a mode as the building itself.

Several galleries are currently closed for the installation of new exhibits, but the gorgeous Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism continues through September 7, featuring 40 exquisite mid- and late-19th century French and American landscapes from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection.

The last time I wanted a bite to eat at the museum, there was a small snack bar in the North Tower, the older of the DAM's two connected buildings. The snack bar is no more. Kevin Taylor's Palette's Restaurant has now expanded into that space, and anyone who wants something lighter is directed across the plaza to Mad Greens, whose mid-day specialties are soups, salads and panini.

The museum is open daily except major holidays and Mondays -- except Monday, August 25, when it will not only be open but will be free to show off Denver's cultural side and artistic treasures in honor of the Democratic National Convention.

The Denver Art Museum is at 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver; 720-865-5000.

Guadalajara's Hospicio Cabañas Fab Faberge Exhibition

Imperial Russian treasures displayed in magnificent Spanish Colonial landmark

The opening reception of the Society of American Travel Writers' 2009 convention took place in Gaudalajara's magnificent, monumental Hospicio Cabañas. Originally a hospital and refuge for the homeless and the helpless, and later an orphanage, it now houses the Cabañas Cultural Institute and its schools for arts and crafts, and it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Aficionados of Spanish Colonial architecture know it for its grandiose presence in the heart of Mexico' second-largest city. Art lovers revere the brooding, dramatic murals painted by Jose Clemente Orozco more than 120 years after the building was completed. Much of Orozco's work in his native country was destroyed, because it was considered to dark and too violent, but masterpiece remains.

That we would see Orozco's work in the Hospicio Cabañas was no surprise. What was a surprise is that at the end of the opening event, someone casually mentioned that the Faberge collection would be left open for us. If you read Spanish better than I do, click here for more information on the exhibit. I have no idea how long this magnificent exhibition of Romanoff treasures will be open, but I was thrilled to have seen it. Photography was permitted -- under the watchful eyes of armed guards --but I was too busy looking and trying to puzzle out the key parts of Spanish descriptions of each object to try to take lots of pictures, and some that I snapped through glass didn't come out all that well. There were, of course, jewel-encrusted compacts, cigarette cases and more; paintings and paper documents; swords and scepters; garments and opulent geegasws, and an intruiging explanation of the role the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had in protecting (or something) Romanoff treasures when as an editor with Doubleday, she shepherded a book on the topic.