We celebrated the new year by taking the lad to the movies with a bunch of his friends. We saw Enchanted. For my part, I’m grateful both that we weren’t going to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, and that the movie was sufficiently ironic about its genre. (I’m not a fan of the typical Disney animated features. Pixar, yes.)

The kids were thoroughly engrossed, though. Our son’s good friend could not contain his urge to dance along as the cast frolicked in Central Park. And in the climactic scene– [spoiler alert… the rest will be after the break] More »

Instead of dropping a couple hundred bucks to take your family to see the hyped King Tut exhibit, I’d recommend the Amarna exhibit at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as a less expensive and, in many respects, superior way to get your Egyptology fix.

The artifacts in the exhibit illuminate the story of the religious and political upheaval triggered by Tutankhamun’s father, Akhenaten, when he installed a new monotheistic religion in Egypt. Akhenaten may not be quite the celebrity that Tut is–Steve Martin never wrote a song about him. But he’s a more interesting historical figure. The curation of the exhibit at the Penn Museum is informative and well-paced.

The regular Egypt exhibit at the Penn Museum is the real deal-clincher. They have a 12-ton sphinx–the third largest in the world. The stately entryway to Merenptah ’s palace in Memphis was excavated and placed on display here. There’s a fantastic head from a statue of Ramesses II.

And yes, horror fans, there are actual mummies. You won’t be seeing any mummies at the Franklin institute.

This doesn’t even take into account the other excellent galleries and exhibits. Even the cafeteria food is (much) better at the Penn Museum.

Admission to the Penn Museum, including the Amarna exhibit, is $8 for adults, $5 for kids and seniors. Here are a few tips if you decide to go:

1. There are plenty of convenient parking garages, but the Penn Museum is just a block from the University City SEPTA station.
2. Sunday afternoon admission is free during the academic year, but the museum is usually closed on Sundays in the summer. This year, though, the Amarna exhibit and lower Egyptian gallery is open on Sundays for a reduced admission.
3. The gift shop sells inexpensive workbooks related to the exhibits for kids of elementary school age. They turn the museum exhibits into fun scavenger hunts for information. Might not be a bad idea to help keep your young archaeologist occupied.
4. An annual household membership costs less than three admission tickets to the Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute. It comes with all sorts of perks, including special preview and lecture events. There’s an exciting Pre-columbian exhibit on its way in the fall, so if you think you might want to come back a few times, consider a membership.

We took Pop Beard (my dad) to see the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute yesterday. While the artifacts on display are undeniably gorgeous, I got hit hard by the hype curve and walked away feeling disappointed. (It should be noticed that the rest of the party did not feel this way. Your mileage may vary.)

The exhibit is paced so that you feel like you’re drawing closer and closer to a spectacular revelation of a final punctuating display of Tut himself. First you see artifacts from his ancestry, then items from the period of Akhentaten, who preceded Tutankhamun and is believed to be his father. Then we see an ornate coffinete, which had contained the mummified liver of Tutankhamun. The next hall contains artifacts found in Tut’s tomb: jewelry, shabti statues, a fan, a mace, etc. Finally, you come to a room which shows you items found inside his sarcophagus– a diadem, a dagger, a pectoral (necklace).

At the back of the room, there’s a sign that warns you that there will be no re-entry beyond this point. There was palpable anticipation. Surely this is the spot where we will see the famous death mask from the 1970’s exhibit, or an ornate coffin, something on a large scale to cap off the exhibit! There had been all these larger-than life images promoting the ornate gold visage of the young king.

Nope. It was the gift shop. There you can buy authentic treasures, like Tutankhamun baseballs.

Wish I’d read Jason Coyne’s review of the Tut exhibit before I went. I’m sure we still would have gone, but I would have calibrated my expectations accordingly.

If you’re not dissuaded, I have a few recommendations for those who follow in our footsteps:

1. The Golden Ticket promotion is a much better value than the regular admission. If you agree to go into the exhibit in off-peak hours, you will save a lot of money with the added bonus of being able to move about the exhibit with much less crowding. Regular exhibit entry costs $32.50 per person (plus Ticketmaster fees). For $25 a person, the Golden Ticket allows entry anytime after 4:00, plus a ticket to the IMAX presentation, Mummies, Secrets of the Pharaohs.
2. Admission to the Franklin Institute’s regular exhibits is also included in the package, but note that the rest of the museum closes at 5:00 PM. If you’re taking the kids, go to the museum early in the afternoon to enjoy the fun science exhibits before your movie and tour of the Tut galleries.
3. The Franklin Institute lot is always *&@#! full. There are a number of public lots along 23rd Street between Race and Arch.

I normally don’t mark the passing of celebrities. I’m rather obstinate about reserving emotions like love, admiration, and grief for people I actually know.

Caveats completed, I am sorry to hear of Vonnegut’s passing. I don’t know if I would exactly say that he was one of my favorite authors, but I liked some of his books very much. More importantly, as a younger reader growing up in small, conservative town, it was Vonnegut’s irreverent lens that focused a lot of my early political questioning and awareness.

I don’t know if there is anybody out there who could rightly assume Vonnegut’s mantle. (Chris Moore comes to mind.) But if you want to encourage a bright young mind to entertain thoughts subversive to the mind-numbing drone of the American Political-Media industrial complex, you could do a lot worse than slipping them a copy of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater or Slaughterhouse-Five. A Vonnegut in his writing prime today would truly be a man for these absurd times.

Hi ho.

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One of the best things about working at a top-notch academic institution is that you’re always around people who have interesting ideas and a profound ability to communicate them. I’m an information sponge, so I’m grateful to reside among those who willingly satisfy my desire to absorb.

Peter Holms of Swarthmore’s own War News Radio filed a report on the Maine National Guard’s “Flat Soldier” program to help children feel the presence of parents who are deployed in Iraq.

Political Scientist James Kurth published an article “America’s Democratization Projects Abroad” in the October edition of the conservative American Spectator. (The Spectator!) It’s a excellent primer on a century of U.S. attempts to promote liberal democracy around the globe. It sounds to me like the E.U. may be better poised to play that role today. I guess that keeps us stuck playing the role of the World’s Cops.

Meanwhile, my blogging colleague Tim Burke is publicly hashing out the syllabi for two courses I’d love to take. (In that alternate universe where I currently have the time to take advantage of the benefit that allows me to take free courses.) The courses are “The Production of History” and “The History of Reading.” Tim gets assists from his colleagues at other institutions in the comments. It’s neat to watch a course taking shape in the public web.

That’s it for a few days. Now, the pie.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. And thanks to all who give.

A visit from Uncle Democrat and his Kiss-Me-Kate brought us to the entrance of the Philly Museum of Art. I greet these opportunities with cautious interest, never knowing for sure how our preschooler is going to take to certain types of experiences. He’s usually well-behaved in public. And he’s endlessly interested in everything, so we had reason to hope that he’d go along with the plan. At least, we figured, we always have the arms and armor exhibit. Knights! He loves anything to do with knights.

So we entered the hall of European art since 1850. Interested to take a gauge of things, I lifted him to see Van Gogh’s “Rain.”

Dad: What do you see here?
Lad: It’s raining. On a field.

Check. Then to a room with several Renoir’s, where we identified “Woman with a Guitar” as a lady with a guitar. This is so easy!

From there, I asked him to tell me which pictures he wanted to look at, and I’d lift him to see them better. For sure, the child has remarkable taste. He immediately led me to Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” then Monet’s “Japanese Footbridge…,” before Renoir’s “Two Girls.”

Then we played “Is this more like___?” He said that “Sunflowers” was like “Rain.” Now he knows that they’re both by Vincent “Van Go.”

“Two Girls” was like “Woman with a Guitar.” Both Renoirs. Hot diggitty dog. I told him that I knew some art history professors who’d like to meet him. More »

Spring really arrived in Pennsylvania today. A light breeze with the temperature in the 70’s. Blooms are just around the corner. Everyone I know had a little touch of spring fever. Some had a pretty big touch. (You know who you are!)

Even though I have a lot on my mind now, I’m taking the day to just feel the warmth, and have a little gratitude. I was listening to music at work, when one of the most beautiful, graceful songs ever recorded popped up on my iTunes rotation, Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Waters of March” (”Águas de Março”).

And the riverbank talks
of the waters of March.
It’s the end of all strain.
It’s the joy in your heart.

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