More Than Dinosaurs

                                                              

I love going to museums, and I love taking my grandchildren, nieces and nephews to museums, too. In a society hooked on Social Media and the latest Xbox games, museums might appear to be a tame place to visit, but I am here to dispute that fallacy right now. Can a museum entertain better than a video game? Find out after the jump.

Rockettes, Disney Characters & Snow Storms! Oh My!

                                                         

 

I don’t get to spend enough time in New York City, but that will change this spring when I plan to spend a whole weekend sightseeing with my daughter, granddaughter and travel buddy, Tracy. This December 15^th, the four of us had traveled by Starr Tours Bus to see the famed Radio City Rockettes. Were the Rockettes as awesome as promised? Meet me after the jump to find out

The Trip

Tracy and I had become good friends during my first trip to Italy where I signed up for the Leisurely Tuscany Tour. Tracy had mentioned that she’d always wanted to see the Rockettes and to think of her if I decided to go. After my grandson who’d finished his five year service with Marines and his wife, Kimberlea, moved back to New Jersey, I had the perfect reason to travel to New York. We booked our trip with Starr so we knew that everything for this adventure was taken care of.

                                                           

As soon as we reached the city, the bus driver handed out maps and a list of restaurants to visit before the show began. On our way to find Planet Hollywood, we came across some Disney Characters who offered to take photos with us. Stupid us thought that they were provided by the city, but after taking a few photos of us with Kimberlea’s cell phone, they began to ask for tips. My daughter gave the main spokesperson five dollars, but they wanted more. Our South Philly attitude is no match for New York con games...and the characters backed off.

                                                         

The sights and sounds of the busy Times Square area were truly exhilarating. I freaking loved the hustle and bustle of shoppers and workers as they made their way to their destinations. At Planet Hollywood, we had fun checking out all the memorabilia while we waited for our food. I would definitely return to this restaurant for the ambiance and the tasty food.

The Rockettes

I can’t say enough great things about the show. The staff and security made sure the lines getting into the theatre were organized and moving steadily. The dancers were fabulous, especially performing one of my favorite routines with the wooden soldiers. There was even 3D segment at the beginning of the show. If you haven’t treated yourself to this event, please do so.

                                                             

When we left the theatre we were faced with a full-fledged snowstorm. Luckily we were able to warm up with some hot chocolate at Starbucks. Our bus ride home was longer than expected due to the nasty weather and unbelievable traffic. I will never complain about Philly traffic again.

Conclusion

I’m a big kid at heart and I love to escape the stress from this past year’s election. Traveling to the Big Apple with family and friend, and our seeing Times Square up close and personal was a real treat as was the Radio City Rockettes.

                                                                   

There is one final note on those Disney photo hounds. They are everywhere and, it’s up to you to say no, then quickly run away.

 

Steampunk Granny’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Cemeteries, Divine Hand, Body World, Grounds for Sculpture

                                                                  

I've been busy this past month with attending events all over the place. Just a few weeks ago, I headed over to the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia to listen to the marvelous music of the Divine Hand Ensemble headed my Mano Divina.  The ensemble played funerary music...music that was commonly played from sunset to sunrise the next day at the graves of the newly departed to help them on their journey past that thin curtain that separates the living from the dead.

                                                                  

 

It was a custom that had fallen out of favor with the church during Pope Leo’s reign and that is such a shame because the music is beautiful and haunting at the same time.

                                                              

While my two friends and I enjoyed the music, I witnessed the spirit of a woman dancing around the tree above and to the left of the mausoleum when the Mano played the theremin. The cemetery, although very old, is well kept and the lovely and helpful staff plan out all kinds of activities during the year.

                                                                 

                                      

Please check their event page and do visit this cemetery. It is a step back into time and it is alive with natural beauty. Check it out here: http://www.thelaurelhillcemetery.org/index.php?m=1&p=1&s=1

Mano Divina and the members of his orchestra will mesmerize you with the beauty of their music.  

You can catch the Divine Hand this Friday at:

Friday, October 10, 2014
REEFER MADNESS with a live improvisational score by The Divine Hand Ensemble!
Plus vintage animated shorts with live scores!
Doors 7:30, Program at 8:00
$10, advance tickets:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/863924

Anti-drug cult classic REEFER MADNESS will be screened at PhilaMOCA accompanied by a live improvised performance by the theremin-led chamber orchestra The Divine Hand Ensemble. The evening will begin with vintage animated shorts accompanied by live scores.

http://divinehand.net/
http://www.philamoca.org/

                                                                                             

Body World Animals Inside & Out

When I’m not visiting Laurel Hill, I’m visiting museums. My friend, Denise, recently invited me to the Franklin Institute’s members’ opening night of Body World.

                                                                                             

You might, at first, think the subject matter more on the level of gore, but you would be mistaken. Our bodies and that of animals are so much than bone, muscle and arteries. We are all works of art.  Do yourself a favor and check this exhibit out.

                                                       

Chocolate at the Academy of Natural Sciences

Who doesn’t like chocolate? Maybe zombies, but for the rest of us, chocolate makes us happy. Here are some details, but the exhibit opens this weekend. If you go, buy me a bar of chocolate.

Join us THIS weekend, October 11-12, for the opening of Chocolate: The Exhibition! Enjoy activities all weekend devoted to the delicious science behind everyone's favorite treat. And yes, there will be chocolate to eat...
Get all the details and purchase advanced tickets: http://www.ansp.org/Visit/Events/Details/?eid=5859&iid=18112

                                                             

Sculpture for the Soul

This week, my fellow spirit investigators and I headed to Hamilton New Jersey to visit the Grounds for Sculpture. This place is amazing!! The statues were so lifelike and there were several times I made the mistake of confusing a real person for a statue. Don’t ask.

                                                                  

Seward Johnson conceived of and opened the grounds in 1992 with the mission of promoting and understanding and appreciation of contemporary sculpture and to promote emerging artists. The grounds are surrounded by beautiful nature and boasts two cafés and a restaurant. “Grounds for Sculpture” is even more important in today’s world due to the severe cuts to education. The first classes to get cut are always the arts and that is inexcusable. Located on 126 Sculptors Way, Hamilton, NJ 08619

                                                               

                                           

                                            I’ll let my pictures convince you to go.

 

                                                                 

Steampunk Granny does Tigers, Monkeys and Sharknado 2…Oh My!

                                                                       

I have been doing day trips all week with my granddaughter Kathryn who is visiting from Wyoming and my grandson Nathan who lives in New Jersey. Yesterday we headed out to the Philadelphia Zoo. The big cats and the primates were our favorite sights. We witnessed a Tiger trying to get to an orangutan that mischievously walked above the tiger’s resting spot near  the café where Nathan, Kathryn and I were eating lunch.

                                                                   

                                                                       

Nathan takes Parkour lessons and I've often wondered if the French invented the different movements for this sport by watching these guys.

                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                 

I introduced Nathan and Kathryn to Sharknado 2 “The second one”. Nathan thought Sharknado 2 was stupid until I explained to him that this was the whole point of the show. It was a tongue-in-cheek, MST3K sponge worthy (yes, I'm quoting Elaine from Seinfeld) type of film. It was meant to be downright stupid. Once Nathan understood, he sat back and enjoyed the movie.

                                                                             

How could you not like Sharknado or Sharknado 2? Where else can you find flying sharks and lots of people to snack on. The Syfy channel deserves a pat on the back for bringing us the sequel to Sharknado.

                                                                                       

Our Shark Ninja fighter, Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering), and his trusty sidekick, Skye (Vivica A. Fox), must help the frazzled and clueless citizens of New York survive the flying sharks, and they have to work quickly before two opposing tornadoes meet in the center of New York City.

                                                                                    

The show was made even funnier with Mat Lauer and Al Roker playing straight men to the oncoming shark attack weather alert as does Kelly Ripa on her show.

                                                                             

I can't wait until Sharknado 3 comes out and I can't wait until the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel does the next Mega Bad Movie Night featuring this film

 

Life with Fred & Lucy Part 15: Day Trips To Nowhere

                                                                         

                                 Our Desoto looked something like this

Once in a while my father, who normally kept the grocery store open seven days a week, would close early on a Sunday afternoon and take the family on a day trip. All four kids would pile into the big Chrysler Desoto. That car was like built like a tank and its bumpers were wide, which was good because of the way my mother drove. Before every trip my father would announce, “If you have to pee, do it now.”

                                                                  

Our reply was always, “Nah, we’re good.”
My mom would bring a thermos of ice water and pack some snacks for us, especially if it was going to be a long ride. When it was time to leave, we four kids would scramble out the side door of our house and race to the car. I never figured out why we raced to the car because we couldn’t open the door; my father had the key, but as soon as the car doors were unlocked, the fighting began.
                                                                  

“It’s my turn to sit next to the window,” two of us would yell out. It was usually Jane and I who always tried to commandeer the windows. 

“You had the window the last time.” Came the quick reply and shoving from the younger siblings.

“Get the hell in the car you knuckle heads,” my father yelled at all four of us. Why the fight for the two rear windows? People who are baby boomers already know the answer, but for the younger generations, I'll explain.

There were no air conditioned cars back then, as far as I know, and if you were lucky to claim a window, you could position yourself to get the most air when the car was in motion. Plus, it was fun to roll down the windows. 
                                                                           

I’m seeing some confused looks out there so let me explain a bit more. We did not have electric windows in the 1948 Desoto. Windows were manually lowered and raised. See the handles in the above picture. Although this is not the inside of a Desoto, you get the idea of what the interior of an older car looked like and what was missing. We'll talk more about this further in the blog.

These day trips were never planned in advance, but taken at the spur of the moment. My parents were just trying to get their overly active children some fresh air and exercise. At least that's what they told us, but we began to suspect another motive. My father would usually head out to a place with big open spaces like Fairmount Park or Valley Forge. But, no matter where we were headed, it wasn't long before one of us would announce, “I have to pee.”
“Didn’t I tell you to pee before we left?” My father yelled.
“I didn’t have to pee then.” This need to pee always hit one of us when we'd been on the road for a short time and only when it was too far to turn around and head home.
“You kids are a pain in my ass,” my father would yell and then he and mom would start fighting. But, since Dad didn’t want any of us to have an accident in his fancy car, he would pull into the first gas station.
My mother would then herd all four of us to the back of the gas station where the restrooms were located. Mom  then placed a ton of toilet paper on the seat to protect us from ‘man germs’.

After we were settled back into the car and at our assigned window positions, my father headed on the road again. Everything was good until we kids started acting up and climbing all over the back seat.       
No! We didn’t have seat belts back in the old days. No seat belts, no infant car seats, nothing was child proof and adults smoked cigarettes in the car. Guess what; we survived.                                                                                                                                

My poor parents spent the entire trip yelling at us to behave and then yelling at each other about who the children took after. We were a wild bunch and could not sit quiet for longer than a few minutes. In fact, the entire trip would always consist of us complaining about who touched who, or who was getting all the air from the opened window, or who was shoving who. When we finally reached the park, my father , who looked like he was having a nervous breakdown opened the door and yelled, "Get the hell out of the car."                                                                                

“Go…run around,” my mother grumbled as she threw a ball for us to chase. We four kids chased after that ball for hours. When it was time to go home, dad would whistle and we'd run back and pile into the car, only to fall asleep on the long ride home.
                                                               

Sometimes, my parents would just take us for a long ride to nowhere. I think they were trying to find a place to dump us. You know someplace far where we wouldn’t be able to find our way back home.

Good memories for us baby boomers, but unfortunately for families today, the heavy volume of traffic on today's highways and the high gas prices are making road trips like I grew up with, a luxury that is getting harder to do. 

A Trip to Winterthur

                                                                              

On Wednesday, my two ghost hunting sidekicks and I decided to take a non-ghostly adventure to the beautiful Museum and Garden property of Henry Francis du Pont’s Estate of 175 rooms. Yes, you heard me right, Winterthur has 175 rooms. Can you imagine trying to find your way through that house.

                                                                              

 It would seem like the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We only got to see a portion of the estate; thank goodness or I would still be there. Mr. DuPont was a collector and he had a good eye for early American art and furniture.

                                                                  

The guided tour of the house took about an hour and I claimed two rooms as my favorite;

                                                                         

                                                             The Oriental Room  

                                                                

                                                                              Sunroom.

We weren’t looking for ghosts, but there were several areas where my friends and I felt them.

                                                                                

Remember even if the house is not haunted, possessions sometimes are. Whatever spirits were attached to the antique furniture were all friendly.

                                                                               

Now for just a few pictures of the garden that we were able to take before the skies opened up and almost washed us away. We will return to Winterthur!

                                                                             

                                                                                   

 

This picture is of a small area of the Enchanted Woods

Mummies and More Day Trip

Philadelphia has some of the best museums in the world and with the temperature getting cooler, my ghost hunting friends and I changed our routine. Instead of hiking through cemeteries or visiting haunted buildings, we do museums. This week we had the pleasure of visiting  The Universtiy of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

                                                                    

We began with the North American Gallery where we learned about the key cutural aspects of the four Tribal groups of the American Southwest. After going through the equally educational African Gallery, we found ourselves at the Human Evolution Exhibit.

                                                                            

                      We were there for a few hours and now feeling a little tired

         
                                                        Jean channeling Joseph Leidy

                                                                             
                                               We have fun, no matter where we are.

We were hungry and stopped at the Pepper Mill Cafe, which is located on the 2nd floor of the museum, and ordered the best pumpkin soup ever!!!

After lunch, we continued our tour of this amazing internationally renowned educational and research institution until we arrived at the Egyptian Gallery. They had a model of an Egyptian temple.

                                                                                                                      

               I took these pictures through one of the windows of the scale model.
                                             

                                                                          

We happened upon a new research area inside the museum called the Artifact Lab.
This lab is located on the third floor and while there, we spoke with Molly Gleeson. She is the Project Coordinator for the Artifact Lab and explained to us what she and the others did in the lab. The Conservation Team studies, cleans and mends the Egyptian artifacts that the museum houses, including some mummifed bodies. Molly Gleeson, give us her undivided attention and answered all our questions. Please make sure that you stop and say hello when you visit the museum.

                                                                            

Check out the link below to find out more about the Artifact Lab


http://weeklypress.com/inside-look-at-the-penn-museums-artifact-lab-p3378-73.htm