Blahg

9 October 2010

Happy 70, John. You were one of the first honorary Mattopians. Imagine that.

There are no problems, only solutions.

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17 July 2010

Xfinity has arrived and I'm delighted with the expanded HD lineup.

It's great to have History and History International in HD. It was like some kind of karmic welcome weekend. With triple digits outside, the TV was on a little more than usual and the first thing I watched was Indiana Jones and the Ultimate Quest, which documents the real historical influences that inform the movie series. I knew all that stuff already, but it was still fun to watch.

More confounding, though, was Chasing Mummies: The Amazing Adventures of Zahi Hawass, which purports to be a documentary series that follows the constantly-on-the-go "Pharaoh" of Egyptian antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass, 24/7. The episode I just watched, entitled Stuck, was pretty baffling.

Questions abound.

Could it possibly be real? Was the production crew so incompetent they actually left people stuck in a tomb at Saqqara? Really?!? And they didn't pick up on their absence until hours later? Is the intern from McGill University for real? Did they really call Hawass, who just so happened to in the middle of a book signing event? Did he really leave the event instantly to personally go out to Saqqara?

C'mon. That's pretty over the top. Entertaining, yes. But I don't know if it was entertaining in the way it was intended.

Nonetheless, I dig - pun intended - Hawass' sometimes gruff and grandiose persona, real or contrived. In some respects, I can relate.

So... yeah... I'll stay tuned...

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4 July 2010

Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs opened at the Denver Art Museum on Tuesday and I took advantage of the holiday weekend to check it out today.

Overall, it's well done and, personally, I enjoyed every bit of it, but the hype surrounding the exhibit was a little overblown. It's nowhere near as extensive as I was hoping, and the presentation wasn't as immersive or dramatic as some of the local media made it out to be, although I did enjoy walking through a mockup of Howard Carter's tent. I also enjoyed the audio tour, narrated by none other than legendary actor Harrison Ford and legendary Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. I wonder if the mainstream masses might find the Tut-specific portion pretty brief. That said, one of my favorite items was the huge funerary statue of Tut that closes out the exhibit. But the items related to the canopic jars and King Tut's bed were also cool.

I overheard a conversation between some patrons and a museum staff member that, basically, the local media made it sound like the exhibit's entire run was sold out. That was hardly the case today, particularly given that it's a summertime holiday.

I was particularly surprised by the lack of crowd pressure at the movie Egypt 3D: The Secrets of the Mummies. Narrated by Christopher Lee, the movie was surprisingly informative, particularly in noting that, back in the 1880s, Egyptian artifacts traded with more value than gold, which led to a resurgence in tomb raiding efforts. The movie covered topics like mummy DNA and other historical facts, while also pointing out the real secrets behind the ancient mummification methods was lost with the death of the last priest. And the 3D effects were better than those offered in recent Hollywood fare like Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender.

Tangentially related, I was mortified by the state of the exhibit's gift shop. Only six days in, several display items were already broken. I considered the notion that perhaps they were intentionally broken in order to avoid theft. Or maybe they were broken back in a previous stop (Atlanta?!). But then I stumbled on a mangled copy of Howard Carter's book and had second thoughts. Hopefully the same clumsy hands handling the gift shop's boxes are kept at least 10 feet away from the real artifacts.

Also, since the exhibit is from National Geographic, I was surprised the shop had two different versions of the Carter book, but not the excellently-produced edition I have from none other than National Geographic. But I know I'm being particularly picky about that one.

In honor of the Tut exhibit's Denver visit, I went back to the Mattsonian and pulled out a couple videos from the archives. One was made on the bike I rented while biking up to the Valley of the Kings. It was simply one of the greatest adventures I've ever had and I'm looking forward to polishing up the documentation on that excursion as the spare time permits. During that trip to Egypt, I also saw King Tut's breathtaking golden mummy mask and King Tut himself was right where he belonged, resting in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

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