Friday, January 08, 2010 King Tut Day

Toot Uncommon Day at the Park

Breakfast anyone?

We started our day in the Stockton fog.  The dogs didn’t want to go out into at 6:30AM but we pushed them out for their morning stroll.  Anami was pretty annoyed at the changes in our morning routine.  Rob usually throws the ball for her to cut the sting of being put outside to do her morning business.  Then I throw the ball for her while I put the doggie breakfast together.  Well this morning we just got up, took a shower, threw the dogs out into the cold, dark, foggy morning while I put their bowls together.  We didn’t even throw the ball once.  The doggie B&B has gone to hell in a hand basket!   

At 7:25AM we were rolling down the drive!  We had breakfast at the Rockridge Café on College Avenue in the Rockridge area of Oakland.  Breakfast was not memorable but we watched the clerks at Pave Jewelry next door put out their display.  Next time we visit the area we will have to visit when they are open.   

Golden Gate Park

 By 9:30 we were on the road again and arrived at Golden Gate Park at about 10:15.  We parked on the road behind the Academy of Science and took our time walking to the de Young Museum.  The Academy and the de Young are situated across from each other with the Music Concourse between them.

Here is Rob on the Academy side of the concourse with the Bandshell in the background.   The Music Concourse was built in 1900, when the people of San Francisco were given The Temple of Music (commonly called the Bandshell) by their sugar daddy Claus Spreckels.  

Hundreds of trees were planted in a grid pattern in the concourse bowl to provide shade for the concert-goers.  Benches were put in, staircases leading down to the concourse on each side, wide paths, streets in front of the de Young and Academy, pedestrian tunnels, fountains and the monuments completed a truly lovely addition to the park.

Recently during the construction of the much needed parking garage under the concourse, some trees and tunnels were lost or destroyed but have since been or are scheduled t be replaced.  The major elements of the original design - including the tunnels, benches, fountains and monuments - all survive, preserved as they were a hundred years ago.  The photo with the fountain in the foreground was taken with the Bandshell at my back.

Walking across the Concourse we passed a man and his dog doing Tai Chi; the dog had Tai Chied himself around the tree.  The Music Concourse is a lovely place and we look forward to visiting in the summer time.

The New de Young Museum

Founded originally in 1895, the New de Young Museum reopened in October 2005.  After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, assessments of the existing building determined that it was vulnerable to future tremors.  Some changes to the building were done, but safety concerns remained and Federal insurance was withheld.  As a result travelling exhibits frequently were hesitant to consider De Young as a possible venue. In 1998, the museum’s Board agreed to rebuild the museum as a state of the art facility.  The new building has a 37% smaller footprint than the old building and returns more than two acres of space to Golden Gate Park.  An underground parking garage was created for 800 cars by digging a tunnel beneath 10th Avenue from Fulton Street. The parking garage is shared with its neighbor the new California Academy of Sciences. This decreased the amount of on-street parking, which was in effect taken underground to ease congestion.

The architects were tasked to design a plan to integrate the museum with the park surrounding it, which they did.  The museum has a very modern design made of steel and glass.  The façade, the largest of its kind in the world, is made of perforated copper plates. The plates will eventually oxidize and take on a greenish tone; the façade’s color and distinct texture are meant to harmonize with the nearby eucalyptus trees.  The museum itself has an open and light-filled environment which is very pleasant for viewing and helps extend the inside out. 

The most fun is the twisting nine-storey (144 foot) observation tower, housing the arts education programs, which is accessible to the public via elevator to the top. The tower rises above the Park's treetops providing views of the city skyline, much of Golden Gate Park's Music Concourse, the Golden Gate and Marin Headlands. And of course it the building is a product of state-of-the-art seismic engineering. The museum is surrounded by a sculpture garden that includes open the Sphinxes, palm trees and Pool of Enchantment that were part of the original complex.  

 The King Tutankhamun Exhibit

          We had tickets for the 11 AM tour of The Tut "Golden Age" exhibit and we werevery excited.  In 1979 we saw the much smaller “Treasures of Tutankhamun" tour at the old de Young, which was fabulous.  I read somewhere that returning to San Francisco after 30 years has a special significance because in ancient Egypt they held what is called a Sed Festival.  After a king had ruled for 30 years, they have a set to rejuvenate the king and build up his powers.  We should have a Sed for Rob; he will be 60 on January 17^th!

        A much larger exhibit toured in 2005 and in August of that year Rob, Collen and I drove to see “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).   All the visitors had tickets for a specific time and were held in large groups in an outdoor tent to wait in long lines, which snaked around the tent.  In small batches were let out of the tent, passed through a security section, Collen had his sketch pad and pencil taken away from him, and then into the museum.  Once in the museum we had to stay with our group; it was very reminiscent of the Pentagon tour.  Right off the bat the experience was more stifling than uplifting.  The Artifacts for the 2005 exhibit came from the tombs of 18th-dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun as well as others buried in the Valley of the Kings, but it was disappointing maybe because it was larger with a smaller percentage of sparkles (no famous, gold Funerary mask), or just because our expectations were so high.   

We knew the Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun, a centerpiece of the '79 show would not be included this time. In the ‘80’s the Egyptian government declared it a national treasure and too fragile to travel so it will never leave Egypt again, so we will have to go to the future Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza to see it again. Anyway we were very excited. We rented the audio tour which was very good; Omar Sharif is the voice of the guide and I could listen to him read the phonebook as they say. I love audio tours because they tell you the basics and I often can’t read the signs. Besides the audio moves you from one major artifact to next major artifact and for me it reduces the stress factor which comes from zooming around to read and see everything. We also bought the official book that accompanies the exhibit so if we forget anything we can refer to the book. We bought the book in 2005 but Collen has it and we haven’t thought about it in …. well, since August 2005. But still it is nice to have on the coffee table.

      This show documents the life, times of the "boy king" who died, at age 18 or 19, in 1323 B.C., nine years into his reign, and highlights some of the magnificent treasures found in his tomb, which were meant to ensure his divine immortality and his comfort in the afterlife.  Many objects belonging to the young king—exquisite personal items used in his daily life are included; one was a beautiful child-size chair. Prominent pieces include a gold crown found on the head of his mummy, a lavish bejeweled pectoral inscribed with the hieroglyphic for infinity and many other pieces of jewelry.  Most interesting, or at unexpected, was a pair of coffinettes (little coffins) that contain the fetuses of what may have been the king's children.  

Tut was the last pharaoh of the 18^th dynasty and the exhibit places him in context of his very famous predecessors in addition to telling us about family members like his possible great-grandparents, Tjuyu and Yuya. Lady Tjuya and her husband Yuya were one of the rare non-royal couple given permission to be buried in the Valley of the Kings. Although not royal, the couple were not ordinary Egyptians but were thought to be the parents of a Queen Tiya and in-laws to Pharaoh Amenhotep III. If they were, they would have been Tutankhamun's great-grandparents.   What is special about this tomb, and what made it the most famous tomb in Egypt prior to the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun, is that it contained a great cache of funerary equipment in remarkable condition.  One piece from their tomb I especially like was the chair of Princess Sitamun.

In addition to the artifacts there are 30 or so photographic prints by Harry Burton who accompanied British archaeologist Howard Carter's expedition and documented the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. 

The exhibit gift shop had lots of fun souvenirs, the least of which was a paper cutout of King Tut’s funerary mask.  The de Young gift shop had a jackal faced statue (Anubis?) for $799 and a King Tut chair for $1,099; both replicas of course.

After King Tut we dropped our treasures back at the car and had hotdogs at Keethe’s Hot Dog and Pretzel stand in the concourse; a ¬¬¬¬¬ establishment.

The California Academy of Sciences

The California Academy of Sciences, found in 1853, is one of the largest museum of natural history in the world.  The new Academy was 10 years in the making, reopend in September 2008 and it is fabulous.  Since its first year of existence the Academy encourage womens’ involvement of women in science, passing a resolution that the members "highly approve of the aid of females in every department of natural science, and invite their cooperation" This led to several female botanists, entomologists and others finding work at the Academy during the 19th century, when opportunities for women in the sciences were limited, and often restricted to menial cataloguing and calculation work.

Like the de Young the goal in design was to belnd seamlessly into the park’s natural setting.  Now, I would say blend in as in camouflage, but it is indeed a masterpiece in sustainalbe architecture; they even used recylced denim as insulation.  Construction reflects reduced carbon footprint, energy efficiency and 90% of all demolition materials were recycled.  The building consums 30% less energy than federal code requirements; Rob’s mantra. 

The entrance to the Academy has floor to ceiling windows that allow you to see the de Young across the Music Concourse.  The windows also  allow the interior offices to use 90% , natural lighting; a plus is that in the office windows can be opened and closed providing fresh air and cooling. 

Probably the best know thing about the Academy is the roof.  It has a 2.5 acre living roof with 1.7 million native plants planted on seven mounds.  One-sixth of all electriciy consumed in the United States goes to cool building.  More 

typical roofs made of tar or asphalt lead to a phenomenon called “Heat Island”.  Between the rooftops and the pavement heat is trapped causing cities to be 6 ro 10 degrees warmer than outlying green areas.  The Academy room keep the interior an average of 10 degrees cooler than the a standard roof would .  Plus the plants transform carbon dioxide into oxygen, capture rainwater.  The skylights on the mounds work with the weather station on the rooftop to inform the automated passive ventilation system thereby reducing energy needs for cooling and heating.  At some point in the future the roof will hopfuly be a habitat for some endanged local butteflies.

The Academy is made up the Kimball Natural History Museum, the Steinhart Aquarium and Morrison Planetarium.  Many of the old exhibits remain included the blue whale skeleton, the T-Rex and the crocodile at the entrance.  All were wonderful but Emily loves giraffes so here are the giraffes.A Visit with Collen and Zipper

            After the Academy we drove across town to visit Collen in the Excelsior.  Collen had a student earlier so Zipper had not had his daily walkies and was very excited to see us.  He was also excited to look out the windows at the passers by, bark at other dogs, run after the cats and jump on my lap.  He had a wonderful time.  Here are Rob and Collen holding him tight for a photograph. 

            We had an excellent cup of coffee, used the loo and started on our long drive home.  The drive home turned out to be pretty good for 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon. 

What a great outing we had.  I can’t wait to go back perhaps in the summer to see the Conservatory of Flowers or sit in the concourse at a concert.

A Visit with Colllen and Zipper

            After the Academy we drove across town to visit Collen in the Excelsior.  Collen had a student earlier so Zipper had not had his daily walkies and was very excited to see us.  He was also excited to look out the windows at the passers by, bark at other dogs, run after the cats and jump on my lap.  He had a wonderful time.  Here are Rob and Collen holding him tight for a photograph. 

            We had an excellent cup of coffee, used the loo and started on our long drive home.  The drive home turned out to be pretty good for 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon. 

What a great outing we had.  I can’t wait to go back perhaps in the summer to see the Conservatory of Flowers or sit in the concourse at a concert.