We took a Friday daytrip up to San Francisco yesterday to take in the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit at the DeYoung Museum.
The exhibit was given mostly ho-hum reviews by friends who had seen it, mostly because it had been over-hyped by the museum and was much smaller and less impressive than the massive display that toured the US in the 1970's. With our expectations thus lowered, we liked the exhibit very much: the layout of the rooms, the lighting and other aspects of presentation, and especially the explanatory material were excellent, and many of the small objects were exquisite.
The biggest disappointment for me was that I couldn't take photographs. The only room in which photography is allowed is the last one...
... the souvenir store (or "King Tut's Kitch-en," as Mrs. Fort dubbed it.)
You can buy magnetuts in the store...
... and it has a habertuttery (I'm kicking myself for not getting one of those headdresses to wear for Monday's lectures.)
It has tete-a-Tuts (don't you wish you had a box for all your Tutheads?), and you can even...
... generate a sheet of "papyrus" with your name in a weird phonetic-hierogylphic jam-up for only a buck! Lessee, S-H-E-R-T-U-T comes out "bolt-house-double reed-mouth..."
You know, our kitchen straight-back chairs are getting a little decrepit -- maybe we should replace them with six of these!
... or maybe not.We bought a refrigerator magnet instead and then went to look at the ocean.
10 comments:
I didn't know they were traveling around again. I must get out the rather nice Tut head pin I got the last time. If you save anything long enough it comes back in style.
That's why Diane says she's still keeping me around.
thanks for a good laugh. only serious museum goers can appreciate the humor in that "last picture." and good for you for harvesting what you could of the exhibit. very punny....i mean funny
The lack of photographic opportunities was my major disappointment at the Chihuly display in Flint. There were several pieces that I would have loved to have shared once I got home.
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Regards,
Dann
We've been thinking of going. How did the timed ticketing thing work out? Did it feel overcrowded?
Brian, the timed-ticket scheme worked out very well for us -- but I think they could have done without it, at least for the Friday afternoon we were there.
Our tickets were for 1:00, and there were 20 people in that group, tops. Far from feeling overcrowded, it was very comfortable -- far, far less crowded than the Academy of Sciences right across the concourse.
I can't say what it's like on weekends, but if you two can shake loose a weekday afternoon, it should be well worth your while. And, besides -- as you know well -- even if the exhibit doesn't live up to what you'd like, you can't beat the neighborhood.
Bummer about your Chihuly experience, Dann, and the prohibition on photographs. But that seems to be the way museums are headed now, as Brian can attest given his experience in Toledo taking snapshots of his own work.
They let me take photos of the items in the Flint collection after signing a release. [a reasonable step, IMO]
The problem came when I wanted to take photos in the temporary glass exhibition area.
You were IN style at some point?
"Tutheads" Are they the folks that religiously follow the exhibit around the country, sleeping in vans, holding up crude cardboard signs reading: "I need a miracle timed-ticket!"?
Tutheads live on Tuthill, smart guy, and that's your side of the family.
Tutche.
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