Le Saboteur
Active member
Advance Disclosure: The following is an argument in progress. In other words, it's not fully formed. I thought opening it up to a wider audience might provide some interesting viewpoints.
Cartoons, Slavery, Pinball, Trains, Beatniks, Long-term thinking: these are some of the alternative museums here in the Bay Area. They occupy a niche alongside the more traditional (some would staid) offerings by the art, science, and natural history museums found on both sides of the Bay.
Growing up I have: been tossed from the Smithsonian, spent hours "lost" in Chicago's Field Museum and the San Bernadino County Museum. While traveling I have seen museums dedicated to erotic art, booze, the superb natural history museums in Vienna & Paris, the Lipizzaner stallions, and others. Yet, if I wasn't traveling would I spend that much time surrounded by dead and/or idle objects?
In some instances, yes, I would. As something of naturalist I could spend several hours combing through the local natural history museum, but wild horses couldn't drag me through the Hofburg's Silver Room again.
Why? Aside from the obvious answer of: How much of your life do you want to spend looking at the Hapsburg's silverware collection? Well, it's dead bric a brac used for only for the occasional state function. Yes, that Hapsburg Imperial Napkin Fold is fantastic, but after you've seen it once there's not much else about it unless you want to decipher the thread count. They don't share the secret to recreating the fold.
So, following a household conversation, the below video, and Stoo's comment about the welcome addition of in-character actors at the Sherlock Holmes Museum I couldn't help but wondering: What do museums mean to Ravenites? Does every niche activity/hobby/whatever deserve or need its own museum? Is everything dead? Or is everything fascinating?
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2_y7n7OGslg?list=UUkyfHZ6bY2TjqbJhiH8Y2QQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you're into the Natural sciences take a gander at The Brain Scoop, the lovely Emily Graslie's YouTube channel. She's recently taken up residence at the Field Museum.
The wolf dissection is worth the visit alone.
I, for one, prefer a living culture and/or history. A collection of cabins and houses in Valley Forge, for example, are just that; the living history actors really put things into perspective. The Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul is another example of a dead structure; despite a superb collection of mosaics, artwork, and Janissary-artifacts & weaponry it feels restrictive after a while.
Sure, the Mehteran Band has a summer programme every Wednesday through the end of September, but what about the rest of the months? How about a demonstration of Janissary combat, etc.? The Qur'an is recited 24-hours day in the harem museum, but could something else be done on the main grounds? A primer on Islam for the tourists?
Some of the referenced museums are:
Cartoons, Slavery, Pinball, Trains, Beatniks, Long-term thinking: these are some of the alternative museums here in the Bay Area. They occupy a niche alongside the more traditional (some would staid) offerings by the art, science, and natural history museums found on both sides of the Bay.
Growing up I have: been tossed from the Smithsonian, spent hours "lost" in Chicago's Field Museum and the San Bernadino County Museum. While traveling I have seen museums dedicated to erotic art, booze, the superb natural history museums in Vienna & Paris, the Lipizzaner stallions, and others. Yet, if I wasn't traveling would I spend that much time surrounded by dead and/or idle objects?
In some instances, yes, I would. As something of naturalist I could spend several hours combing through the local natural history museum, but wild horses couldn't drag me through the Hofburg's Silver Room again.
Why? Aside from the obvious answer of: How much of your life do you want to spend looking at the Hapsburg's silverware collection? Well, it's dead bric a brac used for only for the occasional state function. Yes, that Hapsburg Imperial Napkin Fold is fantastic, but after you've seen it once there's not much else about it unless you want to decipher the thread count. They don't share the secret to recreating the fold.
So, following a household conversation, the below video, and Stoo's comment about the welcome addition of in-character actors at the Sherlock Holmes Museum I couldn't help but wondering: What do museums mean to Ravenites? Does every niche activity/hobby/whatever deserve or need its own museum? Is everything dead? Or is everything fascinating?
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2_y7n7OGslg?list=UUkyfHZ6bY2TjqbJhiH8Y2QQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you're into the Natural sciences take a gander at The Brain Scoop, the lovely Emily Graslie's YouTube channel. She's recently taken up residence at the Field Museum.
The wolf dissection is worth the visit alone.
I, for one, prefer a living culture and/or history. A collection of cabins and houses in Valley Forge, for example, are just that; the living history actors really put things into perspective. The Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul is another example of a dead structure; despite a superb collection of mosaics, artwork, and Janissary-artifacts & weaponry it feels restrictive after a while.
Sure, the Mehteran Band has a summer programme every Wednesday through the end of September, but what about the rest of the months? How about a demonstration of Janissary combat, etc.? The Qur'an is recited 24-hours day in the harem museum, but could something else be done on the main grounds? A primer on Islam for the tourists?
Some of the referenced museums are: