King Tut

Today was our friend Serena's birthday. She has an insatiable obsession with all things Egyptian. And you know what?

The greatest antiquities of the ancient Egyptian world are here, right now! Not since the 70's have the funeral regalia and treasures found in King Tut's tomb left Egypt. Coincidentally they have come to visit New York, and so of course we had to see and take Serena out for a birthday treat.

The venue is not far from Times Square in the middle of Manhattan. Arriving early with nothing to do I wondered around the chaos of Times Square craning my neck at sky scrapers, dodging and weaving between tourists, and looking in disillusion and a little bit of disgust on this great American shrine to capital and commercialism. The 21st century opiate of the masses. The new religion flashing in neon brand names stamped across towering corporate buildings taller than the most grandiose of European castles and churches. Symbols of the powers of our time I guess...

I wonder what King Tut would say about our new religion? Surely the great pantheon of Gods and monolithic pyramids of Egypt in its heyday would trump this. Life around the Nile river during the time of the early Pharaohs would have been very, very different. Walking with Serena and Sharon through Tut's ancient artifacts on display it's impossible not to be awed at the beauty and intricacy of the artifacts, but even more so by their age. These relics are over 3,500 years old, before the birth of Christ, long before almost any civilization existed when the world was a place unmarked by a human footprint.

My favorite parts of the exhibits were some of the most unassuming things. Things like a child's toy, a stool for sitting, and human shaped pottery vessels stamped with hieroglyphs. I must say though some of the jewelry was beautiful beyond belief and the multi tiered sarcophagus and elaborate embalming process amazed me. Once in a lifetime, if you can never make it to Cairo. And so I saw ancient relics and later went with Serena to the International Center for Photography and was lucky enough to catch two excellent exhibits on the Spanish Civil War and the Cuban Revolution. Top it off with dinner and a glass of wine and voila, full day, full belly, full mind.

This blip is a picture of a touristy picture. I mean we couldn't help nerd out and indulge Serena on her birthday :)