Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall is as lavish inside today as it was in its 1932 opening.  It was supposed to be called the International Music Hall, but due to the influence of it's first tenant (RCA) - aka Radio Corporation of America, the name of "Radio City" stuck.  Originally, this was supposed to be a live theater venue - which accounts for its giant, and I mean giant, stage.  However, by 1933, the depth of the Depression, it was obvious that if the building was to remain open, it needed to become a movie theater which it was until the 1970's when it was moldering into decay.  The plans were to tear it down, but some foresighted folks recognized that the magnificent art deco building should be saved and restored.  Ironically, it went back to being a live music theater venue, and today is famed for its theatrical presentations as well as for the Rockettes (a tap dancing troop of Amazon women).
Cirque de Soleil, after a dismal failure in New York City with its previous show (Banana Schpeel), is back to the Big Apple and has taken over the famed Radio City for a new attempt called "Zarkana".  We were delighted to get tickets since I've always wanted to see a Cirque show, and who can come to NYC without going to Radio City?  Thus, our Friday night outing was planned.

In keeping with staying close to home when we are going into Manhattan for the evening, we decided to take in more floors of the Brooklyn Art Museum.  We had read that the Brooklyn Museum had an unrivaled Egyptian collection, and we decided to compare it to the other three Egyptian exhibitions we have seen over the years.  (We've been to King Tut twice and to the Hatshepsut, exhibition at the Amon Carter.)  Let me tell you faithful readers, the Brooklyn Art Museum has this enormous, first class, jaw dropping collection that I knew was going to be special from the giant slabs of Assyrian carvings right on to their 'Mummy' room.  The display techniques were spacious, involved a lot of glass cases so you could view the entire piece 360 degrees,  and the pieces were displayed in separate interconnecting rooms that flowed down the length of ancient Egyptian history.  There were not only artifacts, but lucid, brief placards and more in depth discussions via computer terminals with user interfaces scattered through out.

I'm sure everyone picked up on the word 'mummy' - and yes, they are displaying one mummy (in wrappings) and two still inside their cartonnage (Those are the wooden painted boxes shaped like mummys.)  They also have an original Book of the Dead in this section.  This section  was deliberately and carefully presented so tastefully that it was not ghoulish in the slightest.  It was more like a 'visitation' - a concept all Southerners will recognize.   

Of course, you have to understand that basically all of the magnificent collection was looted from Egypt in the 19th century starting with British, French, German and American archaeologists (a 'new' profession at the time) who began uncovering and, to be fair, attempting to preserve Egypt's ancient history which was rapidly disintegrating from lack of care or the financial ability to do so by the Egyptians.  And these new archaeologists were simply following a time honored tradition of spoils - I'm sure Alexander the Great and the following Romans took what they wanted too.  Napoleon is famous for taking so much statuary and slabs of carvings from Egypt that they were stacked up like cordage for years before being distributed to museums.  Where do you think the British Museum got the nucleus of its Egyptian collection? 

In the 1800s and the early 20th century, archeologists' digs were financed by the wealthy who considered the finds to be their personal property - they paid for them, didn't they?  Many would turn around and sell some of the excess finds, and there were plenty, to museums around the world - which is how the Brooklyn Museum wound up with this magnificent collection.  To be fair, lots of wealthy philanthropists financed museum digs letting all the finds go directly to the museum.  Ironically, the collection we saw in Brooklyn was supposed to be bound for the Met (a seller, not a philanthropist wanted to cash in), but the money couldn't be raised to buy it.  By various machinations, the Brooklyn Museum wound up with the goods.  Today, the Brooklyn Museum is very, very quick to point out via a large placard that they don't buy ANYTHING from anybody but the Egyptian government since the 1983 antiquities laws went into effect which makes it a crime to take ancient artifacts out of Egypt.  However, nothing seems to be going back to Egypt either.

Judge for yourself - the pictures show the magnificence better than words.  Start the presentation about halfway thru - you'll see the Assyrians - you can't miss them.

https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkCityBrooklyn?authkey=Gv1sRgCK_S1Ly06YmR_wE#


As to the Cirque de Soleil performance - gaudy, acrobatic, musical, computer special effects and beautifully showcased by Radio City.  I would give the effort a "B" - nice, but not WOW!  I'm glad I paid $62 a ticket rather than $250.  The same for our dinner (City Lobster and Steak) - very excellent service, great location, but the food was just a "B".  I wasn't disappointed so much as I'm realizing as I eat in more places here, that it should have been better.

Stay tuned - today we are going to see Robin Williams in "The Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" - he plays the tiger.