The Drink Tank 236 (2010).pdf

The Drink Tank Issue 236

The measuring stick against which all

traveling exhibits are stacked against is the

1979 San Francisco exhibit of The Treasures

of Tutankhamun. It was the most successful of

all the stops of the exhibition, which included

Washington, Chicago and New York. It sold

out every possible viewing period and the

exhibitions run in San Francisco put the

exhibition into huge numbers. It wasn’t until

the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at the British

Museum that many of its records were broken.

That exhibit had many of the most famous

pieces that had been discovered by Howard

Carter and co. in the 1920s, most notably the

famous golden mask that covered the head of

the mummy. It was the irst blockbuster exhibit,

and San Francisco’s de Young Museum was the

best selling of them all.

The new de Young Museum, which

opened in 2005, hosted the new exhibition

of Tut materials called Tutankhamun and the

Golden Age of Pharoahs. While Egyptian

exhibits will always be fun, I’m one of those

folks who’ll have a weird view of it because I’ve

been on the Museum side of things, especially

now that I’ve been working on the Timeline

exhibit. Sadly, that experience has led me to

judge some exhibits rather harshly, and this was

one of them.

Let’s start with the obvious: it’s not that

much about King Tut.

The irst 5 rooms or so are dedicated

to the Pharoahs leading up to Tut. There’s a

lot of great stuff here, including a full Gold

Funerary mask for the woman who may have

been Tut’s mother, and a sarcophagus or two.

The funny thing is that this exhibition had

more objects than the 1970s exhibition, but

they were the more iconic pieces. One of the

reasons for that is a dude: Zahi Hawass. He’s

the rock star of Egyptology. He is the Secretary

General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of

Antiquities. While he’s been the SecGen, he’s

made calls to keep Egypt’s famous artifacts in

Egypt and to bring back what are considered

to be the most signiicant artifacts, including

the Rosetta Stone and the Bust of Nefretiti

that’s in a museum in Berlin. He’s working on

getting these things back, has released oficial

statements and is even said to be considering

legal actions. He’s also one of the truly great

Egyptologists, discovering tombs and leading

expeditions into areas where many of the

then-mainstream Egypt scholars said there was

nothing. He’s that kind of guy. He has said that

many of the

most important

artifacts will

never travel

again, including

the Funerary

Mask of King

Tut and the

Striding Tut

statues that

were shown

the previous

times. They

have been

announced to

have been too fragile to travel, though there

were several pieces that were on display that

were of equal fragility, including the most

important piece to me: an Egyptian trumpet

which is one of only two known examples!

There were a few other problems,

including a couple of areas where there were

spelling mistakes that I caught! It’s gotta be bad

if I notice. Also, it seemed to be more targeted

towards people buying the Audio tours, as the

labeling was somewhat lesser than I’d have

liked. Folks always say that people don’t want

to go to an exhibit and read a book’s worth of

labels, but I have never been to an exhibit that

had too many or too long labels. It would have

been great to get more background, especially

on the expeditions of Carter and so on. It was

troubling.

There also weren’t that many video

experiences. The best of them was for a

pendant that featured a natural glass that was

pretty awesome. It was a 60 second video,

no sound, but a few captions, it explained

about how the glass was likely formed, from

an asteroid exploding in close proximity to

the sands of Northern Africa. It was a great

ilm, and there were only a few others, an

introduction video narrated by Omar Shariff,

which wasn’t much of anything, a video on a

miniature canopic sarcophagus, and one that

showed how the mummy’s sarcophagus and

shrines would have been nested. This was

pretty nicely done. Though they only showed 5

of the pieces that were found with the mummy

itself. One of which was a golden knife which

was not shown in the original exhibition, but

was pretty awesome.

couple of the rooms only had a piece or two.

There were several vetreens that allowed the

viewer to get on all four sides, with the label

text on each side of the case and in the case,

smaller and close to the objects. That was

awesome and something that a lot of exhibits

don’t do.

The artifacts themselves were amazing,

but what do you expect? There was an amazing

blue glass headrest that was spectacular. I’ve

seen a bunch of these at a bunch of museums

and this one was easily the best of them and

you could tell it wasn’t a re-pieced artifact,

which almost everything in these kinds of

exhibits are. There were tons of wooden and

gesso artifacts and some gold ones. Linda loved

the fan handle, a 6 foot staff with a holder on

the end, though no feathers, though at least one

had been found with its feathers intact. There

was also the sarcophagus and funerary mask

for the stillborn fetus’ that were likely Tut’s

children. That was nicely done, though it didn’t

get the attention that it should have.

which was OK, but I was way more into the

Recent Acquisitions exhibit which featured a

mixed bag from a Louise Nevelsen assemblage

to a fantastic porcelain tea service. There were

also drawings from Rembrandt and some

amazing paintings. There was no theme other

than the fact that they were all brought into the

collection between 2006 and 2009. That shows

that the museum is growing in a great direction.

Sadly, it was also the last day of the exhibit.

Kinda a tease, wasn’t that?

There are two up-coming exhibits that

deserve some thought, even if you’re far off.

You should try and come into town. The de

Young has come up with a deal with the Musee

d’Orsay. The irst is called The Birth of Impres-

sionism and the second Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cé-

zanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Master-

pieces from the Musee d’Orsay. Those should

be big, though they won’t be Tut.

I don’t think any straight art exhibit can

compete with Tut!

Overall, worth seeing,

maybe even worth the 25

bucks, but it wasn’t the

magniicent kind of experience

that people talk about 30

years later. My family still talks

about the time they visited the

exhibit, I was far too young,

and I always felt like I totally

missed out.

The rest of the de

Young Museum is pretty cool,

and Linda and I went to the

Amish Abstract Quilt exhibit,

There were a lot of folks there, though

we had 9:30am tickets, so it was much less

crowded than it was later.

That’s not to say that this wasn’t a

nice exhibit. The layout was spacious, though a

Dec 09

Well, Boss, I was really quite exercised about

the “face on Mars” business. Since I could

trust neither cranks nor scientists – indeed,

with ideas such as “dark energy” and “branes”

loating around in legitimate science, I wasn’t

sure I could tell the difference – I asked an

expert in matters concerning space travel.

On the Face of It

A Conversation With Saara

and Taral Wayne

“Saara,” I said, “what about the face on Mars?”

“I didn’t do it,” she said from behind a book.

“I know you didn’t, but is there one?”

“Alright, I did draw one. But just a little one, on

the side of a cliff, that looks a little like William

H. Macy. It was supposed to look like Johnny

Depp made up like a Ferengi, but you’re the

artist, not me.”

“You drew a face on a rock on Mars? Why?” I

asked her.

“It seemed like a funny idea at the time. What

with a face on Mars being in all the tabloids.”

“But Saara, what about the face in Cydonia

that was photographed from orbit? The one

formed by an odd geological formation. It’s just

an optical illusion, isn’t it.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Are you sure? You’ve never been there, have

you?”

“Now really ... what do you think?”

“It’s an illusion.”

Well, of course she had me there, Boss, so

we’re going to look. Be back with the news

as soon as I can. Don’t wait up, it’s about

62,000,000 miles each way at the moment. I’ll

sent a postcard if I can ind a stamp.

“Don’t be silly, it’s an illusion,” Saara replied,

putting down the book she had been reading.

garcia@computerhistory.org

Let’s start with a note on issue 234 from Mr.

Don Anderson!

Hi, Chris- -

I’m not usually one for writing locs, and in the

truest sense this is not one, either.

I do want you to know that I enjoy Drink Tank,

and in particular, #234.

Being in my 80s, I have always been a fan of

pro wrestling, but only of what Arnie would refer to as

“boots and trunks” wrestlers.

In the last couple of days I have been watching,

on my computer, the story of one of my early heroes,

Lou Thesz. But it was also good to see photos in Drink

Tank of such wrestlers as Classy Freddie Blassie. And The

Captain.

I don’t know how you maintain your status as

such a Publishing Jiant, but don’t falter now.

Thanks, and best wishes.

Don Anderson

I’ve seen very little Lou Thesz, though I saw what

turned out to be his last match. In 1991, he wrestled

Masahiro Chono in Japan. Chono was his protoge

and they had a heck of a match. I have a DVD set

that has a couple of clips. I met him three or four

times at signings and he was a class act.

I’ve always enjoyed the Boots and Trunks

guys myself. Ray The Cripler Stevens, Nick Bockwin-

kel, Dick the Bruiser, and up to recent times, Stone

Cold Steve Austin and Mr. Kennedy. Classie Freddy

was my all-time fave, and his passing was a damage.

I remember the irst times I saw him and how incred-

ible the reactions he got were.

Wrestling has changed so much over the

years. My Dad and I watched it together when I was

little. He grew up on Pepper Gomex, Stevens and

Kenji Shibuya in the Bay Area scene. I grew up on

Hogan, Bockwinkel, Snuka, Lawler and Eddie Gilbert.

Very different generations!

Still, I love the generations before the ones I

grew up with. I mean, I used to watch the AWA!

Thanks much for writing in!

And now...Eric Mayer!

Chris,

Jeez Chris. I’m glad you’re okay but a bump half

the size of a baseball, and they never did give an opinion

about what is was? And after indicating it might be a

tumor. What kind of crap is that? Oh, I dunno. Maybe a

tumor, maybe an abcess. Let’s just stick some needles in

and see what happens. Well, that didn’t work, here’s some

pills. Sounds scary to me. At least with a lump like that

nobody was going to call you a pencil neck geek.

I just found out, from scouring the internet, that it

may well have been the same kind of bacteria that

killed Lord Carnarvon. Luckily, I did not join that

illustrious company!

But I’m with you on doctors and hospitals. I

hate them. I avoid them. I admit, the past few years I have

gone for a so-called check up every six months because

otherwise they won’t prescribe my blood pressure

medication which I reckon I should take. But I’m in and

out as fast as possible, which is pretty damn fast. I never

have any complaints which might lead to further medical

inquiries. In the past, I went years between medical

appointments. Basically, I will only seek out medical

help if I absolutely cannot function due to pain or for

some other reason. And I actually can’t remember that

happening. I have had to go to a dentist several times

for toothaches that refused to go away after a week or

more. When that happens I have the tooth out. Period.

My plan is to live to 100 in perfect health then drop

dead.

I plan to live long enough to transfer my

consciousness into some form of robot-shark. Either

that, or the body of a beluga whale. Either way

works.

Anyway, I can see how you might be reluctant

to prod any about the cause of your problem, but it does

strike me as pretty negligent that they didn’t see it to

offer you any ideas about it.

The more folks I talk to, the more they all seem to

agree that they were probably didn’t want to do the

expensive tests that would have been required and

when the anti-biotics started working (pretty much

right away) they just stopped caring.

Pretty creepy too coming on the heels of your

magniicent death issue.

You know, I didn’t even think of that...

Yes, I do still keep up with a few zines. That

was a truly remarkable cover from Brad and thoughtful

articles from you and Gregg. I guess as we grow older we

are surrounded by more and more ghosts until inally we

decide we might as well join them.

Wow, that’s the darkest joyful thing I’ve ever heard!

But not for a long time, and then very quickly,

without any necessity of prolonged contact with the

medical profession.

Eric

Thanks much, Eric!

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