BEATLEMÁNIE! in Prague

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Yesterday, while on a walk in Mala Strana, we noticed that the Czech Museum of Music has an exhibition called BEATLEMÁNIE! After we bought our tickets, I paid the 40-crown fee so that I would be able to take photos.

Before we entered the exhibition, we paused to look around the museum space, which is very atmospheric (see my 2009 post), as the sounds of Beatles' music filled the high-ceilinged entrance hall.

Though BEATLEMÁNIE! does contain Beatles memorabilia, its focus is on the ways that the Beatles influenced the Czech Republic (and vice versa -- did you know that one of George Harrison's first guitars was Czech-made?).

I'm a Beatles fan, but I've seen many pictures of the Fab Four, so I focused on the elements of Czech design I was seeing. (All the while, Beatles songs were playing, and A Hard Days Night was being screened in the middle room.) Here are some Czech record covers from the period:

I especially liked the two tables that accompanied this Beatles collage:

These guitars were made in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s:

Czech musicians in the 60s performed music that was influenced by the Beatles. Karel Gott did the first successful cover version of one of the Beatles' songs:

The point of this beauty-parlor-themed room was that long hair wasn't always socially acceptable in Czechoslovakia (though the same was true in the West):

As you might expect, the Beatles and the hippies inspired hair and clothing styles in Czechoslovakia, too:

The exhibit devotes an entire room to John Lennon, who became a cult figure in Czechoslovakia after his death.

We left the exhibit smiling. Greg took this great picture from the sidewalk outside the museum; that's Hard Days Night playing in the background and a cool yellow submarine sculpture on the left.

A Few Days in London

We're in Prague now, but for a few days before we got here, we were in London. Because London is an expensive city, we stayed in a budget hotel, got Oyster cards so we could get discounts on public transit, and bought much of our food at Sainsbury's. For budget travelers like us, one great thing about London is that admission to all the major museums costs nothing more than a small donation (several pounds is suggested). We were in London for four days, so we visited the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Gallery, and British Museum. Otherwise we spent our time walking and riding around the city. If you've visited this blog before, you'll know that I'm especially interested in sculpture (particularly statues -- by which I mean work that is representational, rather than abstract). Here's a photo of one of the four gigantic lions in Trafalgar Square:

This statue of Thomas More is in Chelsea. More coined the word "utopia" and published a book by that name in 1516.

Here are some statues from the British Museum. The museum's collection of works of art from other cultures is now the subject of much debate, especially the so-called Elgin marbles. This image, a horse of Selene, shows one of the best known of those works.

Here are a few other works from the museum, which are Roman, Egyptian, and Assyrian, respectively.

The Sun Dogs of Now

It was cold last Tuesday morning, but Greg and I stood at the end of the road, stopped dead in our tracks by something awesome in the sky. We had thrust our hands up in front of our eyes to block the brilliance of the sun because, flanking its unbearably bright light, there were two rainbow sun dogs. A semicircular dazzling halo arced over the sun as well, which in turn was capped by another bright swash of light. My exclamations about the beautiful sight may have been trite, but I knew we were privileged. The cold made the experience all the more intense, and I felt as though we were in an arctic expedition to the top of the world and had found a sky show all to ourselves. 

The dog didn’t notice her namesakes in the sky and kept her nose pointed to the ground, scenting something that interested her as much as the ice-light show interested us. A young woman walked by just then and said “Hello” as she passed. I wanted to share what was in the sky right above us, in case she hadn’t noticed so I called out to her, “Did you see the rainbow sun dogs?”  She continued quickly on her way.

“Wasn’t that a little rude?” I asked Greg. “She didn’t even look at me.”

“She didn’t even hear you,” he said. “She was wearing headphones.” 

Later I thought about her, and I wondered if listening to music, regardless of its ethereal beauty or earthy rhythmic power, could make up for missing a pair of rainbow sun dogs. I thought about the news I’d read the previous week about a young man walking his dog on the railroad tracks. He was hit and killed because he was wearing headphones and didn’t hear the roar of an oncoming train. (The dog survived.) The blocking of the sensory input of the moment had consequences for that young man far worse than missing the rainbow sun dogs, but being present in the moment has numerous benefits, some of which are rare and beautiful, some of which are shockingly practical. 

I didn't have a camera with me, and I wasn't able to photograph the rainbow sun dogs. In the months that have elapsed since the last time I posted in this blog, here are a few photos of small moments I've enjoyed. A damselfly I saw at Catalina State Park:

A hot air balloon cruising in our neighborhood:

An especially lush group of saguaros in Catalina State Park:

A Belated Comment on Lady Gaga's Meat Dress

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Lady Gaga created quite a stir by wearing a meat dress to the MTV VMA awards, but here at Fashion Sense we're not sure that's any more disgusting than eating meat is. [The text reads: 'Kiki called me this morning and said, “OMG, did you see the MTV VMAs?” and I was a little too groggy to handle all that alphabet soup, and I just said, “Huh?” and she said, “Gaga!” and that wasn’t any clearer, and she said, “She wore a meat dress,” and I said, “What kind of meat?” and she said, “What difference does it make? It was a dress. Made of meat. And she had a hat and purse to match. And the shoes were the worst of all,” and I said, “Lady Gaga wore a meat bikini before so it’s not such a new thing,” and she said, “Ellen asked her about it on her show after the awards, and Gaga said something incoherent about no offense to veg*ns but she wanted to protest Don’t Ask Don’t Tell being unfair to gays in the military,” and I said, “You know Ellen is gay and a vegan,” and Kiki said, “I know, and she was offended, but I thought you would be way more outraged than you are since you’re always going on about meat and you take care of that strange goose to keep him from being dinner,” and I said, “My goose isn’t strange,” and she said, “I guess you’re the strange one. I expected at least some reaction to Gaga’s antics,” and I said, “Maybe it’s because I’m depressed,” and she said, “About what?” and I said, “About the war and torture and tea party fascism and racism and oil in the Gulf and mountaintops being blown off and factory farming, so what Lady Gaga wears to the MTV VMAs seems pretty insignifcant,” and she said, “PETA was outraged,” and I said, “That’s their job,” and she said, “So you don’t think it’s disgusting for somebody to wear meat?” and I said, “Let’s put it this way. It’s no more disgusting for somebody to wear meat than it is for them to eat it,” and she said, “I’m going to go share my gossip with somebody who will really appreciate it,” and she hung up, and the goose and I went back to sleep for another hour.']

What Inquiring Minds Really Want to Know

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Chelsea Clinton's recent wedding was covered as well as an event with top security could be, but there are extraordinary events that we aren't getting enough information about, like the war in Afghanistan and the aftermath of the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. [The text reads: 'My not-so-favorite cousin Madison and I went for a boat ride in the park, and  she said, “Doesn’t this park remind you of the place where Chelsea Clinton got married?” and I said, “I didn’t pay much attention to the wedding,” and she said, “OMG, didn’t you see her dresses? I mean, she had two by Vera Wang, one for the wedding and one for the reception, and they were both absolutely to die for,” and I said, “I guess I wasn’t that interested,” and she said, “Why not? I mean it was almost as fabulous as a royal wedding (although, to be fair and balanced, if Levi would ever actually marry Bristol Palin, that would be an amazing if sort-of-shotgun wedding, too). Plus I thought sure you’d want to see her vegan cake,” and I said, “There are things we need to know about that we don’t know enough about, and things we don’t need to know about that we know too much about,” and she said, “Now you sound like Donald Rumsfeld,” and I said, “What I mean is that for things like the situation in Afghanistan and the BP oil catastrophe, it takes a WikiLeak to give the full story about one and grumbling fishermen to give a full picture of the other, and yet we know every single detail about Chelsea’s dress whether we need to know or not--and by the way, her cake wasn’t vegan,” and she said, “I thought you said you weren’t paying attention! Even your inquiring mind wants to know,” and I said, “People also want to know about Afghanistan and the Gulf of Mexico, but too many journalists are embedded with the military and/or BP and don’t tell us the truth,” and she said, “However, we do know that Chelsea is currently embedded with Marc, so we have some consolation,” and I said, “I’m serious, Madison. I can’t answer the questions my fish keep asking about the toxic effects of dispersants because there just isn’t enough information, but there’s an endless supply of wedding trivia,” and she said, “Well, I for one appreciated the pomp and beauty of a royal wedding, I mean a celebrity wedding, I mean a wedding of the daughter of a former president and the current secretary of state, and you can’t take that away from me with your negativity,” and I said, “I don’t want to. It’s the funerals, not the weddings, that I’m worried about,” and she just sighed and started paddling as hard as she could toward shore.']

Fashion Sense Opposes Arizona SB 1070

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Unlike the Alice featured in this Fashion Sense piece, I do live in Arizona. Our legislature has been producing some remarkably hateful laws recently, particularly SB 1070, which would result in racial profiling and other racist treatment for Latinos in our state. Here at Fashion Sense we oppose Arizona SB 1070! [Click on the image for a larger version. The text reads: "I’m a dedicated knitter, and I have been ever since I found out how much Julia Roberts loves to knit, and I belong to the  Mind Your Knitting knitters’ group, and we take a Spa-cation together in Phoenix every summer because the prices are low when it’s hellishly hot there, but this year I read a lot about SB 1070,  the anti- immigrant law that was passed in Arizona that encourages racial profiling, so I thought our group should join in the boycott, and on my suggestion we took a vote and decided not to go to Phoenix, and my neighbor, who is also in the group, was  furious at me, and this morning she came to my door, and my tortoise hid in his shell and left me alone to deal with her, and the first thing she said was, “You know I was looking forward to my Spa-cation, which I would be packing for right now if it wasn’t for you,” and I said, “Arizona lawmakers are spewing hateful laws like the BP oil well has been spewing crude into the Gulf and we should oppose them,” and she said, “We could write them a letter,” and I said, “That would work about as well as BP’s first top hat and the junk shots they tossed into the well -- which is to say it wouldn’t,” and she said, “Well, you boycotters haven’t been too effective because a bunch of other states are passing similar laws,” and I said, “I agree. Boycotts are like the cap BP’s testing now and the relief well they’re drilling -- not a permanent solution,” and she said, “Doesn’t the name of our group, Mind Your Knitting, mean anything to you? It’s none of your business what the Arizona legislature does because you don’t live there, and it’s none of your business how BP caps its well because you’re not an engineer,” and I said, “That’s like saying it’s none of my business that there’s an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico because I’m not a sea turtle,” and my tortoise finally came out of his shell, and I said, “Go ahead and tell her about all those sea turtles that were burned alive during the oil clean-up, and why letters aren’t enough,” but he remained stubbornly silent, and my neighbor said, “Honey, you need help,” and I said, “Oh, mind your knitting!” and now the tortoise and I are taking a walk to calm down, although I’m still mad at him for not being willing to stick his neck out to show some solidarity with me."]

Fashion Sense Looks at Our Love for Betty White

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Everyone loves Betty White right now, and she justly deserves all the attention for her great comedic timing and feisty personality. But maybe there's a little something else behind all the adulation. [Click on the image for a larger version of this piece. The text reads: 'One of my petsitting clients is my friend Jennifer, and she has a lot of rescued animals, and I just stayed overnight at her house so she could go visit her mother, and I admit it was a challenge taking care of 3 dogs, 5 cats, 4 horses, 2 macaws, a llama and a geriatric iguana, and when Jennifer got home she complained about having a big fight with her mother over having so many animals and not getting married and having kids, and then she asked how things had been while she was away, and I didn’t want to tell her about the fact that her mother had called and talked to me about why Jennifer had so many “pets,” so I just said everything was fine, and then she said, “And my mother kept going on and on about how old she is and how old she feels and how she isn’t getting any younger and neither am I, and my biological clock is running out, and now I feel really old,” and since Jennifer is my age I felt compelled to say, “Oh, come on, you’re not old, and  you look great. When I feel old I remind myself that there are people like Bette White, who is wildly popular right now with a hit show and is funny and cool, and she outdid all the other talent on Saturday Night Live, and they say she’s the best thing about Hot in Cleveland, and she’s nearly 90,” and she said, “She just gets all that adulation because she’s going to die soon! And people feel like they have to give her one last present of their love and admiration because she’s not long for this world, and she reminds them of their mother and grandmother and great-grandmother that they’ve disappointed and not been able to please no matter how hard they try,” and she was talking louder and louder and in a higher and higher-pitched voice and seemed like she was hyperventilating, and I said, “Take it easy Jennifer. None of us can ever really please our parents, but I’m sure your mother’s very proud of you” and just then her mother called again, and as I walked away with a couple of the dogs to give her some privacy, I heard her say, “No, I don’t expect you to think of an iguana as your grandchild!”']

Desert in Bloom, Part III

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The next phase of this year's spectacular cactus bloom has begun. The cholla cacti on the hill behind our house are full of flowers and look like strangely beautiful spiky trees:

The cholla flowers themselves come in a variety of colors--pink, yellow, red, orange, and my favorite, which is a color I can't quite name:

The saguaro in front of our house is full of buds and has also begun to bloom. There are more buds on it than I've ever seen before:

In June and July when saguaro fruit ripens, it is harvested by the Tohono O’odham people and used to make a rare and delicious fruit syrup.

Fashion Sense Comments on the Gulf Oil Spill

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The Deepwater Horizon rig keeps spewing oil into the Gulf, and the failure of the Minerals Management Service to regulate big oil has been brought into sharp focus. You remember the MMS. They're the ones that were involved in the 2008 scandal, caught partying with oil company executives. [Click on the image for a larger version. The text reads: 'While out birding today, I met this hummingbird migrating up from Mexico, and he was, like, I used to summer in Arizona, but I heard about the anti-immigrant law and the boycott, so I’m checking out other options, and I said, “Did you fly over the oil spill from the BP rig in the gulf?” and he was, like, Yeah, it’s so huge it was hard to miss, and I said, “Michael Brown--formerly Brownie of FEMA--said Obama wants the oil to spread so he can justify ending offshore drilling,” and he was, like, The gulls in the gulf are laughing their tail feathers off over that one, and at Rush Limbaugh’s comment that eco-terrorists blew up the oil rig, but then gulls have a weird sense of humor, and I said, “Limbaugh also said the oil could be left in the ocean because oil’s as natural as water,” and the hummingbird was, like, E. coli’s natural, but that doesn’t mean you want it in the water, and I said,”Minerals are natural, but that doesn’t mean you want mercury in the water,” and the hummingbird was, like, Speaking of minerals, I just heard that the Minerals Management Service approved BP’s plan to build that rig without requiring a full environmental impact study, and I said, “They were the ones caught doing drugs and having sex with oil company reps during the Bush years,” and the hummingbird was, like, Maybe that’s what Sarah Palin meant by Drill, baby, drill, and I said, “How can the MMS do their job if they keep sleeping with the enemy, literally and figuratively?” and the hummer was, like, I heard that BP was in the running for an MMS safety award this year!, and I laughed and said, “I guess life’s a beach and then there’s an oil spill,” and the hummer was, like, You humans have a weird sense of humor, too, and I said, “I agree,” but by then he had ruffled his tiny feathers and buzzed away.']

Desert in Bloom, Part II; and Arizona Senate Bill 1070

Just last week we had a cloudy day and quite a bit of rain, and when Greg and I took a walk on the trail near our house, the sky was dramatic, and the Catalinas looked amazing:

In addition, the prickly pears had really begun to bloom, and we saw beautiful cactus flowers everywhere. I felt privileged to live in southern Arizona and to be able to see all this beauty.

Then on Friday Governor Brewer signed Arizona Senate Bill 1070. It's a harsh law, racist in its implications, and despite the beauty of this unusually lush desert spring, SB 1070 is an ugly thing. It's also a reminder that we still have a long way to go in order to bring justice and equality to our nation.