New York: A walk in the Met; Wasilla: Fine dining on the bank of Wasilla Lake

My intent was to spend maybe two hours wandering through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I reckoned would be enough time for me to see it in its entirety and then I could move on to the MoMA, where, among other things, there is a display of Mikhael Subotsky's photographs.

But once I entered the Met, I was trapped. I could not leave, nor could I even advance at a decent speed. A turtle could have passed through that museum quicker than I moved. At the end of the day, they kicked me out, because the museum had closed and I could no longer stay.

I had only managed to walk through a small part of it.

In that walk, I spotted this girl passing by the mummy of Pekherkhonsu, Doorkeeper to the House of Amun, and the great art meant to accompany her into the afterlife.

The girl and her family spoke a language that I did not recognize, and in feature appeared as though they might have originated in the same part of the world as did the mummy.

I wondered about their thoughts, but I could not ask.

Anytime one enters a museum alone with a camera, one should do a self-portrait. So I chose to photograph myself inside this sarcophagus, which had once held someone else. In pursuit of their religion, the ancient Egyptians went to amazing lengths to ensure their bodies would be preserved to rise up in eternal salvation and glory in the afterlife.

What they actually accomplished was to make their bodies - those that were not destroyed by vandals - curiosities in museums, and to create amazing art that we, each of us who, despite our own believes, must follow them into the blindness of death, can gaze upon with wonder.

If you can't find me in the image, just click on it and make it bigger. These pictures are all clickable.

What I had not understood before I entered the Met, was that I was about to take a walk through ancient Egypt. I had not understood this at all.

I was moved by the hairpin pictured below. Nearly 5000 years ago, a young woman died and was buried at the Fort Cemetery in Hierakonpolis. Before they buried her, the people who tended to her fixed her hair to look nice, and placed this pin in her hair to hold it in place. That's how archeologists found herm her hair still in place, held by this pin. 

I cannot know the circumstance that caused someone to place this pin in her hair, but I think perhaps love had something to do with it. Also in the case were the bracelets that she wore on her wrists. It seemed that she was quite stylish, and liked to look nice.

Speaking of love... here's a guy trying to cop a feel for the past 5000 years or so. Memi is trying to look innocent, as though he is not up to anything unusual at all. Sabu looks like she thinks the situation to be very strange, but does not quite know what to do about it, so she goes along with it.

Ah, to be young, and to know what I know now but didn't know then! And these two were young so very long ago, when it seemed like right now.

The met is a place where ancient faces float in the air, where paddlers carved thousands of years ago continue to toil as they propel the wealthy up and down the Nile River.

As he peers into the past, does he contemplate the future?

Struck though I was by its ancient beauty, I had no idea at all what the one was trying to say; the other, I understood perfectly. I think.

Prior to 1963, the ancient Temple of Dendur stood in Egypt. Then the Egyptian government gave it to the Met, and now tourists wander through it and the kindly man who stands guard takes their cameras and photographs them. Now they can prove to all they know that they have actually stood inside the Temple of Dendur.

After several hours in the Egyptian sections of the Met, I finally worked my way into the American section. I saw many fascinating things there, but I realized the clock was working against me, so I just looked, quickly, and did not take pictures - until I came across Abe Lincoln. My President, perhaps my greatest president, here passing the endless, still, hours in the midst of questionable company.

I was also stopped by "The Tomb Effigy of Elizabeth Bott Duchevneck," sculpted by her husband, Frank Duchevneck. I wonder if anyone sculpted an effigy for him, when he died in 1919?

I wonder about those people looking out from the paintings in the background? At the time, maybe they were among the hip and cool, the people at the center of things, and that is why they wound up in these paintings. Now they are dead, probably rotted into dust, maybe some of them got incinerated. Perhaps one or two of them wound up in a grave so tightly sealed and impervious that now they lay as mummies, until that day when someone from a future society unearths them and then puts them in a museum.

I would like to see that display, but I guess I won't get the chance.

There was one more painting that I photographed, of four young girls and a cat. To understand why I would photograph it, please go to Grahamn Kracker's No Cat's Allowed cat blog.

Check out the October 28 entry.

When I stepped out of the Met, I found this elegantly dressed and coifed couple being all lovey-dovey on the steps. Why here? What were they up to? 

Oh. I see. They were taking part in a glamour shoot; high fashion stuff. Perhaps they are famous models, here or overseas, maybe both. Perhaps the photographer is known world-wide. Maybe they are college students, completing a class assignment.

How the hell would I know? I'm just an unsophisticated lout from Wasilla, Alaska. I could have hung around and asked them, but I was hungry for a pretzel and Pepsi, and a woman of Asian descent was selling both from a nearby cart, so I went to see her instead. 

Now, back home to Wasilla and the fine dining:

On my third day back home in Wasilla, I found myself hungry and lazy, so I went to Carl's Jr. The hamburgers here are really quite good.

Had I been in the mood for chicken or a hotdog, I could have gone right next door to the combo KFC - A&W. They have hamburgers there, too, but their hamburgers are not as good as Carl's. Unfortunately, Carl's serves Coke, so I also stopped at Papa Murphy's and bought myself a Pepsi.

These types of things did not exist in Wasilla when we first moved here. Now I am a regular patron, but I always wander why Sarah Palin and the Wasilla assembly ever approved construction of these, and the whole big Fred Meyer complex, right on the edge of once beautiful Wasilla Lake.

I know. Tax dollars. There are other places from which they could have collected my tax dollars, places where the parking lot would not have drained into the lake.

As for the promised pictures from the Wasilla sample that I took to New York, this entry is already far too long, so I will pass for now.

Comments

[kalaluka]

huh. i'm a pepsi person too.
thanks for taking me into the Met. I've always wanted to go...
hugs!

[=^..^= (aka) Suzy]

Love your cat blog, thought I'd check out your Wasilla blog as well. We're on the other side of the valley, out in the butte, and love the photographs.

By the way, "Gift of the Whale" is absolutely one of my favorite books, thank you for the gift it's given me.

Suzy
=^..^=

[Lindy]

Ok I know that Envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins but Bill - I am so DAMN ENVIOUS... Next time maybe you'll need someone to take notes for you while you take photos. I'll send you my resume.

Hugs!

[Wasilla, Alaska, by 300]

kalakula - one day, we must sit at an outdoor, palm-shaded, white table in Hawaii and drink Pepsi together.

Suzy - I like the way you sign your name, and I thank you for telling me this - it makes me feel good.

Lindy - I bet that you and your daughters and your fire-chief husband will all make it to the Met one day.

[Brett]

Wow, that is so random. I am the photographer in the green jacket! I just happened on your post on dpreview.com, strolling around your site and found the photos of... me. haha. it's like, serendipity or something.

[The Red Dress Girl~]

My god! I'm so surprised to see my picture on ur blog! How random~~~