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BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 1 August 2006 "What do you want to do today?" "I dunno. What do you want to do?" It was like a scene from the Ernest Borgnine movie, Marty, as we sat around having our morning coffee and reading the Sunday paper. Our plane didn't leave until 8 p.m., which gave us the whole day to "do something" in So. California, and no real ideas of what we wanted to do. Pat, bless her, had a few ideas. She mentioned that there was a Gene Autry museum near the L.A. Zoo, which covers Gene Autry, the singing cowboy himself, but more is a museum about the culture of the southwest. We thought that sounded like a good idea, so off we went to Griffith Park, driving through the ritzy "horsy" area of Burbank, where you can keep a horse in your back yard.
When we got to the museum, it turned out that there was also a big PowWow going on in the adjoining courtyard. We could hear chanting and see people in Native American dress wandering around. We were tempted to go, but while it wasn't blazing hot, it was hot enough that given the choice of standing in the sun looking at Native American crafts and watching Native American dances or walking around inside an air conditioned museum, the a/c won out!
Interesting place. Their special exhibit was called "Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest." I really enjoyed the videos where the artists talked about the link between creating their art and spiritual lives and how everything they do is connected with their spiritual beliefs. I got in trouble with the guards for taking a brief video. I hadn't seen the "no photography" sign, so I went about the rest of the museum being very surreptitious and photographing very little, though I suspect that it was only in that one gallery that they weren't allowing photographs so they could sell the special exhibit souvenir book. We took a break at one point to have lunch. The special for the day in the cafe was buffalo meatloaf, which I knew Walt would order (and he did). I went with a boring (but delicious) hamburger while Pat ordered barbeque chicken quesadilla and got something which was more like a pizza than a quesadilla. After lunch, we went to the section where they traced the history of the cowboy in the movies. That was fun. Brought back a lot of memories for all of us. The Lone Ranger. Hopalong Cassidy, and, of course, the poster that got everyone giggling.
Ahhh...and nobody had ever heard of Brokeback Mountain at that time (nor did the term 'gay' have the same meaning that it does today). There was also a poster for a movie called Harlem on the Prairie, which was a cowboy movie cast with African-American actors. This was appently the first of several such movies, as imDB gives me a list of : Two Gun Man from Harlem, The Bronze Buckaroo and Harlem Rides the Range. Social relevance is all in the era in which it is offered, apparently! We only did the ground floor, and never got to about half of the museum, so it's a good place to go back (perhaps on another pow wow day when the temperatures are a bit more pleasant). By the time we got back to Pat's house, there was just enough time to have a glass of cool ice water, pack up the car, and head back to the airport. Our flight was delayed 15 minutes, but we were still home before 10:30 p.m., making our entire travel time something like 37 hours. But it sure was a fun weekend.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
They are so polite in Burbank |
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6/1/06
