Every year, the British Museum puts on an impressive series of special exhibitions. Last year we had exhibitions about Picasso, Shakespeare, Arabian horses and the Hajj. This year looks to be even better.
First comes “Ice Age art: arrival of the modern mind” from February 7-May 26. This exhibition looks at European Ice Age sculptures, ceramics, drawings and personal ornaments from 40,000 and 10,000 years ago. While famous painted caves like Lascaux and Altamira get the most attention, this exhibition focuses on personal objects the prehistoric people could carry with them. Check out the gallery for some sneak peeks at what is sure to be a fascinating look into the mind of our early ancestors.
“Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum” is sure to be the hit of the year. Artifacts from both Roman cities, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., will be on display. While Pompeii is the more famous of the two, some of the most interesting artifacts in this show come from Herculaneum. Six pieces of wooden furniture from the city help show what home life was like in Roman times. These items were carbonized by the hot ash that engulfed the city and are extremely rare finds that would not have survived at Pompeii. The show runs from March 28-September 29.
%Gallery-176327%Next up is “Colombian Gold,” although the name of this exhibition has yet to be confirmed. The ancient civilizations of Colombia were famous for their elaborate gold ornaments, and this exhibition will display 150 masterpieces of the Colombian goldsmiths’ art. In addition to examining the pieces themselves, which were the most sophisticated works of art in Precolumbian America, the exhibition will examine their place in society and also delve into the origins of the legend of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold. The show runs September 12, 2012-January 12, 2014.
Things get naughty with “Shunga: sex and humour in Japanese art” (title to be confirmed) which from October 3, 2013-January 5, 2014, will display the hugely popular sex art of Japan from 1600-1900 A.D.
While the museum itself is free, all of the above special exhibitions have an entrance charge. There are several free exhibitions too. From February 7-April 28 is “In search of Classical Greece: Travel drawings of Edward Dodwell and Simone Pomardi, 1805-1806.” This will follow the journey of the celebrated Classical scholar and artist as they explored the ruins of a Greece that was still part of the Ottoman Empire.
From May 30-September 1, there will be an as-yet-unnamed retrospective of the work of American artist R.B. Kitaj (1932-2007).
Also free is the Asahi Shimbun Display in Room 3, just to the right as you come in through the main entrance. This room hosts exhibitions dedicated to a single object and its place in the culture that created it. In 2013 there will be a mask from Sierra Leone, the Mildenhall Treasure, a modern adaptation of the Shunga artwork and a clock made by celebrated English clockmaker Thomas Tompion (1639-1713).
The security situation in this nation’s airports is in a constant flux. Checkpoints differ from terminal to terminal and it seems like there’s always a new rule or restriction governing luggage. It’s actually partially built that way for a reason; part of the Department of Homeland Security’s strategy involves variety in your checkpoint experience. That’s why sometimes you’ll be directed through a millimeter wave detector while other times you’ll go through a magnetometer. Without a regular security cog in place, it’s hard for opposing forces to plan in absolutes.
Thankfully, a few measures have developed in recent months to relax part of the security runaround for many travelers. Some of these are backed by the DHS while others are facilitated by the airlines or third parties. Each is built to reward the prepared traveler with shorter lines and faster transfers at the airport though, and those minutes can be critical.
TSA Pre Check
A new program from the Department of Homeland Security is now being offered for frequent flyers of many airlines with proven travel records. Called TSA Pre Check, the program collects additional data about a passenger and his itinerary and then works with the airline to track the passenger and provide expedited screening.After registration, a Pre Check passenger is allowed to go through a special line at security with reduced screening. Shoes and belts, for example, need not be removed, and many electronics (including laptops) can be left in their carry-on. Lines at these checkpoints are almost always nonexistent and magnetometers are used instead of advanced imaging technology.
An alternate route to earning TSA Pre Check involves enrolling in Global Entry, the program for expedited customs processing when crossing international borders. Since that program already collects the data that Pre Check needs for enrollment, the benefits can be extended.
Clear
The private security-expediting program Clear has been around for several years in fits and starts and its current incarnation is operating at a half-dozen airports around the nation. In a similar fashion to Pre Check, Clear works by collecting several pieces of biometric data on the passenger for use as a screening measure at the airport. Once verified by a kiosk local to the security checkpoint, Clear members can cut the line at the X-ray and zip straight through, saving the effort of waiting in long lines. Where lines are shorter this may not be a useful benefit for all passengers, but when the terminal gets crowded, this can be a lifesaver.
Priority Access
If volunteering extra personal and travel information isn’t your thing, there’s still a decent way to shorten the wait at security through a priority access line. Set up by the TSA and the airlines, these lines are normally reserved for business- and first-class passengers, but access is slowly expanding. Certain credit cards, for example the United Mileage Plus Club Card, give you access to expedited screening as well as a host of other benefits. If you earn elite status on almost any carrier you’ll also automatically get access to a priority line.
Bear in mind that passengers going through a priority line at the airport are subject to the same screening as regular travelers. Priority access lines are just much shorter.
“Why do some people not like that we have two mommies?”
That was the first thing that 7-year-old Faith Foster asked me when I walked into her family’s home, which is carved into a 400-foot-high, ¼-mile deep rock some 30 miles from the nearest town in rural southeast Utah. Faith’s parents aren’t lesbians; they are polygamists.
%Gallery-176236% Mention the word Utah in a word association game and the first thing people will say is “polygamy.” Utah natives get a little tired of the jokes and stereotypes, but there is no denying that polygamy, or “plural marriage” as its practitioners prefer to call it, is a part of the state’s history and culture. In 2008, the Denver Postestimated there were about 37,000 polygamists in the state. Although polygamy is illegal and Mormons outlawed the practice more than a century ago, authorities in Utah don’t typically prosecute consenting adults who take multiple spouses.
Shows like “Sister Wives” and “Big Love” and books like Jon Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven” have stoked the public’s interest in polygamy, and the ongoing saga of Warren Jeffs, the leader of the break-off Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who is currently serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting children, has brought further scrutiny into the polygamous lifestyle. (The stars of “Sister Wives” have filed a lawsuit, charging that Utah’s law banning polygamy is unconstitutional and on January 17, a federal judge will hear arguments in the case.)
I wanted to meet a polygamous family because it’s a part of the state’s heritage that I wanted to better understand. I also have a personal connection to a bigamist – now deceased – that I never learned about until recently.
My father’s sister, now deceased, married a man whom she thought was single in Delaware in the ’70s only to see him taken away by the police after just a few months of marriage. The knock on the door came after his first wife got wind of the fact that he’d married my aunt and he was imprisoned as a bigamist. My aunt, who was one of the kindest persons I have ever known, had no idea that he had another wife living in another state and severed all ties with him.
Muffins for Polygamists
How many artisanal muffins should one buy for a polygamous family that includes a husband, two wives and 13 children? That was the question I faced on a wintry morning last week at the Love Muffin Cafe in Moab, Utah, as I prepared to visit the Fosters at their lovely, cave-like home in a community called Rockland Ranch, which is about 45 minutes away from Moab, a mountain biking mecca and a base for Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
The enticing muffins were $3 each but I didn’t want to shell out $40 or more for muffins, so I bought just a half dozen and resisted the temptation to eat any myself on the long drive out to Rockland Ranch.
I had arranged to meet Lillian Foster with a little help from Anne Wilde, a plural marriage advocate based in Salt Lake City who once owned a second home at Rockland Ranch, but could tell that she was apprehensive about meeting with me. When I called Lillian to set up the meeting, she explained that Enoch, her husband, and Catrina, Enoch’s first wife, were in Missouri.
“I’ll have to get my husband’s permission for this,” she said.
Somehow I doubted that he’d welcome a journalist into his home, and my fear magnified when I called a day later and Lillian said that she hadn’t heard from him. But shortly after I explained that I planned to visit Rockland Ranch whether she had time to show me around or not, Lillian called back and said that Enoch had agreed to the meeting.
Life on the Rock
Rockland Ranch is not the kind of place one would stumble across by accident. The community of about 20 families, most living in homes carved into a mammoth rock, is located on a dirt road off of a lonely, paved road that dead ends at a panoramic view of the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park.
As I turned off of Route 191 onto the Needles Overlook road, I noticed there was a parked car with a bumper sticker that seemed like a fitting introduction to the neighborhood. “Darwin is Dead. Jesus Lives.”
After a mile or two on the dirt road, a massive curved rock with solar panels on top and colorful houses carved within came into view. Bob Foster, Enoch’s father, a polygamist who had three wives, 38 children and 87 grandchildren, founded the community in 1979. According to Nancy Lofholm’s excellent story on the community in the Denver Postin 2008, Foster, who passed away four years ago, founded Rockland Ranch after being “excommunicated by the Mormon Church, stripped of his seminary teaching job and convicted of bigamy.”
According to Lofholm, Foster leased the Rock and the surrounding 80 acres from the state of Utah and spent the preceding decades “blasting and carving it into his vision of a Christian community ever since.” At one point in the ’90s, Foster even operated a B & B at the Rock that drew a mostly European clientele.
As I drove past a hand-painted 15 mph speed limit sign, I saw a home with 13 bikes parked in front and an American flag befitting a roadside Perkins restaurant and knew I’d arrived at the Foster family home.
A cute, freckle-faced girl answered the door and a mass of children scurried around the kitchen. Seven-year-old Faith proudly showed me her notebook, which had a full page filled with the same line – “I love my family very much.” I asked where their mom was and Faith, in turn, asked me why some people don’t like families with two moms. I was speechless and thankfully Lillian walked into the room moments later.
Dressed in fashionable low-slung jeans and the kind of country-western themed blouse that the star of the TV show “Nashville” might wear, Lillian, 25, immediately disabused me of the notion that only an unattractive woman with few marriage options would resort to being part of a plural marriage arrangement.
My first order of business was to make sense of the sprawling sea of cute, friendly kids whirling around the house. Lillian, who has been married to Enoch, 33, since she was 18, told me that she had five kids, ranging from 7-year-old Faith to 3-month-old Joseph. Catrina, Enoch’s wife of 15 years, has eight children, with a ninth on the way.
The Fosters home school their children – Lillian teaches the younger children and Catrina is responsible for the older ones. I was interrupting their school day but the kids seemed to view my arrival as a pleasant break from their routine.
Lillian gave me a tour of their impressive home, and if I hadn’t looked up at the natural rock ceiling, I might not have realized it was a cave dwelling. The family’s deep religious devotion was obvious – there was a bible on the table with their names embossed on it, and there was a sign taped to the bathroom door that read, “Did you think to pray?”
“Whose room is that?” I asked, pointing to a doorway with a sign that read “Man Cave.”
“That’s Enoch’s office,” Lillian said. “It’s kind of a joke because it’s actually the only part of the house that isn’t in the Rock.”
Lillian told me that she could show me her bedroom but not Catrina’s.
“Since she’s out of town, it just wouldn’t be right,” she explained.
After the tour, Lillian took me out for a tour of the community and told me a little about herself and the Rock. There were 18 homes, most of them built by her husband and some of his partners in the community, with four of them still under construction. It’s a mixed community with some polygamists and others who are in monogamous relationships.
Anyone who wants to live at Rockland Ranch has to pass a six-month “trial period” where they are expected to spend time in the community and ingratiate themselves with their future neighbors before they can buy a home.
Lillian took me into a few of the half-built homes, and showed off the community’s solar panels, their water system, swimming pools, playground and a place they call their “Charity House,” which has a non-profit, volunteer-run community convenience store, a small gym and an unfinished area that will some day house families that can’t afford to buy a house in the Rock.
We climbed up a series of wooden ladders so Lillian could show me the view from the top of the Rock and she made fun of how carefully I ascended the ladders.
“I thought you said you were a hiker,” she joked.
As I surveyed the alpine scenery, Lillian asked me how I felt about plural marriage and seemed to relax after I told her that while I would never want to have multiple wives, I saw no reason why other consenting adults shouldn’t be able to live however they saw fit.
“That’s why our country was founded,” she said, as we walked down towards the end of the Rock towards a cluster of solar panels. “It’s freedom of religion.”
I asked her how her parents (whom she said were now divorced, but had been in a monogamous relationship) felt about her marrying a married man at age 18.
“My father was thrilled,” she said. “Because he knew Enoch and he knows what a good person he is.”
She said that plural marriage helped her “become more like Christ” in that she had to accept and love Catrina, which strengthened her character. Lillian, who grew up in Kamas, Utah, claimed that she detected no jealousy on Catrina’s behalf when she joined their household and didn’t hesitate when I asked her if she’d mind if Enoch took a third or fourth wife.
“You don’t take more wives unless all parties agree to it, but if the Lord directs it then great,” she said.
I also asked Anne Wilde, who was in a polygamous relationship before her husband died, why she or any other woman would be willing to marry someone who already has a husband.
“Because it’s a principle that was in the Old Testament: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, and so forth,” she said. “There were 30 men mentioned in the Old Testament that had more than one wife. The Romans changed it to monogamy and we’ve had that ever since. But we believe it’s a biblical principle and Joseph Smith restored the principle of plural marriage. In order to receive the highest degree of the celestial kingdom you have to have more than one wife, living in harmony and righteousness.”
‘Against the Stereotypes’
Wilde said that polygamists don’t get marriage certificates after their first wedding; but they do have religious ceremonies, where they are given “priesthood sealings.” Some brides take their husband’s name, others do not; some dress in a traditional wedding gown but not always; and many couples host fairly standard wedding receptions, even if it isn’t a first marriage.
The Denver Post story asserted that five of Rockland Ranch’s families were exiles from Warren Jeffs’s compound in Colorado City, Utah, and Laura Lofholm, the author of the piece, told me in an email that Jeffs kicked the men out because he saw them as a threat to his harem. Lillian denied that anyone living at Rockland Ranch had a connection to Jeffs, whose group once numbered about 10,000 strong, and insisted that she found him and his followers as repellant as the rest of the country. Anne Wilde was equally emphatic in denouncing Jeffs.
“We’re against the stereotypes – child abuse, welfare abuse, underage marriages,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Salt Lake City. “Those things have taken place, mostly in the FLDS community thanks to Warren Jeffs. We are very much against those things. We’re law-abiding citizens in every way except when it comes to polygamy – but that’s one thing we won’t compromise on.”
I told Lillian that Faith had asked me why some people didn’t like the fact that they had two moms and she said the question probably came up because Faith told a stranger at the supermarket one day that she had two moms and the woman gave them a dirty look.
“I hated to have to tell her that some people don’t approve of our living situation,” she said.
Lillian asked me about my life and as I briefly outlined all the places I’ve lived in or visited, the gap between our life experiences seemed vast.
“I’ve been to all the neighboring states plus Missouri one time,” she said. “But I don’t get a chance to leave this rock very often.”
I asked Lillian if she could introduce me to other members of the community but she said no one else could see me on “short notice.” I felt like the family was trying to manage my visit but after saying goodbye I decided to wander around a bit on my own. But on a cold weekday morning there was no one out and about.
I drove around to the back of the Rock and was surprised to see four or five freestanding houses, plus two rather dilapidated trailers that Lillian never mentioned. Just as I was beginning to wonder why the backside of the Rock wasn’t on my officially sanctioned tour, my rental car got stuck in the snow.
When I left the house, Lillian was getting ready to nurse Joseph, and the last thing I wanted to do was go back to the house and tell her that I decided to snoop around the back of the Rock and now needed help pushing my car out of the snow. As I made a huge racket spinning my wheels in vain, I had a bad feeling that someone was going to come out of one of the trailers with a shotgun, but I eventually managed to push and maneuver the car out of the snow.
As I drove away from the Rock, I thought about Faith Foster and the question she asked me. As a country, we’ve grown much more tolerant of alternative lifestyles in recent years. But are we ready to tolerate plural marriage? Should we be that tolerant? And will society judge Faith and her siblings harshly because they have two moms and a dad? Someday, I hope to return to the Rock to find out.
Greenland’s official tourism website recently unveiled a new ad campaign that may have some travelers rethinking their next destination. Boasting a new tagline – “Rough. Real. Remote.” –these videos give us a glimpse of some of the amazing adventure travel opportunities that exist in the country, including sea kayaking along pristine shores or mountain biking past massive glaciers, which you’ll find in the video below.
I have to admit, Greenland wasn’t all that high on my list of places to visit, but after watching these clips, I’m definitely intrigued. Judging from this video, the country looks to be an outdoor enthusiast and active travelers dream.
“When I first moved to London, I was struck by the number of people living in this great city and the speed at which they move from one place to another,” writes filmmaker Lucas Veuve, who created the time-lapse film above that showcases many of London’s most famous landmarks, from Tower Bridge to Piccadilly Circus.
“I wanted to capture how I saw London when I first moved here,” he continued. We think he did a great job. Watch the video and see how many recognizable places you can spot: Big Ben, the London Eye, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Gherkin and Trafalgar Square, just to name a few. Even more mesmerizing is the way people move through the city when you view them in this way; Veuve explained he took photos every three-to-five seconds to get the time-lapse effect perfect.
Thanks to Visit London for bringing the video to our attention.