Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento opens new extension

by Sean McLachlan on

The Crocker Art Museum has been showing the people of Sacramento fine art since 1885. Now it’s finished a $100 million extension that’s added 125,000 square feet of exhibition space. Previously the museum only had 40,000 feet. While the elegant Victorian building has been preserved, a large modern extension behind it allows for much more of the museum’s collection to go on display as well as serve for hosting traveling shows.

Members got a sneak peak yesterday and there’s a free day today. Current exhibitions include Tomorrow’s Legacies, showcasing 125 works that will be bequeathed to the museum, a show about Sacramento artist Wayne Thiebaud, and a collection of Old Master drawings.

The museum is especially noted for its paintings by California’s leading artists, drawings by the Old Masters, and an expanding collection of Asian art.

[Image of old Crocker courtesy user Amadscientist. Image of new Crocker courtesy user ronb76. Both via Wikimedia Commons.]

Oktoberfest by the numbers

by Gadling Staff on

“Everyone would be happy to have an Oktoberfest,” said Vicky Weller, from Munich. “Everybody: the restaurants, the beer halls, the shops and the city make money.” Indeed this is one big ATM for Munich but hey, they put on a fine festival.

The official figures are in and an estimated 6.4 million people visited Oktoberfest from around the world. Italians seemed to be the largest non-German group of attendees, but I personally met plenty of Americans, Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, Hungarians, Swedes, Swiss, Japanese and Russian people all enjoying the spirit of togetherness – and beer.

In total, the guests at Oktoberfest drank around 7,000,000 liters of beer; however non-alcoholic beers and other drinks were served in greater numbers than in the past. A few tents even sponsored outside Lemonade gardens which attracted families and others seeking an alternative to beer. Also: there was even a small wine tent this year.

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In addition to the beer, visitors consumed 117 oxen and 59 calves at the 2010 Oktoberfest, and the historic Herzkasperl Tent alone served 60,000 delicious halves of Hendl, or roasted chicken. This was by far the most popular culinary item at Oktoberfest with a cost of approximately $12.00 per serving.

According to official statistics, more people came dressed in traditional German garb than in the recent past. One reason for this is that in the post WWII era and until quite recently, German nationalism was frowned upon. (The 2006 World Cup may have been a watershed moment turning the tide.) Today, Germans are rediscovering their patriotic spirit and perhaps this is one reason why dirndls and lederhosen are gaining in popularity.

It really was amazing how little violence happens during Oktoberfest with so many people and so much beer consumed. Though crazy and crowded, it’s a safe and peaceful environment. Attendees are allowed to sleep – or pass out in parks all over the fairgrounds and beyond. Of course many people do get drunk and forget things. The Wiesn Lost & Found Office recorded about 4500 objects found including: 90 cameras, 770 ID cards, 420 wallets, 330 purses and 320 pairs of glasses. They also found a rabbit, a pug, a tennis racket (who brings a tennis racket to a beer festival?), a leather whip, a set of dentures, four pairs of women’s shoes and a tuba. (Damn… where’s my tuba?)

All in all, this is one of the greatest festivals on the planet and has to be experienced first hand, at least once. Yet many I interviewed return year after year to enjoy the festivities with friends, both new and old. As one local told me, to get the most out of Oktoberfest, “Be pushy, be German.” Good advice especially navigating the dense crowds.

Though this was the 200th Anniversary of the original year that the celebration began, this was actually the 177th Oktoberfest. There were numerous wars and other major disturbances in Germany, you might remember, when Oktoberfest was canceled. So there’s plenty of time to hit the real 200th of arguably the largest participatory celebration on earth.

Getting there: Many airlines fly directly to Munich including Delta Airlines and Lufthansa. Munich is also within hours of many cities throughout Europe, easily accessed by rail.

Where to Stay: Munich offers visitors about 56,000 hotel rooms of varying types. The Sheraton Westpark is a good, popular hotel within a short walk or easy subway ride from the Oktoberfest fairgrounds.

Where to Eat: In Munich, visitors will find German as well as all varieties of contemporary cuisine. The Spatenhaus an der Oper, downtown offers fine traditional German cuisine. I loved the traditional Weiner Schnitzel. For a very special experience try the Restaurant Konigshof for elegant European dining.

Getting Around: The U Bahn (subway) in Munich is definitely the way to get around town if a destination is too far to walk. There are plenty of cabs around, but the underground is fast and easy to navigate. Plus they don’t seem to ever take tickets so you can get by without one, unless you get caught.

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Previously:
* Arriving at Munich’s Oktoberfest
* Munich, Germany’s 200th Anniversary of Oktoberfest
* Beer logistics at Munich’s Oktoberfest
* Oktoberfest: Lots of food and more than 8 million gallons of beer

For More Information:
* www.oktoberfest.eu
* www.muenchen-tourist.de

Bob Ecker is a Napa, California based travel writer/photographer providing worldwide magazines and newspapers with compelling travel, hospitality, wine, culinary, skiing, film and innovative feature content. He is constantly on the go, traveling the world, unearthing new stories and uncorking emerging regions. He is current Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) member and former President of the Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW).

3000 year old statue of Egyptian pharaoh discovered in Luxor

by Kraig Becker on

A 3000 year old statue of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III has been discovered near his funeral temple in Luxor. The double statue, which depicts the rular seated next to the Thebian god Amun, stands more than four feet in height and three feet in width. While Amun’s head is no longer in place however, the face of the pharaoh is unmistakable. The statue shows him seated upon a throne and wearing the traditional double crown which signified his dominance over both Upper and Lower Egypt.

Amenhotep III is thought to have ruled during Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, sometime between 1388 and 1351 BC. He is believed to be the wealthiest of all the ancient pharaohs and his funerary temple demonstrated those riches by it’s sheer size. The temple in his honor was more than 700 meters in length and 500 meters in width, with the eastern ended marked by the Colossi of Memnon, two of the better known, and often visited, statues in the Luxor region. At the time of its construction, it was one of the largest religious structures in the entire world.

The statue, which is made out of limestone, is similar to another that was discovered at the temple earlier this year. That one was carved out of granite and depicted Amenhotep seated next to Thoth, the god of wisdom. The massive sculpture was more than 2.5 meters in height and is thought to be the best preserved likeness of the pharaoh that has been discovered to date.

The archeology team that discovered this latest find is focused on finishing the excavation of the statue, but they haven’t ruled out the possibility of even more discoveries either. These two major finds came about because of an ongoing restoration project that is expected to take up to twenty years to complete and will likely reveal even more wonders of this impressive ruler.

[Photo credit: the SCA]

Oktoberfest: Lots of food and more than 8 million gallons of beer

by Gadling Staff on

Oktoberfest grew like an indelible beast as Munich crowds headed by subway, bus and foot to the Theresienwiese fairgrounds. It was the last night, after all — and there was still plenty of beer to consume. Thousands converged, happily dressed in everything from traditional colorful dirndls, lederhosen and vests to ordinary t-shirts and leather jackets. It really makes no difference what you wear to Oktoberfest unless, perhaps, you are an old-timer from Bavaria. On this night I headed for the Hacker-Pschorr Braurosi tent — which I’d heard was a wild one.

Besides fresh Oktoberfest beer, specially brewed for the occasion, Oktoberfest showcases and serves German culinary staples such as excellent Hendl (rotisserie chicken), Wursti (sausage), Schweinsbraten (roast pork), Haxn (pork knuckle — better than it sounds) and Knodel (a potato pancake). The ubiquitous Brezn (pretzels) are huge, soft and very salty.

Some Oktoberfest facts:

  • There are 12 tents all hosted by Munich area breweries. Each tent is a very lucrative business. It’s a sophisticated setup regarding beer delivery, ingress and egress, food, security and music. The bathrooms? Well… they’re another story.
  • Tents can hold up to 10,000 people at a time and are usually packed, packed, packed — especially in the evenings. The jostling is incredible. Big German waitresses power through the crowds holding up to ten beers or platters of food. The tents are open for 12 hours each day (usually 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM). In other words, way more than 10,000 people rotate in and out throughout the day. Meanwhile, thousands of others are standing outside the tents, hoping, trying to get in!
  • The festival lasts 16 days.
  • Doing a little math, that’s: 12 tents x 10,000 people x 16 days = 1,920,000 people minimum. In fact, Munich estimates that a record 7.5 million people will attend Oktoberfest in 2010.
  • If each of those 7.5 million people drink only 4 liters of beer, then the partiers consume roughly 8 million gallons of beer over the course of the event.

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The Hacker-Pschorr tent is by far the prettiest at Oktoberfest. The walls are painted with bucolic Bavarian scenes and the roof is painted like a big blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. Well-lit, you might think you’re outside, eating and drinking with 9,999 new friends. I was fortunate to get seated in the balcony so could overlook the controlled chaos. The band now belted out the familiar “Que Sera Sera” followed by rousing rendition of “Those Were the Days.” (The 1968 hit sung by Mary Hopkin was produced by Paul McCartney.) Appetizers soon appeared consisting of radishes (they seem to love radishes), a type of pork fat liverwurst and of course, big salty pretzels. As my first beer arrived, I settled in as waitresses roared by, blasting through the ever thickening crowd carrying full or empty steins of excellent Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest beer.

The din — a happy noise — got louder and louder though I couldn’t tell if I was inside or outside the asylum. Looking back through the windows, thousands of people were massing, trying to get into this tent. Then the song “Mamma Mia” got the crowd lathered in proper ABBA fashion. Some danced in the aisles and many others on the benches. After a short break, the traditional music was replaced by a rock band and soon the chunky opening chords of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” shook the building. It sounded great. “We come here every year,” shouted Gabriella Keck, visiting from Salzburg, Austria. Her five friends were rocking too. Next came AC-DC’s “You, Shook Me All Night Long” and the horde, young and old, local and international went nuts.

Previously:
* Arriving at Munich’s Oktoberfest
* Munich, Germany’s 200th Anniversary of Oktoberfest
* Beer logistics at Munich’s Oktoberfest

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Bob Ecker is a Napa, California based travel writer/photographer providing worldwide magazines and newspapers with compelling travel, hospitality, wine, culinary, skiing, film and innovative feature content. He is constantly on the go, traveling the world, unearthing new stories and uncorking emerging regions. He is current Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) member and former President of the Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW).

Visiting the Brontë sisters in Yorkshire

by Sean McLachlan on

People say literary genius is a rare thing, something seen only once in a thousand or a million people. Maybe so, but the Brontës had three (and maybe five) literary geniuses in the same family.

From their father’s parsonage in Haworth, Yorkshire, in northern England, the three Brontë sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne produced some of the most popular books in the English language. Works like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are still read more than 150 years after they were published. They’ve survived the test of time. The ebook edition of Wuthering Heights is currently ranked number 457 at Amazon’s Kindle store, and number 5 in the fiction classics category. Their work has been made into numerous movies and another version of Jane Eyre is coming out next year.

The sisters also prompted literary tourism to Haworth. It started not long after they died and has steadily grown ever since. While everyone comes to Haworth to see the Brontë home and related sights, they also enjoy a beautiful and well-preserved nineteenth century village full of shops and fine restaurants.

Now I have to be honest here and admit that until I went on this trip I had never read a Brontë novel. They were the classics I never got assigned in school and I figured I’d get around to whenever. Before I left for Yorkshire I read Jane Eyre and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The rich prose and sedate pacing definitely belong to the nineteenth century, but the smartass, independent female protagonist belongs to the modern world.

Much of Haworth remains as the Brontës knew it. The Brontë Parsonage Museum preserves their home and tells their story. House museums are tricky to do well. Despite being a museum junkie, some historic homes bore me to death. This one, however, gripped my attention. Besides the usual stuff like the desks they wrote at and the sofas they sat on (and Emily may have died on), there are the little details that make it stick in your memory. In the nursery where they spent their childhood faint pencil drawings can be seen on the wall. While it’s impossible to say if these literary giants doodled these when they were small, it makes you wonder.

There’s also the story of Branwell Brontë. Who? Yeah, that was always his problem. He was their brother, a failed artist and struggling writer living in the shadow of his superstar sisters. He fell into a downward spiral of alcoholism and opium addiction before dying at 31. The above painting of his sisters is Branwell’s work. He originally included himself in the portrait, then unsuccessfully erased himself. He doodled constantly, illustrating letters he sent to friends. One at the museum shows himself in two images. The first is labeled “Paradise” shows him drunk off his ass and shouting, “I am the lord of the manor!” The other is labeled “Purgatory” and shows him hunched over an opium pipe.

%Gallery-104264%The museum also tells the story of their father Patrick, the local pastor who was also a published author. Many a young woman’s ambitions were crushed in those days by domineering fathers who wanted them to get married and get pregnant. Patrick Brontë was progressive enough not to feel threatened by his daughters’ talent and encouraged them in their careers.

Beyond the Brontë parsonage you can see traces of their life everywhere. Patrick Brontë’s church stands nearby and houses the family’s memorial chapel. The pub where Branwell got drunk is just a short stagger away from the apothecary where he bought his opium. The Black Bull Inn still serves up fine Yorkshire ales, but the apothecary shop stopped carrying opiates when they started requiring a prescription. Otherwise it’s a good replica of an early apothecary and still sells traditional cures.

Haworth’s main street is down a steep hill lined with little shops. You can find delicious local cheeses and preserves, a couple of fine tearooms, some excellent secondhand bookshops, and more gift shops than you can shake a copy of Wuthering Heights at. Several historic inns offer beers and beds. At the train station a traditional steam railway offers rides.

But Haworth isn’t all tea and scones and twee little shops. There’s a dark side to the town’s history, full of ghosts, death, and despair. On my second day I discovered I was all too close to the supernatural. . .

This is the first of my new series Exploring Yorkshire: ghosts, castles, and literature in England’s north.

Coming up next: Three nights in a haunted hotel room!


This trip was sponsored by VisitEngland and Welcome to Yorkshire.

[Photo courtesy user Mr. Absurd via Wikimedia Commons]