Charlton Heston movie trivia and travel

by Jamie Rhein on

When I read that Charlton Heston died last night, an image of him parting the Red Sea as Moses crossed my mind. “The Ten Commandments” was on TV just two weeks ago. While channel flipping, I came across it and he was just getting ready to hold up that staff. According to the New York Times article, the scene where he came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandment tablets was filmed at Mount Sinai.

“Planet of the Apes” has several locations you can also go to and might recognize if you watch the movie. The scene with the top of the Statue of Liberty resting in the sand was filmed in a cove near Point Dume at Zuma in Malibu. The rest of the desert scenes were filmed around Lake Powell (where the spaceship crashed and the crew went to land), Glen Canyon and Page, Utah. I’ve driven through these places and they are gorgeous. I can imagine back in the 60s they were less traveled than today. Malibu Creek State Park was where the ape village was built. Fox Studios use to own the property. Here’s Charlton Heston’s World, a Web site I came across that has several “Planet of the Apes” photos and audio clips.

Other trivia. If you head to Rome, you’ll be near where the chariot race in “Ben-Hur “was filmed at Cinecittà Studios and the Sistine Chapel where Heston played Michaelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy.

As an interesting aside, not movie related, Charlton Heston was involved in the Civil Rights March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr. With Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination 40 years-ago, just the day before yesterday, and Heston’s death the day after, that struck me. I don’t know why. It just did.

Global rise in food costs: The real effects

by Anna Brones on

The dollar has hit a new low against the euro, America is on the verge of recession and global food prices are on an upward spiral. In fact, global food prices have risen by 40% in the last nine months. Add to that the fact that food reserves are at their lowest in 30 years and the global economic situation looks grim. But beyond percentages and figures what does this really mean?

To showcase the real effects of the global rise in food costs the BBC has put together an interesting piece featuring six families from around the world, their shopping lists and exactly how their shopping habits have changed because of the rise in prices.

The six families are from Guatemala, India, Kenya, China, Egypt and the UK. In Guatemala the Rodas family has gone from eating meat five times a week to two. In Egypt the Abdulwahab family speculates a household used to be able to eat for one Egyptian pound; today it costs more than five.

The article also itemizes each family’s shopping list, which provides for some eye-opening figures. The Classik family from the UK spends 10% of its monthly income on food, while in Egypt, the Abdulwahab family spends about 80%. Makes you think twice about complaining about how expensive everything is going to be on your next trip to Europe; travel is still a luxury.

Read the whole BBC article here.

Siwa Oasis: site of Alexander the Great and a holiday feast

by Jamie Rhein on

On Thanksgiving Day Heath Cox, his family and a friend headed to the Siwa Oasis for a long weekend and to cook a turkey in a sand dune. He left this detail in the comment feature of a “What did you head this Thanksgiving?” post. Intrigued, I looked up the place. I already knew it is in Egypt since he mentioned this.

If you are going to Egypt, I’d say the Siwa Oasis is one place to put on your must see places list. Sure, take in the pyramids, but don’t stop there. According to Egypt Voyager.com, the oasis is the place Alexander the Great went to in order to meet up with the Oracle at Aghurmi, the site of the Temple of the Oracle of Amun. The Oracle pronounced Alexander a god. This must have given Alexander the umph he needed to continue his conquests. Off he went to take over the Middle East.

There are other oases in the area besides Siwa, but Siwa is the place to find a thriving cultural center. I lit up when I read you can buy baskets that are typical of this area here. I collect baskets. Those of you who are fond of silver jewelry, it looks like this is the place for you.

If you do go here, bring a turkey. According to Heath Cox, drive 10 miles out of Siwa to a sand dune, dig a big hole, put coals in it with a stuffed, foil-covered turkey, add more coals, cover it up and when the steam escapes, the turkey is done. (Okay, I hope that’s when it’s done.) Sounds yummy.

GADLING TAKE FIVE: Week of October 20-26

by Jamie Rhein on

The time of year when there is a convergence of holidays is upon us. Halloween is in less than a week away. My son couldn’t wait to carve our pumpkins so, now they are rotting on our porch. And here Matthew’s already brought up Christmas in his post on fuzzy breast-shaped toys, all the rage in Japan. In addition to the Halloween build-up, and the beginning hum of holidays yet to come, I’ve noticed a range of posts that offer up the kind of chit chat information you might toss out at a party. Did you know that. . . ?

  1. You can fight global warming by eating chicken.
  2. Pigs can be trained to jump through fire.
  3. Chewing betel nuts does a real number on your teeth.
  4. Sex is the word that is Googled the most in India, Egypt and Turkey.
  5. There is a way to pee in privacy on the side of the road.

And one more…

Philadelphia has the least attractive people. (Sorry again to Philadelphia, as this can’t possibly be true.)

King Tut: you just can’t get enough!

by Abha Malpani on

Well, I certainly can’t.

I don’t know why, but the whole King Tut deal was one of the very few things that stuck with me in history class.

There is something spooky yet exciting about pharaohs and mummies, and King Tut is the 3500-year old mummy of all mummies. Unbound in the 20th Century by an English dude who died shortly after (apparently from the ‘curse‘ of having the balls to open Tut’s tomb!), his story seems to be forever looming in mummy context.

This probably explains why 225,000 tickets have been pre-sold in London for a Tutankhamun Treasures exhibition that will be held there from November 15, 2007 – August 31, 2008. The exhibition will then move to Dallas for 7-months, sometime in October 2008.

King Tut began his rule in Egypt when he was nine, and died at 19 — how and why remains unclear, but his mummified body lay untouched until 1922. Ever since, forensic scientists have tried to reconstruct his face and body, but not without debate on it’s structure and real skin color. In this exhibition for the first time ever, his ‘true’ face will be revealed!

This is fascinating, and if I was in London I would definitely go, but what I fail to understand is that with over 8.6 million tourists visiting Egypt every year, why does Egypt let this treasure tomb tour the world?