Since I hadn't been to the Brooklyn Museum in over 20 years, I thought it would be nice to go again and show my daughter Brooklyn does indeed have more to offer than food and shopping. The worst part about the museum is the location, which is nowhere near Bensonhurst or Bay Ridge, but on the other side of Brooklyn, closer to Manhattan.
Since I'm the official New York City driver, (my husband does the interstates) I had to drive through some pretty shady neighborhoods to get there. Once we got close I then had to drive kamikaze-like around Grand Army Plaza (Rome's got nothing on this 8 lane circle) which Roanokers might think of as a "roundabout on steroids." Even my husband was closing his eyes as I "maneuvered" through the traffic. "Let the Virginia rube through!" I wouldn't dare park on the street as the car probably wouldn't be there upon our return. The museum's not exactly in a "good" neighborhood although my cousin says it's "up and coming." It seems most sections of New York that were/are ghettos are now being referred to as "up and coming" not only because of their close proximity to Manhattan, but because those are the only areas folks can almost afford the rent. I think they like to delude themselves into thinking they're getting in on the ground level of an "up and coming" neighborhood. $1,500 for a studio or tiny one bedroom is not unheard of. I don't know...any neighborhood that has a sniper on the roof shooting down at teens coming home from school is not one I want to live in. Yes, that actually happened the day we were there. We wondered why helicopters were hovering above us.
Nobody knew what was going on, but we thought it odd that there were two NYPD copters so low and standing still. When we saw the news copters we figured something was up but since no one was running or anything we felt we were "safe." I found out the next morning reading the paper about the
sniper via a little blurb about it buried on page 8. In Roanoke, and probably most of the rest of the world, that would have made the front page, but not in Brooklyn. Oh well, I digress...back to the museum. This is not the front of the museum, which is grand, but the back where we parked.
It was a freaky hot day, 92 degrees, and we just wanted to get into the air conditioning. Unfortunately the air conditioning didn't seem to be on so we were sort of dragging by the time we hit the fifth floor.
The main reason I wanted to go was not just for the displays,
or architecture,
or art,
or paintings,
or sculptures,
or odd pieces...
Wait a second that head wasn't even in the museum but in my cousin's bathroom where I said he put it to scare the shit out of people! The main reason I wanted to go was the museum always had a great permanent Egyptian display. In addition they were running "To Live Forever: Art and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt." Who doesn't love a mummy?
It was a wonderful exhibit and is running through May 2. Unfortunately I couldn't use my flash so didn't get many clear pictures. Another display, "The Mummy Chamber" opens May 5th. "Andy Warhol: The Last Decade" is running June 18 - September 12. To get a full schedule and more information on the
Brooklyn Museum click here.
The museum has some really interesting permanent displays. I especially found this one intriguing...
Remember when there were payphones? That must be the last working one in Brooklyn!
