The British Museum

It has been awhile since I have been impressed by a museum. Old stuff is really cool and all, but it's just old stuff. I have been to some museums where it looked like the curator just dumped out a box of his grandparents stuff and put labels on it. These ones were obviously the ones that didn't impress me. The British Museum, however, did impress me. There is a bunch of really old stuff, big surprise, nut the thing that impressed me was an exhibit on the Enlightenment. The exhibit went through in detail what the human race was trying to achieve during the Enlightenment and why the thirst for knowledge grew so intensely during this period. It was fascinating.

I could go into a whole diatribe on the Enlightenment and how it shaped our current world, but that would involve a relapse into 8th grade history which would not be good for anyone. Besides the Enlightenment exhibit the other highlight for me was the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is arguably the most important artifact pertaining to ancient Mesopotamian history, and there it was on display with people climbing on top of each other to get a good picture of it. I eventually elbowed my way through the mob to snap a few shots for myself.

I went to the museum by myself, which is a good way to see a good museum. If the museum is interesting enough than company should be superfluous. On the other hand, if the museum is crap from someones basement and you don't have a friend there to insult it with you, then it's miserable. It is funny watching people at museums. It is funny when you can overhear misinformation being spouted off, mostly by guys trying to impress their girlfriends. I was standing in front of a couple that was just brilliant. The display was of Cleopatra's tomb (which was clearly marked) and the guy turns to his girlfriend and says, "I'm pretty sure this is King Tut's coffin. He wrote the Rosetta Stone." Then his girlfriend said back, "oh, I was wondering who wrote that, they didn't say." I started to snicker and had to leave before I laughed out loud. I smiled because they obviously are perfect for each other.

After the British Museum I made my way over to the National Gallery which is all paintings. I like paintings, I'm not a huge fan, but they had some interesting works including a sketch by Da Vinci. Whenever I go to art museums I just walk right through. This time I stopped to stare for awhile, because that's what people do at paintings, right? I understand staring at those Magic Eye things because you have to in order to see the thing, but at regular art I just don't see it. They are beautiful paintings but they don't get more beautiful by staring at them. I guess I'm just un-cultured. Oh well.