The article featured places such the American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol, Connecticut, which has a ‘clock forest’ (above) filled with dozens of tall cases and wall clocks that strike on the hour.
There wasn’t enough room in the story for all the cool clocks I found, so here are a few more:
St. Peter’s Church (below) in Zurich is the city’s oldest church and has a clock face that’s 28.5 feet; the largest clock face in Europe.
Zurich is also home to Beyer’s Clock and Watch Museum, a collection of more than 500 chronological instruments dating from 1400 B.C. to the present day, everything from sundials, hourglasses and water clocks to a quartz clock accurate to within a thousandth of a second a day and a quartz watch accurate to within a millionth of a second. Here’s a link to a video tour of the Beyer Clock and Watch Museum.
And then there’s Anker Clock, in Vienna, Austria, which was built between 1911 and 1917 and ‘performs’ a twelve-minute animation each day at noon.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends at 2 a.m. Sunday morning when we “fall back” to standard time by turning our clocks back one hour.
As you rush around resetting the clocks on the microwave, the TV and the bedside alarm, imagine yourself watching time fly in one of the clock-worthy cities I included in the slide-show-style story I put together for msnbc.com this week: How time flies! Where to see the world’s clocks.
(Courtesy Metro-North Railroad)
The story includes the information booth clock at New York City’s Grand Central Station, clock and watch museums in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, what may be the oldest continually running town clock (in Winnsboro, South Carolina), and the Bily Clocks Museum in Spillville, Iowa, which is home to 43 intricately carved clocks, some more than ten feet tall, made by Joseph and Frank Bily over the course of 45 years.
The Bily Brothers’ clocks have themes ranging from art and religion to history and culture. The collection includes an American Pioneer History Clock, an Apostle Clock, a violin-shaped clock honoring Czech composer Antonin Dvorkak (above) and an airplane-shaped clock (below) made to commemorate Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight. (That propeller moves!)
(Courtesy: Bily Clocks Museum)
In researching the story, I also came upon this film documenting the incredible video mapping project done to mark the 600th anniversary of Prague’s astronomical clock in Old Town Square.
There are more than 700 aviation and space-related museums in this country. Each Monday we try to profile one of them. Eventually we’ll visit them all.
This week, we’re stopping at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which has an exhibit of photos, videos and historic memorabilia celebrating its 75th anniversary.
According to airport history notes, the city of Phoenix purchased Sky Harbor Airport on July 16, 1935 for $100,000. That November, a dedication event took place that included speeches, an aerial circus performance and a dinner dance.
The original terminal building, hangar and tower were located on the north side of today’s airport property and at one time a chapel with a bell stood at the entrance of the airport.
Arizona didn’t require a three-day waiting period for couples wanting to get married, so the airport hoped to generate business by having an on-site wedding chapel for couples wanting to tie the knot as soon as possible.
Interested in learning more about the history of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport?
75 Years of Nonstop Service will be on exhibit until March 13, 2011 in the pre-security area of Terminal 3. You can also go online, to Sky Harbor’s History section to watch video clips and read excerpts from research done for the airport’s 50th anniversary.
If he hadn’t been shot and killed outside his New York City apartment on December 8th, 1980, John Lennon would have been celebrating his 70th birthday today.
The day is being marked around the world with concerts and exhibits that include a bed-in and a photography exhibit that includes this iconic photograph, snapped on July 6th, 1957 on the day Paul McCartney met John Lennon in what’s considered to be the “Big Bang” moment that led to formation of The Beatles.
(by Geoff Rhind. Courtesy Paley Center for Media)
Taken by one of Lennon’s schoolmates, the snapshot above is part of an exhibition that opened this week at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. The show is filled with early, rarely-seen images, including one taken by Paul McCartney’s brother, Mike.
As they do every year on his birthday and on the anniversary of his death, Lennon fans will also gather at Strawberry Fields, the memorial site within New York City’s Central Park.
Tonight there will also be a free Central Park screening of LENNONYC,a new film by Michael Epstein with concert footage and home movies documenting Lennon’s life in New York City after the break-up of the Beatles. The film will air nationally on PBS as part of the American Masters series on November 22nd.
Here’s a preview:
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame andMuseum in Cleveland, Ohio is holding a John Lennon Weekend through Sunday that includes a concert, the sealing of a time capsule filled with Lennon’s music and items contributed by fans, as well as film highlights from both the Beatles’ and John Lennon’s inductions into the Hall of Fame. The weekend also features tours of the museum’s Beatles exhibit, which includes Lennon’s 1979 Yamaha Upright piano, his Sgt. Pepper outfit, one of his electric guitars and the 1964 Gibson J 160E acoustic guitar he and Yoko had with them for the two “bed-ins” for peace in March and May of 1969.
John Lennon's guitar. Courtesy Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
Here’s a short video clip about that guitar by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame curatorial director Jim Henke.
Fans can learn more about John Lennon’s political activism in Give Peace a Chance: John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Bed-In for Peace, a traveling exhibit opening at the Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda, Ill. today.
On display through January 2nd, 2011 will be more than 40 large-format photos taken during the bed-in for peace John and Yoko held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal from May 26th to June 2nd, 1969 and a re-creation of the room where the bed-in took place.
In Los Angeles, the GRAMMY Museum has opened John Lennon, Songwriter, an exhibition that displays some of John Lennon’s guitars, his signature round, wire-framed eyeglasses, his typewriter, some of his original drawings and handwritten lyrics, and photographs, posters and other artifacts and memorabilia loaned to the museum by Yoko Ono.
And in Liverpool, England is kicking off an event-filled John Lennon Tribute Season that will last through December 9th. In addition to rock, pop and classical music tributes, there will be art exhibitions, city tours, a poetry slam, lectures, an exhibition of early Beatles photos taken by Astrid Kirchherr (the girlfriend of Stuart Sutcliffe, the original Beatles’ bass player), and a Bed-In endorsed by Yoko Ono in which a curated group of participants will perform serious, humorous, commemorative or provocative actions in a publicly-sited bed over the course of 62 days.
[The original version of this story is on msnbc.com.]
The World’s Largest Ball of Twine. (Cawker City, Kansas)
The World’s Largest Catsup Bottle. (Collinsville, Illinois)
And the World’s Largest Penny. (Woodruff, Wisconsin)
Who can resist making a detour to see this stuff?
Not me. And you shouldn’t either.
Especially when 14 (possibly 15th by now…) of some of the biggest “can’t miss” things are gathered all together in my “Really Big Things You Can’t Miss” story over on Bing travel.
You can flip through photos of the the World’s Largest Frying Pan, the World’s Largest Egg, the Giant Duck and other cool big things on Bing, but here’s some bonus information about two of the people who helped me gather up images and information for that story.
Erika Nelson, the artist who made the World’s Largest Souvenir Travel Plate for Lucas, Kansas, also shared her photo of the World’s Largest Eight Ball for the story. Look for her out on the road: she travels around the country displaying tiny versions of some of the world’s largest things.
And several of the photos in the story are courtesy of Amy C. Elliott who co-produced, with Elizabeth Donius, World’s Largest, a documentary all about small towns with …big things.
There’s never enough time to do everything I want to do in London, but on my most recent visit I managed to squeeze in quite a lot in just three days.
Activities were wedged in between a meal seasoned with performances by contortionists and flame-embellished dancers at a West End cabaret bar named Circus, Afternoon Tea at The Langham’s Palm Court and whiskey tasting (before and after dinner) with the whiskey sommelier at The Athenaeum Hotel.
Forks-down highlights included a visit to the funky top floor apartment Jimi Hendrix lived in from 1968-1970 (more about honoring Hendrix here); a Fat Tire Bike Tour past iconic monuments, memorials and palaces (more about that here), and walking tours of upscale, low-key Primrose Hill and East London, which is brimming with hip art galleries and stores chock-full of clothing by up-and-coming designers.
Hendrix fan waiting to tour Jimi Hendrix's London flat
I couldn’t afford to buy anything in any in-city shops, so that left souvenir shopping at Heathrow Airport.
Souvenir Sunday was coming up – the day Stuck at the Airport looks at fun, inexpensive items for sale at airports – so I focused on items selling for under £10, which right now equals about $16.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Giant Princess Diana postcard
Heathrow Airport Souvenir - post box banks
And of course:
Meet the (scary-looking) Beatles. That's not really Ringo is it?
If you find a great souvenir while Stuck at the Airport, please take a photo and send it along. Your souvenir may be featured on a future edition of Souvenir Sunday.
[Note, my trip to London was part of a research trip for several articles in progress unrelated to whiskey, cabarets and shopping and was hosted by Air New Zealand, Visit London and The Athanaeum. Thank-you.]
Today, Saturday, September 18th, 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of rock & roll icon Jimi Hendrix, the Seattle-born songwriter and musician Rolling Stone Magazine and many others have crowned the greatest guitarist in rock history.
Hendrix died in London on September 18th, 1970 when he was just 27 years old. To mark the anniversary of his death and to honor his memory, museums in London and several cities in the United States are displaying Hendrix-related artifacts and holding special events.
Here are some of the places you can join fans in honoring Jimi Hendrix.
Through November 10th, London’s Handel House Museum (where George Frideric Handel once lived) is hosting Hendrix in Britain, an exhibition celebrating Hendrix’s life and musical legacy.
What’s the connection between Hendrix and the famed Baroque composer? The Handel House Museum has its administrative offices in the London apartment where Hendrix lived from 1968 until his death in 1970. Tickets are sold-out for tours of the former apartment, but next door the museum is displaying a wide range of Hendrix-related artifacts, many on loan from museums and collectors around the world.
The exhibit includes the custom Gibson guitar Hendrix played at the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1970, handwritten song lyrics for Stepping Stone and Love or Confusion, his British work permit and the black Westerner hat and Dandie Fashion-designed orange velvet jacket with floral print Hendrix made famous on stage and in filmed footage. The Handel House Museum is also sponsoring Hendrix-themed walking tours, concerts and panel discussions.
The infamous fuzz and feedback-filled version of the Star Spangled Banner Jimi Hendrix played during his set at the 1969 Woodstock Festival is considered one of the greatest guitar performances ever. Hendrix images, audio and video clips are featured year-round at the Woodstock-focused Museum of Bethel Woods in Bethel, NY. But on Saturday, September 18th museum spokesperson Shannon McSweeney-LeMay says Hendrix will be honored with “a simple wreath at the monument that marks the original Woodstock festival field” so that guests have a place to honor his memory.
Photo by Doug Lenier, courtesyBethel Woods Center for the Arts
Jimi Hendrix claimed Black, Mexican and a bit of Cherokee heritage, so he’s included in an exhibition running through January 2, 2011 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Hendrix-related artifacts included in Up Where We belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture range from a leather necklace and a leather pouch to a colorful, full-length, patchwork leather coat on display for the first time.
In Cleveland, Ohio, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (which inducted the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1992) has a permanent Jimi Hendrix exhibit featuring more than 50 artifacts. On display are guitars, concert posters, photographs, handbills, drawings and a couch from Hendrix’s childhood home.
Among the articles of Hendrix’s clothing on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the outfit he wore at the Love and Peace Festival in Germany for what turned out to be his final concert performance on September 6, 1970.
Here’s a short video from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum about Hendrix and this particular outfit.
In Hendrix’s hometown of Seattle, the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum (EMP) also has a permanent Hendrix gallery. Items from the museum’s extensive Hendrix collection are cycled in and out, but right now visitors can see the white Fender Stratocaster Hendrix played at Woodstock, guitar shards from the Monterey Pop Festival and the Saville Theater, Hendrix’s diary, his address book and other artifacts.
Courtesy EMP – Hendrix’s handwritten lyrics to Black Gold
To mark the 40th anniversary of Hendrix’s death, the EMP is also displaying the handwritten lyrics for Black Gold (one of the songs the musician was working on before he died), black and white photos from his funeral, including a shot of Miles Davis, and several other items.
And as they do year-round, on the 40th anniversary of the Hendrix’s death, you can be sure many fans will make a special visit to Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, Washington. There, a tasteful but hard-to-miss, memorial marks Jimi Hendrix’s gravesite.
The exhibit is located right there in the main lobby of the airport terminal and includes the cockpit of a Boeing 727, landing gear, a baggage tug, a mock air control tower and a “marshaller” display that lets you learn about – and practice – signaling techniques needed to help aircraft take-off and land safely.
Sounds like fun!
Know of another great aviation or space museum? Let us know and it may be featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com.
With the help of Twitter-buddy Isaac Alexander, I spent a good chunk of this Labor Day weekend putting together a list of aerospace museums to keep track of and, perhaps, to feature on Museum Mondays here at StuckatTheAirport.com.
The process took quite a bit longer than it might have because I kept clicking on links at these museum websites and, well, you know how that goes… a half hour later I’d get back to the task at hand.
So for Museum Monday this week, I’ll just share a few of the links that caught my eye.
Named in honor of four-time astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, a post on this museum’s site sent me to a Gizmodo posting of a half-dozen awe-inspiring time lapse videos from space.
Here’s one:
And I can’t even remember now which museum site sent me to this video about jobs in aviation – circa 1947 – but I had to stop and watch the entire thing.
Have you visited a great aviation or space-related museum lately? Share your favorite here and it may be featured on a future edition of Museum Monday.
The museum is near the McConnell Air Force Base and is housed in the art deco-style building that served as Wichita’s municipal airport during the 1930s and 40s. Among the museum’s collection of about 40 airplanes is this Beech Starship,
and a B-52 bomber, a refueling tanker, and this 1927 Laird Swallow, which crashed in 1929, was put into storage for decades and then restored by museum volunteers.
Another charmer? The Pretty Praire Special III, designed and built by Marion Unruh. According the museum website, this is the third in a series of airplanes named after Unruh’s hometown of Pretty Prairie, Kansas. Unruh designed the plane in 1951 but it wasn’t completed until 1957.
“It rolled, looped and could snap with the best acrobatic planes of the day.”
In addition to the airplane collection, the Kansas Aviation Museum has a wide variety of airplane engines on display and offers opportunities for volunteers to help with airplane restoration projects.
Do you have a favorite aviation-related museum you’d like others to know about? Tell us why you like it and it may be featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com.
