Sunday, Dec 2, 2012, is Getty Villa Family Festival - enjoy the creative activiities inspired by the Pompeii exhibit

If you missed my earlier blog about the Last Days of Pompeii exhibit, Sunday Dec 2nd, 2012, is Getty Villa's family festival that is really worth going with your family.  While admission is free, parking is $15 per vehicle.
Free admission tickets is easiest by phone and you will receive an admission code for all the people in your vehicle.  Enjoy the creative theatre, music and art available on this special day.  Plan your day with the detailed program is below.

	Pyrodrama Theater Workshop and Performance with Sam Robinson

Family Festival Celebrating 
The Last Days of Pompeii

Date: Sunday, December 2, 2012
Time: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Admission: Free; reservations required. Call (310) 440-7300 or use the "Get Tickets" button below. 

 

Grab the kids and run! . . .

. . . to this daylong festival exploring the role of Pompeii in the popular cultural imagination through crafting, performances, and other family-friendly adventures. Pose for a family portrait in front of Mount Vesuvius. Appear in an art-inspired theatrical spectacle. Or create a flow of volcanic lava to wear on your head! 

	Artist sketch of Mount Vesuvius

OUTDOOR THEATER

Vesuvius Explodes! by Kiel Johnson
10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Artist Kiel Johnson sculpted a massive model (standing 8' tall and 18' wide) of Mount Vesuvius at the moment of eruption—billowing smoke and all! 

Fleeing Pompeii — A Captured Moment with Snap Yourself
11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Become a part of the pictorial tradition of fleeing Vesuvius! Strike a pose with your loved ones, inspired by the paintings on view in Floor 2 of the Museum's galleries. The professional photographers of Snap Yourself will create a unique family portrait "in flight," shot before the panoramic landscape of the smoldering volcano.

EDUCATION COURT

Design a PyroDrama!
First session: 10:00 a.m.–noon
Second session: 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

Become a theatrical designer and create set pieces for the PyroDrama performances in the Auditorium later in the day (see below). You can also construct Pompeian stage props, see them used by actors onstage, and finally bring them home as souvenirs after the show. 

OUTER PERISTYLE

Vesuvius Cone Heads: Kapow Wow! — with Marni Gittleman
10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (last seating at 4:30 p.m.)
Construct a volcanic cone to wear home on your head. Let your imagination erupt with ideas as you craft cascading bits of red-hot lava!

Flaming Frames
10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (last seating at 4:30 p.m.)
Craft the perfect frame for the photo you'll create at "Fleeing Pompeii." Decorate your creation with lava and flames to "frame your escape" from Vesuvius.

INNER PERISTYLE

Music Inspired by The Last Days of Pompeii — with dublab
10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. 
The dublab DJs spin musical sets inspired by the three themes of the exhibition: decadence, apocalypse, and resurrection. These curated sets reflect Pompeii and its influence on popular culture and the world psyche. 

Beats by You — with dublab
1:00–1:20 p.m. - Decadence
2:00–2:20 p.m. - Apocalypse
3:00–3:20 p.m. - Resurrection

Work with the DJs of dublab to make your own sounds and add them to the mix.

AUDITORIUM

Pyrodrama – Theater Workshop and Performance with Sam Robinson
First workshop: Noon–1:00 p.m. 
First rehearsal and performance: 1–1:30 p.m. 

Second workshop: 3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.
Second rehearsal and performance: 4:00–4:30 p.m.
In a one-hour workshop session, kids learn the power of creative communication through theater techniques such as gesture, facial expression, and body position. In the optional rehearsal session that follows, kids then work with professional actors to create living stage pictures (once called tableaux vivants), inspired by art in the Pompeii exhibition. Rehearsal then culminates in a performance spectacle on the Auditorium stage: The Last Days of Pompeii!! 

Sunday, Nov 18, 2012 - Elephant Boy (free family movie) and American Youth Symphony (free concert)

Both of these Sunday events are free.  There is no need to get tickets in advance - free AYS tickets are available at Royce Hall, although donations are always welcome.

UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum present

Elephant Boy (1937)

November 18, 2012 - 11:00 am

Billy Wilder Theater

Free Admission!

Directed by Robert Flaherty, Zoltan Korda. 

A group of elephant hunters in India come to depend on the young boy Toomai for help in tracking a herd of elephants, after they witness his rapport with his own elephant, Kala Nag. Mediating between men and beasts, Toomai must navigate a way through the jungle, as well as through the differing motivations of the adults. Young Indian superstar Sabu makes his first appearance in this unique family classic.

Screenwriter: John Collier, Akos Tolnay, Marcia De Silva. Cinematographer: Osmond Borradaile. Editor: Charles Crichton. Cast: Sabu, W.E. Holloway, Walter Hudd, Allan Jeaves, Bruce Gordon.

35mm, b/w, 91 min. 

November 18, 2012 | Royce Hall  6 pm FREE Concert 8 pm Soirée with the Musicians Alexander Treger conductor Radu Paponiu assistant conductor Natasha Paremski piano BARBER Overture to The School for Scandal TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1 BERNSTEIN West Side Story: Symphonic dances We welcome the dazzling Russian-American pianist Natasha Paremski (25). Since her debut with the LA Phil, she has performed classical works and collaborated on contemporary projects with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Moscow Philharmonic.  Enjoy a festive dinner with the orchestra, and support our players. The post-concert Soirée, with hearty foods catered by Barbrix, is our biggest fundraiser of the season, and a unique opportunity to visit and mingle with the musicians and the passionate community of AYS.  Reserve for dinner online or Download dinner reservation/donation form Free concert-only tickets

Pompeii exhibit at Getty Villa - closes on January 7, 2013

This description from History-Magazine.com (http://history-magazine.com/volcanoes.html) provides a succinct account of the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius in comparison with other major volcano eruptions of the world:

Mount Vesuvius
On the afternoon of 24 August 79ad, Mount Vesuvius shot a stream of ash miles into the air. The next morning, Vesuvius erupted, killing the citizens of the nearby towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pompeii was a holiday resort and thousands had flocked there to escape the heat of a Roman summer. The streets were busy that August evening, with many holiday visitors busy shopping for Pompeii's famous pottery, while others relaxed over a glass of wine and enjoyed the evening breeze and the passing parade at outdoor restaurants. Others were in the theater enjoying the lively performances that were a feature of this vacation resort. Many had gone to the opulent bathhouses to be cleansed and relaxed after a busy day around town and still others had resorted to their beds to refresh themselves for the new day that never came for them. There were no eyewitness accounts, but it is recorded that a 750 degrees F cloud of hot gases swept down from Vesuvius and enveloped the town killing almost all the residents and holiday visitors instantly from thermal shock. While lava poured into Pompeii, clouds of ash rained down on Herculaneum burying everything including the buildings of the town under 75 feet of volcanic ash. Such was the devastation and loss that the government in Rome decided to leave the towns and the victims buried under the lava and ash of Mount Vesuvius.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD destroyed the nearby towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Centuries later, historians and archeologists have excavated Pompeii and affirmed the swiftness with which this event snuffed out lives. Bodies were found huddled in buildings, in their beds, on the streets and in every position that one might expect to see a blissful population that was overwhelmed in an instant. The ruins of Herculaneum were not discovered until the 1700s, when excavations were begun in 75 feet of solidified volcanic ash. The ongoing excavation has revealed that Herculaneum was populated by wealthy Romans who lived in their villas with lavish gardens and beach-front property on the Bay of Naples. Many bodies were excavated on the beach, where women were found wearing exotic jewelry with a ring on every finger and exquisitely carved bracelets. The presence of over 300 bodies on the beach suggests that they were trying to escape by water but the surge of gas from Vesuvius ended their lives instantly.


http://history-magazine.com/volcanoes.html



Getty Villa is currently showing an exhibit of 74 art pieces and sculptures inspired by archeological objects found in Pompeii from the imagination of artists and filmmakers.

There is a link below to the list of 74 exhibited items and you will see works by artists from various European countries including Salvador Dali to Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko and photos of Pompeii taken during the Second World War.

For a preview (or if you are not in Los Angeles), see some of the paintings here:
http://www.arttattler.com/archivepompeii.html

One of the best essays on this exhibit is by Gail Leggio and you can read the rest of the essay by clicking on this link:    http://www.nccsc.net/essays/pompeii-and-historical-imagination

Pompeii and the Historical Imagination

by Gail Leggio

Sebastian Pether
Eruption of Vesuvius with Destruction of a Roman City, 1824
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

When we think about the ancient world, how do we visualize it? Written accounts—those that have come down to us from antiquity and those produced by generations of later historians—lay a foundation for understanding. Physical evidence gives us a more concrete sense of life in the past, of the ancients’ high aspirations, seen in the artworks we find in museums, and of their civic experience, glimpsed in the artifacts and layouts of archaeological sites. But turning data into history inevitably entails interpretation, and historical interpretation, while it must be based in fact, also requires imagination. Here another category comes into play: historical fictions. At their most vivid, these re-creations—paintings, novels and movies—shape how we picture the past in persuasive and powerful ways. The posthumous life of antiquity in works of the imagination is a rich subject, which the Getty Villa, in Malibu, California, is exploring in “The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection” (September 12, 2012–January 7, 2013). Co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art, in association with the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the exhibition traces the influence of Pompeii on artists from Giovanni Battista and Francesco Piranesi to Andy Warhol.

This Getty blog provide more details behind this exhibit:

http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/apocalypse-then-bulwer-lyttons-the-last-days-of-pompeii/

You can even read the entire novel which is mentioned in this exhibit:

Last Days of Pompeii by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton

 by downloading from:
http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1565

What I learned today (after the visit) is that there is also a book called "Three Hours in Pompeii" which is a guidebook to all the places and locations mentioned in the first book.  It can also be downloaded for a really good project-based study and this would be really fun to have if one ever goes to see Pompeii after reading both books.

http://archive.org/details/threehoursinpomp00scot

Three hours in Pompeii; a real and practical guide-book compiled in harmony with the description given by Bulwer Lytton in his work entitled "The last days of Pompeii" (1907)

Finally, if you wish to learn more about Pompeii tombs, here's a podcast:

http://classics.uc.edu/index.php/podcasts/169-pompeii-podcasts-the-tombs-of-pompeii

UC Classics graduate student Allison Emmerson shares her expertise on Pompeii’s tombs. She explains ways in which monuments commemorating individuals, their families, their slaves, and former slaves can offer insights into how people lived and what they valued. While these tombs are an important part of the site for studying the dead, they also played a prominent role in the living city, serving as places to stop and sit, write graffiti, and even deposit trash.

Enjoy the exhibit!   More from the website of Getty Villa:

 

The Last Days of Pompeii addresses the potent legacy of the ancient city of Pompeii in the modern imagination.

Glaucus and Nydia, 1867, Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Oil on wood panel, 15 3/8 x 25 5/16 in. (39 x 64.3 cm). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, 1977.128

Exhibition Checklist

Download a complete list of works in the exhibition (PDF, 202 KB, 7pp.) »

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 destroyed yet paradoxically preserved the city of Pompeii and neighboring towns. Seemingly frozen in time, they are often considered the places where we can best access the daily lives of ancient Romans. While providing windows to the past, since their rediscovery in the early 1700s, the Vesuvian cities have also served as mirrors of the shifting present. For three centuries they have remained a constant obsession, inspiring foremost artists—from Piranesi, Fragonard, Ingres, and Alma-Tadema to Duchamp, Dalí, Rothko, and Warhol—to examine contemporary concerns, such as sexual identity, psychoanalysis, the nuclear threat, collective memory, and the nature of art.

The exhibition draws its name from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 novel The Last Days of Pompeii, a melodrama of Pompeian life set immediately before the eruption of Vesuvius. One of the most popular literary works of the 19th century, the novel transformed modern perceptions of Pompeii and inspired numerous works of art, several of which are on view in the exhibition.

• play
• stop
• mute
• max volume

00:00

02:01

• repeat

• AUDIO: Curator Kenneth Lapatin introduces Bulwer-Lytton's influential and moralizing tale set in Pompeii.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/pompeii/index.html

UPDATE after seeing the exhibit:

Yes, the exhibit is really very comprehensive and definitely worth seeing --- from paintings, sculptures, films, to photographs, images of Pompeii is imagined from the only two contemporary accounts of the 79 AD eruption by Pliny the Younger and from the novel "Three Days in Pompeii" and from the 1903 novella "Gradiva" by Wilhelm Jensen.   Photographs are not permitted in this entire exhibit, and if you are not able to  come to Los Angeles or see it in Cleveland, I would suggest taking a look at photos and texts about the photos of the exhibited items in the book published in conjunction with this exhibit:

!

The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection

 By Victoria C. Gardner Coates, Kenneth D. S. Lapatin, Jon L. Seydl

You can copy and paste this link to your browser to see many sample pages with photos of many exhibits of this book:

http://books.google.com/books?id=zu6kmWWNQg0C&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=dali+and+Pompeii&source=bl&ots=f1D9_kIMH8&sig=MKEwrAI9ZCkaURYR3Sn2YSVAOV0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=__ShUOutKezOigLtjoGQCw&ved=0CF8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false

I have not been a big fan of Salvador Dali, but his painting seen here on page 117 and described in context of his life on page 116 is absolutely hauntingly beautiful and poignant using only a few colors.  It is single most symbolically rich painting in the exhibit and probably the only one without any fiery red in it.

Don't forget to get the audioguide ipod for Getty which has many segments on the Pompeii exhibit.  Free with photo-ID, but on the first come, first served basis.

Saturday Nov 10 UCLA's Exploring your Universe from 12noon to 8pm

UCLA's annual public Science event is getting better --- we are looking forward the new events such as making a bath bomb, eat liquid nitrogen ice-cream, and see all the new events in the physics and astronomy building.  Details below and at the link at the end.  Parking at UCLA ($11 all day) is the only cost.

ASTRONOMY LIVE!

Exploring Your Universe 2012

Get ready for the most exciting day of science all year, the fourth annual Exploring Your Universe! EYU 2012 will take place on Saturday, November 10, 2012 from 12 - 5 pm (daytime activities) and 5 - 8 pm (nighttime activites) at UCLA's campus (see Visitor Info link above for general directions and scroll down on this page for a detailed campus map specific to this event). This event is FREE of charge to the public andFAMILY-FRIENDLY!

Event Schedule

The primary event will take place in the Court of Sciences with activities and demos at the Physics and Astronomy Building, Mathematical Sciences Building, Geology Building, and near Kinsey Pavilion. You are welcome to come for any or all of the festivities! Feel free to pick workshops and activities you are interested in attending.

DAYTIME ACTIVITIES
Check back to see more!:

Astronomy (12:00 - 5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences unless otherwise noted):
- How the Sun works and solar telescope viewing
- Stellar Evolution
- Bottle Rockets
- Comet Making Demo
- Pocket Solar System and Asteroids
- Constellation Detectives
- Discovery methods for finding new worlds beyond our solar system
- Planetarium Shows (Mathematical Sciences 8th floor): Every half hour starting 12:30 pm! Pick up tickets to planetarium at the Information Booth.

Physics (12:00 - 5:00 pm) (Physics and Astronomy Building - PAB):
- See radiation in a Cloud Chamber
- The science behind Optical Illusions
- Discovering the Speed of Sound
-Electricity and Magnetism

Physics Demonstration Shows--2:30 PM and 3:45 PM in PAB 1-425

Earth and Space Sciences (12:00 - 5:00 pm) (Geology Building):
- Spectacular Rock and Mineral Displays 
- Fossil and Fossil Cast Displays 
- Earthquake Education Demonstrations 
- Stalactite Collection on Display 
- Petrified Wood Collection on Display 
- Understanding Fluid Dynamic Systems 
- Understanding Meteorites and MeteorWrongs 
- Making Fossil Casts 

NASA Mission Representation (12:00-5:00 pm) (Geology Building/ Court of Sciences):
- THEMIS: Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/main/index.html
- ARTEMIS: Studying Space Weather - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/artemis/
- Dawn: Investigating the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch- http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/
- Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment - http://diviner.ucla.edu/
- STEREO: Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory - http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

CEIN - Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- What is nanoscience, and what is special about nanoscale science and engineering?
- Hands-on activities for all ages.  Q&A with scientists

Environmental Sciences (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
-Plant a seed and what it grow at home
-Sustainable Practices
-Solar Power Demo

Chemistry (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Find out how to make a bubble bomb for baths
- Find out what floats on top of what... and what floats on top of that!
- Watch food get frozen with liquid nitrogen
- Eat liquid nitrogen ice cream

Engineering (12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Discover microbes using microscopes
- Program robots to obey your command!
- Learn how circuits work

OSA/SPIE (Optical Society of America/The International Society for Optical Engineering)(12:00-5:00 pm) (Court of Sciences):
- Explore how optics work!


ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC SCIENCES PRESENTATION (Located in Kinsey Pavillion, 1 PM and 2:30 PM):
Weather Observations and Forecasting or What the Weather Broadcaster Doesn't Tell you
Learn about the tools and techniques that weather forecasters use to make their predictions. These include radar and satellite imagery as well as computer models.


SCIENTIFIC TALKS (located in Kinsey Pavillion):

1:00 - 1:30: Dr. Wes Campbell (Physics)
The Physics of Baseball

2:00 - 2:30: Dr. Lindley Winslow (Physics)
Neutrinos - You can't see them but they're everywhere!

3:00 - 3:30: Dr. Leo Meyer (Astronomy)
The Galactic Center

4:00 - 4:30: Dr. Richard Kaner (Chemistry)
Fun with Plastics

5:00 - 5:30: Dr. David Paige (Earth and Space Sciences)
Ice on Mercury and the Moon





NIGHTTIME ACTIVITIES:

Astronomy (5:00 - 8:00 pm) (Mathematical Sciences 8/9th floor):
- Planetarium Shows (continued)
- Telescopes Viewing (with extra participation from the LA Astronomical Society - TBD

Physics (5:00 - 8:00 pm) (Mathematical Sciences 8/9th floor)
- Shadow Wall
- Light Tunnel

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~outreach/eyu2012.html