We will begin with the Henry Ford museum. I like museums and so our time there was a well spent afternoon. Let’s just say it had huge, and I mean HUGE, trains - a tank seems flimsy and small by comparison. I was impressed. The museum is dedicated to transportation which means that some of the exhibits were….not so impressive. It is true that cars like the 1980ish Honda Accord do represent significant steps forward in the automotive trade, but the fact remains…it’s a 1980 Honda Accord and nobody is impressed. I passed at least 5 cars that were in the museum... and also in the parking lot. That aside, it had a lot of very cool stuff.
The other thing that was weird was that since it was a “transportation etc.” museum, they didn't address anything war related or anything that had military connotations. It kind of annoyed me. Not that they were trying to, but I hate it when people ignore parts of history. History is what it is and it should not be censored or modified just because some aspects of it are uncomfortable. Even in the darkest parts of our past there are still valuable lessons to be learned and valuable innovations it would be foolish to ignore just because their setting is awkward.
In the section on flight they omitted World War I and World War II. Never mind the fact that virtually all advances in aircraft technology arose from military research and applications initially designed for war. It made the exhibit choppy. I mean, you look at one exhibit and it’s a very early model French plane; the next exhibit is a Curtis Jenny with a huge number of advances and technological improvements that were developed over the course of WWI.
Oh well... it was still a cool museum.
The other aspect of the museum that really almost deserves a post on its own was the live music. They were called the Mom Candy Band - that should say a lot on its own. The musicians (a term I use loosely here) were three women in their 40s. The vocals were, how I say this nicely…abysmal. The biggest problem, however, was their song choices. The ABC song is simply the ABC song. It doesn’t matter how fast you play it, how many guitar hooks you throw at it, whether you attempt the lyrics as if you were a emo-screamcore band, or try to harmonize with your band members - it is still the ABC song. No matter what you do, it will never “rock.” The same goes for Oh Susanna, Frere Jacques, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or any song designed specifically for an audience that has difficulties with basic motor skills (and yes I know Oh Susanna is a traditional American folk melody but irregardless at this point it is a kid’s song despite its history). Needless to say, they played all these songs in a fast, scream core style.
Yes there were a few kids there who seemed to like them and danced to their songs, but those kids were a very undiscerning audience who would have danced to a recording of cats yowling played at high speed. Mostly, people avoided the portion of the museum where they were playing. Come enjoy the trains but for your own sanity bring ear protection.
The other thing that I thought was odd was that on the museum’s signs they have as a subtext stating: “the best museum in the united states”. This seems a bit presumptuous to me; better than the Smithsonian? Really? You want to claim that? Ok.
I got to thinking - what if museums were honest about their limitations? Maybe it would look something like this:
If you can't read the subtext it says "you wouldn'y fly out here to visit us, but since you're here you might as well."
No comments:
Post a Comment