Art of the Brick in New York. LEGO exhibition.

"Yellow" by Nathan Sawaya.
(PRNewsFoto/Discovery Times Square)

THE ART OF THE BRICK®, a captivating exhibition of intriguing works of art made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world, LEGO®, is set to make its debut in New York City at Discovery Times Square (226 West 44th Street) on June 14, 2013, with tickets now on sale.

The critically acclaimed collection of creative and inspiring art constructed using only LEGO® toy bricks by renowned contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya is coming to New York after enjoying record-breaking runs to sold-out crowds in Singapore, Taiwan and Australia.

"I want to have the broadest impact possible to inspire people to change the way they view the world and the way they think about art," said Sawaya. "What better way to do that than in the heart of New York City, at the crossroads of the world - Times Square."

The Discovery Times Square collection will be the world's biggest and most elaborate display of LEGO® art ever. Sawaya will be creating brand-new, never-before-seen works exclusively for this New York City premiere with more than 100 works of art made out of millions and millions of little LEGO® bricks.

"This will be my largest showing of artwork to date and I've got some very exciting surprises in store for New York, of course, being it's my hometown," said Sawaya. "Discovery Times Square is known for bringing epic collections of unique and immersive exhibits to New York so to be able to have my collection of sculptures exhibited here has profound meaning to me."

Guests will have the opportunity to get an up-close and in-person view of the iconic, pop culture fan favorite, Yellow, a life-size sculpture of a man ripping his chest open with thousands of sunshine yellow LEGO® bricks cascading from the cavity. In addition, visitors will be able to walk under a 20-foot-long T-Rex dinosaur skeleton made out of bricks and come face-to-face with a giant LEGO® skull.

"At Discovery Times Square we celebrate man's greatest achievements both throughout history and in contemporary times. What THE ART OF THE BRICK® does by raising this simple children's toy into an art-form is ingenious and is in line with our past exhibitions, providing a truly unique experience," said James Sanna , President of Discovery Times Square. "The scale of this exhibit and the creativity that Nathan Sawaya brings to his work makes for an outstanding show. We are also thrilled that Nathan, a hometown phenomenon, has chosen Discovery Times Square to unveil his newest masterpieces."

THE ART OF THE BRICK® is the first major museum exhibition to use LEGO® bricks as the sole art medium. Sawaya transforms them into tremendous and thought-provoking sculptures, elevating the toy to the realm of art. Sawaya's ability to transform this common toy into something meaningful, his devotion to spatial perfection and the way he conceptualizes action, enables him to elevate what almost every child has played with into the status of contemporary art.

"These works are very personal to me, since they reflect my growth as an artist as I strove to discover my creative identity," said Sawaya. "THE ART OF THE BRICK® exhibition is accessible because it engages the child in all of us while simultaneously illuminating sophisticated and complex concepts. Everyone can relate to the medium since it is a toy that many children have at home. But my goal with this exhibition when it first debuted in 2007 was to elevate this simple plaything to a place it has never been before."

THE ART OF THE BRICK® at Discovery Times Square runs until January 5, 2014.

Discovery Times Square is open seven days a week. Tickets are available for $14.50 (child 4-12), $19.50 (adult) and $16.50 (senior = 65). Special savings for groups of 10 or more are available with advanced reservation. Once open, the last tickets are sold 60 minutes prior to closing. For individual tickets and venue hours, visit http://www.DiscoveryTS.com/ art-of-the-brick, call 866.9.TSXNYC (866-987-9692) or visit the Discovery Times Square box office.

Discovery Times Square (DTS) is New York City's first large-scale exhibition center presenting visitors with limited-run, educational and immersive exhibit experiences while exploring the world's defining cultures, art, history and events. More than a museum, DTS has featured exhibitions of unparalleled breadth, including Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, Leonardo Da Vinci 's Workshop, King Tut, Pompeii The Exhibit, Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition and most recently Terracotta Warriors: Defenders of China's First Emperor. DTS is located at 226 West 44th Street (between Broadway and 8th Avenues).

Struth! It's a Small World After All, $8000 proves it.

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says that a disabled man who had to endure a non-stop half-hour of "It's a Small World After All, It's a Small World After All…" when the Small World ride broke down at California's Disneyland, has been awarded US$8000 compensation.

The man was unable to be freed from the ride because he was in a wheelchair, and while workers managed to get all other riders out of the cave in which the ride failed, they were unable to turn off the repetitive music… a tune you either love or hate, and after 30-minutes of constant playing, most likely the latter.

The man told the California Supreme Court he suffered panic attacks during the time he was trapped, high blood pressure side-effects, and had to contain a desire to urinate for the entire half-hour of the constant and repetitive jingle.  

Something akin, we feel, to what we're subjected to when we go to our local supermarket.

Struth! Uranium tailplane a weighty problem

The first 747-100s carried depleted uranium in their tails

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says not many of us knew it, but we used to fly around the world in aircraft whose tailplanes carried big quantities of depleted uranium (DU).

Because bizarrely its purpose was to act as a counterweight so pilots could trim aircraft and keep them flying level, as the depleted uranium was nearly 70% heavier than lead and therefore less was needed by mass in the confined spaces of the tailplanes.

It is understood that the early 747s contained up to 1.5 tonnes of  DU and this substance was difficult to recover after an accident (see BBC report).

Most major aircraft manufacturers including Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas and Lockheed used the depleted uranium in their earliest wide-bodied aircraft, replacing it from the early 1980s with tungsten that was even slightly heavier again than uranium.

LEGO Titanic

Scott Fowler of Kirkland, Washington spent eight months building this Lego Titanic. The 35 year old father-of -2 built 7'4" inch sections to construct this 22' LEGO creation.

It contains more than 250,000 pieces and cost Fowler more than $15,000 to build using specifications and diagrams he found on the Internet.

"I wanted to build a ship of historical importance that no-one had done before," said Fowler who began the project as physical therapy after wrist surgery.

Somerset Maugham Steams into Samoa

GETTING HOOKED ON A SAMOA LEGEND

David Ellis

IT'S by no means the wettest place in the world, but a visit there in 1920 convinced English author Somerset Maugham it was certainly one of them – so much so that when he penned one of his most famous short stories about the characters he encountered aboard-ship getting from Hawaii, he titled it simply Rain.

Maugham is not the only author to come under the spell of Samoa: Robert Louis Stevenson chose to live and write there in the 1890s, and James A Michener was there with the US Marines during the war in the Pacific, keeping notes of people and events around him, and which ultimately formed part of his classic Tales of the South Pacific that was published at war's end.

Somerset Maugham was travelling with his lover, Gerald Haxton on the steamer Sonoma from Honolulu to Tahiti in 1920 when the vessel was forcibly quarantined in Pago Pago because of an onboard case of measles.

Also aboard were a zealous missionary and his wife, and an American lady of questionable morals. Maugham seized upon these characters as the crux for his highly successful Rain, the missionaries becoming the Scottish fire-and-brimstone Reverend Alfred Davidson and his overtly prudish wife ("the inhabitants of these islands will not be Christianised until every boy more than 10 years is made to wear trousers…" she moans.)

And the American prostitute became Sadie Thompson the colourful, well, prostitute.

Another in the short story, a Dr Macphail bears striking resemblance to Maugham himself: both he and "Dr Macphail" had served in the medical corps in WWI, and both had a hearty dislike of bigoted fundamentalist preachers.

Rain goes on to tell of the battle between the Rev Davidson and Sadie Thompson, whose soul he attempts to save and whom he coerces to repent – only to end up himself in her bed, and... well, you read the story.

And throughout it all it rains, just as it had when Maugham and Haxton had visited in 1920, in the story Maugham recounting how "the rain did not pour, it flowed… and fell in torrents." In fact Pago Pago records a whopping 119-inches (3000+ millimetres) a year, and while the bulk of this falls between October and May, even in the mid-year "dry season" around six inches (153mm) drenches the place every month.

The Sadie Thompson that Somerset Maugham created may or may not have actually existed, but Sadie Thompson is almost revered in American Samoa, with the locals pointing out how "she," Maugham, Haxton, the Davidsons and Macphails had rooms in a boarding house while their ship was quarantined.

And that after the ship steamed off to Tahiti, Sadie stayed behind to ply her trade to grateful expatriates living in steamy Pago Pago – and that her house of ill-repute is still there today.

And she's been immortalised in three movies: the first, a 1928 silent that starred Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore, shocked prudes who were aghast at the portrayal of a married man of the cloth partaking of the favours of a harlot, while a second with Joan Crawford and Walter Huston had America's 1930's straight-laced equally up in arms.

A third re-make in 1953 with Rita Hayworth and Jose Ferrer was more sanitized and considered somewhat tame.

There's some conjecture as to just where Maugham stayed in Pago Pago in 1920 during his delay there, and by extension, Sadie Thompson, the Davidsons and Dr Macphail and his wife, but it was most likely in what is now the town's Chinatown district.

And today's Sadie Thompson Restaurant occupies the building in which, the locals will swear, Sadie later ran her house of ill-repute.

In Maugham's short tale, after repenting her sins Sadie was to be deported to San Francisco and prison by the governor of Samoa, who was under the influence of the Rev Davidson, and even though she wanted to flee to Australia – which would have rid Samoa of her.

But locals will tell you the "real" Sadie was found one night by police in a yet-again drunken stupor with clients, bundled onto a ship bound for Sydney – and the captain told to take her there if he ever wanted to berth in American Samoa again.

True – or just another tale of the South Pacific?

                                                            …………………

  

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] PICTURESQUE Pago Pago Harbour – setting for one of the world's greatest short stories. (Samoa National Parks Service)

[] THE building in which Sadie Thompson supposedly ran her bordello – and is now Sadie Thompson's restaurant. (Samoa Office of Archives)

[] SOMERSET Maugham… created Rain after the characters he met sailing to American Samoa from Hawaii. (Wikimedia)

[] GLORIA Swanson: her screen portrayal of Sadie Thompson outraged America's 1928 prudes. (Wikimedia)

[] AN original printing of Rain cost all of 10c. (Amazon Books)

[] SHIP Sonoma on which Somerset Maugham sailed to Samoa in 1920. (NSW Gov Library)

Struth! No such thing as a stupid question. Maybe.

Wales - definitely open in winter (wales.com)

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says travel agents get used to fielding some pretty oddball questions, and a recent survey amongst agents brought these pearlers to light:

• Are there any lakes in England's Lakes District?
• Is Wales closed during Winter?
• The brochure says "No hairdressers at the resort." We are trainee hairdressers, so will we be okay staying there?
• What month should we avoid being in New York so we don't get caught up in the May Day demonstrations?
• What kind of performances can we see in London's Piccadilly Circus?
• We saw ruined castles and abbeys almost every day of the tour in the UK. Why did they build so many of them?
• And this couple who complained to their agent on their return home from a Mediterranean cruise, that they were enjoying one particular port so much that they left a note in their cabin asking the Captain if he could stay in port a bit longer for them to enjoy even more of it. Their complaint?  "When we got back from our sightseeing, the ship had gone…"

Some mothers do have 'em.

Back to Burma - and forward to Myanmar

BURMA'S PAST IS MYANMAR'S FUTURE

David Ellis

with Malcolm Andrews

THEY may have changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar and its capital from Rangoon to Yangon, but the ambience of the British Empire lives on in the bar at the grand old Strand Hotel.

Relaxing in wicker chairs, moustachioed gentlemen sip their Johnny Walker Black Label as their partners fiddle with glasses of Pimm's No 1… the original quinine digestive alleged to ward off the dastardly malaria.

The hotel's walls are made of teak and, high in the ceilings above the chairs and tables, fans whirl quietly. In days past their place was taken by large, waving carpet-like contraptions operated by punkawallahs to stir the languid, heat and humidity-filled air.

Occasionally an English expatriate with a cane and a pith helmet still wanders into the bar. And, more recently, so too tourists – just as they do to Raffles in Singapore, the Savoy in London or the Kempinski in Berlin – to gawk at a relic of yesteryear.

Like Rip Van Winkle, Myanmar has awoken from a deep sleep. First it was the military junta that scared away the tourists. Then it was Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic pro-democracy advocate and Nobel Laureate who asked foreigners not to come – because the tourist dollars would only help prop-up the military, and not filter down to the poorest in most need

However a couple of years ago the people asked Aung San Suu Kyi to reconsider her stand. It was counter-productive, they pointed out, and was hampering the very people she wanted to help.  She accepted their pleas and the country will this year embrace some 1.5 million tourists … more than twice the number of a few years ago.

And a good majority will visit the Strand Hotel, that was built by Arshak, Tigran and Aviet Sarkies, Armenian brothers born in Persia (now Iran) who were responsible for a string of luxury hotels across South-East Asia. These included Raffles Singapore, while construction of Rangoon's Strand commenced in 1896 and finished five years later.

And from its opening there was one explicit rule: only white guests were permitted to stay there, although many years later the hotel also became home to Japanese officers during the occupation of Burma in World War II.

But while the Strand is a must-see in Yangon, it literally pales into insignificance against the Shwedagon (or Golden) Pagoda, a 100-m high gilded and jewel-encrusted structure that looks a bit like a giant inverted spinning top and towers over the city skyline. 

Its crown is tipped with 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies and at the very top is a giant 76 carat (15g) diamond.

Modern day guests to Myanmar and the Strand have included US President Barack Obama, who visited there last November.

And a couple of large cruise ships have stopped off on round-the-world voyages – testing the waters so to speak – while other lines are looking to Myanmar as a regular stopover for ships cruising out of Singapore.

Among these will be the boutique vessel SeaDream II with two 13-day voyages in November and December this year. And as well as overnight stays in Yangon, SeaDream II will also include two of the 800 tiny islands that dot the Andaman Sea west of Thailand.

One is the uninhabited Pila Kyun.  And no doubt SeaDream Yacht Club will be considering it for their signature Champagne and Caviar Splash, where guests visiting such placid waters are served drinks by waiters who stand in these waters knee-deep just off the beach, surfboard-like floating tables serving as their bar .

The other is Thahtay Kyun, a short ocean trip from southern Thailand and home to a five-star casino and golf resort.

Also with an eye to attracting Aussies is the Accor Hotels chain, with three establishments under construction in Myanmar.

The first will open by the end of the year – the 366-room Novotel Yangon Max. It will feature a roof-top French restaurant and will be within walking distance of the Shwedagon Pagoda.

More than a century ago English author Rudyard Kipling noted: "This is Burma and it is quite unlike any land you know about."

Burma? Myanmar? Call it what you will, Kipling's comments still hold true today.

(Malcolm Andrews was a guest of SeaDream Yacht Club in the Mediterranean in 2012.)

                               

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

 

[] THE Strand Hotel in British Colonial day's Rangoon – when only white guests could stay in the hotel . (Myanmar Ministry of Tourism)

[] AND the Strand today: welcoming all. (Flickr)

[] THE fabulous Golden Pagoda that towers over Yangon. (Flickr)

[] THAHTAY Kyun island: now home to a 5-star casino and golf resort. (TripAdvisor)

[] SEADREAM II will make two visits to Myanmar in November and December of this year. (SeaDream Yacht Club)

[] ARTISTS impression of the new Novotel Yangon Max that will open there later this year. (Accor Hotels)

 

Struth! Family irate with Alex Cross

 
Movie still from the 'violent' crime thriller "Alex Cross"

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says a flight from Denver to Baltimore in the United States was diverted to Chicago earlier this month after just an hour in flight, because a family complained about the inflight movie.

 

And when it landed in Chicago the family was surprised to be escorted off the plane – and confronted by police, two Border Protection Officers, the United Airlines' airport manager… and an FBI Agent.

 

But after an interview that took just five minutes and a check of their identity, the parents – who complained because the R13-rated film could be seen by their four and eight year old sons – were told they could continue on to Baltimore, but only on a different United Airlines' aircraft.

 

The movie that caused it all was "Alex Cross," the story of a homicide detective pushed to the brink by a serial killer who specialises in torture and pain. The film's R13 rating means that officially "parents, carers or teachers cannot give permission for anyone under 13 years" to watch the movie because of "graphic violence and sexual explicity."

 

The parents complained it was shown to all passengers on drop-down monitors, and when they asked if the monitor in front of them could be turned off for their children's sake, flight attendants said it was not possible. The parents diverted their children's attention from the movie and sent a message to the Captain, but said they received no reaction – only the announcement soon after that the flight was being diverted to Chicago "for security concerns."

 

United Airlines has said as a result of the incident "it's since conducted a full review of inflight entertainment."