Now with magical photo-graphic imagery!
These are the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. According to local lore, running up and down them repeatedly transforms you into a speech-impeded, but willfully determined pugilist. Perhaps it is part of some charming local custom or folk-ritual.
The museum itself is quite excellent. Their collection of works is impressive and varied. What I enjoyed most about the place the first time I visited was the collection of little rooms hidden away between the galleries. Each is setup using recovered artifacts and art from a particular period, sometimes going so far as to include actual wall panelling, ceiling decorations, and even fireplaces. They help to give an impression of what the art might have looked like in it’s “natural habitat.”
This is the body of the first man to attempt the pugilist metamorphosis. Following his death, the city had him bronzed, and placed next to the stairs that so changed his life.
The city seems dedicated to this Rocky Balboa man. Perhaps one day they will sell out to Hollywood and make a film about him. Typical.
This is the city of Philadelphia from the top of the Metamorphic Steps. The tower directly down the long drive is topped by a statue (or bronzed corpse of?) William Penn, the founder and one-time beneolent tyrant of this state. There was once a law on the book stating that no building in the city could be taller than his head. Eventually, the red-hot steam engine of capitalism and progress trampled that law into the dirt, but at least they had the decency to put those buildings behind Penn’s back.
Well, these are all of the photo-graphs that I have to share at this point. If you click them gently with your cursor, they will reveal obcenely large versions of themselves, in vivid and garish color!
I am halfway through Lavinia, but am unsure what is to follow. Perhaps Pillars of the Earth, perhaps the next Mary Russell mystery. Boy howdy but they’re good!