In Celebration of King Tut Exhibit, HMNS Patrons Wine, Dine and Unwrap a Mummy
Mike Rathke & Hung L. Truong
Nov. 2, 2022
HALLOWEEN MAY HAVE come and gone, but the Houston Museum of Natural Science is still in a spooky sort of mood, having just celebrated the opening of its King Tut exhibit with a Victorian-themed “mummy unwrapping” party for special patrons.
Members of the HMNS Curator’s Circle gathered just before King Tut’s Discovery Experience opened to the public to sip wine while previewing the exhibition. They they enjoyed a warm autumnal dinner — think duck potstickers to start, truffled chicken pot pie, pumpkin agnolotti with sage butter and deconstructed Yorkshire pudding, with buttered rum macarons and honeyed tarts of fig and goat cheese for dessert — while Alley actor Todd Waite unwrapped a pretend mummy. Waite, in top hat and Victorian garb, portrayed a 1914 scientist leading a parlor full of swells on a journey back in time, giving a colorful history of the very real practice of dinner-party unwrappings.
Even guests got into the reenactment, having been given names reminiscent of the era, to claim a new identity for the evening. One “Winston Churchill,” a young military officer in ’14, was asked to help with the unwrapping, discovered amulets not unlike what might’ve been found in such events back in the day. Valobra Master Jewelers provided real jewelry for the occasion!
At the new exhibit, which marks 100 years since Tut’s tomb was famously unearthed, guests are invited to “experience the dark and winding tunnels that led to Tutankhamen’s burial chambers, explore the countless golden treasures he took with him into the afterworld, and explore the brightly colored, floor-to-ceiling hieroglyphs that detail his life and offer prayers to the gods to ensure a blessed life after death,” per the museum.
Ashely Sloan and Devorah Rose
Bill Baldwin and Fady Armanious
Debora and Pat Cannon
Buddy and Kylie Carruth
Steffi Russell-Egbert and Katie McGee
Dan and Susan Dinges
Dorothy Cuenod and Shelli Lindley
Jenn Howe and Stephanie Escamilla Balash
Jayme Hunt and Matthew Lindley
Todd Waite
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Painter and Longtime Elton John Collaborator Bernie Taupin to Appear at Off the Wall Gallery
Nov. 2, 2022
SERENDIPITY. HOW ELSE can you describe the moment in 1967 when an artists and repertoire man for Liberty Records handed an unknown pianist named Elton Hercules John a randomly selected envelope of poems by an equally unknown Bernie Taupin?
Thus began one of the most historically successful collaborations in rock’n’roll, a 50-year songwriting partnership John is celebrating with gusto on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which was scheduled for Houston’s Minute Maid Park Nov. 4 but had to be canceled due to the World Series.
Meanwhile Taupin, who dedicated himself to visual art in the 1990s, has created a series of colorful text-art paintings inspired by lyrics he wrote for some of Sir John’s most beloved hit songs, including “Rocket Man,” “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” and “Bennie and the Jets.” Reflections: The Art Of Bernie Taupin shows Nov. 1-19 at Off The Wall Gallery. RSVP to meet Taupin in person when he visits the gallery Nov. 3 and Nov. 5.
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