A long weekend...
It's been another 'bank holiday' weekend here.
On Saturday night, we went out for dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday at the rather wonderful Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro.
Being v keen these days to grab any opportunity to get out on the town, we took full advantage of our babysitter being available from 6pm and arrived very early to enjoy cocktails in the beautiful fireside bar (oh, the glamour!!!)
Later our friends joined us for a really delicious meal: B, ever adventurous with menus, had escargots; S had foie gras and venison followed by a lovely glass of dessert wine which, in a moment of conversational enthusiasm, she unfortunately inadvertently flung across the table. Anyway, it was a great evening.
Monday was Martin Luther King Day so B had the day off. We decided to visit Salem, the location of the famous Witch Trials in the 1690s: nineteen people were hung and one poor person 'pressed to death', accused of witchcraft by a bunch of hysterical teenage girls. This statue is of the town's Puritan founder, who was born in England, and one of the original Pilgrims.
There are about a million museums in Salem, but we'd heard a lot are very kitsch. Our guide-book recommended the Salem Witch Museum.
It's fair to say it did not have the highest quality exhibits we've ever seen.
But the Museum did an OK job of telling the story of the Trials and had an interesting display about social scapegoating, comparing the Witch Trials to more recent US events (e.g. McCarthy Communist trials; persecution of the gay community over AIDS; imprisonment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor).
It also reminded us that thet persecution of 'witches' led to millions of deaths in medieval Europe, not just twenty - and anyway the whole thing reminded us of the Nazis and the Stalinist 'purges'. Seems it's never a pretty result when people try and create what they consider to be a pure society.
So, while at first we'd thought visiting Salem had nothing to do with Martin Luther King Day, in the end it seemed somewhat appropriate.
Afterwards, we went to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem which is a truly stunning building containing beautiful art from all around the world.
We checked out an exhibition on 300 years of New England art and culture... 
....and another on Native American art.
After all the Salem stuff, it did a pretty good job of cheering us up over the human condition. It was one of those museums where this is still loads more cool stuff to see, so we'll definitely be paying another visit. www.pem.org
On Saturday night, we went out for dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday at the rather wonderful Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro.
Being v keen these days to grab any opportunity to get out on the town, we took full advantage of our babysitter being available from 6pm and arrived very early to enjoy cocktails in the beautiful fireside bar (oh, the glamour!!!)
Later our friends joined us for a really delicious meal: B, ever adventurous with menus, had escargots; S had foie gras and venison followed by a lovely glass of dessert wine which, in a moment of conversational enthusiasm, she unfortunately inadvertently flung across the table. Anyway, it was a great evening.
Monday was Martin Luther King Day so B had the day off. We decided to visit Salem, the location of the famous Witch Trials in the 1690s: nineteen people were hung and one poor person 'pressed to death', accused of witchcraft by a bunch of hysterical teenage girls. This statue is of the town's Puritan founder, who was born in England, and one of the original Pilgrims.
There are about a million museums in Salem, but we'd heard a lot are very kitsch. Our guide-book recommended the Salem Witch Museum. 
It's fair to say it did not have the highest quality exhibits we've ever seen.
But the Museum did an OK job of telling the story of the Trials and had an interesting display about social scapegoating, comparing the Witch Trials to more recent US events (e.g. McCarthy Communist trials; persecution of the gay community over AIDS; imprisonment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor).
It also reminded us that thet persecution of 'witches' led to millions of deaths in medieval Europe, not just twenty - and anyway the whole thing reminded us of the Nazis and the Stalinist 'purges'. Seems it's never a pretty result when people try and create what they consider to be a pure society.
So, while at first we'd thought visiting Salem had nothing to do with Martin Luther King Day, in the end it seemed somewhat appropriate.
Afterwards, we went to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem which is a truly stunning building containing beautiful art from all around the world.
We checked out an exhibition on 300 years of New England art and culture... 
....and another on Native American art.
After all the Salem stuff, it did a pretty good job of cheering us up over the human condition. It was one of those museums where this is still loads more cool stuff to see, so we'll definitely be paying another visit. www.pem.org
posted by BS&A at 2:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home