Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Knowing Me, Knowing You...
This sure has been an amazing week for Broadway performances. My dad took me to see Mama Mia! tonight... we had so much fun - it is a really great show with a fun story, lots of comedic moments, time to be teary-eyed (there is a wedding of a daughter involved) and many opportunities to sing along. Who doesn't love ABBA??
Also, I took the day off and spent it with Eric (plus Dad tagged along) so that we could go to the brand new Canadian War Museum It was quite amazing... we spent about 5 hours there (we purposely didn't bring any kids with us so we could take our time) and we did not get to see all of the exhibits.
This museum includes 8 different sections which focus on different aspects of war. The first one is all about ancient history of war in Canada, looking at the time before Canada existed. Most of this section is about native peoples and the earliest contact with white colonial invaders up until about the War of Independence of the US from Britain and then up to about the Boer War.
The second section is mostly about the first world war, and the third section is all about the second world war. We saw these three sections, plus we visited a huge section which has a huge inventory of old war related vehicles such as tanks, trucks and planes...
As well we spent a long time in the huge art gallery in which hundreds of pieces of art with war themes are on display. Apparently Canada, Britain and Australia recruited dozens of top artists during WWI to document what was happening all over the world. Some of Canada's most famous artists who would later become the "group of seven" participated in this project, including Alex Colville and A.Y. Jackson. This was my favorite section of the museum, as the artists didn't try to glorify anything... they just painted/drew/sculpted what they saw.
There is also a Hall of Remembrance which we visited briefly and a Reconciliation Hall which didn't seem finished but we poked our heads in quickly there too. We did not get to do section 4, which covers the Cold War up to the present.
Overall, we were all incredibly impressed with this new museum. It certainly is worth visiting if you ever come to Ottawa. Although there is a bit of the feeling that war is exciting and dangerous (aka glorious)... it mostly focused on the loss, grief, violence of it all and the pure horror of it. It certainly was eye opening, especially in light of recent world events.
For example, there was information on internment camps for Germans, Italians and Japanese during both world wars, which were all across Canada. Canadians mostly now think this was a terrible, shameful thing to do to almost totally innocent people. But these days, the new anti-terrorism/homeland security laws remind me of these past events.
The design of the building itself is an incredible work of art. The wall surfaces and shapes remind you of tall ships, low bunkers and tunnels underground. In some way, it is very beautiful. See the picture of the building above.
Finally, I wouldn't take any young children there. It is just too graphic and honestly, boring for them. They wouldn't understand and might be very frightened about what is there. Tanks and guns are just not appropriate for children, in my humble opinion. I was dismayed to see dozens of people there today with 3-8 year old children, which I think was totally inappropriate. Maybe when Owen is around 12 I would take him there and have a good conversation about war and peace.
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Hi another lisa,
What a great post lisa? It is so great knowing everyone is enjoying the summer. All the wonderful things to enjoy and do. Live, laugh, have a great summer. Sincerely Holly D
What a great post lisa? It is so great knowing everyone is enjoying the summer. All the wonderful things to enjoy and do. Live, laugh, have a great summer. Sincerely Holly D
Thanks for the warning, we're dying to check out the new war museum but I guess we'd better find a sitter for the wee ones first!
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