LUCAS MUSEUM OF NARRATIVE ART, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Our son came over this morning (Sunday, 9-13-26). He and our dear daughter-in-law were in California last week, so we had a nice catch up today. 

They went to the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art located in Exposition Park in South Los Angeles, California. Their website can be found here. This museum was entirely self-funded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson. 

George Lucas went to the University of Southern California (he attended the School of Cinematic Arts), which is immediately adjacent to the museum. 

Below is a photo of son looking outside at the park below. You can actually see some Star Wars characters...

like Princess Leia confronting Jabba the Hut...

and Yoda who is overlooking a waterfall, not seen in frame.

I asked him if I could share a few photos they took and he happily agreed, so thank you son. It truly is hard to believe that this building took the place of an asphalt parking lot.

He gave us a show transferring photos from his phone to our TV, and it was fun looking at those and hearing about their experiences of not only sights but the people they met. We enjoy listening to them very much and will look forward to getting together with our daughter-in-law next and hearing hers also. Below is a view of the Los Angeles skyline from the museum.

It is a 5-story, 300,000 square foot structure and not entirely all about Star Wars. It is, in fact, "the world's first major institution dedicated exclusively to the history of story and evolution of visual storytelling."

The building looks like a spaceship, as I thought and so many, many others apparently. But son explained that the renowned Chinese architect, Ma Yansong's inspiration, came from cloud formations, light and the local tree canopy. 

I read later, when the general public and the media compared this futuristic structure to a Star Wars spaceship, Ma Yansong clarified that his design philosophy focuses on organic nature. He envisioned the building as a formless, shapeless cloud that floats or hovers over the city, to evoke a sense of mystery and journey (those words, as you might have guessed, are what I read online and found them interesting enough to share here.) This building, as you can see from the outside, contains no straight lines, echoing Ma Yansong's vision of a natural cloud-like aesthetic. I have always been interested in an architect's vision of his work, and it is enlightening to know this one.

 I don't know if I will ever get to see it myself, but I have loved traveling virtually, and our son gave us a great guided tour through his story-telling and photos.

There are many artists works on display, and the Star Wars in Motion exhibit only occupies about 7 percent of the total gallery space. This room is dedicated to the first six films, including Luke Skywalker's land speeder, pod racers, speeder bikes and Darth Vader replicas. 

As for the other artists featured here? 20-century American illustrators included who have their own galleries are Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta, Jessie Willcox Smith, Maxfield Parish, Thomas Hart Benton and N. C. Wyeth.

Then we have fine art, modern and contemporary artists such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Vincent van Gogh, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, Robert Cosescott, Banksy, Judith F. Baca, JR, Ernie Barnes, Beatrix Potter and Takashi Murakami. 

Then there are Comic, Manga and Graphic Story Artists, Jack Kirby, George Herriman, R. Crumb (Robert Crumb), Winsor McCay, Alison Bechdel, Jim Lee, Frank Miller, Charles Schulz and Moebius.

Next comes documentary photographers and filmmakers, Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, Robert Capa and George Méliès.

Our son and daughter-in-law had two days but frankly, I would need two weeks to see everything I'm sure!

At the time of writing (9-14-26), admission is $25 for adults but entry is free for children and teenagers under 18. It is highly recommended you get advanced ticket reservations which you can find at their official website for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art website, link in my second paragraph.

Above is the original Cowardly Lion costume (not the face because it was a reproduction) from the Wizard of Oz.

It rained on one of the days they were at the museum. Fortunately, they purchased a couple of umbrellas when they looked at the weather. Also, when they were inside, an emergency fire drill took place where everyone had to get out of the museum. They didn't mind standing out in the rain and it sounded like everyone took it in good part. No one was getting upset at getting wet, so I heard. In the above photo our dear daughter-in-law was looking very happy. Son was happy too because they were in the first line to get back inside and he was able to take photos without too many people around for some of his photos. They had a real good time in this place.

Thank you both for letting me share your photos today. You are the best!

And for a bit of fun I am sharing this photo when son was little. We were visiting my family in the UK and were in my sister's back yard having a party. It had been his birthday a few days earlier. When we arrived my sister invited a few people over, which included neighbors kids. He was too young to see the movie, but everyone gave him Star Wars figures. He loved them and was quite taken with the storm trooper, so for a bit of fun I made a very rudimentary mask out of white cardboard my sister had tucked away. I tied some string on it and he wore it all day. To him it was a work of art, lol! 

(above photo from pixabay.com)

Take good care of yourselves, thanks for stopping by and I hope your day is a great one.

WILD RICE SALAD FROM THE AMERICAN INDIAN MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON DC

Several years ago Gregg and I went to Washington DC to visit the United States Botanical Garden. From there we walked over to the National Museum for the American Indian. It is only a very short walk away, on the next block. We were lucky to visit the museums often back in those days (we live approximate 25 miles away as the crow flies). This particular day, after browsing through The American Indian Museum on the first floor, we were ready for lunch. 

Since the museum opened, we enjoyed trying the various dishes offered in the Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe. It is a fun experience as we are able to choose native dishes from all across the United States. Online I read that the name "Mitsitam" means "Let's Eat" in the language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples. 

We enjoy all their dishes but the traditional Fry Bread and the Wild Rice Salad were two favorites, most definitely. Gregg said he wished we could make the wild rice dish at home and not really thinking I would be able to get the recipe, I did a search online. Much to my surprise it was easy to get and I made it for an evening meal.

This is Gregg's plate when we were at the museum.  He had the turkey on a roll with some kind of grainy mustard and you can see the Wild Rice Salad that I will be giving the recipe for below.

My dish was the turkey on a roll, and I ordered a side of wild onions with corn and a crabapple and cranberry relish. I will study the menu before we go next time. There are so many choices, and I have a hard time deciding while waiting in line. 

Wild Rice Salad
(Native Recipe from Mitsitam Cafe, National Museum of the American Indian.)

You can find the recipe here.  This will take you to a page where you will meet the Executive Chef for the museum.  Lots of interesting information. Scroll down a ways for the recipe. There are others on this page.

1/2 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
6 cups chicken stock
1-1/2 cup wild rice
1 carrot, cut into half-inch long matchsticks
3 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 Roma tomato, finely diced
4 or 5 scallions (green onions), finely chopped
3 bunches of watercress

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the pine nuts and pumpkin seeds in a small baking pan and toast them in the oven for about 10 minutes, until they are golden brown.  Let cool.

Combine the chicken stock and wild rice in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, reduce to low and simmer, covered, for about 45-55 minutes, until the grains are just opened up and tender. Spread the hot rice on a baking sheet and let cool.

When the rice is cool, scrape it into a large bowl and add carrots, dried cranberries, diced tomato, toasted pine nuts and pumpkin seed mixture, and scallions.

Toss all of the ingredients together with the vinaigrette, refrigerate for at least 1 hour and serve over watercress.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Vinaigrette Recipe

3 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons honey

Place cider vinegar in a bowl and slowly mix in oil. Sweeten with just a touch of honey.

This is what I wrote at the time: I made this recipe just before Gregg walked through the door. I put it in the fridge and we went out shortly afterwards. The weather really has been glorious around here lately and we haven't wanted to waste any of it. By the time we were heading home it was past dinnertime and we stopped off at our supermarket to pick up one of their honey-baked chickens. We also bought potato salad, and that made a really nice meal along with the rice salad. The salad was great. (I shared the recipe with friends and they also loved it). There were a lot of leftovers and the next night we served the rice over a bed of watercress.  We don't eat watercress that often and we were both surprised at the taste, peppery and it almost reminded us of a radish taste. Once combined with the salad they complimented each very nicely.

I was surprised that after cooking the wild rice there was a lot of liquid left in the pot. I am not sure why this was. I had expected it to absorb the liquid like regular rice. I had to drain it thoroughly before spreading it out on the baking sheet.

We found we didn't need a lot as it seemed very filling.

It has been a long time since I bought a cookbook, but when I saw that the museum had one with all their recipes inside, I treated myself and here it is.

It has all kinds of unusual recipes, along with interesting facts about the Native Indian peoples across America. I took photos of a few of the pages to share. If you enlarge them, more details can be read.

This page is a bit blurry for reading but the photos are nice to look at I think.

Here is a map of all the museums on the Mall. We were lucky enough to find a parking space right behind the museum on the Mall side, but this is a rare occurrence. We usually park in an underground parking lot about half a mile away. No so bad and we always welcome a bit of exercise. The road we take for the parking is opposite the National Air and Space Museum on the right-hand side of that road.  

The bottom left you can see the US Capitol, next is the U.S. Botanic Garden and then you will see the National Museum of the American Indian.

That's all for today's post. I hope you found it interesting.

FROM THE ARCHIVES - THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY - PART 1

(old photo found at pixabay.com)This is from an old post in May of 2009.  Exhibits may have changed since the last time we visited. Its history hasn't and I hope you will still enjoy the photos. We started our visit looking around the transport section of the museum. Above is the Steam Locomotive Jupiter made in Philadelphia in 1876. Jupiter was the Santa Cruz Railroad's third locomotive. Built for narrow-gauge track (36 inches between rails), Jupiter became obsolete in 1883 when the line switched to standard gauge (56-1/2 inches). Jupiter was sold to Guatemala, where it hauled bananas for more than 60 years. In 1976 it came to the Smithsonian as part of the United States Bicentennial Exhibition (whether it is still there I am not sure but I found this link with some history of Jupiter. It is a fascinating story.)

I am assuming this is a reproduction as according to the website's article, the original was scrapped in the early 1900s. However, another was reproduced in 1975 by the O'Connor Engineering Laboratories of Costa Mesa, California. (I try to remember to take photos of the historical information at each exhibit and read them when I get back home. I remember more this way. That is how I got my information for my post.) 

I enjoyed the sculptures at various exhibits, people dressed as they would have been during that time.

"There's always light after the dark. You have to go through that dark place to get to it but it's there, waiting for you. It's like riding on a train through a dark tunnel. If you get so scared you jump off in the middle of the ride, then you're there, in the tunnel, stuck in the dark. You have to ride the train all the way to the end of the road."

~Han Nolan~

(I didn't get the information on this locomotive at the time, but since catching up I put "old steam train 1401" in the search engine and happily it sent me right to the website I needed. You can read about it here.)

"To travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches and rivers, in fact, to see life."

~Agatha Christie~

"Nowhere can I think so happily as in a train."

~A. A. Milne~

This photo doesn't show you much as I was more taken with the horse sculpture, but he is pulling a Kramer Farm Wagon from 1925.The previous link takes you to what it looks like as the website is from the museum. Farmers wagons served many purposes. They picked up and delivered goods and also served as passenger vehicles when benches of extra wagon seats were added in 1926, despite the growing use of automobiles, more than 200,000 wagons were manufactured, and millions were still in use around the country.

This gentleman is a Pullman Porter. In the 1920's the Pullman Company was the largest single employee of African American men. From the 1870's through the 1960's, tens of thousands worked for Pullman as sleeping-car porters. The feeling of sleeping-car luxury came from the porter. He "made-down' berths at night and "made-up" berths into seating in the morning, helped with luggage and answered passengers calls at any hour. Working 400 hours a month, porters earned wages better than most African Americans, but degrading conditions helped lead to the founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925.

The photo below was taken in Salisbury, North Carolina in 1927. In the community, although they were servants on the job, at home they were respected members of their communities. Porters traveled extensively and connected their communities to a wider world. From the 1920's to the 1940's, porters helped southern African Americans migrate by bringing back information on jobs and housing in the North. Porters were also involved in civil rights activity. Pullman Porter E. D. Nixon helped plan the Montgomery-Alabama bus boycott of 1955-56. Union leader A. Philip Randolph pressured Franklyn Roosevelt into issuing Executive Order 8802 in 1941. It barred discrimination in defense industries and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Later Randolph was involved in planning the 1963 civil rights march on Washington DC. Peaceful protestors were and are the heart of getting things changed for the better.

The Railroad Conductor's job involved more than collecting tickets. He was the "captain" of the train. He supervised other train crew, looked out for the safety of everyone aboard and made sure every passenger paid the correct fare. The engineer was responsible for signals and speed restrictions enroute, but the conductor determined when a train could safely depart a station and was in charge of emergencies. The conductor's role as chief of the train came from maritime tradition. Many conductors on the first American railroads in the 1830's had been steamboat or coastal packet captains.

The last photo shows Conductor John W. Zimmer greeting a passenger in Burlington, Iowa in 1925.

There are links throughout my post to websites with more information. The one to the museum can be found here. I will have two more to share from the museum sometime at a later date.