(HOME)
EGYPTOMANIA
IN THE NEWS
(notes on the persistent influence of ancient
Egypt on popular culture, fine arts, and other current events)
(please
note
that external links
are not kept updated and that newly-posted stories may appear with
earlier dates)
2008
July-December
27 August
"Wilton Lewis Tawwater was born in Quanah [Texas] in 1923 [....] His
father called him 'King Tut' when he was a baby, and 'Tut' stuck with
him his entire life."
Plainview Daily Herald
27 August
A bicycling event will be held on 27 September to benefit the
"maintenance and preservation" of the Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb,
Illinois.
WIFR
27 August
Next month, the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio will show The Pharaoh's Daughter,
a film of "a legendary 1862 ballet choreographed by Marius Petipa (who
later created the first "Nutcracker") set to music by Cesare Pugni. The
recent, lavish Bolshoi Ballet production was reconstructed from
Petipa's original by Pierre Lacotte."
The Plain Dealer
27 August
Ankh: The Curse of the Scarab King has been released for the Nintendo D gaming system.
ProductReviews
27 August
One of the plays featured at the Page-to-Stage New Play Festival at the Kennedy Center in New York City is the musical The Last Days of Cleopatra,
adapted by Joe Calarco from the book of that title by Charlie Barnett.
The play "is about the scandal on the set of "Cleopatra" in the early
1960s when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fell in love despite
their respective spouses."
Washington Post
27 August
A review of the New York Grand Opera production of Aida.
Brooklyn Eagle
26 August
In an upcoming episode of the Sci-Fi Channel's series Eureka,
entitled "Show Me the Mummy," "a famed archeologist [is] on the hunt
for a mummy after he opens the tomb of an Egyptian queen at Global
Dynamics."
BuddyTV
26 August
The Egyptian goddess Isis is the namesake of a British charity that
supports "women and their children experiencing mental distress." The
charity, the Isis Project, has "a new logo depicting a blue eye. 'Isis'
is a goddess in Egyptian culture, representing feminine strength,
rebirth and renewal, while the eye symbolises protection and recovery."
Telegraph and Argus
26 August
Scottish singer Chelsea Dagger recalls: "'My favourite ever [burlesque
performance] was the very first one I did. I was Cleopatra and I did
this really cheesy Egyptian dance and a strip tease. It was hilarious,
but I loved it. I've never done it again, but I absolutely loved it.' |
It was seeing her perform as the Egyptian queen that inspired John
[Lawler, now her husband] to pen the song Chelsea Dagger."
The Scotsman
26 August
Noted in an article about Josephine Baker: "She appeared in a show, 'La
Revue Negre', in which she danced the Charleston on top of a drum
dressed in ostrich feathers, and became a huge star. The French press
went wild and said she was 'Nefertiti and the Queen of Sheba and
Cleopatra ... her eyelids twinkling with sequins, her fingers, wrists,
throat and ears aglow with diamonds ... She is the most radiant of all
temptresses ever to grace the Paris stage ... A sinuous idol who
enslaves and incites all mankind.'"
The Guardian
25 August
For 2007/2008, foreign tourism to Egypt has increased by more than 25% over 2006/2007.
Reuters
25 August
Although dubbed "Ziggurat," the futuristic carbon-neutral pyramid city planned for Dubai is clearly of Egyptian inspiration.
Inhabitat
25 August
The Isle of Man is issuing a commemorative coin in which "Sand from
Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza, the only original Ancient Wonder still
standing, is encapsulated."
Numismaster
25 August
High-school drama teacher and playwright Linda Piccolo's play Curse of the Pharaoh Queen,
"centers on famous detective writer Agatha Christie solving a murder
mystery during a trip to Aswan, Egypt, with her archaeologist husband.
| It’s full of action, murder, intrigue, Egyptian history and, of
course, a mummy’s curse."
Helena Independent Record
24 August
The Khufu boat inspired singer-songwriter Ben Sollee's "Bury Me in My Car."
Courier-Journal
23 August
An opinion piece compares the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack
Obama, to the Egyptian god Osiris: "The 'O' [in the official campaign
logo] then symbolizes Obama as well as the mythological figure of
Osiris, the sun-god personified in the Egyptian cult of life, death and
fertility. The Obamas are the Osiris-Isis pair, the power couple
of Egyptian mythology..."
OpEdNews
22 August
For the famous "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean
King and Bobby Riggs, held on 20 September 1973, King "entered the
stadium Cleopatra-style, on a chair carried by burly bare-chested young
men. Riggs followed in a rickshaw pulled by near-naked models he called
his 'bosom buddies.'"
Times Colonist
21 August
Clair Ossian's Texas garden was inspired by ancient Egypt.
Dallas Morning News
21 August
Supermodel Naomi Campbell had a meeting with Zahi Hawass,
secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Hawass states
"She claims she feels a great spiritual connection to it [the Great
Sphinx at Giza]. I took her to visit and she started talking to it."
The Independent
20 August
Asked whose wardrobe, "past or present, fictional or real," she would
most like to steal, actress Naomie Harris replied, "Cleopatra's,
please. I love all her gold jewellery and floaty dresses. I'd be
happy wearing that kind of attire every day."
TimesOnline
20 August
The newest police horse in Saratoga Springs, New York, is named King Tut.
TimesUnion
19 August
Review of a production of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra at the Stratford Festival (Ontario).
National Post
18 August
Vena Cava's new line of shoes "will consist of four styles matching
their Spring collection theme of 'Egyptomania.' Expect to see exotic
strappy sandals embellished in monkfish and salmon skin dyed in muted,
sun-bleached colors."
FabSugar
17 August
Article about the 1932 film The Mummy.
Times Colonist
17 August
At last year's welcome back celebration at Rock Hill High School
in Rock Hill, South Carolina, "principal Judy Mobley made a grand
entrance as the Egyptian ruler Cleopatra, carried in on a couch as
admirers threw flower petals."
HeraldOnline
17 August
"Jan de Bray's Banquet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra is an odd work, but
then it was meant to be. The canvas is a portrait historié, a portrait
whose subjects are shown as historical characters – in this case, a
licentious Roman general and an Egyptian queen whose husbands included
two of her brothers. Hardly a flattering depiction, especially given
the identity of the sitters: Salomon and Anna de Bray, Jan's father and
mother."
The Independent
16 August
An Internet gambling game called Pharaoh's Treasure recently paid out a £100,000 jackpot.
Evening Telegraph
15 August
Two churches in Chester joined together to hold an Egyptian-themed "holiday club for children"
Chester Chronicle
14 August
A 1,200-pound cast
cement statue of Horus has mysteriously turned up facing due west on
the lower slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. Its
origins are unknown.
WRMEA
14 August
A 1978 short film entitled invisible Adversaries is based "on the
Egyptian myth of the Hyksos – an ancient tribe who would stage
invasions via sudden appearance and disappearances." (Egyptomania.org
is otherwise unaware of this "myth" and would appreciate learning of
any source, modern or otherwise, referencing it.)
DVD Times
14 August
The Masonic Temple in Greensboro, North Carolina, which has an
"Egyptian-styled Scottish Rite room," may become a performing arts
center.
News-Record
14 August
Recently closed in Grand Chute, Wisconsin: the Tan Lines tanning salon
on Integrity Way. "The salon opened in 2005 and had 54 tanning rooms in
a massive 10,000 square foot space with an Egyptian theme."
PostCrescent
14 August
At the Magdalen Community Fayre in Gorleston could be found "Isis Egyptian dancing."
Great Yarmouth Mercury
14 August
"The teams dressed up in Cleopatra, Ghost Busters, Egyptian and
Sheila’s Wheels outfits" for the annual trolley dash" to raise
money for the Wath Brow Hornets rugby team charity.
Whitehaven News
13 August
Having failed to raise the required funds, the Texas Ballet Theater has canceled its performance of Cleopatra in Beijing. (See 9 August.)
Star-Telegram
Dallas Morning News
13 August
An Egyptian-themed game, Pyramid Solitaire, is available for the iPhone.
iLounge
13 August
The new female character in the new Star War series (see 11 August) is described as "a facial amalgam of Nefertiti and Pete Doherty."
Financial Times
12 August
Another story on the Egyptian-themed fair at Harborough. (See also 6 August.)
Harborough Mail
12 August
Designer Lisa Maycock reports that her spring 2009 line will be
"Egyptian sportswear, we’re calling it celestial
sportswear [...]But it’s loosely inspired by
Egyptomania." [...] "It's a fascination with Egypt. Like
Francophile, but we're doing it in a subtle way so that
it's wearable."
New York Observer
12 August
"Egyptian deities probably aren't a realm to which PC enthusiasts give
much thought when picking out components, but for whatever reason, the
Hiper Group has decided that's the appropriate theme for its new line
of cases."
The Tech Report
11 August
(Egyptomania.org hesitates to mention this, but only hesitates.) The low-budget film Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers features those who "worship the god of Egyptian chainsaws."
MLive.com
11 August
A South African "teambuilding conference" company is holding an event it calls the Pharaoh's Curse.
BizCommunity
11 August
The new segment in the Star Wars series, The Clone Wars, features "Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), a feisty 14-year-old girl with a
neo-ancient Egyptian look who is assigned to serve as apprentice to the
reluctant Anakin. The character seems like an obvious play for the teen
audience."
Screen Daily
11 August
Now available: a King Tut sleeping bag, reported to be "a huge hit in Japan."
Inventorspot
11 August
"Cleopatra's Nile barge" was one of the entries in first Cardboard Boat
Regatta at the University of New Hampshire Outdoor Pool in Durham.
Seacoast Online
10 August
"At a media conference here, [George Lucas is] asked about the
challenge of living up to his own legacy, especially on a smaller
budget. 'It's challenging,' he says. 'All art is a technological
medium, so a lot of it has to do with engineering how to create what
you imagine. It's also something that's dictated to you by the amount
of resources you have available to you. If you're a Pharaoh, you build
pyramids.'"
London Free Press
10 August
"Chodovar brewery manager Mojmir Prokes explained that the treatment
[at Prave Pivni Lazni, a Czech beer spa] was inspired in part by
ancient Egyptian beer traditions."
Chicago Tribune
9 August
The Texas Ballet Theater may cancel its upcoming trip to the China Shanghai International Arts Festival
if it fails to raise a minimum of $70,000 by Wednesday, necessary to
ship sets, costumes, and other equipment (including "some expenses
associated with the special recorded music") required to stage Cleopatra.
Star-Telegram
Dallas News
9 August
A fundraiser will be held on 6 September to benefit the restoration of
the 1913 Egyptian Revival organ in the Downtown Presbyterian
Church in Nashville, Tennessee. The church architecture is likewise
Egyptian Revival.
Tennessean
9 August
The third building phase of Fort Trumbull (New London, Connecticut),
constructed in 1839, "is the only American fort that features Egyptian
Revival architecture."
TheDay.com
9 August
To coax visitors to Columbus, Ohio: "Print ads, online ads and even
T-shirts will display images of the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of
China, the Egyptian pyramids and other objects of interest not found in
Columbus."
Columbus Local News
8 August
Early twentieth century Egyptian Revival architecture in Indianapolis,
Indiana. (Note, however, that not all of the architecture shown in the
accompanying photo gallery is properly speaking Egyptian Revival.)
Indy.com
8 August
A new Mardi Gras krewe, named the Krewe of Tut, after the boy-king, has
formed this year and been approved by the Terrebonne Parish
Council (Louisiana). Open to "people of all backgrounds," it already
has about 200 members.
HoumaToday
8 August
On Pharaoh's Island in the Thames River, "many of the 23 houses on the
island have names with an Egyptian theme to maintain the link [to
Admiral Lord Nelson, who defeated Napoleon's fleet at the Battle of the
Nile in 1798] The biggest of them, the Sphinx at the eastern end of the
island, was recently on the market with a price tag in excess of
£1m."
Staines News
8 August
Video (plug-in, perhaps Windows-specific, required) of the Egyptian-themed day at Harborough mentioned 6 August.
Harborough Mail
8 August
Review of the Seattle Opera's production of Aida.
HeraldNet
7 August
The play Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell
has its world premiere production at Maieutic Theatre Works. "Imagine
an island in hell where Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Queen
Victoria...wait for their men. What happens when women's lib icon
Anaïs Nin arrives to turn their afterlife upside down?"
Broadway World
7 August
Article about the production of Aida staged in Beijing by the Cairo Opera House.
Daily News Egypt
7 August
Review of the TriArts Sharon Playhouse's production of Elton John's Aida.
RepublicanAmerican
7 August
The Egyptian replica pieces formerly on display at the Luxor Hotel in
Las Vegas have been donated to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.
(See also 26 June 2008; for the "de-Egyptianization" of the hotel, see, most recently, 23 August 2007.)
ReviewJournal
6 August
"Two huge sandpits, palm trees, a sphinx and deckchairs have been
placed on The Square [in Harborough] this morning (Wed, Aug 6) as part
of an Egyptian-themed event."
Harborough Mail
6 August
Noted: the current production of Swan Lake, being staged in the Opera House in London by the Guandong troupe of acrobats includes, bafflingly, "a camel and a sphinx."
This Is London
4 August
A spacecraft called Rosetta is headed for an asteroid, which it will
examine by means of its Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote
Imaging System (OSIRIS) imaging system.
European Space Agency News
4 August
A description of what theater in which The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opened in Mumbai: "the setup leading to the screens had an Egyptian decor, complete with mummies, pyramids and the sphinx!"
Times of India
4 August
A look at The Mummy (1932), starring Boris Karloff.
Nashua Telegraph
3 August
A reviewer compares painter Yau Bee Ling's "abstract portrait" Pride
to Nefertiti: "The tilt of the head in the portrait is in the classic
Nefertiti style. The angular chin, the eyes almost looking down at the
viewer portray a certain hauteur about the person. | [...] She
was so important to him that Akhenaten had her image carved into the
four corners of his granite sarcophagus, providing his mummified body
with protection in the after life – and in so doing elevated her
to the realm of the deities. | Perhaps that explains the hauteur often
seen in representations of Nefertiti."
The Star Online
2 August
A look back at the mummy movies of Universal Studios, past and present.
Geeks of Doom
2 August
This article about jeweler Gaston Marticornea features a photograph of
him holding "a tiny18-karat gold Egyptian pharaoh King Tut with
exquisitely detailed
helmet and clothing. He made the piece because of a client who brought
in a picture of the pharaoh, he said."
The Suncoast news
1 August
An article on mummymania, especially in the cinema.
Vancouver Sun
1 August
"One of the most distinctive shopping centers in the world, Dubai's
Wafi Mall is known for its opulent décor as well as its range of
shops and restaurants. Shaped like an Egyptian pyramid, it has
hieroglyphics that decorate the walls, while statues of pharaohs sit
next to the gold-foiled white pillars lining the walkways."
Forbes
1 August
A detail from biographer Philip Hoare's meeting with noted recluse
Stephen Tennant in 1987: "He was lying in bed wearing two shirts, with
an ancient Egyptian scarab ring and on his legs he had a rug which I
later found out was made of the skins of 20 very rare Columbian
monkeys."
This Is Nottingham
1 August
A review describes the restaurant in the Majestic Barrière in Cannes as "neo-Egyptian."
Telegraph
1 August
A Rothschild's giraffe just born at the Marwell Zoo has been given the name Tiye, after Queen Tiye, mother of Akhenaten.
This Is Hampshire
1 August
Schedule for the wherry yacht Hathor, the interior of which is decorated in a period Egyptian theme.
EDP24
31 July
One chapter of a recent doctoral thesis by Sahar Abdel Ramen "explained how the ancient Egyptians
influenced invaders and got influenced by them to finally offer the
world a wide range of hairstyles."
Daily News Egypt
31 July
Why we find mummies to fascinating.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
30 July
Italian writer Roberto Zacco's novel about Nefertiti, The Arms of the Sun, has been optioned By Lucas Foster for a film.
ComingSoon.net
MovieWeb
undated July
Recently released for the Nintendo game system: Adventure of Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy.
DS-x2.com
29 July
The Egyptian Revival wherry Hathor will be open for tours.
Lowestoft Journal
27 July
Miami Dolphins running back Lorenzo Booker "has a tattoo on his left
shoulder in African hieroglyphic characters that means "life." Around
it is a pyramid shape with his mother's initials in the top corner and
his brother's and sister's initials in the bottom left and right
corners, respectively."
Phanatic Magazine
27 July
Donations are sought to complete the restoration of the Arabian Theatre in Laurel, Mississippi, first mentioned here 21 July.
Hattiesburg American
27 July
"Some images" in the works of Cuban artist Glexis Novoa "refer back to
antiquity, such as the Egyptian deity of the afterlife Anubis."
Tennessean
21 July
An Egyptian-themed hoodie was among the hoodies used by a gang of robbers just convicted in Mobile, Alabama.
Press-Register
21 July
One of the themed rooms in the Zanzibar International Hotel located in
St. Leonards (U.K.) is devoted to Egypt, complete with "an Anubis-like
statue guarding the door."
Telegraph
(undated) July
Among the waxwork displays at the Tourist Information Bureau of the
Municipality of Nicosia (Cyprus): "There’s Cleopatra, (not Liz
Tailor), Nefertiti, Horus, Annubis [sic], god of the dead, and a mummy
with its shriveled head exposed."
Cyprus Mail
21 July
Workers have uncovered Egyptian Revival wall decoration in the Arabian
Theatre in Laurel, Mississippi. Donations are sought to complete the
restoration.
Laurel Leader-Call
21 July
The Hi-Notes Ensemble, a troupe of hearing-impaired children, has been
honored with a New Group Composition award, presented at at the
National Festival of Music for Youth, for their Tutankhamen’s Curse.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
20 July
Mentioned in passing: "the shocking never-solved 'Sphinx Murder' of a
dentist on the steps of the downtown [Pasadena, CA] Masonic Hall in
1933. 'They'd say the sphinx knew, but wouldn't talk,' [Richard] Schave
said."
Pasadena Star News
19 July
"Beginning in the early 1920s, the mature style of [Demeter] Chiparus
took shape. His sculptures are remarkable for their bright and
outstanding decorative effect. His work was influenced by an interest
in Egypt after King Tutankhamen's tomb was excavated in 1922. There are
several sculptures representing Egyptian queen Cleopatra, as well as
Egyptian dancers."
Orillia Packet & Times
18 July
Featured in an episode of Look What I Did!, a show on HGTV (Home and Garden Television) is an Egyptian-inspired bathroom.
Contra Costa Times
18 July
Two more stories (with photographs) about the mummified bodies reported here on 17 July.
Charleston Daily Mail
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
17 July
"In 1888, the bodies of the two women [still on display 'in the
bathroom of the Barbour County Historical Museum in Philippi, W. Va.']
were sold by the state hospital to Graham Hamrick for a macabre
experiment: he wanted to recreate the mummification techniques employed
by ancient Egyptians." There is now a movement to have the bodies
removed from display.
MarketWatch
16 July
A fundraiser will be held in August for the Egyptian Revival wherry Hathor.
Evening News 24
16 July
The two male cheetahs in the Auckland Zoo (New Zealand) are named Anubis and Osiris.
Stuff.co.nz
16 July
From a review of the Thomas Hope exhibit at Bard College: "One
spectacular part of the exhibition is a set of furniture from Hope's
Egyptian room. A mix of Egyptian revival and French Empire styles, the
Egyptian room is one of the classic examples of the Regency style,
which mixed antiquity with what was then contemporary design. A pair of
Hope-designed bronze and gilded beech armchairs, dating to 1802, are a
must-see highlight of the show: The intricate carvings and the contrast
of black-on-gold give the pair an alluring dazzle."
New York Sun
16 July
The pyramids are number 2 in a poll that asked people in Britain where they would most like to visit before they die.
Opodo
15 July
The 12-metre yacht Nefertiti participated in the charity fundraiser Wall Street Corporate Challenge, hosted by the Newport Shipyard.
Sail-World.com
15 July
A sports writer has dubbed tennis great Serena Williams "Nefertiti 2000."
Insight News
15 July
Review of the production of Aida presented by the Utah Festival Opera.
Salt Lake Tribune
15 July
Tutankhamun's mask provided the inspiration for a maze created across
eight acres of maize and sunflower fields in Wistow, Leicestershire
(U.K.).
Harborough Mail
15 July
When asked what character she would like to play in a film, actress Koel Purie replied, "Cleopatra, a femme fatale."
Screen India
14 July
"Khonshu," the "Egyptian God of Vengeance" makes an appearance in the superhero comic Moon Knight. (For the non-Egyptologist readers, Egyptomania.org notes that Khonsu is the name of an Egyptian lunar god.)
Comic Book Resources
14 July
A yoga instructor uses the ancient Egyptian story of the shipwrecked sailor in her class for children.
Daily Camera
13 July
A new line of denim fashions designed by Rachel Rose and Rebecca
Dawson, called The Beautiful and Dammed, uses as its logo "the Scarab
which is embroidered onto every pair. It’s a beautiful and
intriguing creature but also has a sinister dark side."
Vogue
13 July
A list of celebrities' belief in reincarnation reveals that a medium
told Tina Turner that she was Hatshepsut. Also, Shirley MacLaine
"claims to have spent a previous life with her dog Terry in ancient
Egypt. He was an animal god and she was a princess."
Sunday Mail
13 July
A review of a Lebanese restaurant in Sydney called "Pharaohs
Mediterranean": "The restaurant is spread over two
beautifully-decorated levels including Cleopatra's Lounge and the cosy
Red Harem Room."
St. George and Sutherland Shire Leader
12 July
Rescued from a Dumpster in Summerside, Prince Edward Island: "a thick
blue photo album with an Egyptian design on the front and back,"
containing hundreds of photographs from World War II.
The Expositor
12 July
An Egyptianizing metaphor from the publishing industry: "One figure who will have been excited by this week's news of unseen
Franz Kafka papers becoming available is the agent Andrew Wylie,
famously a collector of big names. His nickname, the Jackal, derived
from rival agents seeing authors switching to him with irksome
regularity. But his recent coup of acquiring Roberto Bolaño and
Vladimir Nabokov's estates suggests it remains appropriate but in a
different sense: he has become a literary Anubis..."
The Guardian
12 July
Mentioned in an article about Paris: "Of course, one of the best-known aspects of the Moulin Rouge experience
is nudity. This goes right back to the late-19th century when one of
the most popular draws was the Cleopatra procession, featuring a nude
Egyptian queen carried by four men and surrounded by barely clad girls."
The Scotsman
11 July
An "Egyptian Era" is one of the options for the Nintendo game Ninja Commando.
Nintendic
11 July
A new surveillance application for the iPhone is called iRa.
Phones Review
11 July
A look at the Egyptian Revival, as inspired by an exhibit of the works of 19th century designer Thomas Hope.
New York Times
11 July
In 1923, the people of Geneva, Illinois dubbed the unidentified corpse
of a murder victim "King Tut," on account of his fire-blackened head.
Kane County Chronicle
9 July
When asked if he had any favorite designs for this year, jewelry
designer Gurhan Orhan replied in part: "I believe in reincarnation.
What I try to do now, is for example, I
collect some pieces from Roman period - bronze pieces and I put them
out as jewelry today. I collect some jewelry parts and piece from
Victorian period I put them out today again - the recent collection now
I made is the Scarabs from Egyptian period. Those are giving me the
greatest joy and I can say I mostly proud of those reincarnated
jewelry."
ViaLuxe
8 July
The decor of the Moomia Lounge in New York City features both Moroccan and ancient Egyptian styles.
BlackBook
8 July
Among the items formerly in the collection of the History San Jose
Museum (San Jose, California) to be auctioned off is an Egyptian
Revival fireplace cover.
Mercury News
8 July
The Cairo Opera House will stage its production of Verdi's opera Aida in Beijing later this month.
China View
7 July
Language software developer Rosetta Stone is suing competitors for
"piggybacking" on its Egyptologically-inspired trademarked name for
Internet advertising.
Wall Street Journal
7 July
Students at the De Aston School in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire
(U.K.) are enlivening the school halls with recreations of ancient art,
including Egyptian.
Market Rasen Mail
6 July
An 8x8-foot tile mural depicting the pyramids of Giza and camels has
been uncovered at a Long Beach, California apartment complex.
It likely dates to the late 1920s.
Whittier Daily News
6 July
One recent trivia question was "What is the current occupant of the location that once housed the grand Egyptian Theatre?"
(The answer, and a photograph of the interior of the theater as it
appeared in 1929, with Egyptian Revival furniture, can be seen at the
link.)
Boston Globe
6 July
A preview of Marcus Hummon and Abdel R. Salaam's work in progress, a dance oratio titled Tut: Seek Wonderful Things, which tells the stories of both Tutankhamun and Howard Carter.
Tennessean.com
5 July
Universal has released the 1932 classic The Mummy,
starring Boris Karloff, as a Special Edition two-disk DVD set.
Also available are the first two movies in the recent "Mummy" series.
Cleveland.com
5 July
From an article about the current "Lure of the East" exhibit of
orientalist paintings at the Tate Britain in London: "Another
subversive and revelatory painting [by John Frederick Lewis] is And the
Prayer of Faith
Shall Save the Sick (1872), where a beautiful woman
(resembling Lewis's
wife, Marianne) reclines in her sickbed. A panel on the wall above her
head bears a relief of the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor, manifested
as Sekhmet; the centre of the wall is inscribed with a quotation from
the Qur'an: 'We have embraced the faith, so forgive us.' At the front
of the picture, Lewis, turned discreetly away from the women, reads
from the Holy Book."
Guardian
3 July
The Egyptian Revival interior of the former Ogden Theater and Dance
Hall (1928), now known as the Lincoln Theater, in Columbus, Ohio is
being restored.
Columbus Alive
3 July
A new water attraction at Camelbeach in the Poconos (New York) is called the Pharaoh's Phortress.
The Morning Call
Pocono Record
Pocono Record
2 July
Noted in passing: famed aviator Charles Lindbergh's "early attempts to play God had included a failed attempt to bring a
3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy back to life..."
Daily Mail
1 July
A review of Pharaoh Sanders's 1967 jazz album Tauhid, which includes "Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt."
All About Jazz
1 July
Kollywood actress Nayantara "will soon be seen in an item number in the upcoming movie Kuselan dressed as Cleopatra, the thought of which is grabbing the attention of many young men worldwide."
Bollyspice
1 July
Former American Idol contestant Paris Bennet is pregnant and will name her daughter "Egypt."
NJ.com
1 July
Regarding the first Chronicles of Narnia film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and specifically the lion, Aslan: "Aslan's eyes played a key role in Framestore's approach. 'In trying to
think how we could improve upon the first film's sterling effort,' says
Kevin Spruce, animation supervisor, 'One of the things that struck us
was that his eyes had previously been given a distinctly "Egyptian",
almost Cleopatra-like look and shape to them. We felt that this could
be improved on, and it's one of the more noticeable changes in his
appearance [in the second film, Prince Caspian]."
Digital Arts
1 July
On fire-ravaged California's list of "safe"
fireworks: Pharaoh’s Treasure ($19.99), a trapezoid-shaped
array of white smoke
and titanium rain, showers droplets of purple, green and blue joined by
crackling chrysanthemums."
El Dorado Hills Telegraph
1 July
The $65,000 gold-and-gemstone Cleopatra Bracelet by EV Jewelry "was
inspired by scrolls dating back to the era of queen Cleopatra's reign."
Luxist
OTHER NEWS:
2008
January-June
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