Boston Trip and Body Worlds 2 – 8/4/06

by the Cranky Yankee

(photos by C. LeBeau)

(Body Worlds 2 ad from MoS)

 

Why is it that every time Joey and I go to Boston, it rains?  That’s what happened again when we went to Boston this past weekend, despite the fact that the weather forecast said sunny and low 80s.  Oh well, we brought umbrellas and most of our trip through Boston in the morning was underground on the T.

 

First destination…The Museum of Science.  The exhibit I’ve been waiting for finally arrived in New England at the museum and I wasn’t going to miss it!  Body Worlds 2 is the anatomical show created by the now infamous Dr. Gunther von Hagens featuring REAL corpses!  But this was not The Mütter Museum.  Where the Mütter featured medical curiosities from the 19th century (many already in various forms of decay and decomposition before the process was stopped for medical studies), the Body Worlds 2 exhibit was very 21st century and quite antiseptic.

 

Don’t get me wrong…I loved The Mütter.  And I’m not here to really compare the two…they are different from each other and exist for different reasons.  Yet, both appeal to me for the same reason…to satisfy my morbid curiosity.

 

And with that aim, Joey and I set off to the Museum of Science.  We jumped right on the Green line from Riverside and it took us right to Science Park Station.  MoS is about a block from the station.  A word about the museum…it should be renamed The *Children’s* Museum of Science.  The museum itself is really geared towards kids…very dumbed down.  Joey and I are avid museum goers, no matter what size or subject: science, art, history…you name it, we usually go.  So we’re not talking out the sides of our mouths when we comment on how kid-oriented it is.  The MoS was a disappointment for us in general, and we got bored very quickly with it (not to mention annoyed with all the screaming rugrats).  But not the Body Worlds exhibit…it’s a grown-up exhibit made easy to understand for all ages…very straightforward with clearly labeled examples (the bodies on display), but not dumbed down at all.

 

Tickets for Body Worlds can be bought ahead of time and one can tour the exhibit without having to visit the rest of the museum (it’s a separate price from museum tix).  After spending a few hours killing time in MoS, we lined up early for our allotted time in Body Worlds.  The show starts you off gently with an explanation of the hows and whys of Body Worlds and then leads you into your anatomy lesson for the day.  As you walk through the exhibit, each specimen is explained and labeled.  And each exhibit gets more elaborate.  I won’t give all the details here, as I don’t want to ruin it for others, but let’s just say some of the posed specimens are amazing.

 

And we were in rare form…the commentary was flying from the start.  “Hey Joey, that guy looks like half eaten chicken wing bones.”  “That looks like the meat I buy from the IGA butcher shop.”  A child cries in the background; “Hear that?  They’re preparing another exhibit.”  This last comment got a few laughs (and a few disgusted looks) from nearby museum patrons.  When looking at the birthing exhibit, Joey made this comment about weeks old embryos floating in specimen containers:  “They don’t look anything like sea-monkeys!”  To which I added, “Yeah, where’s their crowns?”  We find humor in the face of death.

 

Despite our crass wisecracks, for the most part, we were in awe.  I cannot emphasize how well prepared and well done the whole show was.  It was obvious that a lot of work went into preparing each body or body part.  Seeing a human body, up close and in person, does not compare to text books in school.  Yes, they were real…very real, but there was nothing gory or morbid about it.  There was no smell, everything was clean, and each specimen was treated with respect as far as I could see…unlike one Boston Phoenix reviewer, I didn’t find any of the posed bodies “tasteless” or “tacky”.  And I learned more about anatomy at Body Worlds than I did in my college Biology class.  It really helped me to understand how our own bodies work.  So impressed was I, that I bought the show catalog and many postcards from the museum store afterwards.  Go, look, and learn.  I highly recommend it.

 

After the show, we still had a quite a few hours left to enjoy Boston.  Having already toured the Freedom Trail, I thought I’d take Joey on the condensed version.  We made our way back to Boston Common on the train, and then followed the Trail to the Old State House where we toured their little museum (See? We like museums!).  And then we moved on to Faneuil Hall.   There, we stopped at my favorite oyster bar in Quincy Market for (what else?) oysters and clams, and later we bought chocolate at a candy stand. 

 

We continued to the Haymarket area where a giant lobster in the window of the Union Oyster House winked at me (it was fresh!) and all the bars had their walls/windows wide open to the wonderful sunny weather it turned out to be.  And Haymarket was in full swing, too.  You don’t see prices like this at the supermarket!  Both Joey and I marveled at the stands of fresh fruit and veggies at ridiculous prices.  We also admired the outdoor art on the ground surrounding Haymarket…brass impressions of garbage found at a farmer’s market imbedded into the pavement!  How cool is that!?  We really wished we had farmers’ markets like this back home!  We bought a bag of cherries (for a buck!) and made our way back towards Boston Common.

 

When we got back to the Common, we wandered around the park and watched two balloon makers shout insults at each other.  This trollish-looking man was angry at an Italian guy for stealing his customers.  I have to say, if I wanted little balloon sculptures, I would have gone to the Italian, too.  He was funny, playing his Italian novelty records loud and dancing around for the kids.  The other guy sat in his lawn chair, looking scary and unhappy.

 

After sitting on a park bench awhile and feeding squirrels cherries, we decided to get back on the train to Riverside and head home.  Some jerk tried to panhandle us in the station (I gave him choice words), but the rest of the ride back was quiet and we made our way home.  We are definitely going back to Boston soon.  It’s easy to get to and there’re lots of places to explore.  It looks like Boston may be our new “playground” in the coming months.  That’s okay by me!

 

 

 

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