Round Museum

As above, so below. Recreate heaven on earth via the secrets of the ancients. Picture any Medieval scene with a sorcerer and you're bound to see all kinds of odd contraptions, jars full of suspicious powders, herbs and roots, animal parts. It's magic after all. Or more likely alchemy, which often gets confused with magic. You know, the secret to changing lead to gold and all. A remedy to cure all diseases. An elixir of immortality. All you need is a Round orb or two.

05.20.18

In 1876, Memorial Hall in Philadelphia was built to exhibit art from around the world for the Centennial Exposition. In 2018, the building is home to the Please Touch Museum, a venue dedicated to early childhood education and interactive learning experiences. Regardless of the era, if you lay on the floor in the center of the Rotunda, this is the Round view you see of the iron and glass dome 150 feet above.

05.19.18

Around the back wall of the patio there's a string of festive lights along the edges. Come happy hour they'll be lit and the evening will be framed with a sparkling glow.

05.17.18

Good King Ludwig II of Bavaria decorated his palace with lawn balls which then became popular in gardens throughout Victorian era Europe. He was also known as Mad King Ludwig, the Swan King, or the Fairy Tale King. In an unrelated note, lawn balls are also known as garden globes, gazing balls, chrome balls, or orbs.

05.16.18

The Masonic Temple in Philadelphia was designed in medieval Norman style and construction began in 1868. The gabled roof line as viewed from the adjacent Municipal Courts Building features a round cap along the peak.

05.15.18

Does this rusted Round protect or punish? Eastern State Penitentiary asks visitors about the role of prisons in society against the backdrop of a prison-turned-museum.

Eastern State Penitentiary
Philadelphia, PA

05.14.18

The summer is gearing up! Kids are already looking toward school's end even with a month left to go. To mark this occasion, the brightly lit Ferris wheel is back up and running this weekend at Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia, as the centerpiece of Summerfest, a mini-amusement park set up along the Delaware River Waterfront.

05.11.18

The Smith Memorial Arch has graced the entrance to the Avenue of the Republic in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park since its completion in 1912. The monument's twin columns are supported by curving, neo-Baroque arches and honors Pennsylvania’s naval and military heroes of the Civil War with a plethora of sculptures -- nine busts, three figures, two equestrians, two eagles standing on globes; and architectural reliefs of 8 allegorical figures.

Adversity, shmadversity: when life gives you lemons, inflate yourself and pop out your spikes. That's the porcupinefish way. In Charles Darwin's "The Voyage of the Beagle," he mentions that a fellow naturalist sometimes found porcupinefish still alive inside the bellies of sharks. If you are naturally delicious, then sometimes the best solution is to make yourself as hard to chew as possible. (The only possible downside, according to the porcupinefish, is that swallowing that much air in your belly turns you upside-down for a while.

"Some people argue that the oldest pub in London is the White Hart on Drury Lane; others that it is the Angel on Bermondsey Wall, or the Lamb and Flag on Rose Street. All of these people are Muggles, and all of them are wrong. The oldest pub in London, as any wizard will tell you, is the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road. The Leaky Cauldron has changed little over the years; it is small, dingy and welcoming, with a few bedrooms above the public bar for travellers who live a long way from London.