Today I visited Discovery Times Square.  Like many New Yorkers, I avoid Times Square at all costs unless I am seeing a Broadway show.  It is because of this avoidance that I always assumed that Discovery Times Square was a “tourist” spot.  Because of my tourist bias I have missed some amazing exhibitions, like King Tut, Dead Sea Scrolls, Titanic and Harry Potter! I could kick myself.  “Discovery Times Square  is New York City’s first large-scale exhibition center presenting visitors with limited-run, educational and immersive exhibit experiences while exploring the world’s defining cultures, art, history, and events.”  So today I started my visit with “Star Wars and The Power of Costume.” This is the exhibit for Star Wars fans!  It features 70 hand-crafted costumes from the first six blockbuster Star Wars films and seven costumes from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  It is fun to watch how the sketched ideas of the clothing created the actual characters that we have come to love and fear.  Many of the actors said that they couldn’t fully realize their characters until they had on the clothes and then they were able to take on the persona of their character.

There was a reason why George Lucas put Princess Leia in that infamous slave bikini and it was not just to create a fantasy for many boys and some girls. 

The bad guys have always had a fascist/Nazi vibe as represented by the Imperial Officer’s uniform and the good guys wore a flight suit that was reminiscent of the flight suits worn by the US Navy from 1957-1969.

I don’t want to give away all the fun and surprises but, as Yoda would say, “See this exhibit, you should.”  Admission to the Star Wars exhibit is $20 for children 4-12 and $24 for Seniors 65+ and $27.50 for Adults.

The next exhibit I went to see was the Viking Exhibition.  Explore the rich, often-misunderstood Viking culture like never before with the largest collection of Viking artifacts ever displayed in North America.  This is a very large exhibit and there was a lot of opportunity for interaction from building a virtual ship to excavating an archeological dig site. The exhibit is not set up with the usual date timeline — it is more of a story about the Vikings. The exhibit focuses more on the Viking culture, not just the lore of the raiding and pillaging.  It showed us what their home and community life was like. They lived very social lives.  And contrary to popular belief, they didn’t wear helmets with horns.

Obviously ships- the horse of the sea played a big part in the Viking culture, whether for exploration, trade with other cultures or to send the dead off to their final resting place.  The Viking woman also loved their bling!  Glass beakers which they used to drink were very rare and would be found mostly in very powerful woman’s tombs. Woman played a very important role in the Viking culture, which was a surprise to me because many other cultures during that time period didn’t treat woman as well and when I think of the Viking culture I think mostly of the men.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recommend this to anyone who loves the Viking lore.  Admission is $20 for children 4-12 and $24 for Seniors 65+ and $27.50 for Adults.

My final photo is my name written in Runes.  Looks like Melissa to me! 

I needed a cupcake and water break after Star Wars and The Vikings.  Good thing they have DC Cupcakes featuring Georgetown Cupcakes.  I had a Vanilla Birthday cake cupcake, it was very tasty but I regretted eating it a little bit after I started the next exhibit, BODY WORLDS PULSE.  This exhibit brings you up close and personal with the human body.   It is an immersive multimedia exhibition about health, wellness, and living to the beat of life in the vibrant, fast-paced world of today. All the bodies on display were donated and are real human bodies that have under gone a process called Plastination, a breakthrough in anatomy invented by trailblazing scientist, Gunther von Hagens.

This exhibit is full of information about health and wellness and some of the exhibits are tough to look at. A brain after a stroke. Body parts riddled with cancer.  I felt that this was the health version of scared straight.

Below are the lungs of a non-smoker and a smoker, I think you can figure out which is which.

The organizers of this exhibition also had a sense of humor — the three bodies playing poker Casino Royale style!  There was an interesting exhibit about the eating habits of families around the world.  Each family had to display one weeks worth of groceries and food. One thing that I noticed is that everyone around the world has their vices.  The Americans had pizza and some fast food.  The Mexican family had lots of vegetables but 10 bottles of Coke.  The Australian family had some fast food and candy.  The Egyptian family had the most heathy diet but they still had a couple bottles of soda.

 

 

 

 

The main point of the exhibit is that it is important to exercise and eat well to live a longer and healthier life. Kind of a no brainer. Sorry I had to get a picture of the brain in here.  It does resonate when you see the effects that things like smoking, cancer and obesity have on the body.  This is definitely the exhibit for people who are interested in the human body and the effect that our environment and food have on our body.  Admission is $20 for children 4-12 and $24 for Seniors 65+ and $27.50 for Adults.  My brain was on overload after visiting all three exhibits, maybe do one or two at a time.  The gift shop is stocked with all kinds of fun items relating to the exhibits.  I especially like all the Star Wars stuff.  I bought my daughter (who is a new Star Wars fan) some cute t-shirts.  Stay tuned for my next adventure.