A lighting executive's Bavarian-inspired mansion in the north of Pittsburgh has become a museum hosting his rare collection of automatic musical instruments.
Charles B. "Chuck" Brown III collected antique automatic musical instrument players, early jukeboxes, phonographs, and music boxes. When he died in 1999, he willed that his mansion become a museum to show his eclectic collection to the public, opening in 2004. Bayernhof Museum now offers pre-arranged guided tours for interested visitors. Among the highlights of the tour are "reproducing pianos," which work similar to a player piano but captured closely how the artist played the composition in tempo and volume. Some of the 150 instruments are played for tours, including a Wurlitzer 125 Military Band Organ meant for outdoor use, and thus sounding very loud even when played in a spacious room. The museum's curator, Tony Marisco, maintains the instruments in working order.
The mansion also contains secret passages, a gigantic pool surrounded with greenery, and a wine cellar made to look like a cave. Throughout the mansion-now-museum, Chuck's eclectic tastes come through in every knickknack and chord played through its halls.
News and notes from around the interweb: Get $5 free from Paypal A simple rule for making every restaurant meal better The most lucrative way to use Marriott Rewards points is travel packages. Miles Professor offers a good introduction. Pluses and minuses of each of the American Express prepaid products The 20 Most Annoying Things […]
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Earlier in the year, Etihad unveiled the details of their A380s, which they will begin taking delivery of later this year. Even though there are several other airlines that already operate the A380, Etihad's are truly unique, both in terms of how they're marketing them and in terms of the actual cabins.
In terms of premium cabins, they're introducing The Residence, First Apartment, and Business Studio. The Residence is a completely new concept for a commercial plane, consisting of a private living room, bedroom, and bathroom, plus a personal butler.
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I was sure excited to see a double redeemable miles promotion. I wonder whether my preferred frequent flyer program will match? Hah. At double miles, that makes Qantas’ long haul award chart almost reasonable. Registration is required and tickets must be purchased by September 12 — this is for new tickets purchased between September 5 […]
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I've addressed this in passing, but I figured I might as well address this head on, since it's something I feel strongly about -- there's no such thing as a "free" flight (well, unless you're Marilyn Hartman). On a plane you paid for whatever cabin you're flying in, whether you're on a revenue ticket, award ticket, upgrade, or taking advantage of flight benefits.
Let me provide some context. I recently wrote about my Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi to New York in first class where they ran out of food. That was actually the lesser of the two issues I had with the flight -- the bigger issue was with Abu Dhabi's horrible US pre-clearance facility.
I have my fair share of trolls on this blog -- I take it as a compliment that they dislike me enough to keep coming back -- but sometimes they make points that are so ridiculous that they're actually worth sharing. And in this case the reason I'm sharing them isn't to actually point out the ridiculousness of them, but rather to address what they're trying to get at it in theory (which is easier to respond to when they make it amusing).
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