Forbes: The Best Place To Laugh At The Mayan End Of The World (Unless They Were Right): The Roxbury Motel In New York

This Forbes article written by Ann Abel shows a fun boutique about the Mayans and more. 


 The brand-new “Archaeologist’s Digs” cottage at the Roxbury—the Hudson Valley’s most fun, best-run “boutique motel,” about three hours from New York City—isn’t just about the Mayans, but part of it pays homage in grand style.

The Mayan Temple bedroom cleverly riffs on the ancient civilization’s numerical system and astrological calendar. It’s a great place to be next week or anytime this winter. (It’s welcoming its first guests December 26, with rates from $650.) The three-bedroom house is a comfy, campy base to look back and laugh at this whole “end of the world” thing, while also warming up in front of a fireplace after a day of skiing. (All four nearby ski basins are currently open.)

The Roxbury is among the most theatrical places I’ve ever stayed—the owners worked and performed on Broadway before becoming hoteliers—and this is their tour de force. They call it a “room adventure,” and they filled it with pieces they picked up at auction when the estate of a local antiquities enthusiast was liquidated.

Their primary focus is Indiana Jones, who is most cheekily represented in a bedroom with brown leather walls and a bed canopy made of 40 bullwhips. And the rest of it is what Indy might have collected if he’d been experimenting with hallucinogens and had access to top-notch craftsmen: It’s a madcap mashup of secret passageways, hidden treasures, idols, reptile skins, hieroglyphics, gold, treasure maps, sultan’s tents, Egyptians, Mesopotamians,

Micronesians, Indians, Romans, Spartans, Arabians, Aztecs, Siamese, Trojans, and a 400-gallon saltwater aquarium separating the living room from the Cleopatra’s-underwater-tomb-themed bathroom. But about the Mayans: The hidden temple bedroom is the most playful (if not most spacious) feature. The cottage’s foyer has a six-foot boulder suspended from the ceiling and damask snake-print wallpaper designed by Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, and a 3-D wall sculpture of a Mayan god that could pass a relief from Chichen Itza. The face also contains a secret lever that makes the wall swing open to reveal a snug bedroom with an extra-long full-size Murphy bed that folds down when you pull the nose ring of another Mayan sculpture—this one of a maternity goddess (hmmmm).

Designed by high-caliber Hollywood set designers (The Bourne Legacy is among their recent credits), the bedroom has the look and feel of an ancient stone temple tells the story of the Mayan numerical system, alphabet, and astrological chart. The illuminated blue night-sky ceiling depicts the civilization’s cosmology. It’s the kind of fantastic, fantastical place that will make you happy the world didn’t actually end.



Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/annabel/2012/12/19/the-best-place-to-laugh-at-the-mayan-end-of-the-world-unless-they-were-right-the-roxbury-motel-in-new-york/.

An Afternoon of Reading and Reflecting: The End of the World, The Environment, and James Rollins

"This book will have you running under a warm blanket"

I have just read Ice Hunt by James Rollins and I don’t know what’s worse, the thought of extinct carnivorous whale species being brought back to life after thousands of years of hibernation or experiencing the second ice age brought by intentionally melting the polar ice caps using a sonic bomb.  

Although to actually discover and potentially study an “Ambulocetus natan” (walking whale) is a marine biologist’s dream and nightmare!

Despite enjoying James Rollins macabre fascination for paleo-fiction and compelling storyline, I can’t help but wonder if a second ice age could, in fact, be a good thing for our horribly depreciated planet. 

I know it might seem like something an environmental extremist might say or do for that matter, but looking at how the environment has suffered somehow makes me wish for a fresh start. Although in order for me to experience it, I might have to build one of those ultra-submarines from the movie 2012 or maybe even a good old-fashioned ark. 

With the increased climate change and man-made pollution that has reigned over the world for the greater part of the century, it’s not a surprise when nature fights back to regain its balance. 

Although it can be argued that climate change does not cause the occurrence of super storms like Sandy, it does, however, act like a steroid that enhances a storms capability for destruction. 

Super storms are not the only proof that nature is fighting back. 

The recent red algae bloom in Australia had left scientists and most of my colleagues dumb-founded.  If environmental atrocities will continue, we might really see the world end and it won’t necessarily be at December 21, 2012.

And yet whenever I see the sunset over the horizon and watch as porpoises swim gracefully across the open sea, it fills me with an overwhelming sense of joy and an ironclad resolution to protect the world and all its inhabitants, because however bleak the future may be, there’s still hope that everything will be alright.

   

“We share this planet with many species.
It is our responsibility to protect them, 
 both for their sakes and our own.”
- Pamela A. Matson