Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)

She was a female artist specializing in natural sciences. I don't want to write too much about it, because I'm angry with myself for blowing off an exhibition of her work at the Getty.

Joris Hoefnagel

Joris (George) Hoefnagel was a 16th century painter and illustrator. His forte was nature. He illustrated a gorgeous miniature book, Mira calligraphiae monumenta, a model book of calligraphy. A master calligrapher did the writing (which is incredible), and 30 years later, Hoefnagel was commissioned to illustrate it. The above illustration is not from that book but is in the same style.

Digital Scriptorium

The Digital Scriptorium is a collection of medieval & renaissance handwriting that can be magnified very large. I only discovered it, and have much exploring to do. By the way, this initial is not from the site but it's representative.

Napoleon's Scientific Expedition to Egypt

Who knew? Napoleon's engineers and artists studied ruins of ancient Egypt --- discovered the Rosetta Stone -- and introduced Europe to the mysteries of this ancient world. This was an exhibit at the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City.

Illustration: The Zodiac of Dendera is a large carved stone slab showing the constellations of the zodiac. It was discovered in a small chapel at Dendera by Vivant Denon in 1799. Denon made a drawing, and subsequently another was made by Prosper Jollois and Edouard Devilliers. In 1822, the zodiac was wrested from its chapel ceiling and taken to Paris, where it became an object of intense interest to astronomers, who hoped to use the star positions to date the artifact.

Famous book

Book located at Trinity College Library, Dublin. Fantastic medieval manuscript.

Free Online Book on Ornamental Letters

A great find on Project Gutenberg -- illustrated book called Letters and Lettering: A Treatise with 200 Examples by Frank Choutou Brown.

Happy Holidays!

cov13, originally uploaded by Bad Album Covers - volume 2.

Because of the 'War on Christmas', it's more PC to say Happy Holidays. You've got to check out Bad Album Covers - volume 2 on flickr. He is hilarious!!

Temptations miniseries

These are the fake Temptations from the miniseries, The Temptations. They're very much like the real thing.

Rufus Sewell

I've admired this actor for a long time, can you guess why? He's gorgeous and he can also act. Reason: He's British. Now, American audiences are being introduced to him via the TV series Eleventh Hour. It was an originally a British series starring Jean-Luc Picard (can't remember his real name). Rufus Sewell is much better! He plays a rational but dreamy scientist who investigates crimes for the FBI. Yeah, right. Anyway, who cares!

Photo is a screenshot from film Dangerous Beauty by me using Videolan.

David Ruffin

I rented The Temptations miniseries which led me to go on Youtube and see the real Temptations. David Ruffin, the lead singer during their heyday, who sang "My Girl", was so charismatic and handsome. The actor who played him in the movie was the whole movie - everyone else was a little boring. David Ruffin's voice is so soulful, passionate, and sexy. I love his song, "Blood Donors Needed (Give All You Can)", because it has a dub echo in it. Very advanced for that time (1970s).

Pandora Radio (not related to the photo)

OK, I got a picture that says Pandora on it, but this isn't about that. I'm probably the last person to know about Pandora. It's a free web radio where you tell them a song or artist you like, and they find that artist plus related ones. This creates your own customized radio stations. And it's free!! There are also shared stations where someone sets up a station that you can tune into. Right now I'm listening to "Burning Spear Radio" by Patty. Pandora is listenable on iphone and itouch ipods. Fantastic public service.

Photo from www.dvdbeaver.com

Sketchbooks

Sketchbooks, originally uploaded by vidalia_11.

Isn't it fun to try out sketchbooks? Too bad they're kind of expensive. These are a "hand*book Travelogue" and moleskine sketchbook, respectively. For pencil, I prefer the hand*book (blue one). It's also a nice square shape. The moleskine is too small for me, but it's cute.

Lost art

This is Spencerian penmanship. I sure wish I'd been taught how to write beautifully, but it was already a lost art in the 1960s. Of course, there are a few people who still do it.

Daniel T. Ames

From Ames' Guide to Self-Instruction in Practical and Artistic Penmanship, 1884. There is no biography of Ames on wikipedia!

Byzantine icons

The Byzantine icons seems the most holy and sacred. This is from St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai.

Divna Ljubojevik

I just discovered this wonderful singer on YouTube. She sings Byzantine Orthodox sacred songs. Usually those hymns are sung by rumbling voiced monks. Her voice is angelic.

Pantages Theatre Lights

Pantages Theatre Lights, originally uploaded by disneymike.

This gives a small glimpse of the grandeur of this former deco movie palace.

Meh.

My aunt invited me to go with her and my cousin to see "Wicked" at the Pantages Theater. This theater is an old Hollywood movie palace and it is incredible!! The art deco details have been renovated to sublime perfection. That was the best part of the evening. Yeah, Wicked is lavish. Yeah, it's impressive to look at. Yeah, the singers are incredibly good. But....the songs were boring and all sounded the same, the volume was earsplitting (I had to stuff napkin pieces in my ears), and the story is downright stupid. But if people are enjoying it, I say, let them.

Giovanni Bellini

Pieta, 1505. Bellini was a Venetian painter, like Carpaccio, I see the same stillness and airlessness in their paintings. This isn't a criticism, it's just how they strike me. Bellini's famous pupils were Giorgione and Titian.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Francisco Goya, El sueño de la razon produce monstruos, 1799.

Los Caprichos, the collection from which this comes, is extremely disturbing and this is the only etching I can look at. It also has the best title.