I Love Libraries

So I've recently decided that part of my life's work will be to tour the world's most beautiful libraries. This one, La Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Lengua, in Madrid, would be a good place to start. Here is a url for more awesome libraries, from a great travel blog called Curious Expeditions: http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=78

Kiss Me Kees

Thought the blog was looking a little drab, so naturally I turned to my friends, the Fauves. I actually don't really like most fauvist art, but Kees van Dongen made some wonderful portraits. Kees was a dutch painter who began exhibiting in Paris in the early 20th century. I put two of my faves above; you can tell he's a sartorialist at heart.

Oh No

Researchers in Virginia found that due to
pollution the scent of flowers, which could travel up to
4,000 feet during the nineteenth century, now travels not
even a quarter of that distance

pretty surreal

Here is a short film by a Czech surrealist filmmaker named Jan Švankmajer. He works a lot with claymation and puppetry, though this one (probably my favorite) features niether...I guess you would call this stop-motion demolition animation, or something. The short is called "Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasy in G minor," and was released in 1965...think of it as a sort of updated Fantasia. Watch this through to the end, it's totally worth it.

A Glove!

Here's a couple of images from a series of etchings done by a Belgian symbolist artist named Max Klinger. The series, published in 1881, is called "Ein Handusch" (or: A Glove), and is all about losing and finding a glove. Cool.

All I Want is a Silver Plated Tortoise

For more, see Huysmans' "Against Nature"