Recently [while I’ve not been doing any blogging] I’ve been doing a lot of re-reading. One of the books I recently re-read – ok, not exactly re-read but more like re-skimmed, just because I find it quite entertaining somehow – is Ross King’s book on “Brunelleschi’s Dome”.
Long story short, I now know that Ross King is probably one of my favourite history / art authors. This was the first book I read from him, as per the recommendation of a historian friend, and really had fun with it.
I think what I most enjoyed about the book is that it doesn’t feel like your classical history textbook. You’re not bombarded by a bunch of what most academics might consider important facts. Instead there’s attention to some personal and rather entertaining details in regards to the people and events involved. You get a good picture of why a certain character behaved a certain way or what was going on inside their head.
Now I’m just going to have to figure out which of his books I’m going to read next. Any suggestions?
On Saturday evening we went to Zurich’s long night of the museums 2013. It was my first time to finally manage to attend this, and I really loved it!
We started our tour from Uhrenmuseum Beyer [the clock museum], which to me was absolutely amazing, and among the best of what we saw this year. From there we went to Alterthümer-Magazin, where we looked at a large collection of old… well… everything! House appliances, tools…. Then we visited the Rathaus [town hall], which was also cool to see, and from there we headed to Kunsthaus. It was interesting to have a look at Kunsthaus’ pretty huge collection… However perhaps “everything mixed with everything” to that extent isn’t really for me. =P
Then we went to Museum Rietberg Zürich. Their special exhibition of the month is themed “Tibet in Comics”. From Tintin to Super Girl… that was absolutely awesome. We also had a look at their general exhibition, which is a truly impressive collection of artefacts from various ancient cultures. What was very impressive to me was that they actually had a small but nice Persian collection too.
After that the museums started to close down but there was of course parties at a couple of venues ’till about morning. 😉 For me this year’s museum night was a great experience and I think I will go again in the next years to see what I didn’t get the chance to see this year.
Well this is interesting. Apparently, recently a never published unknown tale of Andersen’s has been discovered! The story is said to be one of his earliest works. Here you can read a translated version of the story. And here‘s the most informative article that I’ve so far found about it. I’ve read the story a few times already… for some reason I really love it.
First I thought this was some sort of a recreation [a.k.a. Photoshop…]. Now it seems like it isn’t. Well, wow. Apparently “The Lovers” really were found in a bin at the Hasanlu archaeological site in Iran. Article from the Penn Museum blog here.
So thanks to my tablet, I was able to watch the whole presentation regarding the earlier version of Mona Lisa, live yesterday. And I must say it was extremely cool! The proofs that were presented, both historical and technological, were VERY interesting! Check out the Mona Lisa Foundation website which now has a good load of info to offer. This little documentary is also pretty cool.
Blue blazes!! Wow! I find this quite exciting! So apparently the Mona Lisa Foundation has finally found enough evidence to prove that the “Isleworth Mona Lisa” is actually an earlier version of Mona Lisa, by Da Vinci himself! They’re going to present the painting and the evidence tomorrow at Geneva. Anybody know how I can get in there by any chance? =)
In fact I have not been able to find any info about where in Geneva this is happening, or what is the title of the book that’s going to be released! I think they’re being pretty secretive about the whole thing… even the foundation’s website is only going to go live on the 27th, so there is no info on there right now.
According to RT.com:
“The opinion of art historians is split. American scientists are skeptical, saying that it is not the first time researchers have tried to attribute the ‘Isleworth Mona Lisa’ to Leonardo. All previous attempts failed, and they do not believe this time will be any different. Moreover, the Mona Lisa is one of the most copied and imitated paintings ever.”
Recently I randomly came across one of these quotation ecards that fly around the web, and the quotation somehow got into me enough to do a search and find the book that it came out of. It’s called “The History of Love”, by Nicole Krauss. I got me the ebook, and the 260 pages took me about a month to read [which is the time in which I usually read about 10 times that amount!]. I suppose you could say I meditated on each page. I think this is one of the greatest non sci-fi books I’ve ever read. Probably will read it again after some time. =) More info here.
Hey, I'm Aasemoon, and this is my blog which has been around since 1998. Childhood toy project that ended up growing up with me.
You can reach me here:
aasemoon.blue
Zorbas is my kitten. You can see some pictures of him below. =)
![DSC01111.JPG_802[1]](http://lothlorien.aasemoon.com/die-lange-nacht-der-zurcher-museen/DSC01111.JPG.php "DSC01111.JPG_802[1]")
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finally found enough evidence to prove that the “Isleworth Mona Lisa” is actually an earlier version of Mona Lisa, by Da Vinci himself! They’re going to present the painting and the evidence tomorrow at Geneva. Anybody know how I can get in there by any chance? =) 
