Awards, Aviaries, Automata and the Arts
The wonderful Mary Jane has awarded me the Blogging With a Purpose award - yay!!!
Instead of choosing five bloggers to give my own award to (how could I choose just five?), I've decided to start up a Favorites Friday theme where I'll mention a blog I'm currently loving. Why Fridays? Because I just happened to do it last Friday and it seems as good a day as any.
And because I hate to do a post without pictures, I'll give you some photos from our recent trip:
Instead of choosing five bloggers to give my own award to (how could I choose just five?), I've decided to start up a Favorites Friday theme where I'll mention a blog I'm currently loving. Why Fridays? Because I just happened to do it last Friday and it seems as good a day as any.
And because I hate to do a post without pictures, I'll give you some photos from our recent trip:
 | This is a freakishly fabulous roseate spoonbill from the rain forest section of the Cleveland Zoo. The outdoor part of the zoo was the usual depressing fare, but the rain forest was absolutely amazing. |
 | Another highlight of our trip was Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. It's a sort of arcade that's filled to the brim with vintage games and automata that all work. Put a quarter or two in, and this guy comes to life, complete with terrible jokes and power surges. |
 | The Detroit Institute of Arts was a wonderful surprise. They had a really impressive collection of art, and it was displayed beautifully. On the left is a portrait of a Colonial crossdresser (it didn't say that on the tag, but I have a degree in art history and I know these things), and below is a detail from Bruegel the Elder's The Wedding Dance. And to think some people think art museums are boring! |
posted by Petula Darling at
6/03/2008 08:44:00 AM
4 Comments:
Wow! You sure take interesting trips. I would have liked to see the mad scientist in action.
Really?! A cross dresser in colonial times? Was this painted right before they burned him at the stake?? I would love to go on your museum tour!
Well, it's possible (and by "possible" I mean pretty likely) that it isn't really a cross dresser, but rather the tragic result of a limner who put a little too much of himself into a portrait of a somewhat plain looking woman.
It does have a wonderful Ye Olde Monty Python quality about it though.
This just gets better and better. So this limner fellow is painting away, looking his subject and thinking, "Blimey--this bird has a face that could stop a team of oxen! Her husband's going to clap me in irons if I don't gild her something fierce. Wait--I've got it--I'll paint my likeness instead! Now that should really stoke his passions!"
Incidentally--I had to look up the word "limner,"--always a pleasure to acquire new words.
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