Today I went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

I was attracted to a special exhibit of Archimboldo, who lived in the 1500’s.  He made these super-modern paintings. 

The painting above is a man made of vegetables, called “Sommer” (”Summer”). 

Archimboldo’s paintings of food…

are actually reversible.  You can view them upside-down…

and they are faces of people!  I loved watching kids look at the still life paintings, then look down at the mirror below and see the reversed images turn into faces.

In another set of paintings, “different professions were represented by characteristic objects, a cook by kitchen utensils, a cellarer by barrels, a farmer by agricultural tools and so on,” writes the curator.  This is the court historian who wrote 50 books:

I’m wonderfully overwhelmed by the architecture of the museum building itself.  Although these pictures don’t really show it in all its magnificence, the entrance lobby has this dome with a circle cut out at the top.

When you walk up the stairs to see what’s in the heavens,

there is a dining hall.  Although I’m not usually a big fan of brunch, because of the glorious architecture and the food, it’s a new goal of mine to have brunch in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  Unfortunately, reservations are required at least three months ahead.  Next time in Vienna….

Short comic strip will download in a minute and appear below:

Translation: I was standing in the Reina Sofia, a serious art museum in Madrid.  There was an Alexander Calder mobile but it wasn´t moving.  I said to a girl nearby, “On the count of three, we´ll blow: ´whhhhhh!´ Yeah?”  She nodded.  “One, two, three…” We blew on the mobile and it spun around.

I know, I know, keep it serious, right?  Oh well.

As Lee S. Kowarski writes in his indubitable blog,

Everything is Better in Chart Form

My friend Ayaz pointed me to this Web page which proves that everything is better in chart form, even hip hop.

It’s somewhat inappropriate, but totally worthwhile.  Each chart links to a rap song.

“What the World Eats” was an article in Time magazine.  Check it out here:
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/What-the-World-Eats-21099.aspx