moo

What? You say the cows are mad?

il Parco dei Mostri di Bomarzo

Fascinating, beautiful and grotesque. For the complete story take a look at
il Parco dei Mostri di Bomarzo (The Park of Monsters at Bomarzo). It's been the subject of a novel by Mujica Làinez and an opera based upon the novel by Alberto Ginastera. It's another world, but a only day trip from Rome.a Láinez

Martian soup

Once upon a time, free gifts would come in food packages. Like the toys in Cracker Jack® boxes- not those cheesy fake tattoos or stickers, but real things made of metal or sickly colored plastics. Or the collectors cards that would come in cigarette packages- poisonous and educational. This is from a series of astronomy cards that accompanied Leibig's meat extract- I'm guessing this was something similar to bouillion. The connection between the planet Mars and beef stock seems tenous at best, but it's an attractive graphic, nevertheless.

i gatti di Roma

A member of the cat colony at the Torre Argentina. They are surrounded by traffic, making them prisoners. An Alcatraz for kitties.

agnus dei

Just got back from Rome; I had a couple performances of San Ignacio de Loyola (see previous postings). Not being a Catholic, I can appreciate the complex and spooky iconography that accompanies Catholicism, without the baggage. This is a gilt "Lamb of God" figure in the sacristy of Sant' Andrea al Quirinale. Either the lamb is embracing the cross or it's lying dead on top of it. Happy Easter.

mysterious glowing object #4

Well, maybe not really so mysterious, but definitely glowing. Sega's Homestar Planetarium is a small version of a full scale planetarium. It has a bright projecting light, optical lenses, the sky can rotate, shooting stars can be added. It's light years (!) beyond the ones I remember as a kid- sad, dim affairs with pinholes for the lights. They usually ended up looking like indistinct blobs on the ceiling. Or those glow in the dark stars which always dimmed out too quickly (and stars aren't green, anyway). Being a city dweller, I tend to forget how much is really out there at night. Sure, it's not the real thing but until I can get away from the light pollution it will have to do- and it does look pretty good. The big minus- it's expensive, as is typical of Japanese gadgetry. So far, the best source of these in the US is Ebay.