Currently reading:
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne: Hilarious & hot. If this book isn't made into a movie, I just know about you, Hollywood.
The Heir by Kiera Cass: The princess is a bitch... but in, like, a good way.
Posted:
I'm sharing a few excellent places to visit in Japan for book lovers over on Book Riot.
Movies:
Imagine Jane Austen writing Les Liaisons Dangereuses and you have an idea of what this movie is like. Lady Susan, a young widow, plots and schemes her way through England's upper class, expertly manipulating people for her own ends.
I actually watched this movie on the plane ride to Japan, then forgot about it. Which should tell you a lot about it. It's one of those movies where people just stand around talking and nothing much happens. Fortunately, the dialog is pretty clever, and it's hard to dislike Lady Susan even though she is everything society tells a woman she SHOULDN'T be (but maybe that's part of her appeal). I laughed a few times. Probably skippable for most people, but worth watching if you're an Austenite.
This week in heidenkindom:
I spent most of week madly trying to catch up on writing assignments, but I did get to see the Glory of Venice exhibit at the Denver Art Museum this weekend with my mom. It was a small but pretty cool exhibit! The gallery was decorated to look like Venice, with Venetian archways and photographic murals of the lagoon and city on the walls.
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| Ahhh, Venice. |
The story of the exhibit focused on Northern Europe's influence on Venetian art over the course of the Renaissance, a topic I hadn't seen covered in any detail before. There were even paintings that visually quoted Albrecht Dürer! Most of the work was by obscure artists, but there were several early Titians and works by Giorgione, Bellini, and Carpaccio.
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| Fortune/Melancholy by Giovanni Carpaccio |
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| Love the expressive fingers on the Madonna |
Fortunately for me and my mom and our night owl tendencies, we got to the museum pretty late, which meant that we happened upon the docent training sessions for the exhibit. So we got to follow the head docents around and hear all the stories and symbolism behind the paintings, which made it a lot more interesting.
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| This piece by (probably) Giorgione, for example, is said to work miracles. If you look closely at the man opposite Christ, you'll see that his head looks a little bare. That's because people believed if they rubbed the top of his head they would be blessed. Side note: don't try that at the DAM. Seriously. Don't. |
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| My mom captioned this photo with, "What a mess!" (Crucifixion and Apotheosis of the Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mt. Ararat by Carpaccio, incidentally) |
If you're in Denver while The Glory of Venice is up, I definitely recommend checking it out.
I was going to share some of my favorite foods from Japan this week, but I feel like this post is already too long, so I'll save that for next week.
Bonus:
I'm putting together a blogging food festival at Book Bloggers International for this December! If you want to share a recipe, review a favorite foodie book, put together a food-related holiday gift guide, or write anything else food-related, let me know here or by email.
Have a great week, everyone!
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