Category Archives: Europe

Love, Desire, Death

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

In the fascinating video below, Peter Schade, the Head of the Framing department at Britain’s National Gallery, shows the process of creating six huge matching frames for the Titian: Love Desire Death exhibition. Matthias Wivel, Curator of 16th-century Italian paintings, … Continue reading →

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The Driver Is Red

Posted on December 4, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

The moving animated documentary below is about how Israeli Mossad agent Zvi Aharoni tracked down and captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina 15 years after WWII ended. It is a powerful piece of art and history. The rare … Continue reading →

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The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

English author  and naturalist Edward Topsell (1572-1625) first published his book The History of Four-footed Beasts in 1607, followed by The History of Serpents in 1608. Topsell borrowed extensively from Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner’s Historia animalium (“History of Animals”), a five-volume set … Continue reading →

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Just One More Thing

Posted on November 29, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

The photo above perfectly captured MRW I saw an image on a blog of a Peter Falk statue in Budapest, Hungary. Now, I’ve only been to Budapest one time, and only spent five days in the Hungarian capital, but somehow … Continue reading →

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I will go out again and listen to the dark voices

Posted on November 23, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I was familiar with the Czech writer Karel Čapek who coined of the term ‘robot’, but was surprised to stumble upon this very short story about cats that he wrote in the 1930s.

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Happy To Chat

Posted on November 20, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I recently ran across this project in Krakow, Poland known locally as Gaduławka, or happy to chat. It is an upgraded bench that encourages people to talk to each other. This simple nudge in the form of an inviting sign … Continue reading →

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Music by Miles

Posted on November 17, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I recently ran across this wonderful video below featuring images by the late Saul Leiter accompanied by the sublime music of Miles Davis. It reminded me of an exhibition of Leiter’s photographs and painting that I happened to see the … Continue reading →

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Actual Reality Without Silly Headsets

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I love all things Iceland, including the country’s always clever tourism campaigns. The newest one satirically trolls Facebook’s recent name change to Meta and its VR-fueled metaverse dreams. “Introducing the Icelandverse” is a new campaign from Inspired by Iceland that … Continue reading →

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Le village des sirènes

Posted on November 12, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

“Paul Delvaux: The Village of the Mermaids” by Lisel Mueller Who is that man in black, walking away from us into the distance? The painter, they say, took a long time finding his vision of the world. The mermaids, if that … Continue reading →

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Van Gogh’s London

Posted on November 11, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

As I have previously mentioned, I have long been an enormous fan of London as a travel destination. In fact, during the previous century I even wrote a travel guidebook for budget travel to the British capital. But I was … Continue reading →

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