Ruthanna Emrys
@r-emrys
Author of A Half-Built Garden, Winter Tide, and Deep Roots. Freelance consultant on science policy, policy science, and the future of democracy, governance, and networks. Queer Jewish parent, foodie, cognitive science nerd, collective decision-making wonk.
Highlights from the Bozar exhibit on Beauty and Ugliness in the Renaissance: Zuccari's A+ hater game against picky customers. Left is the guy who hired another painter when Z was slow; right is the papal customer who wouldn't stop back-seat-driving his commission in progress.
Also in holiday excursions, the Leiden Museum of Antiquities, which has an exhibit on mythical creatures. I was enamored of the Cerberus section, which proved that even those originating the myth of the terrifying Hadean guard couldn't help thinking, "Awww, what a good puppy!"
Yesterday we visited the Madurodam Miniature Park, which has nearly House on the Rock levels of "tacky roadside attraction elevated by the transcendent power of human enthusiasm". Obsessive attention to detail, unpredictable mix of scales, weirdly low-budget interactive exhibits. Giant shoes.
On my way home from World Fantasy, I stopped by the LeGuin map exhibit at the AA Gallery. Gorgeous and strange, as much meditation space as museum display. I spent a long time contemplating stones and the flows that shape them.
Author copy acquired! @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social @wtpress.bsky.social
Ah, the sweet smell of seige-breaking season! Soon there will be free bread and herring to celebrate the first food delivered to Leiden in 1574. In the meantime you can buy t-shirts, which I'm pretty sure you could *not* do in 1574. Or you can break a seige.
Haul from the American Book Center in Amsterdam, where I also signed A Half-Built Garden and had an enjoyable yak about solarpunk and AI cults.
Pride Leiden, where no one is worried about THE CHILDREN as long as they don't fall in the water. My youngest got a little overwhelmed by the noise, eldest loves anything with 80s dance songs!
Flag-raising for Leiden Pride! About the right level of Pride intensity for our household of queer introverts.
In continuing Leiden expeditions, we went to Naturalis to meet the triceratops!
I'm enjoying the way Leiden is so thoroughly designed for visual interest. Wall poems, little gardens and parks, places to sit by the canals.
Rhiannon Giddens at the Anthem last night. Absolutely incredible old-time Americana, plus some African music that illustrates the roots of said Americana, plus a couple of pieces in old-time style that Giddens or her bandmates wrote. Plus some delightful deep geekery on banjo lore.
The ravens wanted to know if the wolf was gonna eat that. Are you sure? Sharing time is happy time! (The wolf did not share. Or eat.)
We were not allowed to feed carrots to the wild boars, not even the teeny babies.
I am in Ottawa with no working phone data, which means I got all of today's news at once in the evening. I hope that the carrot-hungry wildlife from Parc Omega can provide some small consolation or at least a unicorn (elk) chaser.
No one appreciated my rendition of "If an eel bites your thigh and the pain makes you cry, that's a moray!"
She was also at pains to tell us that even for the less poisonous frogs, you should still wear gloves to handle them to avoid making either you or the frog sick. And definitely for the terrible poison dart frog, which is *very* toxic!
Summer child reacted to the Panamanian Golden Frog as some kids might react to getting a hug from their favorite celebrity.
Winter solstice child requested a Baltimore Aquarium trip for his 10th birthday. "According to my opinion, this is the best place ever!" Summer solstice child, a budding herpetologist, agreed enthusiastically.
Snaffling this from @leeharris.xyz - a chance to show off/confess to my varied musical tastes.