Annie Leibovitz in Vienna

It’s almost two weeks that we visited the Annie Leibovitz exhibit: A Photographer's Life 1990 – 2005 at the Kunsthaus in Vienna, but work and illness kept me from blogging earlier.

There are lots of portraits of famous people like Robert de Niro, William S. Burroughs, Demi Moore, Mick Jagger and others and a huge bunch of family photos, including some rather touching ones of the mortally ill Susan Sontag, Leibovitz’ companion in life.

My favorite is the photo of Leonardo DiCaprio with a white swan snuggling affectionately around his neck. Very impressing the last photo of John Lennon (taken a few hours before his death), the Sarajewo Cycle, photos of the Bush administration (caused some giggles among visitors), the photo of Queen Elizabeth, and the Obama Family.

And many more,of course.

Commons Pictures of the Year 2006

The Commons Picture of the Year is the „Aurora Borealis“, followed by „Sans domicile fixe in Paris“ and „Blue Jay“ and „Hoverflies mating in midair“. The „Lunar Libration“ is very impressing, too.

The Meaning of Barack

Just for the record: the big flu is over and done with, I can blog again!

Media scrutiny about Sen. Barack Obama's names: "Obama" evokes Osama, his middle name "Hussein" evokes Saddam, now the focus is on "Barack". Where does it come from and what does it mean?

Read more in the languagelog,by Benjamin Zimmer.


And here's the link to the winners' gallery of the world press photos of the year 2006.