I just realized earlier this evening that I tend to admire works that I can compliment and critic. I'm a huge fan of Lord Of The Rings yet I'll be the first to tell/show you the discrepancies and errors they made in filming. I'm a huge fan of David Eddings and yet I will try and find loopholes and try and discuss it with other fellow DE fans. Likewise for my latest craze: Dan Brown. I admire the man, his knowledge of history, the correctness of his facts, and his talent as an author. And, thus, I critic the man and his work, as well as try to find loopholes in his stories.

While reading Angels & Demons, I tried searching out for the Illuminati and this are just some of what I found that backs what Robert Langdon, Dan Brown's main character, talked about:
http://www.prolognet.qc.ca/clyde/illumin.htm
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/

Yet either Dan Brown's version is 'sterilized' for the general public or the sites I visited exaggerated the Illuminati's quest, either way, the Illuminati has been around for years (lately, we have seen it in the first Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie) and they hate the Church. Likewise, infiltration of the highest orders of any aspect of our modern world is also their trademark - bankers, politicians, businessmen - the so-called leaders in our power/money world.

But mostly, I was curious about the things I read about in his The Da Vinci Code because these are things I have seen often, and the paintings that I particularly looked at when we last visited the Louvre in Paris. Especially the Mona Lisa. How many times have I seen that painting in our albums, postcards, posters around? It is one of the most famous - if not the famous - paintings in the world. Even people who don't like art and have no desire to learn would probably know about Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Very few know about the Water Lilies (Pablo Picasso?), the statue of Venus de Milo, and etc, etc. Sadly, my 6-year-old niece probably knows more than I do LOL because my cousin, her mom - a massively cultural and intelligent woman whom I admire loads - taught her about all the famous paintings. Taren (my niece) knows their names and who drew them. How's that for memory? Wish I know now what she does at her age. Heh.

Anyway, I digressed. Back to Leo. Somehow, I couldn't see the differences between the left and right sides of Mona Lisa, but at closer inspection, she does seem a bit, erm, hermaphroditic. Is androgenous the term? Coz I know "androgen" is a hormone. Wait, lemme check Dan Brown... Androgynous. That's the term. Anyway, her face is can be called decidedly feminine and yet when you think of her as a guy... he could be a feminine-looking guy. Like -ick- Leo DiCaprio, for instance.

I also didn't really realize that The Vitruvian Man was a work of Leo either. And it was only after I researched and studied Leo's The Last Supper that I realized that, yes, the person beside Jesus is indeed a woman and, yes, each person has a goblet and there's no so-called Holy Grail. But then in passing, another Da Vinci work was mentioned, and it's displayed right across the Mona Lisa: Madonna on the Rocks. I searched it out, trying to find out if it really seems... as un-Catholic as Dan Brown indicated... and while Mother Mary's hand is outstretched above John's head and the angel Uriel (one of the archangels, btw) is pointing at Jesus, I can't really see no... hostility in it.

Here is a website that discussed also the possible meaning behind Leo's work: http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/rocks.html. Weirdly enough, Dan Brown called the baby beside Mary Jesus, but here, they think it's John. So, which one is it nga ba? Then I tried another of the sites I got as search results and ended up with something from BBC (flashback of Gunther Glick... ugh, I loathe that guy - couldn't he just be branded and killed like the rest of 'em?): http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/gallery/virgin.shtml. Mostly about how Leonardo caused some pretty expensive lawsuits with that commission.

And I wonder what Caravaggio painting Sauniere pulled down? I searched out the artist and got a few of his paintings, but now I'm curious as to which one was pulled down.

You know, if his books were made into movies, that would be great! And I wonder who'd play the main characters? Coz Robert Langdon has to be cute and distinguished, as well as have a sexy voice. That leaves Sean Connery because although he's still sexy, considering his age, and has a wonderful voice, he's a bit too old. If it were his James Bond days, then it'd be fine. Pierce Brosnan? Too old maybe? Because Robert's 40-ish and Pierce is hitting, or has hit, 50. So that leaves... Viggo Mortensen? Oooh, hunky. John Travolta would probably be nice, but he's a bit, erm, too large around the middle to be playing the athletic swimmer Robert. And who'd play his girls? Vittoria has to be someone tall, lithe, and olive-skinned. At first I thought of Selma Hayek, but she's too short. And Selma can't be Sophie either because Sophie is French and a redhead, and I don't think Selma would look good or French with a red dye. Then I thought of Nicole Kidman for Vittoria... pretty good, eh? I don't know any European actors/actresses (except for those who worked for Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter), especially not Italian or French. And how about Catherine Zeta-Jones for Sophie? Man. I'd love to watch that.

EDIT:
Maybe this is the Caravaggio that Sauniere had dropped: http://www.wga.hu/art/c/caravagg/10/60alof.jpg. In my quickie search, this is the one painting of Caravaggio that is displayed in the Louvre. It's a painting (oil on canvas) entitled Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt, size 195 x 134cm.