Someone wrote to me recently and asked me what Berlin is like. So I thought I would give a taste of me here. First off the weather is manic. It’s hot and summery one minute but yesterday, it was gray, chilly and humid, and I was sitting outside at a cafe wrapped in this cozy… [Read more…]
July 18, 2009
So this blog entry is in response to someone who asked me how I get my stories for the blog. I was asked if I went undercover. The idea made me laugh and think of some of my favorite visual artists who follow folks or disguise themselves, like Sophie Calle or Cindy Sherman. I am… [Read more…]
July 18, 2009
The first three days in Berlin I was wicked sick and this was a good thing because while I was bed ridden I read up on Berlin’s history and also indulged reading a fat novel from beginning to end with small breaks in less than 36 hours. Something I haven’t been able to do ever since… [Read more…]
July 7, 2009
In the newspaper yesterday an illegal rental was found by the carabanieri (police) where an Italian rented a sort of garage/small unlivable room to 14 Pakistani immigrants, each of them paid 100 euros a month for access to a mattress and bathroom. And when the police came around the Italian would lock it and the… [Read more…]
July 7, 2009
If you go to the right-winged political group in Italy, leganord.com website you will find posters like this one. They are fear mongerers and recruiting disgruntled working class Italians who are out of jobs. They are positioning themselves as the marginal Italians and obviously comparing their situation with U.S. natives who “allowed” European immigration and then were… [Read more…]
July 6, 2009
I am back to Torino. Where it is blistering hot one moment and then a violent hail storm pushes its way across the city another. The sun is back this morning. And I am staying in the prettiest hotel I have ever been. It is a boutique hotel in the center of Turin and the… [Read more…]
June 29, 2009
While in Amsterdam I went to visit the Van Gogh’Museum and the collection was okay. It doesn’t compare to some of the shows I have seen of his work in NY at the MET, where I was able to see both his paintings and drawings, but what was really interesting to me was all the… [Read more…]
June 28, 2009
Before visiting Anne Frank’s hiding space, I saw two paintings in a shop window, juxtaposed together. Obama and Frank side by side. Enough said. There was a long line at the Anne Frank Museum. I could’ve skipped it, if I had bought my tickets online. But that felt a little like cheating. As you know I recently read… [Read more…]
June 26, 2009
Dont’ want to leave a tip at a restaurant or bar, pretend you’re Italian, not a tourist. Waiters expect tips from tourists. But even if you’re an Italian you can only get away with this if you are a ragazzi or a giovane… under fifty. There are the raggazzi… all univerity students and under. The giovane… anyone… [Read more…]
June 26, 2009
Yesterday I went visiting folks… hopping from sofa to sofa and found myself a number of times being asked about health care. “How do you manage?” “What will you do if you get seriously sick?” In Italy health care is “free.” And just about every person I met yesterday told me about the news that… [Read more…]
July 20, 2009
1