Thanx to Everybody

I think I will never learn to write a good-common-wishing-Merry Christmas-letter so I did not even try this year too. Thanx a lot for those who did it and included my addresse on their lists. I hope all of you are fine and that we are gonna have some more contacts through mails also before and after Easter as Christmas. Take care!

The Sofri Gate

Have a look at this site. It is something difficult to explain probably because it does not make sense now such a situation. But, according to a poll two weeks old, 56% of the Italian population want him in jail till the end of the 22 years period. ..
http://www.sofri.org/english.html

Italian transport system blows

If you ever come to Italy, bring a lot of patience, faith and luck with you. Or get the wings and learn to fly. The transports in Pinocchio's world would be better than ours. I do not exagerate, you will see...

And so castels made of sand fell in the sea, eventually...

http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2433182005

My town is just a commercial center

So nobody even tries anylonger to hide it. And we, the few who live here, already knew it. I think few thought it was a good development but that's life in a such a narrow minded city. This place work just with tourists...and not the most beuatiful ones.
In these days there is a Xmas advertisement about doing shopping in Venice. You can read it in every single national newspaper: the concept is: Venice is the best commercial center ever! Why don' t you have a look?!
Nothing else to promote this old and historical city...really, nothing else...
In the last few years I always thought I was born in a commercial center, maybe a very ecleptic one, planned by a freaky architect but just that. ANd I don't think to be smarter than many other people living here...
But, damned!, how can people be proud of this and just of this?
An example just to give some data : there is one (1) cinema in Venice, with two halls: the big one has some 400 hundred seats; the small not more than 100...and we are the city of the "famous" film festival...unfortunately it lasts ten days...
So for ten days a year we are not just a commercial center but something more...
How can I stay here longer than two more months? No way.

What can we trust now?

http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1068444.php/Fake_Wikipedia_biography_unraveled

Last post about Berlin

THis is the only photo of me and these two polish guys I met over there on Sunday the 27th.
I think I look like a pig but it does not matter. I had a really bad hang over, maybe that's why...
I am back home now...already waiting to be there again.

Berlin again

So the days go so fast but everything is all right...
Drinking kind of a lot of beers and meeting with people...Klara and Ola in a row!!!
On monday night I had an unforgettable experience...around four a.m. we got to a place that seemed to be almost closed but they let us in...so inside it was Klara me the turkish owner and a german guy, the waiter...we had vodka...then we got a round offered by this Mustafa...this pub had a small stage with a piano and guitars and speakers...he asked to play so I had my private solo guitar concert for them...unforgettable...really...by the way I think I really sucked but whatever....
Later

Berlin eventually!

First day in the Haupstadt
So I am in one of my favourite spots of the only continent I kind of know...and I like so much just to be here...I realized that the Czech Cultural Information Office is just 50 metres from what was the Check Point Charlie...I think somebody tried to be funny...but it is not so cultural to play with people ignorance, eh, eh...maybe I miss the point and until 1989 all the police at the border came from Bohemia...but I doubt it...
I arrived yesterday and I have already met tons of polish - I start to think that there is an hidden area in Poland where they grow up people to deliver all over the world...eh, eh...actually I spent few ours with this couple from Wroclaw - Ala, maybe you know them, I´ll show you the picture soon...they both study architecture and they were walking all the time....nice people...
I met this German girl yesterday in a club where the was a Balkan Beat dj set...nice talk and I´d say she was cute, as the Spanish bar tender I´ve been chatting with...but whatever...I´ve been offered sex on the streets several times - "do you have 70 euros?" was the question without any other remark.... - I have been offered beer in a pub by a funny guy and his friends - I accepted just the beer - so I cannot blame about anything but this morning hangover - why do you have to check out at ten in the morning from a youth hostel, and by the way on holy sundays???....please....
I am in die Vaterland of the coffee to go probably...Paul, you know what is my opinion regarding this smart invention...now you can get also the breakfast to go, and the lunch as well...no comment....in a few we´ll have the toilet or the shower to go...what about gigantic tapis roulants all around the city? Or a taxi where you can have a private sex session...? even if I dislike Starbucks so badly, I am getting confused....Zeit ist Geld...More later....

Some pics guys

Hey a friend of a friend came over last week...she seems to be a super nice person even if I spent with her and our common friend just the time of a coffee...here some pics she took while she was hanging around in Venice....check it out! Ciao!
Here is the link.

Photos

November hyperactivity?

This morning I woke up at six, been travelling the whole day, heard sad stories, waited for the fucking Italian never-on-time-train for one hour...now it's 1 a.m. The second night in a row not been able to sleep...home, trying to feel the head as tired as my eyes...is it gonna happen? mmm

Night question:
Does anybody know where the hell Alex, the German, is right now?

Invitation for a wedding

I've been invited to a wedding.A friend is finally getting married. It's gonna be a sort of big event with many many people invited...any idea for a present at a reasonable price?

Nejlepsi kocka v svete...

It is been shot this morning ... the sun is still here fortunately ... and he likes it so much...

Jazz with a cello!

Yesterday I went to a cool concert in one of the most inspiring places of the lagoon, San Servolo…really it is…it is an island just south west from San Marco Square; you can reach it only through a boat, fortunately there is some public transportation lines…once it was the place for the mentally disordered people….nowadays it is the centre of the Venetian International University…so it makes sense…there are some normal people in both contexts…
The island is become a center for art exhibitions, workshops and university lessons…it is wholly renovated and it is so peaceful and relaxing…even the smells of the salty lagoon is so strong and particular over there and the mosquitos are undoubtly bigger and more aggressive…I discovered the island this summer and I said to myself that I had been an asshole in all these past years…how could I not know such a place?!
The band was a jazz American trio from N.Y. They are called the Broken Arm Trio, whose leader is this awesome cello – yeah cello! – player, Erik Friedlander…he plays without stick, only with fingers…the sound is so specific and it was a total discover for me: it sounds like a fretless bass but sometimes it seems to be a sort of Indian instrument…they played only his own composition…I would advice anybody who likes jazz to get some stuff from this people on the net…here is the link http://www.erikfriedlander.com/index.shtm check it out!!!
The fall is coming slowly so no need to heavy clothes yet

Mozilla Firefox - Microsoft IE : 4 - 0.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39235378,00.htm

Another interesting article

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,383263,00.html

Have a look

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7116 Myslim ze je moc zajimavé.

The meanings of words

How many words for one idea?
I read an interesting story about a new book out in the UK right now. The book is thought as a sort of list of words (from a load of langauges) that have specific meanings; so specific that cannot be translated in other languages but through a long expression. Some examples? Questing is a Dutch word. The meaning? To let somebody’s lover to get in his bed but only for a talk…I mean this sounds very specific, and tough too…The most poetic I read was this Chinese word yuyin: the feeling of a sound that rests in our ears after the actual sound is gone”. It’s awesome…I do not have similar words in my beloved Italian language. There was the Italian one but it was nothing special actually: pomicione. Do you want to know the meaning? Get the book!
I’ll try to get it too!!! The title is “The meaning of Tingo”, by Adam Jacot de Boinod.
If you have any word specific enough to be able to compete with these, please post it with its full meaning. I’d like to make a sort of chart or list of the coolest ones!

Fog and Fog

The season of the foggy days has come...you can see sharply only for thirty meters - or something like that - then this thick white veil prevails...we are waiting for the floods now...so that we'll walk like blind people in our funny plastic boots...

Night view

Thanx to Barbara, the sweetest girl from Sardiny that Spain has ever known, I have this picture in my library . It's a picture from the end of August...and the house is just two minutes from home.

 

Venice : village of geezers

There are some myths about this city that are totally false and some ideas that are misleading...
They are pretty obvious for me but sometimes when I talked with people I realized reality is different.
The first one is about this city's size. To consider Venice a city is a matter of choice, maybe faith: with its 55 thousand inhabitants it'd be easier to put it among the big villages' category.
This feature is not that bad in itself but it's important to notice that less than a century ago the venetian population was more than the double...

And this is half of the true...the other half is the ageing of people living in here...the ageing of the European population is a common phenomenon for the whole continent but here it's getting tough...Last saturday, Ocotber the 22nd, the most famous local newspaper, IL GAZZETTINO, contained an article about this issue. It reported that in Cannaregio, the most populated Sestriere - district - of the city, almost 9 thousands out of the 13 thousands inhabitants living there are, at least, 45 years old...
And the trend is scaring...fortunately there are some students that live here....they represent some fresh air in this gloomy landscape and a resource....then there are the tourists but that's another story...

Palazzo Fortuny

Peaceful Venice

View from my balcony

I wonder how many days I will have to wait to see the sky as blue as in that September's afternoon...

Get started.

Here we go...this is just the beginning...