Tuesday, November 8

A frontier of my gahd-daymned mahnd.

Music: Clark Gable, by The Postal Service

Stardate 443.bleh

Status Report:
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Advanced Creative Writing application, in which I work on comics = PENDING
Feeling satisfied with work I've been doing this weekend = PENDING, this weekend will decide. (I just got an assignment for a 10-15 page paper due next Tuesday after next, and I'm panicking)
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Weekend Trip to Scotland = POSTPONED to the 25th, let me know if you want to sign up with me. It's the Skye High tour of Scotland at www.radicaltours.com. (Please?)
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Publishing of comic in NYU-L paper = SUCCESS
Successfully ate four free sandwiches and two pieces cake at the meet the director meeting at school today = DELICIOUS SUCCESS
Eating Salad for dinner tonight = ALMOST AS DELICIOUS SUCCESS, too much dressing (yes, there is such a thing).

Mission Notes: Having Ollie over to chill out Wednesday night. I felt sick a lot of the weekend, and couldn't decide what was wrong with me. I was convinced there was something wrong with my eating habits, but it turned out I needed to get some sleep. So I did. Other than that, things have been alright, but a little panicky. Celery is my new favorite snacky food, although I found a bug in one just as I was about to eat it. It was a little caterpillar. Luckily, I dodged that bullet. My faith in the stalk of justice wavers, but does not crack.

My review of the dance production, when finished, will go here. Until then...

Secondary Report: Firenze (Florence),
Operation codename: Freakin' delicious.

Day 4:

  • We arrived by train from Rome, around 7 PM. It took about 2 hours. Found our room, and immediately went out for a delicious dish or two around downtown Florence. I had cream flavor...mmm...like butter only...with a little milk added in.
  • Our room was rather nice, the woman who ran the hostel was a bit mothery, and overall was the best hostel we stayed in. It took a while to figure out the way the door to the hostel worked, though, so one time I had to climb out the window in the hall and into the bathroom window...rock climbing on the streets, fool. That was on the sixth day, though.
Day 5: 2 Davids.
  • We walked down to the Uffizi gallery, at the outside of which we found one of the three replicas of the "David" in the city. We got there just as the museum opened, at about 7.30 AM, which was the smart thing to do...because that place has a line like the dickens at any other time. We saw the Venus DeMilo and some other really great Carvaggio paintings (I think I owe my appreciation of him to Joseph, who is quite the connoisseur. In fact, I owe a great deal of my enjoyment of museums to him, it was great times walking around with him in these places.)
  • Afterwards, we went to go see the Duomo, which was gigantic and beautiful (Top and bottom), and had cool candlabras and a cool clock inside. Obviously, I remembered I had a camera at this point.
  • In the afternoon we walked across the old Florence Bridge (The bridge is over the Arno, a dirty but pretty river which goes through the city). to the south part of the city, the only one which wasn't bombed out in WW(1?), and which has lots of stores crammed on it, like the Old London Bridge supposedly did. Even though they were all Jewelry stores, I still had some fun looking at shinys. It made me want cufflinks.
  • Tiny European cars on a bridge!
  • Unfortunately, we missed the Boboli Gardens (behind the house of the Medicis, the ancient aristocratic family of Italy. The clock tower on their house looks like this, so they were doing alright) because I was being unnecessarily cheap...so we ended up wandering to...
  • The south part of the city, where we spent a long time reading on a bench in front of the Florence Art Academy. We sat near some students who smoked pot (in Italian, of course) in between classes. When the Academy got out for the day we walked inside and stumbled upon a science fiction art exhibit, as well as the second replica of the David. We actually didn't know there were only 3 in the city until right before we left...so that was pretty lucky.
  • We got back, Joseph took a nap, I took a picture of a sunset. No, I did other things too.
  • For dinner, we met up with some of Joseph's roommates and went out! We went to one restaurant, and unfortunately, because decided to leave a restaurant after only a salad (the prices were high), they charged us 5 euros each for what is basically a "sitting-down outside-at-our-restaurant-fee." The food was fine, but we were a bit turned off from that restaurant, so we all went to a Pizzeria al taglia (by the slice), and had a jolly old time! Then Gelato. I think it was Oreo that night? It was all a haze of goodness (Not wine, that part comes next).
  • Then, the four of us went back to the room, drank two bottles of 3 euro wine, and played Euchre. Score. Good card game, though Joseph and I needed some work as partners in it.
Day 6: 1 David.
  • We walked around the northern side of Florence, where we went to La Academie and saw the original David. We got up at around 8 to do it, and that worked well because we got there before the line (which is a serious business). You can't take pictures, of course. But I will tell you this: the museum is basically a hall with David at the end. We're not talking long, luxurious halls at the
  • After the Academia, we went wandering around the most eastern part of the city. We quested for the Piazza Donatello (It ended up being a 4 ninja turtle day, with the art museum covering the other three). Unfortunately, as we discovered when we got there, the Piazza Donatello is a locked up cementary island in the middle of a busy road. Yeah. So we didn't stay there.
  • Instead, I sat down and read for a while in a nice little park near the Piazza, eating some GIGANTIC ITALIAN GRAPES and in general having a good time. Joseph walked around and did some touring, I expect. You'd have to ask him, but I was engrossed in my Rushdie novel (Midnight's Children).
  • I think we broke into someone's villa by accident. It was pretty. I gathered the police some evidence.
  • We had a rather amazing lunch at the place I could not stop raving about, this incredible little pizza joint. I won't say anything here...you have to go back a few posts to read all the adjectives. As you long term readers know, we made plans to go back the next day and eat both breakfast and lunch there (at lunchtime, I mean.)
  • Laundry! Joseph was a dude...he found an adapter to charge my cell phone in the wall while I watched the clothes rotate. But more on the adapter later.
  • We had a 60 Euro dinner...which was really good. We're talking wine, bruschetta, crazy pesto raviolis, and a big slab of the famous carpezio of the area, which is basically cured raw steak. It was super tasty, and I plan to do it again sometime. Also Gelato. I think that night was...

Day 7:

  • Oh my god, the best pizza in the world. Joseph agreed. We each ate about 4 slices. I got the cashier Paola's autograph, and gave the chef a hug, although I think I scared him. He didn't speak english, but he did give me a free cookie. Damn, I should be an ambassador.
  • I returned the adapter to charge my phone that didn't work, so no more phone after this point. That took some haggling. The guy in the store (Michelo) tried to get us to lead him to the outlet in the hostel so he could do electrical work on the dorm. That guy was a character. And a bad salesman. The haggling part came in later when I went back to the store and couldn't find anyone who spoke English, and managed to convey by hand gestures the fact that it didn't work. I received a standing ovation and an MA in pantomime from myself for that. Me = 5 Euros richer again.
  • We left mid day, again by train. Good times! Next Episode...Venezia.
Terciary Report: Poem.

SQUARE ROOT OPERA

Stage women;
manikins mingle
making meaning
love machines
Equal emotion
without motion
between pieces
between curtains

Women manikins
meaning machines
emotion without
pieces, curtains

Women machines
without curtains

Machines without

Machines.


Cheeahs.

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