Sue’s Travelogue of Italy 2009

We started the Italian adventure on July 20 in Milan, the fashion capital of the world.  But alas, I failed to find anything that was uniquely Italian, or that wasn’t better suited for the 18-25 year old crowd, or looked good enough to justify the price AND could be worn outside of Italy without causing uncontrolled laughter, at least for the two years until the fashion makes it to the US.  By the way, jumpsuits and thick belts worn loosely over dresses appear to be coming back.   Instead we took a great tour of the city. We saw the Duomo (cathedral), Leonardo’s Last  Supper and the tech museum devoted to him (very cool- it showed Da Vinci’s drawings above the machine represented, some very old and  others remarkably modern), the opera house and other cool sights.

Jay really wanted to buy Evan the Inter Milan soccer jersey Evan needed for his collection featuring the desired player, Zlatan Ibrahimovic , Number 8.  Jay searched several stores and could find only the jersey with the player in the wrong size, the wrong style jersey, etc. The third store had the jersey in the right size without any player or number and the soccer aficionado clerk offered to imprint the player and number for a few more Euros.  Done.  The guy knew about the player and said that he was changing his number to 10 for the new season. Jay rejoiced. Evan would be the first kid in California with the latest jersey. The jersey ended up costing almost as much as a small Tuscan villa by the end but Jay was thrilled, basking in the short-lived delight until the very next day’s newspaper featured the announcement that Ibrahimojivc was being traded to Barcelona. The jersey is now a one of a kind item for the exceedingly elite collector with questionable eBay value.

Next, we trained it to Venice. After checking out the Duomo and beautiful piazzas, we toured two museums–the Accademia and the Peggy Guggenheim. The Guggenheim was my favorite with more modern artists including Dali, Miro, and Picasso with sculpture and paintings. 

There was a special exhibit with Robert Rauschenberg’s Gluts junk sculptures giving new life to car parts, old signs and such. We took the vaporetto water buses throughout the canals to places like Lido, a small island with a beach. We walked everywhere, getting lost in fun little alleys, eating gelato and trying to stay away from restaurants with menus in three languages in favor of less touristy fare.  Commedia dell’Arte is a prominent feature of Venice so we returned with a unique addition for our mask wall (purchased from the artist) as well as a sample of the famous Murano glass jewelry they make there.

Next we got off the train in Florence. The first day we were able to get into the Accademia and see Michelangelo’s David among other great works.  They had an interesting special photographic exhibit by Robert Mapplethorpe that included human body photos, some of which were placed near the David and other sculptures creating a very cool effect.   The second day we toured the Uffizi between many great hours of walking and shopping the town.   Jay bought a beautiful Italian suit and I got a styling white leather blazer.

On day seven we picked up a car and drove down to our amazing hosts, Rob and Janet’s second home in Tuscany–in the small medieval hilltop village of Castelmuzio. Rob and Jay went to Stanford together. Rob and Janet are both college professors among their other fascinating work.  Their Tusan retreat is an 1100 year old home down a picturesque street just past the second archway that they own with 4 other couples.

Being a father
Is quite a bother.

You are as free as air
With time to spare,

You’re a fiscal rocket
With change in your pocket,

And then one morn
A child is born.

Your life has been runcible,
Irresponsible,

Like an arrow or javelin
You’ve been constantly travelin’.

But mostly, I daresay,
Without a chaise percée,

To which by comparison
Nothing’s embarison.

But all children matures,
Maybe even yours.

You improve them mentally
And straighten them dentally,

They grow tall as a lancer
And ask questions you can’t answer,

And supply you with data
About how everybody else wears lipstick sooner and stays up later,

And if they are popular,
The phone they monopular.

They scorn the dominion
Of their parent’s opinion,

They’re no longer corralable
Once they find that you’re fallible

But after you’ve raised them and educated them and gowned them,
They just take their little fingers and wrap you around them.

Being a father
Is quite a bother,
But I like it, rather.

** Thank you Ogden Nash!

Shown here at the Pinkpop music festival, The Netherlands, June 1976.  Lowell George on slide guitar!

The world keeps on turning, but so what

I don’t doubt it - it just keeps on the move!

“Number one, work on something really important. Number two: If you find something really important to work on, stick to it.”

In other words,  make a difference in the world.

“You make a living by what you do. You make a life by what you give.”

In a post today, Seth Godin says that “you matter” when you do something important.   He lists 11 things that you can do that matter, such as “When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.”

Many people have said this in one form or another, many times already.  Ghandi said “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Is this important?  I think so.  A friend of mine told me today that she is pregnant with her first child.  While admittedly not for everyone, raising children can be something that truly makes a difference in the world.  Raise them to be good people, to make the world a better place and you will both make a difference.

At the New Media Consortium’s Summer Conference at Princeton University, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a day on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus making music and video.  Following the way they work with schools and colleges around the country, seven of us who had never met before were thrown together to collaboratively create a music video.  Susan Fou (keyboards), Neil Gomes (vocals), Randy Malta (bass), Nita Paul (vocals and lyrics), Andy Curran (guitar), Grover Sanders (drums), and I (music and guitar) had an absolute blast making this video.

We could not have done it without Tyler and Seamus who are the technical crew on the bus.  They have gone around the country recording rock stars, kids, college students, and at least one geezer along the way. They are patient, creative, good teachers, and incredibly competent in a very technically demanding field.  Watching them edit video and music faster (and better) than most people (or I) can word process was a joy to behold.

The bus is obviously inspired by John Lennon and one of the sayings prevalently displayed on the bus is “Imagine Peace”.  We took it as our inspiration.  From that, the song “Where Do We Go” was born.