Ciao, Tutti!
I apologize for my lack of blogging, but it seems time is shorter than I remember it being. I won't be able to finish the Greece post, though I think I've done enough. I just know that I didn't talk about the Hephaestus temple, which impressed me because it was so completely preserved, and the last day, when Mom and I were so tired and didn't want to do anything, but we ended up just browsing the flea market looking for gifts and had a great time. In brief, that's what I've left out. But so much has happened sine then it seems I can't dwell on anything until I get that covered. And I can't even dwell on that.
Music Announcements
Today I would like to start with the music announcements because since my arrival from Greece a lot has happened, though none of it has been confirmed until just recently. To provide you all with a broad itinerary:
Saturday, June 28, 9:00: The Inspiration Sextet live at the Bluesix Acoustic Room on 24th and Treat street, San Francisco. This will be the first performance of Guest Artist and a celebration both of the year-release of "Summer Victory Dance" and the final six months of the disastrous Bush presidency. A very special day for me in my life, the day where the band gets its name. Julian Pollack will probably be a guest artist (ha ha) for the second set, also special because June 28 is his birthday.
Sunday, August 17, 8:00 The Inspiration Sextet live at the Jazz School in Berkeley, Addison Street between Shattuck and Milvia. We will perform a different rendition of Guest Artist in my last show as a teenage band leader. I will also take advantage of the electricity we will have there that we won't at Bluesix to play as many instruments as makes sense, which includes both guitar and voice (I haven't played guitar in a concert for more than 4 years, and I have never sung live before!) Also a special surprise for my brother, whose birthday is two days later.
Thursday September 25, 6:00 The Inspiration Sextet live at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York City. We will perform Guest Artist live in New York, a fitting celebration of my first 20th birthday (only 20th birthday). I have a knack for booking shows on dates that are meaningful for some reason.
Each show will have a different second set, and I'm trying to make the long Guest Artist different for each show as well so that there is a good reason to go to all of them if you have the chance. Of course, that's probably impossible, so the New York show will probably be quite similar to one of the shows in the Bay Area. But one thing I can guarantee is that there will be a reason to see both of the Bay Area shows if you're in town for them both. I have yet to work out the specifics of that plan, but it will come to be.
The day after the Bluesix confirmed with me the Jazz School wrote to me saying that the 17th opened up. It was very exciting, though now I have to deal with having two shows that fit about 100 people per show and trying to put all my effort into making both of them better than anything I've ever done before and filling them with people. However, the excitement helps the drive, and I'll need all the help I can to get the word out so as many people can partake in these great shows when the days come.
I missed promoting the show I played at the world famous jazz club in Florence, Pinocchio, with the NYU jazz ensemble I'm in called "New York-Italian Connection," also featuring two of my suitemates, Rob and Greg. That show at Pinocchio went great, but it was far away from where everyone lives and it rained, so the audience could have been quite a deal better. The concert we played last Saturday at La Cite, a hip cafe, drew a lot more people but I played unspeakably badly. It was ironic: I played great at the show no one I knew was at and played like sh*t the day people I knew were there. They said it was good, though, so I guess I shouldn't complain, but the drummer (an Italian named Simone, a really great guy) said he could tell I was thinking too much as I was playing, which was true.
The next Italian gig is this weekend at a place called Porto Di Mare. On Tuesday there is an international music festival at the school where we take our music classes, Il Trillo, and I will be playing there, too, as far as I know. It seems from now on every weekend has at least one gig, usually not in Florence, actually, though I am free the weekend of Passover when I will be visiting my cousin Shira in Germany, and also the weekend before finals, when I hope to go to Seville. But we have gigs hopefully in Ferrara and in Terni, plus another place, I think, but I can't keep them all straight in my mind.
On to the main show!
My friends from NYU in Madrid came for their spring break to visit Italy, starting with Venice, then Florence, then Rome in the end. Remember Kat and Amanda from the Barcelona post? They were both there, as well as another Scholar, Alicia, and two new people to meet, Genalise, whose name I can't even pretend to spell, and Stephanie. Sheila, also from the Barcelona trip, joined the party in Rome. On the bottom picture we can see our happy family:
From left to right: Me, Alishia, Amanda, Kat, Genalise, Sheila, Stephanie!
I took them to the right gelaterias and restaurants here in Florence, I suppose. I don't really know which ones are right and which ones are wrong, but they were totally impressed by the food, so I guess it worked, and they even liked my rusty Italian, out of practice due to the effort to learn even the smallest amount of Greek at the sacrifice of my Italian skills.
On Friday I took the cheap train to Rome in the morning, a 3.5 hour train ride, to celebrate Kat's 20th birthday party, the only 20th birthday party ever to be better than what mine is going to be like. I had originally wanted to stay all weekend, but we had that gig on Saturday night and I needed to be rested up, so I needed to sleep in my bed back in Florence. So I got to Rome at 12:30 and left at 9:30 (on a faster, more expensive train). Yes, I did Rome in 9 hours. Good thing I'd been there before.
Doing Rome in 9 hours is almost shoving the paradox of a grand city like Rome into your face. There is an impossible amount to see, and you could spend a lifetime there and still be discovering corners tucked away that you could never imagine. The center of the world's (or the west's at the very least) greatest empire has something for you at every turn. For a tourist, this presents a problem, because how much do you see before you feel satisfied with all you've done in the city? To see all you need to see in Rome, you have to devote much less time to what you need to see to see it all, whereas in a place like Siena or Ferrara, you not only have plenty of time to absorb all the city has to offer a tourist but you have time to get much more out of its limited amount of sights. With Rome, if you're not having a blast or seeing something amazing, you feel like you should be doing something somehow more meaningful simply because the meaning is there waiting for you to take advantage of it. Rome puts a lot more pressure on the tourist than a place like Ferrara, or even Venice, where simply being there is the main thrill.
However, as Venice showed me, the main thrill of a trip is usually found off the track that has been planned. And I have been to Rome before and I know I could always come back before I leave Florence, so I didn't put that kind of pressure into my 9 hours. I had one major sight I wanted to see, the "Ecstasy of Saint Theresa," a crazy baroque sculpture I had studied in Music History. After all, music and the visual arts aren't that different. After that, with the Rome first-timers, I assumed we were going to spend time at one of the most famous sights of the world: the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Plus, I didn't mind seeing those things again, unlike the Vatican, which I didn't really care about seeing again, not yet, at least. Everything was free because it was Culture Week in Italy, and all archaeological sites and museums were free to the public. We took a tour to skip the line into the Colosseum, though it was so bare-bones that I don't know if it really counted, but we saw the Colosseum and I could say what I remembered from last time and the books I've read. Plus, I mean, It's the Colosseum. You don't need much else. Speaking of which, the Roman Forum was closed when we were able to tear our eyes away from the colossal Colosseum, so the girls said they would come back later in the weekend. I was content taking pictures from afar and remembering writing "Song of the Siren #2" in my head last time I was there.
P.S. It was a beautiful day, and I definitely got sunburned.
Kat and her friends were tired from the week of travel, so they planned a two hour napping period before dinner and a big birthday celebration after I was to leave, so they left me the two hours to myself to see my church and do whatever I wanted. This was the time of great exploration for me. You see, I knew the "Ecstasy" was in the church of Santa Maria, but when I got to Rome I discovered there were a myriad of different churches to Santa Maria, including two that were on the street I knew the church I was looking for was on due to prior research. I plotted a course to go through to them through the major landmarks along the way. The first church, Santa Maria Maggiore, looked from the outside to be just as functional as the Roman Forum, though on the inside it proved to be more modern than I could have possibly imagined. Plus it was quite large. And, most importantly, no "Ecstasy." I had to move on. Santa Maria Della Vittoria was money, and I could tell right away from the room. We studied the "Ecstasy" in Music as an example of the baroque tradition, an overflowing sculpture, and the room made it seem plain. It was quite small compared to Santa Maria Maggiore, but it was loaded up with all sorts of colored marble and gold and other precious metals, the walls lined with exquisite sculpture and painting. It was overwhelming, headache-inducing, even. By the time i had finally gotten used to it at all the evening services were starting, and I had to leave with just a short time spent looking at the sculpture I was looking for in the first place.
The Outside of Santa Maria Maggiore
Now I make a long story short, because I saw an incredible amount in the hour or so I had left. I would look at a map and choose a landmark somewhere close to me and see it. If there was a church or an interesting looking street, I'd go in, sort of like exploring Venice without going over the bridges. In the end, I managed to see seven fountains, 4 churches, a gate to the city, two piazzas, and the sun setting over Vatican City.
Sunset at Vatican City
Of course, there was one thing else. At some point I decided that it would take a major accident to stop me from seeing the Pantheon, one of my favorite buildings from the last time I was in Rome. This whole trip I was on a mission to take the pictures I didn't take last time I was in Rome with my family. Last time I only took one picture in Rome, a shot of the Forum. This time my camera was going crazy, and even though the Pantheon was quite a bit out of the way and down streets that made a somewhat difficult maze, I had made up my mind to see the Pantheon and not be late for dinner. Turns out the last part was unavoidable. But the thrill of walking as fast as I could past the igniting street lamps toward the ultimate goal... I felt like I was really there, not just a normal tourist with a limited understanding of Italian and a map, but like I was really getting into the spirit of the city. It was a wonderful feeling, an earthy connection to the roots. It felt like creating experiences instead of just letting them come to you.
The Pantheon was also free for culture week, which was nice, and all the scaffolding I remembered from the last time I was in Rome was gone. It was quite a different experience to see the circle cutout in the ceiling by night, no light filtering through at an angle that gives the impression of ancient clock or calendar. But in a way looking up at the night sky was more peaceful, more a testament to the architectural achievement of the builders. I felt the sky closer to me in that building than almost anywhere I'd ever been, a feeling of being outside and inside all at once. It wasn't like camping where you lie under the stars and partake momentarily in the natural world. Now the sky was coming into the man-made world I was used to, not though a window like I'm used to. I guess it's pretty hard to explain, but suffice to say that I really like that building. I was happy the rest of the day and throughout dinner. I told the waiter to bring Kat a tiramisu while I was "in the bathroom," and he did with a candle in it. She loved it.
The music program was to go see a concert in Sienna, and I have too many fond memories of Siena to just go for just an evening and skip seeing the Duomo or the Piazza Del Campo. So I skipped my classes except composition lesson to go for the afternoon by myself. Oh, hush, you'd do the same thing. I didn't earn myself that much more time, only about 4 hours, but if I could get as much done in Rome that I did in 9 hours, let alone the 2 hours I had to myself, I could basically conquer Sienna. Which I did. It was quite easy to find the great food that I remembered, and I continued the mission from Rome to take pictures of the places I didn't last time I was there.
Nannini is the famous bakery. Siena is famous for its food, specifically for its pastries. I was supposed to get a bombolone conciocolate, but they were out of chocolate, so I got a cream filled one, a chocolate croissant, and an apple turnover. Heavenly! Especially to eat them one by one on the gorgeous shell-shaped Piazza Del Campo, a grand piazza focussed on the bell tower that imposes even more than Florence's Signoria.
There was also this meat shop with a boar's head with glasses that sold the most delicious pork that fed our family last time we were in Sienna for three days, though if we had room in our stomachs we would have eaten it all right there and then. Sadly, like the bombolone con ciocolate, this memory could not be relived, since they were out of pork. That's what happens when you get there in the afternoon: they've already sold out of what they're famous for. But at least I got to take the picture, and I hope to go back sometime. Let's see if I can get to Cinque Terre first, though. I've now failed twice to follow through with my plans to get there. More on that later.
Besides trying to relive old memories, I stumbled upon some new ones as well. The Sienna museum society or whatever its real name is has a very nice thing going on for tourists. There was a very cheap ticket I could buy at the beautiful cathedral that get me into the main museum, the crypt, the baptistery, the Duomo, and the Orology. Of these things, I had only been inside the Duomo before, though it was definitely worth going again. The thing that was so attractive about this ticket was that it granted access to an arch next to the Duomo that I remember trying to find a way to the top of with Joel last time we were there, but we couldn't figure it out. Well, this time I would get my chance.
The Duomo
The crypt, located under the Duomo, gave me my first rush of excitement. We could see the foundation of the cathedral from inside a small chamber whose walls were painted with biblical scenes, and through panes of glass on the ground we could see how much further down the support was coming from. Mom's toes would have been numb. The Duomo, like most of Siena, was built on a hill, so they had to raise most of it to the level of the facade so the main hall would be level. Last time I was there, I didn't realize this, and now I felt like I was in the heart of the cathedral, not just the part for show to everyone but the part that really made the building possible to exist.
The entrance to the lower levels of the Duomo, including the Baptistery and the Crypt
The baptistery was not as impressive as the Florence baptistery, though, like a lot of things in Siena, the frescoes, paintings, sculptures, and other works in the room were overly preserved to the point where they looked like they had just been painted recently. The important thing about the baptistery for me was that the... something... (I couldn't derive its purpose or name) in the middle bore bronze statuettes by many great sculptors of the time, including Donatello and Ghiberti, and there were also along the sides panels that resembled those on the baptistery doors here in Florence. It was fairly obvious which ones were by Ghiberti, who is now one of my favorite artists because he is simply amazing at perspective. Even the Donatello panels could not compare.
One of the Ghiberti panels
I thought the museum was very impressive, just about as impressive as the Academia in Venice, though there was not nearly as much emphasis on painting. There was the famous stained glass window originally in the Duomo facade that is now being preserved, and many sculptures, ancient books, and other treasures that have now been removed from the Duomo for the sake of preservation. There were two rooms of particular interest to me. In one there were the architectural designs for the Duomo, even down to the beautiful frescoes and the "ground carvings." Everything was meticulously planned by the artists and architects, and it was fairly amazing to see the plans that were used all those centuries ago. The other room that caught my attention the most was the room with the holy relics. There were countless relics that lined the walls of this room; an entire shelf was filled with glass boxes containing skulls of saints. There were too any relics for me to believe in their validities, though that was how it was back in the day as well. An example would be how Saint Gregory has roughly 40 fingers if you count how many of them turn up in reliquaries. The pagan nature of this method of practicing Catholicism and my proximity to these holy human remains creeped me out a bit. Though the most important item in the room was a golden rose bush with 19 flowers made out of pure gold that was given to Sienna as a holy gift blessed by the Pope. The confusing religious messages were a little too much for me and I left the room.
Skull of Saint Katherine, I think. I was yelled at for taking this picture.
At the top of the museum was the way to the arch Joel and I saw last time we were here, and I ran into a British couple and we had a nice conversation about the state of government and private funding for artistic creativity. I got a French adolescent to take the picture of me in the beginning of this section.
The arch I was on top of. I forget its real name.
For the sake of moving on, I will concede that this is the basic gist of my last two trips. It seems that I won't get the chance for much more travel as airfare rises and I seem to have concerts every weekend from here on out. I have some one-day trips in mind, like Cinque Terre that I have tried and failed twice to visit. I will try to post as soon as I can. For now, here is a video of the Acropolis I somehow left off last week's post. Enjoy!
A presto,
-Sam g
