l'Ultimo Baccio: Saying Goodbye to Firenze

The Duomo in Milan


Ciao, Tutti!

It has been a while since I wrote about Italy to you guys, and it will be an even longer time before I can write about it again. I arrived in Berkeley almost 48 hours ago without my bag because it missed my connection from Paris, but I expected that because we only had a 50 minute layover to run through the enormous Charles de Gaul airport, so I packed everything important on carry on baggage. Plus we were 25 minutes late. Anyway, I have my bag now, and without final exams to worry about, I have time to write my last travel edition of the blog.

Two words of warning before I go into this: 1) This is by no means the last blog. I only expect this blog to become more music-oriented, like the Sam Goldsmith website, rather than a online travel journal. I will still be writing, so don't forget about me!

2) Since I haven't written in so long, there is too much to write, as always. I have about 280 pages in my personal travel journal, which is not yet finished, and multiple pounds of scrap booking things. I will try a new thing with this blog so that I don't wear everybody out, especially me. I will make a slide show with in-depth captions, so the blog will revolve around the photos rather than the story. Plus, there isn't much of a story except I was traveling throughout northern Italy for a few days taking pictures.

I apologize to all who are still waiting for my postcards to arrive. I have them all here with me, most of them being written, but knowing the Italian postal system, I figured I'd rather deliver them in person, or at least mail them from the states.

Music Announcements

I must include this segment first, since a development occurred for the 20th birthday concert. The Bowery Poetry Club moved the date until the following Sunday, September 28, 2008, from 6:00-7:30, instead of September 25. I earned 3 more days as a teenager. If you plan to come out for the show, I'd wait a little longer before making plans because, who knows, they might change again.

The premier of Guest Artist will be on Saturday, June 28, 2008, at the Bluesix Acoustic Room at 9:00. Will be a great show, worth the trip into San Francisco to see. The Inspiration Sextet will also be playing a sequel to last summer's Jazz School performance, though there will be some personnel changes due to people leaving town early, and the two shows will feature entirely different sets of music except Guest Artist. Come to both! 8:00 at the Jazz School, August 17.

Good to get that out of the way. Now for the main show:

Genova



This is a view of the city of Genova from the port. Genova is the second biggest port in Europe, the biggest being Barcelona.


The city of Genova. I took this picture from something called the "Bigo," a device that lifts you 40 meters above the ground at the pier next to the aquarium. Speaking of the aquarium, which I have no pictures of... Genova has one of the best aquariums I have ever seen, very well-organized and very fun. I learned a lot of Italian words for marine animals there.


I thought this stairway was pretty. I was walking over a bridge and looking down on the roofs of the apartment buildings. Genova is a city with drastic hills and many height contrasts. Because it's built into the mountains, it is rather long, and most everything one would want to see is by the coast. But I like overhead views.


This is the cathedral of Genova, a work in progress when viewed from the inside, filled with many obvious add-ons and architectural features that don't fit the rest of the design. I liked the facade a lot, though, and they had an amazing treasure museum with the Holy Grail and the plate where John the Baptist's head was kept. It was creepy, but I had just written a paper about these sorts of holy relics, so it was pretty fascinating, too.


An overhead view of the cathedral. In all the other cathedrals I had seen throughout Italy, the structure was similar, but this one was different. There is not much space in Genova, so instead of having the two chambers off to the sides they built their cathedral with the two chambers along side the center altar, so the church takes up less square footage. I took this picture from atop a tower of the royal palace.


The small house is supposedly where Christopher Columbus was born. I didn't go in since I wasn't all that interested by it. Seemed like a tourist trap.

Torino

I didn't get many good pictures of Torino, and I didn't like it as much as the other two cities. But I did get to see some great panoramic views of the too-modern city and the Alps behind it. The main cathedral was very uninteresting, actually about the same size as the other large churches and in now way in a more centralized position than some of the others. And the facade was so dull and bare. And another church had the famous Shroud of Turin, which I saw by accident, not knowing what it was until afterward when I was wondering why there were so many pictures of it up around where tourists were supposed to go. I liked the green building with a dome and spike at the top. "Il Mole" used to be a Jewish temple, but now it's the national cinema museum.


The Po river and the hill I climbed to get my panoramic views. Also on top of that hill was a mountaineering museum, which was interesting. I think I liked the proximity to the Alps more than the city itself, though this may have been because everything was closed for the May 1 national holiday, or I might have been worn out from being a tourist and not sleeping much.


Here is a great panoramic view of the city. The big building is Il Mole. I don't really know too much about Torino, except that it's very French and very baroque, and apparently it was very important in conjunction with Milan and Genova in the Italian industrial revolution. I could tell it was French with the big, square, bland piazzas with repetitive buildings all in the similar design as Versailles. I liked the other side of the Po River better because it was greener and I could see the city with the amazing mountain backdrop. I really did like the mountains. There's a video that won't upload to my computer right now, but I could see the mountains forever and ever it seemed from my perch on the hill. It was quite serene once I got out of the main city.

Milan


I did not actually visit Milan. I only walked through it to get to the Duomo, which was all I wanted to see of the city, except perhaps the opera house that's so famous. I would rather see an opera then the place where it's performed, though, so I didn't care to go, and besides, with only 3 or four hours in Milan I needed to give the Duomo proper respect, and I don't even think that devoting all my time in Milan to it was a big enough tribute to it's awesomeness.


The day was so bright, the cathedral was so white and clean, and the architecture was so bizarre that I was befuddled at times while I was looking at it. I often wasn't even able to tell what I was looking at on first glance, whether there was a wall in front of me or at my side, objects' distances from me, the angle at which I was approaching, etc. It was almost a mystical baroque mind trick device, so elaborate that there is not more sense of front, back, or shape. And yet it was still definitely a duomo, like the others I had seen in my travels.


After going inside (and seeing two preserved bodies of saints, speaking of holy relics), I took the climb to the top, and I enjoyed not being tired as I heard the other Americans panting and muttering curses under their breath as they struggled up the tall and narrow staircase. Kids would come down, and I could hear, "cento trentuno, cento trentidue, cento trentitre" under their breath as they counted the 131, 132, and 133 steps. I don't know how many there were, but people seemed to think there were a lot.


The top was a very strange thing. It was basically a marble roof structured the same way as the roofs of our houses are today, with marble stucco and everything. The view was not so great because Milan doesn't have a very interesting skyline, but it was quite amazing to be able to walk on the crooked roof of the amazing cathedral and look down on its mighty piazza.

San Elpidio al Mare concert, May 3


This is the theater we played in for our last concert in Italy. More people showed up after the soundcheck, but it was difficult to take pictures in the dark. It seated somewhere between 300 and 500 people and was pretty full by the time we started playing. Even though we didn't play all that well for a variety of reasons, including personal, technical, and physical, we played well enough and the people liked it quite a bit, so that was good. I felt good about it, and I had played well, despite the fatigue and lack of practice from the vacation I had taken the preceding three days, and everyone has off-days and you just have to take it like a professional. The place was on a hill by the Adriatic sea, about a 4 hour drive away from Florence, in the region of Marche.


We ate dinner in a castle, actually, and wonderful osteria, which was about the biggest restaurant I had ever seen in my life. The man sitting next to me (who took the picture) talked to me really fast in Italian about how bread is made in Marche, and between the speed and the heavy Marche accent I could only understand about half of it. Still, after my Genova trip where I didn't speak a word of English for 3 days I felt stronger in Italian than ever before. Just in time to take the exam and then take my leave.


On the left is Greg, the guitarist in the band and one of my suitemates, and on the right is Simone, our Italian drummer who we had all become very close with during our travels throughout Italy playing, as well as with our bassist Piero. They are standing next to an advertisement for our show that night. These were up all over the city, and we had an article in the newspaper, so I guess it was a big deal. We are already making plans for Piero and Simone to come out to New York this fall to visit, trying to make suer we'll have enough room in our dorms to put them up for a week or two.


After a basically zero-hour night sleep, the only thing waking me up was this beautiful view of the Appenini mountain range. I think after all this time looking at city monuments and churches and artwork I have started to become very fond of natural beauty, even more than usual, and I have started to miss Yosemite quite a lot. There is a point where every church looks the same unless it's the Milan, Florence, or Siena Duomo (Even St. Peter's is just a bigger version of less interesting churches I've seen, just with a great Michelangelo sculpture at the front). I'm sure it gets like that with mountains eventually, but not. You could make the greatest cathedral ever and it still won't be as grand as a giant mountain.

That is one thing that made me feel better about leaving Florence, feeling that I was ready to be done with travel and tourism. I don't feel like moving city to city and seeing the monuments anymore, I feel like staying put and living, visiting people and nature. I could stay put in Florence and still be happy, but it's time not to move around so much. Speaking of tourism, Florence has started to become more and more crowded and congested with obnoxious Americans, and probably those from other nationalities, too, but the Americans are the most noticeable because they're the most obnoxious. They make it streets so crowded that it's tough to walk down the street to the supermarket, let alone to the Uffizi, whose line was so long I never even made it back to say goodbye. That, the increasingly hot weather, and the zanzare (mosquitos) are the only things I can think of right now that I won't miss about Florence.



As a goodbye present to myself I went to Fiesole, a little rich town outside Florence that has the best view of the Arno Valley. I've been into overhead views a lot lately, as you can see, but I do think that it's a good way to wrap up the semester, the wonderful, life-changing semester. I could see the whole place from where I was standing, all of everything I had been enjoying so much for the last 4 months, all so small as if it was in a little jar to take home with me, a little memory in the blue haze of the sky. No matter what happens, it's a city, a great city, and I can always come back because it's not going anywhere, and even if I don't for some reason, it will always be that little collection of buildings with a red dome of to right of center. When I got there in January, that view would have meant nothing to me but a pretty landscape, like the view of Torino, Milan, or Genova. But this trip gave this place meaning to me, meaning of more than just a place with pretty buildings, but the closest to home I have ever felt outside of the Bay Area. It's like I could see time, the whole time I had been there as I looked at the city, though I could also see the history, the Romans coming down from Fiesole to make a small town on the Arno, the building of the baptistry, burning Savanarola outside Palazzo della Signoria, the recent elections that seem to be taking place every year since World War II. Never have I made a trip where the ending seemed so complete, and so I was not overly sad to return home a few days later.

Mi piaci, Firenze, e non ho voluto partire. Penso che ci vediamo a presto. Lo so

-Sam goldsmith

Un Giorno Perfetto alle Cinque Terre

Ciao, Tutti!

Things are getting a little crazy around these parts as final papers start to come in, people begin to prepare for tests, the final concerts are coming up, and everyone who can't wait to get home gets antsy and people who don't want to leave get sad. After teaching last Wednesday, the teacher and I went over the next two classes I would teach before going back home, and it was more than a little disconcerting to think I would be gone so soon. The idea of spending a year or so here after graduating to teach English is becoming more and more appealing.


View from the Oberau Train Station

Before I talk about the perfect day in Cinque Terre (SHIN-kwe TER-a), I should mention my trip to visit with Shira and Billy, which was interesting since both Shira and I look quite a bit different than last time we saw each other. It looks like the baby will be here in about 5 weeks, according to my expertise in the area, or my calculations after hearing what the due date is. I was glad to have a chance to see where they live because there aren't many people who are going to be able to see the house where little Sophie is going to spend most of her first year. Plus, next time anyone sees Shira from out of town she will be a mother. I certainly felt like I was very lucky to be able to make this visit at this point in time.


View from Shira and Billy's backyard. The light made this picture hard to take.

The best part about the visit was the main reason I went, which was the passover seder. Last year I was in New York for the holiday, and I didn't get to celebrate it at all, though I do only have to blame myself for skipping the seder my friends were having. But it was so nice this year to be spending the passover with family, the way it's meant to be done, or at least the way I'm used to. Passover is an important holiday for me because of my version of the bar mizvah, where I spent a year studying the haggadah (not enough to spell it right, though) and learning how to lead a seder. It was just so nice and homey to be reading the story and singing the prayers once again with family. It was a small affair this year, only 10 once the stragglers showed up, which was probably a good thing for Shira. It was intimate, and we went at our own pace, allowing for the questions, serious or not, to be answered by the 4 Jews at the table. I had a great time, so great, in fact, that I completely forgot to take pictures, much to Aunt Marsha's probable disappointment. That says a lot, saying as I took 125 pictures at Cinque Terre. Taking pictures immediately makes one feel like an outsider documenting an event rather than taking part in it, and I was having too much fun to withdraw from that to get some photos to send back home. However, when I wasn't avoiding writing my paper, I did manage to get some good pictures of the house, plus I got some at the train station.


Another view from the Oberau Train Station

The small town Shira and Billy live in (whose name I don't remember) is very close to the foot of the Alps, which was evident as the mountains seemed to rise up from right in front of me. It was drop dead gorgeous, the whole scenery, the car ride, the train ride, and even the flight. They live in a small farming community which was very relaxing for me to spend the weekend after a semester of hard work, though it didn't help me tackle my paper. However, after a long stay, I can imagine it getting old. Still, I appreciated it quite a bit.


Shira and Billy's house

It hadn't stopped raining when I got back to Florence. the weather here has been very strange, and even the Florentines don't get it. I was really hoping for good weather before I left so I could see the Boboli Gardens in bloom as well as the gardens on campus. But, sure enough, spring arrived with T-shirt weather on Thursday, and, bounding with the temperature-induced energy, I figured I would get up bright and early at 6:30 to take a train to Cinque Terre Parche Nazionale and make up for the two times before I wanted to go but failed to do so.


View of Manarola from the mountains

It was completely worth it. My goodness, the place was so amazingly beautiful.

Cinque Terre literally means "five lands" or "five villages." It is located on the west coast in the middle of Liguria, the region north of Tuscany. It's about a 15 minute drive from Portofino and Santa Margarita, where I had visited about 3 years ago with my high school band. The five villages are spaced out along the coast and there are numerous trails that lead you from one to the other. Just behind the towns are rolling hills which double as a large farming community.


Manarola

Some initial observations: First of all, it was like the trip to Portofino back in the day, but many times more beautiful. The buildings were built in the same colorful style and the trail had the habit of running through random people's back yards. For example, we walked by a party going on in celebration of the Italian Liberation (I went on their version of Independence Day).


Note the crowd surfer. You can't really hear the loud music they were playing just by the photo, though.

Second, there were all sorts of tiny paths that didn't look like paths until you saw where they were going. A lot of times I had to double back in order to tell where that path began. These were usually paths that led up to farms or private residences. It was sort of like Venice, but the paths actually went somewhere instead of into the water. It gave new meaning to directions that don't use street names but "the third bush after the ninth tree" or something like that.


This door seems to be in the middle of nowhere, but there's actually a path that makes it important.


I think it's obvious it's a path because of how I took the photo, but it wasn't so evident as I walked by it.

Third, everything was so amazingly green! You can tell by the photos, but it was obvious spring had arrived and the farmers were happy. Combining the unnatural blue of the sea with the verdant green of the hills and trees made for a naturally vibrant hiking day.

The names of the five towns, in order, are Riomaggiore, Manarola (the one I got the best pictures of), Corniglia, Vernazza, and Montarosso. I got to Riomaggiore at about 10 in the morning to begin my hike. I wanted to get through all of the towns, and as a consequence I didn't take many pictures in Riomaggiore. I could have taken some looking back, but the sun was just rising in that direction and it was impossible.


Foot trails map

The path most traveled in the park is trail 2, which is not very strenuous and leads you along the coast so you can smell that wonderful sea air and get a good coastal view of all the towns you're going to. It's also the one built best for large groups of people, but even that wasn't enough to keep from congestion. As many of you know, I walk rather quickly, and this was the trail for families, and families don't usually want to walk in single file. I had originally wanted to do the hiking parts as fast as I could so I could have some time to explore the towns, but, as we will see, I ended up doing something much different.


Manarola

By the time I made it to Manarola I decided to try and take a trail above the rest of the people going on path 2, but I took one that took me about half way to Corniglia, then sent me back to Manarola, so I got to see it twice, which may account for why I was able to get better pictures of it. After the blunder I decided to walk seaside again to get views such as this one:



In Corniglia, on the way to the next trail, I saw a sign that looked like this:



So I looked at my hand held map and made sure the trail would eventually lead to the next town of Vernazza, which it did, so I whimsically went off trail and started the uphill climb, which turned out to be just about entirely uphill. There was an elevation gain of about 2,000 feet in about half an hour of hiking. All in all, the trail was 2.5 km long, so a mile of hiking that went up 2,000 feet. That means more than 2/3rds of the hiking was uphill as opposed to moving straight. Puts the trail at a 60 degree angle. My legs were shaking when I reached the road at the top of the mountain. But the view was amazing and it was totally worth it, though Mom would have hated how handicapped inaccessible it was.It made me worried, since I want to go to Yosemite this summer, but if I had such a hard time on this trail, I don't know if I'm quite ready to go all the way up to Half Dome, which is quite a lot more elevation gain than what I did in Cinque Terre.


Coniglia from above

This hike was the best part of the trip, even if my calves are still sore. It was very cathartic, very introspective, and I could feel my mind clearing. Suddenly I could remember things clearly, things from back in my childhood, and make connections to solve problems that had been forgotten by now (Flip Saunders needs to do this kind of hike). I was all alone in the mountains by the sea. It was an ecstasy, a mental cleansing, and I felt in a better, more optimistic state of mind that I can remember in a long time. I felt I could go back and finish Guest Artist in a sitting, that I could stop stressing about this movie score because I could just sit down and do it, that I don't have to worry about my exams because all I have to do is study for them. I even felt for the first time that I could talk to Mariel without anger, reserve, or fear. I felt like I could tackle all my problems as long as I was on that mountain, like my mind was sharp enough to handle anything set out for it to do. A feeling of "I can do this" about everything. Barack Obama would have been proud. He must do hikes like that all the time. All jokes aside, it was a profound experience for me, perhaps even as far as spiritual. And, of course, it felt like the perfect ending trip for this wonderful semester of mine, a feeling of closing up all the holes left open until this point. It was a truly wonderful feeling.

Part of the consequence of taking the long way around, other than the shaking in my knees, was that I approached the next town, Vernazza, from the back rather from the side, and the path winded down people's back yards, directly through the farming community next to a river. It was so green and full of spring that it was fairly obvious that the farmers were having a good time with the great weather. I liked seeing the little rails with carts on them used to transport things up and down the hills. The whole community seemed to take living on the hills in stride, though with all the uphill climbing they have to do as suggested by the crazy steep stairs, they must be very fit and worn out at a much younger age.



I just booked a hostel to Genoa for a couple days next weekend to celebrate May Day, which is a national holiday here. One last great trip in store for me before this whole adventure comes to a close.

Music Announcements

Very exciting news: The NYU in Florence jazz bands got a final surprise gig back in Marche in a town on the sea close to Macerata. This gig is going to be different than our normal club or cafe dates because we will be playing as a preview to their summer jazz festival in which two NYU groups are playing. This means they will give us a theater and 500 or so people to play in front of, as well as enough money for each band to give us a place to stay for the night and enough to pay the leader of the ensemble I'm in, a stellar trumpet player from Rome who takes our ensemble to another level, though we have yet to play with him in concert. This show will be on Saturday, May 3, so if any of you happen to be in Marche and in the city whose name I don't know yet, you might want to come and see the show.

Tomorrow, Monday, April 28, is the Jazz Party at Villa La Pietra where the bands will play for the students and staff at NYU's campus in Florence. The show should be nice, not that different than the one in the theater on May 3rd, though we have a pretty strict time limit. It is our last (sniff!) performance in Florence.

May 6th is the scheduled date for the performance of the film score. I suppose this means I have to finish it. This is the last thing in the school year that is pumping coffee into the butterflies in my stomach. I do have my friend Leo set to conduct it, and I trust him, but I'm most worried about leading a rehearsal because I don't really know how to rehearse this kind of thing. I hope everyone can sight read it. But if all goes well, the show should be like nothing I've ever done before. In a good way. And it has been fun doing this film score, but it's also been just about the hardest thing I've ever done. With hindsight I would have liked more practice with shorter scenes first, since writing 7 minutes of silent film music is pretty tough, but here I am!

Again, the shows for the summer, which will kick ass:

June 28 at the Bluesix Acoustic Room in San Francisco The first ever performance of Guest Artist, as well as a celebration of the year-birthday of my CD, "Summer Victory Dance." I will bring a repertoire of political music I have written as well to anticipate the end of Bush's final term.

August 17 at the Jazz School in Berkeley My last concert as a teenager will feature a different arrangement of Guest Artist as well as performances on many different instruments I have either never played on stage before or haven't for a while. I will take advantage of the electricity that Bluesix doesn't have.

September 25 at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City The Sam Goldsmith 20th birthday celebration concert. I haven't planned far enough ahead to say for certain what the focus of this show is yet.

Every show will feature the Inspiration Sextet.

Macerata

Ciao, Tutti,

A ridiculous amount of stuff happened since the last story I wrote, which was about Siena and Rome, I believe. This includes the teaching lessons I have been giving, which have all been continuing to go tremendously well. The teacher told me that parents were coming during the parent-teacher conferences to say that the kids really like the American who comes in on Wednesdays. That would be me. So, in short, things are going well, the kids are expecting and behaving for me, and the teacher asks to keep some of the homemade games I create. They did say something about the "magic backpack" (zaino magico) that I bring everything in, one day a game I made up, that time before I brought a pot and silverware, once I brought my laptop to watch Space Jam on, once I brought my frame drum, and so on. Things go very well in the classroom, and I'm trying to save some of my souvenirs, like the drawings they make for me or the games I make for them, to put in my scrapbook once this amazing adventure comes to its inevitable ending.


The band: Rob on sax, Greg on guitar, Simone on drums, Piero on bass. Piero and Simone are both Florence natives, which is why the band is called "New York-Italian Connection."

What I want to spend most of my time talking about today was the trip to Macerata for a gig on Sunday. Macerata is a small city outside of Florence, sort of like Prato, and we had the gig all to ourselves, in that the other band wouldn't be there at all so we would play the whole time. It would be a nice an easy gig since I didn't have to pay for a cab to move the vibes since we would be taking Antonio Vanni's (the head of the NYU in Florence Jazz Program) car.

Actually, just about none of that was true, yet that's what I thought was going on until Saturday night (ah, don't you love Italian organization?). In actuality, Macerata is about 3 and a half hours of driving outside of Florence, about the distance of Rome, and nearly on the Adriatic coast, close to the city of Ancona. We were to meet the other band there and, after our set, we would have a jam session and stay the night, leaving early the next morning to see which classes we could make it in time for. We were set to leave at 11:00 to cross the beautiful Appenini mountains which meander down the center of Italy. The gig was to pay incredibly well, even paying for a farmhouse for us to spend the night in.

So I was just about completely wrong. But these things happen.

It's all still a blur in my mind, everything that happened, and I'm still exhausted from it. I didn't sleep well the night before and I slept only 3 hours on Sunday night, so I'm a little worn out, but all in all it was a blast. The gig was actually in a smaller town 20 minutes or so outside of Macerata whose name I don't remember, but we did stop in Macerata for half an hour of exploration, though the exploration only took fifteen minutes. The town was small. There was a nice outdoor market, though, and I bought a big dice (dado) with hinges and five little dice inside, perfect for playing Yahtzee. I figured there would be no Macerata playing cards since there was really nothing to take a picture of, but I did want something to commemorate the moment. The countryside was the real beauty out there, nothing but dazzlingly green farmland with a backdrop of the Appeninis. There were a few snow-capped peaks, and I got that urge I had in Crete to just drive towards the mountains with no real plan, just to get closer. Antonio really needed to clean hi car, which is my excuse for not getting any pictures from the road. Mi dispiace (I'm sorry).


The Market

So this was basically the best gig we have played all year, which makes the trip gratifying. There is a nice feeling when everything clicks, the kind of feeling that makes it understandable why I never need to drink coffee. It was energetic in the small cafe we played in, and there was no room even to move in the audience; one would need to plan far in advance if he needed to make a trip to the bathroom. Something clicked, and we played our two sets and killed it. There's not much more to say than that. We were brought in from 3 and a half hours away and we gave them the best we could give. Everyone in the room was happy. This usually doesn't happen in real life! But the power of music is so great... it brought meaning to the phrase "contagious energy." I can't do it justice with words. You would have needed to be there to understand.

This is the place we played:



They turned it right-side up when we got there for the sound check.

Now, besides us playing great and having a wonderful time, there were a couple of special things about this concert. First of all, one of Antonio's great friends, Samuel, who had the connections to get us this gig, was celebrating his 28th birthday. He sat in on some rock tunes on drums. Playing is not his specialty, the business end is, but we all had a great time playing Led Zeppelin tunes. Antonio came up and sang "Dazed and Confused" during this part of the jam session and I played piano, and it still puts a smile on my face to think of everyone in the room knowing everyone else and everyone just letting go and doing what's fun rather than what makes sense because fun is what makes sense. This is what it looked like when Antonio was singing:



The other interesting thing was that the best drummer in Italy, according to Antonio, was in the house and joined the jam session. Now, having said that, I completely forget the poor guy's name. My mind wasn't in a great place, but I do seem to have a good memory of Machiavelli's "The Prince," the reading I brought with me and did in the car when the road wasn't to windy. Anyway, Italians have a habit of exaggerating things, though he was quite a good drummer with a keen ear for making a piece move forward and bringing the best out of the soloist. I only heard him for one piece since I had to load up the vibes which had broken a string. Here is a picture of the three Italians who had the most impact on this show:


From left to right: Antonio Vanni, the director of the NYU in Florence Jazz Program; Best-Drummer-In-Italy-Whose-Name-I-Forget; Samuel, now 28 years old.

We started playing at 7 and didn't stop until 12:30, though the actual set was over many hours before that and I had to pack up the vibes (Rob suggested brilliantly that I put my shoelace in the place of the broken string, which worked until our set was over). The other band brought their horns and joined the jam, as did a flamboyant and talented young Italian saxophone multi-instrumentalist. It was a ridiculous amount of music in that hot and crowded room. Actually, everything about this gig was ridiculous. This is what the jam session looked like:



The ridiculosity was not over yet, though, since then we had to find our way to our casa colonica in the middle of the farmland in the middle of the night with an entirely drunk group of drivers (people were disappointed that I hadn't taken advantage of the free drinks they were offering besides fresh water. I'm not saying this just because I want to impress you, family of mine, but because it's true). Anyone who knows the definition of "casa colonica" must think I'm insane, but I do not joke at all. We were actually provided with a 10-room farmhouse all to ourselves, about the size of the house the family will be staying in when we go to the beach this summer. We followed Samuel to this place in the middle of nowhere to the point where we thought we were completely lost, but then there we were and at 1:30 we had plans to leave at 9:00 the next morning, giving us time for our classes and everyone else time to get to the polls for the Italian election. I got a room to myself and went to bed at 3:00.

This is what the house looked like in the morning when we could see:


(Actually, "casa colonica" means farmhouse, which was behind the house we stayed in)

And this is the view of the countryside that came with the house:



So, as to all things, there were some downsides, and one of them is me trying to stay awake right now as I write this. I got to bed at 3:00 for a combination of reasons including figuring out the shower, making the bed, getting ready, finishing a piece I had started writing in the car on the way, etc. I did not wake up at 8:30 like everyone else. I was up bright and early at 6:00 because it was already light out and quite cold. I needed my overcoat on top of my blanket to keep warm. An hour later when it was obvious I wasn't going to go back to sleep, I simply got ready to go and finished "The Prince." This would not have been that big of a deal had it not been for two big factors: 1) The night before I hadn't slept well either because I woke up in the middle of the night with a song idea. Worth it, but that makes two nights in a row without much sleep. I tried to sleep on the ride back, but the road was too curvy and my stomach started to hurt, so I just closed my eyes and listened to headphones. I got about 20 minutes of sleep once the road straitened out. 2) There was also not much food. The one shortcoming of the gig was that we didn't get to have dinner. They fed us all sorts of appetizers, which were very good but not filling at all. Lunch passed as we were in the mountains (both Sunday on Monday), though on Sunday we stopped to get small panini, which were delicious but about 6 times too small. So basically in between Saturday night at 9:00 pm and Monday at 4:00 pm all I had to eat was:

1) Bowl of cereal
2) Small but delicious panino
3) Assorted appetizers
4) A piece of chocolate with coffee in the center (no, not mocha, but real coffee!)

By the time I actually had something to eat I had forgotten how to eat it.

In addition to being exhausted and hungry, I had also forgotten to pack my toothbrush, so my mouth tasted horrible. But even when you combine all this, I've felt worse before, and because the gig was so much fun it was worth it. This whole exhaustion and physical wear and tear just adds to the story for me, though I'm still recovering, as you can see. I did have early classes today, and no time to get rest afterward because of class registration. But I took a nap after that and now I feel a little better. No teaching tomorrow, so I get to sleep in, and I think tomorrow will be good. It better. I have a big paper to get serious work done on and a film score to write.

This is a good segue into the Music Announcements

Good news on Guest Artist: I no longer have to count how many mysteries I have to solve about the piece, but only hoe many things to write. That number is 2. And I already know what those 2 things are going to sound like. The thing is finally nearing completion!

Here are the shows where this piece of music is going to be played. A more complete description can be found on the last post.

1) June 28: Inspiration's Anniversary at the Bluesix Acoustic Room in San Francisco
2) August 17: My last concert as a teenage band leader at the Jazz School in Berkeley
3) September 25: 20th Birthday celebration at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City

The only new announcement I can think of at the moment is that at the gig in Macerata-sort-of someone asked if we could play a show at a jazz festival on April 25, bringing the concert count for that weekend to 2. It seems pretty cool, though I don't know much about it. You have to ask Rob, the band's spokesman because he can speak the best Italian.

And, once again, if you think all the concerts with Guest Artist will be the same, you could not be more wrong. I've got so many ideas for projects in my head right now that it will be an easy thing to give each concert, each with its own meaningful date, a different and meaningful existence.

I will be in Germany next weekend to celebrate passover with Shira and Billy. Let me know if I left anything off the blog that I should post before I go, or if there's anything I should do or say while I'm there. Ciao!

Ciao, Tutti!

I am soon to be on my way to an amazing weekend in Barcelona with my friend Kat from school who is currently studying in Madrid, so I figured I should write what I can now so I devote most of the next post to the trip. I am getting very excited and I will have another batch of great stories and colorful pictures when I return, and hopefully a tan, too, if the weather's nice enough to permit swimming.

I would like to say that this was a relaxing week for me, with the return of internet and not much activities outside of class, but it was actually a pretty rough week in terms of schoolwork and sleep. Monday is always a tough day for me, and it was even tougher this week because we had a double session of ensemble to make up for next Monday when we have to cancel. That meant I had class from 10:30 until 10:00 pm with a short break from 4:00-6:00, half of which is used to walk from class to ensemble, half of which is used to grab a quick dinner, and half is used to do whatever homework I may have.

The point is there's just not enough time, and Monday was therefore quite exhausting. But on the plus side, we met our new music theory teacher who seems to have an incredible reputation in his field, speaks fluent English, and has an unlimited grasp of the information, an unbelievable improvement on our previous professor who got fired. For once I can say, "Bravo, NYU." The other plus was that in jazz ensemble there was a guest who spoke up on behalf of playing the music more interestingly. As in, not just head, solos, head, out, and not playing all the solos the same for every tune. We finally started playing as a group and the pieces sounded more like pieces rather than a chance for each of the members to show off. It was a great improvement and the first time I really enjoyed myself in that band, even though we're playing Filling the Gap. The other members felt insulted by the way the guest was talking, which I could see maybe if I really concentrated, but I'm glad he said what was on my mind but couldn't quite phrase right, and we're starting to sound better. I hope things stay this way next time we meet. After the ensemble we exchanged contact information and he said he would send me an email if he wanted to have me play with him and his band up in Genoa sometime before I depart, which is very exciting because I'm quite interested in visiting Genoa, and playing there would be another amazing thing to do.

Monday is followed by Tuesday, during which I have class and a reserved practice time that keep me working from when I rise until 4:00 or so. Between Monday and Tuesday, I'm usually pretty exhausted, but there was no chance to break. I have a lot of work for composition lesson and I won't have any weekend to do it in. Plus I'm breaking through with Guest Artist and I don't want to loose too much momentum. Sigh... so much work!

Wednesday is a good day because I get to teach the kids English. I brought a small pot from home and had them all draw vegetables so we could all "make a soup" together. Afterward we took out everything they all drew and made the recipe so they could take it home and make it there if they wanted. I ended a little earlier than I had intended originally because they already seemed to know all the words I thought I was going to have to teach them. It turns out the teacher wanted me to do a food activity because that's what they were studying in their English class, not just regular class, so they already knew everything! Next week when we do sports and abilities, I'll be better prepared.

After teaching I only have one class, which makes it my shortest day. This gave me time to get some of the work done that I needed to get done, but I still have a lot to do after I'm done with the blog. But this Wednesday night I had a special ticket to see a concert in Teatro Verdi by the Toscana Orchestra, featuring violin soloist Uto Ughi. They played some works of Bach and of one of his son's, and the man's solo technique was simply incredible, possibly the best individual playing I have ever seen. I read the pamphlet about him (even though I was in Italian, I could understand most of it!) which said he was already performing when he was 7 years old and a full-fledged concert violinist when he was 12. The warm sound he got from the instrument was partly because the thing was a 1744 model that had been restored for him. Anyway, he conducted the orchestra as he played so clearly and sweetly and sometimes more impressively than I could imagine, and the Bach pieces fit his playing (and his ancient instrument) just about perfectly. He came out to play three encores, the crowd was so wowed by him, though the most impressive were his solo violin improvisations, one that was totally improvised, though you wouldn't know if he didn't say beforehand, and another that was another Bach piece. He could play things that were not only impossible to describe but impossible to play, and yet it was still musical and within the style, making up pieces with shape and form. I had to ask myself what do Jazz and other modern music have that set it apart from such virtuosity? What can we do that this violinist can't do?

If it wasn't so late, I was ready to go back to the apartment and practice for hours.

Today was fairly relaxed, which was nice. My Italian class met at a gelateria where we had a short scavenger hunt and then some NYU-funded gelato, which was actually quite good. Then a trip to L'Acedemia with my music history class to see the ancient musical instruments, then to campus to audition for the talent show fund raiser. All in all a pretty stress-free day, but it took up a lot of time and now I have no idea how I will have the energy or will-power to do all the work I have for music, let alone the usual heavy load of reading for my history class. Perhaps I will do most of the reading on the bus to the Pisa airport and the plane to Barcelona, and back, too, but I want to pack light. Oh, well, I'll figure it out later.

I apologize for the lack of pictures this week, but I'll be sure to make up for it with the Barcelona pictures. I've been giving my camera a break since it pulled a muscle with all the pictures I've been taking lately. It's almost fully recovered now, so no worries.

Music Announcements

Spread the word! Sam goldsmith and the Inspiration Sextet will present Guest Artist live at the Bowery Poetry Club-the sequel, on Thursday, September 25 from 6:00-7:30, in my best birthday concert ever. Make them have to sell standing room seats!

I am starting to procure gigs here in Italy. I will be playing with Il Trillo's Grupo Facile on April 8 in "una chiesa vecchia" (an old church). Il Trillo is the music school that lends NYU rooms for ensembles and practicing, and the owner invited me to play with one of their regular bands. They offer classes to all ages, so I bet this will be like me sitting in on a school band concert. It should be a lot of fun.

The NYU jazz ensemble I am in currently is scheduled to play at least twice in the week after spring break in March. I'm not sure of the dates because I don't think anyone is, but I think one day is at Pinocchio on March 21, though we're trying to change it to a week later, and the other is on March 26. Those are not exact dates! I don't want you to buy a ticket to come out and see me play in Florence just to find out I got the date wrong! I'll let you know when the dates are more accurate, and I'll include some cheap airfare quotes so you can make it out easily ;-)

Until next week,

-Sg

First Week Of Teaching

Ciao, Tutti!

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to write in a while. The internet situation here is out of control, and with everyone gone for the weekend, I have no one else to mooch it off. I could make the 45 minute trek to campus to do it… but even then I wouldn’t be able to put pictures on because I wouldn’t be able to use my computer. It should be fixed three days ago, so we’ll see. Anyway, it was just fixed this morning, so here I am, hastily trying to catch up when I should probably be in the Bargelo or the Uffizi or something.

The most important thing that happened so far this week was the start of me teaching English every Wednesday morning, something I have looked forward to since I heard about the option back in New York orientation. I had wanted to work with 5 and 6 year-olds like I had back home in summer camp, but apparently everyone else did, too, so I was forced to choose middle school or high school (scuola media o liceo). I chose middle school.

I was told to show up on Wednesday morning without any particular plan, to show up ten minutes early to meet the teacher, and she would tell me about the class, and then they’d question me for an hour to show off their English skills and get to know me. No such thing happened. The teacher told me they were first year middle schoolers, about 11 years old, and they didn’t know much English yet. Did I have a plan? she asked. Lucky for me, I had been thinking one up since I got the position, for the walk over, and for the 40 minutes early I somehow ended up arriving. I told you I was excited. She also told me to speak no Italian if I can help it. That part is pretty easy. Another lucky thing: the teacher said the students play music after school, so if I wanted to do something with music, they would like that very much. I told her the vibraphone would not be able to make it to class, but the melodica probably will.

It really was “Off you go!” I enter the classroom ahead of the teacher to a bustling class of preteens and immediately I have to know exactly what to do and what to say. Lucky me again, I’m quite over stage fright at this point in my life, and the kids were not only extremely well behaved but excited to meet me. Before I could say a word they greeted me with a big “Good Morning!” to which I answered the same, using my loud teaching voice I developed at summer camp. I asked them how they were, and they said they were good. I told them about myself, making sure to talk slowly and clearly without any contractions (No “I’m” or “Don’t” but “I am” and “Do not”). I tried to draw a map of the United States so I could show them where New York and San Francisco are, and they said it looked like a fish. The teacher brought me a global map, which worked better because I could show them how far Florence was from both New York and San Francisco.

I introduced myself to each of them so I could get them to speak. What is your name? Nice to meet you! How old are you? Do you like Florence? Me too! Do you play an instrument? What instrument do you play? Can you play us a short piece? Exuberance was key. If I didn’t do hand motions and acting, they would have had a much harder time understanding what I was saying. But they got it pretty quickly, and I met all of them and most got a chance to play a short children’s song. Everyone wanted to play, and I felt bad we couldn’t hear from all of them. After the performances, we had just enough time for everyone to stand up and for me to teach them the parts of the body, leading to “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” I gave a couple of the students a chance to lead the song and the game, which they liked a lot. Unfortunately, the bell rang before they had the chance to ask me many questions about myself at the end, so I’ll try to leave some time next Wednesday. The teacher and I talked about next week’s lesson plan as the kids ate, a little about New York, a little about each of our country’s elections. If you don’t already know, Italy’s government recently collapsed, which seems to happen a lot, and the teacher said that makes teaching hard because she always has to be researching the new laws.

Anyway, that was a very long way to say I had a lot of fun, and I bet next week will be great. At the end of class, one of the kids who was particularly good at understanding English gave me a little valentine’s day card with my name on the front and a heart with “Very Fantastic! Thanks!” written on the inside. I was floating on air for the rest of the day.

The other cool thing I did (and I have pictures for this one!) was to make paper at Il Papiro. That’s one of those crazy stores with all the hand-made paper that costs way more than you can afford but you want anyway because it’s so nice. NYU had a small event – only 7 people went – to witness and take part in the tradition of papermaking. First the man gave a demonstration and then we each took turns with the apron and strange tools to make our own, which we were to pick up the next day. This story I will tell through pictures:




There is a pool of strange purple glue that is the papermaking canvas. You choose a color and hit the paintbrush to make splatter paint on the “canvas”. Yes, like Jackson Pollack.




After that, there are a few tools you can use to make the paint do more than just make blobs. You can draw with the other end of a paintbrush, which is used to make the flowers and hearts, but I liked this rake the most. It makes streaks through the design, and that’s what I was feeling.




Then you carefully put the paper on the glue-paint-thing, then remove it by dragging it along a pole that wipes off the glue, leaving only the paint.




Then you smile for the camera with your paper!




I also decided that while I was there, I might as well get a really nice pen because I’ve always really wanted one. I’m not sure why. They’re really cool, but I need more of a reason than that to buy something so expensive. So I went even more expensive and bought a set with ink and a holder and everything. I have a blank notebook to record ideas I need to draw and can’t write, a souvenir from Venice, but the pencil is already smudging, so I figured it’s time to learn calligraphy. I actually have no desire to write in calligraphy, especially since I sort of have to teach myself, but it’s been working out fine for me so far.



If you don’t know what the drawing is, that’s fine. It probably won’t come into existence for another half-decade at the very least.

In other news, my terrible Music Theory II teacher has been replaced, and we get to meet the new guy on Monday. He was recommended by the Aural Comprehension teacher who has enjoyed universally great reviews from his students. Things are looking up in that respect. Not only that, the Music History II class is trying to arrange a trip to Prague to study, which would be quite amazing because I won’t be able to go to Prague otherwise. NYU has another campus there, so it shouldn’t be too hard if we can all come up with the money.

Music Announcements

The Bowery Poetry Club gig looks to be set for September 25, 2008, from 6:00-7:30, and will probably be the New York premier of Guest Artist and another piece I have been working on, Sense of Urgency. It’s almost time to start reserving tickets, but because internet has been down, I haven’t yet received the final confirmation. The same goes for the Jazz at Pearls gig, who may or may not have written me back yet.

The film I’m scoring in private composition class is a 1929 silent German film called “Panora’s Box.” I’ll probably perform it with my teacher’s other composition students on the NYU in Florence campus at the end of April.

Guest Artist is really starting to shape up in a full-fledged piece. At the pace I’m working, it should be finished shortly after Mom visits for spring break, so in a month or so.

Jam Session and Boboli Gardens

Buongiorno, Tutti!

Lately I have been robbed of my internet, so I'm at some other NYU students' place to steal theirs for a while. It might explain why I haven't been in contact via email or iChat lately, and I'm sorry but I won't be able to review a CD for this week because I have precious little time to write this post before my computer runs out of batteries.

As things are here in Florence, I couldn't go a whole week without doing something worth reporting, so even though my last post was just four days ago, I'm already blogging again. First off, I had that gig on Thursday night I didn't know whether I had or not. I did have it, and I rode in the back of the tiny Italian Smart Car, clinging to my tightly packed instrument for my life. The drummer who drove me, Simone, thought that I was the funniest looking thing and took pictures of me hunched over in the back. I'm still waiting for him to send them to me, so keep your eyes peeled. I'll be posting them when they arrive. Anyway, that's how the night started.

The venue was at this place that was beyond the law, in a way. It was an old abandoned high school that some people just took over and hope the police don't find out. Don't worry, I won't say where it is, especially because I don't think I could find it again. I couldn't see where the car was going because my head was bent over in that cramped car. Anyway, because the building has no legal owners and is basically illegal anyway, people are allowed to do things there that they wouldn't otherwise, like smoke, do drugs, talk liberal politics, etc. It felt like what a 1930's jazz club must have been like. Normally I wouldn't like that kind of thing, and the smoke did get to me pretty quickly (my great leather jacket seems to be forever possessed by smoke smell), making my eyes sting, but I had a lot of fun. It was so intimate and people were just hanging out and having fun. Perhaps the weed in the air was getting in my system, or the three glasses of wine I had, more than I have ever had in one sitting. But I loosened up and really enjoyed playing and seeing everyone have fun listening and getting together. The person who "owns" the place made dinner or the 40-50 people there at 8:30 or so, a wonderful 2-course dish first of pasta, then of a strange egg thing in tomato sauce with onions, which was out of this world good. We started playing at 11:00, and I didn't stop until 2:30. The original band took cigarette breaks here and there to let other musicians get the chance to jam, but there were no other vibraphonists, so I just stayed on stage. People kept showing up, and everyone had a good time, even if it was just playing standards. After the gig I got a few phone numbers and possible chances to play more in Florence, and Simone and I took the vibes to his studio for the night. He drove me home and we talked about Italian "womens." Oh, what I night out. Maybe I should try it more often. I went to bed at 4:30 in the morning.

That was really fun. I wish I had pictures to show off.



The lack of internet has made me surprisingly productive, and I got all my 75 pages of reading, major work for Guest Artist, and all my other homework done, so this afternoon I decided to go to the Boboli Gardens like I had always wanted to so I could see La Grotta Grande again. I like gardens in the winter because with the sun in the sky where it is you get shadows you won't get in the summer. I was most interested in the Grotta anyway, and I'm sure I'll be back in the spring when flowers are blooming because I have free unlimited access! Woo Hoo!



It was a great idea to go. The Grotta was amazing like I remembered, though I didn't remember the paintings I saw on the ceiling. I can't imagine how it was made. It's this little cave built into the wall with hand-crafted stalactites and stalagmites as well as two casts of Michaelangelo sculptures. The more you look at it in the inside, the more faces and sheep and other strange things that used to look just like rocks you can see. I wish photos could do it justice, but the same light that made it look so cool and jagged made picture taking hard to work out.

Oh, and my camera was on low battery the whole time, and I ran out before I got all the pictures I wanted. Next time I go back I'll get more pictures.

I loved wandering up and down the paths of the garden without any real plan. There are a lot of small side-streets people don't use and I would just take them and see where I end up. I knew a little about the gardens from my guide book, but I'm glad I didn't try to smash all the big "important" sights and instead ended up where fate wanted me to go, which was the best place of all (or so I know. It's not like I saw the other places to compare it to.).

I ended up high on the hill at Fort Belvedere, where there happens to be a 360 panoramic view of the entire city of Florence. It was incredible. I could see everything, the full Duomo, the Palazo Vecchio, the major churches, the Jewish Temple with the big green dome, San Miniato, and even NYU's campus, if I looked from the right angle. There were hills all around, there was the Arno river, everything on this perfectly crisp day. Now I think photos would be the best to explain this whole thing. It was breathtaking. Fort Belvedere... by far my best unexpected find in Florence.



I didn't plan on staying in the gardens until they closed, but I did. My legs are getting pretty strong from walking up the hill every day to campus, so the three hours of uphill climbing was not so hard on me.

I promise once I have more time and more pictures that there will be more amazing images of this amazing city up on the internet!!!



Music Announcements

I wrote the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City and they said they would be glad to have me back, just to pick a date. I asked them for the last Thursday of September, the 25 of the month, because I thought that having a concert on an early Thursday of the year would be better for having a big student audience, and we'll be rehearsed because the band is based in Berkeley, so we'll have already been practicing a lot. Oh, and a birthday concert might be good for publicity. It will also probably be the New York premier of Guest Artist, which is shaping up to be a wonderful and ambitious piece. I know you'll like it.

I'm also writing Jazz at Pearls to try and get a gig there. They haven't written back yet, but that would be for sometime in July back home in Berkeley.

Then, of course, there will be some gigs here in Italy. I'll let you know about those when the dates become final.