Today I was listening to a podcast interview with Willie Nelson (from 1996 I think)….anyways he had his guitar and was asked to sing a song that he really was proud of that wasn’t a hit…he played this and it made enough of an impression on me that I actually emailed myself to find out more about it…the version I heard with just him and the guitar was better than this…but WOW…what a gorgeous song with gorgeous lyrics…
Is that emmylou Harris sitting next to him?
So today is my first official one year anniversary of working in Italy…it now occurs to me that I’m now driving illegally…I blame america for this (for the lack of driving license reciprocation). I can drive here legally for one year (that makes no sense to me)…it was the same in Germany. 1 year legal then a criminal…as if after driving and observing drivers for a year I’m a worse driver than I was a year ago when I arrived…FALSE!
This now makes the second entry that I’ll have to run home and delete in case I ever need to plead ignorance
After a long absence I’ve started listening to Cat Power again of late…Not sure I’ve ever posted here…but enjoy
and I had to post the first two just to get to this one (so you have some context – you’re welcome)…this is an amazing cover. It is immediate top 5 greatest covers on my list.
At some little pub down the street they had an amazing jazz singer and guitarist. In Italy I’ve seen exactly 3 shows. 2 Jazz bands I stumbled onto (both of which were quite good) and 1 irish band that sang 90% in Italian and 10 percent in English (I guess the 10% were Pogues covers tho).
I’m constantly confused when I get this question from Italians. It always comes from waitresses and I should have figured out by now that it doesn’t mean anything like “How are you?”. It means more like “Do you need anything else?”. They just seem to sincerely interested in if I’m OK or something.
Sometimes I forget and just start complaining about the weather or something equally insignificant and then I ask them how they are…then I think do’h and just feel stupid
Since I have today off I wasn’t really motivated to do anything and just threw on a movie. It was Amélie…which if you haven’t seen is a french movie from 2001 or so. I absolutely love it!!!
I’m not sure why, but that movie really hits me every time. In fact I’m a big fan of French film. Apart from about 3 seconds of “Inside” which just sort of bugged me out…
More observations on foreign films….
It’s really hard to multi task when you have to read words on the screen.
and
It’s really hard to nap when you have to read words on the screen.
So I was joined by Jeff, Matt and Berger this weekend. It was fantastic. Mostly I enjoyed the witty banter…most of which I can’t remember and even if I did I’m not sure I could print it here
Saturday we stuck close to home and hit a few places around here.
on Sunday we went to Cinque Terra and hung out on the beach for a few hours. Came back and had Mexican food, then went and closed the Irish and then went to the beach until about 5am…that was a great idea. Who came up with that? Since I slept on the floor the night before I was beat and am really surprised we lasted as long as we did
At the Beach from 3am we found some chairs and a floaty rubber thing that people had left behind. the guys all went swimming while I hung out. It was a great night!
the original plan was to leave my place by 9am to go see the tower in Pisa…ummmmm…Since we were up so late this plan didn’t quite happen. I took the guys to the train station here and got a text that they were going to take a cab to the tower. Get out for some quick pics and then cab it back to the airport…if I had known I would have joined
Had today off and I wisely took tomorrow off as well.
First stop – The Jolly Roger
so wise…
The free beach in Marina di Carrara
someone thought that a guy in speedos and crocks merited a pic…
I think that means “free Allessandro”. I have no idea who or what…?
No idea why there’s a scale on the street…
maybe just so people can stand on it ;)
some travelling circus set up shop below my flat…
naptime!!!
nap #2
so clever ;)
pornstache!
that pretty much sums it up…
self explanatory really…This is the place in Cinque Terra we visited.
always wait at least 30 minutes after beer to go swimming…However swimming with beer is perfeclty ok.
Boing Boing
GeekSpeak
Some angry guy…and all around good bloke.
This American Life podcast
Unhappy Hipsters