Bailey Alexander: Dreams from Northern Italy
-
A year in Prague; even the buildings are Bohemian
Wiki: The “Dancing House” is set on a property of great historical significance. Its site was the location of an apartment building destroyed by the U.S. bombing of Prague in 1945. The plot and structure lay decrepit until 1960, when the area was cleared. The neighboring plot was co-owned by the family of Václav Havel, who spent most…
-
Damn Amsterdam; super year living along the canals
Fantastic year spent living in Amsterdam, allota rain, some snow and those Dutch – straightforward and fun; a country full of merchants. I write about cultural realities and they are truer than ever. Excerpt from my book, A European Odyssey; how a boxer’s daughter found grace: about falling in love with a typical Dutch couple…
-
this world needs a noodle angel army – to make peace
Time to make more noodle angels…
-
weather report in much of europe; very cold
So cold I’m wearing the same dramatic hats I wore in Bohemia a decade ago Temperature in Garda, same as Prague today, tho the snow never sticks here on the lake; not for long. Looking up, the mountains are covered in soft white, offering an ideal snow pack for spring. I miss living in Bohemia,…
-
Snowing on Lake Garda
-
turning it around, slowly, in the light
A beautiful line from Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf: “The compensation of growing old is that the passions remain as strong as ever, but one has gained – at last! – the power which adds the supreme flavour to existence, – the power of taking hold of experience, of turning it around, slowly, in the light.”…
-
Paris
My guy’s in Paris every month – for work not play. He’s been going back and forth for about a year but I have yet to join him. I suppose it’s no longer home, and I’m traveling in the mind these days. My nomadic days exist in the review mirror; unless it’s Venice. And Lake…
-
“Try again. Fail again. Fail better”
A quote from Samuel Beckett sets the right tone. An ideal mantra to let linger in the mind as I begin submitting query letters to agents for my book, “Personal Legends of Piemonte”. And a few fotos of Godot, named after one of Beckett’s characters, to provide color and inspiration. No need to wait, as…
-
Why you should swap Florence for the Langhe
UK’s Independent has a great article on why you should swap Florence and Chianti for Turin and the Langue for culture and wine. That’s precisely why I’m writing a book called the Personal Legends of Piemonte. I’m almost done and feel validated – even prescient. Piemonte is the secret that needs to be told but…
-
Marriage is not a love affair; it is an ordeal
So said Joseph Campbell, and I believe him. It’s also one of the best decisions we ever made; celebrating our 23rd today. Truly content, and quite happy I married an Italian; they’re romantic. However, back in Seattle, when we decided to get married, my brother was quite ill with a brain tumor, and then we…
Got any book recommendations?