LEAVING THE ORDINARY WORLD
that’s what it felt like living in a new region of Italy, new home, lifestyle living amongst people so attached to their land they make it appear magical
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STOPPARD ON TIME
Tom Stoppard just died - he became English - yet forever Bohemian. His plays, writing, well known but this little paragraph: “What an extraordinary idea. People are not the world, they are merely a recent and transitory product of it. The world is ten million years old. If you think of that period condensed into one year beginning on the first of January, then people do not make their appearance in it until the thirty-first of December; or to be more precise, in the last forty seconds of that day”
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KENNETH TYNAN ON MILES DAVIS
Maybe Jazz was America’s finest export, so here’s a coupla slices from Kenneth Tynan’s profile on Miles Davis: …the Spanish have a word, ‘duende’. It has no exact English equivalent, but it denotes the quality without which no flamenco singer or bullfighter can conquer the summit of his art. The ability to transmit a profoundly felt emotion to an audience of strangers with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of restraint; Miles Davis had ‘duende’
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PIEMONTE; THE SECRET THAT NEEDS TO BE TOLD
In “Personal Legends of Piemonte” I invite you into the lives of 12 Piemontesi, along with a short story to introduce each interview. What a cast of characters. Work, family, tradition, magic and ‘campanilismo’ shape these people’s lives. A region, a tribe so attached to their land they make it appear magical. Their world may seem simple, some lives may even feel like a fairy tale - yet this is their reality.
Read morePIEMONTE; THE SECRET THAT NEEDS TO BE TOLD.
In “Personal Legends of Piemonte” I invite you into the lives of 12 Piemontesi, along with a short story to introduce each interview. What a cast of characters. Work, family, tradition, magic and ‘campanilismo’ shape these people’s lives. A region, a tribe so attached to their land they make it appear magical. Their world may seem simple, some lives may even feel like a fairy tale - yet this is their reality.
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HOME ISSUES IN OTHER COUNTRIES
“By late November I see signs of brooding. Perhaps I’ve neglected her. Things begin to break. The pool pump. The dishwasher. Then the stovetop in the kitchen keeps threatening to explode. My first friend on our new frontier was a laid-back character named Max. His family ran a nursery in Bubbio, but he didn’t believe in the hard sell. I had a fetish for flowers so I appreciated this. A guy so relaxed his favorite expression was tranqui, tranqui—I doubt he ever had trouble falling asleep.
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AFTER THE VENDEMMIA
“The vendemmia is a major event in Piemonte. At first, key players appear minor, like the little red and black buckets. They lie so low you can barely see them while driving by. Lined up dutifully in between the vines, there are thousands everywhere. One minute they’re spilling over with grapes, the next, their precious contents are carefully poured into trailers. Over and over again. If left alone they may tip over when the pickers and their clippers abandon them for a midday meal.
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IN SPITE OF IT ALL; IT'S FALL IN PIEMONTE, ITALIA
“You’d think vineyards would lose their attraction, but they’ve only just begun. This is when they really come alive, colors so vivacious that change so quickly, within a few weeks shifting from green to passionate red, then the grand finale—when coral, orange, and deep ochre take over—by the time their leaves find their way to the ground the next season’s on its way.” Excerpt From Personal Legends of Piemonte Bailey Alexander
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Only took me 62 years to figure out I was an acquired taste
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THE LAST GASP OF CITIES
Could say Rome, but this would be a lie. Can no longer walk down from my apartment during ferragosto and hear the silence - for there is silence no longer in Trastevere- the heart of Rome Now, you must pay and wait before you walk into the Pantheon and dwell on Raphael and the Renaissance and, they tell me the Romans have made an exodus, Airbnb all over…every time I go I say no no no and know but on my last trip, in April, they are right….
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Ennui, yes, that is the right word. To suffer from it, feeling stagnate, listless, then move out, and find our bliss. For many, including me it is writing and letting those thoughts and feelings sing in each sentence. For when they don’t; ennui.
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ITALIANS ARE ATTACHED TO THEIR LAND, ESPECIALLY ANNA
Anna’s from Piemonte, a northern Italian living in the the province of Asti, nestled up against the Italian, Swiss and French Alps. I spent 7 years in Piemonte and Anna’s spent a lifetime learning everything there is to know about herbs and their healing powers. She continues her lessons and offers monthly hikes, now famous, in a town called Olmo Gentile. People come with their own knowledge, handed down by nonna but continue to learn and gather herbs as precious as jewels as we place them in our paper bags.
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Road Trips through Transylvania, Tranfagarasan and Transalpina. Reading to you from ‘A European Oydssey’ on youtube.
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WHO IS YOUR MUSE
Maybe it’s your life, or your experiences. Oscar Wilde said experience is the name we give to our mistakes. And they do inspire to create meaningful work, and find our bliss. Yes?
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WHO AM I?
A short story writer. Capturing the last gasp of a continent that is changing fast in a book called, “A European Odyssey; how a boxer’s daughter found grace” We sailed from Seattle, to Vancouver, then drove and flew across Canada and set sail from the port of Halifax to Gibralter in 2002 Then arrived in Rome where the odyssey began, lasting 20 years before finding a home. But the book reads like an airport novel.
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WHO AM I?
A short story writer. Capturing the last gasp of a continent that is changing fast in a book called, “A European Odyssey; how a boxer’s daughter found grace” We sailed from Seattle, to Vancouver, then drove and flew across Canada and set sail from the port of Halifax to Gibralter in 2002 The odyssey began in Rome and lasted 20 years but the book reads like an airport novel.
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