Critical Mass

Gentlemen, whenever there are three times as many women as men, you will not have fun.  You may expect this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_fCqg92qks.  You will never find this.  You will find discussions on past boyfriends, health issues, career issues, and women out of favor with the women with whom you have unfortunately found yourself stuck.

On another note, la festa di San Giovanni was not nearly as satisfying as it was last year, primarily due to the fact that the organizers launched fireworks horizontally from Piazzale Michelangelo versus vertically from the Ponte Vecchio.  Italian logic failed once again.  While everyone could see the fireworks, no one except the fit few who climbed la monte della croce to the piazzale were able to feel the boom and shock thump their chest and organs.  When God created the world, his voice came first.  Light came later.

An Evening in Florence

My negligent self has not posted a few nearly finished articles for lack of time and focus.  Work has picked up its pace, and I have thoroughly enjoyed scratching deeply my entrepreneurial itch.  It's like poison ivy under a hot shower, every hour well spent.

I am sitting on my balcony overlooking the cupola and piazza of Santo Spirito -- a lone cricket is chirping from the church's terracotta roof.  Below the crowd is boiling with laughter and voices rising in English and Italian.  I am waiting for someone, who will soon rap on my door, and while my apartment lacks gas, water, electricity, it is washed in candlelight and night breezes, as warm and darkly luminous as wine.

Digital Photography

Access the link below to see why digital photography cannot accurately reproduce a work of art:

http://www.google.it/search?q=sargent+gassed&hl=it&client=firefox-a&hs=V7B&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=4v7XTeKHJM-RswbF7vj3Ag&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1427&bih=640

An entry about the trip to London is pending and will be for some time.  Sanford and Susanna arrive in Florence soon, and having just picked up fresh fruit and vegetables from the Santo Spirito market, I am leaving to meet them at the train station.  I wanted to note briefly an encounter the other night on the Ponte Vecchio while out on the town with a friend, a former submarine officer.  I overheard them speaking to one another and said, "Ya'll must be from the south, and you sound like you went to Sewanee."  Both reckonings were correct; two were freshly graduated Sewanee alumni (one had made it through only two semesters having never learned where to smoke one's marijuana on campus), and the night's shenanigans intensified.

Excellent Saturday

Wake up late.
Eat a long, leisurely lunch at a surprisingly decent all you can eat Asian fusion restaurant with a friend.
Ride along the Arno River until the back path is lost to grass and stones.
Fix a bike for a cute Venetian girl waiting near a closed bike shop.  Get treated to a coffee and gelato by the same cute girl.  Former flatmate sabotages the situation during the email exchange when she tells the other girl that if she wants to contact her, just contact you:
"Abito sotto lui." ("I live under him," as if I were a sex addict or some form of totalitarian regime)
"No," you retort, "il suo apartamento è sotto il mio voleva dire." ("No, her apartment is under mine she means.")
Cute girl regards you both askance.
Your friend explains, "Ma siamo sempre insieme." ("That is we are always together.")
Another ride, this time through le Cascine, a large, beautiful park full of families, prostitutes, and thieves.
Discover a statue of George Washington.  Yell, "First in war!  First in peace!  First in the hearts of his countrymen!"
Discover a horse racing track and a shooting range with cheap rates.
Flying through the park on your bike, wipe out harder than you have ever wiped out in your life, sliding on your side five yards through the gravel with the bike still under you, dust billowing into the air and a crowd of amazed spectators running to your aide.  Spring up, announce to all that you are okay, get back on your bike, and ride off covered in dust and blood.
Shower, remove sharp gravel from your flayed left arm, and apply bandages to it.
Go out for Notte Blu and listen to a duet of classical pianists playing Mozart and Brahms in la Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza Signoria.
Get to bed early.

Tessera

In Poland, Wenus is the goddess of love.

Typos and the like

Dear readers,

I appreciate you're subscription to this blog.  Plesae excuse the large amounts of typos and grammatical mistakes.  Normally I fire these entries of pretty quickly and often slightly intoxicated.

Much lve,
Townsned