Saturday, June 30, 2012

Balloons, Tillies, and record Number of Phone Calls

To celebrate my 25th show (amazing is all I can say) I wore my Tilley Hat, the characteristic hat I wear whenever I am on a trip and that everyone sees me wear in the photos of the show. So for the first time there I was hat on and asked the audience for phone calls to tell me how it looks. Just as I was telling people that this was the hat I wear when traveling, the phone rang, and there was Laura telling me that I should relate the reason I am wearing the hat. Since I had just finished telling the viewers that this is the famous hat they see in phtoso, I thought Laura had called to remind me to talk about the incredible reputation that Tillies have. I did that, but Laura thought that I should have shown photos of my wearing the hat on trips we have taken, so that may have to added. During the next few minutes two friends of mine called to reassure that the hat was a good idea. Nonetheless, I believe that I will only wear the hat for special occasions. This was the first time I here had 3 phone calls on one show. It was great, but while spending time on the phone, once I started the show quickly learned that those five minutes would set me back time wise from my initial planning. This show would be very special, because I was focussing on my favorite street in Florence, via della Scala, where I have spent the better of each trip to Florence at the hotel, Lidia's store, and several other places. It was a very personal story and I only hoped my viewers would enjoy it. I had some nice interviews with people from the hotel, with Lidia and some nice hotel pictures. The street itself is not very pretty, and charming as many others in Florence, but that wasn't the point, or was it. It was as if someone says something negative about a family member you have disparaged many times. Family is family, after all, and Alan's loves of places in Italy are also off bounds. LOL So, I had to do this show probably to satisfy some narcissistic reality. As the show was starting, and I began the initial segment, Ellen quickly told me to can it and start over. We did that and the show progressed flawlessly (except that I ran out of time without about 5 additional minutes of air time needed, so I did the usual rush job). When I came home to view the show in its entirety, I realized that when I placed the show on Youtube, I would have to cut that first aborted 30 second segment. As I was doing that, I realized that just as the introduction was beginning, balloons could be seen moving across the screen. At first I wanted to remove them, but then realized that conforming to the concept of this being the celebration of my 25th show, I should leave the balloons. Ellen later revealed to me that the balloons had been a mistake, a left over from a previous show. I told her today that it was genius of her to show the ballons in line with the festive air of the milestone I had achieved. Now I only hope I can have those balloons again for the 50th show; I could certainly wear the hat again ! Once again if you see the show and like the hat send me an email (Alansitaly@gmail.com) and let me how you like it. Thanks again.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Luca's Gift Turns into a Show

I get ideas for shows at odd times. Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night with an idea and start writing my thoughts and composing as show using the photographs. Or perhaps while driving in the car, with my rock music playing something hits me, most inconvenient, since I usually hope I remember by the time I get home. The idea for last night's show came from a book given to me by my friend Luca during our most recent trip to Florence in May. I always admired photos Luca and Mary have on their walls of photographs of 19th century Florence. The book contains a bunch of such photos, and when he gave it to me, I immediately thought that this would make for a good show. While I was in Florence one evening just before we went to bed, it came to me that a show which consists of showing a 19th century photo, and then the modern one, and even perhaps showing them side by side would make for an interesting presentation. From that point on while I was in Florence, I endeavored to go to the spot in the city where the old photo had been taken, some as long ago as 150 years and try to take the same picture or at least something similar. I did that for many of the photos in the book. When I got back to the USA, I began to put together all the material I had, scanning photos from the book, searching out older photos Laura had taken during previous trips, and adding to that the ones I personally took just after Luca gave me the book. I worked perhaps harder than I ever did before for a show, and the result was last night's show, Show# 24 - Florence, Then and Now. Luca had also showed me additional photos of places not even covered in the book, such as the excellent photo of the Piazza Repubblica showing the slums located there in 1860, and he also focused my attention on the loggia from that same spot which had been moved to the Piazza dei Ciompi after Florence became the national capital after the Unification of Italy in 1871 by Victor Emmanuel. Laura had taken this loggia photos a few years ago, but we could never figure out where or what it was. It simply sits peacefully in the middle of a piazza near the Synagogue. Coupled with the modern photos, it makes for excellent viewing. While back home in Woodstock, I also figured out how to present 2 or 3 photos side by side in a frame, and Florence, Then and Now became a reality. I prepared for this show, as I said, for many hour, but after I did the show complete last night, I must say I had a bit of a let down. Fortunately I now will be doing some shows that will be deeply personal. Another idea struck me to focus on my favorite things in Florence such as streets, piazzas, parks, and restaurants, not to mention my favorite hotel, Croce di Malta. So, next week is the beginning and the first of such shows will focus on my favorite street in Florence, via della Scala, highlighting the hotel, gelaterria on the corner, Lidia's store, Gioia Chiara, the Herb Store from the 15th century, my second favorite restaurant in Florence, Grotta di Leo, and a sweets and chocolate store, Dolceforte. There will be interviews, especially at the hotel, and interesting facts about the venues. From this point on I will also be using many of the interviews we did at hotels and restaurants, so I will once again recharge my batteries and delve into new territory. This show was dedicated to my dear friend, Luca Rolloni. Thank you Luca !

Friday, June 15, 2012

A Bottle of Cough Medicine Saves the Day !

When I awoke this morning, I still had a lingering cough from that allergy thing I have had for the past few weeks. I was worried I would not be able to do the show, since I did not want to cough my way through one hour, so I went to the doctor. When I arrived there to get the medicine, I was told I had to make an appt, because they did not want to just give me it without having me see a doctor. I made the appt for later in the morning and went walking at the reservoir (2 miles) while I was waiting for the appt. I then came back, saw a new doctor I had never seen, got the cough meds, promised the doctor I would help her plan a trip to Italy, and scampered home to write a plan for the doctor. I took the cough meds at 1 PM just to test it out and found that I needed the full dosage of 2 teaspoons so had another 2 hrs later, went to the studio, and did the show, flawlessly !!! Thank goodness for modern medicine. First Ellen and I were told some people were going to be using the adjoining community center for summer stock rehearsals, but it was not a Flamenco Dancer so that was an improvement. It turned out I didn't even notice them. I was a bit apprehensive about doing this kind of show with all videos and perhaps 15 minutes of my introductions. Laura and I had done several interviews with a lot of very interesting people, and this night inaugurated the concept of Alan's Italy: In Their Own Words. It was pretty good I guess, as I viewed it later. Once it was uploaded to Youtube, I realized it had to edited front and back, so that is going on now, so if you go to it before the editing process is complete, which takes a few hours, you will hear some extraneous noise at the beginning and end. Otherwise, Show # 23 is there now for all to see with some very interesting stuff by four extraordinary people. Susan Chalkley, Resident Artist, at the Villa La Palagina, where we stayed while visiting Luca in Figline Valdarno, is the first. She was a lovely, fun person we got to know, and we took her to dinner in Florence soon after the video was made. Andrea Martellini, a Spokesperson for the Five Star Movement in Italy, a movement to try to root out corruption in the Italian Government was just a charming and wonderful guy with a great plan and plenty to say. Drs Roger Crum and Bill Shuerman, Professors at University of Dayton had brought a group of students from their University to study in Florence for a month. We met them at La Spada where we ate every night of the stay in Florence. They are both extremely nice people, fun, intelligent, with great knowledge of Florence and interesting stories to tell. I hope to do more shows with the same theme in the future. I have a bunch of interviews I have taped in Woodstock of people we know who have an Italian story to tell, so if this goes over well, I will continue with the theme. I would like to interview Andrea again, but on Skype, live on the show this time with him in Italy and me in Woodstock at the studio; I hope we can work that out. I felt a little strange, because I just did a lot of listening to the videos, instead of talking so much, but this is, I believe, a great idea for a show. Next week using a book my friend Luca gave me about the 19th century photography of Florence taken by the Alinari Brothers, I will do a show called Florence Then and Now discussing the old photos and the newer ones 150 years later. I will compare the same venues with the changes that have occured. It looks good with what I have done so far. Stay tuned. Thanks for tuning in to the blog and the show.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Putting Aside My Overwhelming Eagerness

Well, now that I'm home and had a chance to look through all my photos, and analyze my ideas on future shows, I came to the conclusion that I just cannot wait to get into the new stuff. Prior to leaving for Italy I had a list of shows which would bring me through August, a bunch of old stuff and also shows in which my two cohorts, Franc and Ric, would perform with me. However, after fashioning two shows almost completely with "extraordinary" stuff, some "innovative" techniques that I learned (such as showing two or more pictures in the same frame, and scanning stuff into the presentation), and thinking ahead to other wonderful ideas, I am figuratively "chomping on the bit" (sorry about all the quotation marks, but my language needs some explanation !). Furthermore, during my travels I promised everyone I interviewed the sun, the moon, and the stars (tired yet of the cliches ?). I am not saying that people are on the edge of their seats waiting to see stuff; in all probability, some people probably forgot the experience ! Although I did receive an e mail from a family of four lovely people we met while eating dinner in Rome at Ristorante La Grotta di Teatro di Pompeo (they must shorten that name). It was written by Meghan, the daughter, representing the Harlow Family, Camille, Greg Senior, Greg Junior, and herself, of course (now it is starting to sound like the introductions to the people who appear on Family Feud !). The e mail was amazingly kind, generous in praise, and they all apparently have started to watch my Youtube videos, which makes them truly wonderful people. I did an interview with them at the dinner table, as they were a mere meter away (that's the first time I ever used the word meter, instead of yard - I have truly assimilated into the Italian Culture (I wish)). They even said they would come up to Woodstock to see a show at the Woodstock Artists' Association and Museum (WAAM) in September. So, now I need to figure that interview into the sequence of shows, and relatively soon. Also, of course, Franc Palaia was on tap for yesterday's show finishing his explanations of his photography of Pompeii and getting into Paestum. I also wanted to ask him about his project of creating a mural in his home town of Poughkeepie, which I did and we decided to do a future show on that's city's Little Italy. The show was good and satisfying (I always like to be on with Franc), but when I got home I forgot to click a particular icon on my downloading program, named Handbrake, and when I downloaded the DVD of the show into my computer, something went kerflooie (also, have only used that word maybe 3 times in my life - I heard it during the 1970's from a friend I once had). Not realizing this, I downloaded it to Youtube and then discovered the mistake. Anyone who first saw it and then saw it disappear shortly afterward take note that I did indeed delete it, and made the correction, and again uploaded to Youtube, which failed on the first try during the night. Now everything is fine, but I am still waiting for the edited version. After I upload it to Youtube, I view it and usually have to cut the first 10 seconds. When my engineer starts the DVD, she usually starts the DVD, says "quiet on the set", and then we begin. That period of 10 seconds always has to be cut from the Youtube version (but will always appear on the original DVD (which no one will see, except if a Youtube or computer catastrophe occurs or my ancestors wish to see it on some primitive DVD player that may exist hundreds of years from now (LOL)) and the repeats that people up here in the Woodstock area see the following week). Anyway all is now "well" and after I finish up here I will finalize the show for next week, a "gem" entitled Italy in Their Own Words - Part 1. I intend to do as many of this type of show as I can get, depending upon when I get tired of continually and laboriously asking people to tell me their experiences. This sounds easier than it winds up being. People do have some interesting stuff to talk about, and frankly EVERYONE's story is interesting in it's own way. People either say "NO NEVER" (which is fine) or they say yes and give me all kinds of stalling excuses. My favorite is the person who told me back in May that they would be delighted to be interviewed (for 5 - 7 minutes mind you - not exactly David Frost interviewing Richard M. Nixon), also told me that they will do it "after December" !! I thought at first that was a joke, but later discovered she was serious. Then I probably blew the whole thing when I said to her, sarcastically, December of .........2012, right ? So, in all probability she's out. So that's the show for next week, and I hope everyone enjoys it. This version of Italy in Their Own Words will feature four people we met in Figline Valdarno and Florence, one of whom is a fellow who represents the Movimento Cinque Stelle (Five Star Movement), a group that tries to root out corrupt politicians in the Italian Government. So tune in for some good stuff, and thanks for listening and watching.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Back for Another Round of Italian Cocktails

No matter how much fun I have on a trip to Italy, I am always happy to get home. This time, of course, I returned home to my TV show, which makes it possible for me to relive all the experiences. This trip was not only great, but also contained experiences never before experienced by me, being a "celebrity". Of course I do not consider myself anything more or less than what I've been for the past 64 years, but just whisper to someone the two magical words "Alan's Italy" and doors open, mouths become agape, and the world stands still !!! There is a big difference between Laura and I going into a restaurant and having dinner, paying the bill, and leaving and first telling the waiter that I am thinking of putting the place on my show. All heck breaks loose ! Not only is this true for proprietors of places, but also for the local diners. Case in point: Rome on our last day in Italy. A family of four at the next table found it remarkable that they were sitting next to someone who does a TV show on cable access, and spent most of the next 2 hrs being very admiring. I, of course, view all this in a very levelheaded and reasonably humble manner. I did an interview with them which we video taped, and promised them they would be on some future show, which I certainly will do. In all we did quite a few videotaped interviews with many people and groups from restaurant and hotel owners to people we met in restaurants. We even made some new friends, taped a food preparation demo by Giuseppe at La Spada in Florence, interviewed the owners of the Hotel Royal Victoria in Pisa, Nicola Piejaya, and the Hotel Duomo in Orvieto, Gianni. We spent considerable time with our friends in Alto Lazio, Orvieto, Figline Valdarno and Florence, saw some amazing new things (and some old things), had fabulous food, and came home with about 20 potential TV shows. I did the show on the Dolomites last night reliving experiences we had in 2007 and 2009 traveling through the mountains of northern Italy. The show was out together before we left assuming that I might be too jet lagged to do any serious show preparations. I just basically picked up with Show # 21, where I left off with Show # 20 three weeks earlier. This show featured stunning photos of the mountains, a video of one of the great hotels at which we ever stayed, and a highlight of one of my favorite museums, the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology dedicated to displaying the remains, clothing, and tools of the world's "oldest" man, Otzei a frozen corpse found thawing in the northern mountains of Italy just south of the Austrian border. After a decades long dispute between Austrian and Italian officials, the 5300 year old copper age individual named after the region of the Alps in which he was found was placed in a museum which has only one client, Otzei. Retracing how he lived, died, and survived as a mummified corpse for 5300 years is absolutely fascinating. So the Show on The Dolomites is there now for everyone to see on Youtube, complete with my brief summary of my 20th trip (Laura's 13th) to Italy, and my promise to show everything over the course of the next year. This morning my good friend asked me the question asked to me probably over a 100 times, "don't you ever want to go anywhere else besides Italy ?" Well, duuuuuuhhhhh !!! If ya have to ask, then you just would probably never understand anyway !