Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year !!

To all my regular visitors as well as anyone who has recently arrived, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year filled with good health and happiness. In the coming year I hope to continue to bring my audience high quality broadcasts on Italian travel, down home Woodstock style !

The next show which is scheduled for Friday, January 3, 2014 at 5 PM on WPAT will be an analysis of baptisteries in general and most specifically the most famous in Italy, San Giovanni of Florence. Ric Hirst, who has graced the show many times with his brilliant analysis, will be there to assist me to weave the incredible story of one of the most famous sights in Italy.

The week after I will finally talk about the 55th Venice Biennale in toto, aside from the Collateral Event at the Palazzo Bembo, which covered three shows. Dozens of artists will be featured as I analyze the most famous contemporary art exhibition in the world. We will focus on only the pavillions and locales in the Arsenale and Giardini areas.

Subsequently we will look at Italy in the magic of evening, talk about the little known Ancient Roman site of Carsulae, and then do a series of shows, Italy, Then and Now, focusing on the 19th century photographs.

I look forward to bringing you in the coming year the same quality broadcasts that have made Alan's Italy a Woodstock Original honoring the long line of wonderful original creative endeavors in the field of art and music.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Happy Anniversary to Me

After two years we have made it to 84 shows, unthinkable possibility back in the spring of 2011 when everything seemed to a monumental hassle with insurmountable obstacles. Back then starting in June 2011 until we finally went on the air on December 16, 2011, every move I made involved some kind of failure, consultation with "someone who knew," shelling out more and more money, traveling to far fetched places for equipment, not to mention my own terror at the prospect of going on the air live in front of friends I known for years, some of whom were very non supportive. I gave up on the project at least a dozen times until Ellen and I did a taped broadcast on Dec 9. After that show I caved in saying to Ellen, "let's just do it live !" Then week after week there were myriad problems with the live broadcast, problem after problem, issue after issue, very discouraging continuing to this day. It is really hard to believe we have lasted two years and 84 shows.

So now here we are, Alan's Italy, iconic to a degree in the area of public access in the Hudson Valley, plus a variety of other projects, two books, a website, lectures, courses, blogs, press credentials, interviews with well known international artists, being recognized by people on boats in Venice, and on and on all beginning in that little studio in Woodstock. It's really amazing. I am not deluded to believe I am famous or anything, in fact we are still very amateur in a lot of aspects including the actual broadcasts and subsequent videos.

So taking all that for the face value of what it is, I have this cable access TV show with amazing stuff going on. There are innovative ideas with really amazing photos, videos, interview, and marvelous analysis of art by Ric Hirst. All of this appears on Youtube where we have had close to 11,000 hits, a blog approaching 5,000 reads, and countless viewers in the Hudson Valley.

For the future here is what to expect. A show which is broadcast live every other week and will appear on Youtube followed by a blog and an occasional intermittent blog thrown in. For the next trip to Italy I will bring home a couple of dozen potential shows focusing on three areas, Western Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Lake Como, plus whatever we can do in Florence which may not happen since we will be there for only two days. That will take us through the next year and at the rate of two a month, that's a full year of broadcasts. The shows will focus on the usual stunning photos, interesting video taped interviews, and some very original stuff as well. Plus I still have about a dozen shows developed months ago.

Yet it is all still a hobby for me, since I am now back to my profession of mathematics education which I cherish beyond words. But your following my blogs and Youtube site is very important to me, and I will try to make the whole experience for you my reading and viewing audience as rewarding as possible. Thank you !!!!!

Alan's Italy Show # 84: Second Year Anniversary (+playlist)

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Some Major Changes

Well, after laboring with the concept of a show about nighttime scenes in Venice and elsewhere throughout Italy, and finally scheduling the show for this Friday, Dec 20, I have changed my mind yet again. This Friday will be the beginning of the third year of broadcast, so we feel that a celebration is in order. That alone would have caused a modification of the schedule, but then we decided to finally do the show on the 55th Venice Biennale. I was always reluctant to do that one, but Laura convinced me, and it is on the calendar. So for those of you who follow the actual broadcasts and subsequent appearances on Youtube here is the current schedule:

Friday, Dec 20 - Show # 84 - The Second Anniversary Special

Friday, Jan 3 - Show # 85 - The Florence Baptistery with Analysis by Ric Hirst

Friday, Jan 17 - Show # 86 - The 55th Venice Biennale

Friday, Jan 31 - Show # 87 - Nighttime Magic

Friday, February 14 - Show # 88 - Carsulae with Ric Hirst

During the special this next Friday evening, I will put together a slide show featuring the highlights of the past year's 37 live broadcasts, plus five of my favorite videos. It is only appropriate to make this celebration an annual event so here it is. Following that would have to be Ric's analysis of the amazing Florence Baptistery scene of one of the most famous competitions in the world of art won out by Lorenzo Ghiberti in the early 15th century. Then we move on to the 55th Venice Biennale where I will cover a couple of dozen exhibitions complete with stunning photos and really strange videos. Then finally the next show will feature the nighttime magic of Italy, hopefully. This last show has been reworked and postponed several times, so I am hoping for the best. Then we cover an amazing archeological site that was extensively photographed by Ric Hirst during a recent visit. I never even heard of Carsulae, but after seeing the images and speaking with Ric, we agreed to reveal this almost totally obscure location in Italy to the world. It will be an amazing adventure. Then I have a series of three shows on the incredible 19th century photos of Italy, starting with Florence (part 2), and then going to Tuscany, and then all of Italy, especially Rome. Then I have some more stuff that will bring us up to this year's trip to Italy.

On other fronts I accidentally hit a deer with my car tearing my right side mirror off the hinges ! It has since been repaired, but up here anything is possible ! I never even saw the animal, and actually thought I might have hit another car that was parked on the side of the road without lights, but my mechanic knows better.

Other than that my school semester is ending, and it is hard to believe that 14 weeks have taken place already. I gave my final last week and will give the students a second chance next Thurs after a review on Tuesday. So far I have 82 % passing in one class and close to 60 % in the other. I hope to improve on both those numbers. The students were very grateful for my help, and spared no adjective describing their delight at having finally fulfilled that very important requirement. I will miss this first group of students after my 3 year hiatus. I hope to be offered classes for the spring semester which begins on January 28.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Attending a Lecture by My Favorite Teacher

Alan's Italy Show # 83 focussed on the beautiful and historical Orvieto Cathedral. Of course I could never actually give such historical and artistic perspective without the assistance of my friend, Ric Hirst. We have planned several shows in which he is the featured guest "lecturer" covering a wide variety of amazing topics including the Orvieto Cathedral, the Baptistery of Florence, the long forgotten but remarkable Ancient Roman town of Carsulae in Central Italy among other possibilities. Ric himself settled on this beginning, and it was obvious that his knowledge is just astounding !! Although he had many pages of notes, everything had been memorized already, so he just wheeled through the history and art crisply, and efficiently. His lecture was just mesmerizing, with the added plus of my being able to query him throughout the broadcast. At first he was afraid that the presentation was going to be too esoteric, but I assured him that since most of the time my broadcasts are fun jaunts through famous towns and cities in Italy with a variety of video interviews, that an occasional show with a narrow, but interesting focus is perfect. I want my show to occasionally present the viewer with a significant small window upon the artistic geniuses that have made Italy one of the world's great treasures. I told him that since I have been working in NYC, I have been unable to attend lectures at Bard College, so this will be the appropriate replacement. Meanwhile, if the viewer really would like to know how such a monumental cathedral such as the one in Orvieto came about, then this is the show for them. Ric starts with the inception of the idea of the cathedral, and all the events leading up to its completion with stunning detail of the machinations and personalities that create masterpieces of architecture. Weaving through the centuries leading up to the incredible fact that the cathedral was still being modified as late as the 1970's when the bronze doors were installed ! Thus a project which started in the 13th century continued for the next seven centuries !!!! Amazing !!!!

The broadcast was not without the usual trepidation. In this case at times Ellen had a few problems which, of course, she verbalizes as she goes along only to then state, "OK, there it is." The only obvious flaw in the Youtube video that you might see is that during the final montage of credits and photos, there is a sudden and very abrupt ending right in the middle of the music after about only 15 seconds, leaving out a number of beautiful images as a final statement of the excellence of the Orvieto Cathedral. So the perfect show it wasn't in that regard, but every minute of Ric's marvelous presentation is right there to gobble up any time anyone wishes, so please do enjoy !!!

Riding the Grand Canal

Alan's Italy Show # 82 was quite special. It had been planned for months and included footage from several trips to Venice. We always seem to videotape rides along the magical Grand Canal, usually in a vaporetto or water bus. Of course, I most enjoy riding on a water taxi, but financial issues precludes that possibility. The difference between a vaporetto ride and taxi ride is almost a hundred dollars. Anyway when I first came up with the idea for this show, I already had several rides from previous trips on video. When we were there last May and June, I decided that a great show would be to just focus on riding along the most famous waterway in the world, so I enhanced what I already had with several others. Show # 82 is the finished product. Rather than simply showing the boat rides, water, palazzi, etc., I decided to narrate above the sounds of the boat and Venice in general. The product is an excellent view of the Grand Canal from the water for anyone, people who have never been there, folks who long to return, and anyone planning a vacation in Venice. Included in this show are many details about how to purchase a ticket, the best deals on discounts, and many other details that a traveler might wish to know before undertaking the journey. I am now planning our next trip for May/June and will be taking many more videos, although Venice is not part of the next itinerary. The next trip will be a three part journey to Cinque Terre, Tuscany, and Lake Como.

Meanwhile we experienced the usual problems with live broadcast. Everything actually started well, but after a minute into the introductory montage, Ellen whispered to me that we are broadcasting in black and white, is that ok ? Arrrghhhh. "Ellen, this is Venice, we need color." We stopped and I informed the live audience of the problem and assured everyone we would be back. After about 20 minutes I was quite unsure we would even have a show at all. Finally at 5:25 PM, Ellen said she was ready to go, so we broadcast the full hour, going well into the next show which fortunately was Ellen's own, Woodstock Archives. The tape of the show looks great so no biggy really Adventures in broadcasting is alive and well !!!!