The Yogi Berra-ism pretty much sums it all up. When Laura was curating and showing at the Wired Gallery in High Falls, the owner, a wonderful fellow named Sevan Melikyan indicated a desire to lecture on my show on the topic of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum un Venice. Although I was a bit reluctant, knowing that this would be a major project to undertake and probably, therefore, impede me from posting more regular uploads of the show, I accepted the proposal. Seven and I have now been working on the project for over a week. We began in my kitchen taping his presentation, and continued today with the correct placement of the photos. Now I have to "smooth" everything out and create a complete program. Then he desires to see the finished product, so who knows when this will be unveiled. As I thought, it is taking a while to finish.
Meanwhile I am working on the next show after this and that may come out on the heels of this one. That one will focus on My Experiences with Sandro Botticelli, covering not only galleries in Italy, but in this country as well. Again, this is not the definitive Botticelli, but my own connection to one of the 15th century's greatest artists. The show follows my "discovery" of Botticelli chronologically beginning in 1992 and continuing through this past summer. A bit different from my take on Raphael, it is more expansive and very personal.
Stay tuned.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Happy Anniversary to Alan's Italy
On December 16, 2016 I quietly marked the 5th anniversary of Alan's Italy. In the past I have marked the occasion with much fanfare, sometimes even balloons falling on the screen during the introduction. I hope I have not become too complacent nor too modest, because even though I am not famous, Alan's Italy is doubtless a phenomenon worthy of taking note. Laura and I always tell the story of our meeting people on a vaporetto (water bus) in Venice in 2013 late in the evening who recognized my face (and sports jacket). "We know you!" They breathlessly continued, "We watched your Venice show on Youtube (Show # 1!), and it helped us plan our trip here. Thank you so much." They even asked me to autograph a bag in which they were carrying food back to the hotel for one of their husbands who watching the kids. I recall: "Dominick, sorry you couldn't be here to meet me, but thanks for watching Alan's Italy." During that same trip when Laura was appearing in the Venice Biennale at the Palazzo Bembo, I, as a bonafide and certified official Exhibition correspondent, wearing my credentials on my lapel for 7 days, was videotaping interviews with as many artists in the show as I could find to speak with me. Sometimes we used an interpreter as these people came from dozens of countries around the world. As I would finish up an interview, people would tug at my jacket and request to be interviewed. We even interviewed someone late in the evening on a backstreet in Venice who happened to be showing at the Palazzo Bembo, but was doing something or other right there on the sidewalk. I interviewed the President of the Global Art Affairs Foundation who organized the Palazzo Bembo Exhibition. In all I came home with 21 videotaped interviews which served as the basis for three episodes of Alan's Italy. During that same trip I even interviewed the Head Rabbi of the Jewish Congregation in Venice and the Director of the Jewish Congregation in Florence in situ. For recent visits are are met with some anticipation by people for whom I had set up interviews in advance of a trip. Over 40,000 times people have watched at least one episode. There are currently 143 subscribers to the show on Youtube. My blogs have received over 11,000 reads. I have lectured about Alan's Italy and written two books on it and Italian Travel. It all started as simply a hobby, something to keep me busy during my "first retirement" back in 2010. The idea led to 123 studio and 9 home productions. People stopped me on the streets of Woodstock and other communities up here to compliment me on the show. When I decided to stop broadcasting live on Woodstock Public Access Television several months ago, the newly formed Producer's Board begged me to remain on the air. The Mayor of Woodstock once designated me "Ambassador to the Venice Biennale for the Town of Woodstock." I have made friends with people from all over the world, especially, of course, Italy. A doctor of mine recently told me she loved one of my episodes. And on and on....
It turned out to be a heck of a hobby!! Nevertheless, as odd as this may sound based on what I have tried to objectively demonstrate in the first paragraph, I prefer focusing with people in conversation about my profession as an educator of 45 years, and counting, hopefully. I mean that is what I officially received my formal training in, practiced for all those years in high schools and colleges, wrote my "real" book on a few years ago, and take the most pride in. Compliments about my teaching (and former supervising) give me greater joy. Nothing fills me with greater happiness than for one of the coordinators or chairpeople at my present college to tell me how valuable I am to the school or how lucky my students are to have me. Twice a year I revel in the student evaluations of me which occur in each of my classes every semester. Recently my Chairman gave me the ultimate compliment, which unfortunately I would rather not mention here. So what is Alan's Italy exactly? Where is it going? When will it end?
It is a hobby of mine, like going to the YMCA, reading, watching television, but so much more. It brings the world closer to me on a regular basis and I hope gives to my friends in Italy as much happiness as it has to me. It will continue, somehow, although my ideas are bound to run out eventually, I assume. If my home country, the United States of America cuts my Social Security and/or Medicare, certainly that would have a major impact on my ability to create viable presentations. Nonetheless, I will try to maintain my present level of commitment and bring to my audience quality productions. So after 5 years (on the air - the project itself actually began in the spring of 2011), I look forward to many more. All I ask is that you, my audience, stay with me. Thank you.
It turned out to be a heck of a hobby!! Nevertheless, as odd as this may sound based on what I have tried to objectively demonstrate in the first paragraph, I prefer focusing with people in conversation about my profession as an educator of 45 years, and counting, hopefully. I mean that is what I officially received my formal training in, practiced for all those years in high schools and colleges, wrote my "real" book on a few years ago, and take the most pride in. Compliments about my teaching (and former supervising) give me greater joy. Nothing fills me with greater happiness than for one of the coordinators or chairpeople at my present college to tell me how valuable I am to the school or how lucky my students are to have me. Twice a year I revel in the student evaluations of me which occur in each of my classes every semester. Recently my Chairman gave me the ultimate compliment, which unfortunately I would rather not mention here. So what is Alan's Italy exactly? Where is it going? When will it end?
It is a hobby of mine, like going to the YMCA, reading, watching television, but so much more. It brings the world closer to me on a regular basis and I hope gives to my friends in Italy as much happiness as it has to me. It will continue, somehow, although my ideas are bound to run out eventually, I assume. If my home country, the United States of America cuts my Social Security and/or Medicare, certainly that would have a major impact on my ability to create viable presentations. Nonetheless, I will try to maintain my present level of commitment and bring to my audience quality productions. So after 5 years (on the air - the project itself actually began in the spring of 2011), I look forward to many more. All I ask is that you, my audience, stay with me. Thank you.
Monday, December 19, 2016
Verona on My Mind
Alan's Italy Show # 132 on Verona is finished and downloaded to Youtube. It is pretty much the show I had planned complete with three videos of the Roman Arena, a fun group of videos we took when Alan's Italy was not even a dream. I also focus on two people, William Shakespeare and John Hawkweed, who both had dubious connections to Verona. It is a good summary of the Verona experience from a tourists point of view, far removed from my usual type of show in which I feel that I am intimately involved such as just about anything related to Florence and Tuscany, or even Venice and Varenna for that matter. I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that relying on a lot of elements of Verona's history would have been too boring since there was nothing to distinguish it from most other Italian city states during the Middle Ages. Instead of I took the viewer on a rather superficial, yet interesting tour of the major sites focusing on our personal experience and speaking about how we would up in Verona during June 2007 complete with several descriptive maps.
I played with a lot of special effects and the result is a nice presentation that even Laura was impressed with. In fact she usually has several suggestions to make, but made absolutely none!! I liked it also and it is good to be back on the horse. I will be dealing into a lot of areas that interest me now including doing a show on Botticelli's art in the Uffizi, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, and a lot of show in which Laura has focused her attention over the years like the Doors of Italy and Panoramas.
That is now where we stand.
I played with a lot of special effects and the result is a nice presentation that even Laura was impressed with. In fact she usually has several suggestions to make, but made absolutely none!! I liked it also and it is good to be back on the horse. I will be dealing into a lot of areas that interest me now including doing a show on Botticelli's art in the Uffizi, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, and a lot of show in which Laura has focused her attention over the years like the Doors of Italy and Panoramas.
That is now where we stand.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Whew!!! That was a close call.
I snapped out of it. For several days I honestly thought Alan's Italy had come to the end of a great run. Then I was browsing through some old albums and my interest came to life. I am currently working on a show on the City of Verona in Northern Italy. I have put in some work researching and assembling the images, and now have a good idea of how it should be presented. I will begin to shoot probably this weekend. Today I will probably plan out the sequence of events with greater detail and an eye towards how the show will develop. I am sort of excited by it. One of the problems with the Verona album is that for various reasons, back in 2007 when we took the trip that included the storied city, we only took about 45 photos. It was an overnighter with us staying in a lovely hotel right in the city center (which everyone should know by now is what we always do - as opposed to staying out of town at an agritourismo or some other place in the countryside). We hardly photographed the hotel, and even left out several key sights. It was a rainy day which always puts a damper on attempts at sightseeing. We did take 4 videos which are fascinating, but with such "fertile" territory as Verona, we should have many more.
I suppose the cause of the problem rests in three areas. First we were very new at using digital cameras; this was only the second or third time we were using it for the trip. Second, we had no idea that four and a half years later I would be producing the TV show. Had we gone to Verona now on a future trip, we would surely plan to take more videos, and even many more photos, and certainly not leave out some key sights even if we had to stay over an extra day. And finally this was a long vacation and I suppose that by the time we arrived in Verona after having already traveled for almost two weeks to Vienna, Salzburg, Bolzano, and Venice, we were probably a bit worn out; especially since we had rented a car in Salzburg and driven across some pretty daunting mountains and, if I recall, treacherous roads through the Dolomites. I recall the drive we made from Bolzano south around (but into) Trento, east to Roveretto, and then south southeast to Venice. The drive once we left Roveretto was, up to that time - I believe the fourth time I had driven in Europe - very anxiety producing, with the road winding, sloping up and down, and with the typical blind curves I later had to deal with to an even greater degree. I remember Laura saying, hey look at that view, and my hands tightly gripping the steering wheel and my eyes fixed on the road ahead. Needless to say I missed that photo op!! When we finally pulled into the Tronchetto Parking Lot just outside of Venice, I was happy to give up the car for a few days. Then back in the car we decided to stop in two places on the way to our next destination of Varenna on Lake Como (the first time we ever visited that area). As I always do and certainly did back when driving was a part of just about every trip, I studied the map to see what was between Venice and Varenna. It turns out that Verona was my first choice among the three main Veneto Cities of Vicenza, Padua, and Verona. I almost made it to Verona back in 2002 during my third solo trip, and then as I was buying the ticket to board from Venice as a day trip to Verona, I found that there was an imminent railroad strike and if I went to Verona, I may not have been able to return.
So we left Venice, heading west on the autostrade for a very easy and welcome drive to Verona from Venice. That drive was not, however, free of worry. Before GPS use, I studied the map so I wouldn't get lost exiting Venice, and almost as soon as I left Tronchetto, took a wrong turn!! Amazing, but true. Nonetheless, we did arrive in Verona just after noon, drove to our hotel, left our luggage there as we usually did when pulling into town, and then I had to find a distant parking lot and walk back to the hotel, all in the rain. Then probably around 2:00 PM, we headed out to various places that will be covered in the show. We left Verona the next morning and before we took our next stopover in Bergamo (southeast of Varenna and Lake Como), we stopped in the amazing town of Sirmione on Lake Guarda. Verona was a place I read about via William Shakespeare (to be explained during the show). Sirmione was a town that was described to me by a friend at the college many years ago. Bergamo was a town which my former principal at the high school told me about. Thus the plan for the two days between Venice and Varenna.
I am detailing all this because I probably would not describe such things during Alan's Italy. I should point out that although we did have a great drive from Salzburg to Bolzano and the parking lot in Bolzano was close to the hotel (LOL), I did have a harrowing experience that I never wrote or spoke on the show about. We went to the Reiferstein Castle just north of Bolzano on our drive south from Salzburg. We parked the car, and walked up the hill to the very, very charming castle when I suddenly realized I may have left my lights on. I left Laura and ran down the hill, saw that I did not leave my lights on, and headed back up the hill to the door of the castle where Laura was waiting. I saw three young women hiking up to the castle (I thought they were anyway). After about ten minutes I realized they were not going to the castle at all, but just going for a leisurely hike. I panicked, and tried to find my way back to the parking lot and got lost!!! Now minutes were ticking away as I could not find my way back to the car and the regular route up to the castle. Eventually I found my way, but Laura was indeed concerned about where I had been, and I was sweating profusely on a humid June afternoon.
I mention all these trials and tribulations to put in perspective what had transpired during this particular vacation in June 2007 which I will summarize on the show. But the bottom line.........I am back!!!! I hope.
I suppose the cause of the problem rests in three areas. First we were very new at using digital cameras; this was only the second or third time we were using it for the trip. Second, we had no idea that four and a half years later I would be producing the TV show. Had we gone to Verona now on a future trip, we would surely plan to take more videos, and even many more photos, and certainly not leave out some key sights even if we had to stay over an extra day. And finally this was a long vacation and I suppose that by the time we arrived in Verona after having already traveled for almost two weeks to Vienna, Salzburg, Bolzano, and Venice, we were probably a bit worn out; especially since we had rented a car in Salzburg and driven across some pretty daunting mountains and, if I recall, treacherous roads through the Dolomites. I recall the drive we made from Bolzano south around (but into) Trento, east to Roveretto, and then south southeast to Venice. The drive once we left Roveretto was, up to that time - I believe the fourth time I had driven in Europe - very anxiety producing, with the road winding, sloping up and down, and with the typical blind curves I later had to deal with to an even greater degree. I remember Laura saying, hey look at that view, and my hands tightly gripping the steering wheel and my eyes fixed on the road ahead. Needless to say I missed that photo op!! When we finally pulled into the Tronchetto Parking Lot just outside of Venice, I was happy to give up the car for a few days. Then back in the car we decided to stop in two places on the way to our next destination of Varenna on Lake Como (the first time we ever visited that area). As I always do and certainly did back when driving was a part of just about every trip, I studied the map to see what was between Venice and Varenna. It turns out that Verona was my first choice among the three main Veneto Cities of Vicenza, Padua, and Verona. I almost made it to Verona back in 2002 during my third solo trip, and then as I was buying the ticket to board from Venice as a day trip to Verona, I found that there was an imminent railroad strike and if I went to Verona, I may not have been able to return.
So we left Venice, heading west on the autostrade for a very easy and welcome drive to Verona from Venice. That drive was not, however, free of worry. Before GPS use, I studied the map so I wouldn't get lost exiting Venice, and almost as soon as I left Tronchetto, took a wrong turn!! Amazing, but true. Nonetheless, we did arrive in Verona just after noon, drove to our hotel, left our luggage there as we usually did when pulling into town, and then I had to find a distant parking lot and walk back to the hotel, all in the rain. Then probably around 2:00 PM, we headed out to various places that will be covered in the show. We left Verona the next morning and before we took our next stopover in Bergamo (southeast of Varenna and Lake Como), we stopped in the amazing town of Sirmione on Lake Guarda. Verona was a place I read about via William Shakespeare (to be explained during the show). Sirmione was a town that was described to me by a friend at the college many years ago. Bergamo was a town which my former principal at the high school told me about. Thus the plan for the two days between Venice and Varenna.
I am detailing all this because I probably would not describe such things during Alan's Italy. I should point out that although we did have a great drive from Salzburg to Bolzano and the parking lot in Bolzano was close to the hotel (LOL), I did have a harrowing experience that I never wrote or spoke on the show about. We went to the Reiferstein Castle just north of Bolzano on our drive south from Salzburg. We parked the car, and walked up the hill to the very, very charming castle when I suddenly realized I may have left my lights on. I left Laura and ran down the hill, saw that I did not leave my lights on, and headed back up the hill to the door of the castle where Laura was waiting. I saw three young women hiking up to the castle (I thought they were anyway). After about ten minutes I realized they were not going to the castle at all, but just going for a leisurely hike. I panicked, and tried to find my way back to the parking lot and got lost!!! Now minutes were ticking away as I could not find my way back to the car and the regular route up to the castle. Eventually I found my way, but Laura was indeed concerned about where I had been, and I was sweating profusely on a humid June afternoon.
I mention all these trials and tribulations to put in perspective what had transpired during this particular vacation in June 2007 which I will summarize on the show. But the bottom line.........I am back!!!! I hope.
Saturday, December 10, 2016
A Change of Plans
I began the long awaited, How to Plan a Trip to Italy, by videotaping a few short clips of my explaining the process. I then downloaded to IMovie. After a modest beginning, it was disappointingly boring to me, which is a bad sign right there. It was simply me sitting in a chair talking endlessly about all the facets of the planning process. I became bored not only watching what I had produced, but also trying to create an interesting show. Laura agreed. The whole thing just really was awful. A flop!
Worse than that, I have found myself in a state of inertia regarding Alan's Italy. I am only slightly concerned, but since this has happened before, I am assuming it will pass. After doing a show, I usually am very eager to produce another, but this time, I have hit a wall. After the "planning show,"I was going to do several tours of the big cities, but even that seems stale to me now. It is not that there are no possibilities; actually I have a few potential shows on my mind. I just can't get started. Odd also because I finish my college teaching job Thursday and will then have six weeks during which time I was planning to do several shows.
I am not worried. I will probably go to my albums and choose one that interests me the most and get to work. Laura was trying to motivate me by telling me to just choose a place that interests me and get started, even offering to scan pre digital camera photo albums and creating photos which could be used. To wit we looked through an album from 2004 which had some very interesting stuff.
If the chance arises that show 131 was my swan song, I will let you know. Oddly 130 and 131 were two of my most rewarding and enjoyable, so I assume this will pass.
Worse than that, I have found myself in a state of inertia regarding Alan's Italy. I am only slightly concerned, but since this has happened before, I am assuming it will pass. After doing a show, I usually am very eager to produce another, but this time, I have hit a wall. After the "planning show,"I was going to do several tours of the big cities, but even that seems stale to me now. It is not that there are no possibilities; actually I have a few potential shows on my mind. I just can't get started. Odd also because I finish my college teaching job Thursday and will then have six weeks during which time I was planning to do several shows.
I am not worried. I will probably go to my albums and choose one that interests me the most and get to work. Laura was trying to motivate me by telling me to just choose a place that interests me and get started, even offering to scan pre digital camera photo albums and creating photos which could be used. To wit we looked through an album from 2004 which had some very interesting stuff.
If the chance arises that show 131 was my swan song, I will let you know. Oddly 130 and 131 were two of my most rewarding and enjoyable, so I assume this will pass.
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