Tonight's show was the second half of views of Florence in particular and Italy in general, this time from the top after show # 91 talked about views from street level. Although I put together the streets show months if not years ago, this show was a recent invention. Since it went hand in hand with its sister show on streets, I placed the two broadcasts in consecutive sequence. It, therefore, appeared that the two shows were constructed in tandem. I love walking through places in Italy gathering in the charm, mystery, and history. Surely one cannot visit anywhere in Italy without seeing it from every angle, street level, towers, roofs, and if in Venice from the water. I have focused on all those various concepts and am now ready to move on. That is what I hope to bring home from my next trip to Italy. The plan is to visit as many smaller towns as possible leaving the larger cities for some future trip, except, of course, for Florence where I visit on every occasion. I do have a show on the drawing board related to shopping in Florence, but other than that I will deviate from views of Florence, Rome, and Venice for a while. If anything, I will try to get inside museums and discuss the art that I most enjoy.
A future show will focus on the Bargello, the great gallery of sculpture in Florence. Another may enter other museums such as the Palatine Gallery of the Pitti Palace in Florence or the Accademia of Venice. Since I no longer have an expert artist with me, I will have to do the research and study the works on my own. These future shows will not expert analyses of these selected museums but rather my favorite works. In that way I will be the most comfortable talking about the great artistic achievements of mostly the 15th and 16th centuries that I have liked the best over the years. But again, I also hope to visit some really stunning smaller towns in Western Tuscany and on the Southern Ligurian Coast in the area of Cinque Terre. We shall see.
As for the actual show, viewers may hear loud noises. Once again these extraneous sounds came from the community center of Woodstock (next door to the studio) where the rehearsal of a performance was occurring and I must say quite a bit of overacting was also taking place. Other than that the bordcast appears to be flawless, so enjoy once again.
In any case I now take a break and if you wish to follow the blogs of the actual trip we will be taking, please go to the link in the previous e mail.
Friday, May 23, 2014
If You Would Like to Follow Me on Our Upcoming Trip Then.....
Follow this link:
http://blog.travelpod.com/members/alanjgreenhalgh
http://blog.travelpod.com/members/alanjgreenhalgh
Sunday, May 18, 2014
An Extraordinary Letter
I never deviate much from the theme of Alan's Italy, but a situation arose three days ago which was quite amazing that I wish to relate. As you may know I have returned to my former profession of teaching mathematics at a community college in New York City after a three year retirement. In that regard I gave my final exam last Thursday with 17 of the 21 students passing the test. Please forgive me as I immodestly say that this is my usual passing result contrary to general occurrences in the department. I always answer every question that a student poses no matter what the query is or how many times it has been asked. One of my students asks a lot of questions as he was having a very hard time understanding. Many of the students have not been in a school setting for many years, and their normal difficulty learning mathematics has been compounded by their absence for reasons as varied as raising a family, earning a living, or just disgust with their inability to succeed. This young man recently served in the United States Marine Corps overseas in some of the explosive locales to which the country has sent troops. He struggled all semester, attaining low grades on unit exams. When he scored a remarkable 82 % on the final exam through his extraordinary devotion to his studies, I wrote an e mail to tell him how proud of him I was and that he has achieved a wonderful accomplishment. He wrote the following response. Please understand that his grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling are severely lacking, but be assured, he will improve. His language is also "Marine-like" to say the least, but you will have no trouble understanding the essence:
Dear professor Greenhalgh . In the past few weeks your class has been the reasons of a lot of stress ,and sleep apnea , I've invested more time and efforts in in this subject, than in all classes combined but my efforts Alone dint accomplished this , the credits are yours , you are the most dedicated , caring and professional man I've seen, and trust me I've seen a lot of good pipe layer man in my short time in this earth, not once you complained about redoing a problem ,getting interrupted ,or having to explain things over and over , I might not say it in class because Marines do not "kiss ass" ever!! .I'm actually sad to be honest that in the near future I won't get to stumble with an educator like yourself , you don't do it for the money like you said , " I will retire when I die " thank you for all your time expend and frustrations and dedication, from my part is highly appreciated with the utmost respect. Thank you.
It pays to be a winner semper fi*
*Semper Fi is the abbreviation for semper fidelis, the US Marine Motto which means "forever faithful"
This exemplifies the reasons I returned to teaching after a three year absence. It doesn't get any better than this!
Dear professor Greenhalgh . In the past few weeks your class has been the reasons of a lot of stress ,and sleep apnea , I've invested more time and efforts in in this subject, than in all classes combined but my efforts Alone dint accomplished this , the credits are yours , you are the most dedicated , caring and professional man I've seen, and trust me I've seen a lot of good pipe layer man in my short time in this earth, not once you complained about redoing a problem ,getting interrupted ,or having to explain things over and over , I might not say it in class because Marines do not "kiss ass" ever!! .I'm actually sad to be honest that in the near future I won't get to stumble with an educator like yourself , you don't do it for the money like you said , " I will retire when I die " thank you for all your time expend and frustrations and dedication, from my part is highly appreciated with the utmost respect. Thank you.
It pays to be a winner semper fi*
*Semper Fi is the abbreviation for semper fidelis, the US Marine Motto which means "forever faithful"
This exemplifies the reasons I returned to teaching after a three year absence. It doesn't get any better than this!
Friday, May 9, 2014
The Great Balancing Act
If you ever try to write a book, do so when you have no other responsibilities, otherwise you will have to attempt a balancing act to rival any juggler. Today for example I attempted to go to the gym to exercise, see my doctor about my allergies, do some work for my college teaching, get ready for tonight's TV show, write this blog, have dinner with friends, and continue editing my book. Then when I finally got home I downloaded the TV show onto my computer, and uploaded it to Youtube. It is really amazing how a 24 hr day can go so fast. In reality I would rather not have to do so much in a seeming endless procession of what I consider very important activities. Here I am at almost 11 PM and still have a couple of hours of work.
I do not usually get much feedback about my TV shows, but this week had two, one from my friend at the YMCA who finally watched a few videos of Alan's Italy on the Youtube, and my new internet friend who appears to be as big an Italophile as I am. His encouraging words have been very gratifying, and I am pleased to have made a new friend. I also solidified the appt I have with Professor Eve D'Ambra to appear on my show some time during the summer.
The actual broadcast, Alan's Italy Show # 91 - My Favorite Streets of Florence, finally fulfilled a plan I had been honing for two years. Over that time I have compiled hundreds of photos of streets in Florence, eventually narrowing it down to about 150 which I had a great time showing. There were the usual problems. With about 10 minutes into the broadcast Ellen, my engineer, pointed out on the air that my photos were apparently cutting off the bottom of the frames. I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong, and frankly still cannot. I may have to just modify some of the graphic detail along the bottom of the images. Then, being very tired tonight after a long week, and even longer (seemingly) day, I made a few mistakes that I eventually straightened out. I referred to the Church of Orsanmichele as the Church of Ognissanti (one of my favorites in Florence), and was stymied when I looked at the Piazza della Signoria not knowing what the name was. That was really shocking since I have used that name and been on that piazza hundreds of times. You cannot be 66 years old and also try to have a life as full as a 23 year old and get away with not being quite tired. Somewhere along the line, something will suffer, and there it was right on the air. I did have a nice time, and did not let the two flubs affect my overall performance as I just reviewed the broadcast. As I have said many times, we are a down-home informal show and we do our best to create a worthwhile and interesting show for our viewers. If there are bumps along the way, then that's the way it will have to be.
In two weeks we will broadcast a show which I title, Italy, Top to Bottom which will show what Italy looks like from high up on hills, towers, and hotel roofs, a compilation of stunning images of a bird's eye view of Italy.
I do not usually get much feedback about my TV shows, but this week had two, one from my friend at the YMCA who finally watched a few videos of Alan's Italy on the Youtube, and my new internet friend who appears to be as big an Italophile as I am. His encouraging words have been very gratifying, and I am pleased to have made a new friend. I also solidified the appt I have with Professor Eve D'Ambra to appear on my show some time during the summer.
The actual broadcast, Alan's Italy Show # 91 - My Favorite Streets of Florence, finally fulfilled a plan I had been honing for two years. Over that time I have compiled hundreds of photos of streets in Florence, eventually narrowing it down to about 150 which I had a great time showing. There were the usual problems. With about 10 minutes into the broadcast Ellen, my engineer, pointed out on the air that my photos were apparently cutting off the bottom of the frames. I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong, and frankly still cannot. I may have to just modify some of the graphic detail along the bottom of the images. Then, being very tired tonight after a long week, and even longer (seemingly) day, I made a few mistakes that I eventually straightened out. I referred to the Church of Orsanmichele as the Church of Ognissanti (one of my favorites in Florence), and was stymied when I looked at the Piazza della Signoria not knowing what the name was. That was really shocking since I have used that name and been on that piazza hundreds of times. You cannot be 66 years old and also try to have a life as full as a 23 year old and get away with not being quite tired. Somewhere along the line, something will suffer, and there it was right on the air. I did have a nice time, and did not let the two flubs affect my overall performance as I just reviewed the broadcast. As I have said many times, we are a down-home informal show and we do our best to create a worthwhile and interesting show for our viewers. If there are bumps along the way, then that's the way it will have to be.
In two weeks we will broadcast a show which I title, Italy, Top to Bottom which will show what Italy looks like from high up on hills, towers, and hotel roofs, a compilation of stunning images of a bird's eye view of Italy.
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