Cameras and a Very Special Guest

Professor Eve D'Ambra stole the show with an extraordinary performance tonight. Her focus on Roman Portrait Busts and Female Beauty was an amazing presentation that was fabulous. This was her second and final appearance on the show for this summer. She is now back to work at Vassar College which she teaches Art History. I invited her to return any time for any show she wants. I hope she will take me up on it. It is a joy to share the stage with a brilliant professor of art, for me a dream come true. Just before the start of the show her husband and excellent artist, Franc Palaia, who has been with me on the show several times, decided to show his expertise with the camera and asked to handle one of them with Ellen. I had some doubts that they could pull this off with no preparation, and sure enough at the beginning of the show there were some problems. I am seen talking into the wrong camera, because I was talking into Ellen's camera, while apparently Franc's was on the screen. It straightened out, but I was a bit dismayed by that. From  now on Ellen runs the show. No other problems, however, no other people using the studio just before we did, no community center activity, no extraneous noise, no console issuers. Everything was smooth. I will be away next week, so Ellen will show another broadcast, Michelangelo in Florence, one of her favorites. That was a fine show. Otherwise I will be back for the Aug 24 show, which will be the first part of a two part show on Western Tuscany, with part 1 focussing on the area known as the Alpi Apuane, and also Lucca, Barga, Chiesina, where my friend Lidia has a townhouse. Then the week after will be Pisa. Meanwhile my first book nears production and second one has been submitted for review. The first will be called, Alan's Italy: The Birth of a Television Show and the second, Alan's Italy: My Personal Journey. Please look for both. Also I will be starting a web site, which will incorporate all my projects, my two blogs, TV show, books, lectures, and teaching of classes all summarized into one easy format (I hope !). Be well, and thanks for your time ! See ya in two weeks.

The Long Wait and a Late Start

I had arrived very early to take photos of the studio for my book, Alan's Italy: The Birth of a Television Show, and work proceeded on schedule as she photographed some shots as one enters the parking lot of the Community Center, where the studio is located. As we were parking to go inside the studio, Ellen was waiting outside to tell us that there was a show which has been given the 4 - 5 PM slot and we had to wait until 5 PM to set up for the 5 PM show ! Doing some quick mathematics, I soon came to the conclusion that we would not have enough time to get set up. Ellen assured me that we would get on the air, and she would shortcut her show which normally comes right after mine at 6 PM.At first we spoke with local personality, Joe Barton, who is having some problems with the legal system at the current time, as we waited patiently outside, but then I ducked into my car and tried to take a snooze, with my air conditioning on, and radio playing some of my favorite tunes. Just as Jimi Hendrix' Along the Watchtower came on, Ellen knocked on my glass and indicated that we could try to get in a bit earlier than 5 and see what happens. Of course, I had to wait for the end of the song, because, hey, you just cannot interrupt Jimi Hendrix in mid song. Eventually we entered the studio and began frantically to set up as quickly as possible. Somehow we managed to start, but almost twenty minutes late at 5:20 PM. I tried to be relaxed and I think succeeded for the most part as I began a show that I was looking forward to, the story of Luca and Mary taking us to eastern Tuscany for the via dei Sette Ponti, not really a street, but a country road through the mountains just south and east of Ltheir home in Figline Valdarno. The scenery was lovely, and the towns among the most charming and unique I have ever seen in Italy. The show came off flawless, except that once again Ellen had to use the Focus Method instead of the Tricaster. Otherwise everything went like clockwork, and thank goodness Ellen was the producer just after me, because otherwise I can't imagine what would have happened. So on the other front, my book about my show changed its name to the one above, and my second book, now almost finsished will be called Alan's Italy: My Personal Journey. So that's it for now. Buona notte.

What's Happening in My Italy Life - An Update

Well, I feel it is incumbent upon me to fill my readers in on some of the things that are happening to me in my Italy life. Not sure how well this will be received by my readers (I do apparently have a following according to the continual increase in the number of people who are reading this ), because I promised that everything on here would be related to producing Alan's Italy. But here goes. My first book, Alan's Italy, My Personal Journey, is about half way through the production stage. I have no idea when it will be "out", but I think the editing stage is over. It is about 50 pages long; I thought it would come out longer after production, but hey, what can you do. So it will be easier to finish. I am somewhat excited about it, but my real excitement comes from my second book, now slightly more than half done, Alan's Italy, Friends and Other Miracles (so far the working title). It covers everything I have ever experienced in traveling around Italy, but not in chronological order, like my other blog on Travelpod.com, but in another order that relates to my friendships with people who live in Italy, Laura's impact on my life and work, which is enormous (!), my friends Ric and Sharon, and the TV show. I think it is good, really good, and that is very very exciting. It is a memoir, but focussing on my traveling experiences as opposed to my work experience as a math teacher, assistant principal, and college teacher. My third book will cover my 41 year career as in education, with particular emphasis on my 26 years as a supervisor. I have a bushel full of stories to tell, as only someone who was close to the power base of a NYC high school could possibly have, and I wasn't as close sometimes as I wish I had been, so much of this will be my view of things from the second rung down the ladder. It will give a view of the running of a high school that few people have ever seen. I only hope that after I finish book number 2, I have any energy and creativity left. I wrote some of book 3 while walking around the track at the Y this morning, and I think it will be very good. I hope XLibris works out because having a book self published is a very good experience so far and there will be many more books to come as long as my mind hangs in there. I am also, of course, teaching a course this fall in the Lifespring Program, which is basically a continuing ed program up here. I have that ready to go, with written materials and 6 lectures just about totally planned. The course I am doing for New Paltz Lifetime Learning in the spring 2013 will use the same format, but will require 2 more lectures to be created. I am also planning a trip for us for next May and June (2 1/2 weeks) to Orvieto, Figline Valdarno, Florence, Venice (for the Bienale), and perhaps the Dolomites and Lake Como, like in terms of days 2,1,5,5, 3. It will be expensive, but hey ya only live once. I am also batting around the idea with Laura to have our 10th anniversary party in Florence in May 2014. A bunch of people will be invited, but I have no illusions about how many people may come; I know it will be small, but I want to try. We haven't decided yet. We would have a day long celebration in which I would provide a tour of Florence in 2 parts separated by a pizza party at our fav pizza place, cocktails at the hotel, and dinner at La Spada, and gelato on the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. Everyone who came would have to purchase their own plane ticket, pay for all hotels, and everything except that day's activities. I would get a low rate for people who stayed at Croce di Malta, and I would try to arrange for lesser priced dinners at La Spada in case anyone wanted to eat there during their stay. I would also provide assistance for anyone who wanted to travel around Italy, but we would plan our own trip, Laura and I which I am hoping will include a long awaited trip to Sicily. A few people actually said they would think about it when I broached this a party recently. That's what is happening, plus of course I play the guitar usually 4 or 5 times a week in my den, and walk and swim at the Y. It can be done, and I only hope for one thing: GOOD HEALTH. Without that all is lost.

A Series of Minor Disasters, Then Tranquility

I hate when this blog starts out with all these negative things that go on at the studio, but since the blog is about the experience of doing the show, it is appropriate to do that. Nonetheless, unless you like hearing about horror stories, I apologize, but this is reality. I arrived at the studio and Ellen and I spent a lot of time talking about the history of the studio for a book I am writing, my week off from doing the show which will cause her to show an old show on August 24, and a variety of other things. Suddenly she told me she lost power, and started to work on the power strip which is right next to my table, unable to get it working. We plugged in the system to another outlet, and suddenly that darn bulletin board fell down again, and there I was with ten minutes to go, holding up the power strip with one hand and the bulletin board with the other. We got that all squared away, she returned to the console, and said she couldn't get the Tricaster to work. I don't care that much anymore, because after last week, when the same thing happened and we did the show using the Focus Method (whatever any of these things actually are !!!!), and I liked it. The photos were just slightly off, and I like that little window in the right hand corner with my picture, although it obscures some of the photos I am showing. Then suddenly everything clicked into place, and the magic words that I just love to hear, "quiet on the set," rang out by Ellen, and everything just became very mellow as I started the Opening Segment of the show. Ya know I should say those words when I can't quite fall asleep at night and see what happens, because when I hear that I immediately relax."Quiet on the set" sort of harkens back to my childhood when my mother would close the book she was reading to me, kiss me on the cheek, whisper "good night" and turn out the light, and I would fall peacefully into that wonderful sleep that only a happy, secure, young child could possibly enjoy. The movie "All Quiet on the Western Front" kind of epitomizes that feeling that even amid the absolute incredible unrelenting horror of World War I, there could possibly be some peaceful moments. So back to the show and as I stared vacantly, but happily at the images and listened to that music for the umpteenth time, I never get tired of it, but actually to me it is like taking a tranquilizer. Then into the show on Orvieto with all the videos and images left over from the previous week. The wonderful video of Gianpiero at the restaurant, La Palomba was the highlight for me. It was so much fun that night when Franco Sala took us there for dinner, and we were treated like kings. Gianpiero and his family are wonderful people. Then the photos of the other restaurant we loved, La Grotta with Franco (another person) and his waitress, Mirella being taught by me how to fold a napkin using my "special" technique, which I will demonstrate next week before the main part of the show. I wanted to do a video of Mirella, but she felt that after a whole night of serving people, she didn't look her best; actually she looked beautiful. Also, after a while it gets weird always taking videos in every place we go, my new life. Even when we were in Rome in an outdoor restaurant, our favorite in Rome, Teatro di Pompeo, we vowed not to even mention Alan's Italy, but wound up talking all night about it and taking a video of a bunch of people. The show was fine, and that's it for Orvieto until perhaps next year, when Gianpiero promised some kind of cooking demonstration that I would like to take him up on, only of course if Alan's Italy is still in existence. I mean how long can this thing go on ?

Computer Failure, Wonderful People, Stunning Scenes

After shooting the breeze with Ellen for quite some time, as I arrived to the studio early, Ellen suddenly realized that she could not get the TriCaster to work. In the past they has usually meant an inferior quality of photos, but I just looked at the video of the show, and the photos came out pretty good, so in line with my limited knowledge of the whole technical aspect of the production, I have no idea what's going on. That's why Ellen is there ! She gave it a while to figure the whole thing out, and eventually decided to use what she refers to as "the Focus" (again from my point of view, no clue !) At first I was disturbed, but then settled into a really wonderful show. The show highlighted one of the great hill towns of Central Italy, Southern Umbria, Orvieto, where Laura and I had a marvelous time back in May of this year. We were treated very well, had interviews with several residents, dined at great restaurants, and showcased the whole experience over two shows, #'s 29 and 30. Show 29 was tonight and centered around Franco Sala, my friend who lives in Orvieto, but whom we met in Civita at his restaurant Antica Forno. His is charming, talkative, funny, and a great friend who showed us around the town, stopping to talk to many people. Going out to dinner with him requires leaving a half hour early, because he will stop 10 times to converse with just about everyone going in and out of shops and restaurants. We call him Orvieto's Unofficial Mayor. He was one reason for our visit to Orvieto and visiting with two of our best friends who live in Lanesville up here, Sharon and Ric, so we hope visiting Orvieto will become a regular part of our Italian experience from now on. I can't talk too much about the actual broadcast, there by now that has become more routine. I never thought I would get to say that, but even when there are minor difficulties, as the night of the show, we continue relatively unfazed ! Very happy to have reached that place. I can say that putting together the show, a process which takes me basically all week, was fairly straight forward once I decided that it would be over the two weeks. That certainly relieves a lot of pressure to get everything in. In a more relaxed manner, I can really settle down and take my time. Incidentally when I say the show takes all week, I don't mean working continuously; I actually work for an hour or so, and then leave it for another time. Different times and days always gives me different perspectives, and usually things change over the course of the week. For example,  it became obvious to both of me that, because I had the 3 short videos of the Etruscan Necropolis, I didn't need so many still images, and I removed many of them. Unfortunately I forgot to remove many from the ending segment, so there are just too many of those. That will be corrected during the next show. The best part of the show was the weaving in and out of the video interviews with first Franco twice, one back in 2009 and the other during our last trip in May 2012, and the interview of Gianni, the owner of Hotel Duomo. I must do more of those in the future. I mean I have many more to show, but personally I love the interviews. It makes everything more personal (as if the show is not my personal statement !). Everyone always asks me why I travel to Italy so much, and I never quite know what to say, but when you see these interviews with some of the people we have met over the years, it is clear that my passion centers around being treated as if we were family by the residents. I suppose that is the real reason for my absolute love for Italy. The people are just so charming, down to earth, and pleasant. On a related matter, here is an update on my second book (the first one has been edited by Xlibris and awaits my final approval). I have changed the theme for the 87th time !! I just keep changing, honing a narrative that presents my unique perspective. There have been so many books written about Italy, that it is hard to find a different perspective, so I have settled on the theme of people. Each part of the book will be titled by the people who have had the most influence on my life of Italian Travel, namely Lidia, Luca, Laura, Franco, and Ric and Sharon, and of course my engineer, Ellen. Then the chapters will focus on the actual experience that took place, because of these people. So forward I can now go with the different direction for which I have been searching and I hope and pray I can finally finish something after 15 years of trying to put these thoughts down on paper. Thank you for patiently reading these blogs, and have a great week. Buon giorno e buona fortuna !

High Noon on Alan's Italy

Ya know the famous scene from the great movie High Noon, with Gary Cooper, with the theme song playing in the background during the last few minutes before the clock struck high noon. For those of you who may have only seen this movie, oh perhaps 20 times, and don't remember (I have seen the movie, I would say at least 500 times - mostly because my mother loved this movie and very often it was the only movie on Million Dollar Movie during the 50's and 60's when I was growing up(on Million Dollar Movie the movie of the week played each day at I think 7:30)), the character played by Cooper, Will Kane, the sheriff of this town, is scheduled to meet a train off of which will step the criminal he put behind behind bars, and now is out of prison and with his 3 cohorts waiting, has vowed revenge. No one in the town will help him, so he must face these 4 killers alone. After trying in vain to gather up a group of town citizens to help him, he is now alone in his office with his head down on his desk, exhausted after a furious fight with his deputy(played by Lloyd Bridges of Sea Hunt Fame), waiting for the clock to tick out the final seconds. As it does the music, which is great, is playing with the cadence which hightens the suspense until at exactly high noon, the train whistle marks the climactic moment. By now you are wondering what the heck this has to do with Alan's Italy Show # 28. Well last night I was privileged to have Professor Eve D'Ambra, an expert on Ancient Roman History, to help me explain the various elements of the Roman Forum, and casually with perhaps 15 minutes to go until air time, decided to show her the presentation I had put together. On the very first slide, I indicate her professorship at Vasser College, which, of course, was spelled wrong. It should have been Vassar. So with the clock ticking down the final minutes, tick, tick, tick, and High Noon playing in the background (in my head of course), I tried frantically to change that only slide in 2 places, the actual presentation and the ending montage that is played to conclude the show. I have to create a new slide by going into my word processing program, select the image that accompanies the text, copy it, place it into the album, and then place the same slide into the ending montage at the exact location, tick, tick, tick. All this with Eve, her husband, Franc Palaia (one of my favorite guests, whom you probably remember), and their daughter, Lily, sitting close by, Ellen preparing her part, and the screen of the computer already altered for the presentation of the show. Let me say that prior to this moment each week, I have spent hours getting ready and go through at least 3 or 4 dry runs, just to see it everything works. Nobody knew this but I felt like crying, and was hoping she would say to me, don't worry no one will ever notice the "e" instead of the "a". Well she didn't and rightly so, because, as I agreed, for this show, really everything had to be perfect. So picture the music, the clock ticking down the seconds, tick, tick, tick, the killer coming off the train, getting his guns, asking if everything is ready, and Kane feeling quite nervous knowing he would now have to face the 4 killers alone. At first I couldn't figure out what was going on, because I was too nervous; I never like to work under pressure, and even in college started to study for a test weeks in advance, not like those famous last minute cram sessions made so popular by, well, just about every other college student I ever knew, ya know the one the last hours on speed or tons of coffee trying to stay awake. I usually watched TV the last day before and even now do that the day of the show.Eventually I did it (Just as Will Kane killed the outlaws (helped by his wife, played by Grace Kelly)), somehow, someway, and the show was very successful with Eve doing an amazing job of explaining my favorite location in Rome. Her expertise was obvious, and even if no one got anything out of this, I surely loved the hour of pure joy. Eve will be back in 3 weeks to do a show on Roman Portrait Busts, and I just cannot wait. Nest week and the week after will be my long awaited double show on Orvieto, my favorite and one of the prettiest hill towns in Italy. Me alone and no matter how screwed up I made it (I hope not of course), the show WIll go on. So thanks a bunch to long deceased Gary Copper and the composer of that famous song that my mom and I loved, High Noon.

Warning: Don't Watch on an Empty Stomach

That was the warning I gave to people I knew would be watching Alan's Italy Show # 27 - Culinary Masterpieces at La Spada of Florence. On an empty stomach as I had for the show, one will end the show and make for the nearest cache of large quantities of food. We went out to dinner afterward at The Bear Cafe in Woodstock, the best restaurant in town, and I never ate so much. I blamed it all on the show, which made me starved to death. So back to the show. Lidia introduced me to this restaurant 15 years ago, and I have been having meals there, alone and with friends and family ever since. The place is owned and operated by Giuseppe, who, with his brother Claudio, and friends Agostino and Claudio (who are cousins) run the best restaurant in Florence and certainly my favorite. Since I know virtually nothing about cooking, and people are continually asking me when I would be doing a cooking demo, I asked Lidia, before our last trip to Italy, if she could ask Giuseppe to give us an interview (deep down hoping he would at least talk about how he cooks such amazingly delicious food). Tonight's show highlights an interview we did with him last May 21 at the restaurant and a 25 minutes cooking demonstration in which Giuseppe cooks us a 3 course meal. It was outstanding to present such a wonderful show with Giuseppe as the star. He is a wonderful man, charming, handsome, talented, and gracious. Although Lidia translated for him in the first 2 interviews, when he gave Laura and me the cooking demo, he spoke English very well. So I would like to thank Giuseppe and his co owners for not only the demo, but for their extraordinary kindness to us this past visit and also over the years. If you are planning a trip to Florence, please stop by La Spada at # 62 via della Spada and tell Giuseppe Alan's Italy sent you. Otherwise the evening was uneventful. Thank God !!!! Everything went very smoothly, no hassles as the ones which have plagued my show for weeks. Smooth as silk, a pleasure to produce and perform, but not so exciting to write about to you ! On the book front, I just cannot decide on a topic for my next book. First I thought it should be on Florence, but just cannot muster the enthusiasm. I thought I would start with some obscure towns in Tuscany, but I don't have enough of them yet, perhaps only about 10 or so, so I may venture into Umbria and Alto Lazio for additional material. I'll keep you posted. I do not wish to write about well known places such as Siena, Sam Gimignano, Montalcino, etc. but rather something entirely different. My first book already written, Alan's Italy: My Personal Journey is currently being edited by the company XLibris, which seems excellent so far, despite some bad reviews I have recently read. I will keep you posted. Bouna note e buona fortuna.