spritz

In Venice they drink Campari & prosecco over ice and call it a "spritz" which sounds Yiddish to me lol. I left my map at the hotel so i decided to have aperitivo nearby. I'm at Taverna L'Olandese Dolante which is close to the hotel but there's still a chance of getting lost in this place. There are no straight streets, really no streets at all just bridges and narrow passageways that open up into piazzi and campi. Also everything change names randomly. There are also no cars or scooters or even bicycles here which makes it distinctively different than every other place i've been in Italy.

Mobile Blogging from here.

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On the way to Venice

I'm on the train to Venezia.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Milano pt 2

I Spent today exploring the central and also southwest part of the city. I'm going to the "isola" neighborhood in search of aperitivo and cena in a couple hours. I leave for Venice in the morning :)

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Milano

After meeting up with Angela at the exhibition yesterday, we wandered over to the Brera district and found a nice outdoor place for aperativi. A friend of hers from Parsons who is also in town, and who's name escapes me, joined us. After the obligitory small plates and negroni, we wandered around and dropped in on a party being held in a clothing shop. There was a DJ and they were handing out champagne and some odd bites of food. This picture is from the party. Afterwards we wandered a bit more and discovered a small alleyway with several restaurants. We picked the one that seemed to be the busiest and ate grilled octopus followed by risotto Milanese followed by a whole seabass. The food was frankly dissapointing compared to other meals I've had in Italy but they finished us off with two rounds of cold mirto which was a welcome surprise. I had fun with Angela yesterday but I'm really looking forward to spending some time on my own for the next few days. Milan is a big city and I haven't seen much of it yet. Not sure where I'll go today, but it's grey and drizzly so maybe I'll try to check out Il Cenacolo.

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Italia

I'm off to Italy this afternoon, it's an overnight flight so I'll arrive tomorrow morning in Milano. I've got a friend who's in the fashion industry who was invited to show her new line by Vogue magazine (it's fashion week there), so I'll be attending the opening party for that tomorrow night! Should be fun and exciting (hope i have something fashionable to wear!) Then I'll spend a couple days bumming around Milan and eating risotto, then a couple days in Venice to check out the Biannale and the amazing wines from the veneto, then up to Scotland for a family wedding, a day or two in London to visit friends and then back home - a whirlwind trip, yes but a much needed one.

This Year

Everything changed this year and it's not over yet; everything is still in flux. I'm hanging on and trying to ride the wave to the shore. I only hope that when i get there it's not too rocky, and with any luck there'll be a cabana with someone serving tropical drinks.

I'm not going to blog about my love life anymore - it was kind of a stupid idea to ever do so. I started this blog last year as a kind of travel journal and I'm going to try and get it back on that track.

Stay tuned.

Has it been a week? Really?

This week really flew by. The show last weekend was way better than I thought it would be; lots of fun and great to see all those people again. Howie's wedding was a blast too, especially seeing friends from the old North-Shore days. One of the bridesmaids was someone I had previously met a few months ago at a party, we were seated next to each other at the wedding and wound up talking a bit. There is a strange dynamic with us... i can't tell if it's good or not but she felt it too, so we're going out this weekend; should be interesting.

at the showboat

We're at the casino. Rehearsal went ok and we got here no problem. This shot is from the lobby, never been listed next to ZZ Top before.

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On The Wagon

I'm on the wagon. What a strange thing to say, why a wagon? I'm sure there's a very interesting story behind that idiom, but I'm not so curious that I'm going to spend my time looking it up. I drank too much Monday and I realized that over the last month or so I've been drinking too much in general so I decided to try for a couple days of full sobriety. Yesterday was fine but last night I started to feel kind of crappy, my friend says it was withdrawal but I'm not so sure. Anyway, this morning I woke up with a clear head and a new perspective on things. I've got 48 more hours to get ready for the show this weekend and I need to go get some coffee because I ran out yesterday. Sorry there's not more interesting stuff to write about, sober people are just boring I guess.

Dreading the Wedding

One of my oldest friends is getting married next weekend and I'm one of the groomsmen. I couldn't be happier for him and I couldn't be more honored to be included in the wedding. I should be excited, right? Here's the problem: I've also got a show in Atlantic CIty next weekend. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it - I have six hours of rehearsal on Friday afternoon, then drive down to the casino, check-in around midnight, wake-up Saturday and sound-check/rehearsal with the singers (usually lasts all day), break, dinner, then the show from 1AM to 3AM, pack my gear, change get back to NYC somehow, hopefully by 6AM so I can sleep for four or five hours, shower, dress for the wedding and meet the wedding party in manhattan at noon, pictures at 1:30, ceremony at 4 and reception following. It's going to be really hard, I'm already dreading it.

Echoes

i just saw my ex girlfriend for the first time in three months, and only the second time in almost five. She's living in the same neighborhood that I lived in from '06 through '08, and close to neighborhood where she was at the time as well. Those were the first two years we were together, and the best times of my life. being back there, seeing her there again... the happiness is gone, but there were still echoes of it reverberating from the trees and buildings. There was a day in the spring of '06 when we were walking hand-in-hand on the same street where she's now living. A complete stranger stopped us just to say that she had never seen a couple that looked more in love than we did at that moment. We laughed about that for a long time.

The point of this meeting was mostly to deliver some misc things she couldn't take with her when she moved out, but i think it was also to see how it would be seeing each-other again. We had agreed to make it a very brief exchange and we stuck to that; we didn't say much. Just seeing her and standing next to her was both familiar and strange.... her voice, her smell, her face... my head is spinning right now. She looked like she wanted to cry, I'm glad she didn't. I wish I knew what she was feeling, I wish i knew how I was feeling.