Month: December 2014
Here he is, in all his Il Duomo splendor!
I love Italia!
Because, seriously, where else in the world can you order a cappucino and when it arrives looking all artistic and lovely, and when you comment on its loveliness, the barrista flirtatiously says to you, “which is ‘bellisimo’? the coffee or me?” and you blush and laugh and say “l’uno e l’altro”. Because honestly, both the barrista and the coffee are works of art!
Ghiberti’s “Gates of Heaven” currently look like doors to a bank!
The Florence Baptistery is currently enveloped in a gray shrouding of some sort. This friendly detective, at your service, is on the case and will update you when information becomes available.
Seriously, are they cleaning it under the shroud or is the monument wrapped up to keep it warm for the winter?
I’ll get back to you on that!
UPDATE: According to my local anonymous sources: the shroud covers the scaffolding which was erected so the monument can be cleaned and shined up to match the shining Duomo, since they are more or less a matched set.

In the meantime, this is how the doors that Michelangelo called “the gates of paradise” look today. You can’t tell if these tourists are lining up to look at the art or queing up to draw money from the ATM. Oh, wait a minute, no one ques in Italy, so it must be the art!
Do you see what I see?
Psssst…come a little bit closer, I need to whisper something in your ear.
See that picture up there? This is about that.
And this thing has to be kept hush-hush, just between you and me, ok? You sure you can keep a secret? Ok, then (I begin in sotto voce):
I know this picture doesn’t look like much of a picture at all, but I think it is the moon shining over the North Pole on my flight last night from the U.S. to Italy, taken about midnight. But, here’s the thing…I had my iphone pointed downwards, you know, trying to capture the scene below me. But, I am about to describe to you what I couldn’t capture with my camera.
Now, I wouldn’t swear to it on a stack of Bibles, but I do believe that I saw quite a human-looking complex located on several mammoth icebergs last night. There was a big house as sort of the center of the complex, so big I could see it from 35,000 feet above sea (ice berg) level.
There must be a lot of chimneys in the complex because I saw a lot of smoke puffs coming out of what looked like chimney tops.
There were also many adjoining buildings (it all looked kind of ad hoc in construction), and there were a lot of small looking humans who appeared to be dressed in green tunics, tan leggings and felt hats with a feather coming out of the top for stylistic purposes, I would guess. These people were running in and out of all the buildings, often with their arms full of materials. It seemed pretty suspicious to me.
Then there were a series of buildings nearby that appeared, from my vantage point (and by the way, I had this sensation that I was flying in a sleigh instead of an airliner…I know how crazy that sounds, but the feeling lasted only for a few moments and left me shaking my head because it felt like I had some sort of a vision. But, I’m fine, truly) to be barns, like you would keep animals in. A few times I caught glimpses of what may or may not have been reindeer, or a close evolutionary reindeer cousin, at the very least.
Now I know what you are wondering: did I see a reindeer looking animal with a red glowing nose? Everybody is asking that, like it would prove my hypothesis or something! Ha! I would not bet my life upon it, but to tell you the truth, a couple of times I felt like I did see such a critter.
And, even more amazing than all of the above, is that also for a split second in time, I am pretty darn sure I heard a loud, jolly male voice hollering something directly to me, and it sounded alot like “ho, ho, ho.” But, I wouldn’t swear to it.
And, anyway, about the fact that I tried to capture what I saw in a photograph but all I got was the moon up above. How weird is that?
It was quite a flight I had. It might have been the ambien?
Cloudscapes
Open my heart
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker, part 2. Run to see it!
Yes, the peacock was sublime!
Yes, the harlequins were a delight!
But, let’s looks at some other aspects of the extravaganza.
For example, the warring factions, on the part of the Nutcracker and the Mice, were picturesque beyond belief.
I can’t locate a good photograph of the cavalry component of this Nutcracker online, but I did find this illustration.
You’ll have to take my word for it: the cavalry rocked! I’ve never seen anything like their spectacular horse costumes.
The ethereal dance sequence with the corps de ballet dancing in a lightly falling snow was awesome.
Can you see what I mean? It snows rarely in Seattle, so this aspect of the ballet is beloved locally. By me for sure!
I’ve run out of superlatives to describe the Nutcracker, so I just show you some random photos of some great parts. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway.
And yes, I had to sneak in the peacock again. I can’t help it. I love it so much!
So, to close, let me remind you that this is the very last year to see the Stowell-Sendak version of The Nutcracker in Seattle. So, what are you waiting for, people? Go!






















































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