Acqua Alta – Paddling in Venice!

October 25, 2014October 26, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

This is a wonderful post on high water in Venice.

The sea is a fickle mistress. Built on marshland within a salt-water lagoon off the Adriatic, Venice owes her fortune to the sea. At her birth, at 12pm on 25th March 421 AD (according to legend), the lagoon protected Venice from her enemies. Later, in her heyday, water-based trade and naval warfare made the city very rich. But water can also bring damage and destruction as Venice knows all too well. Venetians call the phenomenon Acqua Alta, or high water.

Acqua alta in Piazza San Marco, June 2014

Wading through

So what causes acqua alta? Here comes the science bit! Acqua alta is produced when a number of factors combine to cause an exceptionally high tide which floods the city. These factors include –

Normal and seasonal high tides
Low pressure weather and prevailing winds pushing the high tide into the Venetian lagoon like a storm surge
Subsidence or sinking…

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Nothing succeeds like excess: India’s wedding season, Part 1

October 25, 2014October 25, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / 1 Comment

Did you know that approximately 10,000 weddings are held in India each year from late September through January, the time between heavy monsoons and the summer heat. The brides often wear thousands of dollars worth of gold while family and friends offer bullion bars and coins as presents to the newly married couple.

Some of us westerners know Indian weddings from our favorite Bollywood movies. The fact that the invitees can number in the hundreds to thousands and that the event takes place over many consecutive days, is a bit outside our usual thoughts about weddings. Auspicious dates are specifically chosen based upon astrology and most of the marriages are arranged.

Here are a few images of grand weddings.

Along with all the gold, bride’s hands and feet are almost always tattooed with elaborate henna designs.

On my recent trip to India, I saw the preparations for these huge affairs many times, especially when I was staying at fancy hotels or visiting well-known places.

Here are some of my snapshots of what I saw. All I can say is nothing succeeds like excess!

The look of heaven, graffitti and all

October 24, 2014October 26, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / 3 Comments

For me, this is what the entrance to heaven would look like. If I am right, color me happy.

When women vote, women win!

October 23, 2014October 24, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

Vote! unless you want Roe v. Wade overturned and other atrocities. Whose body is it anyway, ladies? Tell politicians to get their rosaries off your ovaries! We won’t go backwards. Tell ’em!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for gelato!

October 23, 2014October 24, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

Wise Mark Twain

October 23, 2014October 24, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime. ― Mark Twain

Call me maybe?…only in Italian.

October 23, 2014October 26, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

Carnevale in venezia!

October 22, 2014October 24, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

Ever wonder what the Venetian Carnevale looks lik? Check out this fun video!

P.S., did you know? Carnevale takes place the week before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins. The word carnevale means farewell to meat: Latin carne (meat) and vale (farewell).

Ciao!

First impressions are everything.

October 22, 2014October 26, 2014 / get back, laurettadimmick / Leave a comment

When I landed at the Delhi airport last January, I was instantly ready to love with India!

My feeling was based simply upon this stunning first impression of contemporary art which represents timeless Indian culture in a simple, modern fashion.

First impressions ARE everything!

Nameste! See more after the jump.

I knew I had come to the right place! I was jet-lagged into next week, but I noticed this artwork! When a work of art can speak to me through the fog of severe jet-lag, I know I’ve hit the motherlode. India did not disappoint!

Arriving at the Indira Gandhi International Airport’s brand-new Terminal 3, filled me with a sense of awe. The incredible visual experience of this series of giant gesticulating hands, jutting from a wall of what look like copper discs, made me stop in my tracks in wonder. I like anything that has that power. It’s why I travel. It’s why I read. It’s why I study art and culture. It’s why I live.

Jaipur-based artist, Ayush Kasliwal, was commissioned to produce these giant, expressive hands. The builders of the new concourse of the truly modern airport were keen to give the terminal an Indian context, to infuse it with Indian values. The idea of the hands emerged as the winning concept, for all forms of Indian classical dance use hand gestures called mudras. Thus, mudras are a both a distinctly Indian and common vocabulary. The writer of this blog heartily adds her compliments to the designers. It really works!

If you’d like to know more about this stunning installation, please go to

Click to access DIALmudras.pdf

and

http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/friendly-gestures/638563/0