Guitar Circle Journals

What follows is three more days of my Rome Journal.

Another day home. We were supposed to visit the Vatican but we both woke after 12:00. So we walked into town to do some errands: Buy cigarrettes, post office etc.  By the way I am really making up for not smoking for over 20 years. Every time I light up I smoke two cigarrettes in a row.  I keep telling myself I will not smoke when I get home!

We then went to visit a small town called Cerverda. This is a community of only 200 people. It is a community of artists, poets and musicians. The town is cover in artwork. Every street which are very narrow has some sort of art work.  We stopped in a pub to get something to drink Franco got Lemoncello and I got Sambuca.

We go back home for dinner and after dinner I go to a rehearsal with Franco.  This is a rehearsal for the tennor section of the Chorus. I meet the director. He is a really nice guy. He has a great ear and knows how to direct. He gave me the score he was working on with the tennors so I could follow along.

Home by 10:30  hang out and talk until 12:00.

This mornng I slept in again and we decided to stay home and relax. It was raining nd cold out.

We spent a lot of the day having convrsations about language it’s origin and the ways in which the italian language is different than English. My cousin stated that it takes many more words to say in Italian what we can say with one word. He said everything has to be explained in Italian.

A little later Franco asked me if I would talk to his daughter Vinci. She is 21 and trying to find herself. She and her mother always battle about what she is doing.  I told Franco he had to ask Vinci if she was willing to do this. He asked and she was. I also told Franco that I was kind of putting on my professional hat and that he had to put on his. Franco is a translator for the Police department. I told him that anytheing that was said in either direction he could not comment or have an opinions on.  He needs to translate only. He agreed. We talked for about 90 minutes. It seemed to both Vinci and Franco that I was helpful.  Glad to be of service.

We later we went back to having more conversaton about language and one of the things I found out was that most of the famous painters, sculpters that we know by name are not there given name. they are named after the town from which they come. So Carravagio is from Carravagio. Leonardo da Vinci means Leonardo from Vinci. The same goes for Paestrina.

1/25/10

Today was a day for visiting relatives Last month my Uncle Albino who is now 92 years old. had his 20^th book published. He is now starting on a Bernardini memoir dating back to the great great grandfather. We stayed for a few hours and had lunch. A good visit. Albino remembered the last time I visited when we were in Sadinia almost three years ago.

Next we went to a mall. I found a plug adapter for my computer, and bought  a new wallet that is absolutely amazing. The learther over here is so soft and the price was about 1/3 of what I paid for my last wallet in the states which I lost.

Next we go to visit Franco’s sister Giulia, brother-in-law Celestino and there three children.  Celestino and I get a long very well as he is passionate about music and he is like an encyclopedia.  He is a big King Crimson fan so I brought him a copy of thr Crimson Jazz Trio. He was very excited as he said he had a DVD but could not find the CD in Italy.  In gratitude he gave me a copy of a John Scofield Cd I had not heard of. It is Jhn Scofield playing the best of Ray Charles. It’s a great CD. And I learned something. I did not know that Ray Charles wrote, I Don’t Need No Doctor – Then Celestino took me into his office to show me his CD collection. Everything is in order by Jazz, Blues & Rock. He had some very interesting CD’s.  THEN….. He brings out his 50^th aniversary limited edition of Miles Davis Kind of Blue.  The set comes with three CD’s. One cd is the original the secound is Alternate takes and the third is out takes.  It also comes with the vinyl LP in Blue vinyl – it was gorgeous. There was also an incredible booklet of amazing pictures.    After this I remembered from my last trip thast Celestino had a Gibson 335.  I asked to see it. It was sunburst and it played great. I asked him hold it was he said, “1961”  I fllipped.  I looked at him with a smile on my face and said,  “Do you want to sell it?”   He laughed and said, Marco if there was an earthquake tomorrow I would take the guitar out first and then come back for my family!”  We laughed.  I then told him that this guitar is probably worth $25,000 – $30,000 in America. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

After we hang out for a while we go to a concert. We go to Auditorio – Parca Della Music. One of the most incredible music centers I have ever seen. This place has Five performance rooms and in the summer two additional spaces one on the roof with a garden and one outside on the grouns. The building archtecturally was spectacular in and out.  My Cousin told me it was desigened  by a very famous architect named Renzo Piano.

The concert we saw was Ralph Towner and an Argentinean musicin named Javier Girotto. Javier played Wood flute, Panpipes, Soprano Sax and Baritone Sax. It was an amazing show and one of the best sounding rooms I have ever been in. Ralph Towner also played something I had never heard him play. He played a Barritone nylon stringed guitar. The combination of wood flute and baritone guitar as well as baritone sax and barritone guitar was sensational.

Home by 12:30. I was up until 2:00 writing notes and talking to friends.

Difficult night for the baby = difficult night for the family. Even the three-year-old slept in, which is very rare.

I have spent the entire work day hunting down money that appears in location but not another. This involves a lot of repetitive filtering, comparing, computing and correcting. After a day of progress, my latest check shows that I’m backsliding. Time to call it a day, as my brain dribbles out of my ear.

A good call from Hell, with some interesting details from the weekend.

Woke at 6:00

Rise at 7:00

Make coffee

Two phone calls. One to my sister in MA and one to Bob.

Out for coffee and a corn muffin.

Drive to Duchess to a car dealership to look at a new car I am interested in.

I could not find the dealership. I used the instructions the salesman gave me. I found many car dealerships but not this one.  I had to leave to get ready for work.

Something happened to my iphone and it moved all my appointments up one hour. I got a call from my first patient. I told him to wait. We had a session.  I go home and forget about my next patient. I email him back and apologize for my screw up. I hope I don’t loose him.

Home to make lunch and watch Sweeny Todd. I am watching as Gaia bought this DVD from the Tim Burton exhibit. I wanted to watch it first. It’s rated R. I think except for a few very gross killlings she can view this.

Managed to get one Peter Gabriel ticket.

The Keith Emerson Greg Lake show is on a day I can’t go . Greg and Keith are doing “Acoustic versions” of The Nice, ELP and King Crimson.

Purchased tickets for the Pat Metheny Orchestration project. check this out:  http://www.patmetheny.com/orchestrioninfo/

Next session at 4:00.

I should make it known that I will eventually get back to my Rome Journals – things have just been going a million mils an hour since I returned.

Two cancellations gets me home early.  I go through most of the piles of paperwork and bills I’ve been avoiding. Got a lot done. Watching homicide while I work.

Yesterday was another remarkable day with Gaia and worth recapturing. I got home later than expected and crashed. Gaia came over Saturday night. We went out to dinner, watched some TV gaia Read some funny things from a book she is reading. Then to bed.

I wake earlier than the alarm at 7:00.  Gaia is still sleeping unusual as she normally rises at 6:30.  I start getting my clothes ready. Gaia rises. I tell her she can watch a little TV before we leave. We had plans to go to JV bagels for breakfast but we got to dragging our feet. Gaia told me there was a bagel place just down the block. She shows me where it is.  It is in the same shopping center as Fratteli’s pizza. Gaia gets a bagel with cream cheese and Strawberry milk. I get a large coffee and a toasted corn muffin. We decide it is wise to eat in the car on the way down.

We get to NYC and find a spot half a block from the Museum. We go to the MOMA again as we have reservations to see the Tim Burton Exhibition. A incredible display of art work, Sculptures and miniature videos. Very exciting and out of this world. I mean this literally if you know Tim Burton’s work. We walked in together but then Gaia was drawn to something so I let her go alone. As I was moving through the gallery and Gaia kept coming up to me and saying, “Dad you have to come see this, it’s totally amazing!” So I accommodated her every time she found something worth bringing me to see. This was a great experience for Gaia as she got to explore the gallery on her own. When she was moved by something, she wanted to share her experience with me so she came too get me.  This was an incredible experience for me to watch Gaia explore on her own.

Next we drive to battery park. We board the ferry and off to The Statue of Liberty.  So we climb 354 stairs to the crown.  The crown has twelve windows that look out on NYC. We spent about one hour in the Crown. We also got a history from one of the Park Rangers.  We found out the Statue was a gift from France to celebrate 100 years of independence.  We also learned that  the statue is made from 310 pieces of copper. A great trip.

Next we go to visit a friend of mine in Tribeca. Gaia says she does not want to go. I told her don’t worry there is someone there for her to play with. I met David, Marina and Raoul. Raoul is four years old. It wasn’t long before Gaia and Raoul were chasing each other, playing hide and seek etc.  David and I had a good talk about my situation. David and Marina were very supportive and good listeners.

When it was time to go Gaia stared to hide and said, “I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE!!!”  I said. “You see? I told you you were going to have a good time!”  It took another half hour to round up the children so we could leave.

I get in the car and realize I have next to no gas. I call David to find the nearest station. I didn’t make it. I call AAA and they were giving me a hard time as I used my four incidents per year quota. The wanted to charge me $45.00 to bring me gas. I then remembered that my auto insurance policy has 24hr. road side assistance. I call Geico and they deliver the gas for free. This whole ordeal took about 90 minutes. We then start to drive home but not before we stop at Gray’s Papaya for hot dogs and drinks.

I got home at 11:30 and crashed.

Today’s posting will be a separate entry

Rainy and cold again.

House cleaning in the morning.

Drive to Austin and AT teacher training. We have an extra class tomorrow, for mystery reasons but OK. One of my classmates has a birthday.

Drive back to the house and continue cleaning.

The Wife returns from her weekend. We go out to eat with my son and his wife (he’s visiting for the next 3 weeks, yay!).

Home for more stuff. Things are off kilter.

Listening to Zappa’s One Size Fits All, remastered (for $6.97 at Amazon!). What a great set of music!

Most of the day is spent under the influence of exhaustion. This persists even as I go out into the sub-freezing weather to play. I went to bed with a persisting bad attitude, but I awoke during the night and was able to let this go.

Lots of family time today. The children are competing for their parents’ attention.

A beautiful sunny day, a Spring day.

A day off.