nyers in milan - night out - sunday

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thumbnails here

new yorkers in milan - night out cemetery

I went to the new auditorium it did not exist yet when i moved to nyc -
looked fancy

we had dinner at some trattoria down the street - via conchetta.

john zorn was playing the next day at 11 am with mike patton
gregor had a ticket for me but i ended up sleeping and resting
strange to see all these new yorkers in milan

corso di porta ticinese that was like the east village of milan -
now is filled with these people like on bleeker street on a saturday night

my favorite ice cream place is gone -
but my favorite local churches are still here

---

i wish i had a bike when i lived in milan -it is so much easier than nyc
to get around -
but here i am happy to have a mountain bike
as there are so many streets with cobblestones and intersecting rail
tracks, you may get stuck in with skinny tires.


---

i go to the cemetery to bring some flowers -
there is a statue of an angel with the face of a scared girl
and there is dust on it -
and i kinda love it
---

my old friend fabrizio gives me some gorgonzola and salame and wine.
he distributes very good wines to restaurants and expensive 1500 euro
bottles to wine collectors worldwide.
he does not make a lot of money but has a nice large cozy apartment and
the wine he offers is always very good not cheap

pix - storage - GQ- dj olive - fog - wine

many photos all of them as a SLIDESHOW - click here

gallery here

train-storage-djolive 02-12-2006

took the train back to venice/milan from opicina -
the last italian train station before slovenia-
border police checks passports on the train.

my aunt [dad's brother wife] shared the trip with me

i haven't seen her for 8 years and i appreciate her earthy matter of
factly point of view on life -and our complicated family relations.

it was a slovenian train and there was the service guy with the food
cart - he spoke basically no italian and had funny spirited eyes

we drank wine and fruit juice.

back in milan i realized i lost my ipod on the train - fell off my pocket.

went to my younger brother place - where i am staying now.

he was on his way to a 2 week trip to india.

he told me to detach myself and let go of material things -
he said some good words that helped me not being pissed off.

i went to the park where i used to go as a child -
there used to be waterlilys and gold fish.

it was still beautiful
at 10 am there was a passed out bum on a bench - that drank 2 cartons of
wine.

an old friend just became editor of GQ - the italian version.
he likes my email journals and he thinks he would like to have a monthly
page of that for the mag.

the way they have meetings in milan is way different than in nyc -
it was good
and it seems likely i will have six pages on the february issue
and some nice euros in my bank account soon,

---
saw my old friend chiara -
she does promotion / publicity
and she says many miss my photos

she wants to get me jobs and fly me here -
now that i am free with a green card it feels god to come here make some
cash go back to nyc.

---
dj olive [gregor] is in milan - he is playing a gig with this guy harry
cane .

greg was doing some gigs in switz / france on his own and everyone else
got flown from nyc for this one gig

it is funny that i see him here while he is away from nyc from nov to march.

we go to la bettola di piero -
an old milanese restaurant - one of those pre gentrification that are
disappearing -

good hearty food -
great cheap cold cuts
i enjoy the food -
but the harrt cane people probably like something fancier.
i talked to chan m. she told me toremember to go to bar magenta and la
bettola di piero just beforre i left nyc...

---
greg and myself went to this old bar taht has teh best sandwiches of milan -
wild boar / deer / caviar etc

i had a glass of my favorite italian wine
Lagrein from Süd Tyrol
just 3 euros - in nyc the equiv would be 10 dollars.

well
i was pretty tired - tipsy
existentialist / fun talk - but i just wanted to lie in my bed.

---

had to go to this town monza 10 miles out of milan where my stuff is
stored -

on the bus there are 2 gypsy [roma] women
everyone hates them - exterminated by the nazis -
now are just nomadic people no one wants in their town.

they look perisan or afghany -
i love their skirt - but i know they are suspicious of non roma people.
---


went through old mementos
things to get rid throw away and just keep teh important stuff.

i see the photo of my mother - she died at 34 -
i leave it there safe but i take a photo of it for nyc.

i know i need to stop by the cemetery tomorrow bring some flowers -
after i went to the cemetary with my uncle to my grandparents i kind of
found some sense in it -
when i made no sense in it -

i only liked the cemetaries in scandinavia like in copenhagen where next
to the kerkegaard grave there was a mother with a stroller + a topless
girl sunbathing and some people having a picnic and drinking wine.

---

i go to a wine store i buy a bottle of barbera [1 liter] for 3 euros -
they have some nice lagrein - but i want to manage to buy a bottle only
with the coins in my pocket.

the wine store is from 1898 - one of the oldest in the city

they told me the shelves are the original ones from the 1930s

they are in perfect shape -
the same wood that they use to build sailboats.

---
i gotta run dj olive put me on the list
the world is small

Trieste / Opicina - last bike ride to sinkhole

many photos in this SLIDESHOW

thumbnails below

Trieste/padriciano 30-11-2006 20:23

went down to Trieste sunny warm day - feels like springtime -

see the large synagogue get a coffee in the Viennese style cafe
where an elderly woman is writing a philosophy treaty -
typewritten pages she corrects with whiteout and pen.

I walk by the Serbian orthodox cathedral with magnificent mosaics

it is 11.30 am
i walk into a cafe to get a coffee or something - 2 distinct women order a glass of red and a glass of white for 1.5 euros -

--
my uncle drives me uptown for lunch his big country house with a rocky garden

--
in the afternoon he takes me to the cemetery where my grand parents rest and he shows me writer Italo Svevo's tombstone whose real name is Ettore Schmitz and is Trieste's most famous writer

it feels weird being in a cemetery and i wonder how my uncle feels being 78 and youthful but knowing most of is life is behind him

----

On the last day I ride the bike 3 towns to find a place where to check the email -

in the small village in the middle - trebiciano - i see really old houses cut in stone
one woman walks out in the street and i want to take her picture -
she is worried about her clothing but that is what i really like -

she lets me take a few photos -
she tells me of the beautiful 100 year old house that is abandoned -
i wonder how much it costs it would be a shame to let it crumble.

the woman now insists so much about taking me into her house and make me some coffee - bu need to go get ready to catch the train.

she insists - i wish i could go in but I need to ride fast.

the air feels so clean and pure -

before going to my uncle's i stop by the wood nearby
to take a look to the sinkhole maybe 600 ft deep -
there is a fence around -
it is plenty of these sinkholes here -
deep wells to underground rivers or water basins

careful not to fall into

there is a very tiny short man hanging up the laundry outside his house.

he has huge underwear = especially for such a small man
but those briefs would be too large for a giant

Train Milan to Trieste - biking into Slovenia

many photos

in this SLIDESHOW

thumbnails below

Mi-Trieste-Slovenia

went to pick up a cleaned lens -
the old photo repair guy i assumed that passed away is still alive -
i took his picture -

waning craftsmanship - fixing old camera in the new digital age of
replaceable circuit boards -

took the train to Trieste via Venice.

I could get a really good sandwich at the train station for 2.9 euros
and you can buy and drink a can of beer for 1.5 euros -

Trieste is a small sliver of coast in the north east of italy.
Trieste + the surrounding area was Austria-Hungary until 1918 - then
Italy took it.

after WW2 Italy just kept a small chunk and a big part of the province
went to Yugoslavia.

Now my uncle has a big house in a small village a few Kilometers from
Slovenia.

all the stores have signs in Italian and Slovenian -
It is a piece of europe at the crossroads of different cultures.
Slavs and Italians and Austrians and a large Jewish population.


my uncle took me on a local tour on his VW Golf -
in the afternoon I took his mountain bike and rode a few Km across the
border to Slovenia -


there is a farm with free range chickens and turkeys getting ready for
the Xmas slaughter.

here they still let them roam freely - eat freely.

Casinos are not legal in Italy [with a few exceptions]
so in slovenia first thing you see when you cross the brder is a casino.
my uncle had also showed me a so called "massage parlor" and he hinted
with a smile there is more than just plain massages going on there.

I ride to Lipica [Lipiza] where there is a horse farm -
a particular breed of small horses.

in the area there are a lot of signs remembering the partisans that died
in world war 2 -

the countryside is very rocky - a high plain that reminds me of
missouri's ozark mountains or ireland's connemara.

they can't really grow much produce -
and there are many craters -
just underground caves/rivers roofs that collapsed and trees started to
grow.

you cant really see it in photo but many are quite deep and steep.

--
my uncle tells me that traditionally the Slavs lived on the hills
and the italians on sea level.
in the evening he drives me down to the city -
some down hill streets are way steep - something like S Francisco =
it must be hell to ride those streets uphill with a bike,

I see the serbian orthodox cathedral - the greeek orthodox cathedral and
the largest synagogue I have ever seen - a lot more monumental than
anything in NYC.

there is the austrian style area - a perfect grid of streets with
pedestrian areas and beautiful 18th century buildings
there is the jewish quarter called ghetto [ghetto is an old venetian
language word that means the jewish area - without todays' connotation
of impoverished/inner city slum] with tiny small streets -


There is an old store that my uncle knows - that sells everything -
people find hard to believe that in New York there are stores just like
this.
when people here think of america - they think of modern//new /
technological.

Milan - La Belle Aurore - Vasectomy couple

30something images here

in this SLIDESHOW

Gallery of thumbnails

Milan 26-11-2006 20:23

I went to " la belle aurore to check my email again.

the owner / bartender keeps asking what camera should he bu -
he has already some 700 euro Leica digital .
he says i am cool and he does not charge me -
not that a 2 euro glass of good italian red would break my piggy bank.

closing time he shuts the gate and everyone starts smoking.

take some pictures -
of italian bitters.
Jägermeister is way too sweet even when chilled -
so I go for the alpine / italian Braulio from a town on the alps on the border with switzerland .
brings back memories of long ago and it tastes like a good medicine that probably many hate.


I go there just to check my email as there are not many hotspots here and cappuccino or coffee after 5 makes me feel too speedy.

there is a youthful 40 year old girl that talks about this beach in tuscany that looks like polynesia - the sand is white as talcum and the water looks pristine.

there is a bicarbonate factory in the town that dumps in the sea and after years the brown sand turned white.
bicarbonate is not toxic and she tells me i should see it.

her husband looks a bit like mick jones/ mick harvey and says he wants to go home and fart as his wife is giving him a blow job.

they have 3 kids and he got vasectomy.
his wife Cristina is happy she says she can now have a better sex life and not worry about getting pregnant-
she says his semen after the operation feels and smells the same.

but in italy i find out vasectomy is an illegal method of contraception so the guy had to find a surgeon friend and lie that he needed it for some sort of infection.

Cristina says all her friends in Germany after 2 kids they all get vasectomy and she cant understand why in italy it's so much harder.

i find out her 2nd son has the same birthday as myself and she really gets curious.

---
cell phones in italy are way more evolved than in the US.

everyone here has fancier ones - UMTS / next generation.
if I call a friend that has the phone off or off signal range I get an automatic text message when they turn it on or come back within range.

i guess here cheating wives and cheating husbands cant really lie easily when their phone rings...
a bit stalkish - but i like it - you just ring someone and you dont need to leave a voicemail message.


i bought a sim-unlocked world phone with blue tooth -
so for 10 euros i can use it as a wireless modem fro my computer even if i am on some eurostar train or on some mountain vllage.

there are not many hotspots here but GPRS / GSM modems are way more common


--
i go and visit my old friend arianna - she just bought a nice 1 BR apt on the canals - cheaper than a studio in brooklyn.

---
i walk into an irish pub near my old place -
porta romana -
everyone is british inside -
drinking pints and watching Live on TV the english premier league soccer game.

---

there is a persistent fog in milan - it reminds me of all the years i lived here -

makes me happy new york more
sometimes when you get away you realize why everyone that moves there
cant leave.
tomorrow i am taking the train with my uncle go to his house near slovenia -
pine trees and white carsic rocks -
the wind blows often -

an isolated place at the crossroads of italy - eastern european and germanic cultures

Milan - typical Saturday - fascist politicians

better look at the related images as a SLIDESHOW @ picasa albums

gallery of thumbnails

Milan 25-11-2006 02:06

in milan the sun sets half hour later in the day than it does in NYC.
it makes a difference - just a bit more of daylight to get things done -

one night i woke up at 2 am and fell asleep again at 6 until 8.

my uncle gave me a couple of xanax -

wine could not make me sleepy -=
last night popped one
i felt warm good and mellow -
could not read anymore - woke up ok and the rainy day did not bother me - at all.

toilet here have 2 buttons for flushing -
the half flush for pee
and the heavy flush for people that have really grown up kids to drop off at the pool.

i saw one like that at the Canadian bookstore in nyc - mcnally robinson -
i guess canadians and italians are into conserving water -
but actually in NYC so many don t even bother to flush public toilets that maybe more flush water is conserved in the US.


I ran into a national neo fascist politician on his way to a speech near the duomo -
heavy sicilian accent and populist rethoric.
the fans looked old or dumb young right wing kids.

the mountain bike i borrowed broke the 30 Km/h speed limit for sure -
i saw only one guy with a nice roadbike and he was wearing an outfit.

most people that ride bikes here are women - ride leisurely -
city bikes
with baskets + kid seats + fenders etc

how can you go fast like that?

anyway here it feels a lot more relaxed to ride around -
cars seem more respectful and aware of cyclists -
the speed but slow down near you and change lane to pass a bike.


old people enjoy eating at mcdonald's
overall it seems a city where older generations have more of a grip on power.


a chinese girl
wants to sell me everything
a lighter a flash light etc
etc
99 cent store items here go for 8 [EIGHT!!!!!!] euros

she speaks no italian - but she is friendly -
i ask her how much a nail clipper is and she sys FOUR!!!!! EUROS FOUR!!!!

i buy some massage tool
she is kinda flirty and lets me take her picture

when i show her she smiles and keeps punching me on my shoulder ...

she understands Xie Xie but no Do ze...
i assume she speaks mandarin...
I ask her if she is from beijing/fujian/ guangdong/hong kong
but she does not understands what i am saying
after a senegalese guy sells me a travelogue book with pictures "7 days in dakar"
\5 euros
he tells me he hasn't sold anything today.

i ask him why he came to italy and learn a new language when he could have just gone to france.
he answers that it is a lot easier to be an illegal immigrant here than across the alps.

i gotta go this bar
my favorite milan bar "La belle aurore" is closing

they have wifi from somewhere and they treat me -
and the wine is just 2 bucks a glass
but they close at 2
stefano

Milan's Chinatown / Vito Acconci /Dark Roast / Smokers

watch the photos at
SLIDESHOW @ picasa album

as a gallery of thumbnails

Milan 24-11-2006 20:23

i went to milan's chinatown
via paolo sarpi

more clothing stores than food/restaurant joints
every chinese business has the word "trading" on the sign


I went to a place were they roast and sell coffee
i had a marocchino
the half way between a cappuccino and an espresso macchiato.

you can get house blend 5 euros per kilogram
1 Kg=.56 pounds
1 euro = 1.28
coffee can be way cheaper than nyc [you can do the math as i did]

espresso tastes better here
i looked at all the roasted coffee
and nothing looks nearly as dark as a "new york" french roast

they all look brown no coffee here looks as dark as charcoal as in nyc -
burned.

anyway
espresso is 70 cents - cappuccino 1.2 - or less
vito acconci gives a lecture at galleria illy -
i am happy to have a videocamera -
up close - while he talks about following people in the street and taking their pix

\
italians are uptight about having their photo taken -
not used -
egyptian family on new style tram stuck in traffic has no problems with my camera

colorful trucks sell focaccia panini and beer to go/

larger scale than LA's taco trucks

i like the signs - graphical road signs -
i always liked visual symbols

in america you have to spend time reading
here you just see it - no need to speak the language.

transsexual tv hosts interviewing people out in the street


borrowed a mountain bike -
a lot easier more relaxing than riding in manhattan -
less potholes and drivers seem more respectful and aware of bike riders -
they may drive fast but they dont drive close to you.

but beware of cobblestones and crossing tram tracks.

i like this bar i went a few times
la belle aurore -
old style bar -
2 dollar glasses of red and in the daytime they make money on coffee and cappuccinos

at closing time they lower the gate and they all smoke

Milan - art opening - recollections

look at the 70 pix here
as a slideshow
http://picasaweb.google.com/stefanog/Milan231120062023/photo#s5000672664538710034

as a gallery

Milan 23-11-2006 20:23

ran into old friends -
old people waiting for the bus
i stepped on a dog turd

drank cheap wine -
ate horse meat tartar and drank venetian sparkling wine
complementary of the old bar tender

old guy selling cold cuts -
he's been doing it for 65 years and he is 78 years old

old friend opened art gallery -
there are hookers across the street talking to each other in some east
european language.
people park on intersections - buses get stuck

maybe i will extend my stay

go to a town on a hill near trieste to visit my uncle -
he has a bike i can borrow and slovenia is just 3 km away -
i can just ride across the border and see another new county-
there it looks like the ozarks in missouri -
carsic rocs underground rivers
stalactites and stalagmites caves

in milan i like the cheap hotel signs -
seedy places for drugs deals and hookers
names like montecarlo - acapulco san francisco -
who knows if they will be still be here in 20 years?
i went to my old block
they built new condos around the block

i went to an old repair shop to get a lens fixed -
a man still doing the job in the back -
2 days - 80 euros -

i remember his partner old man with kind eyes -
the last time i saw him he could only talk with a machine he had to hold
on his throat -
i see his pictures on the wall -
i dont need to ask to know he has passed away -

i ran into people
haven't seen in ages
borrowed a bike - the city feels smaller -
i am happy to live in new york -
i see things in a different way -
i like to visit here
but being here makes me appreciate new york more
what there is granted here is an extra

but at leat here in milan public toilets are way cleaner and usually
people flush.

Pix - Rainy Night+Sunny Day in Milan

gallery of images

Milan 22-11-2006 14:10

SLIDESHOW [way better - but you can always click "slideshow" from the gallery page]
http://picasaweb.google.com/stefanog/Milan221120061410/photo#s5000205362618433554

drizzle -
weather like in nyc - just feels not as cold
old friends to see - more than i thought
one thought we last saw each other 4 yrs ago but it is almost 7.

wine bars -
twice as much as in nyc - nice large wine glass -
4 euros no tipping needed - no tip involved
and you can drink outside -
there is a ledge just out the door.
i forgot in italy you have to pull to get out
push to get in -

america is words
italy is symbols
for traffic signs -
the bus stop shows you the waiting time -

people talk about political parties rather than political programs -
it is more like talking about sports.

an high school mate bought two buildings and sold renovated fancy apartments -
he became the honorary consul of cyprus -

strange -

i like visiting here -
i like not living here anymore -
i want to see more - soot with the awareness after a restoring sleep -
jet lagged

----

the rest in a slideshow here


in milan rain stopped -
blue sky sunny 66 F day

turkish truck got stuck in a small street of the old part of milan -
an old man with a dog in the bike basket
I asked what her name was

"Laika", -
like the first dog sent in space by the soviets that died of hunger or suffocation I knew.
the guy had 3 dogs one after the other -
all called Laika all mutts from the shelter

high school best friend bought a 3 level attic with 2 sun decks and a jacuzzi on the roof.

if it was in nyc it would be 1.5 million $?

at bar magenta now
a glass of nice wine in a nice glass is 4 euros
next to me there is a table with wall street types getting drunk -
actually they are americans - maybe wall street guys from wall street
all in blue/pinstriped blazers

i saw my 78 year old uncle i haven't seen since 1999
he had a hip replacement - but he still goes skiing on the alps and takes boat trips


corso di porta ticinese -
my favorite ice cream shop is a real estate agency

there is a tabacchi store that sells rolling papers for hash joints - expensive beer to go and if you want something else
you can get for 3 euros a mojito to go.

it is nice in milan you can walk and drink a beer as in nyc you were walking and sipping a snapple -

people at happy hour seem to eat more the free food rather than drink the half price drinks


i like toilets that have a foot pedal to flush.

bikes here are crappy -
less sporty than the bikes in nyc.
heavy beaters with squeaky fenders and excessive weight all over

went to some art fair -=
everyone looked old and conservative

one stand has the most unlikely installation -
some old baroque paintings hanging next to schnabels and warhols -
\hard to look at

--
there is a building where Ho Chi Min used to live and a restaurant on the ground floor where he used to eat.
I read somewhere he might have been a dishwasher in paris - or maybe he was a student there
before he became a revolutionary [or was he a terrorist?]

Lybian gas station Tamoil -
Qaddafi is the owner of the company -
they won a prize for their daisy shaped symbol.

--
i have a camera and a panasonic 3 chip videocamera
it is hard to use both
it is like being married to 2 women at the same time and you can't decide.

but maybe the motion camera needs a lot more of thinking and dedication
the still camera feels like a natural extension.

pix NYC to Milan jetlagged

SLIDESHOW here
check some pix on the above link-

below thumbnails gallery

NYC-Milan jetlag 21-11-2006 09:55

jetlagged cuz i left at 6 pm and got to milan at 2 am NYC time -
look for a local cell phone sim card - find a citibank atm where i can get euros for cheap =

fancy pastry shop -
amazing croissants only .9 cents - in nyc would cost 3.5 bucks and be not nearly as good -
i notice things i used to NOT notice -

the weather is grey and overcast -
i have the jetlag daze - 24 hours with no sleep -

alitalia sucked but the wine was free - and made the uncomfortable seat more bearable -
the tv screen was fuzzy - i thought my eyesight got suddenly worse -
watched the latest spike lee movie - i knew everystreet in it.

i watched the fog of war on my macbook - and i realized my eyesight is still 20/20

6.5 years later - mmm
strange
but i lived here 33 years -

cappuccinos are so good. 1.20 euros - they are not overheated over steamed like in nyc -
the coffee is more smooth - less bitter than in nyc -
in NY only at nobu i had an espresso that tasted like t tastes here
and at some cheap pizza joint on bedford where a southern guy
from irpinia makes it himself.

I like the courtyards and the communal gardens here -
i need to rest and get around shoot more.