03 Monday Apr 2017
I can’t imagine working in a medium like this,
Where creation makes you murder to create,
Seen here in second stage of these two gems,
Unlike WordPress which saves my every whim.
03 Monday Apr 2017
02 Sunday Apr 2017
Posted in Education
Sunday morning, outside the art museum:
crepa = crack, a sight we saw last year after the earthquakes (terromoti)
Quando l’arte cuce le ferite = when art stitching wounds
intervento = intervention
momentanemente = momentary
permanente = permanent
When art heals wounds
Or, a momentarily permanent intervention
AKA, my Italian lessons start tomorrow in earnest. (And my WordPress refresher course, one that recalls the instructions for internal links, should take you back to last year’s tale before long. Click here. BTW, O ye of little faith, my HTML is much better than my Italian, as evidenced by today’s most recent performances.)
01 Saturday Apr 2017
Posted in Education
In truth, the obsession here: our Italian lessons.
30 Thursday Mar 2017
Posted in Education
The Italian greeting when the phone rings:
29 Wednesday Mar 2017
Posted in Education
With a limited vocabulary, one is bound to be repetitive.
The same way, studying Italian, one is often competitive.
Luckily, my language lessons this spring are strictly one-on-one.
That still doesn’t mean I can fight my way off the bottom rung.
29 Wednesday Mar 2017
The kind, elderly gentleman spoke to us, quite naturally, in Italian.
“… il Centro? (“… the center city,” he inquired. As in a word of advice: if you’re trying to get to the cultural center, then you took the wrong turn back there at the divergent path.)
We had deliberately turned off before the Mobilita Alternativa, which carries you up the hill to the center city on a magic carpet ride.
We had taken the first left, the path less followed, to take the back way toward Torre dell’ Olio. (The tower of oil, aka in infamy or legend as the tower of Hannibal’s ignominious retreat from the gates of Spoleto.)
So now, it was our turn in Italian. Rebecca knew the infinitive for the verb “to go,” and quickly supplied the conjugation as she set out in her mind for the proper translation of “art store,” when I was prodded by a simple sign to supply a destination: “Torre dell’ Olio.”
A big smile from the nice man, along with well wishes for a good day.
28 Tuesday Mar 2017
Posted in Education
Siri, take a dictation:
Dear Apple Genius,
Thanks again for checking out the AirBook
In Charlotte. Disk sweep, alas, didn’t work.
At least Siri, in good faith, knows my voice–
Saves me, or my thumbs, from screaming.
28 Tuesday Mar 2017
Posted in Education
What should be a simple conversation
Is, for me, a pick-up game: too one-sided.
Latugga, I heard.
Proscuitto, I said.
Oggi arrivato, Rebecca heard What was all Greek to me.
Just so much more I have to learn.
28 Tuesday Mar 2017
Posted in Education
To: Reb, my Excel Queen
From: Carlo, a courteous driver
Re: Whenever windy? = “Vento” (& not “pinto,” U backseat idiot)
Date: Morning, Day 1 in Spoleto
To: jt, the daft Memo King
From: Our Friendly Clerk, Anonymous Still
Re: Forever Clueless? = “Hurry Up, Please, It’s Time to Mind the Gap” (in other words, to drop the English references and get crackin’ on your Italian)
Date: Afternoon, Day 1 in Spoleto