21 Friday Oct 2016
Posted in Education
ANNIBALE, DOPO AVER SCONFITTO I ROMANI AL TRASIMENO, RESPINTO DA SPOLETO CON GRANDE STRAGE DEI SUOI, MENTRE MARCIAVA ALL’ATTACCO DI ROMA. CON LA MEMORABILE FUGA DETTE IL NOME A QUESTA PORTA.
19 Wednesday Oct 2016
Strictly hands-on, with the friendliest folk, at the closest spot.
13 Thursday Oct 2016
Posted in Education
04 Tuesday Oct 2016
Research on fresco (up to the point of practical implementation),
Non c’e problema. (In other words, not a problem.)
But the work on via Vaita De Domo has been going less well.
First, the sun and the wall. See for yourself how they helped:
At least there was a sign further along, with a legend (in inglese)
But the research on the noble Spoletan family proceeds no further apace.
With more remaining to be said about what set us out on this journey.
04 Tuesday Oct 2016
Posted in Education
Quite a delightful way to spend a day
(Or an afternoon, really) typing away:
Hereby submitted in partial fulfillment
Of the assignment: to capture the light
In our exchange with the Czech teacher,
Off on her own this bright fall morning
To browse the art exhibits of Spoleto,
Unfettered by the disinterest of youth.
30 Friday Sep 2016
Posted in Education
What Rebecca said about the tall Italian drink
In the skin-tight jeans and thigh-high heels,
Who stood casually talking to the city workers,
Would have gotten me in a whole lot of trouble
Had those words ever crossed my mind’s threshold:
I bet those men
Will pick up her trash
Anytime she asks.
26 Monday Sep 2016
Posted in Education
Plainly seen: It’s hard to beat the Opera Box.
Four walls, with a door at one end and a window opposite.
Such a practically designed and perfectly confined room:
Just enough space for a seating of six.
This year we had the perfect mix:
Two Italians from Rome, their oft-visiting Belgian friends,
And then the two of us, Spoletini transients from the US.
Three languages, with one polyglot
Sharing short stories between acts:
Learning more about the (opera) company, at times by pretending
To know less than what U should have prepared for on the big test.
Such a refined idea, the opera box!
16 Friday Sep 2016
Posted in Education
At work, oddly with a search engine, on Walden.
Between me and the far hillside, a steady rain.
I read in the Gulistan, or Flower Garden, of Sheik Sadi of Shiraz, that “they asked a wise man, saying: Of the many celebrated trees which the Most High God has created lofty and umbrageous, they call none azad, or free, excepting the cypress, which bears no fruit; what mystery is there in this? He replied, Each has its appropriate produce, and appointed season, during the continuance of which it is fresh and blooming, and during their absence dry and withered; to neither of which states is the cypress exposed, being always flourishing; and of this nature are the azads, or religious independents.–Fix not thy heart on that which is transitory; for the Dijlah, or Tigris, will continue to flow through Bagdad after the race of caliphs is extinct: if thy hand has plenty, be liberal as the date tree; but if it affords nothing to give away, be an azad, or free man, like the cypress.
The word I’ve been working on, for a time, is mystery.
By now no riddle here: I just missed my 11:00 date with the iPad.
13 Tuesday Sep 2016
First, the music. And first, by entreating my wife: What kind of music was that? Knowing her major, career, and current interests, I no more expect an answer from her than from me.
According to my instructor, the correct answer to the kind of music is “discordant.” But the more I inquire, the more she insists that she is just “no help on that score” [pun delightfully intended].
Wikipedia speaks of Rossini’s inspired, song-like melodies (earning him the nickname “The Italian Mozart”); whereas no search results are expected to show up for Vittorio Montalti.
So what were the instruments we heard? (Hard to see, without opera glasses, from the cheap seats. And as my 6th grade teacher could attest, how very little did I show a distinguishing ear.)
Before I hear from Rebecca, my best guess would be percussive. The guy on the far right side had a string of instruments (by no means, string instruments) he was running between.
The whole thing sounded electronic to me, sort of John Cagey in a more continuous, melodic sort of way. Otherwise, how would a single, solitary note ever get sung?
Beyond these few, pitiful excuses for something to say about this obviously modern music, we expend our learning lesson on the headlines in the paper: “Rientro a scuola per piu di 5mila studenti.”
12 Monday Sep 2016
Posted in Education
In Piazza della Liberta, come ci si aspetterebbe, la domanda temuta: “Trump o Clinton?”
We fumbled over our collective American selves for the answer (in Italian:-).
On a second political conversation, in Inglese e in Italiano, more later.
Meanwhile, we did learn a new Italian word in Piazza Libertà: “la paura” [fright].