Recent - January 13th 2022
Only two weeks since I have last updated the site, but I have found some missing links that needed to be repaired and I thought I would add the the design thoughts section. I have collected a lot of material over the couple of years I added nothing.
I also want to call out two things in particular.. I owe a great thankyou for the people at rex-kralj.com for providing me four of their Mosquito Bar Stools at designers prices, which I finished my kitchen redesign with. You can see my entry here.
And I would like to, again, draw your attention to a great app that you can download from the Apple Ap Store called ReciMe. You can see my entry here.
January 3rd 2022
I had promised myself that I would update this website more often - I am not doing so well on that at the moment!
I have left the house in good hands and hope the excitement on my return last time will not be repeated. I do miss it - a lot. As I get older, I seem to get more homesick and it, MCdV, is most definitely my home. I did do my bit and put up Christmas decorations before I departed.
I spent a brief time in Grand Bahama or the Bahamas. I can honestly say that I will probably never return but I felt I should mention a few highlights
My first amusing thing here was the flight from Nassau to Freeport. Canada's Westjet flies directly from Toronto to there. The timing was such that we were assured we would get on the early connecting flight but once in the departures lounge, of course, there was no corresponding desk and nobody to ask. Laid-back could best describe the attitude here. In the fullness of time, it happened. Next up - 'Dunkin Donuts' I have never seen so many people buying a dozed of them before a flight - I was starting to think it was a requirement with the boarding pass. There is very obviously no franchise in or around Freeport, and the airport lounge was your last chance. Even the pilot had his dozen stuffed under his seat - delivered by the ground crew before he would leave!
Freeport International Air terminal does not exist. One of many structures destroyed by the hurricanes and now mired in reconstruction issues. To whom does it belong, and who has the responsibility to rebuild. Many years ago, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) was granted a mandate to control a good part of this island. It has its own rules and tax situation and, as such, does not always agree with the national government located in Nassau.
There is a deepwater port on the island, and a thriving shipyard and a pharmaceutical industry, along with an amazing number of storage tanks for oil and petrol. And at the moment, not much else. The casino and hotels and service industry that supported the daily flights and cruise ships of tourists are no more. What was not damaged by the weather has fallen to Covid. Slowly, very slowly, as the ships return, there is some progress, but the glory days of the island's past, I fear, may never return. Once posh condominiums of well-off owners are being converted to Air B&B stays - again altering the dynamic of the island.
I visited there to have a Sting Ray tour with Keith Cooper of West End Ecology Tours (www.westendecologytours.com) A amazing experience with wildlife.
Our host Keith Cooper of West End Ecology Tours - has been doing this for fifteen years. When he arrives, the stingrays arrive!
An interesting fact - they are related to sharks! Here, the underside and his mouth.
Another interesting evening was spent listening to a jazz quartet on the island. The performance was limited in numbers by COVID and the location in the lobby of the former theatre - the balance of it still un-repaired from last hurricane
The musicianship was great!
Below are a couple of intrepid gecko basking in the sun
And that is it till the next time when I will be back in Umbria. -
Recent - Early November 2021
November 7th 2021
Spent some time this afternoon watching the last few episodes of AppleTV’s Mark Rosen series, ‘Watch the Sound with Mark Rosen’. Brilliant! I was not familiar with the man, but the lineup of people he has worked with is impressive. https://www.markronson.co.uk/ during the episodes, he covers assorted aspects of music. You also get to see him doing some of his DJ gigs. So, of course, being an Apple fan, I have gone to Apple Music and downloaded some of his work.
Why am I wasting my time watching this on a Sunday afternoon? I can’t do much else at the moment as I am in pain with sciatica, thanks to a couple of herniated disks in my lower back. Have seen a specialist about it and been told to ‘man up’. Not unusual for someone my age. So have been told not to aggravate it, and that means more time, sitting, reading and exploring things I have been putting off.
One of the groups covered in the Rosen series, the episode on reverb, was the Icelandic group Sigur Ròs https://sigurros.com/. Some exciting sounds. I always find it interesting when you watch or read something, and it leads you to something related. It brings to mind the TV series called Sense8 - an American sci-fi series first aired on Netflix in June 2015. It follows the story of eight people spread across the globe who are connected mentally and emotionally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense8 there were two seasons and outrage when it was inconclusively cancelled, and they created a two-hour special to wrap it up. There is apparently a third season written. Why mention the series - well, it was good - but the music in it was really super! A group called 4 Non-Blondes‘ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Non_Blondes’ All the music was good and so suited to the series. The piece they performed was ‘What’s Up’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_Up%3F_(4_Non_Blondes_song)
So all this to say, music, like most art forms, is interwoven with our appreciation of other aspects of our culture. And if you let the things you explore lead to others, life can be fascinating. If you are interested in music and its creation, I must also suggest the New York Times series Diary of a Song https://www.nytimes.com/video/diaryofasong. In it, they cover the creation of iconic songs by current musical artists.
Enough for today - R
view from Pz Vittorio Emanuele II, MCdV Nov 8th 2021
*****
It has been some time since I have found the time to update this site, and I have now found (should I say, made?) the time to do so. It is not that I have not wanted to, but life got in the way. My late wife died in February of 2016, and my life changed - I was trying to balance a life in Umbria, the place we had moved to together in 2005, with a new life on the other side of the world.
So I hope to, at least monthly, add material to this site. Most of the material that was on the old site is still buried here. I have removed some, as links were broken or places and things are no longer available. Also, the technologies that were used to display some of them are no longer supported.
For now, ‘recent’ and ‘previous’ will only supply links to the previous pages in the last site. As I add to this new site, they will gradually be populated. The pages ‘about’ and ‘links’ will be updated versions of the same pages on the earlier site. And ‘design thoughts’ will, as before, list things I have found of interest in the design world. Interspersed amongst this will be photography stuff and images I have taken. I hope you enjoy it - It will provide me with an opportunity to order my thoughts on the things I find interesting - a bit of a diary, if you will.
Piazza Sunrise Oct 24th 2021