I visited San Francisco this past week. For each of the 4 days, the sky was without clouds, and the Bay Bridge was closed due to a re-opened wound.
There is a lovely botanical garden in Golden Gate Park. I enjoyed some reading time near a pond. Then I took a bus to the GG Bridge. Later in the week I took a ferry to Larkspur to stay with friends in Marin County.
Florence was probably my favorite visit on my tour of Europe. I expected to appreciate its art, but I was surprised how much the town really had a hold of me. Last Thursday, tears of joy rolled down my eyes. It was a sunny day; everyone I encountered was smiling, laughing; the food was singing beautifully from the cafes, bars, trattorias that saturate each street. Gelato! Pizza! Ham sandwich! How I love you so, bella!
There’s a hack sitcom joke in which two or more people criticize another person who is also present. Invariably, the injured party will declare: “I’m standing right here!”
When I’m around foreign speakers, and one of them says ‘American’ I shout out, regardless of the context: “I’m standing RIGHT HERE!” In doing so, I not only feel connected to Ross-Chandler-Joey, which is everyman’s goal of course, but I’m standing up for all of us Americans who have absolutely no clue what is being spoken when what is being spoken is non-English.
But really, where do I stand? You can find out via my Twitter Tweets. My name is @hatmanly.
Also my recent Tweets appear in the Right column. Ciao!
Last week I paid a record sum for a museum entrance–15 euros and 45 minute wait. For a quality product with a high-level of goodwill, people will pay. Oh! It’s Van Gogh dontcha know dontcha know? Van Gogh.
It is worth the price. Based on my experiences viewing the works of deceased masters, I’m adding a new feature to my blog: A Grave Roll. A “Blog Roll” is where you list links to other bloggers with whom you relate. Because many of my heroes are six feet under, I am adding a section in the right panel that will link to the Wikipedia entries for dead artists and writers. Roll over Beethoven!
Above is the line to the Van Gogh Museum; below, some other Amsterdam photos.
I was planning to go to the Technique Museum to see some inventions and designs. I stopped at Checkpoint Charlie because of my sister Clyde’s suggestion. It turns out that this museum chronicles many interesting techniques!
This grinning family got through the easy way. Clyde and Christine were in Berlin when the wall came down! It’s a great photo. I’ll find the original or you should… because the looks on the faces of the family… real shot in the arm! We have done it before, and we must do it again. Kudos to the ingenious Berliners who escaped or helped people escape the Communist East. It’s hard to imagine a worse economy than our present one, but Cold War East Europe was the pits. So much invention and good will came out of the efforts to liberate those left behind. There was the 28 year old chemist who created a mini-submarine to propel him through the Baltic Sea. There were many tricked-out automobiles to conceal passengers. And much tunneling.
The hard hard times in which we find ourselves. We can find a way out. Now is an opportunity to THINK AND BUILD!
