Dear Satoshi Kon…

August 28, 2010

Today I just found out about your passing on August 24th due to pancreatic cancer, I’ve been out of the loop these days. 46 was too young to go; having seen all of your animated productions that you’ve directed thus far (Millenium Actress is my favorite!), I was looking forward [ Read More... ]

The human citizens sure did like you guys.  There was probably entire gangs of cats running around in the old days along with all the sheep.  One of my favorite things about Castelvecchio Calvisio was the evidence of cat and human co-habitation everywhere: cat doors.  You must be exceptionally slender [ Read More... ]

There’s an old trail that leads to Castelvecchio from you, Santo Stefano di Sessanio. It’s a trail that the shepherds back in the olden days would use to migrate their sheep from their high, cold hill towns in the winter to the lower, warmer region of Puglia, a twice-a-year event [ Read More... ]

You’re a welcome break from the bustle of Rome! Such a tiny hill town hidden within the many other hilltowns of the Abruzzo region in Italy. My RISD EHP group visited as part of a greater collaboration of multiple US universities/schools to help figure out ways to revitalize the region [ Read More... ]

It was a blue sky day on the first day of my visit this past weekend; I was with my RISD EHP student group on our way to Castelvecchio Calvisio.  Our mission: figure out a way to help the town of Castelvecchio recover after devastating earthquake damage.  Visiting you was [ Read More... ]

I met up with a few friends of yours a few days ago, we chatted about the weather nowadays (pretty nice) and hairballs (pretty gross).  One of them had just had surgery to remove a tumor and was grumbling over the politics in the newspaper: Another was practicing sleep meditation, [ Read More... ]

I met this stately lion statue at the National Museum of Oriental Art on via Merulana in Rome.  I asked if I could braid his mane since there was so much of it.  He looked me in the eye with a disapproving glare and a sneer, then said that he [ Read More... ]

This past weekend on the 17th I saw your Processione in Onore della Madonna del Carmine (Procession in Honor of the Madonna of Carmine), part of the Noantri Festival. Started at Sant’Agata Church right off the main street Viale di Trastevere near Ponte Garibaldi.  The crowd that gathered was thick, [ Read More... ]

You’ve got nothing on Porta Portese flea market here in Rome, this place could eat you for breakfast. Every Sunday morning an army of peddlers converge on this area in Trastevere to sell all their stuff. Named after Portese Gate, the market starts at the gate and keeps going and [ Read More... ]

Dear Pandora…

July 8, 2010

I met some of your cousins the other day at the cat sanctuary in Torre Argentina.  Many of them were being quite lazy and sleeping wherever they felt like it without regards to people around them.  I actually almost stepped on one guy sleeping on the steps leading down to [ Read More... ]

Dear Rome…

July 4, 2010

It sure is fine seeing you again, nothing’s really changed much since I last saw you, still have good looks and good food.  Except the seagulls.  They like to start talking at 3 am and the volume button is set to permanent LOUD.  Please fix the seagulls so that I [ Read More... ]

Go Blog Go! Website currently being redone, updating pieces from the old site and and should be uploading new things soon.  Woot for technology! June 22, 2010