When Mimmo Vestita remodeled his garage in Grottaglie, Italy, he discovered the floor of a Roman villa and with a little more probing he found a Byzantine crypt under his driveway.
Located in a field, to the side of a two-lane road, the Cripta del Crocefisso building looks as if it might be a farmer’s old stone storage shed, but once inside the ancient underground structure that's been carved out of rock, you will be truly amazed by the frescoes and unusual ceiling paintings.
Artist revisits source of inspiration for her 2016 installation "Silent, Silenced, Silence".
A quick tour of Arsanale exhibit of amazing African artists- El Anatsui and Michael Armitage-- Venice Biennale, 2019
Visit master artisan printmaker Giancarlo Busato in his laboratory in Vicenza, Italy.
The elephant has a most auspicious symbolism: they embody strength and power, especially power of the libido and are seen as a symbol of great sexual power.
If you hit a cow with your car in India the scene will draw a very big crowd and cost the driver a lot of money.
In India Beauty Parlors for Women are experiencing growth. Men are much more public about their grooming, often doing it on the street and women don't color their hair nearly as much as the men. A visitor will notice many more grey-haired women than gray-haired men.
An afternoon party in Dehradun delivers lots of news about women's friendship, Indian garments, children's energy, hospitality and tumeric-laced food.
As I wait for the 2017 eclipse, I recall the Jantar Mantar Astronomy Court in Jaipur, India, and by coincidence BING's homepage featured a photo from the same courtyard, a magical place for seeing the movement of stars and planets in shadow reveal.
In 1968, The Beatles went to Rishikesh to study with Mahrishi Mahesh Yogi and the trip got widespread media attention and influenced Western attitudes about Indian spirituality and music; I went there 40 years later and couldn't wait to get out of town!
In India monkeys run around the backyard, jumping in trees, like squirrels do in New England. Anjula told me a story about when a pack of monkeys broke into their family house in Dehradun. The family dropped everything, scrambled together... Continue Reading →
Travelers to India may be tempted to step into the Ganges but simply standing on the shore to watch the pleasure and joy of others is very satisfying experience.
Dehradun is known as the love city,the jewel of the Himalayas, gateway to holy cities, education capital of India; for me Dehradun was the first Indian city I got to know. It is about 6 hours north of Delhi.
Fairy, a Hindu family maid, wears a borrowed pink scarf and solemn expression to pose for her first picture in front of a blooming rose bush.
On July 4, Anjula and I flew to Delhi together. At the airport a man picked up her suitcase by mistake and Anjula had to take a 5 hour bus ride west to retrieve it. This was my first expose to the man/woman imbalance in India. The man would have never gone out of his way to return the suitcase. It was the woman's duty to shoulder the burden of inconvenience.
In India I had seen every possible variation of being human and of humanity--good and bad--and it was unrelenting and afterwards, It became important to look inside myself and others and recognize the Divine.
Take a look inside and see the pure gold wall paintings in World Peace Stupa in Dehradun, India, that illustrate the life of Lord Buddha; it took 50 artists three years to do the painting.
by CHRISTINE PALAMIDESSI (from Stone's Throw Magazine) A white Range Rover with a thick bull bar headed straight at us. Rageev pushed the heel of his hand hard into the horn, uncurling his finger tips as if they were tender tea... Continue Reading →
I read a lot. Here are reviews of fiction, non-fiction and collections. Many are reviews of translations of books written in Italian. New reviews posted every month.
A coming-of-age novel about two nineteen-year-old women who set out across the country in the summer of 1972, searching for answers about siblings they have lost, love and friendship.Their initial goal is soon overshadowed by the trip itself. Reminiscent of Thelma and Louise.
A thrilling novel about art theft and recovery, but ultimately, a story about many things: sibiling loyalty, passion, nurturing, devotion. Of separation, grief, abandonment and berievement. Of discovery, rediscovery and explorations Of relationships and generations caring for each other
Loved this book and you will too, especially if you have a connection to or friends & family who lived in The Bronx. It is a delightful collection of memories from the northernmost borough of New York City: the Bronx,... Continue Reading →
RUNNING SCIENCE is an impressive book, could call it a modern bible, that collects up-to-date data on running research and everyone who might be a serious athlete ought to check it out.
My Brilliant Friend is a literary work about women and friendship that is not chick-lit, the first in a planned trilogy; it fictionalizes childhood and adolescence in Naples, Italy, during the 50s, chronicling the vicissitudes of Lila and Elena’s friendship; at the same time allegorizing the modernization of Italy.
The Sadness of the Samurai is a novel about justice, forgiveness and hope: we all bleed; some wounds heal; others remain. A wonderful, large read with many dark corners.
Who else could make a film about the role of money, schizophrenia and the individual's destruction and make it sexy, adult and stylish? Review of Elio Petri's 1965 Italian film The 10th Victim.
Lina Wertmuller's THE NYMPH relies on overcharged sexual visuals of Stefania Sandrelli's backside in this film about love, war, fate and virginity.
Review of The Way We Laughed unfolds the sacrificial tale of two brothers and won The Golden Lion, in Venice’s 1988 International Film Festival.
Beautiful Anita Pallenberg plays the drugged out wife in this Marco Ferreri film that explores male existential sexuality.
Wayne Escoffery's birthday jazz performance at Kitano Club in New York City coincides with wedding anniversary celebration of Boston couple.
A complex story about a young Sicilian girl who transforms revenge into justice.
Celtic Star Paul Pierce could double as Indian actor Ifran Khan in the 2006 film Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante.
Comedy from India: Peepli Live, a not-to-miss Hindi-English film, takes you to rural India and tells the story of a farmer who might commit suicide so that his family can collect the money they need to save their property.
As a vehicle to test cinema and cultural IQs,IO SONO L'AMORE/ I AM LOVE will surely challenge every film buff
Franco Modigliani's contribution to economics and reflections on Italy; an evening at MIT with Renato Camurri editor of a new book about Modigliani and Nobel Laureates Robert Solow and Robert Merton and Sloan colleagues Stewart Myers and Francesco Giavazzi.
Muriel Barbery's novel THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG has a secret ingredient: being prepared to love.
Theater/culture review of A.R.T.'s SLEEP NO MORE, a fusing of Macbeth and Hitchcock, now playing in Boston ( December 2009).
THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING Review of famous Italian neorealist film, by Christine Palamidessi Moore.
Pier Paola Pasolini's film Uccelacci and Uccellini can be read as a reenactment of an ideal father-son relationship. A relationship that he was denied.
ARACOELI: Review of 1982 novel, reissued by Open Letters. A disturbing look at memory, rejection and love.
"Eat one meal a day and work, work work, if you want to live to 100." A review of scientist and Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini's philosophy, autobiography, and life.
Sicilian American literature. Review of Tony Ardizzone's novel, In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu.
Italian Americans and Yesterday’s Greenwich Village Memoir reveals gone but not forgotten era
Tonight and every night check around the bathtub for cobras before taking a bath: Jim Corbett's life-and-death struggle with a big snake in a locked room.
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