Qualcosa è uscito. C’era da aspettarselo, sono costose. Si vanno a collocare vicino alle altre produzioni come quelle delle Edizioni Il LUPO (peraltro compatibili con qualsiasi GPS sul mercato)
—> http://eshop.edizioniillupo.it/store/
e sono realizzate dalla Nature Dynamics.
Queste coprono: Alto Garda, Garda Centrale-Monte Baldo, Valle di Ledro, Tre Cime Monte Bondone, Monte Calisio-Argentario, Vallagarina, Pasubio-Piccole dolomiti, Folgaria e Altipiani, Valsugana, Lagorai- Cima d’Asta, Val di Fiemme, Val di Fassa, Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino, Primiero-Vanoi, Latemar, Sciliar-Siusi, Catinaccio/Rosengarten, Val d’Ega, Sassolungo, Gruppo di Sella, Marmolada, Val Gardena, Val di Funes, Pùez-Odle.
Quindi adesso, anche se solo per una piccolissima porzione di territorio, c’è un’altra nuova alternativa (costosa ma precisa, aggiornata, professionale) alle uniche topo disponibili fin’ora, incomplete e non del tutto precise ma davvero interessanti e gratis: le Itopo condivise da Alessandro Nardi.
Strange days are these, i’m constantly under ibuprofene, who knows why. I bet it’s a mix between the frequent hot temperatures and the cold air-conditioned places i keep going into, plus the tons of things happening that won’t let me sleep cause i keep thinking about them during the night time.
Yesternight then, was deeply buried in a substance that is formed while spilling water on old coffee stains and accumulated dust. Like smelling wet bricks and stones and recalling Rome, I smell that substance and the first thing that rushes through my mind is my table.
Point is, this revived coffee smell counterbalanced the dizziness coming during the late hours while i was listening to some music videos on youtube and surfing different pages at the same time: suddenly, i realized it was the right time to start listening to something that i was waiting to listen to since some months and i would like to present it to you all. After the first minutes, i didn’t need anymore coffee: i was completely dragged in.
I was listening to the audio documentary “I Can Almost See the Lights of Home”. It’s a sort of radio program that Sandro and Charles Hardy III made during the days of Sandro’s on-field research in Kentucky.Sandro’s book on this field trip is almost finished and so it’s a good time to talk about this.
I’ve never been there myself, but Enrico and Sandro are talking a lot about it and i feel like i almost have been there in some way. I’m planning a trip there for 2010 (time and money permitting of course), part of a trip that crossess the Smokey Mountains from the surroundings of Knoxville and goes across Tennessee up to Damascus in Virginia, where we can then turn to Lexington passing by Harlan. So hopefully one day i’ll be able to see the place – for now, let’s all dive into this bluegrass music video for now. Randy Wilson plays an amazing banjo made from a fruit cake tin and gives a great time.
Back to the subject: as the authors say, “Part ethnography, part oral history, part radio documentary, ‘I Can Almost See the Lights of Home’ is a hybrid work, an ‘essay-in-sound’ designed to be heard, not read“.
You’ll need a computer, plus an internet connection, a program called Real7ime that you can download from HERE or HERE and a pair of comfortable headphones.If you’re going to stay home one of these evenings, prefere this link over a tv show or a movie, it’s very well worth your time, trust your friend!
Remember that you can get in contact with me if you want to know more or check the Circolo Gianni Bosio in the Links section of this blog to find the Archivio Franco Coggiola archive section.
So, this past weekend was a bit different but guess what, everything begun as usual.
We went for a walk in the woods – me, Matteo and his cousin Jacopo. We were up to make a low peak in Umbria, but ended hiking our way to a totally diffferent place, up to Umbriano, without even our backpacks.
Shirtless pleasure. Wind and some timid rainfalls.
The sky was so white that you could stand still with your eyes closed, then throw your head back until you feel the hair on your back and that inner thrill of exposing your whole neck, then open you eyes and imagine that you were hanged by your feet above an immense pond of boiled milk with a reversed perception of the gravity. Pure white.
Umbriano is the oldest town in Umbria, they says. An abandoned village in Val Nerina, people left it in the 50s, has been sold in 2007 – who knows who’s going to make what with it. By now, It’s still a “gost town”, as the official ghost site says. (Yes it has an official site – man, who doesn’t today?).
I can’t figure out how to rotate pictures to post some more vertical shots, they are all placed in a horizontal position, no matter what. Damn.
I’m getting on a Train. A Train that can be told where to go sometimes and sometimes not. There’s always a free seat and the cars are always full of people of all age and sex.Blue dirty curtains always histerically flowing like flags.They mesmerize tired minds. Nothing really shows the flow of time. There’s a newspaper on a far seat and you wonder if it was left to keep the seat, if it’s a his or her that let it be there and if he’s still on the train. I want to see how he looks like.
That’s what i daydream sometimes, waiting the announcement of a train in Terni. The mountains that can be seen sourrounding the city indulge daydreaming. The urine smell driven by a dry warm summer wind shut them off.The stains of coffee on the floor throw you back on your wonderings. The air explosions happening while a train going the opposite direction runs by ours disconnect you again from your self-told tales.The rolling pieces of a ticket scattered on the floor send you back there but your dreams that you were picturing are already ancient tales. All this while you hope that the battery package in your pocket will last till the end of the third time he says “For The Turnstiles”.I like the way it sounds.
A Filipino kid is standing in the space between the cars.I’m on the other one, the one without the bathroom.Strangles the steel bar with both his hands.You are boring, thinking that you should be supposed to use it to avoid falling down while the trains executes a violent turn, but for his eyes it’s the trigger of a nice game that can be played by adding a touch of innocence. The temperature is almost unbereable. A black guy looks for friendly seats. A white old woman looks for a place to throw her legs straight ahead of her. People enjoying the ride with low temperature, like seals on a moving iceberg, missing hot wind, urine and the kids fun.
The countryside is a blend of emerald green and amber. Everyone talks about the national team that lost the game yesternight. The birds don’t care. I don’t care but i feel for their loss of a chance to get some more adrenaline rushing. Taking this route is a chance to witness the beauty of the countryside. Sunflowers, hundreds. It doesnt last for too long. The amount of yellows and browns you can see after the darker greens of Umbria amazes me. People speak to themselves to pass time, tell stories, probably slightly fictious. Someone just needs to look at you. Friendships grew up, loves starts and ends in these cars, but never happened to me a lot. Kids use it to find their first adventures, people doze off for the job stress. Sometimes you’re just looking at the landscape outside and so does who’s behind you.When suddenly the train rushes inside a tunnel, both stare at each other in the eyes through the reflection in the window, sometimes for a second of embarassment and sometimes for three seconds of revelation.
I’ll never forget that time that a ticket inspector forced that Nigerian prostitute – was she the one that used to listen to some Wu Tang clan at 5:30 in the morning at the station and dry her feet on the big radiator in the waiting room? – to pay for her ticket with an unwanted, unpayed, unfair half and hour in the bathroom.
Interregionale Roma Ancona proveniente da Ancona per Roma Termini.”You can really learn a lot that way. It will change you in the middle of the day. Though your confidence may be shattered, it doesn’t matter”, like Neil Young says.
I smelled it inside and outside for years. I owe it something. Friends, you should come down here sometimes and we’ll take it for some rides, injecting our pale pink in that green and amber, and then back on the timeless wet red and yellows.
So i couldn’t write a post promoting a recent meeting we had with Nora Guthrie that came with a friend and her husband to visit us recently, but i’m more then happy to see that they felt our excitement, so take a peek here to watch some pictures.
Now, it’s been a while since i last updated this blog. Probably because i got into a “social network” as well. No need to remember a blog’s address to be in contact with friends and show pictures, but at the same time you need to be registered to see the stuff, so who’s not registered can’t be updated with what i’m doing, so here i am back to my virtual notebook for friends.
What’s up? Busy.
Came back from Thunder Bay, a place that, hey, let me feel like i’m at home. Actually i always feel like i can’t really chill…like i’m always in a rush. Would be awesome to stay more, feel like the breakfast you’re having is an habit. And not to be too invasive on my friends’ time, but hey, i still couldn’t do that, i would need a car and more time, and this will hopefully happen another time.
But at the same time what let me feel like i’m at home are exactly my friends and so i spent two amazing months.Listening to Neil Young’s Helpless now recalls memories of “a town in northern Ontario” that for me is not Omemee but Thunder Bay (and according to the legends it could be TB even for Young).
What was the main thing? MUSIC!
Best Scene? Martin ruins Damien’s pick-up strategy with a married woman in front of her husband and then goes outside the wine bar, -20 degrees, noone around and snowing, looking for a girl that was in front of me and comes back saying “too much clownage outside”. Priceless, instant classic.
Some quotes? “That girl is so SASH” – Jake, “Do you know what the “White Dragon” is?” – Jake, “She’s like the village’s bicycle, without the seat…fucks everyone” – Damien, “You can take someone out of a reserve, but you can’t take a reserve out of someone” – Becky, “Why i write about love? Well, there’s anything else out there?” – Art, “You can keep her, man…….keep her on a leash!” – Eugene Bannon, and i could go on and on.Some of the best isn’t even a phrase, like Jesse’s shyness, Janine’s win-it-all smile, MaryJo’s eyes before getting in the car (best eyes (for)ever), and so on.
So here i am, back, writing a story (it’s a thesis, but i feel like i’m writing a story and all this university stuff and shit is way behind it) about the music i “met” and the people that played and shared it with me. It’s their music and their life, so i can’t put it here, but let me say that i am listening to music in a way different way now. A step different, deeper, and i’m aiming to go even deeper.
I remember the first time i listened to music like the first time i’ve seen the sea. I didn’t just threw myself in the waves, i thought “why in the earth is this thing blue” too.
These days are full of music too. The guys from the Woodie Guthrie Archive, like his daughter Nora, came to the Bosio to share with us songs and stories. That moment when Nora was teaching a song of her father to the guys (with Giovanna Marini trying to follow her, learning in 30 seconds the song) was awesome.
Listening to my TBays’ friends stuff, that is in my mp3 player.
And to give a song to listen to, go with this live of Gillian Welch’s Look At Miss Ohio, that is a song that was behind two deep moments of the last years.
The guys that put up Gillian’s song disabled the possibility of embedding it anywhere, i’ll put the Steve Earle’s song is playing in my stereo while i close the topic cause i agree with his lyrics
I think i need to write down stuff about some music i’m looking into, and to find videos on youtube of it, so you’ll see some posts showing up with music videos a lot these weeks i think.
So, how do you easily convert a GPS track made with a Garmin to a travel itinerary on Google Maps?
There are lot of places where you can find this useful how to, i’ll post THIS one. Have fun and share!
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EDIT, 20 Jul 2008
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Up to now, several different other options are available: you can use MapSource, the software that comes with your Garmin, to show your itineraries in Google Earth. What about Google Maps support? Well, several other options are availabe to send your itineraries from your Garmin to Google Maps, i will make a new post with the best new options soon, and you can transfer an itinerary made with Google Maps to your Garmin – just use the feature in your Google Maps page by clicking “Send”, but it works just with a few tracks, usually the streets.An alternative could be THIS ONE TOO.
So, one of the things that i like about blogs is that they are like a useful virtual notebook you’ll never loose, and at the same time you can show your notebook to your friends and any interested people by just giving an address.
When we did this walk i basically tought about two things, to record our itinerary for me and to share it with friends and interested people.
This week the first Itinerary Page will be published and it will be about going from “Precetto di Ferentillo” (Umbria) to “Monteleone di Spoleto” (Umbria).
Venerdì 9 novembre ore 21.30 al BiblioNight caffè letterario BCT(Biblioteca Comunale) di TERNI(Umbria, Italia):
Coro di Piadena – Spettacolo di canti popolari – I Giorni Cantati di Calvatone e Piadena, Canti del lavoro, della festa, della lotta.
La BCT è in Piazza Della Repubblica 1, a pochi passi (10 minuti a piedi) dalla stazione di Terni, che a sua volta è a 45 minuti di treno solamente da Roma (treni per Perugia, Ancona, 6 euro di biglietto del treno).
INFO:
Interzona – Caffe’ Letterario
0744-549054
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Friday november 9th
If you happen to be near Terni, Umbria (easily reachable by trainf from Roma or Perugia) you’ll have the opportunity to see a concert by the people from Lega di Cultura di Piadena – check this linkfor more informations about them —> http://www.legadicultura.it/
The event will take place at the local BCT in Piazza della Repubblica 1, walking straight from the station will take more or less 10 minutes. If you’re there stop and ask about what’s going on, you’ll not regret it.
