Canals in Amsterdam, more than, colder than Venice.

 

When Maria met Miyake

Maria agrees, she must have her own Miyake.
The first acquisition, the virgin purchase, is anything but frivolous. Issey Miyake is a state of mind; architecturally defined, hyper feminine, an investment that could be construed as sensible, even in this climate. The item will last a lifetime.
A.must.in one's wardrobe. 
And no, Issey's not for everyone, but a sliver of delicately pleated black fabric sits somewhere on my frame daily and lately I've seen a lot of Maria so no surprise she's become deliciously infected by the fashionable bug.
The only cure is a rendezvous. Andiamo!  Off to our mecca to meet M. Miyake we go!
The act of trying on Issey Miyake, each truly unique, whimsical, architecturally elegant, the exercise alone is therapy incarnate.
Eventually Maria found her own style; a deep, silky slate blue grey number that shimmers softly, so long it could cover a table set for 12 yet so origami inspired it sits on the skin as thin as  can be, to be worn in a myriad of so many ways they provide a guide alongside. With skinny jeans and boots, with pearls for black tie. Pleats, please, for days and days and ways in weather that covers every season. 

Dutch treats

 
Our common courtyard is anything but, magical and overgrown, inspiring Ms. Havisham, full of 'great expectations' and mischief. Living In the precious address of Prinsenracht I'm keen to meet and make nice with my new neighbors and elegant environs. It's lovely.
I often thought if Paris and Edinburgh gave birth, the offspring would resemble Amsterdam. A pretty, whimsical, artistic Parisian lovechild with dramatically handsome facades lit so similar to Edinburgh.  Yet, the mis en scene is distinctly urban in a deeply specific way.  
First order of business was to visit the lovebirds across the canal, dear friends that find the time to educate and play host as their vivacious world floats by, full of bikes and ferries gliding down below.
Amsterdam is anything if absorbing with land designed to accommodate more canals than Venice. Once the commercial capital of the world with its uniquely concentric canal system evolving into a cultural center, a permissive place, tolerating more than most. 
Even as we now bare witness to a movement, a reaction perhaps, inching towards the radical right, if only in reaction to its permissive past.  Amsterdam, the principle home of radical movement with its perpetual identity.
Each country absorbing globalization, every country interacting with the next, quite like Amsterdam with its concentric canal system creating a complete community, merging, changing...

And now for something completely different: Amsterdam

It's as if Italy insists on kissing me arrivederci, weather's been spectacular this week.
We'll miss this view from the flat, but time to get back to civilization. Godot gets in a last run
From the Italian Alps to one of the flattest places on the planet, arrrrrrrrrivederci Italy
Amsterdam, here we come...; )

Bojo, Book tours and the ever compassionate Tennessee Williams.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor or London discouraged Bush from bringing his book tour across the Pond.

"Waterboarding," he wrote, "is a disgusting practice by which the victim is deliberately made to think that he is drowning. It is not some cunning new psych-ops technique conceived by the CIA. It has been used in the dungeons of dictators for centuries. It is not compatible either with the US constitution or the UN convention against torture. It is deemed to be torture in this country, and above all there is no evidence whatever that it has ever succeeded in doing what Mr Bush claimed. It does not work."

Bush and Blair's respective book tours inspire a memorable line from Tennessee Williams movie, "Night of the Iguana".
The greatest tension throughout the movie occurs between Ms. Fellows, a severe, authoritarian personality and Burton, a compassionate, flawed, de-flocked priest. (his best role, perhaps?)
Ava Gardner's character arrives just in time to provide enough ammunition to take Ms. Fellows down. Burton says, "no, don't, Miss Fellows is a highly moral person, if she were ever to know the truth about herself, it would destroy her..."

The things my feet have seen; Rome to Venice

      
  @the Pantheon in Rome 2006, cruising Croatia along the Dalmatian coast 2009 
 


    The Austrian Alps, 2010
Dangling along the cliffs of Dingly in Malta 2008, aboard MADI, 2009

Eddie Izzard, from one europhile to another, "Bon Chance!

Independent reports Eddie's on his way, ambitious man that he is but with eyes wide open; French humor, like the German version can be hard to find. Kinda like WMD's, someone insists, apres inspection, alors non, nein.
The Closet with condoms is classic 'farce', but I think Le Diner de Cons hits closer, a dinner game focused on who can bring the biggest idiot.  Humiliation looms large.

Don't get me wrong, loved living in Paris, as long as it was a finite proposition. Dinner parties @Chez Bay weren't all in English, one or two completely in French, in fact. Gallery owners, musicians, locals, activists, neighbors, chatty, engaging, everything openly discussed, full of national solidarity.
And, when my mother died I was struck by how kind and warm they were; they get 'sad' in a very particular, calm and comfortable fashion. I will never forget this, it still lives within me.
The French are funny in an unfunny way. They like physicality, they like martial arts, in fact, on the street, they will walk right into you, literally.  In NY, Milan and other large cities where people adapt to a rhythm, Parisians do not. Maybe because the country only has one major city unlike other countries I've lived in, who knows.
One time we found a vagrant leaning against the door to our flat. We lived on the 6th floor and we couldn't get him to move.  We called the police, they arrived instantly, in packs, always and after they moved him aside, while inside we could hear the 'bethump, bethump, bethump' as he was 'escorted all the windy way down to the foyer and out the front door.
The Italians have a favorite joke about their 'cousins', after all, they share many cultural realities and feel close; "What do you call an Italian in a bad mood?  French." It's their favorite joke, a cliche only because its true. 
The 'comedy' shows I tried to watch would mimic Benny Hill but feature naked men rather than women. They also left out the English humor which to be fair is funnier than any other. 
However, I think Eddie will do well, Eddie's so lovable. They'll love his desire to speak mostly in French, they'll appreciate his 'amusing' and English like perceptions, but he should be a bit bitchy, if only for the men.
As long as he focuses on sex, as long as his show his called 'stripped' and hints at much ado about sex, they will line up...