A Tree Grows in Vicenza

And it's yellow.

I was walking through my fair city this weekend, when I came upon this beautiful yellow tree in a park. If ever a tree was "ablaze" in color, this one was. I came back the next day to take some pictures of it to share what a fall day looks like in Italy. Enjoy.













The last one is my favorite. And done in manual focus to boot! Eat my ass, Ansel Adams!!

Hey guys, remember me??

This is probably not the most earth-shattering news to post for my big, triumphant, come-back post, but I'm warming back up slowly.
I came across this on The Onion, which, believe me, I know is soooooo freshman year, but I just read the main page and never really look at all of the linked articles on the left. Lo and behold, apparently they have stuff like this:

I wish some small-town newspaper would come across this and run it, for reals. By the way, I think that is baby Byrom making his cartoon debut as "Liberty Jr."

Congrats from Quaker Man

Olde Tyme Quaker Man and I would like to congratulate Cory and Kelly on the birth of their son, Simon. Have a peep at the lil' guy over at Kelly's blog, i like my typography bold. She's the artistic type, so you'll find plenty of uber-cute pictures of the baby there. He's getting more press than Suri Cruise!

Meanwhile, if you enjoy Olde Tyme Quaker Man like I do (and I really do), then take a minute to make your own Olde Tyme Quaker Man pictures. There's 1000's of things that you could have him say. Or, if you're a "Blogs of Note" hack, you can just peruse the 1000's of things that other people have had him say. Here's to not thinking of things ourselves!!

"Blogs of Note" is a Farce

I'm fed up.

I'm fed up with two-bit hack blogs getting placed on the "Blogs of Note" pedestal. Case in point: a sampler of things.

This charlatan makes a GD one frame "comic" about a group of anthropomorphic breakfast foods. PS - it's just as funny as it sounds.

There's Mr. Toast:



And his friend, Joe the Egg:



Oh, don't forget Shaky bacon!!



You can't make this stuff up people. Somewhere out there, Dan Goodsell is sitting behind his Macbook and publishing this stuff to the internet. God forbid he's making a living off it. Actually, I don't know which is worse: that he makes a living off being a hack web cartoonist, or that he does this in his free time. I think I'm going to stick with the former.

And before the pointed criticism starts coming, let me just acknowledge this now. Yes, I just used "anthropomorphic" in a recent post (ed: see Italian Spraypaint). No, I didn't just learn it and now I'm inserting it whenever I can to try to sound intelligent. It just happened to come up twice recently.

So thanks again, "Blogs of Note", for bringing only the best and brightest blogs to our attention.

Ahh... Venice

Here I am taking the ferry on a dismal day into Venice for the first time since I've been here. Most people rode down below, but I decided to brave the elements in the hope of getting a better view of the city as we approached. Oddly enough, there was a Korean couple up there who were kind enough to take my picture. Good thing I learned two words in Korean! "Hello" and "thank you" can take you a long way.

Once I landed in Venice, I embarked into the city. Not a block from the ferry stop, I crossed over a beautiful old bridge that spanned the "Grand Canal". It gave me the perfect vantage point to snap this obligatory Venice shot.



Another view from the bridge.



Not sure what that building is, but I caught it from the opposite angle when I was at St. Mark's Square. This was taken right at dusk, and I think it came out quite well. There were some noisy Germans with what was probably $5000 worth of camera equipment taking this same shot.



Here's a gloomy back canal off the beaten path. There was no one around when I took this picture and the city was silent as a tomb, even though it was a Sunday afternoon and there were 1000s of tourist not half a mile away. I wish I had some HDR action on this picture.



Finally, St. Mark's Church. This doesn't really capture the scale of the church or the square that it sits in. Massive. I was trying to get a close up of some of the detail that is on the front here. Inside is even more impressive, but alas, no photography allowed. You'll just have to take my word that it was one of the most impressive things I've seen. Every square inch of the interior was coated in gorgeous mosaics depicting saints, Christ, disciples, etc. The ceiling was mostly gold and the floor was marble. But all of it comprised of thousands (millions?) of tiny squares that made up these images. Truly humbling.

Watch Out, Hotdog Warrior!!

This is one tough hombre. Who would be crazy enough to take on the !HOLA! du rag man? Not I. But maybe if Hotdog Warrior set his wiener down for 5 minutes, he might stand a chance.

I see things going down like this: Hotdog Warrior is about to take a bite out of his favorite hotdog. !HOLA!-man approaches and calls out HDW. HDW ignores him, too preoccupied with the bite he's about to take. !HOLA! knocks hotdog out of HDW's hand and asks if he heard him the first time. HDW goes bezerker and tears out !HOLA!'s throat with his teeth. That's probably the only way that this Battle Royal can play out.

Italian Spraypaint

Last weekend, I drove out to Venice just because I could. I didn't really have a plan; only to drive east until I hit the city. Instead of taking the cold, industrial Autostrada, I took backroads and saw the countryside along the way. While passing through one town, I happened upon this huge mural of graffiti.



It was executed so beautifully, that I stopped to take a couple of pictures. There was a nice continuity to the whole wall; I'm guess the same guy or guys did the whole thing. Here's a couple of details from the wall. I call this first one, "Termite Termination" or "A funny thing happened to me on the way to the saw mill".



I'm not sure who's winning this battle. The treeman looks like he's about to go down for the count, but does Guy with an Axe have what it takes to finish the job?



I wouldn't have gone with an anthropomorphic "Fonzie Cat" depicted on what appears to be a postage stamp, but I think it works here.



The building that these were on was some sort of wood mill, but the way. That explains the "wood" theme that seems to be carried throughout the mural.

100th Post!

I didn't even realize it, but the "Hotdog Warrior" post below this one is our 100th POST! Can you believe it? Thanks for sticking it out with us for this long.

George Clinton's Latest Business Venture

Let the sounds of Parliament Funkadelic sooth your fussy baby to sleep.

Hotdog Warrior!

As promised, here is the valorous Hotdog Warrior!


This dude is on the display over the hogdogs in the shoppette here on post. The picture is a little faded; I suspect that he's been waiting to take a bite of that hotdog for many years now. But that hasn't faded the look of anticipation on his face, has it? Also, who holds their drink up so close to their face like that when they're about to take a bite? It's like this picture was taken inside a phonebooth.

Maybe... it was.

The Lowdown

I've been away for a while; running errands and getting things set-up around here in Italy. Things move at a different pace here, and there's no cut-and-dry method of taking care of anything. That being said, I finally bought and am the proud owner of an '87 Mini! Ain't she a beaut?



It's pretty much exactly like driving a go-cart, but with enough speed to get you along in the Italian traffic. I'm a big fan. I also finalized my other car purchase: the BMW wagon. It's much more practical, but still a good car.

I've spent the week here going through the orientation that the army has for new arrivals to Italy. It's been a great little education in about four days. We've took a couple small outings into Vicenza and our Italian instructor showed us some of the finer points of public transportation.

We made a stop at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. It's the world's oldest indoor theater, built around 1580. That's wicked old! Here's a picture from inside:



That's the stage. The buildings in the background are made in a forced perspective to give the appearance that the set extends back further than it actually does. There's also a system of mirrors and lenses that were used to give the appearance of dawn, day, and dusk with the candle-light that they once used to light the stage. Pretty incredible.

That's all I have time for now, but stay tuned for my next installment: the Hotdog Warrior!

What's with Italian radio stations?!

I've been listening to a lot of Italian radio here in the hopes that it will help with my study of the language. Kind of like when Bart went to France in "The Crepes of Wrath" episode. Unfortunately, I haven't had the same kind of luck as he did. I'm just now getting the pronouns and to be verbs figured out. But I guess Rome wasn't built in a day! Har-de-har-har!!

What I have noticed about Italian radio stations is the crazy mix of songs that they put on the air. The have their own mix of Italian language pop hits and Euro/US pop that they put together. It's seems pretty standard, really. What's been throwing me are two older songs that are getting a lot of airplay. As in several times a day, like standard rotation. They're both older songs, and english language songs too. One is Africa from Toto. I couldn't tell you the last time I thought about this song. Years, to say the least. By in Italy I hear it at least once a day. The other song is a little more obscure and I'll be honest when I say that I didn't immediately recognize it for what it was. It's We Don't Need Another Hero by Tina Turner from the Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack. Now I'm sure that I've heard this song, because I've seen MM:BT, but I would come up blank if that was the answer for Final Jeopardy.

It's been playing a lot, but I didn't get clued in until I started listening closely to the lyrics and heard her sing "All we want is life beyond the thunderdome". That's when I had one of those "wait a minute" moments. How many songs out there have "thunderdome" in the lyrics? It's got to be in the single digits. Not that there shouldn't be a lot more songs about the Thunderdome. It's one of our national treasures, after all.

In fact, I'll post any song that is written in the comments that contains the word Thunderdome. Get set - GO!

Another Car contender

Here's another contender to the car competition. It's an Alfa Romeo of unknown year and model! I just saw this today walking toward the rental car hut to try and procure a machina for this weekend.

By the way, you may or may not have noticed that I've started putting any Italian words that I use in the blog in Italics! w00t! I'm finally using Italics in the way that God intended them!

Anyway, this car looks beautiful. The body is in great condition and the paint looks like new. The cream color leather interior, from what I saw, follows suite. It has power windows, seats, locks, etc. Plus a sunroof!

Not sure what model, year, or miles on it. But it can't be more than 10 years old. Anyone out there know anything about Alfa Romeos? It's a V6 with turbo; so it'll get you on and off l' Autostrada without any problems. Seller originally asked 2700 Euro, but that was marked out and 2150 Euro was written in it's place. That's about $2700. Could probably walk away with it for $2300-2400 without too much of a fight, depending on how long he's been trying to sell.

I set up a test drive with him on Monday morning, so we'll see how it turns out.

Get Out of the City!

After finally cracking a way to transfer pictures off my camera and onto the internet, I am pleased to present to you a small offering of pictures from Vicenza.

There are only four right now, due to my time limit running out on the shared computers that I'm having to use right now. I was in the middle of uploading these when they guy running the room told me my time was up. I tried to stall a couple of minutes so that the rest of them could finish uploading, but people were waiting and I didn't want to be that guy.

These four shots are all from the roughly the same area. This is in the heart of Vicenza on a bridge that crosses over a canal through the city. The big plaza is about a block away and is the official centtro of the city.




Here's the right bank of the canal. I'm standing on the bridge over the water when I took this picture

Left bank of the same canal.

This is the reverse of the canal. I've turned 180 on the bridge and shot the other way.

This is a bell tower that jutes up from somewhere deep in town. There aren't really any tall building here, so these towers act as great reference points when you're wondering downtown.

I've got some more pictures from this Saturday morning that I was downtown, but I'll have to get them up today sometime. I can't wait for my computer to arrive so I can have dedicated access and not have to keep schleping over here to the library like a homeless man.

Mi Auto

Actually, only for those viewers who influence the car that I will buy. If it doesn't apply to you, then sorry.

Here's some of the cars that I've looked at/driven:

The Mercedes 300.

I drove this car this evening. I wasn't too impressed. The guy selling it was nice enough, and I didn't think he was trying to bullshit me about it. He's only asking $1200, but the car is an '89 and drives like it. Plus, it's a V8 and he said it can be a gas hog.

Verdict: C-

The Mini Cooper.



I like this car alot. It's got a lot of personality, and I think it looks swank for Italy. It is an older car. That being said, it doesn't have a lot of the extras that you are used to in a more modern car. However, for a daily driver to PT and office, it might do the trick. A testament to it's mechanical condition: I met the guy at the car today to take it for a drive. He said it's going to need a jump to start up because it's been sitting there since May and hasn't been started. Just for grins, he opened it up and tried to turn the key to see if the battery had any juice at all. Not only did all the lights come on, but with a little bit of effort it fired up on the second try! I'm not sure if any of my previous cars could do that!

Verdict: B+

The BMW 520i Touring


This car is a contender. Looks great inside and out. Haven't driven it yet, but we've owned an older BMW before and it still performed great. This is a 5 series, so it should be a higher caliber car to begin with. Guy is asking $4200, but I'm pretty sure I could get him down around $3500 if push came to shove. Seller has left the area and is selling through a friend by proxy. I think he's anxious to off-load the car, so a deal might be had.

Verdict: B- (due to not driving it yet; potential A)

So that's the run-down of the current car situation. I'll keep you posted on the winner of the competition.

My Town is Cooler Than Your Town

It just is, so let's accept it and move on.

This is kind of a wrap-up of the last 24-48 hours or so. It's probably going to be all over the place, so try and stay with me.

Drove around all Sunday afternoon in the countryside; getting lost, finding myself, lost again, back to Vicenza, repeat. The countryside here is amazing. It completely exceeds all expectations that I had for it. You know sometimes you enter into something with an idea in mind as too what it will be like? Then it happens and you think, "That wasn't anything that I thought it would be like." Well this is just the opposite. It's 20x better than I thought it would be. Of course, I've only been here nary a week, so I just might be in the "honeymoon" phase with Italy.

In my week here, I've noticed some things about Italians that I did not know. Specifically, some things about the way Italians dress that I did not know. For example, Italian women are crazy about cowboy boots. I should preface that with Italian designed cowboy boots. These aren't Justins or Tony Lamas; these are Italian fashion boots. But they basically look like girls' cowboy boots. They were them with dark hose and a skirt or shorts. Looks strange, but almost every other woman over here wears them. Another thing is the furry jacket hood for the men. Lots of guys have the super-furry hood on their coats. And typically the coat is a little short on them. It could not look more gay. But it's a hit here.

Another revelation came to me after I had some Italian pizza. I had the first one, and it was great. It was distinctly different from an American pizza, but it was very fresh and tasted great. The crust was thin and crispy, and the sauce was almost dry and chunky. Then I had another pizza at a different place. I expected it to be similar to the first, but maybe put together a little different. This one was very much like an American pizza; the crust was thicker, the sauce runny, it even had that layer of grease that you find on a New York style pizza. I was surprised at the departure from the other place that was just down the street. Surely, I thought, there was a regional norm to expect from your pizzeria. Apparently, there is not.

Mission: Inaccessible

Well, I'm in Vicenza, Italy for my first week. The order of business is pretty cut and dry when you arrive at a new place:

1. Check into hotel.

2. Look for a car.

3. Look for a house.

4. Move in.

5. Let boxes sit around your new house because by the time you finally get everything unpacked, you're going to have to move again.

That last one isn't really the case, but it feels like it sometimes.

Currently, I'm on steps 2 and 3. They're going slowly, but going never-the-less. There are a couple of cars here at Ederle that I'm eyeballing. One is a older Mercedes and the other is old style Mk III classic Mini. Both pretty cool and euro-trashy, which is what I'm going for.

As it happens, Jessica and Aidan aren't here with me. They had to wait in the US to get their Italian visas straightened out, so I'm here unaccompanio. As I have been looking at cars, I've been taking pictures so that I can email them back to Jessica so she can see them.

So I take my camera to the library to try and upload the pictures on Photobucket so she can see the cars that I'm checking out. But of course the public computers at the library won't connect to my camera since they're restricted because the Army is terrified that someone might look at a naked woman. But they do have a CD ROM. So off I go to the Photo mat.

The Photo place wants $7.00 to burn my pictures to a CD. Hells to the nah, sez I. Got to find a better way to do it. I'm scratching my head for a bit and I wonder into the electronics store. As I'm looking around and thinking, I see all the new, shiny computers set out for display on the floor. They're all up and running. And none of them have any accessibility restrictions.

I buy a small pack of blank CDs ($5) and leave the store to prepare. I take out one CD and attach the USB cable to my camera while placing it in my camera bag with just the end of the cable exposed. Then it's off to the store for Mission: Inaccessible. I sidle up to one of the new machines and stick my throbbing camera cable into the eager USB slot on the front of the computer. Jackpot. The computer recognizes my camera without a hitch, and within 5 minutes I've pulled off the pictures that I need and burned them to CD. I made it out without disturbing the crowd of kids that had gathered next to where I was to watch "Disney's The Shaggy Dog". Tim Allen, have you no shame?

Then it was off to the library where I was sure that my CD would let me access my pictures on the hopelessly crippled public computers. After waiting for a free computer to open up, I realize that all the computers have been replaces with new black Dell computers. "Shouldn't affect me," thought I. But no, it did. When they upgraded the computers, they must have configured Windows to be even more inaccessible. You can't even click on a My Computer icon. The CD drive wasn't even recognized. My mission... had failed.

Now my only recourse is to go out into the Italian economy and try to find an internet cafe or some such establishment to upload my pictures. Is this worth it? What's with the crippled computers? Are we so terrified that some kid is going to look at a boob? Or are we really worried that some terrorist is going to send messages to Al Queda at the Army library in Italy? Maybe I'm naive, but it just seems a little like overkill.

Let's Name a Blog

I'm officially in Italy.

After arriving on Halloween and recovering from my jet lag this week, I have officially arrived. Which brings me to the title of this entry: I have to change the name of "Fillet of Seoul".

Most likely, we'll just get another blog and redirect from this one with one final post. But I'm having a hard time coming up with some title for the new blog. After "Fillet of Seoul", I feel obliged to come up with a catchy name, or at least a crappy pun.

So I'll take all comers. Post a comment with your best title. The winner will see their name in lights.