Category Archives: Random memories
Confessions of a graphomaniac.
Doctor, dear doctor, help me for I’m a graphomaniac. Yes doctor, I love paper. I adore the smell of the thing, the muffled noise of a pencil running on a smooth sheet. In a nutshell, doctor, I love writing. I … Continue reading
Posted in Odd ones out, Random memories
Tagged Asia, Beirut, Central Asia, Drawing, Graphomania, Graphomaniac, Italia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mapping, Maps, Memories, Middle East, Mitsubishi, Moleskine, Norris, Note, Pamir, Pen, Sri Lanka, Staedler, Travel, Travel literature, Travelling, Writing
26 Comments
In memory of Mr Voghera.
We’d parked our car in corso Matteotti. Under a fastidious rain we walked, rather aimlessly, towards via Roma. My feeling of despondency, due to the realisation that I’d started forgetting the streets of a city I’d lived in for five … Continue reading
Posted in Italy, Piemonte, Random memories
Tagged Armistice, Auschwitz, Benito Mussolini, Bolzano, corso Matteotti, Day of Memory, Deportation, Fascism, Ferruccio Voghera, Final solution, Fossoli, Gino Voghera, Gunter Demnig, Holocaust, Italian Jews, Italy, Jews, Memory, Nazism, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Racial Laws in Italy, Racism, San Sabba, Shoah, Stolperstein, Torino, Trieste, Turin, WWII
25 Comments
Song(s) for the Road 6 – An African New Year’s Day
I’m not one for resolutions, for they don’t work, but I do have a couple of traditions for New Year’s Day. One, shared with a longtime friend, is to check what day is Easter on the calendar, and then to … Continue reading
Posted in Music review, Odd ones out, Random memories
Tagged Addis, Addis Ababa, Addis Abeba, Africa, African music, Afrique, Afrobeat, Algeria, Black Company, Bombino, Elwan, Ethio-Jazz, Ethiopia, Ethiopian, Farka Touré, Fatoumata Diawara, Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti, Foli, Funk, Guinée, Guinea, Imarhan, Jazz, KEXP, Lagos, London, Mali, Malinke, Mulatu Astatke, Music, music review, Musique de l'Afrique, New York, Nigeria, No Accommodation for Lagos, Ofo, Rokia Traore, Songhoy Blues, Tamikrest, Ténéré Tàqqàl, Teneré, Tinariwen, Tony Allen, Womad, Youtube
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Fireworks, mountains and sleeping elephants. Wrapping up 2017, in pictures.
The last trip of the year has just ended; the rucksack’s been duly unpacked and its contents unceremoniously thrown into the washing-up pile, hoping for some merciful hands to put them into the washing machine without the whites turning pink … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Central Asia, China, Europe, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, London, Overlooked locations, Piemonte, Random memories, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, UK
Tagged 2017, 2017 Fireworks, 2017 in photos, 2017 London Fireworks Photos, Alps, Aqespe, Aral, Aral Sea, Aralsk, Asia, Asian elephant, Bactrian camels, Camel, Central Asia, Colombo Fort, Disappearance of Aral sea, Elephant, Fireworks Pictures, Italia, Italy, Jin Mao Tower, Jing Mao tower, Kyrgyzstan, Land Cruiser, London, London Mayor, Mountains, Murghab, National park, New Year's Eve Fireworks, North Aral Sea, NYE, NYE Fireworks, Pamir, Pamir Gap, Pamir Highway, Shanghai, Shanghai Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center, Sleeping elephant, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan railways, Tajikistan, Train, Train travel, Udawalawe
20 Comments
The years of commuting dangerously. Excerpts of life in Transport for London’s hands.
Like everyone else, I use social media to share utter gibberish (think penguins slapping each other, Russian drivers’ antics, Economist articles) and moan. My social media of choice is Facebook and the primary objective of my tirades, the exclusive subjective … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, London, Odd ones out, Public Transportation, Random memories, UK
Tagged Britain, Commuting, Disruption, Facebook, Piccadilly Line, Signal Failure, Strike, TfL, Transport for London, Tube, UK
14 Comments
Song(s) for the Road 5 – Waylaid by the War on Drugs
It was meant to be a busy afternoon. I’ve spent the day delivering a course, the first time in my life being a trainer rather than a trainee (if only my mother could’ve seen me!) and I’ve returned to 60 … Continue reading
Posted in Music review, Odd ones out, Random memories
Tagged Music, Music for the road, music review, Odd ones out, The War on Drugs
2 Comments
Before I move on: fragments of Kyoto.
New Year’s Eve, at the office, is a quiet one. For a starter, only half of the people who usually crowd the open space actually bothers to turn up, giving the place a library-like atmosphere which, personally, I like a … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Japan, Odd ones out, Random memories
Tagged Asia, Autumn, Buddha, Chion, Fall, Japan, Kyoto, Maple leaf, Nanzen, Nanzen-ji Temple, Pagoda, Pavilion, Shintō, Shoren, Tenryu
4 Comments
Four years and two days.
I nearly missed, I must confess. Had it not been for the urge of seeing Shut Up and Play the Hits that, at regular intervals, comes to haunt me I’d have probably missed it altogether (and you’d have escaped this post, possibly). … Continue reading
How The Other Half Lives – Jacob Riis and the birth of street photography
When I started taking photos (I don’t call myself a ‘photographer’ and I don’t ‘do photography’, those words infer a degree of technical prowess that I don’t master) my only source of inspiration was the occasional copy of the National Geographic … Continue reading
Posted in Americas, Random memories
Tagged Denmark, Five Points, Flash, Hell's Kitchen, Jacob Riis, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York, NYC, Photography, Squalor, Street photography, Theodore Roosevelt, United States, USA
2 Comments
Memories of a place I’m missing
Surfing through the Internet a little ago, I found out that a gigantic (well, at least for Italian standards) skyscraper has mushroomed out of a disused industrial area in Torino, Italy. The area, known as ex Fiat Avio (Fiat Avio, an aerospace … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Italy, Piemonte, Random memories
Tagged 2006 Winter Olympics, Decay, Italia, Italy, Lingotto, Millefonti, Renzo Piano, Santa Rita, Torino, Turin
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