Tuesday, November 11, 2008

People Watching

So much has happened here in 'talia since my last post. I have moved to a really sweet pad in the center of town with an italian and spanish chica. For three weekends in a row me and my friend Nicolo'. We went to the Ligurian coast where we slept on the beaches and went swimming in the warm beach water, and cinque terra where we drank a lot. My american friend Michael came along during that trip. Then the next week Nicolo' and I went to Siena and Perugia where we took part in student occupations of the university, went to hot springs, went to a national chocolate festival, you name it. Here is a video that i put together of these trips. Nicolo' did a lot of the filming, and most of it was him wasting film, but i salvaged some very creative shots that he did. For example AND DISCLAIMER towards the end of this film there will come up a part that says "The Matrix" and it is from the center of Siena where Nicolo' filmed random people for a half hour. I added some music to some of the more interesting sections and i like how it turned out, but i do not expect everyone to sit through it all:



The other video is from an italian news program who interviewed americans and italians and their responses to Obama winning the election. I have a short part in it, although they cut out everything i said. I believe what i said in english is "I am happy Obama won because we need many things changed in our country and he represents that change." At which point I went on the explain specifically the war, the economy, taxes, and overall changes for our world image. But they just leave all that out. I also uploaded it onto youtube because its way faster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qbWLTENSqk


Also here in italy there is a woman way up in the government named "Gelmini" who is responsible for cutting tons and tons and tons of money out of the italian education system, and implacing a single teacher to teach all classes of each topic. Its terrible and therefore there are huge protests across the country in the forms of teachers teaching in piazzas or students occupying different buildings, or mass protests (like the one i took part in which had over 40,000 people). I feel that it relates to me in that i care about the education of the future generations of this world, i care about people standing up for injustices, and i care to see if masses are able to make a change. Therefore on this day we marched through the streets blocking all traffic and buses and ultimately businesses, at one point the police attempted to cut us off and they beat a few students, but after they let us pass where we then went to the train station where we blocked all cars entering and leaving. It was here that there was a huge line of police and i had my trusty recorder (flute) with me so i walked up and down the lines of police playing them a tune in hops of tranquilizing the situation. And a bunch of people applauded and took my picture and one of them ended up in a page of La Repubblica which is italy's biggest newspaper. I tried to find it online, but the quality isnt great, in fact you really have to squint to see me. Dont worry i have an actual copy of it:

http://www.magazine.unibo.it/RassegnaStampa/JQ2/JQ2PI.pdf

8 comments:

Summer said...

holy crap james! looks like you're having quite the adventure over there! i love the videos, the music selection is always perfect and the end, with the random people, was rad...

Summer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
susyash said...

i wonder if there will be a day when i look at either of my brothers and DONT think, "how friggin cute is he??"

and, yes, i actually said it outloud to myself when i saw you on the news thing.

too friggin cute....

Sally Ashton said...

A fruit fly trembles at my wine glass.
A bride and groom kiss in the plaza;
souvenirs, sunhats, gelato and
a woman wearing sunglasses.
Some will listen only to what they want to hear
others will notice the fountain splash,
one child call to another,
the flap of pigeon wings. I will
watch, take a bite of walnut sourdough bread
and close the blog when the video finishes.
I can open it anytime and see Sienna
its pavement stones still warm.

susyash said...

why didnt i inherit my mother's beautiful creativity?

sally said...

James-answer me: is the music from the matrix portion Eric Satie? that's the guy on susannah's blog you tube animation piece...
ps. my word verification is "dying" I've never had a word before. what the what is that supposed to mean?!?

James said...

The music is actually "Clint Mansell" from the "Fountain" soundtrack. My word verification is "viganifer," (its close to vaginafer)which i am assuming is a remark on a girl named jennifer's vagina. So im not quite sure that one should focus too much on that. And so I do not think that you should analyze yours at all. But if you must the thing to remember is that we are all constantly dying, and at the same time constantly living, so let it just be a reminder that we are alive. Also only in perverse societies like the one in which we live is death taboo, and it could most easily be otherwise. Death perhaps is the most interesting and exciting part of life. But again, its just a damn computer so forget about it. By the way, nice poem.

Sister, you are just as creative as your mother, you need not worry about that. Once you finish your intensive graduate school i suggest that you experiment with that side of you, because i am positive that it exists.

Bonnie said...

Watched every minute of everything and loved it! So glad to know that you have landed centro storico and that life is clearly better than good! And who does student protest better than the Italians? OK, the French but you are giving them a run for their money! Think of us on Thanksgiving as you have something marvelously Bolognese while we have turkey. We will be thinking of you and sending love.