Contemplating Beans and Suchness

***Look at bottom of this post***

Today my Spanish roommate 'Ana' woke up at 6 AM to soak beans in preparation of her Fabada Asturiana. At three we began to drink and prepare the tables. We ate essentially beans in some amazing tomato stew like thing with some sort of Spanish ham, with some Chorizo and some pig's blood and onion sausage. 'Twas amazing


Amongst the guests was 'Sparky' who has so much sexual energy stored up that he will rip apart any object that is presented to him. Yet he licks you kindly if you offer him food, and he is very obedient as are most city dogs in Bologna who are beaten by their young masters. Here he is with Ana:



Here he is selecting the next song to play from my computer.


Franks and Beans!


And afterwards we attended a nice wine tasting event (yes another).

These days I am extremely lazy, not accomplishing things that I really desire to do. It is all adding up!!! Don't you hate that feeling? I have a half-finished film script, a half-finished short story, a half-finished wall painting, and TONS of essays which are still in idea stage...ugh!

But this gets me by, even though I shouldn't depend on such excuses:
"The truth is that we live out our lives putting off all that can be put off; perhaps we all know deep down that we are immortal and that sooner or later all men will do and know all things."
-Luis Borges

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Also, if you have read this far, please leave your opinion regarding this quote:
"I strongly suspect that most of the great knowers of Suchness paid very little attention to art...(To a person whose transfigured and transfiguring mind can see the All in every this, the first-rateness or tenth-rateness or even a religious painting will be a matter of the most sovereign indifference.) Art, I suppose, is only for beginners, or else for those resolute dead-enders, who have made up their minds to be content with the ersatz of Suchness, with symbols rather than with what they signify, with the elegantly composed recipe in lieu of actual dinner."
-Aldous Huxley

Does this mean that art plays no role 'at becoming one' with one's self, and if so, does Huxley suggest that those who desire 'knowing' should ditch art? Answer in the 'leave a comment.'

Dionysus on Easter Break

Since I was young, whenever I was in the passenger seat of a car I would vertically bar my arm up against the window and imagine that everything in view in front of my arm that passed by would then go into "my world"...

IF YOU BEGAN LOOKING AT THIS BLOG YOU MUST WATCH THE VIDEO TOO (NATASHA)



Train. Cheesy Poofs. 25 Cheesy Poofs. In one minute. In one mouth. And the wager of a free drink. Choking. Success!


Varese. Speaking Italian mixed with Portuguese. Tea time. English Lesson. Fiat 500L. Bar. Drinking. Pizza. Park frolic. Inspiration. Writing. Red Tulips.


Late to Bed. Early to Rise. Cliche Italian Behavior. Seemingly organized. Taking time. Relaxing. Collecting Passengers. Leaving 2 hours later than Scheduled. Denial of GPS. Maps Instead. Denial of Freeway. Small "scenic" roads instead. With no approval from the back seat 3. Front seats: 3 extra hours of fun driving and sight seeing with no recollection of destination. Back seats: 3 extra hours of just wanting to arrive at destination, headaches, stomach aches, 5 million curves, no space. Saudades. Allergies. Runny nose, itchy eyes. God damned Allergies.






Wine tasting. Wine. Wine. Wine. 10 Euros = Neck bag with Wine Glass. Free Wine all the Time. Excursions to the sea. Purple Tulips. Missing Friend. Also missing was any coherent memory of the rest of the night. Terrible biker-like Italian singer singing American Pop Hits. Terrible bearded Italian singer replacing most words of American Pop Hits with the word "Wine". Terrible pony-tailed Italian singer throwing red wine onto crowd. Poor Marta's wine stained clothes. Mornin'. Beach. Foccaccia breakfast. Wine. Little town. Couples. Kids. Kids. Couples. Cute puppy. Car. Singing. Parma. Alleriges. Quick tour. Home. Forro. Anticipation. Moments of Intensity. Stolen Boat. My 3rd Eye. Smiles. Bliss. Felicidade. Sleeeeeep. Ate ja.

Sleeping in a Big Bed in a Space Bubble by the Sea

So if you had not already realized, blogs are not my cup of tea. I am way behind on my holiday salutes, and i find it hard to document with a camera all the things that i am doing. So news: I will be going off to Carrara with my marble sculpting class to dig up marble in some old cave (the same of Michelangelo) and bring it back here and use it! Also I am taking a small part in another film festival, this one is going to be in the main piazza on the second largest outdoor screen in the world, (second to korea or something...damn those koreans) with old old old films. The largest section is all of Frank Capra's work;the festival is called Cinema Ritrovato, or refound cinema. I am writing and relaxing as usual tho, omellete du fromage. Last night I was surprised into a lovely night of live Tango, and it was performed very particularly. That is, it wasn't the traditional one argentinian hunk dancing with sexy sandra in red n' heels, instead it was all themed around the idea of metropolis. To give you an idea, the curtain opens, a waiter brings chairs into his restaraunt and awaits guests, and all the interactions were interprited with tango. I felt so inspired. I will surely be the tango king.
Now please let me start off with Part 3 of holiday cheer (i look so sad in the opening frame):

And now here are some photos that I scrounged about for.

Here I am way back in November prior to the elections...i've got the first "M", perhaps for Mock this ridiculous group of possible tourists
"You will vote for Obama, or I will eat your soul"


Here is a photo of this little jewelry market, everything seems perfectly normal, right?

Wrong! Here the camera caught a little spirit man...see him in the middle towards the bottom?

Sailing Through

So I realize that I have been an absolute joke of a son/brother/bro/dude/whatever...but I promise that PART 3 of James' Christmas Greetings will soon be in arrival. As for now please allow me to entertain you all with various photos documenting my recent activities.

Right now two of my friends are visiting me: Aaron the American whom I know from UCSC, and Steven the Brit whom I met here in Bologna and who has returned multiple times to exploit my kind and generous nature. The past two days have been warm and clear and beautiful, so we headed up to the hills behind Bologna where my friend Ele lives. There she has a dog named Zuppa (soup in italian) who loves to fetch sticks, balls, and peices of brick...ah how lovely. The grass was green, the sky was delightfully chipper given it had just woken up from its winter hibernation, and we were drinking wine from a 5 liter bottle whom we dubbed Sandra, and one of the few examples of decent italian beer. Other fond memories were a 1 year-old blonde boy named Marco pointing to me and saying "papa," the lunatic bus driver who confided in us the local history of the area which involved germans throwing partisan babies into the air and opening fire...yes quite pleasant...

We took some corny group pictures using the timer on aaron's camera:
And then a few weeks ago I attended Carnivale in Venice, which is famous for its masked costumes. I however decided to morph into horse-man, and people constantly gawked at me because of this. Favorite memories were losing count of the bottles of wine we consumed, losing count on the amount of times we danced with random minstrels or even without music, 3 Portuguese princesses, crazy masks, tango lessons, turning around all corners and finding new adventures, and barely catching the last train that was too full so we had to sleep in the corridors.

Hawt Springs

Yo yo, I have been slacking off with pictures and films and other such content, so Ive asked friends to give me some photos of theirs. Here I am with Nicolò Jack and Doina at Terme di Petriolo. There were about 4 or 5 seperate pools off the side of the road, next to a river. It was cold, but so hot inside. And we drank wine.

Here Nicolò is spitting out fairies from his nose, he tends to do that when he immerses himself in hot water. I on the other hand am catching the fairies that escape and put them in a bottle. Then I would shake the bottle until the fairies were paste-like, and I continued to pour them over my head...apparantly it helps cure sneezes

We found swings and Jack thought it would be artsy of him to photograph us in B&W, and I think that the color of the sky would have been more visualy pleasing, but I just like swinging...

And here I just enjoy looking off into the unkown for the best location for putting a swing set and then comencing an enormous swing park!

I was just scratching under my nose...I swear.

Un altro foto di piccioni...

Oof, the overwhelming scent of sulfer...

Here is a group of ancient romans whom we spotted across the riverbed, they were speaking about how to get rid of Hannibal and his elephants in the next Punic Wars. I didnt tell them that my ancestors are in fact Carthaginians.

One of the only color pictures to choose from, my god that sulfer smell just made me make the worst faces...

Wind or wind

So on my poll, the majority of you voted for quantity over quality in this blog, so even though i don't have much content i'll try to get more things and more often. I am continuing with my holiday greetings, even though the holidays are slipping away, and this video is just as embarrassing for me as the previous, and i hope that you all enjoy. Yes I did film a segment in my bathroom, as you will see, but only because my housemate came home just as i was about to film and she wanted to go to bed and the bathroom is the only place where i cant bother anyone and not freeze my ass off...so dont judge me.

The days pass and I find myself in the best of moods.




So Im waiting on a friend to send me some pictures of an event that I attended, but they have not arrived yet. So here is a picture of me enslaved by my Spanish housemate, you can see the pain in my face...just kidding, but i was F***ing tired. On the brighter side I can get my back and head rubbed whenever I want, even though its a bit less than par...




Heres a photo of the famous winter sun and jungle of italy! actually its a photo that Nicolo, the lad pictured here, recently gave me. It was taken in Thailand and i thought it was appropriate to put up because it was he who encouraged me mostly to come to bologna. If I had not of gone to thailand I probably wouldnt have met him nor come here...but i can go much futher back than that....(if i hadnt picked my nose during italian class freshman year i never would have...)



I do like the idea of polling, so ill put up another votable option again, and please participate!

Bologna è bianca!

Well I am realizing that some things in this blog will be somewhat embarrassing (for me) but I don't mind too much. SO, whats happening is that I had planned on creating a holiday blog that everyone could see before Christmas, but there was no way that was going to happen, since I was in Germany. And now another problem has arisen: my computer has only 2 GB of hard drive left so it is quite hard for me to create this blog in a timely fashion. My initial plan was to have just one long video with my seasons greetings, but for many reasons (1. You all seem to be voting for quantity, not quality 2. not enough space to edit it all at once 3. You all are impatient and demand that I post post post!) but I must now shorten it with what is on my computer at the moment, and I will send them off as they are edited. There's the scoop.

Anyhow I have started an internship at the Bologna Cineteca working on a film festival that will occur the 18th of Feburary. It will screen like 20 or so short films from upcoming directors from across Europe, as well as an homage to NYU's Tisch School of Filmmaking. I am in charge of translating the subtitles into Italian, translating the booklets and promotions into English, and organizing most of the NYU part. It's fun, but lots of work. School doesnt start until Feb or March, until then I will have two tests to study for, shouldn't be hard.

These days I am writing still, reading more, and trying to paint when I can get around to it. Much love, enjoy and have patience if you dont see yourself, there will be much more coming shortly.

Why don't I add some pictures too, since you all want more more more. (If i had a camera i could take interesting and creative pictures of things that i see, but since i dont have one the only pictures that i recieve from friends are just "people pictures"...)

So these pictures were given to me by Natasha, and this is one where Natasha climbed the Asinelli Tower but fell to her death...we shall miss you...


Here I am juggling in the park on a clear day....oh clear days. By the way, it snowed 4 cm the other day here, and the next day was hell because it rained and turned everything into slush. But it was beautiful for me to be walking in an urban street where everything is white and fresh looking, like it is in the forests. Makes things seem more real somehow, it brings some sense of nature into a place where natural things are a rarity.


"Was'a matter you?!" I like the colors. I look like a candle.


Here is Natasha, Lucas, and I at the park. We have pensive, sad, and happy here...



Here is a picture I took of myself looking glum, nose-deep in my personal hell of blog making for you ungrateful people! Kidding, but it was hard to use a computer in a language that has more consonants than vowels...