Xmas Dad

We had a large field behind our house when I was growing up . My father and his twin brother planted Christmas trees with the idea it might make them some extra holiday change. The idea was lucrative. They planted blue spruce and scotch pine and the process was that the people could arrive early in December, walk around the field and pick out a Christmas tree they liked. We had cotton strips of fabric (cut out of old bed sheets) and people could write their name on them with a felt marker provided by our establishment. When it came time to get their tree they would arrive and we would provide bow saws to cut down the tree and drag it to their car if they wanted the Norman Rockwell image. If they didn't, me or my brother would cut it down and drag it to their car and tie it down. It worked well. .my brother and I got some nice tips and dad, once he was into his cups would slip us some serious cash. We had one guy who (mistakenly, I think) told his kids that Santa brings the tree and decorations. This poor guy would come up and tag a tree in mid December and Christmas eve night , after his kids were in bed, he would be out there with a flashlight cutting down his tree. We would be inside eating Christmas eve dinner and watching his flashlight move around in our field.

My father has a litmus paper face, with that I mean the redder it got the closer to the eruption. this women came in one year and picked and cut the tree herself and dragged it out of the field. when she got it to my father the dialog proceeded like this.

Lady: "does this tree have bugs in it?"
My father: "No."
Lady: "are you sure they're no bugs in it?"
My Father: "yes."
Lady "How can you be sure?"
My Father: Well, its mid December and its 15 degrees, they're aren't any bugs.
Lady: yes, well the branches are a little bare in this area.
My father': did you look at it before you cut it?
Lady: I think it might have bugs.
My father:No it doesn't have bugs.
Litmus paper warning: reaction about to happen.
Lady:I don't like the bare area.
My father: Ok, lady I'm not selling you this tree.
Lady: well, let me pick out another.
My father: I'm not going to sell you any tree.
Lady: Well, I . .
My father: MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS AND GET THE FUCK OFF MY PROPERTY!

I was standing there behind them and watched the appalled lady grapple for her car and exit with haste.
My father took the cut tree and stormed past me. Now, I was about 15 years old. I knew the key to the litmus paper face.
The process dictated that nothing be said at that time, unless you wanted to subject yourself to collateral damage.
I didn't say anything.
That night at dinner we were all sitting around the table. My father had settled down and I ventured forth.
Now, my dad was a construction worker. I grew up with the "fuck" word. I learned it as an adjective,noun and verb
"the fucking fucker is fucked" so the following was accepted.

Me: soooo dad, "Merry Fucking Christmas and get the fuck off my property" ???
Dad: What?
Me:That's what you said to that lady, "Merry Fucking Christmas and get the fuck off my property."
Dad: "oooooh no I didn't say that."
Me: "I was standing right there and yea you did."
Dad: "Noooo, I didn't."

I looked around to my sister, brother and mother, they all gave me a look like they had no problem at all
with my story. It has become a Christmas mantra for our family. I begged my mother to print it on our Christmas
cards the next year with a picture of my father, but she refused . Come on mom, most of our friend would have got it.

Venetian Glass Blowers

Venice is world-renowned for their Blown glass craftsmanship. They had incredible examples of their talent. I was lucky enough to witness one of their artists in action. They seemed very weary of me and my camera and come to find out later they have had problems of people photographing technique and replicating the famous Venetian glass. There's only about 8 people in Venice that are skilled masters in this art.

Florence

Florence

Florence - Cops

Florence - leather

Naples

Naples

Naples

Naples Castel dell'Ovo (Egg Castle)

Naples Castel Nuovo

Capri - us

Capri

Capri

Capri - I want to live there

I will go back there.

Capri - what a beautiful island!

Capri was beautiful. Words escape me as they often do but this island was made for the eyes.

Pompeii three columns

Pompeii - Vesuvius

I wanted to post this shot because it has the two peaks of Mount Vesuvius. The crater is in between the two peaks. This means that if you drew a line following the outer edges of the two peaks and intersected it at the top , thats how big this mountain was before that fateful day.

Pompeii

The city of Pompeii with Vesuvius looming in the background.

Meet a Pompeii man

This guy woke up on August 24th 79AD in his home town. A beautiful town that overlooked the Mediterranean sea. he had thoughts about his life and his children and then a massive volcanic eruption occurred. Him and his town disappeared .

Pompeii - the dead of pompeii

The dead of Pompeii. From what the tour guides told us the people died from asphyxiation from the wave of volcanic heat. They were then covered with volcanic ash. The ash hardened and the body decomposed. While they were excavating Pompeii a bright guy was finding these body cavities and thought it might be a good idea to pour plaster into them and create a mold of the tragedy of that fateful moment.

Rome Statues

Some of the many statues in Vatican city

Rome - Vatican

This is the tomb of Pope Alexander VII, by Gianlorenzo Bernini. What I liked about this work was the skeletal arm of death holding an hourglass to the pope telling him that time was running out. I have worked with a deadline before but not like this.

Rome - Vatican

Ok, I have to make a confession. I am a sculpture nut. I love art in general , photography , paintings and all other avenues. But, when I stand in front of a statue I really feel it. So when I stood looking at Michelangelo's Pietà it was breathtaking.

Rome - Centurion

A centurion eating lunch. I never thought I would label a photo as such. There were many people dressed as early Romans. What they did was grab your camera and pose with you and charge you 5 Euro. I have to say that their costumes were very authentic.

Rome - The Colosseo

The Colosseum in Rome. What an incredible structure that was built by emperor Vespasian between 70 and 72 AD. It used to be covered in white marble. My question was how did it get in such disrepair? It's in the center of a thriving city. You would think they would have kept it in all it's splendor. I got my answer from the tour guide 'Georgio.' The Colosseum did well putting on shows of men fighting men, men fighting beasts, beasts fighting beasts, etc until around 500 AD when Romes economy went sour. Then the squatters moved in . They sold the white marble facade and turned it into a giant apartment building. An earthquake in 1349 caused the outer wall to collapse and the rest is history. I can only imagine it with the white marble and its silk roof . Please click picture for a better view. This was a panoramic shot that I used 5 separate photos to create.

This was our guide Georgio. He kind of had a 'Ben Stein' thing going on. He was really good actually. He taught art history in college until he retired.

Italy!

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Italy. We visited Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, Capri and Pompeii. It was a great trip. I took over 800 photographs . Please be patient while I post them.

Corporate Goddess

"How do I look?" asked my wife. "You look fine" I replied. I've been married 15 years and know this script well. There was a time, perhaps, when I was younger that I would go blank and yell off stage "line?!" She stood before me in a pinstripe pantsuit and white blouse with just enough jewelery to complete the ensemble. We live in France on a two year assignment with our corporation. My wife is a manager with a critical job that carries with it much stress and exposure.
Meanwhile, I am buried in the trenches of an engineering department and use the endless swaying branches of technical data as my cover. I occasionally push the data aside an peek out across the corporate battlefield and watch people like my wife running around giving orders and examining plans of intended battles. I prefer the trenches.
"You always look fine." I reaffirmed. She looked down and examined her attire. "I can't dress like the French everyday, I have an important meeting today" she looked up at me and added "do you know what I mean?" I thought for a moment. ."yes, . .while your coming across the table in the conference room at sixty miles per hour, explaining why the process that was just pitched to you is a product of morons, you want your victims to see pinstripes and not chiffon." She gave me a digesting stare. . . . .
"Yes, right."

Street Festival - Palavas Les Flots

We had some free time so we took a drive to a neighboring town of Palavas Les Flots. As luck would have it we stumbled onto a street festival.

This is George Jettsons house, its right down the road from Spacely Spockets. . . just kidding.

Happenings around town

This is a concert scheduled in October. The signs are hung everywhere. The mustache and the maniacal eyes give him a Salvidor Dali look.













And, again with the creepy-ass clowns.

The day of the bulls in my village.

Today they were running the bulls in my village. I'm not sure what the objective was but I think it was to move the bulls from one end of town to other while generally irritating the bull. There was some stunning horsemanship displayed however.
Some glossary : ABRIVADO is taking to bulls to the arena.
BANDIDO is taking the bulls from the arena (back to pasture.)
ENCIERRO is the time in the arena trying to catch the bulls.

And, yes the bulls live to fight another day.

If you look carefully these kids have a hand full of bull. I would be a bit worried that at one point the bull would say to himself "ya-know what? I don't have to take this."

I was about 6 years old and I yanked a cats tail and received a nasty scratch because of it. Lesson learned: Mammals with tails don't like having them yanked by mammals without tails.

That rule has worked well for me.

The horsemen formed a u-shaped formation around the bull. It reminded me of the president and the secret service. They had long sticks with forked prods on the end to steer the bull. I don't think the secret service uses these. . . .although, they were affective. Maybe they should consider it.