art lover, reader of books, capturer of light, manipulator of pixels, teller of stories.
I arrived at Montipulciano in Tuscany today and will write a more fulsome review later. For now, here is an image or two from early this morning in Rome before I left.
Rome is the most beautiful noisy cacophony of cigarette smoke and petrol fumes that I have ever experienced. It is an amazing place!
I am tired. Dog tired after 12 hours of flight and layovers. The Zurich layover was almost non-existent since I literally got off one plane then walked to another terminal where the plane was waiting for me and one other person.
I took a few pictures from the plane over Switzerland and then Tuscany but tough to take photos from a plane.
Just as we were about to land at Fiumicino I could have sworn that I saw the dome of St.Peters!
I found the train quite fast by following the yellow train signs. I bought my ticket (stamped it on the left side of the machine) at the kiosk and off to Rome I went.
I immediately went to the 2nd floor to the TIM store at the train station. The guy at the store was very helpful! I was up and running in minutes. I went to er Burchetto and inhaled a pork sandwich. I was really tired since I don’t sleep much on the plane but Here are a few images from today
It is 5:38am and today is day 0 of my Italian adventure. I am fully packed, well, re-packed since I have abandoned my recently purchased Thule bag in favour of my tried and true Osprey 33 liter backpack that has served me quite well in the past, especially for the series of 10-15k hikes in Tuscany that I have planned this week in the Val D’Orcia.
My friends DK and KL are driving me to the airport this afternoon and my flight is 4 to Montreal, 6 this evening to Zurich, then onto Rome arriving, Rome time, at 9 in the morning, giving me a full first day to wander and survey the hills of Rome before heading out to Tuscan hills the morning after.
Thanks to LL for her hotel tip as well as all of the information on TIM cards. I should be fully connected throughout my trip and allow me to post photos daily. Bracelets and photos of Medici on horseback, check!
And a special thanks to SM for taking care of my plants.
My next update will be from the Eternal City!
I needed to upgrade my iPhone 4s and decided to get the iPhone 6. I think this hardware upgrade is significant. I was really impressed with the camera feature and the sweet slo-mo 240fps video. I grabbed some test videos but was peeved that the m4v files created by my iPhone were unavailable to upload using the WordPress app. I would love to have the ability to take a video, upload to my server, link it to my mobile wordpress app for internet consumption.
Since there was no free app to do it I decided to see what sort of a work around I could come up with.
I downloaded iTransfer (free) to upload the video from my phone to my server (idonthaveacoolname.com) and then ftp them (free) to the remote server into their secured video location for access. Once I had them on my server I found that I could simply link them to the html page. The problem then was the player, a few tweaks to the server has led me to these series of experiments. I activated a few plugins on my server that should allow for both audio and video to be rendered by the server, not using a flash container that is inaccessible on my iOS devices.
First a link to a .mov file that I expect to render in its own player using HTML 5. This means all newer browers would use HTML5 while mobile devices would consume an mp4 stream. There should be player controls.
This .mov was uploaded from my iPad (an older Paris one with Lana del Rey :). I needed to work from my iPad first since typing html code into an iPhone is tortuous. I do not have any m4v on my iPad but I will start here.
success. so uploading from my ipad worked.
The next experiment will be to link a movie from my server, the ones that I uploaded from my iPhone earlier.
success. next I need to use an m4v meaning that I have to switch to my phone and write code using that mini screen. ugh. the pains of scientific curiosity 😉
But this doesn’t work????? 8mg limit? What the?
Fountain.mov
nope 🙁
hmmm….
The vote was to remain part of the UK. 56/44, or something like that. A very large turnout as well. This article uses the historical analogy of Ireland in 1914 and their aspiration for independence with the rise of Scottish independence that culminated with this vote. It wisely speaks to the deep connections between Scotland and England within the last three centuries of Constitutional accord but highlights a cultural divide akin to Ireland a century ago.
As a Canadian I didn’t see the Scottish referendum itself as all that analogous to the Quebec one two decades ago: there are better analogies, Ireland in 1914 is probably the most historically useful as the author employs. But there are other similarites.
What did strike me was the immediate reaction of the British PM to recognize that certain economic polices were a casus belli of this independence movement and these sentiments were felt elsewhere as well. Brown noted that these economic polices were misaligned with the cultural sentiments of a large segment of the citizenry. What the constitutional changes will be (if any) are yet unknown but I think that one of the reasons why Canada is so divided today is that this issue was never addressed by the government of the time here or since. I think that most people were just happy that Quebec remained part of Canada. I know I was. And because it wasn’t addressed, it simmers to this day. Much like the treatment of aboriginal people in Canada. The land is still haunted.
The author notes that one reason Scots were unhappy with the Union was attitudes towards compassion and social welfare. I note this same difference between French and English Canada and many other communities in Canada. In this analogy, the communitarian ethos is stronger in Quebec culture as evidenced by public policy choices and that focusing simply on linguistic rights obscures the deeper identity and socio-cultural issues.
I think that this desire to negotiate may be the best lesson for Canadians to take from the Scottish referendum. Searching for a stronger and better way to achieve your goals, in this case a united Kingdom, in and of itself may reward all citizens.
Tomorrow the voting begins in Scotland. The vote seems split down the middle and the fear mongering has been ongoing, even a royal baby didn’t seem to help all that much. One piece of crucial information is oil and gas revenues that would accrue to an independent Scotland who, by all accounts, have linked the “yes” vote to a more social democratic society. The linked article outlines the enormity of this wealth. The desire is to use this wealth to fund investments in education and social welfare. Corporatist policies of austerity are at the centre of this demand for independence. I wish the Yes side well since this may be the only way to restore public control over community regulations. I think of this situation much as I think of a smaller scale issue of urban incorporation in Canada (rather than Quebec sovereignty since the parallel is less applicable ): as cities amalgamate the local neighbourhood character radically transforms and many, myself included, abhor this situation since it tends to lead to less community ethos and the rise of corporate control that monopolizes all decision making, squeezing out options such as co op housing and renewable communities. More strip malls, police, and condos are not my vision of where I want to live. A smaller, more agile socially responsible Scotland that is responsive to its population and not to corporate London is what the Yes side desires.
I had a wonderful drive to and from Orangeville/Mono over the last several days! An old friend from high school asked me to his wedding and off I went! The wedding was at the Bride’s parents farm complete with horses for a beautiful outdoor wedding. The super moon was out, the food and company were wonderful. It is nice to reconnect with old friends and laugh. Here are only a few that I took since I decided to leave the camera in the case for the most part. The nature shots were from the Mono Cliffs Provincial Park when I did a nice hike the morning of the wedding, B&W from the wedding, and the beautiful little Payton with her loving dad. We also went to a fantastic restaurant where I ate several courses and repeatedly declined to repeat any of our high school days. After Tosca and the wedding, tomorrow will be tough to focus on work!
My friend KE and I went to the NAC last night to see the fantastic Tosca! I wanted to see it in Rome but I couldn’t make it work unless I re-ordered my flight. After a quick dinner at le Café both of us made our way to the mezzanine. The seats were awesome and while there was a minor hiccup with one of the characters dropping out at the last minute, the performances were spectacular! Michelle Capalbo was incredible as Tosca and David Pomeroy’s Cavaradossi was equally moving. Todd Thomas as Baron Scarpia rounded out this fantastic cast! We left quite impressed! The set design was spectacular, especially Act III! The set of Castle Sant’Angelo with St.Peters in the background highlighted the religious tension that is at the heart of Puccini’s masterpiece. Bravo!
All of us expected a weekend of rain and while I didn’t kayak, I certainly took advantage of the fine weather and explored the garden in front of the cottage with my camera. Macros with the ever stellar Olympus 60mm and clouds with my Nikon 50mm.
A couple of interesting pieces on Ferguson. The first by Nat Silver, noted Quant, who analyzes where police live and work. Surprise, more and more police live outside of where they police.
The second is a piece that bubbled to the surface recently here in Ottawa as a judge decided not to impose mandatory fees on a plaintiff. This trend is quite troubling and, historically, a precursor to full fledged debtor prisons. This piece in Marginal Revolution doesn’t mince words.