Author Archives: d4vid

Donkey

Posted on January 16, 2017 by d4vid

Out past the Gold Sand River on the Apricot Mountain Road (aren’t Chinese street names poetic?) there is a little shop that sells cured donkey meat.  You can guess that first character on the lantern 驴 (lǘ) is “donkey” because … Continue reading →

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Jest II

Posted on January 15, 2017 by d4vid
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Jest

Posted on January 14, 2017 by d4vid

And but so it wasn’t entirely unselfconsciously that I took my second daily dose of bupropion1 just before I finished reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, with its ending less like an exit through the gift shop and more like finding oneself at … Continue reading →

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Glorious

Posted on January 3, 2017 by d4vid
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Street

Posted on January 1, 2017 by d4vid

On New Year’s Day, we all went to a (smallish) Banksy exhibition.  After sunset, we wandered the canals of Amsterdam and admired all the holiday art installations.

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Gunpowder III

Posted on December 31, 2016 by d4vid

From 6pm on New Year’s Eve to 2am on New Year’s Day, the Netherlands is like a warzone.  I had no idea. In the picture above, you can see a crowd on a bridge lighting fireworks, fireworks exploding over the … Continue reading →

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Dam

Posted on December 30, 2016 by d4vid

Christmas tree on the Dam in Amsterdam.  I came here without telling anyone to surprise my dear friends the Snows (who live here) and Eric & Jessica (my friends who were spending New Years with them.) I knocked on the Snows’ … Continue reading →

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Riflessione

Posted on December 30, 2016 by d4vid

Some final thoughts as I leave Rome. I was surprised by the number of drinking fountains all over the city.  (Shouldn’t have been, of course, considering its history of aqueducts.) I saw an enormous number of Romans walking dogs. Gelato is … Continue reading →

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Silk II

Posted on December 30, 2016 by d4vid

I found this a fitting reminder of how the Silk Road has tied Rome and China together for centuries.

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Tritone

Posted on December 29, 2016 by d4vid

  Bernini‘s Fontana del Tritone in front of the Bernini Hotel in the Piazza Barberini.

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Enoteca

Posted on December 29, 2016 by d4vid

I spent my last night in Rome at a wine bar listening to a couple of acoustic guitarists covering — and nailing — songs by bands like Wham! and the Eurhythmics.

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Suprema

Posted on December 29, 2016 by d4vid

This imposing structure right next to the Castel Sant’Angelo is the Supreme Court of Cassation, the highest court in Italy.

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Tramonto

Posted on December 29, 2016 by d4vid

Sunset over Rome as seen from high atop the Castel Sant’Angelo.   

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Archangeli

Posted on December 29, 2016 by d4vid

This statue — with metal angel’s wings — at the Castel Sant’Angelo looks proto-steampunk.

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Castellum

Posted on December 29, 2016 by d4vid

The cylindrical Mausoleum of Hadrian was built across the Tiber from the Campus Martius by the Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family (and should not be confused with Hadrian’s Crypt which was, as I’ve pointed out, for a totally different … Continue reading →

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