Lovely morning run along the Arno river with Katie this morning, very humid- shorts and a t-shirt sufficed. El groupo moseyed to the meat cellar formerly known as Santa Croce Church- huge space you could have batting practice in there. I’m certain that back in the day, community service/punishment involved having to white wash the walls… what a chore that must’ve been. There was a ton of scaffolding and construction going on AND “Marshall” was tuning the pipe organ- “Wanna here the most annoying sound in the world?” Really hard to get into “art mode” today with all the sounds and distractions and the fact that the sun was shining outside while we were freezing our asses off inside. Mary Mary Quite Contrary is getting a little tiresome… gold, Gothic frames, frame her in all her glory, with the Bambino sporting a man-dress on her lap and looks like he just finished smoking a cigarette with his fingers nonchalantly giving a peace sign. Angels with rainbow wings kneel at her feet, like sorbet fairies craning their necks to check this kid out.
Leftover quiche, salami and crackers for lunch before our first Italian language class… a.k.a. flashback to Freshman year of high school where little if any English was spoken. “Sophia” asked us questions as we dumbfounded, stammer back non-words, butchering pronunciations. An hour and a half of blank stares later, we learned some simple conversation pieces such as “Oh my God I love your boots! Where can I get some?” and “What is the scientific rule of thumb concerning limestone decay?” You know, the basics. Walked around to some shops by myself after a cat nap and met up with some groupies at “The Sizzler…” salad, wings and beer tied us over before we got dance fever and went on a mission in the rain to find Club 21… over the river and through statue gardens to disco pumping we go. An hour of much confusion later, we realize it was around the corner from our hotel, waltz in while Harry Potter checks our coats and initiate Dance Off, Pants Off 2010 (can you believe that is a real show?). Tons of people got down to “Hits from the 90’s” such as Will Smith, and as groupies were dropping like flies, Jesine, Becca and I managed to turn it up with our Nigerian back-up dancers. Around 3:30 a.m. we were drenched in sweat, had no moves left and trudged back to the hotel. On the brief walk back, I looked down at my outfit and realized why no one wanted to dance with me: I was wearing sneakers, a shirt-dress and a baseball cap. I looked like a soccer mom picking her kids up from the disco. Shows how much my care for appearance has flown out the window… I wouldn’t dance with me either.
Pretty chill day here in Firenze- food nor art really struck my fancy, which is weird. And rare. More blue and gold pissed off Mary tomorrow!
I know! The whole Mary thing... "ancient and modern OCD alias Mary mesmerism denounced".
ReplyDeleteI was always fascinated by the difference between the Southern Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance in the depictions of Mary. In Holland, where I spent most of my time, She was a total drag; lace up to the nose and post mortem corsets explaining the off color of her face. In Italy and the south she was almost the temptress, shrouded in misty atmosphere and accented with bedroom eyes. It was like they were trying to seduce their parishioners into seductive worship. I laughed out loud one time when I walked into a church and saw her boob hanging out while baby Jesus grabbed at it with a look of either complete boredom or nonchalant ecstasy on his face. Too much Mary is actually an acronym now... TMM - haven’t you heard? It is the name for a venetian coffee too. That is coffee with tons of cream, alias cafe au lait. Leche de la Madre that is. ewww!!! I shall stop now. Hope no one else is reading this... or at least no one I know!