Thursday, October 30, 2014

Goodbye Bologna, belatedly...

Yes, yes, I realize I left Bologna over a week ago. Sue me. Here are my final highlights and I will move on, I promise. I may even catch up to the present day, who knows?

Needs no caption. Obvi.

Favorite quotations in other languages. Happymaking. 
My people! 

Soul crushing = missing Chekhov in Italian by ONE WEEK. The humanity.
When in doubt, cured meats to the rescue. The guy who runs this place is the real deal.
But really, there's just simply no shortage of awesomeness in Bologna, ever. Just about everything I stumbled upon was endlessly entertaining. In some cases I am not sure the Bolognians realize how funny they are. In other cases they must. In all cases, my quality of life went up. Go Bologna.

Exhibit A: Charles Darwin, pictured in his rare flower-afro phase. Wait, what?
Exhibit B: The Bologna Phonebooth. The perfect pretend-you-are-in-a-70's-spy-movie opportunity.
Yeah, there's Mike again. Typical Mike. For those wishing to know more about my new good friend Mike: he is an Engineer/Comedian of Canadian origin. It is possible that he is a funny guy, but if you have fifteen minutes you can decide for yourself. But I digress…
Exhibit C: The actual awning of a restaurant. I can't.

Exhibit D: Moose hat!

Exhibit forget-about-it: I ALWAYS wear a sexy spoon-hawk with demitasse-earrings when swimming in a coffee-lake. Anyone else?

Baby Armani. That's a shearling lined aviator sleep sack on the right. Just sayin'.

In the hotel elevator. 

But for the ultimate combination of beautiful, awe-inspiring, historical, mildly creepy, and undeniably weird, I give you the Anatomical Theatre!


No, really. Absurdly intense woodwork inside, and smokin'-hot marble and paintwork outside. 1636, motherf%$!ers. Check it out:







So yeah, that's my best attempt to show a bit of the awesome that is Bologna.

Other bits of awesome that went unphotographed included: becoming a member of the CovoClub (hilarious), seeing Death from Above live for the first time (so rad), and staying at the Hotel Cavour (surprisingly swanky). 

The last morning before heading back to London I had fluffy-Italian-custard-pastry-of-win with a perfect cappuccino. Hell to the yes. 

So I guess it's goodbye for now, Bologna, but I will definitely be back.

Coming soon: Life in London town...


Sunday, October 26, 2014

Takin' it to the streets!

So yet another thing that I was not at all prepared for was the ridiculous amount of street art and graffiti all over Bologna. Some boldly on the main roads, some delicately inked on a busy corner where you might miss it, and some in the tiny alleys where you'll only find it if you're on a street art treasure hunt. 

Classic Bologna juxtaposition.


Oh yeah, a bit of background: the city of Bologna is a center of learning, a university town, and a real life hotbed of Communism. We saw an actual full-on block-the-streets Communist protest while we were there. Not gonna lie, it was pretty adorable. But yeah, the politics show up in the art, like ya do.







This bunny was all over everywhere: the Where's Waldo? of Bologna, if you will.

There he is again!









I still can't get over how many styles and influences are represented. 



Right?

Just when you thought you had a handle on the style? Nope!


Still Mike, with Owl-o-rama.


Pretty birds











I mean, come on. 
Then there is the roll-up and security door art. I get that it's not unique to Bologna, but its super concentrated, and when shops are open you can't even see it, so most of it is hidden for most of the day. So if you walk around in the early morning, for example, you get a wildly-colorful alternate-universe Bologna. Check it out:









This is in front of a bar called Sherlock Holmes. Obvi.






Political roll-up door art, anyone?
Really though. This stuff blows my mind. Like, I want posters of 75% of these.



Right?


I mean, wtf, Bologna. Leave some cool for the rest of us.














But my all time amongst the covert-Bologna-art movement has to be this mural:


Yeah, it does not wish to fit in a frame. It is detailed and huge.
It's on an alley, very small, nothing on it to do, significantly obscured by trees, and flipping stunning. My lame iPhotography cannot do justice to it. Get thee to Bologna and check it out in person. Super cool.


I die. It has killed me. 
Oh, and a side note: Anandamayi and Aimée, have you been here yet? Some of this stuff begs to be referenced in a chalk art entry or summat. Just sayin'.

That be the art post, folks. Coming soon is Bologna wrap up, and adventures in Bristol!

And, on that note, an overdue postscript of sorts:

Some folks have mentioned that I can't possibly still be in Bologna. They are not wrong. I'm a little behind on the blogging, guys. But wait, you ask, isn't the whole point of blogging to enable folks to follow you in roughly real time? Yes, yes, right, I know, you're very smart. 

I'm on it, I swear. Back soon, y'all.