Essays & Media

Just got to our hotel, and it’s pouring outside, so we’re resting a bit. Today, we rode into Paris on the train from Eze, an enchanting village on the Riviera.

No question about it — it’s heavenly to be in this sunshine-filled area of rolling hills edged by the distant, not always visible Alps.

Federico picked us up in Turin and drove us through meandering hills and valleys down to the Piedmont region of Italy.

We leave this charming place at noon, so I’ve been sitting in the inside part of the courtyard sipping a variety of hot drinks and watching the rain fall on the lemon trees.

Turin is a beautiful city filled with gorgeous buildings, many museums, a grand and relatively newly built opera house, plenty of palaces and plazas (piazzi), and Cesare Lombroso’s horrifying early 20th-century collection of drawings, photographs, criminal evidence, prison handicrafts, and criminal sculls, some artistically-recreated with skin, features, and hair.

On our 3rd day in Italy, we hopped on a tram to see more of Milan, intending to stroll through the cultural district. We did a little of that but then entered the first museum we saw (The MUDEC) and spent the entire morning wandering through a beautifully curated exhibit on the art movement known as Surrealism.

We took the train from Milan’s central station and cabbed to an old hotel in the heart of Turin. It’s set in what was once a 19th-century home for young men and located on of Turin’s many charming piazzas.

We spent yesterday exploring Milan by foot, passing through the famous Galleria and the Piazza Duomo, enjoying an extravagant nine-course vegetarian, Michelin-starred lunch, and being swept into parades of thousands of Italians singing “Bella Ciao,” a 19th century, much-loved protest song.

We checked into our hotel in Milan late yesterday afternoon and started walking. The sidewalks are barely wide enough for two people, so we often had to pop into the street when someone came towards us, but the streets are narrow too. It was a little precarious, especially during their rush hour, but we were too busy ogling all the fashionably dressed Italians to worry about being hit by one of their little cars.

I’m astounded at the volume of continuous advertising on social media that suggests we all need much more help managing our lives.

During the year, I make one every Friday. During Passover, I make one nearly every day. Each platter has a minimum of three vegetables and can easily turn into a full meal. Leftovers can go in soups, stir-fries, or be mashed and covered in a tangy sauce.

The Lyric’s program claims that Proximity is a “collaborative complement of some of the most creative minds of our time — winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Awards, and Emmy Awards, as well as MacArthur “Geniue” Grant winner Yuval Sharon making his mainstage directorial debut.

I remember seeing Carmen (the opera) for the first time in about 1977 or 78, although I can’t recall who sang any of the roles. It was a production at the Indiana University School of Music, where I was studying piano, and I sang in the chorus. I recall waiting for the cigarette girl chorus cue to enter stage right, but last night when I saw the opera again for the 10th or 11th time, I couldn’t remember if I sang alto or soprano.

Alex welcomes the delightful G.P. Gottlieb, author and podcaster for a fun, free-ranging discussion about writing and being a writer, the role of food, the pandemic, the Chicago backdrop in her work, and so much more. Follow the show (free!) and listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Anchor, and wherever you get quality pods.

Let’s say you went to school with a girl whose resting expression was cranky and who thought herself superior to everyone else. If you feel compelled to turn that irritating show-off into a character in one of your books, my advice is to disguise her so that she’ll never know. You won’t even need to use a pen name

This story is also posted on Bouncin' and Behavin' Blogs at Medium.Com - https://medium.com/bouncin-and-behavin-blogs/how-to-make-a-character-unrecognizable-da1396e88e5f