Daily News

I snap this fellow on the afternoon train heading into town.

Friday evening and we sit around the table eating hamburgers and re-capping the week highlighted by new schools. Madeleine's favourite class, so far, is drama while Eitan likes Latin and chemistry.  Sonnet with the British Film Institute (BFI) to arrange an Italian film festival to coincide with her exhibition La Moda set for 2014.

Eitan: "Look at all the things you have to look out for in Chemistry [Eitan reads from his chemistry book]: harmful or irritant, flammable, biological hazard (biohazard), radioactive, corrosive, toxic, explosive and oxidising.. . ."
Me: "Sounds like a good class."
Eitan: "Apparently the teacher is a bit crazy.  Once he tried to shoot something across the room and it hit the lamp and it crashed."
Me: "The lamp blew up?"
Eitan: "Yeah. It exploded."
Me: "Did he get expelled or something?"
Eitan: "Our chemistry teacher?"
Me: "Yeah."
Eitan: "No. He's still at our school.  Teaching."

We drive to football practise with Joe.
Me: "So what do you boys do on the school bus?"
Eitan: "I don't know. Sit there."
Me: "You don't do homework or something?"
Joe: "The older boys are on the top of the bus. Towards the back. With the girls"
Me: "Do you guys sit with any girls?"
Eitan:  "Dad!"
Joe: "No, we don't really sit near them."
Me: "Where do the nerds sit?"
Joe: "What's a nerd?"
Me: "If you have to ask, it's probably you."
Eitan: "Joe is not a nerd, Dad."
Me: "It's not like an insult or anything. They just sit by themselves... "
Eitan, Joe:
Me: ".. . trying to avoid the spit balls."

Paralympics 2012

Richard Whitehead of Team GB wins gold in the Men's 200-meter T42 Final on day 3 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games (Michael Steele/Getty Images).  The athletes magnificent.

The one time everybody together, like most days now it seems, 7AM for breakfast. I run at 6AM and note the sunrise, which means soon it will be dark at this hour. Madeleine (decidedly not a morning person) downstairs at 6:30AM and Eitan a few moments after. We sit around the kitchen as Sonnet prepares breakfast, frets over an upcoming dinner party, tidies up and makes sure homework and etc. in the right place. She prepares a list for au pair Aneta. Rusty scratches the conservatory door with urgency as two doves scope the backyard - once open, he bolts, yap! yap! yap! (Sonnet: "The neighbours!).

Packing

Madeleine's backpack filled with 16 books and is as heavy as a rock with which, she notes, "I have to walk up four flights of stairs."

Madeleine: "Do you know socks?"
Me: "Hmm?"
Madeleine: "They are like the least important part of the PE kit."
Me:
Madeleine: "And if you forget your socks you get a signature."
Me: "That is so harsh! What is a 'signature'?"
Madeleine: "I know! If you get three signatures you get detention."
Me: "Whoa. Good thing Alex isn't in your class."
Madeleine: "I know. Or Nathaniel.  And guess what - I have four accomodations already. Today I got one for helping the teacher get paper and pens."
Me: "That's great. And what does an 'accomodation' mean?"
Madeleine: "Five accomodations is a treat. Ten you see the head of the year. And 20, the head of the school."
Me: "I can see you are really going for it."
Madeleine: "Yeah."

Italians Are Mad

One more from Italy. Marco (purple shirt) crazy, just like everybody else I meet here. It is a wonderful spirit and how different from anywhere else. I could live in Italy no problemo.

Off To The Races

And another sprogue to middle-school. Eitan, up at dawn, readies himself, ties his tie and straightens his jacket.  His back-pack neatly arranged at the front door, pencils counted and necessary forms double-confirmed.  The only thing missing is a shiny red apple.  Sonnet has a wistful look in her eye - proud, yet knowing, in the way that all mothers do : a marathon no longer a marathon once the first steps taken.

Me: "Ready for school?"
Eitan: "Yeah, I guess so."
Me: "Nervous about anything?"
Eitan: "Nah, not really.  Mom how long until we have to go?"
Me: "What are you looking forward to?"
Eitan: "Football try-outs. Meeting the other kids in my form. Mom!"
Me: "I remember the first day of seventh grade.  It was hot and I walked by myself to King Jr High. We got out early and I mowed the lawn when I got home."
Ein: "Bye Dad."
Me: "I was exactly your age now.
Eitn. "See you tonight Dad."
Me:

Second Floor

Madeleine on the level-two of the No. 337 bus; she reads "The Great Brain".  Photo from Sonnet who accompanies her then catches the train from Clapham Junction to South Kensington.

Silver loved the upper deck of the modern red buses, where she would sit in the front row offering a forward sweeping view of the street below.  She and Stan toured London in this fashion.

Back To Work

Elm Grove in action against Middlesex champions Wembley in a "friendly" on the home pitch. Our side yet a bit creaky, despite a 3-nil victory, following six weeks of holiday (Eitan (and I) ran the 3 mile Park Run yesterday 2 minutes slower than April).  Getting back into shape never easy.

Sonnet takes the family berry picking while I prepare for a Sunday evening return to Paris. Beforehand I will plant some pansies.  Madeleine remains on a high from school and does some homework while noting: "French and Spanish this year, Dad, and maybe Latin next year". I can only marvel.  Labor Day weekend in the US hardly registers though of course I am excited for the college football season despite unranked Cal's opening day loss to WMC conference Nevada at home in the new-stadium opening; ESPN doesn't bother to post the score so I have to search the Internets.  My parents at the cabin.

Madeleine: "Mom, Eitan is licking the table."

Eitan: "Dad pull up your shorts. That is so embarrassing."
Me: "What, did they come down?"
Eitan: "Yes. What if there were people around?"
Me: "So what? Why is that so embarrasing - you see pants all the time."
Eitan: "Yeah, but they're not my dad's pants."
Me: "If that bothers you, then you have no idea how much embarrasment lies ahead."
Eitan: "What do you mean?"
Me: "Imagine, in the future, assuming you like girls, and you are on a date."
Eitan:
Me: "So, Eitan, why don't you introduce me to your little friend?"
Eitan: "That is, like, so never going to happen."

Twins

Mark (the white guy) a pal from Brown where he set the men's pole vault standard at 16' in '89, a record that held until 2003.

Mark and I shared a Manhattan tenement in Greenwich Village, 373 Sixth Ave, from '89-90 with two other college friends : What a dump but we had some wild parties. During that time  Mark lived in a walk-in closet because he was either i) at work or ii) at his girlfriend's.  Today, he is with hedge fund investor ABS and lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with wife and four daughters, each named with first-letter beginning 'm.'   Old friends are the best friends.

Madeleine panic-texts Sonnet from Emanuel: "Mom please help me. I have forgotten my PE kit" which sets into action a series of events culminating in our au pair, Aneta, driving to Clapham to deliver the goods.  Who can forget that feeling? It is a bit like Astorg, where I am today : everybody excited to be back from summer but anxious, too, for being away and anticipating the fall. Or homework missed or forgotten.

New School, Day 1

Madeleine readies herself for Emanuel School, which begins with orientation at 11:30AM and pick-up at 3:15PM.  Tomorrow, it starts for real : 8:15AM registration and six classes before lunch.  It seems like yesterday she was starting reception at Sheen Mount.

Moe notes that Emanuel's colours, blue and gold, the same as Cal.

Me: "I wish I could be a photographer."
Eitan: "Why don't you?"
Me: "Soldi . .."
Eitan: "You could still do it. Don't photographers make money?"
Me: "You have to be very very very good."
Madeleine: "You are Dad."
Me: "Madeleine I love you for that."

Middle School

Last days of freedom : Madeleine begins Emanuel tomorrow and Eitan at Hampton next week.  Sonnet furiously stitches name-tags in to the Shakespeares' uniforms, socks, pe gear, etcetc. Both kids seem pretty chill about the whole idea that everything about to change. Dun dun dun.

Me, I remember the weirdness of 7th grade, King Jr High, with its school-yellow exterior+white trim surrounded by dry crabgrass and concrete playing fields, bungalows and a quarter-mile track; inside - polished oak hallways, lockers and that smell unique to public education : fear. Navigating the dangerous, unfamiliar, corridors stressful and the grafitti-covered bathrooms a no-go but also: there were some angry kids : mostly black and unlike my black friends from Longfellow primary, who were my best, these were unruly and violent. My first week I got tossed against a wall, jeered, stripped of my back back and left for miserable.

Eventually I found a base of friends, mostly from the North Berkeley hills, whose professional parents believed in public education, and we huddle together with our Top-Siders, Vaurnet sunglasses and Donnay rackets; collectively, we were "the benchies", a name that stuck through high school.  That year I found swimming and that was all she wrote.

Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012

Photo from NASA

Parasols

Countryside

We spend the afternoon with Costantinos and Mirella, whose house in the countryside always filled with people, laughter and cheer (Says Mirella: "Better a noisy home than a lonely one"). This afternoon it is Costantinos parents, Mirella's work colleague Alesandro from Milan .. .another couple I don't quite place and, of course, the bambinos... a few cats and the five dogs, which Madeleine feeds under the table, and Penelope the pig (who Eitan names).  This also means amazing food - Costanatinos father a retired restaurant chef while Mirella - umma mia! - and, for Eitan and Madeleine, 5 kg of .. . Nutella.

Tuscany draws the attention but Abruzzo the same rolling countryside with similar white beaches (that still have fish).  A 30 minute drive takes one into the mountains. There is no Florence but far fewer tourists, too. Certainly no Chinese which the Italians now complain about.  Costantinos shows me a villa with 360 panoramic views of olive trees and sunflowers; he notes: "half the price".

Below, Abruzzo countryside:

Middle Age

This is what it looks like to turn 50 in Italy.

The Republicans, whose party argues global warming a farce, cut their Tampa convention one-day due to Tropical Storm Isaac (NASA reports that the Arctic ice caps summer surface area reached its lowest size ever in 2012).

Republicans want to entirely repeal Obama's heath insurance making health care available to 30m working poor; a constitutional amendment to ban any legal recognition of gay rights, including civil partnerships; a commitment to more Jewish settlements in the West bank . .. a war against Iran's nuclear facilities .. the return of torture as an instrument of war .. . assualt rifles on our streets, a ramping up of the Afghanistan war . .. immediate confrontation with China over trade and Russia over, well, everything.  The "Arab Spring" envisioned by George Bush seen as a radical threat to American interest .. and Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" defines the party's views towards women reproduction , ie, women.

No, the real amazement that Republicans own half of the United States. Each party so entrenched and filled with hatred for the other, there is no punishment for catering to the extremes. 

"I oppose the attempts of homosexual activists to treat homosexual activity as a civil right to be protected and promoted by the government."
--Todd Akin

Baywatch

I send Madeleine off to take some pictures from the beach seeing how the sun has set and the hazy glow near perfect for photos. She protests vehemently.  A chore : the lifeguard, and eventually I give her a hand as I watch our gal stalk the booth pretending to take shots of the sea etc.  I march up, point at my camera to get permissions, snap-snap, then a thumb's up and "California, dude" which gets a large toothy smile. All I have to do is say that word, "California", and we are all part of the club.

White Shades

Eitan buys himself some new sunglasses this morning at the local market which runs down the block outside our hotel.  They go with his pink Converse high-tops and I note: the kid is putting some style on.  Given he will be wearing the same monotonous wardrobe for seven years, I am down with this (Hampton school's colours BTW are black and gold; coat and tie).  Madeleine, for her part, purchases a magnet with a molded plastic platter containing a wine, prosciutto and melon dinner plate, hooks in the shape of garlic and a bunch of tomatoes, and a T-shit for Auntie-Katie.  Me, I get two pork sandwiches.

From there it is more gelato and the beach.

Madeleine: "Dad are you going to go on the paddle boat with us?"
Me: "No. .."
Eitan: "Come on, Dad. All your troubles will disappear."
Mom: "That's quite a proposition."
Madeleine: "Mine didn't.  Two years ago they multiplied because I cut my big toe on the propeller. And then I got sand in it."

Helter Skelter

Since the hotel stations in Italian we listen to music from on line : the kids fire off songs including Maroon 5, Rihanna and other such junk which I veto (Dad's computer).  We hit a good vain with the Beatles: "Here Comes The Sun", "The Long And Winding Road," "A Day In the Life" and "Lucy In The Sky Of Diamonds" which was banned by British radio in '67 for its reference to drugs (Lennon says: no).  Any case, The Beatles impact on people's lives cannot be under-stated : even now, doing a quick Internets search, I come across heartfelt letters thanking the band for saving their lives . . .

Sgt Peppers in my parents living room stack (of course) and one of the first albums I recall (also: "This Is The Dawning Of The Age of Aquarius" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" ).  That would have been around age seven or eight.. a good introduction to pop culture and its positive vibe , which must have influenced me then and so now. How remarkable that two of the greatest lyricists of all time , Lennon and McCartney, should be in the same band.

The Fab Four, pictured, in '68 or 69 , memorable for the My Lai massacre, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations and "Abbey Road" with quintessential songs "Helter Skelter" and "Come Together", when the band produced some of its best music , as if sensing their time together soon to end : A year later, "Let It Be" (my favourite ) would be their last. And what fashion ! Gone the good-natured outfits of Sgt Pepper's , replaced with four distinct fellows each having a unique style to showcase,  presumably, their increasingly disparate personalities.

This is the end
Of you and me
And everything I used to be
Back then it meant something
But you're living a lie, you just can't hide from me
--The Doors

Tonino

Tonino, born in Tortoreto and from Naples, spent his career at Pirelli on a boat laying cable. Tonino's boss, Captain Monti, met Stan in Alaska, in '65, when Stan a member of the Anchorage Junior Council.  Later, following Marcus's operation, Stan asked Monti for a place to stay in Italy "with the people" and Monti suggested Tortoreto, where Sonnet's family spent two summers and here we are now.

Tonino long retired and scoops up the bambinos in his fat arms, pinches Eitan's cheek several times and marvels at Madeleine's beauty.  He yells at his wife Delia on the top floor of the building, who leans over her balcony and yells back "Ciao! Ciao !"  Delia, learning that we share an interest in tomatoes, gives me thirty seeds held in newspaper  : her vines fill the backyard with giant red fruit. A precious gift indeed.

The Shakespeares roll with the attention. They have no choice, really.

Prick

The US Anti-Doping Agency will ban Lance Armstrong for life for using drugs to win the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005 - charges that Armstrong denies, noting he has not failed a drugs test. USADA said in June it had evidence, including information supplied by former teammates, that Armstrong had used banned substances.  This is the Madoff of sports frauds and yet another American. WTF? Next (my guess) will come the improprieties with Armstrong's foundation, Live Strong, which has raised ca. $430 million for cancer survivors.  Where have the heroes gone ?

Wally World

"Hell is other people" -- Jean-Paul Sartre

We head for the Aquapark along with every Italian in Tortoreto and maybe Abruzzo. My life has become an episode of The Simpsons.  On the plus side, it is ca. 40-degrees and the kids love splashing about and daring each other down the long slides, which drop six or seven stories. It ain't California.  

Still, the Italians are a sexy people :