…whose ceiling is laden with the most sumptuous depictions of all variety of fruit and vegetable was painted by Raphael at Villa Farnesina (1510), and was the highlight of a day that began with the third in a series of talks by Leonard Barkan at the American Academy in Rome on “Food Culture and High ..

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…Fountain is what we attempted to see pre-tourist-mob this morning (first stop on today’s familial Roman highlights tour), at an early enough hour that we might have it to ourselves, which was almost the case by the time we finally made it there – and having just finished reading Grant Heiken, Renato Funiciello, and Donatella ..

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…(fireworks) light up Rome over Piazza del Popolo viewed from my window tonight, closing Carnevale. A chiusura dell’edizione 2011 del Carnevale Romano, dalla terrazza del Pincio, un grande spettacolo di fuochi d’artificio a cura del Gruppo IX Invicta, ispirato alle sorprendenti scenografie pirotecniche dell’architetto Giovanni Pao..

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…is something I started messing around with a few months ago (featuring a miniature landscape of tufa rocks and scavenged blocks covered with pieces of moss varieties gathered on daily walks) on the part of the roof where water stands after rains or plant-watering and in today’s morning light it is looking picturesque out my studio ..

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…are what surround me now and, graphically speaking, are what give me the most visual and conceptual pleasure these days (maybe because I am a hyper-organized planning-freak who enjoys nothing more than the feeling that I am figuring out my life by figuring out my calendar and plotting my moves on a map), with one ..

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…is the 95 year old newcomer/up-and-coming actress who plays Gianni Di Gregorio’s mother in his new film ‘Gianni e Le Donne‘ (a follow up to his 2008 low budget hit ‘My Mid-August Lunch‘, or ‘Pranzo di Ferroagosto‘ in which she also plays his mother) which we just saw this weekend at the cute Testaccio theater ..

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…the center for activities promoting another economy (organic farming, fair trade, renewable energy, reuse and recycling, responsible tourism, ethical finance, open communication plus a ‘bio’ caffe’ and store) housed in Testaccio‘s ex-mattatoio (old slaughterhouse) is the place in Rome where I feel most at home these days and the Sunday market has become a highlight ..

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…tonight’s live, recorded, and simultaneously projected three hour performance in Vatican City by Christian Jankowski at Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Saxia (the city’s oldest hospital, dating back to 727 and first reconstructed in 1204) had a Catholic American Idol Broadway Chorus Line Biblical soap opera vibe – with a series of svelt swarthy actors ..

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…the 1996 book by Joan Retallack (subtitled ‘Cage Muses on Words * Art * Music‘) features fantastic reflections on, interviews with, and poetry by this humane, earthy, soulful, rigorous, funny, free-spirited, creative colossus of the 20th century who has always seemed like one of the critical figures for me to get my head around, but ..

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…the latest freely distributed print project by The Llano Del Rio (masterminded by Robby Herbst) describes, charts and maps (see the print side here) a certain special Los Angeles flavor of recently initiated radical cultural activity on the streets of the city (which makes me miss the place so much this year) and I think ..

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…from the Roman Rooftop Homestead is very good indeed, with the happy plants beginning to climb up the pea-stake branches that were just installed for them, and today I notice the first peapods hiding in the bright green foliage, and then, as often happens when first discovering something, you begin to realize it is e..

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