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Harry Morgan

Posted on September 4, 2011 @ 9:47 am by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,blog,books,fashion,flights,illustration,island,news,people,politics,travel,wordpress

I’ve not been yet in the U.S. These days however, a good reason to drive me there would be to visit Key West: I have just been re-reading Hemingways’s  “To have and Have not” and now I fancy a quick trip to this very tiny island, about 6 km long and 3 km wide. Key West City  international airport provides services and, as a matter of fact, there many available Florida Flights nowdays…On board his boat Hemingway’s hero Harry Morgan the smuggler, navigates between Key West and Cuba: a boat full of illegal spirits and Chinese clandestines. Hard and tough, Harry Morgan is the symbol of  every outcast “condemned” to make use of whatever risky trick in order  to survive a society split between who has and who has not. Generally speaking I don’t especially appreciate Hemingway’s narrative; yet  this short novel published in 1937 at the end of the Great Depression, inspired by that era, still conveys strong suggestions. In the present economic world trend, Morgan’s character  sounds so contemporary as his misadventure.

jam jars

Posted on July 24, 2011 @ 6:07 pm by massimo | Filed under: ancona,beach,books,cheap,croatia,food,holidays,illustration,island,mediterranean,news,politics,travel,wordpress

While reading an old guide book printed  by the former Yugoslavia Tourist Bureau in the mid ’70, I can’t avoid some personal memories.  My hometown Ancona lies on the Italian side of the Adriatic sea and, as a matter of fact, the Croatian coast has always been for us the very place heading for a short  holiday: a ship passage takes just a few hours. Everything was cheap in Yugoslavia, perhaps the most welcoming country among the ex-communist block. In 1984, as a moneyless youngster I went for the first time to Croatia, to Ugljan Island exactly. A very few money in the pockets means no comfortable hotels and restaurants. Cheap room renting was ok for me and some fasting too. Yet after a few days I really needed jam, sweet  and fresh blackberry jam. There was just a food shop. I went in and bought a jam jar. The label was peculiar, simply I couldn’t understand a single word but the expiring date and that stuff was expired since the previous year! So I asked politely the good-looking girl to have my jar changed; the good-looking girl looked at me smiling and politely said “yes sir, off course  consider that all the jars we have here are already expired ! “. I survived indeed the very expired Yugoslavian jam and I was able to happily go back many times more for new Croatia holidays.

books

Posted on June 15, 2011 @ 2:32 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,africa,blog,books,flights,island,kenya,lamu,news,people,wordpress

Sitting on the terrace of the house in front of mine there is a blonde middle-aged woman who reads. Every night, before leaving my book on the big bench made of gray wooden planks and slowly going  to bed downstairs, I rest a moment to look at her… In the clear air of the African night, swept by the breeze, this still figure intrigues me. I find out difficult to give myself a reading as deep as that of the woman, and I wonder about her book content, something which keeps her on that windy tiny terrace night after night: adventure? Philosophy? A romance of the crime? A travel book on Flights to Florida? Soon she too will lay her book on the floor and turn her face around for a while – I fancy, before I go down the steep stairs to my room. Actually she never did it…

Illustration Fridays topic is: swept

christmas at sea

Posted on December 31, 2009 @ 10:50 am by massimo | Filed under: blog,books,fear,illustration,music,news,sailing,travel,wordpress

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
The decks were like a slide, where a seamen scarce could stand;
The wind was a nor’wester, blowing squally off the sea;
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
But ’twas …

fierce

Posted on June 29, 2008 @ 4:10 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,books,illustration,indonesia,people,travel,wordpress

The train from Jakarta to Surabaya had slowly left in the late afternoon; sitting in my second class berth, I was contemplating the nearby thriving tropical landscape from one of the wagon’s window, when a fellow swiftly entered my compartment. He was an elderly tall man with …

homage

Posted on March 29, 2008 @ 7:16 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,books,fashion,fun,illustration,people,travel,wordpress

Venetian Hugo Pratt is my favourite comic book creator. Due to his rather mixed family ancestry and his nomadic life, Pratt had learned snippets of things like kabbalism and lots of history. Many of his stories are placed in real historical eras and deal with real events.
As a student I had the …

the Papalagi

Posted on January 5, 2008 @ 4:49 pm by massimo | Filed under: another green world,art,blog,books,fashion,fun,illustration,island,people,politics,travel,wordpress

In 1920 a South Sea Chief’s comments on Western Society, The Papalagi, which means, the White Men, were translated into German by Erich Scheurmann.
These speeches by Tuiavii of Tiavea were not delivered as yet, but the essence had been written down in the native language, out of which the first German translation was made. …

dream theory in malaysia

Posted on August 26, 2007 @ 4:02 pm by massimo | Filed under: another green world,blog,books,fear,illustration,music,news,people,wordpress

Disturbing visitors sometimes come with our dreams. We wake up then, asking ourselves their meaning . In Malaysia, Senoi have a theory of dreams, and dreams are important for those becoming “adepts” (healers). Ancient Senoi dream practices (dream sharing in morning groups and using …

sister moon

Posted on July 28, 2007 @ 2:26 pm by massimo | Filed under: art,blog,books,fashion,illustration,japan,news,ukiyo-e,wordpress

“both deluded beings
and buddahs gaze at
the same moon”
This is by Kaizan  (1769 -1846)   a Zen monk, a master of calligraphy and ink painting…
Illustration Friday‘s topic is: moon

Here are three good links on last week topic: Three ravens press ; Wolfgang Kolar ; …

the palm leaf alphabet

Posted on July 21, 2007 @ 5:11 pm by massimo | Filed under: another green world,art,blog,books,fun,illustration,indonesia,island,news,travel,wordpress

According to Hugo Ball, inventor of Dadaist phonetic poetry and co-founder of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, 1916, the ultimate meaning of a poem however resides in its meaninglessness, by allegedly choosing the word at random and because of their sound…
In Bali I was waiting for the night bus to Lombok, I …

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