I like to edit again an old post of mine, which I wrote on November the 22, 2006…this fellow had a totally anti-routine life…it’s worth taking a look at his “biography” whic my friend Gino edited recently…
enjoy

Among the strange people I met, Max Maxwell is certainly the most unfathomable. I firstly met Max in Boracay Island, in 1990. Max comes from Bombay and belongs to the Parsee upper-class.
At that time he was a fit, middle aged man who enjoyed beach-tennis, wind surfing and excellent Italian food. He basically travelled between Boracay, Koh Lanta, Laddak and Hong Kong, making his earn out of fashionable batik-shirts, rattan-bags, Tibetan amulets and first rate (yet fake) Ray-Ban sunglasses. Max had an enormous ego, he was desperately scornful and selfish and, for some reason, he always surprised me. He had seen the World, that was the fact! When some harmless tourist, tried to approach him by asking silly questions such us “Have you been…?”, Max’s provocative answer simply was: “thanks for not talking to me!”. And that was all. As I said Max loved food and he was in the selected circle of acquaintances of my friend Gino.
Gino ran the cosiest restaurant in Boracay according to Max’s parameters and one day at Gino’s, for some unpredictable reason, Max allowed himself to talk to me! Max abhorred “stupid talks” but, after a good beer (he used to sip beer always by the same special glass that he-himself carried in a bag), Gino and I had the chance of glancing over his wonderful life…Finally Max decided to present Gino his photocopied biography. The document (his masterpiece) stated the man “born in Bombay during a devastating cyclone” and amazingly went on with Max ”making friends with Miles Davis, art-directing Vogue Magazine, etc…”I still have that rattan-bag he sold me and –still- I wear those fake pair of Ray-Ban and Gino and I still dispute about his reliability, his clever scorn and puzzling behaviour.
On December 8, 2006 I received a stunning report from Gino…

BREAKING NEWS:
MAX MAXWELL DIES IN GOA AFTER COMMITTING SUICIDE. HE LEFT A NOTE IN WICH HE SAYS :
“DON’T BE SORRY FOR ME. I’M THE ONE TO DECIDE MY TIME WAS OVER”

Illustration Friday ’s topic is: routine

I’m going to be off-line till mid august. I’ll be sailing on board the Nathel, heading east to beautiful Kornati Islands. and further south to Korcula…I guess I’m going to have plenty of canned food and this is a shame…actually, I can’t stand it that much since I love eating fresh fish, fruit and vegetables…Anyways this is not only what I’ll end up to do while on vacation!
Off course I’ll glad to catch up with you all as soon as I get back…
Have fun!

Illustration Friday’s topic is:canned

My Threadless submission is in the running and my design will be voted on by other Threadless users for 7 days…
I’m editing this post to help spread the word about and promote my own submissions.
Please click the two banners provided for viewing and scoring.
Thank you Threadless and everybody!!!

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 an old fashioned suit on. This unexpected travelling companion fascinated me immediately. Actually he looked like one of Conrad’s literary heroes, with a deep mystery of his own. I fancied about him, a man travelling on a shoestring at a time in his life when most of people have settled down for ever…I started to gaze at him apprehensively, somehow trying to send him a silent and gentle enquiry: “just talk to me”. On the contrary the old man looked at me fiercely for some everlasting seconds, then got up and- as quickly as he had entered-he got out and vanished…
I wonder if he had put me at the top of his danger list just for being so much like he was.

Illustration Friday’s topic is: fierce

Practically every diver has fantasized about discovering sunken treasure. Although there is more treasure still lost in the ocean than has been recovered, the average diver is unlikely to accidentally find it. The chances of stumbling upon underwater riches are minuscule, and the coast of intentionally seeking it out is high…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: hoard

I have been visiting once upon a time, the little natural reserve of “Ripa Bianca”, just a few kilometres from home, on May, the 25th. It is a very  little area, sponsored by Italian WWF , bordering the river: actually an ideal spot for bird watching.
And I was trilled by watching, just befor sunset, a magnificent couple of herons flying slow and steady: a mother heron with its baby.

Illustration Friday’s topic is: baby

Swimming in open sea is my favourite sport: yet it scares me a little. As soon as I jump into the water, some sort of split tongued spirit talks and says out of the vast sea: “maybe you should sink and die”. When the spirit talks louder my worries can’t be denied. But alas, I never gave up. On the contrary I keep my eyes wide open, looking for some potential danger…
The waters out of Boracay’s beach are always damn crowded by fast boats cruising at any time of the day. It is a real hassle, since local pilots seem to care absolutely nothing of swimmers, nor to understand how fragile a floating man is. It’s hard for me to forget the time when a fast paraw nearly broke me down…The reckless driver simply couldn’t see me, I guess because the dusk…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: worry

Lightnings are electrical discharges, giant sparks of electricity, from mature storms. Lightnings cause a lot of electric current to pass through water; wooden boats are not safe at all since the vast majority of lightning injuries and deaths occur on small boats with no cabin…
The short sea passage between Gili Trawangan and Gili Air found me on board a small local boat without a cabin. It is always crucial to listen to the weather on a small aquatic vessel: during that early afternoon at sea, the sky was threatening, thunderstorms were forecast and lightnings too…
When the first powerful strike came and the air filled with static electricity on a giant scale, the anxious boatman pumped up the engine, trying to get the boat fast, trying to get to land and find a safe building: actually it was raining and pouring! The storm went on for half an hour and our navigation turned out to be very uncomfortable…
When we got Gili Air’s sandy beach at last, everything was over: off course!

Illustration Friday’s topic is: elettricity

Buddhist teaching is clear and logical: that we can neither define, describe, nor usefully discuss the nature of that which is beyond the perception of our consciousness. According to the teaching the ideas of eternal self or eternity in nature may be described indirectly by analogy and symbols. Otherwise it must ever remain in its truest sense unknown and unexpressed, as being to us in our present state unknowable.The concept of maya play a major role in Buddhism. Maya is the belief that everything, which one sees in this world is illusion, a product of the individual’s own failed interpretation and self-delusion.Buddhism has always set itself against illusions: the illusion of permanence and the illusion that it is possible to live in the world and avoid the suffering. What if one follows this disillusionment to the end, allowing it to concern his beliefs on Buddhism itself?

Illustration Friday’s topic is: fail

 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 chance to meet Hugo Pratt in early 80’ in Venice, but never met his best known character (adventuring during the early 20th century), the laconic sea captain called Corto Maltese who realised he had no fate line on his palm and therefore carved his own with a razor, determining that his fate was his to choose!

Illustration Friday’s topic is: homage