San Francisco, September 28, 2012
I’ve just returned from a marvelous trip to Europe. I brought back many souvenirs, including a chest cold and a spirit ready for change. I’ve been resting up as much as possible since my return and as I do so the memories of what I visited have been ever present: cobblestoned streets, ripe tomatoes, delicious bread with olive oil, the Eiffel tower popping up everywhere in Paris, the swoosh of the Metro, the calm in Italian cities when everyone is at lunch, the effervescent Mediterranean sea sparkling off the Cinqueterre shores, the sounds of French women speaking to each other like a song, the sounds of Italians laughing and playing with each other in lifelong patterns of communication. Bakeries, butcher shops and the oh-so-delicious deli’s. Food plays such a big part in Mediterranean life.
I feel lucky to have maintained contact with cousins in Lucca, Italy and when we visited there I made sure to offer them a song or two which they appreciated mightily and one of my cousins, a trained tenor, returned the favor with a lovely, Italian accented rendition of “I Did it My Way.”
When in Paris I visited the Swan Bar’s open mike and sang three songs, including Autumn leaves half in French and half in English, The Nearness of You and Honeysuckle Rose. There was a fellow there who was able to make saxaphone sounds with his lips so I asked him to sit in on my performance. It was a lovely evening. I’m looking forward to a return trip to Paris and Italy within the year. I do not want to let another twenty years keep me from the places my spirit has always felt a deep kinship with. I’m looking forward to the unfolding of my art as I assimilate the experiences I had in these magnificent places this summer.
If you’d like to see some of my photographs from the trip, visit these hashtags on instagram: #silk_italy and #silk_paris.
