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2011-12
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26.12.2012 I've just found a 'new' Venice film: Avenger of Venice (Il ponte dei sospiri). Brett Halsey went on to appear in everything from the Dukes of Hazzard to Godfather III, but in this obscure little number from 1964 he plays a Doge's son framed and arrested for a murder who escapes and sets about his revenge, of course. A review elsewhere mentions him tunnelling out, tunnelling underground always being an interesting activity in Venice, there being no ground to tunnel through. I've ordered a DVD from a shady online supplier, so expect a review soon. I've managed to track down a similar DVD of The Lost Moment, a somewhat loose adaptation of Henry James' The Aspern Papers. Mission to Venice (Agent spécial à Venise) is also from 1964 and is based on a James Hadley Chase novel, presumably See Venice and Die. This last one I'm having trouble getting hold of as the DVD supplier I found doesn't ship outside the US. It stars Sean Flynn, son of Errol and actress Lili Damita, who was the subject of paternity wrangles his whole life and died at the age of 30 in Cambodia whilst working as a photographer during the Vietnam war, missing presumed killed. He was also the subject of a Clash song, Sean Flynn, on their Combat Rock album. 22.12.2012 Further to the searchings mentioned below (and subsequent requestings) you can expect a bit of a reviews flurry in the coming weeks. I'm currently reading The Sign of the Weeping Virgin by Alana White which is set in the Florence of Lorenzo il Magnifico and centrally featuring the Vespucci family - it's shaping up well. Then through the letterbox this morning came The Eyes of Venice by Alessandro Barbero - a tastefully turned-out volume that has promise. Also promised is The Hoard of the Doges by Jennings Wright. And I've managed to get hold of a copy (with subtitles) of a film called Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova, veneziano, which came out in 1969, was never released in the UK or USA, and which features Wilfred Bramble, aka Albert Steptoe! Casanova is played by Leonard Whiting, Zeffirelli's Romeo. 17.12.2012 I'm not hopeful that 2013 will see scads of good new novels set in Venice. A quick search on Amazon reveals nothing next year, but a good number of new self-published novels for the Kindle with Venetian settings, which mostly appeared during last November. Nothing very original or tempting-looking, but if any of you out there know of any hidden gems lurking amongst them do let me know. I was tempted by one, but the blurb compared it to the work of Susan Dunant, which didn't inspire confidence. One is also entitled Casanova Phantasm Orgasm, I kid you not. But have no fear - this just gives me an excuse to whittle down the backlog of old stuff by my bed, including some earlier Edward Sklepowich novels donated a while back. |
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My CDs of 2012 |
My Books of 2012 Chad Harbach The Art of Fielding Andrew Miller Pure Richard Russo The Bridge of Sighs Hilary Mantel Bring up the Bodies Carlos Ruiz Zafón The Prisoner of Heaven Richard Ford Canada Linda Proud A Gift for the Magus Jonas Jonasson The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared Lawrence Norfolk John Saturnall's Feast Justin Cronin The Twelve A. M. Homes May We Be Forgiven
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19.11.2012
9.9.2012 |
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3.9.2012 And then, to cock a snook at my depressed evaluation of the Autumn's prospects for Venetian fiction in my last post, comes Venetia - a supernatural thriller set in Venice by Simon Barnes. Click on the title for more info and a read of the first chapter. The author seems to be an authentic and long-standing Venice fanatic so I look forward to a read free of topographic cock-ups and full of spook. Although his claims of Veniceophilia are somewhat dented by his saying he's only just discovered this website! Safely installed on the old Kindle, so expect a review soon. 11.8.2012 The summer lull continues with, as ever, September to look forward to for TV series starting, music releases hotting up, my Autumn trip, and hopefully some interesting books published. A quick 'Venice' search on Amazon UK doesn't exactly get the pulses racing in anticipation though. Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander features a heroine with a husband who's described as dashing and centuries-old puzzles to solve, but may be better than its blurb suggests, and The Venice Conspiracy by Sam Christer has such a generic title and cover I thought that I'd already read it. And due to be published in August 2013 there's Secrets from the Past, a new Barbara Taylor Bradford set in Venice and Libya and with a heroine called Serena Stone. So, let's keep our hopes high for the sudden non-Brunetti novel The Jewels of Paradise by Donna Leon, due out in October. Amongst the non-fiction there's a new history and another cookbook, but the undoubted highlight is World Film Locations: Venice, which has an introduction and contributions from...ME! 18.7.2012 I'm just back from a few fruitful and art-filled days in Paris, during which I didn't eat much fruit, but did go to interesting exhibitions and large galleries. I trip-blogged about it on this site's facebook page, but I've decided that I'm going to make the entries (and the similar postings I made when I went to Vienna in May) into trip pages here. I hesitated as the two cities, well, aren't Venice or Florence, but I think I need to rationalise my trip listings and menu-make, and why not add the other cities? It's not like I'm making anyone read them. Also putting the entries up daily on facebook first and then expanding and page-making later might turn out to be the way I go for all trips in future, as it means I can use my iPad and not have to lug a laptop on trips. I've made a Trips Menu to simplify matters. In bookier news, there's another Florence-set novel by Marco Vichi in the series featuring Inspector Bordelli out this week, and the last one only came out in January! It's called Death in Sardinia and I spotted it in Hatchard's today, although Amazon UK (and the publishers) maintain that it's not out until October. Mysterious. But there's a review copy coming, and so a review too, of course. 8.7.2012 An archive of Italian government newsreels has just gone up on YouTube. A search for Venice threw up very few, all about Venice Beach, California. Kicking myself I then put in Venezia and there's loads - most of them down to Mussolini's gaff's name. They are not very comprehensively described, so it's worth a poke around. Lots of footage of starlets in bikinis on the Lido during the film festival and Venice in the snow seems to have been an eternally popular subject. But there's a film of Bogart and Bacall in Venice, and also this wonderful old film of the Ospedale al Mare on the Lido in its heyday. |
 
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15.6.2012 A new collection of short stories called Venice Noir should be slipping through the old letterbox soon. Now for me noir means a sassy broad and some poor libido-lead sap that she embroils easily in some twisty murder plot, which weakness leads him to deep regret and/or death by the end of the film. I'm guessing a looser definition applies in Venice Noir. We'll see. I've also lashed out a princely £1.98 on a Kindle ebook called Faces in the Water by Tonya Macalino which promises post-apocalyptic action in the flooded ruins of Venice. Recent quakes and the tornado in Venice make this plot seem somewhat less far-fetched. 9.6.2012 For those who don't follow this site's facebook page, I just have to pass on this amazing news. It seems that on Thursday "the Commissioner for Public Works Alessandro Maggioni announced that the city will take action to remove graffiti from the Rialto Bridge, and 7 other locations." Well that's big of him! Is that not his job?! I always assumed that Venice's considerable graffiti problem was because someone wasn't doing their job. But can it be that actually it was, until now, no-one's job? Maybe I'd be less dumbstruck by this if I hadn't just spent a week in Vienna - possibly the cleanest and most graffiti-free city it's ever been my pleasure to want to live in. And which once had a Venice theme-park, in the Prater amusement park (see postcard above right). 27.5.2012 Having a bit of a Vivaldi thing. Reading Vivaldi's Muse, rediscovering the cello concertos and sonatas thanks to fine performances on CDs by Roel Dieltiens, and having a poke around to see if any of the planned films got made. Current info on the films is now incorporated into my Vivaldi page. Also getting odd juicy facts for my churches site from a guide book to Venice written in the 1910s it's interesting to note that despite having entries for the church of the Pieta and San Giovanni in Bragora it does not mention Vivaldi at all. |
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25.5.2012 Been back from Vienna a couple of days. The reports and photos turned out to be more flak towers and rusty cemetery lanterns than cakes and architecture; and we went to some unusual museums. We managed to avoid the Torture Museum and the Criminal Museum though, the latter good for detailed autopsy photos, evidently. Truly a most enjoyable trip, notable for my first taste of asparagus. And the poppy seed ice cream. And a wonderful Otto Wagner watch. 12.5.2012 Christobel and Donna duly read, enjoyed and reviewed. Vivaldi's Muse and The Spirit of Venice to follow in a couple of weeks, because thoughts and reading are currently devoted to Vienna, where we're off to this coming Wednesday. No trip blog this time, though, as after the furious writing-up of my trips to America and Florence I need a holiday this time! Maybe some cakes-and-architecture bulletins on the old Facebook page though. 2.5.2012 Recently through the letterbox have been the new Christobel Kent, called The Dead Season, and Vivaldi's Muse by Sarah Bruce Kelly. Expect reviews soonish. The new Donna Leon expect less soon, for the aforementioned reasons. I also spotted something called The Spirit of Venice: From Marco Polo to Casanova by Paul Strathern in Hatchards yesterday, and have requested a review copy. (Which arrived on the 3rd - nice one Cape.) The book looks to define the city through the lives of some famous residents. The author wrote a well-reviewed book about the Medici that I've been meaning to read for ages, so the omens look good. 25.4.2012 Home. To big puddles, two confused cats and a trip out for a curry. Also Churches of Venice has used up its bandwidth a week before the end of the month, again. Apologies - I'm looking into a solution, soon. 18.4.2012 Jeff in Florence 16.4.2012 It's not one of the cities I 'do' on this website, but there's no challenging New York's status as the city that needs to be appreciated if you're going to understand the nature and evolution of the city. Following my recent visit I've become a bit immersed, I must admit. I've been watching the Ken Burns TV documentary series, which is exhaustive to say the list, being made up of seven two-hour episodes and a later three-hour updating. Also a conveniently-timed collection of writings about New York from those lovely city-pick people is providing characteristically juicy pointers in all sorts of fruitful literary directions. |
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9.4.2012 Fans will know that this year's new Brunetti novel came out last week. Fans of this site will know that Donna Leon's publishers (may their name be mud) never send me review copies. So, I'll read and review it eventually, but I'm relying on my local library. There's also the second in the alterno-Venice Assassini series by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, The Outcast Blade, out early May. I have higher hopes of a review copy of this one. 4.4.2012 News in the old inbox this morning of another Titian exhibition at the National Gallery based around The Flight into Egypt, a newly-restored painting loaned from the Hermitage. So off I hie me. The painting itself is an early work and worth a look, but it's not going to trouble my Top Ten Titians list. The landscape is fine but the figures look added on and flat. More of a draw are the works added for context and illustration which form a fine build up. Most are from the National's collection, but there are some useful added portraits from country houses. For me the highlight was a rather wonderful small Giorgione Madonna and Child (see right), also loaned from the Hermitage, and I'll be slipping back when I can to soak it in some more. One of his best indeed, and so a contrast to the 'Giorgione' that usually lives in the NG basement, and which has been dusted off and brought upstairs. The exhibition goes on until the 19th August, when the Titian will move on to the Accademia in Venice for a while. 2.4.2012 After a couple of weeks I'm loving my new iPad. For reading comics, watching TV progs, playing (usually) silly games and checking email it's great. And surfing by tapping on links onscreen is nifty too. As an ebook I still prefer my Kindle - the iPad screen is a joy to read on but with all the reading apps on the iPad the smaller Kindle is a better and simpler proposition. The iPad is good for pdfs though. But, and here's what I'm leading up too, if you're a Florence lover and have an iPad there's a wonderful app. It's called Firenze and it covers all the usual topics - the renaissance, Leonardo, the Medici, Galileo...you know the stuff. It also covers WWII and the flood, but very briefly. But it lets you swivel buildings in 3D, hold the screen up and look around like you're, in one case, up on top of Giotto's tower, and even gets you into paintings. Being inside one of the Piero Ideal City paintings (which used to be this site's banner image way back) and exploring the 3D space in Masaccio's Trinity is well cool. 24.3.2012 Back from my American trip and hoping for a return to some clarity of head and regularity of sleep patterns soon. Loved all the art and the food and the experience. Next trip up - familiarity and Florence in April. 20.3.2012 I was in Boston last week, but now I'm in New York. Read more about it on the Jeff in Boston & New York page. 2.3.2012 March, already! And with it comes...my Birthday! That's next week, and then the week after that I'm off to the States for a week of art galleries, in Boston and New York. Not sure if I'll be doing a trip blog, but I'll at least be e-nattering on the old facebook page. |
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19.2.2012 I have a thing about ruins, I admit it - I have a page devoted to buildings ruined, abandoned and lost and like nothing better that to wander around a delapidated Venetian hospital. I think it goes with the Venice thing. So imagine my joy at reading this article this morning - it mentions a book (of words rather than photos) that I was not aware of, called Pleasure of Ruins by Rose Macaulay and an exhibition of photos of Detroit (currently the centre of the world for ruinophiles) which has got to appeal, even if I do already have the book that the exhibition's photos are taken from. 14.2.2012 Just a quick bulletin to say...not much...is going on. Some newly-translated Brunetti TV episodes trickling over from the US and some old books and older films being reviewed. Still, there are buds showing and soon it'll be Spring, with its trips and gelati. Oh, if you were waiting on Amazon.com to buy my spiffy Imagining Venice book mentioned below it's here  !
Or here if you're in the UK.25.1.2012 Just back from a few days in Ramsgate - a strange place. The run-down, unloved and sad look of many UK seaside resorts, especially in rainy January. But with added benefit claimants, much evidence of recent white flight, a winning mix of architectural (seaside) styles, a big ugly ferry terminal and container dock, and a gorgeous pseudo-medieval pile (The Grange, built by Pugin) recently restored for us to stay in. (An angel from a doorway is over on the right.) All of which has very little to do with Venice, London, or Florence, but needed to be said nonetheless! 19.1.2012 I'm not sure why, but I seem to have posted quite a few photos of odd things cluttering up the South Bank Centre here over the years. These have mostly been connected to exhibitions in the Hayward Gallery, but the photo below right shows a new temporary cabin. Installed for 2012 as an Olympics tie-in, you can hire it for £120 a night, or you could have done if you'd got in before it became all booked up. It needs to have a poncey name, of course, so it's been called A Room for London. There's a lot of talk of Conrad, too, and hearts of darkness, and the spirey bit isn't just a spirey bit, it's an homage to Hawksmoor's London church towers. Sigh. But did you know that the Hayward's first exhibition was devoted to frescoes from Florence? It capitalised on the work done to the frescoes that had been damaged during the 1966 flood and the subsequent discoveries. And even I can remember going to the Hayward to see proper old art, and not just the modern tosh of recent years. 8.1.2012 Hot news for fans of the German TV adaptations of Donna Leon's Brunetti novels - MHz Networks in the US will be showing the next seven subtitled episodes on their Sunday Night International Mystery program starting next week. These follow on from the eight already shown and released last year on DVD. Episodes 10 and 11 I've already reviewed on my Brunetti TV page and I have hopes of catching the others. This year's new Brunetti novel (out in April of course) is called Beastly Things, which sounds more like a P.G. Wodehouse novel to me. 5.1.2012 Followers of the fortunes of the ruined Ospedale al Mare on the Lido in Venice might like to know that the group protesting the dereliction (of the theatre especially) now have a website teatromarinoni.org to visit and an arty video to watch (see right). They're also planning an exhibition and a book, and want to use some of my photos in both. 3.1.2012 Happy New Years all round! On the immediate horizon, reviews wise, is The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich and a new one from Marco Vichi (who provided us with one of our favourite Florence reads last year) called Death and the Olive Grove. Later in January I'm starting a course in appreciating early Italian frescoes and am staying in Pugin's house in Ramsgate. Also I've just been asked to contribute to a book about Venice film locations. So no January blues for me I'm thinking! Also... If you've ever though that it'd be nice to have the Venetian fiction, film and TV content of this site all collected in one handy paperback book I have great news for you. Click here or on the cover on the right to purchase this eminently portable and lovable item, for yourself and your friends. 19.12.2011 News from Yvonne, a site friend who's in Venice now - filming has finally begun on Emma Thompson's film about Effie Ruskin. On Yvonne's blog we also learn, or I do, that those stone shelf things in corners to prevent men pissing are called pissotte. She has photos of them in various styles too! And Santa Clause gondoliers! 17.12.2011 As 2011 draws to a close we can be sure that 2012 will not be so full of news and turmoil, I think, because 2011 has used up so much that there's hardly any left. My festive farewell to 2011 can be read on the facebook page and my Top 10 books and CDs of the year can be found on the News page. The next couple of weeks should see me reading and reviewing the novel mentioned below. Also the proof copy of my new (self-published) book of the Venice pages on this site, entitled Imaginary Venice, is on its way to be checked. So all being well that should become available in January. And it's so reasonably priced. Onward! |
 
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My Books of 2011 |
My CDs of 2011 Figurines Figurines Phoenix Foundation Buffalo Low C'mon Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues My Morning Jacket Circuital Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys Robot Heart The Robot Heart Lanterns on the Lake Gracious Tide, Take Me Home Ghosts I've Met From a Spark Guðrið Hansdóttir Beyond the Grey American indie band domination, as usual, but with a female singer from Reykjavík. Lots of good stuff released too in the nebulous category sometimes called Home listening, new classical and/or electro-acoustic, veering into new folk. But they tend to blur into one, admittedly rather lovely, erm, blur. Ludovico Einaudi was the more mainstream fave of the year, roughly in this sphere, but Richard Skelton, Plinth, Vieo Abiungo, Field Rotation and Dakota Suite all did us proud too. |
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28.11.2011 It's been a damn lean year for good new novels set in Venice, so let's look forward to Crossing the Bridge of Sighs by Susan Ashley Michael. I'm promised a review copy and so will let you know. But I'm guessing my review won't appear until early January, so 2011 will remain a lean year regardless. And whatever did happen to The Black King, the hyped first novel by Francesco da Mosto, promised for various put-back dates in 2011, but now utterly gone from Amazon? All we seem to have is the cover and the synopsis, which hints at a somewhat overloaded plot involving Elizabethan London's favourite alchemist, Doctor Dee, and much sub-Da Vinci Code 'mystery'. 23.11.2011 If you know (and love) the Victoria and Albert Museum you'll know (and love) how easy it is to get lost and discover odd and wonderful things. I went today to go see an exhibition called Venetian Visions: the art of Canaletto, Tiepolo, Carlevarijs and their contemporaries 1700 – 1800. The title is bigger than the exhibition, but it had some nice stuff - sketches by Tiepolo I liked (and I'm not a big preparatory sketch fan), some Guardi cappricios (like the one on the right), Carlivarijs topographical etchings ... all the usuals. Whilst getting lost finding the exhibition I found myself admiring decorative ironwork and then a full-sized external wooden spiral staircase and the huge wooden façade from a medieval house in London. On my way from the Venetian stuff to find ceramics I found an architecture gallery, with models and plans and drawings in drawers, and a photography gallery with greatest hits by Atget, Ansel Adams, Roger Fenton, etc. I decided that the major cause of room-finding confusion is the fact that the staircases don't all go to all floors, in fact very few do, and they're mostly closed due to building work. |
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15.11.2011 The Guildhall Art Gallery is not one of the best publicised, or most visited, galleries in London, and I suppose that those two facts are probably not unconnected. I went there today for an Atkinson Grimshaw exhibition, an exhibition that I'd only found out about reading the Burlington Magazine in the London Library last week. (My life!) Anyway, I experienced no little difficulty gaining entrance as the large Guildhall courtyard had much fencing and little and bad signage. After walking around and recovering my tracks I gave up and asked at the library reception, and was shown the way in, which involved ignoring a No Entry sign. And the reason for all this exclusion? The anti-capitalist protesters outside St Paul's had evidently tried to gain access last week. The exhibition itself was pretty without really challenging any preconceptions. 1.11.2011 Today I went to the Real Venice photography exhibition at Somerset House. I'm glad I went but wish I'd gone to it in Venice because, judging by a quick flip through the catalogue, it was a much bigger exhibition there - most of the photographers seem to have had twice as many works on show when the exhibition was at San Giorgio Maggiore. Which would've meant more photos to ogle by my exhibition faves Antonio Girbés and Matthias Schaller. The former's kaleidoscopic architectural fantasias and the latter's dark slices of shimmering palazzo interiors both made it worthwhile to go see the actual photographs. Their sweep and shimmer, respectively, have to be seen full size and well printed. Discovering these two made it well worth the visit for me. 27.10.2011 New life, new challenges. Yesterday I was only on the radio - live! Listen here 26th Oct Part One has me talking about this website from about 13 mins in. I stick around into Part Two adding 'helpful' contributions. 18.10.2011 Having the new Facebook page mentioned above is leading to some information confusion for me between what I'm putting up here, there and on my own Facebook page. It's probably to be classed as personal news but ... I'm now happily voluntarily redundant! As of last Thursday I'm no longer in paid employment and will therefore be spending more time with my sites and the cats. I'll also be trying to earn a few bob with freelance writing. Life changing! Watch these spaces. 14.10.2011 Updated my Ospedale al Mare page with photos from this year's trip, like the one on the right.
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  I've been buying different flavours of these pastiglie for years on Venice trips, but who knew they'd been translated?  |
 
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30.4.2011 It has become tradition, and is a phenomenon first noticed by my mum, that whenever I get a new camera the first photos must always include at least one of St Paul's Cathedral. So having just treated myself to a Canon EOS 600D DSLR (and the equally expensive EFS 15-85 lens, photography fans) it was not surprising that a weekend trip to Borough Market should also take in the roof terrace of the new development just east of St Paul's called One New Change. I can report that it's a great new viewpoint up there, and spacious too. Photographic evidence can be found above and to the right. And the post this morning contained my first review novel from a publisher in ages - The Good Thief's Guide to Venice by Chris Ewan. Expect a review soon. 9.4.2011 I gave in and bought the new Donna Leon, with folding money! Well actually with a book token left over from xmas - thanks to C & M! In fact it wasn't so much a book token as a bookshop's gift voucher, in fact part of a voucher, and the voucher is now in the form a credit card jobbie 'charged' with cash, but, well, you know ... at least it was a real book made out of paper. 1.4.2011 More good news! You know those nasty big advert hoardings that have been blighting buildings on the Grand Canal, Piazza San Marco and the Doge's Palace for far too long? Well, their days are numbered. The new minister of culture, Giancarlo Galan (the right-wing governor of the Veneto region from 1995 to 2010 and recently minister of agriculture), has told La Nuova Venezia newspaper that the mega-ads must go. Tourists should not have to see such a spectacle, and the advertisers themselves must be finding the ads are bad publicity, he said, the money to pay for the restoration that the ads were financing will have to found in other ways.
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10.2.2011 |
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