September 29th

"UND... UND!" ...Das Becks? "UND DAS BECKS!!!"


And what a way to end this month of September it will be!  Tonight I'm headed out to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest.  I've got my outfit ready, and I'm about to hit the store for a new backpack and a cheap sleeping bag.  Debauchery ensues.


I finished off the week with pretty good pace, next week I'll be able to hop right into work again and I convinced my Jewellery professor to let me in the shop on Thursday afternoons whenever, I'm looking forward to it.

I carried on with my marble sculpture and it's really starting to take shape:

Her it is from two different angles along with the 1/3 size clay model.  It's starting to really turn out, I've finished it's outline and now I've began leveling the model starting from is lowest points and working high.  It should be done in a matter of weeks now.



I also finished the final model for my pendant, and it should be done in about two to three weeks.  Here it is:

The metal is actually 7mm thick silver, it's just covered in wax so that I could transfer the design and scratch it in, hence it looking brassy.  The whole deer head in the center of the piece will be carved and pierced along with the antlers.  The dots, tooth, and bordering shapes will have bronze soldered over the top of them. I will then round the edges of the pendant so it's actually silver, then I will make the whole piece convex.  Depending on how much time I have after that I may make a back to the pendant out of bronze.  The necklace will either be small chain or if I can get my hands on it, leather.  All in all I am really happy with the final design and am excited to rock it out for showcase/when I get back to the states.

And now for some music to get ready for the first weekend of Oktober. Mmmmmchillwave much?

Spruce Bringsteen by Run DMT
Sounds like Vietnam era B-sides with a touch of animal collective.

Talamak by Toro y Moi
'Illwave, phoenix-esque plus a juicy beat.  Sounds good, feels good.

All Die Young by The Smith Westerns
An LSD wedding at a funeral. "You're my boy Blue!"

Like I Do by Starslinger

Leave it to Star-Slinger to make a party feel like it's soundtrack is a new wave disney chill-wave festival.


Well it's off to Munich, it should be a great cultural and eye-opening experience...

yeah...

September 25th

Let me just tell you a little bit about Balsamic Vinegar:

When done right, it's really damn fucking good.
This weekend I went to Bologna and Modena, both were equally amazing.
Balogna

Bologna is a town up north famous for its stuffed pastas (like tortellini), two giant medieval towers, and of course its ragu sauce.  But to be honest, there is so much more to Balogna than that, as a matter of fact, I hated the ragu.  The city itself is an old Roman colony and it shows it, it's very ancient and is full of old castles and churches as well as the oldest university in the world.  Deep underneath the 'modern' roads of the city are actually the old ancient roman roads, I headed into a french furniture store called Paris Bobois, from there I headed into the basement where underneath some overpriced furniture was an ancient Roman road.

 There is also a giant complex of seven churches, ranging from pre-medieval to twentieth century, all connected into one turbo church.  The sights inside are overwhelming, some of the buildings were so ancient that the churches' pillars themselves have been completely warped by the sheer weight of time.

Displayed on the left is one of the entrances, middle is a huge cross in a medieval church, and right is the fountain of Ponchus Pilot(it's a fountain full of innocence).
Not only is the city absolutely gorgeous and full off rich history but the shopping is much more diverse and original the scenery is much more genuine and there is a lack of tourism which is more than refreshing.  All in all I think that I must spend some more time in Bologna, it's earned it.

Modena

After Bologna we headed out to a farm in a small town called Modena, the farm was an original balsamic vinegar producing farm. Here we learned all about the process of creating balsamic vinegar from a concentrate of two different types of grapes, and then letting it age over twelve to twenty-five years (or as long as necessary).  Two of my friends actually had a taste of balsamic vinegar that was ninety plus years old.  The end product of this process leads to a very syrupy but sweet liquid which, as soon as it hits the back of your throat, burns like a sweet acid... it's overwhelmingly delicious.

I couldn't help but pick up a bottle to cook with.  The thing about balsamic vinegar is that you can use it on anything; bread, meat, cheese, ice-cream, tomato, fruits, and so on and so forth.  The point is that this concoction is fantastic and everyone sometime in their life needs to try a bit of genuine balsamic vinegar, the other stuff that is claimed to be it just doesn't nearly compare.

The rest of this week I am really going to buckle down on my work and start my pendant/get my marble sculpture's foundations finished, this coming weekend I will leave for Munich and enjoy a weekend at Oktoberfest.

And now for some music that will help carry me through the work week.  Please take pleasure in these vibrations, if you like 'em download 'em by right clicking and pressing save file/link as.  If you have a mac, press ctrl and click, then go to download/save linked file.

Solo ('4 Claire) by Wise Blood
Every time I hear this song I just feel like a bad-ass with penchant for women and whiskey.  Its a southerny new age beat, and I love every line in it.

You by Gold Panda
This song will make you enjoy everything life has to offer, period.

Killing the Vibe by Ducktails

Ducktails is a great feel good band with the best tunes that make you feel warm on the inside and calm on the outside.

September 22nd

The weekend has already begun, ridiculous.
Last night after class I went and picked up some groceries at the store and ended making Truffle Pici pasta, cheese with honey, and caprese salad with some nice red wine, you know... the usual.
Post food I went out with some friends to grab a jersey and beer for our city's soccer (calcio in italiano) game.  Firenze's team, ACF Fiorentina played Parma last night and kicked their asses 3-0.  I have never seen so many Americans cheer for a team louder than locals, by the end of the game the people sitting around our section disliked us just as much as Parma undoubtedly does.  Next time we want to try and get seats in the home goal section, so that we won't be judged for being to rowdy.

My accomplishments this week; I finished my first ring/piece of jewellery ever, and created designs for my next piece of jewellery which will be a large pendant.  As for my marble sculpture, I literally got nowhere... it's not even worth showing.   The ring however ended up looking like a bawss:

The ring is polished silver with a plain green bloodstone.  I'll explain how I made this ring in my next post.
Unfortunately I won't be able to actually use this ring until the end of the semester, along with all my other jewellery. I need it for my class showcase at the end of the semester and my prof doesn't want the pieces to get lost or stolen, probably a good call.

Now for my next piece's designs.  I plan on making a large, silver, low and pointed-edged ellipsoidal pendant.  On the front I will cut and carve in a stylized deer skull with antlers, surrounding the skull will be carved out silhouettes of human teeth.  Hanging out of some of the teeth silhouettes will be small chains which will be connected to small pieces of porcelain carved into the shape of teeth.  The piece will hang from a leather neck-lace.  I may or may not put some red splatter paint on the silver piece once it's all done.
The concept art I have created looks like this:

 
< The antlers will continue fully out from the head, not stop and there will be many more teeth silhouettes.

The inspiration from this comes from native american art, dream catchers, the music I was listening to (posted below) and of course carnivores.

I'm debating whether I want the silhouettes to be realistic or slightly cartoonish, so far I am leaning towards the former, the teeth will most likely end up looking like this: >



Finally, the music that inspired me to design this piece/whatever else I did this week, if you like the music, you can download it by right clicking + pressing save file/link as.
First of all I've been posting Grizzly Bear all week, they were my largest influence on this project, they are one of the best bands to listen to in the fall, and when it starts to rain they are a must-hear, but I refuse to post the same band thrice in a row, so I shalnt!

Youth by Beach Fossils
Heart warming low-fi melodic murmuring.  Makes the rain-drops on the window panes just that much more nostalgic.

New Theory by Washed Out
Chill wavin' til you hit the clouds.

Devils by Say Hi
Bluesy new age... Blew Age

A More Perfect Union by Titus Andronicus
T.A. rewrote the book on how to make a song epic, whether the night is about to begin or it's about to end A more Perfect Union couldn't be more perfect.  This song just makes you feel like an American patriot, but not through the conceptualization of freedom or some politicians charismatic words, but by the immigrants that moved into America and lifted it up by their boots and backs.  Another plus is that after hearing it you can't help not wanting a pint of Ale.


That is that for now, this weekend I'm headed out to the beaches of the Cinque Terre or somewhere, and then off to Bologna.  Should be quite relaxed other than that.  Tonight however I'm cooking American/taking pictures for my new side project: my food blog.  I'll get some of the pictures from the last few meals I've created and show em off.  Ciao.

September 20th

The world continues to turn and I have reunited with its pace.  The past few posts have been melodramatic to say the least, this last weekend was very mentally taxing and my good friend and I were placed into a very difficult situation which no-one should have to to deal with even once, let alone multiple times.
I came back to a week filled with a lot of work and all of the drama has seem to completely subsided all the distractions of the work week come quite refreshingly.  The past day has been covered by rain which washed away not only the thick heat but the cold I've had as well, I trek through the soaked Florentine streets with a mind at ease.
So far I have bought plane tickets to Stockholm for a long weekend, and in late October I will fly to Dublin and then hike through Eastern Ireland for a week.  I plan on buying tickets to France and Egypt(Or Crete +Turkey) as well for my other big semester trips.
As for now it's back to working/being chastised by our program heads for a noise complaint we received last week.
Here's a picture of some of my friends and some of the food that I made:

Thanks to Zoe for the picture.

The food plates include 1. Bread, hard salami, and diced olives with olive oil, Parmesan, pepper, salt, and a hint of lemon 2. Three different panes of focaccia and a spicy strawberry jam 3. A plate of three different hard cheeses, a soft cheese with lemon and honey to pour on.  This was my contribution to that meal.  My friends from a neighboring apartment followed this with a balsamic vinaigrette salad and plethora of pesto tortellini.  All in all a great success, as you can tell Trevor (in the middle) suffered a mild stroke from such a high quality of food.
Oh yeah, don't forget the vino.




Here is some music to carry me on through the day (right click + save file/link as):

Boy From School (Originally by Hot Chip) by Grizzly Bear

Turning On by Cloud Nothings

September 19th

It's 3am and it has been a long weekend.  Just got done dealing with some real heavy shit and had some burnt memories rise to the surface.  I know that all these events in life are true because I am bruised by the force of them, I know for sure that my experiences here are very real.  Sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad or you'll get nothing in return.  The fact that our life can be so affected by the events which unroll parallel to us truly shows that our existence is a man-made blessing; we cannot take that for granted.

In the meantime, I will try and blast all these images out through my eardrums, allow me to share it with you.

Helicopter(Star Slinger Remix) by Deerhunter
(right click + save file/link as)

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear
(right click + save file/link as)

Limit To Your Love - James Blake
(Put on a lot of bass for this for this)

September 18th revisited

To supplement that last depressing video is something a bit more cheerful and heartwarming, Beirut has also been the inspiring music for many of my pieces.

September 18th

Another long weekend in Italy.  Though most of my plans fell through for camping, through spontaneity I hopped on a train to Siena one morning and stayed throughout the day.

These are just two of the countless views that the city has to offer.  Siena itself is a much quieter and even more aesthetically pleasing town than Florence, it is in much less repair and is built on large hills, ensuring that the acoustics don't carry out throughout the town.  Surrounding the city are the rolling hills of Tuscany as far as the mind can imagine.  I plan on making several more trips into this city (and also eating its Conigliere a Cacciatore).

The weekend itself was turbulent, all of the flirtations between the people around have led to an uneasy atmosphere between the two sexes here.  The rate in which everything happens here is so quick that some of the people here try to force relationships just as quickly, leading to eventual meltdowns,  I have been placed in the center to try and console the wounded and it finally became too much by Friday morning, so I up and left and came back to Florence with a cold, but calm.

Hopefully it will rain here today and tomorrow, to me nothing can be more healing, physically and mentally, than the rain.  I did have time on my train trip to make some more concept art for some more projects for my metalworking and jewellery class this semester.  They include:

 <  Brass knuckle fabric scissors for my friend Lizzy.

 <A cigarette case with an intricate acid etch on the front. (Design ideas include smoke, a duwamish whale, or porcelain teeth)

And a Bronze necklace with matches on the inside sticking out.>




I will continue my work starting Monday,  and hopefully by the end of the week have purchased more art supplies, my tickets for traveling, and start to settle myself down.  I can smell the warm rain in the air and the cold wind on my back, it's going to rain soon, and I won't miss it for the world.

Whenever I start to miss home, I just play this video, no matter how depressing the song is it really seems to capture a northwestern winter more than anything else I've seen.  Thank's Mack.

September 15th

The amount of effort that I am able to express through everything I do here in Italy comes with a zealous stride. Whether it's working on a project for one of my classes or making my dinner, the atmosphere of Italy truly allows me to put passion into every little activity that I partake in.  When my friends and I are not working or cooking or drinking we are emphasizing all of our attention onto the details that we are surrounded by, left by those who came before us, infected by the same spirit which I have become so well accustomed to. I find comfort in the friends that surround me for they too carry the same constitution of this human ideal that we have discovered. When I am here I feel as if my aspirations are more tangible than ever.
I have started working on my first two projects, my first marble sculpture and a simple ring:

Sculpture final concept

Concept and 1/3 size clay preview (arms and hands in corrected positioning)

Piece of marble with beginning strikes and mapping.











I have also started jewellery making, I have begun with a simple silver ring with a bezel and bloodstone, it will be completely soldered and polished by next class. These pieces all began as a thin silver bar.

Last week I visited the coast and the Cinque Terre, today I will try and catch a train or bus to Como Lago and camp by the lake with some friends and some gin, ciao, a presto e un buona fine settimana.

                                                            Those who surround me.