Le Fabuleux Destin D'Annalisa
I can't believe I never graduated from college!
It's so irritating that I went to school all those years and didn't get a degree. I know why I didn't graduate. I got tired of the uphill battle. I loved the college campuses, the classrooms, the commaraderie of the students, even the classes themselves. However, I could not pass two subjects, not to save my life. I could not pass a science course and I could not pass a history course. That, though, is the big mystery. I could not pass a history course!
And I love history.
I love history but I cannot pass a history course. How is that for irony? The truth is, it isn't much of a mystery, to me. I cannot retain certain types of information. My brain will not seem to retain dates and timelines. Nor will it retain scientific information. That's why I have not been able to, at this point, fulfill my dream of becoming a personal trainer. I know how to lift weights, I know how to eat right, I know a lot of things that go into being a personal trainer. I have not, though, been succesful at learning, at MEMORIZING the technical facts in the Ace Personal Training Manual. I will, one day. I believe in me. I do, though, feel like the factory is closed on the idea of my getting a college degree. That's a pipe dream. We'll work on that later. In the meantime, I will love history in my own way.
The history I love most is European history. When I was a small boy my father took my family to see the movie THE SOUND OF MUSIC on Easter Sunday. Set in Austria, the scenery of the film was one of the major reasons I fell in love with the picture. All that glorious European countryside and architecture lit a gas lantern inside my soul that has never gone out. From that moment, I have gravitated toward films shot in Europe and dreamed of travel around the continent. To my good fortune, I was given the opportunity to live on that continent for eight years during my youth--a youth during which I traveled to other countries and cities when it was convenient and available to me. My father's job afforded me the chance to live in Portugal and to live in Switzerland. While living in and exploring those regions, I also had the glad occasion to travel to the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and Czechoslavakia (as it was known in those days). Simply getting up and traveling to foreign countries as a minor is not, greatly, achieved; so unless it was under the aegis of my parents, I saw only limited views of Europe. My dreams of seeing Paris were not satisfied until I was 38 and my wish to see parts of Italy and Greece remain a dream on the horizon. I know that there will come a time when I travel to the other countries of which I dream; I am not, worried for I have believed for some time that timing is everything. Until that time, I will thrill over the books I have bought (I have this THING for oversized, photo filled coffee table books) and I will lap up, like a dog, thirsty in the rural southern country heat of summer, having found a puddle of water left in a driveway by a Rainbird sprinkler, movies like AMELIE, THE LADIES IN LAVENDER, THE DA VINCI CODE, UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, ENCHANTED APRIL, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, FRENCH KISS, L'AUBERGE ESPANOL and CHARADE (so many others), where I can see the scenery that I, so, love to look at and wonder of its history.
What a chance I had to live out some of those dreams, this weekend! My friend, Annalisa, just returned from a whirlwind three day trip to Europe. She visited (I think) four countries and, much to my pride and joy, snapped digital pics all across the continent. She and I have not had a chance to get together for story swapping but I am aware, from emails, that the trip had the pre-requisite amount of vacation highs and vacation lows. What I have seen of the trip, though, has been an armchair traveler's dream come true.
Not a photographer by trade, Annalisa has proven to me what I already have known: we are not defined by our careers or by labels. The amateur, sometimes, has the best eye for creating art. Art, true art, requires limitation. Annalisa has the limitation of being an amateur and, so, must rely on her on wonder of the journey and her own sense of humour regarding that which is different to her. She photographed interesting signs and street performers during the same trip that gave her the chance to shoot sunsets over the tiled roofs of Europe and the black, glassy cobblestones of recently rained upon streets that travel back in time to the days of horse hooves and carraige wheels. Annalisa shot landscapes through narrow building openings and tourists inebriating themselves with enormous beer steins, taylor-made for the party monster. With each new photo of her slide show, I grew increasingly homesick for the experience of gazing upon some European burg, all the while growing increasingly impressed, not only by her photography but by her dry wit in commentary.
It is a treat when a friend introduces you to their friend and you like them; but when my treasured Kaitlin brought Annalisa into my life, I had no idea I would be taking into my family a woman with so great a gift for art and for life. Her slideshow of Europe was one of the treats of my weekend. I don't think she will mind my sharing it with anyone else who might be interested. If you have a few minutes with nothing to do and wish for a reverie, brew yourself a cappucino and sit down with a brioche and click here:
http://community.webshots.com/user/almbfa2004
Sante!
It's so irritating that I went to school all those years and didn't get a degree. I know why I didn't graduate. I got tired of the uphill battle. I loved the college campuses, the classrooms, the commaraderie of the students, even the classes themselves. However, I could not pass two subjects, not to save my life. I could not pass a science course and I could not pass a history course. That, though, is the big mystery. I could not pass a history course!
And I love history.
I love history but I cannot pass a history course. How is that for irony? The truth is, it isn't much of a mystery, to me. I cannot retain certain types of information. My brain will not seem to retain dates and timelines. Nor will it retain scientific information. That's why I have not been able to, at this point, fulfill my dream of becoming a personal trainer. I know how to lift weights, I know how to eat right, I know a lot of things that go into being a personal trainer. I have not, though, been succesful at learning, at MEMORIZING the technical facts in the Ace Personal Training Manual. I will, one day. I believe in me. I do, though, feel like the factory is closed on the idea of my getting a college degree. That's a pipe dream. We'll work on that later. In the meantime, I will love history in my own way.
The history I love most is European history. When I was a small boy my father took my family to see the movie THE SOUND OF MUSIC on Easter Sunday. Set in Austria, the scenery of the film was one of the major reasons I fell in love with the picture. All that glorious European countryside and architecture lit a gas lantern inside my soul that has never gone out. From that moment, I have gravitated toward films shot in Europe and dreamed of travel around the continent. To my good fortune, I was given the opportunity to live on that continent for eight years during my youth--a youth during which I traveled to other countries and cities when it was convenient and available to me. My father's job afforded me the chance to live in Portugal and to live in Switzerland. While living in and exploring those regions, I also had the glad occasion to travel to the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and Czechoslavakia (as it was known in those days). Simply getting up and traveling to foreign countries as a minor is not, greatly, achieved; so unless it was under the aegis of my parents, I saw only limited views of Europe. My dreams of seeing Paris were not satisfied until I was 38 and my wish to see parts of Italy and Greece remain a dream on the horizon. I know that there will come a time when I travel to the other countries of which I dream; I am not, worried for I have believed for some time that timing is everything. Until that time, I will thrill over the books I have bought (I have this THING for oversized, photo filled coffee table books) and I will lap up, like a dog, thirsty in the rural southern country heat of summer, having found a puddle of water left in a driveway by a Rainbird sprinkler, movies like AMELIE, THE LADIES IN LAVENDER, THE DA VINCI CODE, UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, ENCHANTED APRIL, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, FRENCH KISS, L'AUBERGE ESPANOL and CHARADE (so many others), where I can see the scenery that I, so, love to look at and wonder of its history.
What a chance I had to live out some of those dreams, this weekend! My friend, Annalisa, just returned from a whirlwind three day trip to Europe. She visited (I think) four countries and, much to my pride and joy, snapped digital pics all across the continent. She and I have not had a chance to get together for story swapping but I am aware, from emails, that the trip had the pre-requisite amount of vacation highs and vacation lows. What I have seen of the trip, though, has been an armchair traveler's dream come true.
Not a photographer by trade, Annalisa has proven to me what I already have known: we are not defined by our careers or by labels. The amateur, sometimes, has the best eye for creating art. Art, true art, requires limitation. Annalisa has the limitation of being an amateur and, so, must rely on her on wonder of the journey and her own sense of humour regarding that which is different to her. She photographed interesting signs and street performers during the same trip that gave her the chance to shoot sunsets over the tiled roofs of Europe and the black, glassy cobblestones of recently rained upon streets that travel back in time to the days of horse hooves and carraige wheels. Annalisa shot landscapes through narrow building openings and tourists inebriating themselves with enormous beer steins, taylor-made for the party monster. With each new photo of her slide show, I grew increasingly homesick for the experience of gazing upon some European burg, all the while growing increasingly impressed, not only by her photography but by her dry wit in commentary.
It is a treat when a friend introduces you to their friend and you like them; but when my treasured Kaitlin brought Annalisa into my life, I had no idea I would be taking into my family a woman with so great a gift for art and for life. Her slideshow of Europe was one of the treats of my weekend. I don't think she will mind my sharing it with anyone else who might be interested. If you have a few minutes with nothing to do and wish for a reverie, brew yourself a cappucino and sit down with a brioche and click here:
http://community.webshots.com/user/almbfa2004
Sante!
posted by StephenMosher at 7:49 AM
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