3 posts tagged “england”

after a lot of talk and contemplation, boBo and i have decided to get married.  or form a civil union, depending on where you happen to find yourself.  we began to deliberate on the idea over a year ago but it was not until budapest when we began to give it serious contemplation.  the deal is this: i cannot continue to be in the situation i am in right now: not exactly legal.  i have been for some parts, but for others: no.  many hopes have been placed on the chance to obtain a work visa of some sort...but to no successful avail.  but then again, i don't want to leave boBo.

boBo, on the other hand, would be the same as me if we were to go back to the united states on some relatively permanent situation.  and since neither country widely accepts gay unions then we have decided to seek other measures in order to be together without looking behind our backs or under the tables, so to speak.

 

all this to say that soon - although the dates are uncertain at this time - we are going to make an attempt at moving to london and form a civil union together.

with that in mind, i am heading back to san diego for a spell, probably for the summer in order to get my head around this new development.  we are wanting to take it very seriously and there is much thought and preparation that will go into it.

 

it's strange.  the thought of leaving italy.  it's like i just arrived.  which i did in some respects.  but it will always be here.  but so will everything else.

i like living in italy.  i like the flavors, the sounds, the people, the constant changing of life and the array of ways in which i find myself on a day to day basis.  that being said, upon arriving in london, i also appreciated the simple comprehension quality of people talking english. 

mind you, it shouldn't be taken for granted that i understand everything that is being said.  with few exceptions, british english manages to be quite a different monster than the american slang that i am accustomed to.  still, the pleasure was all mine on thursday evening.

Cafe Emm with H&C

after leaving boBo and giordana to their own devices, henrik, chris and i headed to dinner.  Cafe Emm is a place that is "cheap and cheerful", a term to be reiterated for most of the things that we did over the next three days.  the last time i frequented the restaurant was when i dumped whats-his-name in 2001.  but that's another story.

we had a lot of catching up to do.  it had been six months since i'd been with chris in ventotene, a year with henrik when we visited pinzolo on our last birthday.  but like riding a bike, we seem not to forget the momentum and pick up where we left off.  over a bottle of wine and an endless amount of laughter, this thought was rather pleasant.

On Exhibitions

boBo and i had discussed on the outset of this trip that we may or may not connect with one another once we left budapest.  he has friends there and so do i.  he had not been in the same place with both pierre and giordana since they lived in paris many years ago.  the agreement was essentially no pressure and if we met up, then so be it.

gratefully the entire group of seven managed to get to the serpentine gallery within minutes of each other on the following day.  what struck me immediately upon exiting the tube station was the brisk weather that somehow only affects london, at least in my experience.  the sun was in full exposure and the sky couldn't have been a deeper blue than it was.  yet the wind reminded us all that it was still march but brought with it a vitality and vividness to the colors and life that made me stop on many occasions and smile inside.  for all its negative areas, london is a particular town in my heart.

we observed two exhibitions that day.  the derek jarman showing was the highlight and i think the others might concur.  being set at the serpentine required that it couldn't have been obnoxiously elongated.  the attention deficiency disorder in me appreciated that.  besides, being mostly video, the set up was most appreciated.  unlike the typical white box where i am relentlessly endeavoring to find a seat because i despise standing up for any length of time, we were graciously provided with large bean bags to lounge around in and enjoy the visuals.  

although the second visit was to the tate modern (one of my favorite destinations on the south bank), the duchamp/man ray/picabia show was in complete contrast to the previously mentioned one.  long, long, and long.  it was worth seeing some of the pieces and i am very interested in dadaism as a whole.  i especially enjoyed the short film entr'acte directed by rené claire, written by picabia.

Rainy Saturdays

with boBo off to brighton along with pierre and giordana and chris exhausted from the previous night of drinking and dancing at ghetto, henrik and i met at the v&a for a light lunch and then off to Soho to see the edge of heaven.  only knowing that it was recommended by henrik's boyfriend marcus and it had something to do with german/turkish relations, i was amazed at how involved i became in the film.  very subtle but made quite a mark.  go see it.

with that, the weekend passed and i sit here hoping that work will come soon along with a plethora of ideas for upcoming projects that are mixing around in my head trying to make sense and come to birth on some level.  

i did hear back from MIT simply stating that the project had arrived and is in deliberation at the moment.  again, fingers crossed.

i've been back from the states, or more luxuriously, not on a holiday, since the beginning of the year.  the past two months have entailed a lot of newness for me: opportunities to instruct and probably more profoundly, to learn.  to learn how to teach more effectively and to understand where my weaknesses are and where they...well, are not.

last night saw the last vestiges of the first in a series of eight-week intensive courses that i am teaching at The New Renaissance Florence Film School with the showing of the student's film EVEolution. 

today i did what i haven't been able to do in quite a extensive period of time: sleep in.  boBo still calls me "the farmer" as i do have the tendency to be up by 6:00, maybe 7:00 if i'm tired.  rising myself at 11:00, however, felt more on the level of euphoria than possibly much needed sleep.  though i must admit i did have nightmares of trying to help the students complete the editing process.  war scars?

the intended purposes of the day were to get up and buy a guide book, in english, of budapest.  boBo and i leave tomorrow for the city divided by the danube and having no time to read up on it, i was intending to spend the day in a crash course in hungarian history.  but after an invitation to brunch by leah, i was easily persuaded.

waffles, eggs, bacon, mimosas...yum.

around 5:00 (late, late brunch), i headed out to a few different bookstores to find the book.  not as easy as one might think.  but i've spent the remainder of the evening prepping myself for yet another culture trying to grasp that indeed i am about to head out on holiday.  the thermal baths are beckoning...