"Not 'Hollywood Independent' - writer John Oak Dalton is the real Real Thing." --Cinema Minima."Very weird and unpopular b-movies and comics."--Blogalicious. "After watching the film I am left to wonder if he had some childhood trauma he is not telling us about."--IMDB user review. "Screenwriter John Oak Dalton wanted to be in Hollywood. Instead, he's in the rustic kitchen above the Germania General Store, stirring a pot of boiling hot dogs."
--The Harrisburg Patriot-News.
Welcome back to Italy, the land of the shrug--maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe open, maybe closed, maybe electricity, maybe not, maybe the bus is running, if not go and have a nice plate of pasta and a glass of vino. As you can see, they haven't cleaned up a lot since I was here last year. This statue, in the Boboli Gardens, looks like something left over from Planet of the Apes.
I spent a lot more time this year looking for fumetti on the streets of Rome and Florence; here is a very respectable stack of Tex comics, an inexplicably popular series that has run for more than 50 years about a Texas Ranger in the American Old West. I bought several because they were easier to understand than some; even I know Tex shouldn't camp in Il Canyon Della Morte when there are mummies around.
I remained fascinated by the posters plastered around Rome. This was my favorite last year, and this was my fave from this year; a poster for a Communist rally (who knew there were still Communists?) featuring a foxy young comrade yelling through a megaphone at, I think, Lou Dobbs.
Rome has a reputation for healthful waters, and they pipe it out to you everywhere, as ubiquitous as a fresh plate of pasta (I recommend the carbonara, anywhere). The fact that a fellow traveler observed a dog lapping from said fountain didn't diminish its sweet goodness.
Graffiti is plentiful in Rome, and this was my favorite of the year; though I wish I had my camera with me when I saw the Jim Morrison with the monkey face.
Typical Italian pizza, diametrically opposed to what you would expect, with things like eggs, pineapple, and other items we generally don't put on our pale knockoffs. But I looked this one right in the face and it went down easy. It's hard to eat a bad meal in Italy; I also sampled the wild boar and the wild hare and found in them greatness (with only a little buckshot).
