STOP THE WAR

I saw this VAN today in the QUEEN ANNE neighbourhood (SEATTLE) ... I am not sure if the owner painted the car or he found it like this in the morning ...

... anyway ... I SIMPLY LOVE IT ... but at the same time I can only be SAD thinking that most likely this car will be trashed before the war will stop.

SOPHIE

SOPHIE is the name of this wonderful baby girl ...

... and she is the daughter of a colleague. Sophie has 2 sisters and 1 brother ... and the 4 of them are absolutely gorgeous ... like their parents. My colleague is younger than me but he is definitely a family man much more than me ... I don't know if I will ever have kids ... but tonight (I was invited to my colleague home for dinner) observing these 4 little kids running in the house ... I understood once more that babies are really a blessing ... if we are able to listen to them and observe what they are doing we can see the world in a totally different way ... they magnify things are too small for us and they make small things that we see as huge ... and I have the feeling that they know what is really important in life ... no REGRETS about the PAST, no HEADACHES about the FUTURE, just ENJOY the BEAUTY and the MISTERY of the PRESENT ... and even if they don't know they do it ... they do it, and I think we should learn from them.

BACK TO THE JET CITY

So here I am. I am back to the JET CITY ... one of the SEATTLE nicknames ... I guess this comes from BOEING who has the headquarter up here. Here a picture I took last night in the renewed SEATAC (SEATTLE airport) terminal ... this is not exactly a JET ...

... just a biplane ... probably borrowed from the SEATTLE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT ... which is really worthwhile a visit. I have already visited it a couple of times ... and I really enjoyed it ... I guess I will visit it again ... but if you visit SEATTLE don't miss it ... you will understand why this is city is called the JET CITY ...

ATLANTA SKY(SCRAPER)

Here a picture I took today in ATLANTA after lunch ...

... I really like the fusion of the simple SKY and the metallic disorder of the SKYSCRAPER under construction ... and the clouds that seem to create almost a CROWN to the growing SKYSCRAPER and at the same time the reflection of the clouds in the unfinished glasses ... I hope you will enjoy it as well ...

ATLANTA AIRPORT

Here I am in the ATLANTA airport, gate T04 ... ready to board in a new flight ... tonight I am flying back to SEATTLE. Not sure if this 2 days business trip was worthwhile ... a short meeting and a lot of red eyes ... but what can I do? My boss asked me to come here and he will paid the expenses ... so I guess it was helpful ... :D

The ATLANTA airport is really huge ... once I read that it is the airport with the highest number of passengers worldwide ... I believe it ... everytime I come here I have the impression of thousands of people running around and endless queues at the security check ... but there is one guy in the airport who never moves ...

... and it is really big and impressive to see ... so if you will fly to ATLANTA ... don't forget to have a look to the calmest guy in the airport ... although also this granny ...

... finds her way to relax before boarding on the DELTA flight to SEATTLE ... :D

FIXING THE CAMERA

Here a involuntary picture that ANDERS, a colleague of mine, took today at lunch in ATLANTA ...

... while I was trying to fix COVER of my CAMERA LENSES. Not sure, though, if the picture is more scary or funny ... :o

ATLANTA

So, I am in ATLANTA, Georgia. South of the United States. Very different from LA and SEATTLE. Today had been a day full of red eyes, meeting, rain and beers ... no time for meaningful pictures ... but I have already been here several times and it is always good to be back ... met colleagues I didn't see very often.

I guess you are curious what can you do in ATLANTA ... mmmm ... at a first glance you would say not much ... and I am not sure if you like to move here to live ... but ... there is actually something to see also down here ... and there are also a lot of areas where you can have fun.

ATLANTA is the hometown of MARTIN LUTHER KING ... so there is his birth place, the baptist church where he was preaching, his burial place and a museum dedicated to him ...

... and after you visit the museum, you realize what a wonderful and true pacifist he was ... my visit was really enlightening.

ATLANTA has also an interesting, but tiny, downtown with an underground city with shops and restaurants ... and of course there are the headquarters of CNN and COCA COLA ... which I didn't visited ... :D

If you will come in this part of the world ... I suggest you to go to ATHENS, GA ... the hometown of the rock band REM ... and college town ... where apparently the alcoholic problem is not as small as I expected ... this is a poster I saw in a resturant ...

... but ATHENS, GA is also the hometown of the COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM of the GEORGIA BULLDOG ... and you can find lots of their mascots, the BULLDOG, in the ATHENS curbs ...

... of course ATLANTA and GEORGIA are not only this ... but if you want to visit it don't come here in SUMMER ... way to humid for anybody who wasn't born and raised here ... :o

RED EYES

One of the things that I learned in US in the last 3 years living here ... is the real meaning of RED EYES ... basically a commercial flight from WEST to EAST COAST ... leaving very late in the evening from the WEST COAST and landing very early in the EAST COAST ... the flight is "only" 4-6 hours ... but with the time change ... there you go ... you are ready for a new day in the office. Tonight for me is a RED EYES NIGHT ... I have a DELTA AIRLINES flight from SEATTLE, WA at 10.30PM ... and I will land tomorrow morning in ATLANTA, GA at 6.30AM (3.30PM SEATTLE time, though) ... really the best way to get fresh, clean, concentrated and ... of course ... with RED EYES ... in the office tomorrow ... :O

What I have learned after several RED EYES ... is that there is a special drink that can make the miracle to make you sleep on the plane ...

... BEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRR ... and there you go ... tonight I am here in the SEATTLE airport with my colleague JC (he is claiming JC stands for JESUS CHRIST) ... trying to get ready for the flight ... I hope I will manage to sleep ... :O

Speak you tomorrow from ATLANTA ... :)

HERMOSA BEACH PIER on FIRE!

Actually it is not really the pier ... just SHARKEEZ ... one of the bar on the pier ... here some pictures (*) I got from a friend ...

... some of my friends who came to visit me probably remember it ... it is, actually it was, the bar with the longest line to enter ... I guess the line will go somewhere else now ... I hope not to the PITCHER HOUSE ... :D

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(*) Credit for the pictures goes to KTLA

AND WE WERE NOT EVEN DRUNK

So. Italians really believe they can do it better. On top of that, as Italian, I think I opened hundreds of bottle of wine in my life so far ... so when RONN tonight asked me to help him out opening a bottle of red wine ... I thought I could easily show my skills ... so I got the corkscrew ... I applied all the technique that my dad and my grandpa teached me for years ... and look what happened ... the corkscrew gave up ... :O ...

... I really ... never ever seen anything like this! Not happy and still thirsty (and not drunk yet) ... we decided to try again ... RONN gave a call to a neighbour and we borrowed a new corkscrew ... I took again responsibility of the task ... and this time ... the cork gave up ...

... I mean ... I didn't know anymore what to say ... I was very close to go for the BUD LIGHT I saw in the fridge ... but I gave a third try ... and fortunately it worked out ... I still believe Italians to it better ... but I learned once more that ... sometimes it is not as easy as it looks ... :D

SHOES NIGHTMARE

I took this picture a couple of days ago in a shoes store in downtown SEATTLE ... and the title of the picture to me can be only ... SHOES NIGHTMARE ...

... but I am sure that for some of the girls who I know out there (my granny in one of them) this is simply a DREAM ... and I guess some American friend would call it FREEDOM OF CHOICE ... but again ... to me .. looks like a BIG SHOES NIGHTMARE ... :o

FREMONT, CENTER of the UNIVERSE

Yes. Today I have been in FREMONT, the artists' SEATTLE neighbourhood ... auto proclaimed CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE ...

... and I guess that if nobody so far tried to rip this title to FREMONT ... needs to be true ... so ... today I a have been in the CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE!

If you need directions you can either get a map of SEATTLE and easily spot it from there or you can use this sign ...

... according to it ... wherever you are (e.g. location indicated are ... MILKY WAY, NORTH POLE, ATLANTIS, MACHU PICCHU, BERMUDA TRIANGLE, LOUVRE) ... you can find your way to here.

I guess you are curious to know what you can do in the center of the universe, don't you!? OK. You can go under the freeway 99 and check out if the the TROLL with a VW BEATLE under its left hand is still there ...

... this morning was still there. Or you can check if the LENIN statue, brought here after the fall of the USSR, is still there or not ...

... I suggest you to get a sweatshirt like mine (if you can't read it ... it says CUBA) ... you will feel somewhere between MOSCOW and HAVANA ... not in US ... but you are actually in US ... I mean not exactly in US ... in SEATTLE ... :o

Of course the CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE is equipped with a ROCKET ... you know ... in case a SOS from the outer space will reach it ... FREMONT folks will be able to help out ...

... and with these mufflers ... and some good coffee in the tanks ... I am sure they can easily get anywhere they want ...

... and if you want to know how a rocket ended up here ... you can read the real story ...

... absolutely hilarious ... :D

Now ... if you are not happy yet and you love architecture (like I do) ... you can enjoy the crazy local architecture ...

... and if you are lucky enough to visit FREMONT during a sunny Sunday like it was today ... you can visit the SUNDAY FLEA MARKET ... and use a mirror to take a selfportrait like I did ...

... mmmm ... actually only half selfportrait ... but I simply love it anyway ... :o

After a day like this I can't really believe but FREMONT is in US ... but it is ... isn't that simply great!? I hope you will have the chance one day to visit this crazy CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE ... :o

IRAN WORLD CHAMPION 2006

IRAN WORLD CHAMPION 2006 in SOCCER? I know it is a tough call ... but ALI, a good friend from IRAN, really believes that it will happen ...

... and he so dumb (sorry man) that he bet $25 on it ... apparently it is called 1:1,000 ... so his bet can bring home $25,000 ... I really hope so ... we will see what will happen in GERMANY between JUNE and JULY ... but I am pretty sure that there is a reason why IRAN's victory is called 1:1,000 ... :o

BTW ... if anybody out there wants some lessons of IRANIAN HISTORY you can give a call to ALI ... he can speak forever about it ... soooo funny ... :O

REDMOND TULIPS

This morning I was in the REDMOND, WA (yep ... where MICROSOFT headquarter is) farmers market ... and I really liked the long shape of the tulips' petals ... never seen anything similar before ...

... of course while in REDMOND I went only to the farmers market ... I didn't go to see where BILL GATES office is ... not really interested in that.

LOVING SEATTLE

So. This is the SEATTLE SKYLINE ... and on left you can see ... very tiny ... one of the symbols of the city ... the SPACE NEEDLE ...

... and the cool thing is that you don't even need to go in a ship to see it like this ... it is enough to drive to WEST SEATTLE and either while you are relaxing in a bar, having a meal in a restaurant or just seating with a friend on a bench in the park ... you can enjoy it ...

But the relaxing and quite skyline is a kind of deceptive (*) of the real SEATTLE SOUL ... on the other side are packed all the reasons why I love this city ... and why you could easily love it as well ... there are pieces of art in the street ...

... and street musicians ... and some of them have also political ideas which I kind of like ...

... and all of them seem to attract CABS from all over the city ...

... or you can go to the PIKE MARKET ... which is one of main attractions of the city ...

... but it is not just a tourist magnet ... it is really cool ... when I go there I completely forget that I am in US ... I really feel in a normal country ... in a country without chain restaurants, fast food, 99cents burgers, frozen pizza, canned ravioli and without all the other food related nonsense that make US so unhuman sometimes ...

... and don't forget that SEATTLE is the US capital of coffee .. which is, fortunately, not only STARBUCKS ... here we were in a tiny coffee shop ... no chain ... no big name ... just a simple family coffee shop ... of artists ...

... and I am sure that when you will come up here to visit it ... at the end of the day ... you will be just as happy as I was today ...

... if you have the chance come to visit it ... and if you need a place to sleep and/or a tour guide ... I will be more than happy to help you ... :o

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(*) Thanks to D. for teaching me the word of the day ... and of course for the wonderful day in SEATTLE

FRIENDS in IBIZA

Before you will start thinking that my company sent me to to IBIZA ... I can assure you ... I am still in SEATTLE and IBIZA is only the name of a very nice and trendy bar on the corner of JAMES and 2nd street (one block east of PIONEER SQUARE, if you know SEATTLE) ... and yesterday night I was at IBIZA with a group of friends ... here in a picture with some of them ...

... I couldn't really drink too much ... because I had to drive back to my hotel but was a really good night ... music was really good and I have some good dance ... but most important I met some new good guys, hopefully new friends, from SEATTLE ... really cool ... a couple of them lived and worked for 1 year in NAPOLI (NAPLES), ITALY ... and if you know SEATTLE and NAPLES you know what a cultural change can be to relocate there ... they had a lot of really funny stories ... probably I will see them again on Sunday for a new party.

And now off to do some Saturday touristic things in SEATTLE. Later.

POLICE or PUSHER?

No ... no scoop here ... I don't have a picture of a police officer selling METH ... this is something more relaxed. Yesterday on the freeway 520 going from REDMOND to SEATTLE there was a looooong line . A kinda of strange for that time of the day. At the end I found out why. A poor guy broke down his car at the begin of the 2 lanes bridge ... here a POLICE CAR making a PUSHER work ...

... while it was trying to get him out of the scene. I think they spent sometime pushing him ... next emergency stopping place was in 1 mile ... :O

CINQUE MAGGIO / CINCO DE MAYO

When you are a student in Italy you have to study by heart a famous poem from MANZONI (one of the most important Italian writer) ... title of the poem is CINQUE MAGGIO (5th of MAY) ... it is a nice one ... even if I don't remember it anymore by heart I always liked it ... it is a about the life and the fall of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE ... it is so full of energy ... it portraits NAPOLEON in all its most famous campaigns around the world. He did himself a kinda of WALK THE EARTH ... :o ... the title of the poem is 5th of MAY because in this day back in 1821 NAPOLEON died on the St. Helena Island.

I always connected the 5th of day with NAPOLEON's death. Living in US, especially LA ... where the MEXICANS are outnumbering all the other communities ... I discovered the CINCO DE MAYO holiday ... the celebration for the independence of MEXICO.

I visited MEXICO back in December last year and I simply loved it and on top of that I was lucky enough to make some good friend there ... so today I would like to wish to all my friends and not only to them FELIZ CINCO DE MAYO ... as a nice memory from MEXICO here a picture I took with my fellow backpackers CELINE, ANDREAS and MARTIN in CHIAPAS last December ...

... you can recognize the EZLN (Ejercito Zapatista Liberation National) sign ... claiming we were not in MEXICO but in the ZAPATISTA land ... happy CINCO DE MAYO to you too guys! And in particular to all the guys out there that are struggling for any reason ... a piece of wisdom from a TAXI in GUANAJUATO, MEXICO ...

... DIOS PROVEERA' means G-D WILL FIX IT ... :D

IT IS SO GAY

Tonight as soon as I landed in SEATTLE I gave a call to a friend and we decided to go to dinner together. He lives in SEATTLE so he picked up the place. Appointment is on the corner of OLIVE and BROADWAY, east of the I-5 and downtown.

I get there 5 minute before him. The area is nice. I have never been here before. It is full of nice restaurants and bars. There is a lot of people around. Young people. I am sure it will be fun tonight. I am happy I didn't go directly to the hotel. After a couple of blocks we see a nice restaurant. We decide to go for that. In the meantime we call an other friend, he will join us later.

While I am ordering dinner I notice in the list of the cocktails that the last one has a funny name ... "IT IS SO GAY" ... we laugh about it. But when our friend A. joins us we understand that the name of the cocktails is not just a coincidence. Apparently BROADWAY is the GAY area in SEATTLE ... now things make much more sense. And it makes even more sense when in the restaurant some of the guys are making a dry run of a show that probably will go on stage in the weekend ...

... this is definitely ... so gay :D

We decide to have a photographic memory of the evening and we take a picture outside the restaurant ... trying to resemble a gay couple ... which is actually something that, according to my friends, I can do easily ... even without much effort ... but again ... just to be clear ... even if sometimes I look, I am not ... :o

Walking towards the car parked few blocks away I notice the NEON SIGN of the BURGER place on BROADWAY ...

... and I wonder if it has a double meaning ... probably yes ... :o

SAN FRANCISCO RUSH

The day in SAN FRANCISCO was fast, but nice. RUSH out of the bed, after ignoring the alarm clock for half hour. RUSH to iron my "elegant trousers" for today's meeting, after I avoided to do it last night. RUSH to the car. But at the second traffic light out of the hotel ... the first smile ... I met an old friend ... a streetcar from MILAN, ITALY ...

... not only an OLD FRIEND ... it is also a FELLOW TRAVELLER ... after years spent in MILAN ... he relocated to the WEST COAST ... a kinda of what I did myself.

I was in a RUSH to get out of the city ... but, of course, it took me more than expected to get on the BAY BRIDGE ... and believe me ... it is kinda funny and frustrating to see this huge structure from everywhere ... and not being able to jump on it ... :o ... but after some attempts from the SOUTH side ...

... and a couple from the NORTH side ...

... I managed to get on it ... and I left the city ... probably too much RUSH for nothing ... since I got to the customer office 2 hours before the meeting started. But that's OK, I guess ... I was here only for the meeting ... being late would have been unforgivable ... and difficult to explain to my boss ... :D

Meeting went OK. It was an easy meeting, though. Got a bucket of compliments from the Account Manager. On this ... my dilemma is that ... I can't understand anymore if they are giving me compliments only because they want them back or because they really think I am doing something good ... one day I will have to ask them ... curious to hear their answer ... :o

An other RUSH to the OAKLAND airport ... and BANG ... after 2 beers drunk in 5 minutes ... I am on the flight headed to SEATTLE ... the final goodbye to the BAY AREA is from the air ... I am lucky enough to have a window seat. Here a very very distant picture of the GOLDEN GATE ...

... who knows if the OLD MAN that I met last night managed to WALK it!? I hope he did ...