Woke up from a few bad dreams about Cleo. Still many things in my life that have to do with her, little things that she gave me or that were once hers. Just laying around, considering that I packed pretty light for this trip. It is amazing how even the smallest simplest items like face cream or something can remind you of a person. Or a pen they gave you. I understand why she went through this phase where she took everything out of her house that had anything to do with us. I think you have to. 

Today was the first day of my history of renaissance art class. 

Our art history professor Donatello, a cool mofo...

Besides being truly badass because I am in Florence the home of the fucking renaissance, it is also cool because it is entirely in Italian. So I pretty much sit there and look at the pictures and don't understand anything being said. Which is nice. Cause I can’t take notes cause I don't know what s going on. But the pictures are nice. and I find it actually to be a good way to learn the language cause you have to. what a pleasure it is to be learning this here rather than in some other school somewhere. When he talks about the major figures and the works, he is talking about our own neighborhood that we are living in. Right here where the school is. So he shows us the birth of Venus by Bottecelli and then asks me, “did you see it the other day at the Uffizi gallery when you were there?” or “yes I think he painted this right over there and points to some piazza somewhere. He used to sit and paint there everyday at lunch, referring to di fillipo or some other artist. Its hard to believe actually. And we are sitting in a room in some building next door to Michelangelo’s house. The school is called the institute of Michelangelo and has been around since God was a little boy. It would be like studying opera in Vienna I guess, or fashion in Paris or Milan. In our class we are still working from the very beginning of when it all began, the search for proper perspective and depth in painting and sculpture. It is fascinating.     

And if that weren't enough, I just recently learned that ice cream (gelato) was invented here in Florence also during the renaissance. This is amazing, no? Seriously. In the summer of 1565 this cat named Buontalenti who is actually a famous architect responsible for a few of the cities most famous buildings was so hot that he invented ice cream because he discovered how to freeze fat working on his chemistry experiments in the nights. A renaissance man of course. These people are amazing. And yes there is a gelato place on every single corner. I told my teacher that this was more impressive than all this art lying all over the place in this city. He looked at me like I said something sacrilegious. 

Sitting in class I could still feel Cleo, maybe just from the dream I had last night. and I sincerely felt bad for us. Like this sucks. This needs to stop now. And I thought, “I just need to get away. get some space.” And then I realized I was halfway around the world already. Perplexing. So then I thought, well maybe I just need to go farther away. Someplace like India or Antarctica for a while. Really get away. just go sit in an igloo for a while. Or in a cave. Or on a mountain. After this seriously, I think I am going to hit Israel and Turkey. Because of the music. I would think these are some pretty foreign places. Maybe then  could escape the clutches of this.

Also, holy shit. The rickety bike got stolen. This is so bad. This bike belongs to the owner of the school. He is going to freak. And all day long I had this pillow case filled with laundry trying to find a drycleaner. couldn’t find one. no one knows where one is. And I asked someone to help me look them up in the yellow pages, and so she did and she tells me well they don't really like to advertise because they like to open and then close and then open somewhere else so they don't have to pay taxes so they don't really like to advertise. O.k. so this is what I am dealing with. So I'm carting this damn pillowcase all around town for days on my bike waiting till I find a drycleaners. And then I get out of the Internet café and my bike is gone. And so I have to walk home carrying this old pillowcase filled with clothes. This was really funny. I even started kind of walking like this old bum. 

  

Mastering a few concepts. Easier said than understood. Just because someone says something doesn’t make it relevant to you. People say stuff all the time. and people have revelations and realizations all the time. and this doesn’t make them relevant to us. and also, just because it happened in the past doesn’t make it true for you now. Things change. Now is now.

The longer I stay away, the more I like America. There is something special there. and the more I like the idea of the American. the more pride I have in being an American. I am starting to get that kind of American pride from being here. Every time I have to wait more than a minute to be served or get the check. That type of thing. Like hello people we have things to do, lets go. and the way that all the stores close for two hours during lunch? This is crazy and totally against the American free-enterprise capitalist way of want it now get it now. And frankly that is an aspect of America I like. Everyone makes money that way. this other way, how are you supposed to make money if your closed for two hours when everyone is off of work and available to shop in your store? Well don't give us this shit that you can’t afford this or that when you are closing your store for two hours during the peak of hours of the day. And the same thing on Sundays. They’re all closed. Crazy. what are you thinking people. but its just a totally different world. I go to a place one day and they charge you 1 dollar for a cappuccino so I'm like fucking A. So I go there the next day for the same deal and the same guy charges me three dollars forgetting he saw me the day before. and what are you going to say. You can’t yet speak their language well enough to state your case. I figure they just make it up everyday depending on what the person looks like. Now this place is back to selling them to me for a dollar since they know me. And seriously if I don't have money one day, a restaurant will just tell me don't worry about it. pay us tomorrow, and they don't even write down what you owe them or what you ate. You go back the next day and they’re like ‘you owe us money? Really? Don't worry about it.’ Its funny. This would never happen in the states. I could see it now. “You don't have money? Uh well you better get your ass to that bank across the street there and get yourself some or uh we’re going to call the cops Mr. And leave your drivers license here with us.” just a totally different vibe. This is old world. I'm talking OLD WORLD. A whole store closing two hours for lunch! This is another world.   

This is my favorite café. I eat lunch here everyday. And this girl, my dear God this girl. I wanted to marry her of course... but she doesn’t even have email. How can you marry a girl who doesn’t have email?

And one more thing. There are no movies. There are movie theatres. But they are all closed for the summer. But some nights they are open at nine or ten. But no body knows when this is. And you can’t call the theatre because they don't know either. Just to make things even more strange. O.k. so tonight some little bar charges me 2.10 for a sprite so I'm like no way I'm putting it back. fuck that. and they are like, o.k. fine, a dollar. I look at them like what is this? Where are we? The fucking third world? I have to bargain for a Sprite now? This combined with the fact that there is no such thing as breakfast here except a coffee (on Sunday a restaurant charged me 14.75 for an omelet. I'm totally serious. I almost threw up. I got the manager and he was trying to explain to me that they don't do breakfast in Italy so it is very special that I got an omelet. Like the eggs are some kind of very rare precious gemstone or something. then get some fucking chickens for God sakes. I should have gotten an attorney but there probably isn't any. Or if there are they are probably all closed for the summer) And their belief that ice and air conditioning are unhealthy and therefore should not be used and then this chick lights up and is smoking a cigarette in our art history class today and everyone thinks this is perfectly fine and we are all sitting there sweating our asses off from the heat and choking from her smoke and I am like ‘o.k. where is the camera? This has got to be Punked or candid camera. What next? Seriously where is the camera? When does the herd of buffalo come running through the room? 

By the numbers. This is just so we’re all clear:

$5.2 million=estimated cash Bush raised on Friday for his campaign. 

$5.9 million=Cash Dick Gephardt raised in the first three months of 2003

$03 million= Amount Bush is expected to raise in the first six weeks of his campaign

$27 million=Estimated finds raised by the nine democrats through the end of June

$200 million=Bush’s projected take by summer 2004

$34 million=Amount raised in hard money gifts by Clinton and gore in 1995

$7=cash raised by William McKinley in 1896. Seriously.

$20,000=amount needed to get a photo with Bush this year

$200,000=Amount a Bush fund raiser needs to get to Ranger status. Whatever that means.

So just so we’re clear, there is a reason why American politics is fucked. It isn't a mystery that we all need to sit around and ponder or debate in congress. Everyone talks about fund raising and campaign finance reform but no one ever does anything about it. Little things. The best candidate doesn’t win; the one who brings in the most money wins. Even if that money came from Enron. Funny huh. If Enron was going bankrupt how could Enron contribute money to Bush’s campaign? Not only do the best candidates never win, the best candidates never even run, because they would never put themselves into that kind of position. Who would? Its embarrassing. You become a slave to the people who give you the money. Essentially they buy the presidency that term. The way it works right now is that these men have to raise money. That's the name of the game. The American media won't give them free access to media, so they have to pay for it etc. this is the first major thing we need to fix. We give them something like $3 million dollars a year right now after they retire from the presidency for living and security and other expenses, so why not supply them with campaign finance money as well so it’s more of an even playing field and no one has to take bribes during their campaign and then send our country off to war as soon as he becomes president to fulfill some promise he made to someone in return for a contribution to his campaign before he got elected. Whoops. Did I just say that? I'm sure I didn't mean it. Its just the heat. 

On the screen: studying the Eisenhower presidency. Built up our nuclear arsenal from 1000 warheads to 18,000 warheads secretly while constantly talking publicly about how important it was to start decreasing our arms and wage peace. Ruined our chances for peace with Russia for nearly forty years because of secret spy missions and nuclear buildup. At the first peace conference ever between our two countries, Khrushchev screamed and hollered at and about Eisenhower for an hour and then stormed out. And then pierce, Garfield, and Harding. Harding commented, “The presidency is hell. There are no other words to describe it.” Eisenhower agreed. LBJ just refused to run again. Couldn’t wait to go home. One cannot believe how many presidents echoed that same sentiment. It is shocking in a way. Perhaps it has changed as of late and gotten a bit more easy to handle. I don't know. or perhaps the smart men just know better and never even think about running.