Jamiextraordinary

Jamie Cullum and his piano

Tuesady (26th September) night I went to "The Pageant", in the Loop, to see one of the most (if not THE most) beautiful and amazing music performance I've ever seen in my life: the concert of Jamie Cullum. Do you know him? Have you ever heard about his music? Well, if not...it's better if you "fix" your problem as soon as possible! He's one of my favourite singers, but it was the first time I saw him playing live. And it was a wonderful experience. He's an eclectic young (27 years old) british singer, and, besides his extraordinary music, what impressed me was his energy on the stage and his ability to span all the different kinds of music with a simplicity which seems unreal. Yesterday night he played jazz, blues, samba (yes, samba too...) giving the idea that he was able to adapt all of these genres to his own particular style. And what you can see and feel when you attend one of his performances is that he LOVES to play music, he does enjoy to change rythms, styles, instruments (he played piano, obviously, and in a magic and astonishing way, guitar, drums, etc). And he is also a perfect showman, knowing how to entertain the spectators and how to involve people in his show. It was hilarious, for example, when he made joke of one of the most recent popular songs, "Don't cha", playing it just by beating with his fingers the upper part of his piano and adapting some phrases of the song to his person, or when he reminded the first time he tried the "White Castel" here in St.Louis.

So, have you ever fought with the music? Believe me, listen to Jamie Cullum, and you will make peace with it again...


Jamie Cullum

Soundtrack: High and dry (J. Cullum)

My summer

Hi all!!!




As promised, I'm posting the pictures of my summer, spent mostly in Italy!!! It's a long period that I'm not writing, but since I'm back in STL I didin't have time to post anything. So, I think the best way to show pictures and comments is to divide them in a chronological way. Let's start...

1) Visiting Versilia (Tuscany) and Cinque Terre (Liguria)

The first part of my vacation, after I spent some days in Como (my home town) and, unfortunately, after I went to the funeral of my grandmother in the Southern of Italy, was in Northern Tuscany and in this wonderful place called "Cinque Terre". It was my desire to visit those zones, and my parents gave me this gift...Many many thanks (Grazieeeee) ;).
What can I say about this part of Italy? Just that is wonderful, it'a one of the most amazing places I've ever seen, there is everything : fun, sea, mountains, coasts, astonishing landscapes, culture...Whatever you're looking for, you can find it there...The pictures explain better what I mean...


In Lerici with my family (my mother Angelina, me, my sister Roby and my father Salvatore)


With Ivan (my future brother-in-law)


Lerici


Drinking a cocktail in Forte dei Marmi (Versilia)


Portovenere


Portovenere: sea and sky


A window in Portovenere Rock


La via dell'amore (The Love Way)


With my sister in "La via dell'amore" (Cinque Terre)


Waiting for the food (me, Ivan, Roby and my mother)

2) In the Southern of Italy

The second part of my holydays was spent in the Southern of Italy, precisely in a small town called Agropoli. There I had a lot of fun (friends, my cousins, my parents) and I visited many places. In particular, I went with my family to this wonderful and world-famous island called Capri. You can guess from the following pictures why it's so famous...


With my sister


With my father, on the boat going to Capri


Roby and Ivan on a terrace in Capri


My mother in Capri


I faraglioni (world-famous rocks)


Me with "I faraglioni" on the background


With Ivan in front of an ice cream mini-store


The sea...


The best pizza ever: Fabiola's (a friend of mine) mother preparing it...



Me eating that pizza...


...and preparing my own pizza (I'm italian, I'm supposed to know how to do a pizza...)


And this is the result : my pizza! (Does it look nice?)

3) The way back (aka Odyssey...)

And finally the way back...and, as usual, it was another Odyssey...I had to take a flight from Rome to Dusseldorf, but since the weather in Rome was bad, the take off was delayed, and then I missed the connection in Dusseldorf...So? They reschedule my flight with an Air France flight from Paris. So, I took the airplane from Dusseldrof to Paris, and then from Paris to New York. Arrived in New York, it was too late to take a connection for St. Louis. So, I called my friend Sheila, who was there in NYC at her boyfriend's house and she offered me to stay with them (thanks again for everyhting). I was able to buy a ticket on Sunday (two day after my arrival in NY) and then I stayed with them on Saturday too. It was nice, we went to visit the Metropolitan Museum (really nice Museum, but too big...) and then in the night we went out for a Sheila's friend birthday party. Then, Sunday, time to go back to STL...via Washington DC...In total 5 flights...not so bad, isn't? ;)


The skyline of NY from the apartment...


Me on the balcony


Sheila at her friend's birthday party

Soundtrack of my summer : Gia' ti guarda Alice (T. Ferro)