RANDOM ECHOES - ITALY 24/10/05

Thick fog as the shutters are opened, spectral forms outside of thinning vines, garden artifacts, bunches of apple twigs; self contained feeling, nothingness beyond the tree line becoming a motif.

The whole family has to be involved in the making of polenta. Primarily because the mixture has to be stirred by hand constantly for 45 minutes on a hot stove so each person takes it in turn to do so for a five minute stint each. And it gets tougher as the process goes along because the mixture thickens to a large, heavy, golden mass.

Up at the Loggia, Virgil learns of Jesus visiting a dying mother, of family members waiting and waited for, of a long dead husband seen at the foot of a bed, of revelations about strippers and videos and local porn rings, of much laughter and hilarity and riches made.