Noah, somewhere in venice..

Hi all,
I'm back from venice exhausted and a little bit energized at the same time. I've learned that despite our best efforts, no americans could ever hope to make as much of a disgusting mess of themselves as the Venitians do for carnival. I've eaten pastries in numbers that i could never have anticipated. I've seen a city that makes Firenze seem almost sensical and easy to navigate and after all was seen and done i managed, though not without some stressful train moments, to return in one piece. va bene.
One of the things that i have consistently noticed in florence is the contrast between the new and the old, particularly with graffiti and advertising sharing visual space with ancient buildings, art and ornamentation. This tense realationship was even more pronounced in Venice. Even more than Florence, that city has completely resisted any kind of modernization which makes it shocking, but a little bit welcome, when you turn a corner in a little cobble stone street and find a solid wall of tags. I thought that this was actually a saving grace in that it reminded you that this is actually (at least to some extent) a real city and not just the disneyland atmosphere that it starts to feel like at times. this is reaffirmed when the bizarre techno starts to pound and tiny drunken italian men start to beat the living shit out of each other, in duck costumes. it's a weird scene.
Anyway ,though i hope never to revisit the duck-men, i took a lot of inspiration from venice and i hope that i can carry some of the energy of that place into my work.