Taxes? What Taxes?

Today's WSJ reports that Italy's President Prodi has hired a man known to some as 'Dracula' to help collect billions in the country's collective unpaid taxes. In the story Beppe Severgnini, a social commentator compares Italian and American's reactions to tax evastion and says there is a solidarity among tax evaders.

"In America, if you cheat on your taxes your neighbors won't talk to you, in Ialy, they'll ask you how you did it."

The country is facing serious fiscal pressure with so many people avoiding payments. "Italy is like a boat in which half the people are pulling the oars while the other half are kicking back, enjoying the ride."

In one northern town, tax police found that 35% of the cafes and 57% of the clothing stores failed to issue reciepts" There doesn't seem to be any way that Italians can have such an appetite for fine watches and expensive cars based in their reported incomes.

Another snare the taxmen sets involves the vehicle registration database. There are 5800 Italians who declare incomes of less than 5000 euros a year, but who drive cars with more than 100,000 euros.

South Deerfield Squeeze Play

As I drove up from Holyoke this morning, there was a big back-up on the Deerfield exit off-ramp. Because we so rarely ever have traffic jams in our bucolic pocket of the world, I knew at once it was an accident. The statie who flew by me confirmed it.

When I finally made it to the top of the hill, I saw this Subaru squeezed into the guardrail. Ouch! I sent this photo to my friend Larry Parnass at the Daily Hampshire Gazette, it's on their news blog "This Just In" this morning.

I've Been Invited to Medellin, Colombia

Today is a high energy day. I've got lots to think about and I'm feeling great. The first thing on my mind is an invitation I got yesterday, an answer to a dream I've had for a decade. It was from the Ministry of Trade for Colombia--an invitation to travel to Medellin and see their flower show. I've always wanted to visit this misunderstood and honestly, dangerous place and here came my invite.

I immediately phoned my shooter Paul Shoul. He's been there before, and it's always fun to travel with him and use his fantastic photos in our stories. He's got his reservations though, he's thinking we might be kidnapped. Then I pitched Tom Vannah, the editor of the Advocate. He sent me back a scary article from Outside Magazine, full of terrifying advice like 'don't dress in khaki clothes, they will look like a soldier and shooting is the only form of communication.'

But at the end of this story, the author, Eric Hansen reflects on a tough, days-long journey that ended in a fishing village called El Valle in a remote part of the coast.

"Much to my surprise, I no longer feel a need to get blotto. Instead, with a sober mind, I'd like to continue processing, analyzing, and ruminating on what I've seen. And it strikes me that this change from passionate drunk to reflective abstainer is just the kind of personal transformation that's the reward of any adventure. It's an example of the power of a place to change a person, of getting far gone both physically and psychically, of looking in the mirror and wiping away the fog, and of the compulsion to blather on about your own shit in trite metaphors without ever feeling ridiculous. Jesus, I hope it's not permanent."

Our trip in August will not involve driving out into the country, where the rebels are most active, but to a civilized city of two million with a dangerous past. I'm planning on going, and I hope I have my shooter Shoul there with me.

Grab a Bike and Ride All Over the City

I found this rack of public bikes right next to Bologna's city offices. Another city, like Copenhagen, embracing the concept of putting out bikes for citizens to use for free.

In Denmark, anyone can pop a coin into the rack and use a bike for about $3.65 a ride. In this Italian city, you have to show you're a resident, then you can ride for free.

While I was in Italy, my story came out in the Valley Advocate about these alternatives to driving, and the climate in Europe that encourages bike use. You can read the story at the Valley Advocate's website. It's always fun to see my articles in other publications...funny, no matter how many times I get published, I still get a little thrill seeing that byline.

He's Got 18 Ferraris...and He Drives Them All

Besides the more obvious benefits of being about to use a shorter line to check-in, and being able on some flights to actually lie down flat during a flight, the benefits of business class are the people you sit next to.

We flew back from Bologna last night and I met a pair of fascinating men. They were dressed pretty well, nice looking blazers and expensive shoes, and they said they had flown over to Italy on Alitalia but were returning on the business class service provided by Eurofly. It's a new service to parts of Italy that never had direct flights from the US, like Bologna and Pesaro, on the Adriatic.

I got to talking to them and they said they were in Italy for the 60th anniversary of Ferrari. One of them said he owned a Ferrari dealership on Long Island the other said he owned some of the sports cars. "How many?" I asked. "I've got 18 now," he said. I asked if he drove them all, and he said yes.

Ferraris are very much in style these days, said the dealership owner, Michael Mastrangelo. There is a two-and-a-half year wait from day of ordering to delivery. You can choose between many colors, not just the racing red. A custom color costs only $15,000 more. I asked them what the difference is between people who buy Lamborghinis and Ferraris. "Ferraris have the Formula One tradition, the others are more for exotic car collectors."

I asked them about the story in the NY Times that cited a rash of crashes of Ferraris and other exotics. "They really blindsided us with that," he said, "these are some of the safest cars in the world because they're built for racing." He was misquoted and said he prefers to do interviews by email because of it.

We were in Maranella the same day as a parade of 1500 Ferraris whose owners drove them from all over the Europe. Like these two, we missed that event but got to see lots of the cars in the gallery parking lot. I kept thinking of new questions to ask Michael...but decided to email them to him instead.

Stefano Shines a Light on the Mafia and the Black Market

Sometimes the people you travel with can give you as much interesting information as the local guides. We found this out every night at dinner when our friend Stefano Vaccara would share his thoughts about Italy over glasses of wine and bowls of pasta in Bologna.

Our last night found us in a grotto...we entered down a long ramp and there were rows and rows of bottles on the walls. Stefano teaches about Italian life and culture at the New School and edits an Italian language magazine called America Oggi. We talked about the mafia. He grew up in Sicily and I asked about whether today's mafia is as powerful as it was in earlier decades.

"Do you know the one that thing really killed them? The one thing that deflated them and had the most disasrous effect was a visit in 1992 of Pope John Paul II, the Polish Pope. He wasn't scared of them, and he spoke to a crowd in Agrigento of about one million. He directed his message directly--"You women, he preached, you donne, you help the mafia, if you do this you are no longer members of the church."

From this day forward, he said, the mafia was never as strong, this blow was right to their heart. The mafia was and is always about power, not money, different from in the US.

We also talked about Italy's black market economy, where as much as 40% of the labor is untaxed. "In the south of Italy, they sell more Fiats than the income on the books could possibly support," Stefano said. Italy has much more money than anyone ever lets on, and this broken system just seems to work. It's almost impossible to fire someone here, in a big company. The only way is if they don't show up, but basically, you can't get fired," he told us.

Even though this restricts employers and takes away flexibility, the place is still a joy to visit and most people are happy. So a broken system, I guess, is one I'd love to live in.

A Day of Dance and Culture in Ravenna

Today's journey was on a crowded back road to the lovely town of Ravenna, near the Adriatic coast. Since it was Saturday, the autostrada was crowded so our driver chose to take us through small towns from Bologna.

Ravenna once had more than 200 churches, we learned from our beautiful raven-haired guide Paola Golinelli. Now there are far fewer but the round church of St. Vitale was particularly striking. The frescoes here date back to the sixth century, they are very detailed and show hundreds of colors way, way, up on the ceiling and the high walls. It was hard to believe these intricate designs, showing biblical tales and local gentry and clergy, still stand out so brightly. We craned our necks as Paola used a laser pointer to show how the bodies of the people were depicted, so unlike later mosaics which made people look stiff and one-dimensional.

Later we had lunch at the sunny caffe Grand Italia, and it was once again simple and delicious--small calimari stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes, parsely and breadcrumbs, a pasta with walnuts, clams, zucchini, and fresh tomatoes with mozzarella.

We had a date at the Alighieri Theater to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. Based loosely on the classic of the same name, and using an allegory about the British Royal family, the wordless dance performance was remarkable...you can't believe how much acting and emoting you can do without saying anything. The hall was packed with dressed up young and old Ravennians, who loved the exciting show and applauded wildly at the end.

Dancing in the Piazza Maggiore, Bologna

Last night we experienced true Italian culture. Sitting in the Piazza Maggiore, the huge square in the middle of Bologna, we enjoyed a program of ballet and modern dance. After one of our group was introduced over the loudspeakers as being a 'guest from CBS News London' and the aisles filled to overflowing with spectators, the lights came down and the sounds of classical music began.

Before the show we met the director of this prestigious group, Frederic Olivieri, who is from France and has lived in Bologna since 1997. He has taken his professional troupe to the world's major cities, and will be in Bejing for the Olympics next year. This performance was of the students in the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, tomorrow's stars some of whom will join the pros in the years ahead.

It was inspiring that so many people here pack a performance for dance. And the dancers were lovely, the gestures, the graceful lines, the artistic flow using their bodies to show emotions. I've never been a big dance fan but this one really struck me. It was simply beautiful and the litheness and grace of the young men and women kept us riveted.

Then we retired to a pizzaria for an eleven o'clock pizza and some beers. The pizzas here all come solo--no sharing of pies--and they aren't cut up. My anchovie and fresh mozzarella version was perfect and nobody complained about my little fishies.

A Ferrari Fantasy in Maranello

Let the Mamas Squirt in Bologna's Piazza Grande

This statue of Neptune is famous because at one time the Pope wanted to cover up the God's privates...and he didn't like these squirting mamas either. But today, Bolognese like to have it all show, so no censorship is allowed and the water sprouts from these moms on all four corners below the great god. Just next to it a water fountain constantly fills water bottles for thirsty visitors.

"Tortellone Testarossa" Is What We Call It

Today we drove over to a neighboring city that, like Bologna, doesn't get enough attention from American travelers. That city is Modena, where Enzo Ferrari began making his classic sports cars in 1947. Like the market for private jets and oversized luxury vacation homes, the business of expensive cars is booming. And the branding alone makes Ferrari a legend of the market, not just the track.

We joined the legions scooping up die cast metal replicas of the great cars, and picked through the $40 hats and $35 tee shirts in the Ferrari store. Everything was the requisite racing red...from the buses in the lot to the shirts on the baristas at the cafe.

We met a man outside of the plant who works on the Ferrari's wiring systems. He said his favorite old one was the Enzo, which is no longer made...and when we asked him what he drove, he shook his head and sadly admitted to piloting a Fiat, (owner of Ferrari) not a Testarossa or the 599, his current fav.

That name came up again when we climbed a winding road up a mountain in our van to visit the lovely La Noce restaurant. Here Georgio Muzzarelli presides as cellar master of a balsamic vinegar empire. The meal was exquisite...I must say it surpassed even the three-star Michelin chef in Burgundy. That's because of the 60-year old balsamic that he doled out in eyedropper portions over the parmesan and the bread. Plus the simplicity and freshness.

Muzzarelli had a new menu item up his sleeve. His wife had made a large tortellone, almost like a 4" ravioli of fresh pasta, and it was served with a dollop of their sour cherry jam and was filled with parmesan and ricotta. He asked us for suggestions for names for this new creation on the menu.

We decided that 'Tortellone Testarossa' fit the bill. That's red head tortellone. We sipped the fizzy but dry Pignoletto Frizzante, a white, and helped ourselves to a few more drops of the 25-year-old balsamic on the table.

It's settled. Dining at La Noce with the simple menu of sliced pork, a sauce of aged balsamic and a crisp salad beats anything we've had so far or for me, even the famous French chefs. And we hope our name sticks too!

A Delicious New Dish at La Noce Restaurant

This dish will soon be available at La Noce with a new name:
'Tortellone Testarossa.'

In Bologna the Streets Are Alive at 12:30 AM

Bologna is well known in Italy as a center--a center geographically, a place where nearly all railroads and major highways intersect, in short the center of it all. Yet to Americans, few even know about this city. One person we told thought we were going to Germany when she heard the name.

Last night we hopped between osterias, beginning with a little hole in the wall called Olindo Faccioli, where we sat in the back in a big square table. This place has been here since 1924, the son of the founder brought us lambrusco and little puffs of fried dough and breadsticks. Outside a protest against Facisism was marching by, led by carabineiri, mostly young men and women tatooed and following a man on a truck yelling into speakers, alternating with rap music. Our wine bar was right next to one of the city's towers, these lean precariously and have many legends behind them of how they were built and paid for.

The city was bustling on this the longest day of the year. In the huge San Petronio basilica there is a tiny hole in the ceiling. On this day a beam of light spreads across a path marked on the floor, all the way down to the end. On a wall there is a fresco that depicts Mohammed naked and about to be eaten by the devil, a rare depiction of he who is not supposed to be depicted. Would-be bombers were foiled a few years ago when they tried to bomb this the fourth largest Christian church in the world. Now one must enter through a check point, and the evocative fresco is surrounded by fences.

We walked the busy narrow streets as scooters whizzed past and ended up at an outside table at Il Cantinone, a friendly place where we had pasta and absurdly large plates of salad. Pasta here is so al dente, I found out that it isn't just how they cook it, it's that they use a harder grain. So good, god the pasta is so good, we sat out there and finally walked home at 12:30. People were still sitting and talking politics in the square.

You Never Get Wet in Bologna

No matter what the weather is doing, strolling the sidewalks of this ancient city is a breeze with the covered porticos on all the major boulevards. The city is filled with 100,000 students and many of the streets are too small for a car to pass by. At twelve midnight we walked home and the cafes, restaurants and streets were filled with people. On a Wednesday night!

Journalists Talk About the Hot Topics in the News

Last night we drove out of the center of Bologna to the sprawling offices of a local newspaper chain called QN, where they publish many tabloid newspapers that serve different cities in Italy. Our hosts ushered us into an opulent executive board room, where we saw all of the newspapers and books that are printed here. I asked Stefania Dal Rio and Pierluigi Masini about the issues that concern their readers the most.

Pierluigi paused and answered slowly in English. He told us that on October 14, eighteen of the left wing parties here will try to coalesce into one. This is a big step, trying to assemble this diverse group into one unified party.But the issue that grips most people here is crime, and safety in the streets. Immigration has severely affected Italy, he said. North Africans, Albanians and other Eastern Europeans have descended on the region bringing a different way of life--and more street crime.

"There are ten nations represented in my kid's school," he said. "They bring their way of life and their cultures here, and there are problems. "Twenty years ago, we would leave our keys in the door in Bologna, today never. This used to be the safest city but that is not true any more," said Stefania.

The mayor in Bologna is an up and comer who is making quite a splash. He is Sergio Cofferati, a former trade union boss who is bringing the issue of safety up day after day. "He is the first leftist politician to do this, and people are taking notice," they told us.

I asked them about whether their papers have seen the declines in ads and readers that we see in the US. He said that the readership remains strong, but is not growing. The competition is fierce--there are four free daily papers, and nine papers in all covering Bologna. They publish many different tabloids and all use the same outer section but inside 'the heart of the paper' is a local news section about a particular city. We toured the newsroom and met the managing editor, who showed us photos that would be in the next day's paper: they were of terrible graffiti vandalism that has desecrated local churches and a museum.

The papers here don't print as many stories about gossip or Hollywood, they focus more on issues and politics. I asked them about Italian TV. "It is unwatchable, there is nothing, no content" said Stefania. One of the journalists commented that the papers here are serious, while the TV programs are full of fluff and scantily clad women. Bologna is a political city, people like to read about the issues. The papers are serious but the TV programs are not.

Bologna Welcomes Us with the Sound of Scooters

We have reached our destination, the hotel Al Capello Rosso, in the center of Bologna. We were beat from the trip so slept for a while but now the second wind is coming and we're off to meet some folks who work for the local newspaper.

Our tripmates are distinguished. Joe from the Boston Globe whose stories I've read in their Sunday magazine. A man named Frank who carries a big video camera and works for CBS. Another fellow named Stephano who writes for a US Italian language paper over in Jersey. And of course Max and Cindy from that well-known and well traveled website called GoNOMAD.com.

So far Bologna has been much more full of motorbikes than the bicycles that dominate Copenhagen. Here is is scooter-ville. The center of the city has two famous towers that lean and dominate the sky. We're about to head out now that I'm almost done with the laptop chores for the day.

Don't Cry for Terry Semel, He's Still Got His Jet

We are in the Lounge at JFK, waiting for our 8 pm flight to Bologna. Time to read the NY Times and find out more about Terry Semel's departure as head of Yahoo. I wrote about him a few months ago, and it didn't take a fortune teller to predict that the former Warner Bros. executive was bound to lose his corner office soon. After Wired wrote a piece that basically said that Semel didn't understand or appreciate the complexities of the web, and after Yahoo's Panama ad service didn't make their stock go up, what else was going to happen?

The story in the Times mentioned that Semel has collected $451 million in salary and stock benefits so far. So how noble it was of him to forego the additional $92 million he would have received if he stayed another three years.

The most salient point in the story was made by a stock analyst. He said that with the score so dominated by Google in search, there was no way that Yahoo would not try to merge with a bigger player like Microsoft or AOL. "My bet: Yahoo wont' be an independent company in 12 months."

A China-based Rip-off of Our Good Work

Curse you JianWei Guo! I wish you evil and bad fortune for stealing our website and trying to make money from our labors. You'll regret what you did! I felt my blood pressure rise today after I stumbled once again on a site that is based in LuoYang, China. It's a complete rip-off of our GoNOMAD.com site, and is designed to make money by putting up ads on stolen repackaged content.

These scoundrels from China took the entire GoNOMAD website and copied it. Then they replaced every mention of our name with their own, called Popular-link. Using a copy of our site from 2005, they created a huge site of their own by copying our pages and substituting their name over ours. They even pretend to have their own blogs, again clumsily pasted over versions with no new content.

They have no interest in publishing...they just want to make money pretending that they have content. We know that content doesn't come easy---we've got to pay for it and edit it and get permission to use photos etc. It's a hard job and you could say imitation is the fondest form of flattery. But we think JianWei should go to jail for theft instead.

Brad and Bo Help Springfield Wake Up

Brad and Bo helped me wake up this morning on their WHYN-AM morning show. I often think about these guys if for some reason I am awake at 5 am, that they are heading into work. Wow! That takes a special kind of discipline! I did a segment at 8 am today talking about Denmark. On their WHYN website they had a mention of my segment and posted a photo of the Truffle King of Croatia. There is the guy holding a plate of baseball-sized truffles. Not sure why he is there but those truffles look great!

I told them my impressions of Copenhagen, the city that I think works better than most in the world. I told them that if you go you've gotta love herring, and Brad enthusiastically jumped in, he being a relative rare American who does love the stuff. "Herring is the sushi of Scandinavia" our guide Hendrik told us, and indeed, the buffet of herring in so many ways was a tempting treat. I've got an article coming out soon in the Valley Advocate about how bikes are taken more seriously in Denmark and how we might learn from them.

Now it's time to get ready for another journey. Tomorrow Cindy and I will board a Eurofly jet out of JFK for a flight to Bologna, Italy. Reading up on the city, we learned that there are two towers in the center of the city that lean...and that Bologna is teeming with students, art and culture. We are going to be visiting the very new Museum of Modern Art of Bologna, and will visit Modena, where Ferrari is located. Stay tuned and read all about it.

"Strangely Compelling: " Tossing Bread to Carp

I read Saturday's WSJ and quickly found a topic to write about: strangely compelling fish feeding in Pennsylvania. It seems that throwing bread to a swirling, aggressive bunch of carp is becoming a big tourist draw in Linesville, PA. It's the Pymatuning State Park, and the state is pouring money into the infrastructure to make more parking lots and a better platform from which to toss the stale bread and dinner rolls to the fish.

The story compared tourist numbers and found the fish on top: Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house (136,000 visitors last year) and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, where 84,000 people came through paled in comparison to Pymatuning, with 400,000 visitors.

"Despite all of the fattening, the fish rarely make it to the dining room table. At a carp-eating contest in Linesville two years ago, organizers substituted other types of fish rather than serve bony carp."

One woman named Mary McDonald drives her van to bakeries three times a week to buy around 1000 loaves of 'oldish bread,' and she charges tourists $3 a bag for 4-5 loaves to throw into the roiling mass of fish. Tee shirts that say 'Carpe Feed'm' are on sale at the park.

'The Statue' Makes His Comeback Against His Legend

Today's WSJ included a story about a man they call 'The Statue." He's Jose Tomas, Spain's most famous and legendary modern bullfighter, and this Sunday he has all of the nation's eyes upon him. Though the sport is having a tough time, Tomas might be its second coming.

In a story by Keith Johnson, I learned that Barcelona is the seat of the most vocal opposition to the cruel sport of bullfighting in Spain. The man, the legend, also known as 'the second coming,' in bull fighting fandom, is coming back to the sport after a five year hiatus.

All of the nagging bullfight promoters and a fear of dying in the ring made him quit in 2002. He just up and quit and did not even answer his cellphone. Like Elvis, there were sightings. He ended up playing semipro soccer and bummed around, and his absence "left a big empty crater in bullfighting," said Paco Aguado, a bullfight historian.

By returning to the city where the most bullfighting opponents live, he's 'poking the eye of the antibullfighting crowd' even though this is the place where more fights have taken place than any other city in Spain. Only one of three rings still stand, one was turned into a shopping center.

The Torero faces not only the bull, said the story, but his old repuation as the best in the ring. "His only true rival, and by far the most dangerous, is the old Jose Tomas," said a fan.

Does One Man Deserve $7.5 Billion? He Thinks So

Today's WSJ includes a profile of Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman. He's one of the people who make the most money of anyone on earth. He buys and sells companies, and does it with such ruthlessness that he's made millions. And now that the company is going public, his take will be $7.5 billion. The article portrays a man who is as serious off duty as he is on.

"He expects lunches of cold soup, a cold entree such as lobster salad or fresh grilled tuna on salad, followed by dessert. He eats the three-course meal in 15 minutes. Often he spends $3000 for a weekend of food, including stone crabs that cost $400, or $40 per claw."

When he celebrated his 60th birthday, Schwarzman said no to any teasing or roasting. He asked his peers not to poke fun at him. Guests including Colin Powell and Mayor Mike Bloomberg dined on lobster and listened to Patti LaBelle and Rod Stewart. Children in military uniforms ushered in guests, and the Park Avenue Armory was decorated to look like his sprawling apartment.

To those who sniff that one man couldn't possibly deserve such paychecks, he scoffs. He said he's created wealth for pension funds owned by good people like cops, teachers and civil servants. He said the ones we should rail about are CEOs whose companies stock falters and they still get big checks.

In the Little Towne, We Are All Connected

One of my favorite things about living and working in a close knit neighborhood is the intimacy between all of us, whose working lives intersect in so many ways. We do business together, drink coffee together and laugh at eachother's jokes.

Mornings in the cafe, I am surrounded by my oldest friends--Joe O'Rourke, Paul Hartshorne, Bill Hewitt, Steve Hartshorne and Joe Obeng are all regulars who come in and browse the papers while sipping coffee.

Then the local business people with whom we do business pop in. Marcy Schwartz owns a dog grooming shop down a few blocks.
Mike Rose works at Leader Home Center and comes in for his daily bagels. Jay Di Pucchio owns a company that is making big plastic globes in town. Then there are the legions who come from right across the street, where CISA and the Woodlands Foundation are located.

There are many others who come in every day who I greet but can't remember their names. The cafe is their place to get away from work, and sink into a chair and have private time to read the papers.

I am always breezing in and out of the cafe and I get to say hello to many of them. We are working on Marcy's dog grooming website now. We buy sundries and lumber all the time from Mike down at Leaders. Joe works on all of their computers, and Joe also works for me at GoNOMAD. Bill designed our counters and some of our cabinets. Jim Taylor is our sign guy, he also did our renovations in February when we expanded the cafe.

We are all interconnected in the little towne. And I love it!

It was the Audience that Got Whacked in the Sopranos

David Blum writes in the NY Sun that the Sopranos has elevated the common bloggers and showed that the mainstream critics don't matter much any more. Here is his commentary on the despised final episode.

"At his blog "The House Next Door," the erudite Matt Zoller Seitz (also of the Newark Star-Ledger, Tony Soprano's daily paper) had — as he often did — a terrific take on the final moment. "The lack of resolution — the absolute and deliberate failure, or more accurately, refusal, to end this thing — was exactly right," he posted at 12:05 Monday morning. "It felt more violent, more disturbing, more unfair than even the most savage murders Chase has depicted over the course of six seasons, because the victim was us. He ended the series by whacking the viewer."

Smart and insightful, but obviously untrue — as Mr. Seitz and others proved Monday by their ability to analyze and interpret Mr. Chase's final hour. One of the lasting legacies of " The Sopranos" may be that television criticism belongs not to the old critical warhorses like the Times and the New Yorker, but to the bloggers and mid-level critics who watch television with passion, not disdain. Their reviews and essays embrace the narrative power of television by chronicling it week after bloody week.

As HBO defines the future of the medium by mounting serial dramas and comedies — like " The Sopranos" and " Sex and the City" and even, in some ways, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" — it will be the bloggers and insta-critics following closely behind that make it exciting, interpreting and Monday-morning-quarterbacking in ways that have changed the face of criticism. Mr. Chase wasn't whacking the audience; he was whacking the old-school critical establishment for creating lofty literary expectations he had no desire to fulfill."

Time to Set the Alarm: Joining Tom Vannah at 6:45 am

Tomorrow morning I'll rise a little earlier than usual. That's because I am joining Tom Vannah of the Valley Advocate on his new radio show at 6:30 am. The Van Man has his new gig and it's going strong weekdays from 5:30 till 9. He's the morning man on the venerable Northampton station WHMP-AM 1400.

I've been on with him before and we had fun...an easy exchange and no awkward moments. I love radio...it is always exciting to do a segment with Arthur's Around the World, or banter with Brad and Bo on WHYN. Now I will be a regular on Tom's new morning gig, and we will see where it leads, and what kinds of conversations come up. I love talking about what's going on in the Valley, and Tom wants to capture the spirit and energy of those of us who have made it what it is, starting from the renaissance of Northampton in the early '80s. I can think of many people who would be good guests to come on the show.

These guys are putting a major effort out, and their website has archived all of the shows, so people can go back and grab Mp3's of any past shows. Great idea since many times people miss the early morning broadcasts, and why not give them the chance to catch it again.

Saturday, In the Park, Doing it Under the Blanket

I got a chance to feel like a Copenhager yesterday when I got out on a bicycle to tour the city. The flood of bikes is unceasing, and the first thing you hear upon exiting a taxi is 'watch out for the bikes!' After dodging the three and two wheelers who come flying at you every time you look to the right, it was my turn to become one of them.

At our hotel, the cozy Betrams on Vesterbrogade, they have bikes available for guests. I picked up my steed, it was the typical city bike. Big fenders, a rack, padded seat, three gears and curious-looking lights on either wheel. These are powered by magnetic energy, little metal pieces rotate with the tires and power flashing red and white lights in front and back...ingenious!

Pictured here is a City Bike, these are public bikes that you can pop a 20 Kroner coin into to unlock and use, and then you leave it locked for the next fellow and get your 20 Kr back. there are 1500 of them on the streets, about 20 percent get stolen each year.

I set out and pedaled with the flow, trying to get to a woman's clothing store to find a purse that our guide had that I thought would be a great birthday present for my daughter. Drat, they were closed, so I pedaled on to the city's main square. Eventually I circled back and rode into a lovely green park, with long stretches of green. On one of the hills a couple was atop one another under a blanket. I noticed a curious rhythm to their movements, the up and down motion clearly indicated that this was one hot blanket scene. Even with the kids and moms right down the hill, their sex continued unabated. Then she emerged topless to sit and scan the scene, they both bore contented smiles.

I kept on pedaling, past picnickers who were enjoying the unseasonably warm temperatures, some with soccer balls, others with bottles of wine, and most with bikes that had taken them into the park. I vowed to have our own picnic, and relax next Sunday afternoon, as this park and this bike inspired me.

Dinner at Jacob and Pia Marie's: The Art of Conversation

Our last night in Copenhagen was our best. That's because we met such interesting people and learned all about their lives at an intimate dinner party held in a spacious art-filled apartment in the city. Jacob Termansen and Pia Marie Molbech are a glamorous and successful couple who photograph top hotels together around the world. They create coffee-table books showing luscious photos of the properties and of high-end homes. He shoots the photos using a 6 x 8 format camera and Pia Marie styles the sets. It's a wonderful arrangement that brings them to Singapore, the US and to this art-filled apartment at different times of the year. They also visit hotels on islands around the world for their shoots.

I sat next to an architect named Torsten who designs buildings in Denmark, Greenland, and Kuwait. He told me about the 18 families who run the gulf country--there are only about 700,000 natives and more than two million guest workers who handle the work. He said the competition is tough--there are a lot of hungry architects from Egypt, Pakistan and other places so he has to work for much less there. But he likes the work and has many projects under way. He does city planning and large developments.

Jacob, a tall bearded man with an easy smile, showed us around his the large apartment where original artwork filled every wall, and the ceilings were about 12 feet high. On one shelf stood an assortment of phaluses, from nine inches all the way up to three feet. Down on the floor was a cast of an upturned pudenda, looking appropriate there with all of the penises on the shelf above. In each room the artwork called out at you, it was attention grabbing and one-of-a-kind throughout.

We also met a woman who works at a Copenhagen free daily newspaper. It's one of four such freebies in a viciously cut-throat market where the press not only gives the papers away, but home delivers more than 500,000 copies to nearly every household in Denmark. "We are losing about $200,000 per day on this," she said, "but we have to do it so that the outsiders (a company from Iceland) doesn't gain a foothold here."

The mark of a good dinner party is how long you stay seated at the table. With our vigorous conversation and the interesting company, we sat from 8 pm til 1:30 in the morning. It was a fine way to end this visit to Denmark, a country whose people have proved to be among the most dynamic and interesting in the world!

The Gold Coast to Elsinore and Kronborg Castle

We drove up the Danish coast today. It was a gloriously sunny day, a good day for the beach. The houses here on the gold coast toward the city of Elsinore were stately and set back from the road. It was, as our guide told us, the high rent district.

We pulled into where a ferry docks that goes back and forth between Denmark and Sweden. They were going to build that big connecting bridge between the two countries here...it would have made sense since it is about a third of the distance of the longer span further south. But the currents of the water somehow made this too difficult. In the distance we could see Kronborg Castle, a huge square edifice with towers...this was the famous castle where Hamlet was set.

Inside we saw what you'd expect inside a castle--a vast courtyard, tapestries, paintings, and old furniture. But in another wing there was a maritime museum that fascinated me, though I was the only one of us who wanted to see it. The museum showed lifesize depictions of what cabins on freighter ships looked like and some of the models showed modern containerships, groaning with hundreds of stacked containers. They fall off the ships in heavy seas, I've heard.

Ship models of all shapes and sizes waited inside glass boxes. I read a story about Jonas Bronk. In 1639, he bought a 40-square-mile tract of land from the local indians. It was later known as the Bronx. More than 300,000 Danes emigrated over to the US during the heyday of crossings. It reached its peak in 1910, when one million immigrants came to the US.

Some of the ships in the museum were built just to carry this massive wave of humanity. The flow of people continued until about 1921, when quotas began to be put into effect. The ships carried fewer and fewer immigrants and tried to revive their business by taking immigrants back the other way. By the mid-thirties the ships were sold off, there was not enough traffic to keep them going. I also learned that early in the 20th century, the Danes sold the island of St. Thomas to the US for $25 million. Without slaves their businesses there were not worth pursuing.

Inside the Ice Bar, Copenhagen

You enter into a freezer chamber and don this huge furry cape with gloves. Then you order a drink that comes in a piece of frozen ice shaped like a glass. You drink it in the Ice Bar, where everyone is bundled up and it is about zero. After one, you're ready to move to the next bar, which will be a little warmer.

In Copenhagen, US Policies Don't Stir People Up

It's our last full day in Denmark, and today we'll drive up the coast to Elsinore and Kronborg castle, the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Being in Scandinavia has made me think a lot about the priorities here versus what I am used to in the US. I've had this same feeling traveling in Europe from time to time, where I felt that the things that matter most to people and government here are closer to my heart.

The people put the priority into transportation systems that are truly sustainable and reasonably clean for the environment. They pay taxes of about 50% here in Denmark, but get back free health care, university, subsidized daycare, a system of railways, buses, bike paths and trams that makes having a car unnecessary. Their government is not leading them with out of synch war efforts in faraway lands, but instead, spending their tax money in far less objectionable ways.

Despite what our US administration is doing to make us cringe, and wish we didn't have to answer for them, no one here has said a thing about GW Bush or our war folly. Not a peep, not even an offhand remark. As has been the case so many times in Europe, whatever sentiments against our government may be on people's minds just isn't polite to share with us. We find ourselves bashing Bush but no one rises to take the bait.

The Torso Twisted, Where Mystery Drinks Are Served

This oddly shaped skyscraper is the tallest part of the city of Malmo's amazing transformation. A Saab plant and a shipyard threw 29,000 out of work. So the city built this new area of parks, connected housing and common areas, environmentally cutting edge building and development right in this area where the sea laps the shore. It's a beautifully designed place for living and like so much in this part of the world, just makes sense.

We had dinner in a restaurant near the bottom of this tower, and they have a two sided menu. One side is white, and is a normal menu. On the back is a black menu that tempts diners and drinkers to 'visit the dark side,' and allow the server to choose what you'll eat and drink. "But if you just want to order a vodka tonic, go ahead."

Sailing Like the Vikings in Roskilde

It's another sunny hot day in Denmark, and we sailed a Viking boat in Roskilde, just outside of Copenhagen. Our captain spoke in a low voice, telling us to row starboard, or row port, or rest. We made our way out of this harbor. We could see the Viking ship museum on the shoreline. Tall picture windows framed the relics of the six ships that have been recreated here. A man with a stylus traces the shapes of each plank recovered from the sea, and one-tenth size miniatures can be created. They've built a replica of the 30 meter vessel and this summer will sail from here all the way to Dublin!

Then we had a Viking meal using wooden spoons and forks, simple foods that our host at cafe Snekkan said were from a menu derived from researching the Viking's diet. Salmon, roast chicken, salads with seeds and nuts. "The Vikings, as you probably know, weren't the nicest people...they marauded, sacked, and took neighboring peoples as slaves," said our guide Rikke Johansen. "We don't glorify them or try to say anything different."

The museum includes a rack full of Viking clothing that people can try on, and pose with swords and long pikes. I took a rare shot of Paul festooned with his cape and sword looking like a fierce marauder himself.

We learned that Danes and Swedes have a word for something that's very important here. To have a long coffee and conversation, that's called a fika. I hope that there are many fikas going on right now in the GoNOMAD Cafe!

Watch Out for Speeding Bikes!

It was a very warm and sunny day in Scania. Here is a bike parking lot near the train station in Lund, a city of about 40,000 where they have preserved buildings that you can explore and see just how people lived back in the 1700s.

I often wish that the US would be as aggressive in promoting bicycle use, it's such a sensible and friendly way to get around. With bike stoplights and dedicated lanes on nearly every street, it's plain easier to rely on a bike to get to work.

Over the Big Bridge to Scania--Southern Sweden

The sun poured into the room at an ungodly hour, so my wake-up call at 7:15 was redundant. It gets light at about 4:30 am here, a long day. We drove over the 16 km Oresund Bridge, a combination of tunnels and graceful sweeping spindles, and drove along the flat green fields of Scania, Southern Sweden. Our guide, Jessica Jonsson, told us that this was the country's breadbasket, here most of the lovely white potatoes, rapeseed, and other crops are grown. Windmills slowly twirled in the distance as we drove in the van toward Ales Stenar, all the way on the eastern coast.

Here we saw the stones. We parked next to the rich fishing harbor of Loderup. Up a hill, at the end of a windy path, the Ales Stenar, or Ales stones waited for us. These are 59 boulders standing on end, a sort-of poor man's Stonehenge, with all of the same mystery and ancient intrigue. The position of the stones on either end lined up with the locations of the sun on the longest and shortest days of the year, the all important solstice. It's a stone ship and with us were a crowd of teenagers smoking, joshing and kicking a soccer ball outside next to the stones.

We learned that people in Sweden are taxed far less than their brothers across the bridge in Denmark. And they get paid more due to the higher currency value in Sweden. So many many Danes live over in Sweden, and commute using the railway over this bridge to their jobs in Copenhagen. It's becoming one region, there was not much of a customs check, we just drove through. By the side of the road, I saw two deer standing in an open wheat field.

Tina Sums Up The Four Elements of a Tourism Campaign

Tonight we met a young family who live just outside Copenhagen's city center. The house was a perfect metaphor, in some ways, for how the people here live. Small, compact, cozy and well designed.

Tina Baungaard Jensen, who works for Visit Denmark as their international press officer, told us the goals of the country's marketing, summed up in four words: Simple. Pure. Design. Perfection. The design aspects were everywhere in her little three-story house: Elegant orange chairs with a perfect curve, designed by Jacobsen. A tiny black, round wood stove, only about two feet wide, with a full glass face and a little log storage area below the firebox. Wooden exposed beams in a bedroom that added a natural and outdoorsy look.

The appliances in the house were all compact, much smaller than anything you'd see in the U.S. In the finished basement, a tiny corner bathroom with a Liliputian sink in a corner. Tidy stacked halfpint washer/dryer. The small yard had a little greenhouse, and inside, herbs stood ready to pick for cooking, and a tree produced a berry called hyldebomst that Tina made into a refreshing drink, that tasted like lemonade and apple juice.

Her children were delighted to welcome the strange-talking guests from America. Her five-year-old boy named Asgar showed us his bunk beds and his three-year-old brother happily proclaimed 'good night' in English, (it's nearly the same in Danish, unbeknowst to us). Tina's roast chicken was free-range, and the aoli sauce was a savory dip for the breadsticks. It was a treat to be able to have a family meal here, and learn what daily life is like for a typical Danish household.

Wonderful Copenhagen: How to Eat Herring

Our friendly and outgoing guide Henrik Thierlein told us that herring is the Scandinavian sushi. And that the proper way to eat herring was on a piece of buttered whole grain brown bread, with a fork.

We toured this lovely city filled with canals how else? By boat. There are even boat bus stops, and the canals wind their way in and out of the old city. We passed by the house once lived in by Hans Christian Anderson. We had lunch at 'The Black Diamond,' an architectural gem in modern black glass and angles that make you seasick.

We passed the famous symbol of Copenhagen: The little Mermaid statue. It was surrounded by Japanese tourists, snapping photos. Our ferry boat guide told us that the head had been sawed off twice. But she looks fine today. Henrik took us through the Tivoli Gardens, another icon of this place, it is so much more than gardens. It is towering amusement rides, swinging chairs a few hundred feet up in the air, it is a gracious towering theater, and it is a paper facade that shows where a new gigantic emporium will be built soon. Today the facade marks the exact shape of things to come.

After a rest in the cozy Hotel Bertrams I am recharged. And ready to join my fellow writers Jenny, Lisa, Heather, our guide from NYC, and my favorite shooter, Paul, at a Danish dinner at Tina Baungaard Jenson's home.

Copenhagen & Oresund Sweden is Our Next Destination

I am a bit nervous and scattered. That's because ahead of me is a 4-hour drive to Newark Airport, then a 5:50 pm flight on SAS to Copenhagen. Paul Shoul and I are going on a trip that is billed as "A Thousand Year Odyssey," it will include the Danish city and then a trip over a very long bridge to the Oresund region of Sweden.

We will see ancient Viking boats, and enjoy the 24-hour sun of summer in Sweden. It's a short trip, we fly back Sunday. But it is always taxing and anxiety filled when I have to depart in the morning of a trip. So many things to wonder about. So many things I gotta do.

But when we sit back on the plane and sip white wine, and laugh about our fortune of being on another junket to a strange and marvelous place, we'll be relaxed and begin to unwind. Then we'll begin blogging, and note-taking, and pretty soon we'll be able to share our trip with thousands of others who tag along reading the blogs or read the articles on the website. Good bye soggy rainy New England--hello Little Mermaid!

Matacanes, Mexico, Where You Swim in Caves

Sean Healy wrote an article for GoNOMAD about Matacanes: Underwater rivers in Mexico. Beautiful photos of swimmers in gorges.

"This is one of the least traveled, under-discovered, serene and beautiful places I have ever been. Emerald moss blankets rock and tree; a veritable cornucopia of plant life surrounds us and the sound of exotic birds and waterfalls echoes through the valley.

Waterfalls?! That’s a reassuring sound. Surely we can’t be far. And we weren’t. Around the next corner the truck stops and Alberto yells, “Salgan.”

“Base camp” is little more than a shed, some free-range chickens, and fresh air. Alberto instructs us on squeezing into our wetsuits, strapping on the harnesses, and affixing our helmets securely to our cherished heads. We hike for an additional thirty minutes through tall pines and fallen cones.

I decide to befriend our local guide and so question Alberto about the area. He informs me that we’re on a large cattle ranch and the cows – and bulls – roam free. He smiles and says that if I hear a thunderous rumbling to climb the nearest tree because “Tu no quieres ser golpeado por toros huyendo en disorden.” And right he was, I did not want to be hit by bulls fleeing in disorder – literal translations are a joyful pastime of mine.

Sgt Peppers: "Smell the Sawdust" Said Lennon

Allan F. Moore has written a new book about a record that changed the American music landscape. I read a piece about the book in the WSJ a few weeks back.

The Beatle's Sgt Pepper album, which was released in 1967 was and is considered a revolutionary recording. Just before it came out, John Lennon told George Martin that the group was done with touring.

They had been heckled and hassled in the Philippines. This was after John's "we're more famous than Jesus," comment, and the band was fighting and the tour was a bummer.

So they retired to Abbey Road to make the record of the decade. After it came out, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys gave up on his "Smile" project and descended down into a funk.

John told the engineer who was recording the song Mr. Kite that he wanted to 'smell the sawdust' because the song was a circus poster sung to life. The producer tried his best to capture this essense of the circus, though he wasn't really sure what Lennon meant.

Lee Abrams, a VP at XM satellite radio, said that the production and stereo effects of Pepper sounded so bad on AM radio that it influenced the further development of free-form FM stations. "It really helped foster the stereo age, which created the need for FM," he said. "We finally could listen to these songs on the radio and have it sound as good as our stereos."

Valerie in her Blawenburg Garden

My mom's very proud of her well cultivated and carefully nurtured gardens. Here she shows Cindy and I this season's progress.

The Blue Door of Skillman

Does the USA Need Another Football League?

We're down in New Jersey visiting my parents in their lovely home in Blawenburg. Mom's garden is luscious, and in full bloom. One thing I love about visiting here is how many fascinating newspapers and magazines are all around us. I picked up the NY Times Sunday sports magazine and read a piece by Joe Nocera about a new professional football league being planned for 2008. It's a long shot and the path is littered with failed endeavors: remember the pathetic USFL, or the wrestling style XFL?

Nocera interviews Bill Hambrecht, and describes him as "a rich old Wall Street guy, who has made his money tilting at windmills and disrupting the establishment." He scans the horizon of today's NFL and identifies some weakness--in 21 of the top 50 markets, there is no NFL team. So these are the target cities for the new United Football League.

The other question is talent, but this hurdle is easier to overcome than it appears. According to Bill Walsh, the legendary SF coach, "the last 20 players cut from every team were almost interchangeable with the last 20 players to make the team." So there will not be a problem getting good talent on the field.

The other opening being exploited by the new league is a 1961 law prohibiting NFL games on Friday nights. That was to preserve the traditional high school football games. But the UFL can jump in and possibly televise their games on a nationwide cable network like USA, TNT or Versus, owned by Comcast.

Hambrecht has another ace in the hole: outspoken and super rich Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban wants to be an owner. Nothing Cuban does goes unnoticed, which will mean good publicity. The UFL's scheme is to have each owner put up $30 million and the public buys shares for the same amount. So the owner, the league and the fans will all be owners.

A New Deck for the Summer on Mountain Road

Here is a deck that Kieran Riley built for us--a compact little deck that adds a whole new dimension to hanging out at Nine Mountain Rd. So far the cats manage to squeeze between the rails and the new sliding glass door is solid and rugged. A deck is one of those things you build and you keep saying, 'why didn't I do this sooner?'

I have contemplated a deck since I first bought the house in 1992. But it takes time, and you have to wait til you've got it just right.