Dracula

Been having a good, busy weekend. My friend Stan was here for just one night, in the middle of a trip. (He's already in Provence at this point!) We had a quick visit yesterday and today. Stan's been here in Milan a lot before, he actually lived here a few years as a kid and has come back for visits every few years, so we didn't have to do the "typical" sights. After having lunch in Brera, we headed over to the Triennale. The latest special exhibit is on Dracula. It's a bit of an odd exhibit, not completely dedicated to one aspect of Dracula, but not quite a themed art show.

The first section was about the history and myth of Dracula and vampires, building up to how Bram Stoker broke through by connecting Vlad the Impaler to vampirism. This part had lots of informative text, and historic artifacts including old books on Vlad, on vampires, vampire charms, and Ottoman arms and armor. It talked about Stoker's research, portrayals of vampires in his day, and ended with the first edition copy he gifted to his mom. So that was a very factual (in the sense it explained where the fiction came from) part.

Next, some mixed media video installations. A "peephole" vampires' kiss montage, a vampire home with descriptive video, and a large multi-screen installation with a history of vampire movies.

Then, an exhibit on vampire costumes. This had an original Francis Ford Coppola Dracula armor set, and a pretty good video on the costume design of the movie with a lot of direct commentary from the designer herself, Eiko Ishioka.



This was followed by costumes for female "vamps" from theater, opera, and screen. There was also an odd exhibit of comic panels by a famous Italian comic artist that he had done for his own private collection of one of his famous heroines meeting Dracula.

I liked the exhibit overall, but I had expected more of a straight contemporary art show... After we walked around the castle.



We headed in toward the Duomo, and had a little shopping and light dinner at La Rinascente. Cioccolati Italiani for dessert!

Monday Night

Monday I had to go to work. Boo. Well, I guess that's normal, right? Heather and Konrad headed to the Duomo to head up on the roof. I still wanna see their pictures from that! They were super brave and took the stairs... I've always taken the elevator! They had a lot of snacks and did a lot of shopping before I met them by the castle. We headed toward Corso Como to get dinner. We saw a lot of weird window displays!



We ended up going to Ganas, a Mexican restaurant. We were there early enough for aperitivo. Wow, it was a hit for us! They had great frozen drinks. I had two frozen passion fruit margaritas. Usually I only have one drink at aperitivo (because you only have to buy one to get the free food, but they do give you a slight break on the second drink), but the first one was so good that I wanted another! And, also the aperitivo was good enough that we wanted to sit and eat more. The selection wasn't huge, but it was pretty good. My favorites were the fresh tortilla chips, and the smokey chipotle salsa. The food was actually spicy! I might head there for aperitivo another night, since the food was so different from typical aperitivo. OK, it wasn't "real" Mexican, but it was good!

On our way home we checked out the display for the Nautical Design Awards there in Corso Como. Heather and I geeked out about winches and movable keels while Konrad humored us. It was a good night!

Pete Ross and the Sapphire

Last Wednesday I went to La Trifola to see Pete and Suzie play a show.



Walking up to the place, I followed the sound of their voices, and instruments. La Trifola is a pretty small street cafe, but it got full for the show. At least 50 people were there. I grabbed a glass of wine and met up with the Gestionale kids. We all really enjoyed the show. A mix of originals and covers. They played "Cocaine Blues" just for Ali. Anyway, a good show, and if they do more of these cafe shows I am planning on going. Check out their latest single, "Devil Inside", with a music video shot in a couple abandoned locations up by Lake Como.

Weekend Drinks

When I got home on Saturday, the sunset was pretty great. I couldn't quite capture the redness of the sunset, but it was great.



On Sunday I lolled about the house a bit, but escaped in the afternoon for shopping with Ali Mo from down the street.



We ended up having aperitivo at Bhangrabar on Corso Sempione. I went for a coconut drink, and Ali went with one with cardamom liqueur. I do like the drinks there a lot, and the vegetarian selections at the aperitivo, while limited, are very good.

Hey Hey Hey, Aperitivo Every Day

On Thursday, Christoper stopped by my office for surprise aperitivo with him, Praskovia, Alessandro, and Elena. Supposedly it was to celebrate one of his labmate's thesis submission, but that guy didn't even come. As usual, I think it was just a standard Christopher excuse to go to aperitivo at Ciu's.



A good time as usual. I branched out and tried a new drink, the Papa Hemingway: ginger ale, golden rum, Angostura bitters, maybe something else? I will have to check next time I go. Served with pineapple. Very easy to drink, with some decent taste from the ginger ale and bitters.

Oh, and on Friday, I saw the Google street view bike cart! Sorry the picture's not great, it took me a second to notice it passing my building and realize what it was. It's a tricycle cart, technically. Besides the guy peddling, there was also a campus security guard walking along side. So not going very fast, really...

American Sweets!

Also near the Duomo: This "American" bakery!



One of the starring attractions? Pancakes:



You can get them served with sauces, but really, cold pancakes? That is not my idea of a gourmet delight...

In general, Milan is covered in little bakeries and cafes. In the Duomo area there are several really expensive cafe areas. At any of the nicer places, it costs more to sit down at a table and be served a coffee or ice-cream than it does to get it at the counter and take it. And not a little more, often twice as much or more! The street cafe seating areas are usually pretty nice at these fancy places. Many of the ones on Via Dante had their outdoor space heaters out already. I found them a little terrifying. The flames are quite large!



Those are just showpiece ones, I think, there are other more normal ones further in, along with overhead heating lamps...