I love Seattle.

A day with the Dalai Lama

Yesterday, I went to Qwest Field to be part of this group of people who danced an improvisational meditative score for the Dalai Lama. Our group was made of lots of dancers of all ages, shapes and sizes, mainly from the UW and the Seattle theater and contact improv community. It was a gorgeous day, and we all wore bright yellow, orange and/or red tops. It was a blast.

So, here are some pics of the Dalai Lama's Seattle visit that I took with my cell phone. They are not high quality, but they give you a sense of how crowded the stadium was and what an amazingly gorgeous day it was. I got to sit up on top of Qwest Field in the sun with an amazing view of the Space Needle and downtown Seattle, all the while listening to this amazingly wise man, who spoke incessantly about humanity rather than religion to a stadium crowded with people.




Finally, here are some of the key points that I brought home with me at the end of the day:

1) We need complete disarmament, which can only be accomplished through inner disarmament;

2) Women's role (which the Dalai Lama kind of pronounced as "women rule", which is awesome) is now more than ever key for spreading compassion. He said: "Some women are trouble-makers, but men are real trouble-makers", referring to what history teaches us in relation to men's role in creating and perpetuating structures of violence. In a nutshell, it is now key for women to take roles of leadership aimed at creating societal structures rooted in compassion;

3) Compassion is a secular value and a biological necessity. We are all born from a mother, not a lotus (or, for Westerners, under a cabbage) and are physically, emotionally and socially built to rely and depend on others as well as take care of others.

I loved it.

A good omen?

Exactly a week ago, I turned in my dissertation to my committee...so now I have some time to have a blog!
My blogger url is, for the moment, just a self-induced good omen for the near future. If all goes well, I will defend on May 21 and - only then - will be able to finally go by dr gi (it is also for this reason that, for the time being, the blog's title is going to be simply 'test').

Meanwhile, I want to start this blog to catch up a little and reflect back on the past year or two. I have never been good at devoting full attention to one big writing project (which ended up amounting to 120,000 words spread out on 400 pages with almost 200 pictures, by the way) while journaling or writing for leisure. So, even while I was traveling all across Europe for my research, I never blogged. But I did take a ton of pictures, and did see a ton of interesting things and met cool people.

Also, blogging will soon become a necessity to keep in touch with my loved ones, as I will be moving to Colorado for my first job as an assistant professor.

For now, I hope someone will enjoy the pictures of this first post...a little bit of the past, the present and perhaps the future.


THE (NEAR) PAST

A year and a month ago I was in Istanbul for my research, one of the six European locations I traveled to for my study, and by far the most exciting. Here are some pics:


Istanbul's semioscape of consumption (I love supermarket imagery).


From the taxi, arriving in the Taksim area, where I stayed.


Headquarters of the European Capital of Culture, which Istanbul will be in 2010 and which is part of my dissertation.


Walking on the main drag in Taksim.


THE PRESENT

Last week I hung out with Rossella, a researcher from the University of Bologna who was visiting at the UW. She introduced me to some exciting research that is going on - mainly among sociologists - in my hometown. Plus, she and her partner, Roberto, were really fun. Thanks to her, I now plan to submit an article to Studi Culturali, Italy's own Cultural Studies journal. It feels really nice to hang out with cool, creative Italians every once in a while...and, thankfully, I have my friend Iole for this in Seattle:


This is Rossella and I by the waterfront in Seattle.

Last weekend I came down to Olympia to spend time with irooshka, and yesterday we walked all around Portland.


This is irooshka at the Queen Bee factory outlet in Portland, where we both got bags made by her friend Rebecca Pearcy.


And this is the Jupiter Hotel, a hipster-chic hotel that took the place and maintained the basic aesthetic features of an old motel...It reminds me of my own obsession with Seattle's Aurora Avenue and I sense that I will write about it soon.


THE FUTURE (?)

Soon I'll be starting two new projects, one on the Starbucks logo's visual history and the other one on the iconic Che Guevara image. The latter was inspired by my own upbringing in a househould that always sported a Che Guevara poster hanging amidst family pictures, floral bedspreads and overall less than revolutionary trinkets:


This is my family's own framed Che Guevara poster, which I was told was in fact hand-drawn by an Italian artist.

More to come...especially about my imminent move to Fort Collins, Colorado, to start my new job.