Free Association

Today La Bimba did not take a nap. Thus, she fell asleep in her high chair in the middle of her dinner of tortellini and veggie meat balls. Why, oh, why didn't I take a picture?

The garbage is piling up in certain spots in Naples, though the real crisis is in the provinces. There is a sad dumpster on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, piled high and overflowing with trash, and at the top, row upon row of wilted friarielli (more or less broccoli rabe), like lifeless bodies in a yet to be covered mass grave. I don't like passing that dumpster on my way home from the sundries shop.

Observation: many, many female academics, at least in the field of performance studies, are named Barbara. I have a good friend here in Naples named Barbara. She is The Husband's ex-girlfriend. I tell you this to show you how evolved I am. La Bimba calls her Ba-Ba. When I lived in San Francisco, I threw a Barbra-Q, a Barbra Streisand-themed barbecue. I had five of her CDs rotating in the player and her films playing on the TV. Great voice, that Babs. But after a few hours, I thought about hurling both the CD player and the VCR out the window onto Cesar Chavez Street.

Cesar Chavez Street used to be called Army Street. When they were planning to change the name, certain nostalgic? miltaristic? residents put posters in their windows that read, "It will always be Army." If you check a current SF map, you will find that those residents were wrong.

Now that we have but a few months left living in the city by the Gulf, I have promised myself to visit at least one Neapolitan cultural monument every week. So far, La Bimba and I have seen Chinese contemporary art at the PAN (she particularly liked the video of the naked man walking the Great Wall), the wonderful collection from Pompeii and Egypt at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, and the chiostro at Santa Chiara. We are three for three! I hope we get to the Capodimonte before the Carvaggio-to-Picasso exhibit closes on the 20th of this month.

The Husband turned 41 yesterday. Auguri vecchietto!

Striscia La Notizia, a satirical news program, gives Golden Tapirs (my favorite animal as a child!) to people in the news who are acting like bozos. Today they gave one to the mayor of Naples, Rosa Russo Iervolino, whose voice is eerily reminiscent of the muppet Grover's. She said she was not responsible for the garbage crisis in Naples, that no one listens to her, that the best laid plans keep getting foiled, and that "tutto l'ambiente" is to blame, not one single person. Bozo.

I sing La Bimba to sleep every night (except tonight when the tortellini understudied for me). Since this blog is going to be the way I remember little stories about the little one, I will record her playlist here, adding to it as I remember tunes:

Most Played:

Time After Time (with Eva Cassidy's version in mind)

Fire and Rain, James Taylor

You've Got a Friend, James Taylor

Landslide, Stevie Nicks

Corner of the Sky, Pippin soundtrack (don't laugh!)

I'm Still in Love with You, Steve Earle

If still not asleep, repeating, "yeah, yeah" (her way of saying "again"):

Reason for Waiting, Jethro Tull

Killing Me Softly (with Fugees version in mind)

American Medley: I've Been Working on the Railroad, Home on the Range, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, You Are My Sunshine

Out Here On My Own, Irene Cara

Sing a Song (according to internet, written by Joe Raposo)