Coronavirus Stories - Reaching Out From Isolation

Edited BY G P Kennedy Ellie - Milan, Italy   In the land of coffee and good food, things are getting back to normal in terms of human activity. It is increasingly difficult to find free spots in coffee shops on a whim. But we were lucky here to find a table facing the lake this past week    The social changes of social comity design have had their visual impact, too. Besides the utilitarian signage, it's mostly on the vernacular level.    That is, non-professionals determine it. I was struck how this bar has set apart its welcome disinfectant gel on such a dainty handmade lace tablecloth on it's own table, greeting customers at the door.    A combination of vernacular taste and utilitarian necessity has happened here to ward off tables from the street.    They are by appointment only!    And speaking of door, this church has not yet realized how off-putting its signage is, trying to make clear which door is for entry and which ...

 Edited BY G P Kennedy Ellie - Milan, Italy    This time next year... Can I just dream a little? I am not going to be planning anything realistic here but will give myself the license to go wild. No matter what, if this year has had any kind of lesson for us it’s that we can't really plan. I am also superstitions in this respect so don't want to invite bad luck with any firm intentions.    So next time this year, I am planning to survive. I know I said no realistic plans, so I guess this makes it unrealistic? It may be. I'll throw it out there as an option.    This photo is of the staircase leading to our city library. So next year at this time I am hoping to have read at least one book that will not have been picked because they are useful for anything - no work, project or creative purpose.  Next year this time, I hope to have achieved a really big goal that has been dealt with by small baby steps.    Maybe I'll host an artist residenc...

 Edited By G P Kennedy  Ellie - Milan, Italy  Italy is usually dead in August - metaphorically, of course - and it lives at the beach. Tourists come to replace the foot traffic in the streets and the constant flow of visitors to iconic places. Not this year, though.   Milan is not the best indicator since it hasn't been considered a traditional tourist destination (which is unfair, in my opinion), but it is what it is: streets are mostly empty. The cycle of the seasons seem to continue rolling at the same speed and logic as before.  Myself, I am enjoying the summer wit a new understanding of the meaning of nature. I am especially sad that the hard earned lessons we learned during the height of the pandemic have somehow not stayed with us. No, not that everyone should look somber and eschew a far away vacation but somehow the consolation of the crisis for me was that it would lead to a change in our thinking.   I don't think it has happened. But, ...

 Edited BY G P Kennedy Ellie - Milan, Italy  It's officially the dead of summer in Milan! In Italy, mid-August is when all dwellers of towns and cities collectively move to the beach. It's the official, vacation time - well, except for the hotel owners, room service workers and waiters - that coincides with a major Catholic holiday, the Day of the Assumption and with a name derived from the festival instituted by Emperor Augustus, but historically became synonymous with vacation because of Mussolini's decree in the 1920s. I was thinking that this rigorous urge to spend August at the beach would subside this year; what with economic disaster and a forced vacation in March, April and partially May. However, it seems everyone has decided to overcompensate and go overboard with their vacation vibes.     So, this means city transport is mostly empty. Some people are coming back from mostly European countries, and the increasing rates of infection in other countr...

 Edited BY G P Kennedy Ellie - Milan, Italy  Last year this time, I was in a long awaited bright clearing in my path. I wish I were in that spot again.     Standing between menacing rocks is not easy at all. I wish I could have the strength I had last year to keep them apart. I also wish I were on vacation in the Dolomites right now.    I was really looking forward to participating in a great artist residency this summer. Alas, it has to wait for some other time.  But the world will be so different.    I was also so much looking forward to an important and long awaited exhibition of mine to open. But alas, it has been postponed.  I really would have liked to be closer to family. I am so grateful to be living with part of them, but have been missing others.  And since flying is out of the question, who knows when this would be possible.  Finally, I was hoping to be in Texas. At some point - or another - this year. But that ...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Ellie - Milan, Italy    “How are y'all doing?” a friend from Texas asked me recently. I am happy to report that the contagion rate in Italy have been mostly down. Daily rates of new infections have been around 150 for the country.    I have the feeling, though, that this is due not only to scared people who mostly stick to their masks and distancing, but of the possibility to do things outdoors, which is what helps with holding new infections down. There are many unwelcome signs for change, though. For example, hope for getting rid of plastics, and its dispersal in the environment, is definitely given up.    Now that all coffee shops, company cafeterias and restaurants that hope to have clients indoors are required to outfit their spaces with distancing partitions, plastic has drastically increased. But it has also started causing some awkward moments.    I met with a friend for a coffee recently, our first get together after...

Edited BY G P Kennedy   Ellie - Milan, Italy 1. Photo by Angelo Amboldi  Just like many other social waves, Italy is now also swept by the protests and debates on racism that started in the United States over the past month. At first, events and public discussions were simply meant to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter. However, very quickly the attention shifted to racism in Italian society itself, which has seen its significant share of violence and injustice. Racism here often is seen through the lens of the refugee crisis and so it can be masked as some other kind of social tension. However, let it not be mistaken: it is racism.     One of the focal points in which this has been manifested is the figure of Indro Montanelli, an influential journalist active between 1930-2000 and the subject of the monument in the photo above, placed in the public park in Milan also named after him. Montanelli volunteered as a conscript for Mussolini's colonizing campaign...

Edited BY G P Kennedy Today we have a feast of photos to support and illustrate our Stories from Tokyo, Japan ands Milan, Italy. It is interesting to see Ian and Minako's experience, from a place where the virus has been well contained, side-by-side with Ellie's perspective from a virus-ravaged Italy as it starts to emerge from its deep lockdown.                                                       Ian & Minako – Tokyo, Japan   We are both very well, sheltering from the rain and trying to stay cool in this muggy season !     The number of daily reported cases for Tokyo has increased slightly as society has opened up more to a 7-day average of 18. A significant proportion of the new cases can be traced to nightlife destinations in Shinjuku. In total, there have been 314 deaths in Tokyo so far.    Nationally there have been ov...