Confessions #02: That 4th of July 1994 Cup of Coffee

 
 
"Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline, 
the first often tasting like the second."

Edward Abbey 

Frank Sinatra - "The Coffee Song"

Yes, yet another confession, with a variety of more in the offing. Confession is good for the soul, they say and the truth will free you! Yesterday it was paperwork, today something totally different to confess. From the title and picture you have already gleaned it has to do with coffee.

The Beatles sang the number “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” from their album of the same name, released in 1967. The first two lines of that number were, “It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play”. Well today I have been contemplating the tune's first two lines with mediocre words of my own, “It was twenty years ago today, that I gave coffee drinking away!” Yes, twenty years ago today. The 4th of July 1994, was my last cup of coffee, two full decades ago.

Venice - Serenissima - Ancient Seductress, Ancient Courtesan

 From the apartment: a view of the Spiral Steps over the roofs of Venice 

A view of a small side canal in Venice

Gondole and a view across the mouth of the Grand Canale to San Giorgio Maggiore
Photos taken in November 2009

“We danced our youth in a dreamed-of city,

Venice, paradise, proud and pretty. 
We lived for love and lust and beauty, 
Pleasure then our only duty; 
Floating them twixt heaven and Earth 
And drank on plenty’s blessed mirth. 
We thought ourselves eternal then, 
Our glory sealed by God’s own pen. 
 But heav’n, we found is always frail, 
Against man’s fear will always fail.” 

 Veronica Franco

Niccolò Paganini: Variations on the Carnival of Venice op. 10 (violinist Marco Fornaciari)

Venice, venerable, but ever enticing with shabby elegance, she beguiles her residents and visitors as much today as she has for preceding centuries. Under numerous aliases such as Serenissima, City of Light, City of Water, Queen of the Adriatic Sea, Dominante and City of Bridges, she continues to add to her countless lovers.  Few depart  without leaving a piece of their heart and a great desire to once more be embraced by that aged but never fading grace, to emerge themselves once more in her ever fragile gracefully shabby beauty. There is no other place on earth that has seduced so many and enchanted so many others. She has very few detractors. Yes, there are other great ancient cities, new modern cities and other places that catch their residents and visitors with a passion and devotion but Venice enchants and weaves a magic that surpasses all, for she is unique and irreplaceable. She is rightly called Dominante.

Queen of the Adriatic Sea, she rides the water, under threat but with a majesty suited to such a grand old dame.   Like the grand queen of cities that she is, she has been the subject of art, great literary works and music. Like a Grand Dame she gave “birth” to some well know women such as the controversial Veronica Franco, famed as a courtesan, cultured and a poet of the 16^th century. Venice has inspired artists like Tintoretto, the gentleman of the Bellini family, most famous being Giovanni, and Titian.