After two days in Bologna - that beautiful red city, which stole my camera and gifted me the Decemberists, we re in Rome.


It is glorious. Too many churches - not enough houses, perhaps. But plenty of dazzling vistas and the soaring twists of the Bernini vision.

I went on a vintage vespa in the rain yesterday, left in front of a mosque shag on a rock style, and then promptly returned to Karl and Jack.

Today, the Vatican city awaits. The next day is the colosseum and Venice.

We went to a lecture on Walt Whitman's 'Democratic Vistas' the other day which speedily degenerated into a mud slinging do, pitched against the current political state of the US as a grimy betrayal of its early idealistic ambitions.

In this spirit of resuscitating 'old' America I slunk home and watched '12 Angry Men'. A courtroom battle for softly-spoken democratic, just principles in the face of prejudice, ignorance and scheming personal vendettas.

To we weary denizens of the 2000s the triumphant victory of upright democratic principles does seem a wishful, perhaps dangerous fairytale. But I find myself drawn to the grand men (yes, I know) of old Hollywood pronouncing on guiding social values, your Welles, your Pecks, your Fondas, as an antidote to the adamant skepticism of most modern commentaries.

The lush sprawl of 'Leaves of Grass' too.

Chaplin's Modern Times


That grimace of a smile she dons at the end- genius.