WHANGAROA, New Zealand – You’ve heard of faces that could stop a clock? Not Hog’s. His is as complex and intricate as the insides of a Swiss watch – a face that would stop traffic anywhere but New Zealand. You’ve heard of face lifts. Hog’s has been raised to an artistic level that may seem bizarre to an alien but is really a throwback to a prouder time when their country … [Read more...] about A MAORI WITH A FACE ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE, AND SHE DOES
Travel
VERONA – HOME TO TWO LOVE-BUGGY KIDS; IN THE HEARTS OF LOVERS, ROMEO AND JULIET LIVE ON IN THIS ENCHANTING TOWN
VERONA, Italy – Are we sitting where they sat? “Why not?” says my friend, Aurelio, nothing if not a romantic. “Right here, I’ll bet . . . those two love-buggy kids, Juliet and Romeo.” She pats the weathered-gray tier of Verona’s ancient Roman Colosseum-style stadium called the Arena, an imposing pen that has witnessed gladiatorial contests and innumerable other … [Read more...] about VERONA – HOME TO TWO LOVE-BUGGY KIDS; IN THE HEARTS OF LOVERS, ROMEO AND JULIET LIVE ON IN THIS ENCHANTING TOWN
SPIRIT OF ‘THE MAESTRO’ IS STRONG IN THIS TOWN
TORRE DEL LAGO, Italy – Kansas City was the town where I made Giacomo’s acquaintance. I don’t think he’d mind if I call him by his first name, although most people generally deferred to him as “Maestro.” As in Maestro Puccini. Anyway, it was Kansas City a long time ago, 1954, where I’d been lured by college basketball players of the NCAA’s Final Four: LaSalle, the … [Read more...] about SPIRIT OF ‘THE MAESTRO’ IS STRONG IN THIS TOWN
POETRY, AS RECITED BY BANJO BLUNT; IN THIS OUTBACK WATERING HOLE, HE REELS OFF A LIVELY TALE OF A HUNTED HORSE THIEF
LONGREACH, Queensland, Australia – Stoplights do not exist in these parts, but Longreach is justly pleased with its traffic roundabout (rotary). “First one west of the Great Dividing Range, maybe a couple of hundred miles,” says Alan “Banjo” Blunt. “And don’t miss the sign that tells where the Tropic of Capricorn runs through town.” It’s about the only thing that runs. Pace … [Read more...] about POETRY, AS RECITED BY BANJO BLUNT; IN THIS OUTBACK WATERING HOLE, HE REELS OFF A LIVELY TALE OF A HUNTED HORSE THIEF
IT’S LIKE VISITING A SUNNY ENGLAND; CHRISTCHURCH, NZ, SHINES
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – Punters, pole-taxing themselves, move their narrow wooden boats through the the city with grunts and shoves as part of the scene of a small, charming city that might have been shipped in from England in 1850 as a gift from the British Empire’s Big Mama, Queen Victoria. You could be in Oxford or Cambridge, except that the summer sun in Christchurch … [Read more...] about IT’S LIKE VISITING A SUNNY ENGLAND; CHRISTCHURCH, NZ, SHINES