reflections of the way life used to be

do you ever go through your old cd's? i did recently, for the first time in a while... two giant albums of them. a friend had reminded me of a great old song, 'cry to me.' i knew it from the more dirty dancing soundtrack, but i have a feeling she owned the original solomon burke record. listening to that album started a frenzy, as ben witnessed, of listening to every cd from childhood i've got, and enjoying the memories each song brought back.

i spent my childhood just a little crazy about music... i guess you could say it was encouraged in my family. aside from each of us playing various instruments, we really loved listening and singing along to all kinds of music. my dad took my sisters and i for 'rock & roll drives,' during which we would sit in the back of the isuzu trooper while my dad drove along country roads and played tapes of bruce springsteen, huey lewis & the news, creedence clearwater revival, and anything else he had laying around. a typical saturday afternoon in the lansford household meant three little girls dancing and singing - sometimes performing, sometimes with makeup and costumes- around the living room with the stereo blasting.

our musical tastes knew no boundaries. the first cd i ever owned was joan jett & the blackhearts, thanks to my dad. if i was in a singing mood i'd go through my mom's record collection, which is how i came to know every lyric of every peter, paul & mary, simon & garfunkel, bob dylan, mamas & papas and beatles album.

whenever our relatives would come to visit- and they did every summer- my sisters and i would prepare a musical routine to be performed one evening during their stay. once it was an annie medley (i sang daddy warbucks' part in the duet 'anything but you,' need i say more?), once it included pat benetar- but it was ALWAYS dramatic. my parents still have the pictures to prove this, and it's one of my most cherished childhood memories. i was blessed to have a very simple, innocent and uncomplicated childhood. music is, for me, a reminder of that.

going through my old cd's brought it all back, while simultaneously reminding me of what a freak i was. for example, one of my favorite albums that i memorized every song from was 'partytime 50s,' a compilation cd my mom bought to serve as background music for one of my dad's birthday parties - as a joke. i absolutely loved dancing and singing to every track on that album, from 'sh-boom' to my favorite, 'tallahassee lassie' (she dances to the bop, she dances to the stroll, she dances to the walk, yeah she can rock & roll), i simply could not get enough. of course, i immediately played it when i found it in my collection the other night, and when i started listening i just felt... good. it was familiar and funky, i still know all the words, and i'll be damned if every song doesn't have a great beat for gettin' your groove on.

what is my point? i guess after living in a foreign country for over a year now i can appreciate the things that bring back a sense of home, belonging and familiarity. and for me, one of those things is a compilation of songs from the fifties.

rome part 2: from the mouth of ben aka massimo

to go along with the rome post, i thought i'd share some of the ben quotes i took note of during our trip... they are just too damn good to keep to myself. i guess this could also be part two of the 'life with ben' post, since it's another example of what makes him so special:

:: on the train from the airport into rome, in reference to riding on the train: i love trains, so, i like this.

:: walking in ancient rome: just look at that smell!

:: walking in ancient rome and making reference to some piece of roman history: the... revenge of the bitch? what was it? (long pause) payback's a bitch... that's it!

:: enjoying lunch at cavour 313: i want to burst out in that song 'the hills...' what was that song with the hills... and the music?

:: watching ducks from a bridge: look- that duck came and all the other ducks left that area. that's an asshole duck.

:: waiting for me to locate something on the map: on a scale of one to ben, your sense of direction is zero.

:: lost on some back alley in rome: we're somewhere, i just don't know where yet.

:: randomly while walking down the street, because for our entire time in rome ben wanted to be called massimo: massimo loves you.

from mardin to rome

one major bonus of living in turkey is the extra holidays you get to take advantage of. turks have a lot of them, and a number of them consist of several days during which the country shuts down. this year one of them fell at the end of october, and ben and i decided it would be the perfect excuse to get outta town for a while. we thought a lot about where we wanted to go, and finally decided on rome. this was partly due to ben's life-long wish to go to italy (one of the FEW places he'd not visited on the map), and partly due to killer air fare. so, last wednesday off we went and boy, did we have a great time! we spent 3 days doing nothing but indulging in the beautiful sights, sounds, smells and FOOD. my gosh, did we eat, and drink, and eat some more.

below are my pictures, along with a few of the trip details...

on our first night we checked into our hotel and took off wandering around the city, where we found the trevi fountain on our way to dinner:

the next morning we headed out early and found this man had set up shop on the street corner, sharpening knives. if i had known, i would have brought my set:
what's amazing about rome is how you can be walking down a typical city street one minute, turn a corner, and suddenly be staring at some incredible ancient site, like the colosseum:

after exploring the colosseum and then the roman forum for hours, we stopped for lunch at the fantastic cavour 313, a wine bar where they keep the bottles above your head

our first roman lunch... delish!

later i introduced ben to gelatto. i later regretted this when he got greedy & stole mine...
... the gelatto incident took place in front of this restaurant. coincidence? i think not.
our walk continued after lunch past the campidoglio (roman capitol) and into the jewish ghetto

later we stopped for a rest on a park bench by the capitol before finding a cafe on a lively piazza. i love the italian tradition of sitting and people-watching. we did this from the park and at every cafe we stopped at...
the next day we did more exploring in the areas of the pantheon, navona and the spanish steps


inside the pantheon-- incredible!

that afternoon we ate at montecarlo- thanks rami for the tip, the pizza was fantastic!

the spanish steps
something else to love about rome: the lively streets where musicians, artists and performers are everywhere...


that night we stopped by the trevi fountain one more time to throw in a coin and make a wish, just like ben's parents did when they visited 30 some years ago.
the final day we explored vatican city where we saw the sistine chapel and st. peter's basilica. believe it or not, we climbed the 300+ stairs all the way to the top of that dome. we only suffered minor attacks of claustrophobia on the way up and down, but it was worth it for the view of the basilica from above.

st. peter's square
the hall of maps (inside the vatican museum, en route to the sistine chapel)
view from the top of the dome
st. peter's basilica from the inside- simply breathtaking!
yet another photo of the lone turk, wondering what it all means.
and my favorite... michelangelo's pieta. unfortunately the crowds keep you from catching more than a glimpse, but i finally got to see it in person!
and of course we had to buy a few italian cheeses and meats to take back home
last but not least, we stopped at this liquor store by our hotel on our last night to view the wines. this place literally sold wine from the jug- as is being demonstrated in the photo. something like 5 euros for that giant bottle. crazy... but, as ben and i both said many a time throughout the trip, when in rome!