the plankman’s blog

Here are some of the more exciting things that have happened in the last few months:

- I officially have a lovely girlfriend named Bethany! She’s a beautiful young lady hailing from New York and working at Fabrica too! Daniel is in fact a very happy chappy as a result ;-)

- Bethany and I went to this fantastic old Villa near Udine. Villa Manin is a massive, gorgeous monument to the power of the area during the time it was built. It is now a contemporary art center… With an amazing sculpture park - combining super old plaster sculptures that have become embedded in the earth in the garden over time - with crazy colorful pieces of modern madness.

- There have been a number of interesting events here - one being the ALMOST PROTOTYPING of the next version of Glowbits. It was all on the cards - the research done, the proposals re-re-re-re-rewritten, the budgets scrutinized … and naturally - as with most things here at the Fab: The Plug Was Pulled. The only words that can express the feeling this gave me are: “rrrrrrr rrrRRRRRRrrRrRRRGGRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOWRRRRRR!!!!” hehehe … and so life goes!

- Had a fabulous easter “pasqua” experience in Bergamo Analisa and her family invited me and two other friends to their home where we feasted on magnificent easter foods… I’ve always heard talk from my italian friends about the magnificently full stomachs over the easter weekend…. Now I understand. It was wonderful! After the feast we spent some time in the old city of Bergamo - at the top of this hill. Quite gorgeous.

- Went to the Milano Salone di Mobile (Milan Furniture Fair) with Bethany and had a fantabulous time seeing really fascinating stuff… There is some magnificent intelligent design in the world… (And its not just a creationist theory ;-)

- Went to Amsterdam with Bethany where we met up with Taku and Vivian. It was sooooooo lekker to see them there. The Dutch are some of the friendliest Europeans I have ever come across. The number of random conversations we got into was phenomenal - and not because of the grass being smoked. ( most of them happened pre-grassy experiences!) I HEART Holland. Now to figure out how to go work there …. hmmmmm…

- Hans Steiner came to visit here in Treviso! (And so did Vivian for that matter) Last week we had so many guests! And this week, Eric and Judy have arrived for a short visit. When it rains, it pours, ya know?

And thats it for now. More soon…

Many things have happened. I had a hard time considering the best way to write about some of them… and had a good time enjoying the moment of others… (ranging literally from Death to Love)

Here it goes: Almost a month ago to the day, two friends of mine, Brett Goldin and Richard Bloom were murdered in Cape Town - South Africa… I knew Richard in primary school - he was one of the few kids that didn’t give me a hard time. I always appreciated that and knew it reflected a supremely gentle soul. Brett Goldin was a year ahead of me in high school. His acting talent was supreme and his boundless energy made it difficult to keep back smiles. I knew Brett better than Richard… And their murders simply did not fully register in my mind… A few friends of mine and I are putting time into creating brettgoldin.com - a place where people can share images / stories / generally celebrate the too-short life of Brett. Check back there in a little while and contribute if you want to.

Both of you will be missed…

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
Im on my way to Bergamo to visit Analisa and her family for a genuine italian pasqua (easter) sunday. I am SO excited! But to add to my happiness and joy (despite waking up waaaay too early today), I decided to bring my computer on the train - and hoped for some power to keep my little baby alive. To my surprise: THERE WAS! So I can do some work on my sisters new website - currently still an old design

So I have power and can multitask and be all worky on the train. But then it hit me: I CAN GET ONLINE WITH MY 3G ENABLED MOBILE PHONE!!! OH joy joy joy! I may not ever wake up from this easter happiness.

daniel’s flickr library.

Can you believe that my grandparents, Rhona and Victor Gorvy have been married for 60 years as of today???
THATS FUCKING INCREDIBLE!!! This year is amazing. Sister Lara turns 30, Rho and Vic have their 60th Anniversary, Father Jacob turns 60, and Matriarch Granny Gertrudel turns 90!!! Wow. Anyway, the world should be in awe of Rhona and Victor’s relationship. 69 years later, they are the cutest couple that function in (almost) perfect harmony… The (almost) is a negligable issue -> simply understand that we should all aspire to this kind of lasting love. All my love to my whole family on this momentous celebration of two people we all care for.

daniel’s flickr library.

Im doing some of that non-linear posting again… The morning after I got home from my brief trip to SA for Rhona’s exhibition, I went straight to Viareggio with my Capoeira group! We joined another school associated with our group for some fun capoeira action during their famous Carnivale. Aside from the fact that I was so incredibly exhausted and literally CRASHED upon arrival - it was an awesome experience - especially when followed by the Uber famous Venice Carnivale the following weekend.

Suffice it to say we had a magnificent time - playing capoeira in the mad carnivale energy, and seeing the serious attitude people had to wearing ridiculous outfits ;-) My two favorite moments were: Seeing people dressed in their costumes riding their motorbikes in a frenzy to join the other crazies; and a group of five or so Elvis’ pushing their Elvis Shrine (very VERY drunk) The shrine was playing elvis tunes for the world to see. It was beautiful.

As of the 14th of this month - 13 days ago - I have been here over a year. So this is my opportunity to recap.

:Top reasons for loving it here:
- Im living in Italy; Learning Italian; Learning to cook; Learning Capoeira; Meeting interesting people from around the world; Living in a different culture; I share my apartment with a Thai Ice Cream designing lass named Prima, and an Italian improvisational saxophonist named Diego; I walk through a city thats been around for a couple of centuries… walking the same cobbled (read: uneven as hell) streets that people have been walking for centuries; and well… just taking in a whole lot of wonderful things. Plus its kinda like being in high school again

:Top reasons for being frustrated:
- I work for an organization that is totally lost; Ive worked on a number of projects - some for a short period of time, and others for a long period of time… But for almost all of them, the result is the same: It gets swallowed up by inconsistency, bureaucracy, lack of creativity, and an obvious lack of vision. Fabrica is such an interesting place. It is full of potential - almost bursting at the seams with people who are desperate to make marvelous incredible things - but more often than not, their ideas are misunderstood - or don’t fit within a vision that is supposed to be Fabrica’s - though they really don’t know what their vision is anymore. Also its a lot like high school… Sometimes you want to get away from the gossip (although most of the time you REALLY want to know whats been going on with everyone else that you’re so close to so often!

Fabrica is changing. Theres no doubt about it. I don’t know how long its going to take before Toscani’s vision of a creative hub disappears, and gets replaced with emotionless corporate fun.

I’m a little on the cynical side tonight. But its because Ive been seeing the frustration grow in all my colleagues / friends eyes.
The up side is that its spring, and there are some potentially interesting projects that could… well probably won’t (but lets be optimistic) COULD make their way to completion! Heres hoping ;-)

Its been a while.
So much to do / say / recommend etc.
Things that are gonna be dealt with in the near future:
- Uploading a BOATLOAD of pictures to my flickr library - with mini explanations and all the other important stuff;
- Mention something important about my gran’s exhibition - which was just extraordinarily successful!
- Mention a few stories of interest from the last few weeks…

A quick recap though: Went to South Africa again for the exhibition. Ran around like a motivated headless chicken. Almost missed my flight, got drunk, met people, did an UPGRADE!, saw friends, saw family, experienced first-hand a little about the SA art world, erm…. and oh yes! Went kitten shopping with the fam. (It turns out the two they chose were not connected to the ones we looked at before hehehehehehe…. But was really cool to play with little kitties…)

Then: BACK to Italia (pre-spring). And back to the wonderful world of super beurocracy - where decisions are made based on blood relations more so than the relevance of that decision. It is a VERY different place to south africa. Read ann’s blog for a decent idea of the bullshit we have to deal with. I am not entirely certain whether its possible to actually finish anything here… Or in fact REALLY get it started… (But is that the fault of the fabrica system? Or an inadequacy of my own? Hmmmm….

Anyway, so what Im busy with now is a few short projects. But most importantly - its all about data reorganization right now! Too many backups of the same shit - too much confusion. My brain hurts.

Back again soon.

I leave for South Africa again on Wednesday! The most important reason is of course the previously mentioned exhibition of my Gran’s. However, recently WITs joined Upgrade! International, and I have been the uber lucky one to help them inaugurate their existence! w00t!
Im flattered etc etc… And hopefully I’ll have something valuable to say about … er…. well whatever it is Im going to talk about.) I forget, so check the site Something about money, fabrica, and the commercial world…
If anyone’s in JHB, please come to the presentation - Friday 10th, 3pm WITS school of the Digital arts…

daniel’s flickr library.

Continuing the catch-me-up posts: December 6th was Prima, my super duper awesome roommate from Thailand’s birthday. She got herself all ‘dolled up’ for the occasion. There was a lot of fun to be had by everyone. Its inspiring to see so many people devoting themselves to celebrating with one of their close new friends (whom they’ve known for a comparatively small time!) Cakes were made, songs were sung, and for a day, the winter was forgotten!

daniel’s flickr library.

As 2005 slowly came to an end, we, the vast and numerous group of ’students’ at Fabrica were offered the chance to express ourselves in some way for the impending Fab Party. The date unfortunately couldn’t be settled (as with many if not most things here) but that didnt deter us! Oh no! So Juan and I submitted the most magnificent hand written proposal of all: (drum roll please) FABRIOKE!
Imagine a mash-up of: funny pics of fab folk; funny videos made by fab folk (often OF fab folk too); awesomely horrendous MIDI music; and Karaoke. What you’re left with is our creation. Anyway, sadly with all the date changes Juan was one of the few that was forced to hang out in Holland with his lovely lady Tamara (and smoke loads of high class pot) - instead of be with us for the party. He was missed from the proceedings, and Fabrioke went on to magnificent success! (Er… well I was drunk enough to believe anything - so success it was to me!)

As for everything else, please take a look at the photos. There was a lot of wine, and a LOT of madness. Great projects all over the place, and a wonderful bunch of drunken friends to end the year with. Thus ended 2005 at Fabrica.