Cat Carnevale - Week's End

Our friend Maria Caterina di Perugia went to the Festa del Gatto in 2004 (in Perugia, of course!) when she was attending the language school there. These images are from the brochure/schedule that always makes us smile. Maria di P. brought us a lovely original watercolor of a family of gatti rossi (red cats) from an art gallery, the name of which escapes us at the moment. The painting still requires a frame; we'll wait until it can be done properly at our favorite framing shop.

Here is a fun link to the Gatto-Web site (it's amusing even if you don't read Italian). Here's Perugia's official site; we can't find a mention of this year's festa (there are gatto festivals in other Italian cities, particularly Florence & Rome), but perhaps you can. Our head hurts from too much Googling with dial-up. This is a tie-in to Carnevale, ongoing. (Also called Fasching in German-speaking countries.) Can you imagine how wild Venice is right now? Yikes. Michelle Fabio of Bleeding Espresso has a Carnevale in Venice article in Italy Magazine (UK), here.

The "Cubista" kitty painting above does not have a title (on the brochure, anyway); the other painting is Il gatto, la luna, le stelle ("Cat, moon, stars"); both paintings are by Valentina Trona. Bella! The photograph of the person in the maschera is uncredited, however the brochure was created by Umberto Frascione & Rita Persichini for Il Comitato della Festa del Gatto di Perugia. That's some committee name, huh?

Tina Daunt, columnist of the L.A. Times' Cause Celebre has a pre-Awards column on the documentaries, here. Typical of a Washingtonian, Giulia's editor has seen all but one. Hey, free screenings:) In Tina's other life, today her charming The English Muse blog features a gorgeous rose dress photograph about which we are fantasizing. More about Tina & her blog in the future. As everyone knows, GG looks fabulous every day in her version of the LBD (only it's red/orange & white, accessorized by a rose-pink nose.)

ciao-festa-meow!
GG's stylist

Snow in Spokane

Our friend Maria Caterina di Perugia took this photo & sent it from her phone in Spokane where she was visiting family (& having a devil of a time getting back East for Christmas Eve!) Thanks for the pix, MCat!

xoxo,
GG Central

Maria Caterina di Perugia's breaking news photos of Obama party

GG Central's Maria Caterina di Perugia took these cellphone pix at a speechwatching party in Northern Virginia. They're fuzzy but hey, it was breaking news. We're all so excited!

We'll try not to be catty about McCain's Veep Choice (I know!) but it does lend itself to cheap satire...not that GG Central is above such. We're waiting for professionals (Jon Stewart, et al) to handle this, for now. Tina Fey & her take on the bizarre choice should be priceless; watch SNL's first show of the season on 13 September. We can hardly wait.

Please keep the good folks in New Orleans & the Gulf Coast in your thoughts as Hurricane Gustav heads towards land. GG & her editor are so worried about everyone, including one of our very best friends, Pansy W. of Lake Charles, Louisiana. More as we know more.

Ciao-meow, bisou, baci!
xoxo, GG

The 19th Amendment's anniversary

From today's Writer's Almanac. Thank you, Garrison. (And to Maria Caterina di Perugia who made sure we saw it, just in case. She knows we are often behind with our WA listening.)

GG's editor found out that there are arguments about which darned flower is the American suffragette symbol; so here's a pretty drawing of the Welsh national flower, the daffodil. All flowers are loved at GG Central. (By the way, please remember to register to vote if you've moved to a new state recently. )

Ciao-meow, GG

******

It was on this day in 1920 that the 19th Amendment was formally incorporated into the U.S. Constitution. It proclaimed, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." It ended more than 70 years of struggle by the suffragist movement.

It had passed through the House and Senate. At first, it looked like the amendment was not going to make it. And then, a 24-year-old legislator from Tennessee, Harry Burn, decided to vote for the amendment at the last minute because his mother wanted him to. And Tennessee became the 36th state to approve suffrage for women.

They sent the certified record of the Tennessee vote to Washington, D.C., and it arrived on August 26, 1920. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation that morning at 8 a.m. at his home. There was no ceremony of any kind, and no photographers were there to capture the moment. And none of the leaders of the woman suffrage movement were present to see him do it. Colby just finished his cup of coffee and signed the document with a regular, steel pen. Then he said, "I turn to the women of America and say: 'You may now fire when you are ready. You have been enfranchised.'

The Lion Roars, GG Purrs...

GG & her editor loved the tribute to Teddy but were even more excited to see him on the stage in Denver. We knew he couldn't stay away. GG wants to put lots of video on the site such as Michelle's great speech & so on. But right now, we're not sure of how the video plays on different sites. So we'll leave this for now with a link to the site for all the Convention videos.

Upcoming this week, our dinners with Maria Caterina di Perugia, BB, & the fountain of Silver Spring...

Ciao-meow, bisou! GG

Some Seashells by the Seashore...the Outer Banks

Breaking news...from Maria Caterina di Perguia...the Outer Banks are still there; she's proven it with the cellphone pix above. GG so wants to be there, as does her editor; she used to go to Nag's Head as a child & Ocracoke as an adult. We love the impressionistic dune detail & the seashells-as-art installation on the railing. How very bricolage...just our thing. We look forward to having everyone back in town over the weekend; Hermione the Cool Cat has missed them.

In fact, we're working on a new blog entitled Bricolage...we use a very loose translation as we think it befits the subject. Anyway, many thanks to the gang & we hope they'll bring us some of those shells. Somehow, we're missing many that we've collected over the years. The photos have induced such relaxation that it's time to shut down for a summer's day.
xoxo, GG & her editor