My Other Project on the Blogosphere

I mentioned before that I have been kept away from An American in Padua for a while because of a project that had been lurking in the corners of my TO DO list for years. Well, I started it in September. It's a blog/showcase of contemporary art in Northeast Italy called NE-ARTE.

This blog is meant to feature the art of the this part of the country for a local and international audience, being written in Italian and English. This is especially important to me since I am a contemporary artist myself, when not blogging or teaching.

I also hope to see NE-ARTE become a valid community for the region with its artists, curators, gallery owners, art collectors and enthusiasts.

If you would like to be part of its followers and/or community, please click here.

New Blog on the Block

There's a new blog featuring a woman's view on the city of Padua. It's called Galline Padovane and written by Cristina, an Italian who is passionate about Padova and writes her posts in both Italian and English. The name of the blog translates as "Paduan Hens"after the special local variety that is bred in this area.

She recently featured my blog on hers at this link. (Thank you, Cristina)

Now you can get more on the scoop here in town by checking "The Hens" out!

Galline Padovane

A Blog Toddler's Anniversary

It's An American in Padua's

2 year anniversary.

2 years of words.

2 years of posts.

2 years of thoughts.

I hope you have enjoyed the ride. Let me know what has been worthwhile for you on my blog.

Thanks.

A Word's Mistaken Identity

I was reading Flash Art's Italian edition for August-September 2009 and chanced upon a curious and mistaken explanation for the title of a project called "Travelogue" involving contemporary art in Capri.

Benedetta Bernasconi, the article's author, wrote, "Travelogue- titolo che unisce i due termini ingesi travel e blog - ..." (Travelogue - a title that combines the two English terms, travel and blog).

She obviously didn't do her homework and made too many assumptions when giving this explanation to readers. Travelogue is a word with a much longer history than blog. Does she even know the background of how we came to the contemporary term of blog? Probably not.

According to Wikipedia, blog comes from the term "weblog" which was originally used to indicate a kind of online diary which chronicles daily thoughts, ideas, opinions, etc. Along the way, someone played around with the word by dividing it into "we blog". From that, the contraction was born.

Blogging is not necessarily relevant to a travelogue. A blog could be a travelogue. But a travelogue could also be a lecture, video, personal diary or book about travels.

More appropriate is to perhaps reflect on the word "log" that has been around in the English language for centuries, coming from the Middle English word logge. Two appropriate definitions that could help explain Ms Bernasconi's division and understanding of a compound nature of the word "travelogue" are the following: 1) to enter in a record, as of a ship or an aircraft. 2) to travel (a specified distance, time, or speed): logged 30,000 air miles in April.

Yet in the end, travelogue, is plain and simple a singular and real word that exists with its own definition. No artists organization is to credit for putting together this word.

Let's all try to read our dictionaries and online sources a little better in the future, Ms Bernasconi.