Joel Schalit

Out of the Ghetto

The February edition of Pagine Ebraiche is now out. Pictured above is an author interview, centered around the publication of Israel vs. Utopia. The title is “From the Venice Ghetto to Rishon Le Zion”, in reference to my family’s greater path of migration to Ottoman Palestine. It’s the first of two pieces of Italian press on the book, the second of which is forthcoming next month.

There are a couple of errors in the profile, but they’ve since been corrected. It’s an otherwise terrific piece, which, most importantly, gave a certain member of my family, extremely self-conscious of our Italian heritage, an enormous amount of pleasure to read. Granted, his Italian is about as rotten as mine, but still good enough to get the gist of an 850 + word newspaper article.

Beware of Phoneys

The Italian army assists the police and undocumented foreign workers in rooting out unauthorized Prada imitations from China. Corso Buenos Aires, Milan.

Taking Samples

Over the course of the past two weeks, I’ve made a point of taking my digital audio recorder on my daily errands. Turning it on whenever I leave, the goal is to record as much of the city as I can.

Milan is as vibrant an audio experience as it is a visual one. For every image, such as the photo above, of an elderly Roma on the floor of the Duomo subway station, what you hear can be just as moving.

Warhol’s Milan

Election poster, PDL candidate. Milan, 01/10.

Mao, by Andy Warhol. Early 1970s.

Redistributing the Protein

Judging from the dozens of red stars hanging from the ceiling, the politics of this restaurant were unmistakeable. That the agitprop coincided with the best plate of meatballs I’ve ever had made it all that much more amusing. Trastevere, 12/28.

Middle Eastern Advertising

Migrant worker-directed mobile phone advert. Loreto station, 12/09.

Personal Aggregation

I hadn’t heard of the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography before it ran one of the first pieces on Israel vs. Utopia. Today, I was informed that the book had made it’s 2009 best-of list. IvU is the 6th book cited, as you work your way down the page. The reviewer writes with an enormous amount of energy, and is extremely supportive.

I just did an interview with a terrific local journalist, Anna Momigliano, for Italy’s Jewish monthly, Pagine Hebraiche. We covered a lot of territory, relating to the book, as well as my family’s background in Venice. It was a nice change of conversational coordinates to navigate, though I wish I’d had more time to do my homework on my Italian ancestors.

Planet Kebab

The hummus was excellent, even though it could have used a bit more tahina. Jennifer was definitely impressed.

All I could think about was repurposing the name of the place for a new book title. Vacationing in Trastevere, 12/29.

Fragments of The Clash

Still a member of the opposition. The door of our neighborhood squat. Milan, early December.

Berlin comparisons are warranted. Visually, the district is on fire. San Lorenzo, Rome, 12/28.