oodles and oodles of tidbits and PLASTIC BAGS

i am sorry my blog has become a graveyard, a wasteland, a terrible impersonal checklist of things i've seen or things i think you should see. it was already impersonal - it's a blog - but i like to think it once had a bit of spunk. :) here's to getting that back. but probably not today, because i have to embark on yet another drive to houston.

if you plan on attending the ACL festival this year in Austin, consider going here:
http://www.austincitylimits.com/festival/booking.asp
and suggesting to those good folks that they book Vanessa Peters & Ice Cream on Mondays. Just a thought.

Randy Hill debuted a track from Blackout on 90.1 KPFT this morning! He played "The Hero and the Heroine" and will be the guest DJ for the next two weeks, so it's likely he'll play it again next week. Drop a line to the folks at KPFT and tell them how much you just love that song!

I had a fantastic show last night - the first one of this tour. Other shows have ranged from so-so to good to terrible, but this one was just plain fun. Suzanna Choffel is lovely - such a cool smoky voice - and Standard and Pours has got to be one of my all-time favorite venues. A coffeeshop where the audience listens? Get out of town! And with cookies that taste like theirs...well, you just can't go wrong.

Try to save a plastic bag. I've been trying since I got home but damned if anyone will let me. In Europe you have to pay for your plastic bags at the grocery store. Here they put a half-gallon of milk in its own bag - and then double bag it. STOP THE MADNESS! I asked this lady at Wal-mart (my first mistake, but I was in Shreveport, where there are no other options) to put everything (all 7 items) in one bag and she looked at me like I had an exploding glass eye and informed me that it ain't all gunna fit in thayre. I assured her it would, she scowled and did it and then, obviously missing the WHOLE POINT, proceeded to double-bag my groceries. I had to peel off the 2nd outer bag and give it back to her, trying patiently again to explain that I only wanted one bag. I would have just brought an empty backpack like I do in Italy but I was afraid that would have caused cardiac arrest. At Best Buy, the nice young man behind the counter put my CD in a bag. "No thanks," I said. "I'm opening the CD in the car, I don't really need the bag." "Okay, cool," he said, and then proceeded to THROW THE BAG AWAY! Here's a novel idea - USE IT FOR THE NEXT PERSON!!!! Stress level on the rise. Why do I care? It's just a bag, right? Don't get me started.

How do I pre-order the new CDs, you ask? Well here you go!
http://www.vanessapeters.com/blackout.htm
http://www.icecreamonmondays.com (just read the latest news item)

Thanks again to the great crowd at S&P last night. 1000000s of kisses to you all.
love
vanessa

me too! I want a pet dragon for transportation... 

the little man inside the float, peeking out to make sure that he doesn't drive over any small or old people... 

these were on a float passing by during Carnevale...if I were a little kid, I am not sure if these would be pretty or scary... 

this picture was taken through a reflective window, creating this spooky rainy effect (though it was, in fact, raining a bit). 

here I am, defying all Italian health regulations which state explicitly that shoes and socks must remain attached to feet in cold weather (or even cool weather). 

time to throw the tea in the harbor?

as i am here in italy, suffering through another election year, i would like to draw attention to taxes. yes - taxes. super exciting, i know.

sales tax in texas - 8.25%
sales tax in italy - 20% (on everything - every little thing).

tax bracket i found myself in last year - 15%
tax bracket of most of my acquaintances here in italy - 38%

that means most of the people i know paid nearly 60% of their earnings into taxes last year. berlusconi, italy's little mussolini, passed a law that gave a tax break to those folks who really need it, including people that owned a television channel (that would be himself, since he owns most of the italian communication network).

this is why everything here is done "senza scontrino" or "senza fattura." if you don't want a receipt, you will likely get a price cut (if you know to ask for it). at first i kind of turned my nose up at this cavalier side-stepping of "duty," this casual tax evasion....but when i talk to my friends who earn less than 1000 euro a month (not considered low here) and who pay 400 euro/month in rent, plus 200-300/month in electricity, gas, etc...and then i try to do the math, putting 600 of those 1000 euro into my taxes pile....i don't know...something with my numbers always comes out negative....this is why all my italian friends live at home until they are married and have two incomes...and why a lot of them live at home still, married or not.