845 PM, plenty of life in Perugia but less and less in this narrow street as people head home and indoors. I can hear that the camera is low on battery power and is squeezing the last frames out. The camera is grinding to a halt and so am . I started at 5AM and have been in, out and around the fortified hilltop that is Perugia.
I am shooting an golden lunette that is slipping and now fading across a stucco-ed wall.
Feet tired- I need a seat- swallows going mad overhead, i have seen so many here, many cliffs of course, why isn’t there a local birds nest soup recipe, did Marco Polo decline to pass that on? And do swallows have a call, or are these house-martens? My friend Paul would know. Feeling good.
Buttressed by the filmic arch is a Romanesque temple with a Maltese Cross on the door. Knights of Malta perhaps. A secret society. My back is stiff. i can hear a tinny transistor and a fan. I am next to a door in the 25 metre high wall with a swinging timber sign overhead. “The Titbit Pub and Pizzeria”. I have been filming the arch for 25 minutes. The light is now gone. i dislodge the tripod from the cobbles. I repair to the Titbit. The term Pub must repels tourists; I am alone with what I wish to believe are the locals, and the regular at the bar. Pomodoro fresco, mozzarella, uovo fresco, funghi, prosciutto crudo. Its the first in the menu. It’s the specialty of the house, the “titbit”. I take it. And Hofbrau bier on tap? Really? Italian pizza and German beer. That is the right way around. I am in heaven.
Dr. No is on TV. Sean Connery at a grand Sumo event, escaping in a gorgeous Toyota S 2000 (?) I reflect on my work in Venice- more water! These things re good with time lapses, – still solid things = buildings. And moving, passing things, trees, light, water, people. Things that start and stop rhythmically, traffic lights and traffic.
Water in Dr. No. A Toyota Crown sedan chasing the Toyota coupe is nabbed by a giant magnet swinging from a Sikorsky helicopter before being dropped from height into Tokyo Bay. Great Art.
Dr. No dubbed into Italian seems Kafka-esque soft porn; a series of ludic predicaments
Group of ten girls, Swedish couple, a couple with an infant and an Italian whippet . These are my companions in this brick vaulted cellar. Shoe leather polished terracotta tiles.
Disco playing.
Bond in a fold up gyrocopter over a volcano- being chased- surveys the choice of Dymoed toggle switches- selects air to air flamethrowers, destroys 3 choppers. Does not self immolate.
“Don’t you want me baby” – Human League.
“Face to Face”, The Twins–German new wave, woollen pullovers and a great keyboard line.
Dr. No’s collapsing bridge is an architect’s office bridge, slightly more drastic version.
Got a lot done today.