........................ mira burt-wintonick

Merch update: The new pilgrIMAGE t-shirts will read ‘I got kicked off the Nuremberg rally grounds for unlawful behaviour.’

[note: G is complete and surprising madness]

a. cup my hand around the real giullietta’s breast in Verona (all the tourist’s were doing it I swear!)

b. teeter between zen and bitterness but ultimately decide on inner peace

c. fall in love with kurt vonnegut all over again, this time on the nature cruise of the century

d. bop along the autoroute to some authentic yodel-trance

e. write a song about munich that goes something like this: “Munchen, Munchen, How do you dunchen? Let’s have some beer, in Munchen! (background cheers: MUNCHEN!) [you will have to imagine the tune and umlats yourself]

f. miss my number one girl a bit in the car while listening to some guy named bruce (man am I ever getting sick of these three cd’s!)

g. end up as the enthrusted videographer in a warehouse teeming with young german new media enthusiasts at the last leg of the lost film fest/ street band performance tour as a sony cam is, as I say, thrust over to me on the dance floor

[note #2: I will try to upload photos, or even better, video, of letter G to try to convey some of the mad energy of the night, though I'm pretty sure it was one of those "you had to be there" kind of moments.]

Pete and I have reluctantly left Venice and the always enticing biennale for the shores of the adriatic sea and Rimini. Was Fellini’s hometown always this tacky, I wonder? Maybe that’s what drove him to create such magic and beauty in his films. A much needed escape.

don’t fight it.

This is our last day in Yerevan and I must say I’m glad to be taking off. The past weekend has been draining and anxious as I’ve felt like a prisoner in my hotel room. Some of the young men here are so pushy and persistent, not needing an inch of encouragement to start hastleing you, that one or two in particular have gotten into the habit of calling my hotel room day and night to ask that I go meet with them. And if you think hanging up or saying NO is enough to disuade them in their purported claim, then you’d be very, very mistaken. To one, “NO, I don’t want to see you, please go away” means coming up to the hotel room at 1:30 am and knocking on my door, whining that he misses me and any other load of bullshit you can think of. Where they get these crackpot attitudes and oblivious assumptions is beyond me.

Today, though, I waited out the day by the rooftop pool and then hit up a local market in the afternoon. Quite a site, in the pit of an old soviet fountain, dozens of merchants selling anything from detached rearview mirrors to busted up radios, though mostly woven carpets and communist memorabilia. Among the mish mash was this amazing USSR vs. USA chess set and some russian dolls. (Don’t these leaders look sweet, watching over baby Lenin like that?)

Our flight leaves at 5am for Vienna, where we will interview a media artists couple and blogger. I likely won’t have much time to post from now on, but I will try to keep uploading photos here and you can make up your own adventures for me based on what you see.

There are dozens and dozens of scales scattered around Yerevan, nearly at every street corner, some like this but mostly regular bathroom scales. Beside each is an old woman who sits there in the sun all day long hoping someone will have a sudden urge to know their exact weight so that she can make a few Dram. (note: one canadian dollar is about 370 drams which can get you a sandwich and a fanta in some places or even a small armenian beer if you’re lucky)

I thought I filmed a press conference with Iranien director Abbas Kiarostami today but it was actually some russian dude. I only know because a) I met the russian dude later at the pool and was slighlty confused by the moment that followed, though not entirely clued in and b) because I went to see Kiarostami’s new film ‘Ten’ later tonight and a completely different person introduced the film with an iranien translator and everything (which in retrospect makes so much sense!)

To be fair, the ‘random russian dude’ is actually a very famous filmmaker named Nikita Mikhalkov.

Luckily my interview with Atom Egoyan this aft went much better since I didn’t slip up and start asking him about Existenz and Scanners.