Trends According to DooDee...

I received this comment from my friend Dee the other week. Thank god I have such wonderful friends to keep me up-to-date on American trends while abroad...

hey all you abroad peeps!
ive decided to compile a list of all the things on trend this year so when you all come back you arn't total freaks hahahaha jk

3D movies.... stillll
Militaty jackets and Boots
Big Time Rush
Feathers
Girl Scout Cookies...only this month though
small crossbody handbags
nail polish
older men with accents
corrie
colored eyeliner
temple football
colored corduroys
jeggins

She's probably one of the coolest friends I have...

Porta Portese...

Currently listening to this wonderful gem above in my studio.

Woke up early and headed over to Porta Portese this morning with Dan to go to the flea market that's held there every Sunday. It is pretty much a magical place where you can hagle and barter and just get lost in a labyrinth of Italians and knick-knacks.

I spotted Dinah pretty much completely by accident, but she was on the very top of the cd pile and I knew it was fate... 3 Euros later it was official.

Italian comics might become my next obsession.

Each Dylan Dog book cost me a euro, but the graphics in it are sooo cool. Definitely giving me some new inspirational ideas as far as compositions go.

And I found this lovely little leather bound book of Italian poetry on top of this equally amazing old-school explorer's map of the world written in Italian. I love this market... I hope that when my friends come to visit from London we can take them there because I'm pretty sure they will pass out from excitement.

p.s.- thanks to Dan and her awesome hair cutting capabilities.

Ja Picu!!!!

Last night I went to go get chinese food. That's right, chinese food... in Italy. Two of my friends in the program are both Chinese citizens so they found a place where we could go and get some Chinese-Italian food. And it was soooooo good! I had shrimp lo mein, spring rolls, vegetable fried rice, and chinese fried ice cream.

My main dish.

Gang and Dan both ordered for us in Mandarin, which is one way of compensating for our lack of knowledge in the Italian language.

Rae and her pineapple chicken and Dan's black bean chicken.

When In Venice...

Weekend Trip To Venice... from James Dunn on Vimeo.

This is a quick little movie of our weekend trip to Venice!

Which is absolutely beautiful and I highly recommend to anyone considering taking a trip there. I still can't get over all the colors, the water, and the fact that even though it is ridiculously hard to navigate, you can't get mad because everything is so beautiful.

It also had some of the best food I've had in Italy so far. (Sorry Rome.)

p.s.-The video doesn't start till about 15 seconds in... my editing is a little rusty.

p.p.s.- The song is Masquerade from The Phantom of the Opera, which the orchestra is playing at the end of the video and for Alex, who requested it.

Todi...

So last Sunday we were fortunate enough to visit the town of Todi, located in the region of Umbria. It has been a longstanding tradition at Temple Rome to visit and explore the town in the morning and attend a wedding style Italian feast in the afternoon. First of all, Todi is absolutely beautiful. It is a tiny medieval town located on top of this tiny hill that overlooks miles and miles of farmland. We saw fields of wheat, watermelon, and ironically enough sunflowers; which are harvested and used to create oil. I kept thinking about my mom anytime we’d pass an acre or two of huge yellow and black fields of flowers. There are also tons of sheep, goats, and horses freely grazing throughout the region. We went into a few churches which are filled with beautiful pieces of art. And in the one we walked in to find an orchestra and opera singer practicing for Sunday’s mass. I just sat in the pew for half an hour and listened. The churches here are mind blowing. I could have sat in that church for hours just listening and looking around.

Todi.

Walking through Todi.

2nd church in Todi.

This was one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in.

It was also the one with the orchestra.

Natalie!

View from the courtyard.

View from the courtyard.

Coady outside in the courtyard.

Alex and Laura!

View from the second floor dining room.

Then the afternoon came and it was beyond describable. Sooooo many courses, so little time in between courses! Soooo wonderful! Everything was served with fizzy mineral water and white, red, and sweet desert wine that are all grown and made right on the property. I slept the whole way home.

First Course were these apertif's that I didn't get a picture of... but out in the courtyard they had blood orange juice (so good) and a variety of small finger-sized pizza's! Sooooo delicious.

2nd course: I'm not entirely sure what each type os meat there were...

But I think it was salami, ham, and wild boar.

3rd course: Cheese Pastry.

4th course: Risotto.

5th course: Wild Boar and pasta.

(My favorite.)

6th course: Venison.

(Way more appetizing than my picture leads you to believe.)

7th and 8th course: Potatoes. Chicken.

9th course: Salad.

10th course: Tiramisu

(My second favorite.)

11th and 12th course: Sweet Desert wine. Biscotti. Fruit.

13th course: Esspresso.

Alley Shark...

Alley Shark... from James Dunn on Vimeo.

Takin' a stroll down memory lane...

This is a 1 minute silent short film that I completed senior year of high school at CASA. It also happens to be the only actual video I shot over my year at CASA, the rest being hand done animations. In this piece I got to actually utilize the entire PM theatre class, which was pretty exciting. It's pretty surreal being in charge of directing 15-20 people at a time.

Among the talented cast are:

Jelly Fish: Alexandra Peter

Shark: Steve Sudia

Scuba Diver: Zack Moser

Fish: Alison Weisburg, Caitlin Weigel, Kevin Whitmire, and the rest of the film and thetre classes.

Breath...

So here's a quick little video of some of the wonderful things and people I've come in contact with over the past few months. Hopefully I'll remember to take some more video now that I can edit it.

Quite Quotable...

Gotta love late night hangouts with the siblings...

Writing our favorite quotes on the chalkboard wall and just laughing...

Good times.

(p.s.- I know I've been slacking on the logging department... I'll try and get better! Rome in 19 days...)

[Also check out this Blog... it's where I got the idea for the rat-crow. He's pretty sweet.]

Trippin: Gettin Hitched

Third Stop: Operation Wedding

Next Stop: Back home to Harrisburg

For the final leg of the Road Trip,

my cousin Steve and his beautiful fiance, Steph,

were getting married.

The wedding was held at Saint Anne's

(which coincidentally is where my cousins

on the other side of the family went to grade school).

The ceremony was beautiful

and the reception afterwards was pretty sweet too.

I hadn't seen this side of the family in soooo long.

It was nice to catch up and hear about what everyone was up to.

I couldn't get over how grown up everyone was...

This also happens to be the cousins to which Ellen and I share.

(Even though we aren't technically related at all.)

There was sooo much dancing, including Ellen (crutches and all)!

Below is a video of my youngest cousin Kevin

giving the best man speech.

I love how family comes together to celebrate one another.

p.s.- Hopefully I'll get some better pictures from the ceremony. The two of them are seriously some of the nicest people you will ever meet. I'm so happy for them.

Trippin: Squirrel Hill and Warhol

Second Stop: Squirrel Hill

Next Stop: Steve's Wedding!

I'm a little late on this...

But I'm getting back into the swing of things since moving home...

Went to Pittsburgh to visit Eric and Tyler...

(This is Eric's beautiful house in Squirrel Hill)

CW took us to a lovely little cupcake shop called Dozen.

Then we ate lunch in the hottest restaraunt everrrrr...

But it was delicious and this sandwich only cost me $3...

We walked around Laur's future school for a bit...

Nice... but I'm still partial to good ol' TU...

Chilled in Schenley Park for a little...

Went back to Tyler and Derek's...

Where Tyler made us Buffalo Chicken Lasagna in the crock pot.

Sooooo good.

Caught up with everyone and what our summer plans were...

Eric's teaching design. Tyler's leading orientations. Derek's working at the Zoo. Kelsey's working/hosting her own radio show. CW's interning at XPN. Chrissy's interning at a magazine.

Met up with Cait's relatives.

Got to see the always hilarious Cwisteeen.

(Love this girl. So silly.)

Went to the Warhol museum...

Which was absolutely ridiculous!

New found respect for that man...

Silver Clouds piece...

Cheesin sooo hard!!!

Passed out as soon as i got in the house after heat exhaustion and the dance party with Juan, CW, Chrissy, and Eric.

Big Juan DJ-ed...

Then made delicious Spaghetti for lunch with CW and Chrissy before saying goodbye and heading off to the 3rd leg in my Pbgh Road Trip.