“I love the physicality of letterpress printing — it is a very sculptural process, as you more or less have to ‘build’ what you print from,” Baker said
Earl Kallemeyn is an excellent printer.
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/32125012 w=500&h=281]
One run to go.
The main text on the other side is done; now just the title, colophon, and last third of the timeline is left. I’m really liking the colors on all the test proofs.
Finally starting to settle back down and get something done. Here’s the pamphlet in progress’s current state: The inside timeline gets a few more runs of color:
Which I was happy with, and which sidestepped the whole bright idea I had to try to register the thing precisely. Who needs precision?
I then had to figure out how to set up the text on top:
The printing went amazingly well, and I only had to make small corrections and tweak the lockup a little bit; the printing gods were thankfully with me.
This part of the timeline only goes up to 1912; I started running out of sorts and need to distribute this bit first in order to finish it. Because nothing is simple, and if it were I would be bored. This weekend I get to set the colophon and title and print the text on the other side.
The last part of my time in Rome mostly consisted of walking from gorgeous place to gorgeous place; taking photos of inscriptions, tourists taking photos of each other, huge baroque churches, and fountains; eating; saying hello to the feral cat colony; and more eating.
I like traveling alone because I can do exactly what I want to do the entire time that I am in a place, see the things I want to see, do the things I want to do, and nothing else. I’m a selfish traveler, I don’t really want to be responsible for making sure another person’s vacation is what they want it to be.
I also hate that conversation that happens when you’re traveling with someone and you spend half an hour going back and forth about what you’re going to do next: “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” “I don’t know, what do YOU want to do?”, and then the next thing you know you’re fighting, for lack of a better idea. If I’m traveling alone and I don’t know what to do next, I can just walk in a direction without a plan and eventually something will happen.
Like this:
or this:
Rome is gussied up for the tourists in a way that Naples is not, but despite this, and despite the fact that pretty much everyone around you is a tourist, it is still one of the most amazing places I’ve been. It’s just unbelievable how much history is just piled on top of history.
The closest to anything work-related that I did was one exhibition that I wandered into by chance on the rare books in the Vatican library, (psst-popes are hoarders!) and these kinds of photos- I took a lot of them:
The first three days in Italy I spent catching up with my old friend Miriam and her daughter Esme, who no longer is convinced that I’m out to steal her toys. 
The last time I visited Miriam in Italy was way back in 2005? Which seems like another world at the moment.
The first time I came to Rome (2003?) I was with Miriam, and we spent 36 hours trying to see as many Caravaggio’s as we could, with her friend the art historian in tow to guide us.
But 36 hours isn’t enough and I always wanted to come back, and I wanted to see Miriam again, and prove to Esme that I was not as sketchy a character as she thought.
Three days with an old friend was the best way to start the trip I could think of. We ate good food and saw some Caravaggio’s for old times sake and walked around much slower than I would have on my own. And spent a good amount of time sitting in a piazza.
Alright, so this whole reentry into civilian life is going slower than anticipated. I’m just now starting to feel normal again. So how was my glorious trip to Italy? Let’s talk about Naples first. I was there three days, smack dab in the middle of the trip.
Before I go there everyone that I talked to said that I’d get robbed in Naples.
I didn’t get robbed in Naples. Everyone was really nice to me in Naples. Even the cab driver didn’t rip me off in Naples; he told me exactly how to get to the center and made sure I understood and remembered what he told me.
The streets are crowded with people walking and people on Vespas and people in their tiny cars, and they’re all moving at the same time, not stopping for traffic lights or anything, just sort of dodging and weaving around each other. At one point I was stopped at an intersection trying to figure out how exactly I was going to get across and this woman came up behind me and said “What are you doing? You can’t just stand there, you have to go, come on, we’re crossing the street now, come with me.” In Italian. I laughed and followed her lead.
The art is all baroque, and really baroque, not just a little bit baroque, over the top marble in six different colors and gold leaf and red and columns and more columns, and some fat winged babies holding up the ceiling, and more gold leaf and more marble. And the paint’s all peeling since it’s kinda been downhill for the last 150 years, but still, and more gold leaf. And the ceilings are loud and the floors are loud, and you go outside and sit in the piazza and realize that there are actual Italians there, big beefy Italian guys yelling at each other, and small dirty kids playing soccer. And most of the people in the churches are actually praying, they’re not tourists taking pictures of each other like in Rome. Because there’s fewer tourists here, because you know you’re going to get robbed in Naples, and also there’s graffiti on everything, including the churches, and it’s kind of filthy but that’s OK because there’s also the seaside and that’s amazing.
And there’s these strange cult-y shrines in alleys, and really fresh seafood, and really cheap pizza, and good street food, and sfogliatelle, which is more or less sweet cinnamon ricotta wrapped in butter, and really strong really good coffee. And a volcano! That might explode at any minute! Can’t stop for a traffic light, might die at any minute!
And the bus system doesn’t really work, but that’s OK because on the way back to the train station I stood at the bus stop that said that there would be a bus that went to the train station, and waited, and then started talking to one of the senior citizens waiting for the bus, and she told me that the bus I wanted didn’t stop there anymore, they got rid of that bus, despite what the sign said, and her friend told me don’t worry, we’ll figure it out, come with us, and so I got on the other bus with a gang of Neopolitan senior citizens, who then argued amongst each other, and other people on the bus, and the driver, for ten minutes about what was the best way to get to the train station, and then they came to a conclusion, and hurried me off the bus, where I had to then somehow cross four lanes of Neopolitan traffic, which I managed, and I got back to the train station.
The end.
Back after 10 days in Italy. Amazing! I ate everything! I walked everywhere! I saw everything! I’m still catching up. More soon. In the meantime- the Baroque! (see above).
Vacations are good for people.
I’m going to Rome and Naples; I’ll be back soon.
Still waiting for box of half-finished prints and blocks, so I can finish the new pamphlet.
In the meantime I’m doing this.