It has been a busy day in Virtual Italy. There’s more content to come this evening, but first here is the second part of my video about Italian food. I get to have that zabaglione, and Augustus and I talk a bit about Roman food. Enjoy.
GiveItUp125
Exploring Rome #GiveItUp125
On my way back from Bologna I spent a day or so in Rome seeing the sights. I barely managed to scratch the surface of the things there were to see. If you are going to Rome, you need several days, and you need to book tickets for the various attractions well in advance or you won’t get in. Even then you may have to queue a long time to get into the Vatican.
Anyway, here are some photos. Huge thanks to my dear friend Francesco Verso who met up with me in the evening and took me around the part of the city where he grew up.
To Bolongna and Beyond #GiveItUp125
Is it time for some tourism? I think so. Back in 2017 I was extremely fortunate to be invited to give a paper at a conference organised by the University of Bologna. Obviously I was looking forward to visiting the home of that famous pasta dish, but it turned out even better because the university’s conference facilities were in a small village well south of the city. That got me into contact with Italy’s violent history of roving gangs of mercenaries (condottieri) and with one of the world’s most famous writers.
My thanks again to Raffaella Baccolini and everyone else involved in the conference. There is now a book of the proceedings. And now, here are some photos (click on one for a slide show and comments).
We’re Live! #GiveItUp125
In case you missed the announcement on Twitter, yes, the #GiveItUp125 challenge is now underway. I am in Virtual Italy, and I’ll be posting Italian content on various social media throughout the day. There will be music, tourism, books, and of course food. Here, in best Blue Peter tradition, is one that I prepared earlier.
If you like what I’m doing here, please consider donating to One25 who are doing amazing work in Bristol, putting themselves at risk to help those who have nothing.
And now, time for that Zabaglione…
Some #GiveItUp125 Announcements
As you may have noticed, I reached my initial fundraising goal of £250 yesterday. It is great to know that I have something in the bank before I have produced anything. From tomorrow, however, the content should start streaming out, and that means plenty of opportunities to get people to contribute. So I have raised the target to £750.
Now that may seem a lot, but we are 33% of the way there already. And last year I raised £600, so I’m sure we can do it.
You may be wondering why there is a picture of bananas on this post. Well, last year Meghan & Harry Sussex made a Royal Visit to One25 (when they were doing such things) and Meghan decided to write “positive affirmations” on some of the bananas in the centre. That got all over the news. The folks at One25 have been a bit obsessed with bananas ever since, and several of them will be doing this year’s challenge dressed as a banana.
I do not have a banana suit.
But I have bananas. Six of them: one for each day of the challenge. So each day I will be channeling my inner (ex-)princess and writing a message on one (before eating it). For this I need your help. Each day I will be asking for ideas for that day’s message. It needs to be something short enough to fit on a banana, and sufficiently clean to be tweeted out. Tweet me ideas with the hashtag #GoBanana.
There’s more.
I’m delighted to announce that for the California and Canada legs of my tour I will be joined by the wonderful Nalo Hopkinson. Nalo currently lives near Los Angeles, but still calls Toronto home. Tune in to find out what she thinks of both cities.
And finally, when should you do that? Here’s the schedule:
- Friday 15th: Italy
- Saturday 16th: California
- Sunday 17th: Australia
- Monday 18th: Finland
- Tuesday 19th: Canada
- Wednesday 20th: France
Content will roll out here, on YouTube and on Twitter through each day. Enjoy!
Today on Ujima – One25, Greek Robots & Mental Health
My first guests on today’s show were Amy & Lu from One25. Amy explained why the women that One25 helps cannot simply stop doing sex work during the pandemic. Most of them don’t even have homes, let alone any other source of income. Lu then chimined in with details of this year’s fundraiser. I’m delighted to see that I’m now up to 78% of my initial target. What I’d love to see is us hitting 100% by launch time on Friday, and then I can set a new target for the 6 days of the campaign.
Next up was my new academic pal, Maria Gerolemou from the University of Exeter. Like me, Maria as a passion for ancient automata. Those of you who have heard my “Prehistory of Robotics” talk will have a good idea of what to expect. The rest of you, prepare to be astonished.
Finally I welcomed back Subitha from CASS to talk about two new mental health campaigns. You can find out more about the #SleepSoundBristol and #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek projects at the CASS website. And do please write in to tell them about someone who has been kind to you.
This week’s show also includes tributes to two tiny giants of the music business who sadly left us in the past week. They were Millie Small, who hit #2 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1964 with “My Boy Lollipop”, and Little Richard without whom the likes of Prince and Elton John would have been very different musicians.
The playlist for the show is as follows:
- My Boy Lollipop – Millie Small
- Street Life – Roxy Music
- Money Don’t Matter – Prince
- Sun Goddess – Ramsey Lewis & Earth, Wind & Fire
- Chrome Shoppe – Janelle Monáe
- Dance Apocalyptic – Janelle Monáe
- Dream within a Dream – Dreadzone
- Everyone’s a VIP to Someone – The Go! Team
- Long Tall Sally – Little Richard
- Good Golly Miss Molly – Little Richard
- Keep a Knockin’ – Little Richard
- Lucille – Little Richard
- Tutti Frutti – Little Richard
- The Girl Can’t Help It – Little Richard
- By the Light of the Silvery Moon – Little Richard
- House of the Ancestors – Afro Celt Sound System
You can hear the entire show via the Ujima Listen Again service. It will be up there for a few weeks.
Give It Up Update
I’m pleased to report that my fundraiser is now more than 33% towards its target. I’m still hoping that we can get to 100% before the official launch, but obviously some people will be waiting to see what I actually produce.
The good news is that I have been doing stuff in advance. I’ve been going through old photos, playing with cookery, and recording chats with Kevin. The latter have been going really well, and that has influenced my decision as to which countries to pick for the final two. They will be…drumroll…
Canada and France
The main reason for this is that they are both countries that Kevin and I have visited, both together and individually. That means we’ll be able to do good chats. It also means that I get to talk about the Museum of Cartoon Art in Epinal, which is awesome.
I expect to be able to announce another guest who has lived in both California and Canada tomorrow.
In the meantime, please pledge. The folks at One25 are hoping to reach £15,000 in total. Obviously there are lots of other people participating as well as me, but it would be good to make a dent in that.
Let’s Give It Up for One25!
Some of you will remember that last year I walked 125 miles to raise money for the Bristol charity, One25. Well, they are looking for help again this year, and this time the challenge is to give something up for 125 hours. Thinking of something was a challenge in itself because we’ve been forced to give up so much thanks to the pandemic, but I have an idea I think that you’ll enjoy. The image above is a clue. More on that later, but first, why One25?
One25 are a charity who work directly with street sex-working women to provide outreach, casework and essential resources for their future. 80% of women who street sex-work are homeless. In the strangest of times we now find ourselves in, One25 remain focused on keeping contact with women as much as possible and continuing to deliver services. They are doing whatever they can to make sure that some of Bristol’s most vulnerable women know that they are loved and not alone.
UK-based readers might remember that last year the Sussexes visited One25 and Meghan wrote on some bananas.
As a trans woman I am painfully aware that sex work could easily have been part of my life. Thanks to a great deal of luck and Kevin’s love, I managed to avoid that, but numerous people didn’t. High profile trans women such as Roz Kaveney and Janet Mock have written movingly about their experiences in the sex trade. Each year, when I help read the names of the departed at the Trans Day of Remembrance ceremony, I am painfully aware that many of those women died because they had no choice but to sell their bodies, and therefore had to make themselves vulnerable.
I have done several sessions of trans awareness training for One25 staff and have been very impressed by their openness and willingness to provide support to whoever needs it.
So, what’s the plan? Well, for the duration of the fundraiser, 1:00pm on May 15th to 6:00pm on May 20th, I am giving up living in the UK. I’ve had enough of this staying at home lark, and by the magic of the internet I am going to travel the world. And I’m inviting you to come with me. For each of the 6 days I will visit a different country. I will check out the tourist spots, talk to local people, try the local food, play the local music and so on. You will be able to follow it all on social media.
I have four of the six countries inked in. Australia and California are obvious choices as I have lived in both countries. Finland is next as I have been there so often. I’m going to do Italy because it gives me an opportunity to talk about Romans (again). The other two are as yet undecided. Croatia and Canada are obvious picks as I’ve been to each of them several times, but I’m open to persuasion to go somewhere else. It needs to be somwhere I can do a decent job of visiting. Suggest somewhere.
If you happen to live in one of those countries and would like to help by suggesting places to visit, things to eat, or music to play I would be very grateful. If you’d like to do an interview I would be over the moon. Do let me know.
And, most importantly, PLEASE PLEDGE. My fundraising page is here. No amount is too small. Every penny is gratefully received.