Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

There was a time when cars were fantasies an people  dreamed about them. Detroit fueled their imagination big time but those cars were superb. Not to mention that they were made with bigger gauge steel not plastic and thin gauge light metals more like thin cans.

Late winter of a season that nearly wasn't. 

This blog has always avoided polemics but I will make a rare exception. Italy is undergoing it's greatest crisis in containing the Corona virus epidemic and while draconian measures are taking place, the European Union of which Italy is an original charter member (the original Common Market was the result of the treaty of Rome of 1957) has turned it's back. The French are gloating and the Germans see this as another way to take over Europe. The Austrians have blocked the Brenner Pass in complete violation of EU rules. When Paris was attacked all social media stood with France and Paris. To the great shame of it no one has yet stood with Italy, no one cares. Italy will survive in spite of it's isolation because it has the most creative people in the world. I hope that after this is over Italy would leave the UE because it's a worthless institution full of control freak bureaucrats who issue ridiculous regulations and are unable to raise to the challenge in any emergency...

Italians brought to these shores the tradition of the town feasts. These are mostly associated with a patron saint and a church. These images are from the Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Brooklyn. They are fun and if you have a steel belted stomach, the food is digestible. It's a far cry from good Italian food but it's all for having a good time.

Of the five Boroughs of NYC, Queens has the most diverse population. This shot was taken at the Queens Botanical Garden a few springs ago.

This is a vintage street shot. I used a Nikon S 2 rangefinder camera with a Nikkor 3.5 cm or 35 mm F: 3.5 lens. Naturally, the film was Tri-X instead of t Max 400 that was all the rage then but I did not like it's tonality and the fact that it scratched easily. This was another Kodak misstep that lead to it's unfortunate demise. 

You have never tasted  better tomatoes than these Sicilian plums.