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What You Make of It: Thoughts from Venice, Italy

2017-08-08 · documentary visit · John, Sarah Urist Green · 3:20 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: History & curiosities, Pop culture, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: recurring series, on location, self promotion, guest or collab

In Venice with Sarah to film the Venice Biennale for The Art Assignment, John tours the crowded city (shrinking population, gondolas, a bookstore, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection) and recalls being very sick and miserable there in 2011; now happy in the Piazza San Marco, he reflects that how you feel at your worst is not how you will always feel, and that the world is also what you bring to it and who you share it with.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Arrival in Venice; John's add-a-vowel bit with Sarah

  • ★ John landed in Venice yesterday morning a little tired and stood in a very long customs line before getting a ride into the city. — 00:00:01
  • ★ John asks Sarah whether she will be annoyed if he adds a vowel to the end of every noun all trip; she says it will offend her, and he says he'll 'bear that in mind-o'. (joke) — 00:00:13 · Sarah Urist Green

00:00:25 — Filming the Biennale; Venice's shrinking population, gondolas and tourists

  • ★★ John says they are in Venice to film the Venice Biennale, a huge art show, for The Art Assignment, Sarah's PBS show; filming starts tomorrow. — 00:00:25 · The Art Assignment, Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★★ John says Venice is crowded but not with residents: its population has shrunk by more than half in the last forty years, and more people lived there a thousand years ago than today. — 00:00:35
  • ★★ John says Venice is so picturesque it often doesn't seem real, and in some ways it isn't. (hedged) — 00:00:55
  • ★★★ John says that in the 18th century Venice had more than 8,000 gondolas as its main transport; today there are about 400, used almost only by tourists. — 00:00:59
  • ★ John says you can't really complain about crowds of tourists when you are part of that crowd. (playful) — 00:01:09

00:01:13 — La Fenice, the Libreria Acqua Alta, gelato, the Grand Canal and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

  • ★★ John and Sarah walk past the Fenice Theater to the Libreria Acqua Alta, a sprawling canal-side bookstore with towers of books on all sides. — 00:01:13 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John says the decayed books outside form a sculpture, a reminder of where all books, and all cities, are going; but there's gelato, so no need to despair. (hedged) — 00:01:25
  • ★★ After the Grand Canal view, they visit the Peggy Guggenheim Collection: works by Anish Kapoor, Modigliani, Warhol, Frank Stella, Picasso and Pollock, though John mostly saw the backs of heads. — 00:01:40

00:01:56 — Remembering being sick and miserable in Venice in 2011

  • ★★★ Watching gondolas from a bridge, John recalls his last visit to Venice just over six years ago (June 2011): his video began 'I'm in Venice and I'm really sick', and he was very sick. — 00:02:01 · Amsterdam
  • ★★★ John recalls cutting that visit short the next day to fly back to Amsterdam; his gallbladder turned out to need removing. — 00:02:12 · Amsterdam
  • ★★★ John says that besides the physical illness his mental health was near an all-time low; in 2011 he hated the Piazza San Marco, its smell, tourists, pigeons and flying lions, and was sick and scared. — 00:02:15 · mental disorder

00:02:44 — Happy in the Piazza San Marco: your worst is not forever; the world is what you bring to it

  • ★★★ John says that yesterday he was happy in the Piazza San Marco, loving the families from all over the world and people taking selfies with history; he didn't even mind the pigeons. — 00:02:44
  • ★ John says the Piazza San Marco has been a gathering place for humans for nearly a millennium. — 00:02:47
  • ★★★ John says he was reminded that how you feel at your worst is not how you are always going to feel. — 00:02:56 · mental disorder
  • ★ John says that, sure, the world is going to end and Venice will sink into the sea, but not yet. (playful) — 00:02:59
  • ★★★ Over expensive espresso, John reflects that the world is what it is, but it is also what you bring to it and who you share it with. — 00:03:06

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Piazza San Marco · Venice

Also: People: Amedeo Modigliani · Andy Warhol · Anish Kapoor · Frank Stella · Jackson Pollock · Pablo Picasso · Sarah Urist Green

Projects: The Art Assignment

Organizations: La Fenice · Libreria Acqua Alta · PBS · Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Concepts: mental disorder · tourism

Places: Amsterdam · Grand Canal

Events: Venice Biennale

Only in the description or credits: Thoughts from Places · Turtles All the Way Down

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