Articles by Gina Leishman

Tonk Golden Banquet menu

I have re-discovered the juicer… Given to me by my friends after the diagnosis back in 2016, I drank vast quantities of green juice to get me strong for surgery, only to have them tell me afterwards that dark leafy greens were bad for me – well, counter-productive to the meds they swore I had to take… so I stopped juicing – boo hoo… but the lightbulb finally went on, and I am now a convert to apple/beet/carrot/lemon juice – wow, makes me feel like superwoman.. go go go! hooray for juicers…

And I am finally back, after 5 months’ absence – quite the culture shock…

The last few days in Palazzolo were definitely about event density… the saturday night performance, starting with smoke painting in the piazza and ending with the Italian Constitution being copied out by the citizens – with music (me) in between – and finally a late-night pizza hang at the orphanage, where the clay oven had been built.  Rosemarie and I barely made it home, we were so tired…and the following day (Sunday) the third and final trip to Buscemi, for the celebration of their patron saint, the Madonna del Bosco – the fabled Dancing Madonna, as the burly men bounce her statue up the street to the strains of the brass band and the pealing of every bell, followed by the totally mind-bending explosion of confetti and streamers – we were right underneath it all, fabulous – I much prefer the small town as opposed to the bigger ones…. and so my trip ended as it began, with fireworks and Banda and processions – yay!

I then had two whole days with the family on the finca – Chris, my beloved nephew, and his lovely new girlfriend Catherine – an afternoon kayaking to Isla del Colom. and an expedition to Cavalleria with Bett and her kids… plus three great dinners on the patio… sis in good form…

and so back to New York… what a shock… luckily the current heat wave had just broken, and the next one starts tomorrow, when I head to Houston for the start of 12th Night rehearsals at The Alley…. jet lag has been brutal – after 5 months away, my body is totally on the other side… I am seriously sleep deprived..

a morning spent up at the greek theater with the mandola… quite a hike up there carrying the instrument, it’s not light, but I had the place to myself for a full hour and was just packing up when the first visitors arrived… it’s smaller than I remember, but so beautiful, and pitched on top of the world… there must have been some greek theater going on at some point recently, because there was a plywood stage and floor, with part of the floor painted blue – for the sea, no doubt – and a giant blue mask (others are scattered around town, I noticed). Everything very damp after yesterday’s heavy rain – so different from 4 years ago, when we were stunned by the heat, and the rain didn’t arrive until the last week of September. Apparently it’s been raining most of August… I have no complaints, it’s good working weather and I love my studio in the Travelers’ Museum (how appropriate…) I have begun a photo collage on the walls about my version of Slow Time… even started a new song… verremos… the crazy birds are back outside my window in the evening – they love the mandola, it seems, just as they always did, singing along like crazy with their ‘electric static’ sounds…

Yesterday we went to Buscemi to see the extraordinary itinerant museum dedicated to preserving a record of how the old life was lived – dotted all over the small town in various small rooms, as well as a couple of larger houses, this one man (Rosario Acquaviva?) has dedicated the past 30 years of his life (he started at 28) to collecting and recording the old life that has disappeared – bravo… It turns out it’s actually the 30th anniversary celebration tonight, so if it’s not raining we will head back to catch that, and the last bits of the museum that we missed because of the torrential downpour… Buscemi is a lovely little town – it also has a big saint’s day celebration on Sunday, with the Banda and exploding confetti etc. – will try to go – it’s our last day (our ‘performance’ is saturday evening) and the other option is to go to Ortiga for the night, but that may be pushing the envelope… take it easy, girl….