“So this is Venice” my mom said quite innocently as we faced the Scalzi Bridge in 1999. I envied her passion and the unrepenting excitement in her voice.

When I was a kid, my mom told me about a magical city where the streets were made of water. She said that one day when I was older, I would need to visit the fabled Venice before it slipped into the ocean and was lost for good. Venice was a modern-day Atlantis, to me, and I had precious little time to catch it before it was gone.

I went with Chuck Bentley and The Electronic Theatre (for which we created The English Mystery Graphic Open and The Electronic Theatre Presents Promo) in 1999 and again in 2005. These pictures are from the more recent visit and remind me of how magical the world really is.

The Belgian Alps—(which Hannibal crossed on elephant) taken from the plane window.


Salute at Night—I love the warmth and eeriness of this shot.


Snowy Venice Night—taken from Ponte Rialto in February of 2005.


Piaza San Marco—Mike and I in Piaza San Marco in February of 2005 (hence the Winter Coats)


Venetian Canal in the snow—Someone actually bought this picture off me on Fotolia.com.


Ponte Rialto—The ol’ Vaseline on an ashtray trick. I’m certain the restaurant-owners weren’t too happy about this. Try taking a glass ashtray and smearing chapstick around the edges and shooting a picture through it. It creates a pretty cool vignette, with aberations of glass, and the photo ends up looking like a greasepaint rendering.


Snowy Venice Rooftops—My Canon Elph is good for long shutter shots (night vision). This picture makes me depressed that I don’t travel too often, so naturally I look at it as a spur to prick the sides of my intent.

The cast of The Electronic Theatre’s “Days and Nights in Venice” (which plays on MNN in Manhattan) on Pont Cappello, home of the Venetian webcam.

Absenthe in Blue Caffé—We’re soaked from the snow, but we couldn’t leave Venice without sampling some Czech Absenthe.

The Bridge of Sighs—You can almost picture Cassanova escaping across this bridge.