“The first all-time national heat record of 2017 was set in spectacular fashion on Thursday in Chile, where at least twelve different stations recorded a temperature in excess of the nation’s previous all-time heat record—a 41.6°C (106.9°F) reading at Los Angeles on February 9, 1944. According to international weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, the hottest station on Thursday was Cauquenes, which hit 45.0°C (113°F). The margin by which the old record national heat record was smashed: 3.6°C (6.1°F), was extraordinary, and was the second largest such difference Herrera has cataloged (the largest: a 3.8°C margin in New Zealand in 1973, from 38.6°C to 42.4°C.) Herrera cautioned, though, that the extraordinary high temperatures on Thursday in Chile could have been due, in part, to the effects of the severe wildfires burning near the hottest areas, and the new record will need to be verified by the weather service of Chile.” — Jeff Masters, “‘Dante’s Inferno’ in Chile: All-Time National Heat Record Smashed by 6°F” for wundergroundblog.com
Engraved Wall Murals and Sculpture Garden at Casa Galiano, NJ
“Now on exhibit is an engraved marble wall mural of Dante Alighieri’s INFERNO based on 70 images by nineteenth century French engraver Gustave Doré. Accompanying each scene is a corresponding verse and title in Italian with English translation. The pictorial images and lettering were burnt into the surface of black marble tiles using a laser engraving machine. The mural covers 205 square feet , the main section being 8′-6″ high by 22′-0″ long and consists of marble tiles mounted on sixteen removable wood panels. Located at Casa Galiano (the artist’s residence in East Brunswick, NJ) the mural hangs on the east wall of an art gallery addition. Each image has a specific verse chosen to best describe the scene. The mural is presented in chronological order from left to right so that the viewer can follow Dante’s journey from the dark wood to the frozen Satan. It is the artist’s intention to showcase the imagination, language and poetry of Dante’s INFERNO fused with the dramatic visual detailed artwork of Gustave Doré.” –Dino Galiano
“A sculpture garden features high relief marble carvings depicting scenes from Dante’s Divine Comedy. The centerpiece is a solid marble sculpture entitled, The Commedia Block, which is carved on all four sides showing the divisions of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso as well as portraits of Dante, Virgil and Beatrice.” —Casa Galiano
See Casa Galiano to learn more and see additional photos.
Contributed by Dino Galiano
Eataly NYC’s Gluttonous Rooftop Beer Garden
Eataly’s Birreria, New York City
Photo contributed by Steve Bartus (Bowdoin, ’08)
John Kinsella, “Divine Comedy: Journeys Through a Regional Geography” (2008)
“This mammoth new volume from Australia’s Kinsella (Doppler Effect) takes its template and three-line stanza from the three books of Dante’s epic, out of order: first Purgatorio, then Paradiso, then Inferno. Each of the three works, made from dozens of separate poems, joins allusions to Dante with sights, events and memories from Kinsella’s Australia, especially the farming region outside Perth, where he grew up and sometimes lives. The poet’s wife, Tracy (his Beatrice, he says), and their toddler, Tim, play roles throughout. Mostly, though, the poems concern places, not people; their ground note is ecological, with nature taking many forms (locust wings… at sunrise over shallow farm-dams steaming already) set against the ballast/ of cars and infrastructures that endangers it all. That motif of eco-protest dominates the Inferno (last blocks of bushland// cleared away to placate the hunger/ for the Australian Dream), but it turns up in all three of these (perhaps too similar, and surely too long) sequences. Like his compatriot Les Murray, Kinsella can sound uncontrolled, even sloppy. Yet he can turn a phrase (Who describes where we are without thinking/ of when we’ll leave it?). Moreover, he means all he says and never exhausts his ideas or ambition.” –Publisher’s Weekly, Amazon
Contributed by Aisha Woodward (Bowdoin, ’08)
Dante Park, Columbus Ave and W 63rd St., NYC
(photo by Steven Maginnis)
“The New York branch of the Dante Alighieri Society had intended to erect a Dante monument on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Italian unification in 1912. Carlo Barsotti, editor of Il Progresso (the first Italian daily newspaper in the United States), urged subscribers to contribute towards the creation the statue. . . The monument was dedicated that year, which was the 600th anniversary of Dante’s death. . .In 1921 the south portion of Empire Park was officially renamed by the Board of Aldermen for Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321).” [. . .] —NYC GovParks
