Venice

The Rude Mechanicals perform their own version of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," Friday, Jan. 11 and Saturday, Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. at the Greenbelt Arts Center, 124 Centerway, in Greenbelt. The Laurel-based Mechanicals' production takes place in Baltimore in 1960. Two rival businessmen enter into a bond that will ignite all the tensions, slights and prejudices of the city to explode into its smoky sky. Weekend performances continue Jan. 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 general admission; $14 students/seniors/military.

The Rude Mechanicals perform their own version of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," Friday, Jan. 11 and Saturday, Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. at the Greenbelt Arts Center, 124 Centerway, in Greenbelt. The Laurel-based Mechanicals' production takes place in Baltimore in 1960. Two rival businessmen enter into a bond that will ignite all the tensions, slights and prejudices of the city to explode into its smoky sky. Weekend performances continue Jan. 18, 19, 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 general admission; $14 students/seniors/military.

From the Caribbean to Korea, the gales of crises are gusting, forcing this nation again to choose: Will it be Rome, or Venice, or a bit of both?Any new republic, wrote Machiavelli, must decide whether to expand her dominion by power, like Rome, or to be like Venice, located ''in some strong place'' that protects it as it goes about its business, which for Venice was business. During America's first century, broad oceans and placid neighbors enabled it to be Venetian, in a strong place, practicing commerce.

Anne Arundel County health officials warned Wednesday against swimming, wading or jet-skiing at Venice on the Bay beach in Pasadena after tests found unsafe bacteria levels in the water. The county issued the warning after finding high levels of potentially disease-causing bacteria Friday and Wednesday in water samples taken at the Patapsco River beach. Bacteria levels can increase after heavy rains wash pollution off the land, but officials noted that other factors, including waste from waterfowl, water temperatures and tidal action can also elevate bacteria readings.

Masochists are hereby officially notified that the new Henry Jaglom film, "Venice/Venice," not only written and directed by but starring Jaglom, is on tap at the Charles tonight and tomorrow night. Such delirious pain is rarely available so cheaply and without a long wait reading last year's People magazines in a dentist's office.Jaglom is Woody Allen without a shred of humor or genius, a monster of smug self-love and preening narcissism who has managed to con his way to a mini-cult rep as a "personal" and "candid" filmmaker in a series of movies about How Hard It Is to Be Henry Jaglom.

Last February I visited Venice, Italy, where I saw these gondolas all lined up early in the morning waiting to take visitors for a ride on the Grand Canal. The cathedral in the background was visible in the early morning haze. The gondola ride I took later in the day was a wonderful experience. Mary Gerold Mobley Baltimore

The 65th Venice International Film Festival got under way last week with a star-studded lineup, including Brad Pitt and George Clooney. But you don't have to be a film fan to visit this gem of an Italian city. In fact, if Hollywood made a movie about Venice, it could easily be called Where the Tourists Are. The city receives up to 20 million visitors a year. 1 Ride a gondola on the Grand Canal: The city's main thoroughfare, the Grand Canal, is nearly two miles long and is lined with churches, palaces and other historic buildings.

"Profane Friendship" captures a city, but it was written to save it.Harold Brodkey's unusual novel has an unusual provenance: It was commissioned by the Consorzio Venezia Nuova, an organization formed to preserve the heritage of Venice, and the city is a central presence in the book, more changing and more real, in fact, than the people in it. Mr. Brodkey wrote the novel in 1992, and the first edition was published privately as a fund-raiser for the Consorzio.The narrator is Niles O'Hara, a minor writer and the son of a popular novelist contemporary with Hemingway.

VENICE -- Fashion is a cruel mistress, never more so than when one is traveling. It is, after all, a truth universally acknowledged that most tourists -- with the possible exception of the late Grace Kelly -- never have the right wardrobe, regardless of how carefully they pack.It is not just a matter of weather-preparedness and comfort; it is also the letdown one feels upon arriving in a stylish city such as Venice only to find oneself hopelessly out-of-fashion.At least this has been the experience of one American in Venice -- we shall call her Signora S. -- who sits now trying on shoes in a trendy shop called Prada.

It was one of those seductive Venetian dinners. Little out-of-the-way place, soft lighting, good company and a table spread with exotic, unfamiliar temptations. Spirits I'd scarcely heard of. An entree I'd never have ordered myself. Sometime after the Aperol spritzer, probably during the squid-ink pasta but definitely before the last chilled sip of limoncello liqueur, I yielded - a pushover the very first night. Like countless conquests before me, I, too, murmured, "I'm not a tour person, but ... " Many who have taken a Rick Steves tour know the feeling.

After critics flayed him for the swoony lyricism of "Ryan's Daughter," David Lean said he could have justified that film's picture-postcard love imagery by having a priest tell the heroine that she was "seeing the world through rose-colored glasses." And why not? A similar strategy had worked niftily for Lean before, in the elegant 1955 romance "Summertime," playing this weekend in a restored print at the Charles. In the opening scene, Lean depicts a single, 40ish woman, Jane Hudson ( Katharine Hepburn)

ANNA MARIE FARNISH, 57, formerly of Swissvale, a life-long educator, died on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 in Venice, FL after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She earned her Bachelors and Masters degrees from Duquesne University. She was currently living in Glen Cove, NY. She was Vice President of Programs at the Institute for Student Achievement in Lake Success, NY. Loving daughter of the late Adam and Mary (Laycak) Farnish; dear sister of Marian (Sam) Vergona, Venice, FL, Michael Farshish, Swissvale, and Louis Farnish, Pgh; aunt of Ed Vergona, Andrew Mahon, Cassie and Jessie Farnish.

The 65th Venice International Film Festival got under way last week with a star-studded lineup, including Brad Pitt and George Clooney. But you don't have to be a film fan to visit this gem of an Italian city. In fact, if Hollywood made a movie about Venice, it could easily be called Where the Tourists Are. The city receives up to 20 million visitors a year. 1 Ride a gondola on the Grand Canal: The city's main thoroughfare, the Grand Canal, is nearly two miles long and is lined with churches, palaces and other historic buildings.

Michael B. Casey, a retired bonding insurance administrator and freelance writer, died of cancer Monday at Memorial Hospital in Easton. The former Towson resident was 76. Mr. Casey was born in Hartford, Conn., and raised in New York City, Des Moines, Iowa, and Denver, where he graduated from high school in 1949. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1953 from St. Regis University in Denver and did postgraduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

VENICE, LA. // A platinum sun set on a warm March afternoon as I drove from New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport toward the mouth of the Mississippi River to a place known as "the end of the world." When Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana nearly two years ago, it must have felt like the end of the world. But as I scanned the New Orleans skyline from a highway overpass, the only signs of destruction were the ones playing in my head: the flashbacks from TV news clips during the storm. The Superdome, once battered and overrun with evacuees, had a new roof, and the dry city streets flowed with activity.

UNDER NORMAL circumstances, it's not too difficult to differentiate Venice, Italy, from Providence, R.I. But on certain summer nights, the magic of Venice is clearly reflected in Providence's three canal-like rivers, especially when two authentic black-lacquered Venetian gondolas manned by equally authentic blue-and-white-stripe-shirted Venetian gondoliers pole their way past dozens of burning braziers, their flames dancing across the gently rippling waters...

VENICE, Italy -- The skies above Venice are clear and sunny, but the umbrellas are out in full force: ruby red, emerald green, peacock blue, brilliant circles of color moving up and down through the narrow Venetian alleys.Carried by tour guides, the umbrellas of Venice are beacons to the lines of tourists on their way to see La Fenice, the 18th-century opera house where "La Traviata" and "Rigoletto" debuted.But it is not La Fenice's gilded interior that draws the tourists. What they have come to see are La Fenice's skeletal remains.

VENICE -- In the 16th century, the doges of Venice faced an urgent crisis. Silt carried by the Brenta and Piave rivers was slowly filling the Lagoon of Venice; unless immediate action was taken, the city would be left high and dry. "After about a hundred years of discussions between the Greens and the engineers of that time, it was finally decided to divert the rivers. The lagoon was saved," says Ignazio Musu, a professor at Venice's Ca' Foscari University. These days, the doges are in a similar quandary, only this time the problem is too much water.

Last February I visited Venice, Italy, where I saw these gondolas all lined up early in the morning waiting to take visitors for a ride on the Grand Canal. The cathedral in the background was visible in the early morning haze. The gondola ride I took later in the day was a wonderful experience. Mary Gerold Mobley Baltimore