This is the first post of a series on bloggers who inspire me. It is also day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge, and today’s task is to write a “list post.” As far as possible, I have decided to adapt the tasks of the Challenge to the posts I had already scheduled on my editorial calendar. Since there are so many things about my friend Mario Kluser that I admire and find inspiring, I think it will be very helpful to take the approach of a list post.
I have already spoken extensively of Mario in this blog. I interviewed him with reference to his two novels (and there are podcasts to go with his interviews), and I have linked to his blog on various occasions. I have never talked in depth about our friendship or about our professional relationship, nor have I really spoken much about his blog.
His blog is called Mario LIVE! and the tag line is “The People Blog.” No tag line has ever been more apt. For those who may not be familiar with our history, as it is a good story, here’s a little background. Mario and I met on Twitter in November of 2007. I was new to Twitter and Mario was one of my first two friends. Both he and the other friend, an Italian, went on to become “real life” friends, and visited me in New York in 2008. Both will be friends for life. What induced me to ask Mario to be my friend was his tone. I could sense kindness, warmth, friendliness and a sense of humor in his tweets (amazing what 140 little characters will reveal about a person), and I was right. He is a kindred spirit, and as they are hard to find, it’s a good idea to befriend one when you spot one.


After a short while we began to correspond via email, and we soon discovered that we were in similar professional situations, both looking for work in our chosen fields and not finding it in the current economic climate, and both in the process of deciding to make our own fortunes so as not to have to live with the pain and suffering of depending on an employer. We would both rather depend on the world at large.

He was already experienced in internet marketing, with AdWords, AdSense, landing pages, squeeze pages, etc., but knew very little about blogging, having always been under the impression that it was for whiny teenagers who just wanted to put their “diaries” online, and things of that nature. I, on the other hand, had already had a very intense blogging experience and was in the process of launching what are my two current blogs, turtle^haus and Life+Web. I told him a little about what I thought blogging was and could be, and he was convinced. Thus, Mario LIVE! was born. Mario and I discovered that we have complementary skills in business and complementary work experiences, and decided to join forces on special projects. Now, in addition to our blogs, we are helping a few corporate clients increase their online visibility and bring more clients through the virtual doors of their companies.

So, without further ado, here are 6 of the many reasons why Mario of Mario LIVE! inspires me:

1. He is a DOER and not a TALKER. I told him I was launching a blog and he was still quite skeptical. Within two short weeks, his blog was up and running, with a dozen posts, active comments, and so on, while mine was still heavily in the “design” phase and only had two or three posts. He has now well surpassed 100 posts in 6 months, and has now started a lovely newsletter;
2. He is absolutely AUTHENTIC (an overused buzz word in the world of blogging) in a way that is difficult to find;
3. He is not afraid to EXPRESS HIS OPINION and has no concern for what others might think or whether they may disagree with him. Don’t misunderstand me, he is not defiant and “in-your-face.” Quite the contrary. He is willing to bare his soul and share his innermost thoughts and feelings with the world, and does not let fads, trends, political correctness or the media influence his voice;
4. He is GUILELESS, CANDID, and POSITIVE. This does not mean that he never has negative feelings or that he is immune from being a little depressed or overwhelmed at times, but he always bounces back, and has a SOLUTION-ORIENTED attitude. Rather than dwelling on what is going wrong, he very quickly focuses on HOW CAN WE FIX THE PROBLEM AND MOVE ON.
5. His sense of WONDER is still very much alive. This is perhaps his most unique characteristic and one I find very winning. In fact, I think it is what sets him apart from other bloggers and will ultimately make his success online. It is a CHILDLIKE (not to be confused with childish) quality that allows us, his readers, to see his eyes widen in the face of extraordinary events or personal actions, and our eyes widen with his.
6. He KNOWS WHO HE IS as a person and as a blogger.

As with most bloggers, Mario did not immediately know what his blog was going to be about, what his MISSION was. At first he had a ton of different categories. He still has several categories, but nowadays they are much more coherent and the parts meld nicely into a recognizable and very pleasing whole.

His blog is tagged as “the people blog” because Mario finds inspiration in the actions of others. And these others don’t have to be celebrities. Anyone is worthy of a blog post, even a conversation overheard at the bus stop can inspire a story. But what he has to say is always interesting. Human interest, I would say, is the main focus of his posts. His stories are always heartfelt and entertaining, and I am always sucked in right from the opening sentence.

An overview of the things that interest him:

• The human mind
• Hypnosis
• Depression and overcoming it
• Friendship
• Overcoming life’s obstacles
• Personal finances
• Curious, fun, amazing things he finds surfing the web
• Music
• Photography
• Videography
• Films – he writes regular film reviews
• Books – as a writer he also reads a lot, and writes book reviews
• Animals – he has a pet rabbit, some hamsters (or is it gerbils?) and a cat. His girlfriend has a dog. They are sometimes featured
• Twitter
• Social media
• Motivation
• Television shows (he wants to be a corpse on one of the CSI shows)
• Fulfilling his dreams – this is another reason I should have mentioned. He is not afraid of pursuing his dreams, and he puts them right out there in the universe. I have no doubt that he will achieve most if not all of them
• New York and Brooklyn (where I live, now a second home to him)
• People and their stories.

When I get discouraged or a little “blocked” with my blogging or our online ventures, he always knows what to say to encourage me and get me going again. We motivate and encourage each other, we are each other’s biggest fans. At the end of his visit with me in November, on the day he was leaving, he said, “From now on, if they ask me whether I have any siblings, I will say yes, two: a brother in Germany and a sister in New York.” That’s the kind of person he is.

I am proud to be his friend and adopted sister, and so very happy to have found him. Thanks, Mario!

Related posts:

1. Renewed Mission – Part 2 and day 1-31DBBB I define the second half of my mission for this...
2. Author Interview: Mario Kluser, part I In the first of three segments, Mario Kluser tells us...
3. Author Interview: Mario Kluser – part III In the final segment of our 3-part interview, Mario tells...

Welcome to turtle^haus!

I started this blog because I want to share my experience in interior design, house renovations, and how the space we live in affects our lives. I like to think of our lives as stories, and of us humans as storytellers. I think that by improving our relationship with the spaces we inhabit we promote the feeling that we are the authors of our lives and not vice versa. We want to tell the story, we don’t want the story to tell us.

In various phases of my life I have lived in… let’s say less than ideal conditions. I grew up half in New York and half in Florence, Italy, and have been exposed to an aesthetic sensibility shared by the populations of both sides of the Atlantic. I realize that this is a great privilege and I would like to share some insights with all of you.

Let’s start with the story of my kitchen/dining room table:

my kitchen table

Two summers ago, after being away from Florence for several years, I had the opportunity to spend a whole month there, without my family, with a group of students from New York. I was the graduate assistant of my professor (also from Florence) in a class on Art and Museum Librarianship. The professor and I went ahead of the class, a week early, to set up all our visits and lectures and tours and schedule – a lot of work but extremely fun – and once the other students arrived we started a grueling and rewarding regimen of two tours with lecture a day, with a brief break for lunch on the go. Our days started promptly at 9 a.m. and ended usually by 6 p.m.

In the evenings we were free to do as we pleased, and this of course was wonderful for me, as I have family and lifelong friends in Florence. I got to see most of my friends and relatives at least once and many close friends and family several times. It was a very, very happy month!

At the time, summer 2006, I was living in Brooklyn in a rented apartment. I had a small house in a small town outside Florence that I had been trying to sell for a while, and finally it looked as though I had found a buyer. I knew that it would take some time, but I figured that when I returned from Florence I would start looking for a new house, in Brooklyn, slowly (the search for a new home will be the subject of many posts, but we won’t get into that just now). In any case, let’s say that I was at least subconsciously paying attention to things related to houses, living, living spaces, furnishings, etc.

One evening I was invited to dinner at the house of a very dear friend, one of my oldest, and his family. His name is Stefano and we have known each other nearly all our lives. He had been married for many years with his first wife and they had three lovely children, a son, Agostino, and a set of fraternal twins, Bernardo and Camilla. Now, after his separation, he had a new companion, the lovely Germana, and together they had had a delightful little boy, Damiano. Shortly after my arrival at their apartment, after the introductions, Stefano pointed out to me, “the kids’ names are in alphabetical order, A, B, C, D, had you noticed?” I hadn’t, but it’s the kind of thing that tickles me. He’s a physicist (I think he’ll win a Nobel prize one day, he says I’m crazy, but that’s another story).

Stefano had spent the last hour or so before my arrival preparing one of the best risottos I have ever tasted. It contained onions, garlic, artichokes, sausage, other things I can’t remember, and was cooked with the most delicious homemade stock ever seen east of the river Arno. They had also bought a couple of enormous buffalo mozzarella balls and there was a huge bowl of cherries. I had brought ice cream, so we had enough for a great meal.

Finally, the risotto was ready. While Germana prepared Damiano for the night, putting him in his pj’s, Stefano proceeded to “set” the table. I put the word in quotes because his method was slightly unorthodox and different from the way I had been taught by my mother. He put all the plates in a pile in the middle of the table, with the glasses and cutlery and a pitcher of water. Then he put a trivet next to the plates, on which he put the steaming pan with the risotto, a bowl with the mozzarella in its own water, condiments and bread. All this he put in the middle of a square table, about four feet long on each side. Then everyone sat down together, and he just grabbed plate after plate from the pile, filled it with food and passed it around until everyone had a plate.

The three big kids had each invited a friend over, so there were a lot of people around this table. Three adults, six teenagers of various ages, and a toddler. Not only did we all fit around this table, but everyone could help him or herself from the middle of the table without putting their arm in someone else’s face. I found this arrangement so delightful that I consciously took a moment to analyze why it was so pleasing.

This is what I came up with:

• The fact that the table was square allowed for this reaching without putting our arms in each other’s faces;
• The size of the table (about 4′ x 4′) while not gigantic, could accommodate three people per side, if necessary, and I thought that it would take up less room than a rectangular or oval table for twelve;
• This setting everything in the middle gave a great feeling of community, highlighting the communal aspect of coming together like this for a meal.

Right there and then I thought to myself: I don’t know where I will be living, I don’t know what kind of house it will be, how big it will be, what the kitchen will look like, but I know one thing. If and when I get my house, I will have a square table and I will serve my meals like this.

I will skip over, for now, the process of acquiring my house, which is in itself a kind of magical fairtytale which I will definitely share with all of you, but I will say that it came to pass that I did in fact acquire a home in Brooklyn, and it is the home of my dreams. I have the kitchen of my dreams and in it is the table of my dreams.

Here is a shot in afterschool snack mode:

afterschool snacks

This table was a gift from my sister Ippolita. We bought it at ABC Carpet in New York. The painting you see in the background is by a wonderful artist friend of mine. Her name is Kloe and you can check out her blog here.

Since finishing the renovation on my house I have had only a few dinner parties, and I have usually set the table the way I was taught (old habits are hard to break!), with a setting for each person at their place and the food and condiments in the middle. But once in a while I remember that night with my friends in Florence, and I promise myself that the next time I have friends over, it’s going to be set like that, everything in the middle, and people can serve themselves or help themselves randomly!

If you have a table you’re proud of or would like to comment, please do so!

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