Tag: travels

Spy Films To Thrill You: Traitor And The American

Some great films from the early 2000s feature known stars, great acting and storylines, excellent direction, and beautiful cinematography.

Are you looking for a couple of spy/thriller type movies that do not fit into the James Bond or Jason Borne genre. Maybe something that makes you think just a little before the action starts? Maybe something you did not see when the movie first came out but still is a really good movie? Well, I have a couple of great films from the early 2000’s that feature known stars, great acting and storylines, and excellent direction and beautiful cinematography.

First up is TRAITOR (2008) starring Don Cheadle and Guy Pierce. The movie is beautifully rendered by Director Jeffrey Nachmanoff, who also wrote the screenplay that is based on a story written by Steve Martin. Yes, Steve (Wild and Crazy Guy) Martin.

Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 65% based on 169 reviews, and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 stars out of 4 and wrote in his review, “The movie proceeds quickly, seems to know its subject matter, is fascinating in its portrait of the inner politics and structure of the terrorist group, and comes uncomfortably close to reality. But what holds it together is the Cheadle character.”

This is a terrorism spy thriller that is both intelligent and exciting. Featuring the always interesting Don Cheadle, one of my favorite actors (and in person, a really nice guy), as a former Sudanese American US soldier with a background in explosives who seems to have crossed over and joined a terrorist organization. He is the prime suspect as the bomb-maker in a string of global terror explosions aimed at civilians. Hot on his trail is an FBI agent played by Guy Pierce, who as the movie progresses starts to wonder what Cheadle’s true intentions are.

“Traitor” weaves a web of conspiracy and intrigue, crosses politics with thriller elements, and never quite answers its central question: In the war between good and evil, how many good people is it justifiable for the good guys to kill? Maybe that question has no answer. It is probably not “none.” That ambiguity works in the film’s favor. As Cheadle’s character (Samir) enlists on the American side and then is seen as a remarkably effective agent for terrorist jihadists, we are kept wondering where his true loyalties lie.

This is not a typical terrorism film where all Middle Easterners are inherently anti-American and evil. This is a movie that takes the time to examine the beliefs and motivations behind the people who commit terrorism and the roots of terrorism. It tries to give us a reason why some people do these terrible things, and by doing that the “villains” all of a sudden, become people not just caricatures. It gives a depth and understanding to these characters that is chilling, extremely disturbing, but crystal clear as to what their motivations are.


Another thing that I (and Roger Ebert) found interesting about the movie was the way it goes inside the terrorist organizations – to the people who carry out the day-to-day operations of such groups. This is not a movie about the James Bond type villains who have billions of dollars and want world domination, or to bring America to its knees in one big explosion. This is a film about the little guys who do the grunt work. Who do what they do out of belief or anger or need, not the desire for world conquest.

Shot on location in Toronto (posing as Chicago), Marseille, France, and Marrakesh, Morrocco, the scenery is a beautiful background to the fast-paced action. The actors are all excellent from Cheadle and Pierce, to Said Taghmaoui, who plays Omar, one of the grunts who believes in the cause, but you can see his individual pain each step of the way. The film also co-stars Jeff Daniels, Neal McDonough and Archie Panjabi. This is a particularly good movie!

You can find TRAITOR currently available to stream with a subscription on STARZ for $9.99 / month. You can buy or rent Traitor for as low as $1.99 to rent or $5.99 to buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube, and AMC on Demand.

THE AMERICAN (2010)

It was early September 2010, and all that summer I had seen clips for The American, a new movie starring George Clooney. It looked like a typical spy/action-adventure movie with chases, girls, guns, and an undefined evil. Yet what did we get instead of a James Bond/Jason Borne retread? We get a sparse, tightly controlled movie filled with silence, long takes, and a growing sense of dread.

The American was loosely based on a 1990 book called A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth. It was adapted for the screen by Rowan Joffe.’ It was marketed as a high action-adventure spy thriller and the reaction to the film from the audience was disappointment. What they got for their money was a slowly paced story of a hardened yet haunted assassin. This is a quiet movie, a thoughtful movie, a movie built on character, not plot. Ironically, The American is very European in feel and style. It is filmed for the most part in Italy, and cinematographer Martin Ruhe filled the movie with beautiful lingering shots of a lonely Italian countryside that seems as old as time itself. This timeless quality makes you almost imagine that you are about to see some Roman legion marching over the next hill off to conquer some far-off place.

We never know what George Clooney’s character did or why anyone is after him, but from the first minute of the film, a chase is on. George’s character, Jack, is fleeing for his life from a group of Swedish hitmen. Yet the pace of the movie or this chase is slow and unhurried. Instead of watching the wild chases and unending action as spies trying to kill other spies for world domination or getting revenge for passed deeds, we descend into the life and mind of a skilled killer, an American version of a samurai warrior. Stoic, impervious and expert, with a focus so narrow it is defined only by his skills and his master.

The tale is straightforward, but many questions remain unanswered even at the end of the movie, but they are not really germane to the core story. The movie opens on a snow-covered field in Sweden. Jack and his current lover/friend are walking through the snow when shots ring out. In short order, Jack kills two unknown men out to kill him plus his completely innocent lady friend for no other reason than she happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. With fewer than 10 lines of dialog we learn that Jack is a skilled and ruthless killer, who will do anything necessary to stay alive. Who and why is Jack being hunted we never learn, but we get swept up in the chase as he flees for his life from the unknown “Swedes.”

We next find him getting off a train in Rome and arranging a meeting with the mysterious Pavel (Johan Leysen). Pavel is his handler/boss/agent/manager? It is never quite clear what the relationship is, or who Pavel, and by extension who Jack work for. Are they CIA, MI-5, free-lancers? This we never know. Yet it is clear that Jack works for Pavel or serves him, because he never questions Pavel’s orders (Just like a samurai following orders from his master). Even when every fiber of his being tells him that Pavel is setting him up.

I won’t give you the whole plot here – I hate that by reviewers that never really review. They just retell you the story. So why see the movie?

George_Clooney_The_American_movie_image

Let just say that this is a wonderful movie. The director is Anton Corbijn, who shot the bio pic Control (2007), the story of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, who was a suicide at age 23. There is not a wrong shot. Every performance is tightly controlled. Clooney is in complete command of his effect. This is a wonderfully shot study of the loneliness of a bad man searching for redemption and a way out of the incredibly sad and terrible life he has created for himself.

For me one of the best movies of that year 2010.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating 66% based on 224 reviews. The website’s review states: “As beautifully shot as it is emotionally restrained, The American is an unusually divisive spy thriller—and one that rests on an unusually subdued performance from George Clooney.” Roger Ebert gave it 4 out of 4 stars saying, “Here is a gripping film with the focus of a Japanese drama. It is so rare to see a film this carefully crafted.” Leonard Maltin called it a “slowly paced, European-style mood piece, short on dialogue and action and long on atmosphere.”

Couple of interesting facts about the film are that the director purposely paid homage to the American spaghetti western in many of his scenes. In one scene the Sergio Leone film Once Upon the Time in The West plays on a TV set in the background while George Clooney eats alone in a restaurant. Also, whole chunks of dialogue that are spoken between Clooney and his prostitute lover, Clara, are lifted verbatim from Graham Greene’s The Honorary Consul.

You can find The American on Amazon Prime, Microsoft Store, iTunes, Vudu and Apple TV renting for 3.99 or to buy at 14.99. It is also available on Google Play and YouTube, but no pricing was available.

George_Clooney_The_American_movie_image

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The Color Purple the Musical: A Celebration in Film

How I Got to Audition, Be Cast and Work on the amazing film.

How I Got to Audition, Be Cast and Work on the Film

It was late in 2021, when my agent called to tell me that I had an audition for The Color Purple the Musical which would be filming in Atlanta, GA later that year. It was a non-singing part, and the audition would be by self-tape. The practice of the self-tape started in the late 2000’s but when the Pandemic arrived it became the only way to audition for a while and is now the preferred way of casting directors to audition for Film and TV.

Short video of the Premiere night of The Color Purple the Musical

A self-tape is when an actor in the privacy of your own home or in a professional studio prepares an audition with the material that the filmmakers have sent you whether that’s a monologue or a scene or a song. You film either with a digital camera or phone, edit it, making it look as professional as you can and then send it into the casting director. The part I was asked to audition for was the mayor. It is when the mayor’s wife asks the character Sofia, the strong-willed independent thinking black woman to be her maid, and Sofia turns her down. The mayor’s wife gets very upset, calling Sofia a derogatory name, and Sofia insults her back. In the time and place of The Color Purple, a black woman in the South was not allowed to speak to a white woman in that manner or with that tone of voice. The mayor overhears this conversation, and he comes over and slaps Sofia. Sofia turns around and decks him with a punch that knocks him out. She is then surrounded by white men, beaten, and hauled off to jail.

My self-tape was basically a monologue, so I pretended that I yelled at Sofie and slapped her. It was only me there when I did the audition. I did not slap anyone – it was all pretend. I filmed it with my phone, edited it and sent it off to the casting director. I then forgot about it because that is how you have to approach self-tapes. You get no feedback on how you did as opposed to before in the pre-Pandemic days where you often went in for an in-person audition. I did not hear anything for a long time and really had forgotten I had even done the audition when weeks later I got a call from my agent saying that I had been cast in The Color Purple in the part of the Deputy. A part that I had not even auditioned for, and I was extremely excited. To be cast in a big screen movie being produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg was very exciting.

From the time that I was cast to the time that I was going to actually appear on set and film my part was going to be several months, and the money they were offering for me to be in the movie was extremely low. I had just moved from Los Angeles, and I put the difference in union film pay down to the fact I was in Georgia, a right-to-work state. On a few occasions I actually told my agent that I would probably pass on the part. There had been a big miscommunication between my agent and myself on what they were going to pay me. I thought the film was going to pay me a very small fee since it was just a few lines, when in actuality they were paying me a couple of thousand dollars. When I told my agent that I was probably going to take a vacation and go overseas, she became very upset with me. That’s how we discovered the misunderstanding, and of course, I stayed.

On Thursday, July 30th, 2022, I show up at the set of The Color Purple which was filming at Blackhall Studios in the Atlanta area. Now my contract called for that I would have a trailer with a dressing room which is pretty normal for a major motion picture when you have a speaking part. Yet, according to the script, I only had a few lines so I was thinking it would not be very elaborate. I had not seen the script since that was being kept a secret. I knew what scene I was working in, but I didn’t know how they were going to shoot it.

When I got to set, I checked in with the production manager. I was then taken to my trailer by a production assistant. When I walked inside the trailer, I found I had a couch, a television, refrigerator, and a radiant heat fireplace plus my own private bathroom.  So for a small part, it was the height of luxury. A few minutes after I had gotten into my trailer there was a knock on my door.  I opened it to find a young woman of about 24 who said that she was my personal production assistant for the day. I’ve been working in films for 40 years, most of them pretty low budget. I’ve never had my own personal production assistant and I really wasn’t sure exactly what she was supposed to do. Turned out she was to get my food, walk me to and from the set and make sure that I had anything that I needed. In general, just take care of me.

Director Blitz Bawazula

After we’ve been introduced to each other and she explained that she would come get me when it was time for me to go to makeup and hair, she left and I’m sitting in my trailer trying to get used to the fact that I have my own trailer and a personal production assistant. All of a sudden, I heard someone playing some really good Blues guitar. I walked out of my trailer and went down a couple of trailers where I saw a very nice looking African American man wearing a really cool hat. He was sitting outside a trailer with an acoustic guitar with a pickup playing some wonderful blues through a really small little amp next to him. The woman who was my personal assistant was listening to him. I had no idea who he was. I thought perhaps he was the music coordinator for the film. I asked him that and he went “Yeah, I’m something like that” as he continued to play. My production assistant laughed and says, “Yeah he’s really important and he’s really good.” Then she left and I listened to him for another few minutes and then I returned to my trailer.

Author as The Deputy

Time passes slowly on a movie set. You either stay in your trailer and read or watch TV, or you walk around like I did and talk to the crew. Eventually my assistant brought me my costume and took me to Makeup and Hair. After that I got dressed in my costume and was taken onto the set where I was introduced to the director, who turned out to be the man playing the blues guitar. His name was Blitz Bawazula, a Ghanaian filmmaker, author, visual artist, rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer who had worked with Beyonce’ among others. The scene we were shooting that day featured Fantasia Barrino who was playing Celia and Danielle Brooks who was playing Sofia and myself. The scene had a large jail cell set like a cellblock in a prison. It was enclosed on all sides and had a full roof. The cinematographer was Dan Laustsen, a Danish cinematographer best known for Crimson Peak (2015), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) and The Shape of Water (2017) for which he received an Academy Award nomination. By now I was feeling fairly intimidated by all this big-name talent and the general tone of the set. The set was very professional and friendly but there seemed to be a little tension in the air. So, I just stood back out of the way, and didn’t think I was going to have much interaction with the director.

Fantasia Barrino and the Author

Blitz walked us through the blocking mostly talking to Fantasia and Danielle, and he went back to the video village which is where the director and the producers watch through monitors what is being filmed on set. We did a quick run-through of the blocking and Blitz came over to give some direction to Fantasia and Danielle. Then he turned to me and said, “I need to give you more lines.” Which of course as an actor, I was very happy about. He said on the next run-through he would tell me where to add these extra lines.

So began this wonderful day where I soon realized that I was not going to ever have my face on the screen, but they were going to shoot me from every possible angle. The idea being that when Celia comes to visit Sofia and it’s time for her to go, I come in and order her to leave. She’s very slow to get up so I threatened to beat her with a night stick. I never say that, but you can see the night stick in my hand. I am always in shadow. I’m always backlit or shot from the side but my face is always in shadow. We would shoot it one way and then they would shoot it from another side. Because the set was an enclosed cell when they wanted to shoot from a different direction, they literally took a wall out so that they could get the cameras set and the lighting correct. Then they would put the wall back in and shoot us from another angle. They shot me from behind, they shot me from the side, they shot me from the far end of the cell near where Sofia is sitting and then they also shot me in close up as Celia leaves the cell and I closed the door behind her.

Fantasia Barrino and the Author

When I arrived on set, I didn’t know who the director was. That information had not been given to me so I found Blitz to be very friendly and very interested in anything that I had to say concerning the character or how I should deliver lines. He was very respectful even though I had a very small part. One of the things that particularly impressed me in that I had never seen on a movie set before was while he was directing our scene in between setups or getting ready for the scene to restart, he was also editing the movie at the same time. Not our particular scene but I watched him edit the musical number that Fantasia/Celia sings after she leaves the jail. It had already been shot and he was giving preliminary editing notes to an assistant editor who was on the set with him. Maybe all major motion pictures do this at this point, but this was the first time I had ever seen it on a movie set. Editing while simultaneously you are shooting another scene. To be able to keep those two jobs going simultaneously was incredibly impressive.

I didn’t really get to spend or get to know the woman who was playing Sofia that much because Danielle Brooks was at the other end of the cell behind bars and when we took a break she went back to her trailer or dealt with her personal entourage. Because Fantasia and I were on the other side of the prison bars and we had dialogue with each other, over the next six hours I got over my intimidation not of her personally but of the scope of the project. We actually had some laughs and at the end she took a bunch of photographs with me which I thought was very nice. As is the custom on a movie set when an actor who has a speaking part leaves the set, the assistant director called out, “And that’s a wrap for James Carey.”

Lobby of Preview in Atlanta at Tara Theatre

More than a year later in December of 2023, I found an e-mail on my computer inviting me to a cast and crew screening of The Color Purple at the Tara Theatre in Atlanta. The movie was finally ready and was to open nationwide on Christmas Day. I was very excited to see the film. I had no idea what it looked like. The film had been kept on wraps for almost an entire year and Oprah had the studio doing a series of targeted screenings to groups around the country in order to build word of mouth.

Lainie Smith and Author at Preview

My partner, Lainie Smith and I showed up at the theater that night, and there were two screenings going on simultaneously. In one theater was the screening for all the bigwigs and important guests, while in the other were all the crew and cast who did not have major parts like me with their friends and families to watch the film. Of course, I’ve seen Steven Spielberg’s version from 1985, which was a magnificent film that helped make the careers of Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey as actresses, but this version was a revelation. The acting of all the main actors especially Fantasia and Danielle who played Celia and Sofia and Celia’s abusive husband Mister, played by Colman Domingo were amazing.

Lou Gossett played Mister’s father and even though he was almost confined to a wheelchair, it was wonderful to see the Academy Award-winning actor who is now in his 80’s on screen and hold his own with everybody else. He also gave a touching speech at the screening, welcoming us and saying he believed this was a wonderful and unforgettable movie. He was absolutely right.

Swag from The Color Purple

The dance numbers, the music which comes from the Broadway musical, The Color Purple, and the cinematography are all excellent. The message of the show and how it’s delivered is life affirming. It’s a positive message and while the subject matter at times is incredibly dark, Fantasia’s performance as we watch Celia go from an ignored abused little girl to a successful businesswoman who is finally in control of her own future is really marvelous. The editing is superb.

I cannot recommend The Color Purple the Musical enough. It is a moving, touching, warm hearted time in a movie theater. Just make sure you bring a box of tissues because you’ll definitely cry. It was really a privilege to be part of this excellent and moving film. I hope you enjoy it and wish all of you a happy 2024.

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Copyright @ CareyOn Creative, LLC., Atlanta, GA 2024.

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All photos and short film are by James Carey, Rights Reserved (Expect picture of Blitz Bazawala and picture of Dollar Bills.

The text of the article is the property and opinion of the author.

2023 Was A Great Year!

2023 was a watershed year for me. It was the best year that I’d had in a decade. The last really good year that I could remember was 2014 when I got married to my ex-wife. The day that we got married, I was full of love, happiness and incredibly enthusiastic about the future. I had a woman that I loved, my professional career seemed to be going extremely well and financially I had bailed myself out from the ruins of the worldwide fiscal crisis of 2008. What I didn’t realize was that would be the high point for a long time.

They say the first year of marriage is terrible and I can agree with that. After the euphoria of getting married had worn off, the day-to-day just dragged on my ex-wife, and while I didn’t know it, she was already planning her escape. Not every year was bad. In fact, each January as I looked at the coming year, it seemed like exciting things were going to happen both professionally and personally but by December our lives were filled with chaos, pain, question marks about our relationship and professional inertia. Then came a hard divorce, followed by the Pandemic, followed by a need to sell my house and leave my chosen home city of Los Angeles and a move to Atlanta, GA. The first couple of years in Atlanta were difficult. I found friends, and work but I never quite felt like I fit in here, and I missed parts of the life that I’d had in California.

And then in 2023, it all seemed to come together. I wrote, directed, produced and released an award-winning short film, Love Potion. The film did not win as many awards as some of my previous films had but we took a shot for the big time and film festivals like Sundance and Tribeca. We did not get into them, yet I am immensely proud of the film and feel it is my most complete movie. I acted in five movies, I appeared in five commercials, I was in two music videos including a game changing country western music video by Tyler Childers where I portrayed a gay coal miner who fell in love with another miner. The controversy that music video created was an amazing thing to watch and I’m proud I was part of that project. I bought a condo and put down new roots. While I did not travel internationally as I usually do during a year, I found myself working as an actor in Baltimore, Austin, Nashville, Charleston and Rock Hill, SC. I put the finishing touches on a book that I hope to release in 2024. Both personally and professionally, I felt more satisfied and complete than I had in a long time.

While 2023 was an amazing year, it was also a year of hard struggles, doubt, wondering where all this was leading, and a lot of personal reflection. One of my siblings faced a life-threatening blood disease and thanks to the stars above, they managed to survive. With all the professional success that I had during 2023, that was without a doubt the most important thing that happened in my life. My sibling survived, and because of that situation I took a look at my own personal life and my legacy. I realized I was closer to the end than I was to the beginning and needed to change my perspective on life and work. My life has often been about the end result. Producing the product, getting the job done, what is the end goal and how to find the next job. The older I get, the more I realize it is more about the journey than it is about what you accomplish. Completing the work and making sure that the project is excellent are extremely important, but paying attention to the day-to-day journey through life is equally as important. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” In 2023, I found that to be absolutely true.

I hope 2024 will be as successful both personally and professionally. It’s already shaping up to be what looks like an interesting year, but rarely does it happen that you have two incredible years back-to-back. I’m talking to a producer about directing a feature for them, my film partner and I are in discussion with another producer about a project we’ve already done that they might want to take to the next level. I’ve been hired by a local theater group to direct 2 plays for them including the American classic, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams about which I’m excited. Yet, I’m trying to keep everything in perspective and remember it’s about the journey and living in the moment.

To all of you, I wish a happy and successful 2024, and I hope your journey is exciting and fulfilling.

@ 2024, Carey On Creative, LLC., Atlanta, GA. Tripswithjames.com is a copyrighted entity of Carey On Creative, LLC.

How I Survived the Road of Death in Zimbabwe

A Zimbabwean Adventure

What is the Road of Death? It was a stretch of highway that went from the city center of Harare to an upscale suburb called Borrowdale.

Zimbabwe Flag

In 2013, I returned to Zimbabwe for the second time for a couple of reasons. First, I had been invited to present the world premiere of my one man show, Coming to Zimbabwe at the Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA), and secondly, to help create a rural teaching program for drama with the National Institute of Allied Arts, Drama Division whose artistic director was Gavin Peter. 

Harare, Zimabwe

Gavin had hired me in 2012 to come to Zimbabwe and be the first American judge or adjudicator of their national drama contest. The month that I spent in Zimbabwe during 2012 was a life changing experience. The opportunity to work with almost 8000 kids over a three-week period had been exhausting but also exhilarating as I watched these talented African kids do monologues and scene work, recite poetry, do improvs and work in many other performance styles. Plus, the two-week tour that NIAA sponsored for me to travel around the country to different historical sites in the company of the Republic of Ireland’s representative, Gary Killilea and his family was a joy and wonder, and helped cement Zimbabwe is one of my favorite places in the world. The beauty of the country and the hospitality of the people was unmatched, and I had resolved to return as many times as I could. 

Countryside of Zimbabwe

The chance to return came very quickly for me. As the adjudicator of the drama festival, I watched as the dedicated volunteers of NIAA kept meticulous records over where students came from and in what performance categories they had participated. Some students would only be in one area while others might be in 9 to 11 different areas of competition. At the debriefing at the end of the festival and working with Gavin, we managed to streamline some of the requirements for the participants and the number of areas they could participate in. We also found out that the students from the cities mostly focused on drama presentations while the students from the rural or country areas focused on poetry. Now Zimbabwe is mostly an agricultural country so that made sense, but this was primarily a drama festival and if most of the students in the rural areas were participating in poetry that meant there was a disconnect somewhere in the education system.

Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwe had become a poor country over the 40-year reign by their former dictator Robert Mugabe, and one of the fallouts of his terrible economic policies was that teachers in the countryside hardly made any money whatsoever. It was hard to retain teachers who taught English and drama although it was required as part of their education requirements to graduate. We found in our research that the rural teachers who were instructing the drama students were science and math teachers, or physical education teachers or soccer coaches. Well-meaning individuals who had no idea what they were supposed to do for the festival, but they had been ordered by their principal to get the kids ready. These poor individuals having no knowledge of what the contest required just did what the teacher of the year before had done which was recite poetry. 

So, Gavin and I came up with an idea of creating a training program for the teachers in the countryside to help them understand what dramatic literature was, where to find it, how to direct a play or a scene and best practices in terms of how to get their students motivated. During the year while I was back in the United States, I also recruited other Americans to come and work in Zimbabwe with NIAA to help move the program forward. 

Poster for Coming to Zimbabwe

Yet when it came to providing me with air flight back to Zimbabwe, they just did not have the money. Gavin concocted an unusual solution. That year, he was also the Artistic Director of HIFA and said if I could come with a show, he would ensure I got a superior performance slot. The idea of a one-man show based on my experiences in Zimbabwe had been floating around my head for about six or more months and now I put it down on paper. I workshopped it a few times at my theater in Los Angeles, the Attic Theater and knew I had a good show. Because Zimbabwe was a dictatorship, I had to send the script to a government office there to make sure it was not offensive in any way to Zimbabwe or President Robert Mugabe. To their astonishment there was an American who was writing wonderful things about their country and proclaiming it a wonderful place to visit. Gavin true to his word gave me a wonderful time slot and the show sold out before I even got on the plane to go to Zimbabwe, and extra performances were added. It was that money that allowed me to buy a round trip ticket to Zimbabwe.  

On the Marque at Reps Theatre, Harare

So, that is how I got to Zimbabwe, but the title of this article is ‘I Survived the Road of Death.’ What is the Road of Death? It was a stretch of highway that went from the city center of Harare to an upscale suburb called Borrowdale. This road was a four-lane highway and was one of the major thoroughfares in the city. It also ran right by the Presidential Palace. In fact, you could spit out the car window as you went past and hit the building. It was that close. Following an attack on Mugabe’s residence in 1982, a 6pm curfew was introduced to prevent any traffic passing in front of the Palace. This curfew was in place from 1982 till 2017. During this time, if you traveled down that road after 6:00 PM you could be shot in the head by one of the army soldiers that patrolled that area of the highway, and that is why it was called the Road of Death. Now the Presidential Palace by 2013 was only used for ceremonial reasons and President Robert Mugabe had a huge house/complex on the outskirts of the city where he lived. Yet, the standing law was that at 6:00 PM every evening this four-lane road would be blocked off next to the presidential palace until 6 AM in the morning. If you were trying to drive to Borrowdale from downtown or vice versa you had to find an alternative route because there were soldiers with rifles everywhere. In fact, there was an army barracks right across the street from the Palace where the security guards lived. 

Presidential Palace, Harare

After I completed the successful run of my one-man show, it was going to be about 10 days before Gavin could meet with me to discuss this educational tour that was being sent out into the rural areas. While I had friends in Harare, they could not constantly keep me entertained and I had no transportation, so I was often stuck in a hotel room or in a guest room of some kind person who let me share their house. After about a week of this I was bored, so I rented a car and drove up into the Nyangani Mountain area near the Mozambique border to stay at a little inn for three or four days and explore that part of Zimbabwe. That is a whole different adventure, but I had rented the car for several days. When I arrived back in the capital city, I was invited to a social function at the house of my good friends, Keith and Jeanette Nicholson who had kind enough to be my hosts for the first two weeks that I was in in Zimbabwe during 2012. 

Harare at night

Harare is an exceedingly difficult city in which to travel during the night. The reason for that is there are almost no street signs or working streetlights, because they have been stripped of all their copper wiring. Why is that you ask? Because the economy is in ruins, and no one has any work. So, some people steal what they can steal just to be able to put food on the table. So, I had to be careful in plotting my route to the Nicholson’s home is Borrowdale to avoid the Road of Death. I found an old map of Harare and laid out a route that I felt confident would avoid the Palace. At 6:30 PM, I walked out to my car and started driving towards the Nicholsons. It was winter and already dark. As I got close to where I was going to turn left and head out towards Borrowdale, I recognized that I was right next to the presidential palace and about to turn on to the Road of Death. 

From my car, I could see a large blockade and there were armed guards everywhere. I freaked out. There were two lanes of traffic to my right which were turning toward the city center, but it was rush hour and there was no room for me to cut in. If I turned left, I was sure I would be shot. I was terrified. The only other direction I could go in was straight so that is what I did. 

Zimbabwe army barracks

I drove straight and ended up in the parking lot of the army barracks that protect the presidential palace. It was extremely dark, so it was impossible to read my map. Being the only white man in a parking lot full of black soldiers with rifles made me feel very uneasy. No one bothered me or even said anything to me, but they gave me strange enough looks that I knew I was not supposed to be there, nor was I welcome. I quickly called Keith and explained the situation. I must have seemed a little hysterical because he told me to calm down and gave me explicit instructions about how to get around the presidential palace and follow a road that would lead me toward Borrowdale. Following the explicit instructions of my hosts I drove around the presidential palace and ended up approaching the Borrowdale highway. At this point I was supposed to turn left and go towards the suburbs, however I mistakenly turned right and headed back towards the Presidential Palace. 

I went about half a mile when I realized that the street in front of me was blockaded and that I was back at the Palace. I was so rattled by now that I did a quick U-turn in the middle of the highway, hit the gas, and bolted down the street. The entire time I was driving I thought a sharpshooter was going to blow off the back of my head. I was sure because I was the only car on the highway that I was breaking some law and that the entire Zimbabwean Defense Force was following me. Every tank, every Jeep, every helicopter, and every soldier was hot on my tail, and I was going to end up either dead or in a Zimbabwean jail which would be the same thing. 

Zim side street not far from Palace

I quickly saw a road off to the right and with screeching tires I made the turn. I found myself in a housing development. I took the next right and the next left and I parked in the first driveway I could find. Turning off my lights, I crouched down in my seat hoping that they could not find me. I quickly called Keith and tried to explain the situation to them. Just as I began talking to him there was a knock on my window, and I turned to find a Zimbabwean soldier with a rifle standing next to my car. 

Zimbabwe Soldier

 I exclaimed to Keith, “Oh my God, they found me already.” I told him to stay on the phone and put my cell phone down on the car seat and rolled down the window. I immediately started babbling to the soldier trying to explain why I had turned around and driven away from the Palace. I gave him my passport, my international driver’s license, my work visa, the contract that said I was there to work with NIAA and all the official paperwork that I had to carry around with me all the time. He took each document and looked them over. I just kept babbling the entire time telling him I was sorry. I made a mistake, and please do not arrest me. That I was an American citizen and at least give me a chance to call the embassy. On and on and on until finally he had all my documents and I had nothing left to say. I just knew he was going to shoot me now. The waiting felt like an eternity. 

He quietly handed me all my documents back and just looked at me for a moment, then he asked me, “Do you have a smoke?” 

“What!?” I asked? 

And just like any American tourist who has gone to a foreign country and do not speak the language, the cliche is that we always talk slow and loud as if that is going to make someone understand, he did the exact same thing to me. In a very loud voice speaking very slowly, he went, “Do you have a cigarette?” 

“No, I don’t smoke,” I stated 

Zimbabwe soldier walking

“Ok,” he said, then turned and walked down the driveway headed towards the main road. It was then that I realized there were no jeeps back there. There were no tanks, there were no helicopters, there was no one. No one had followed me. This lone soldier was walking to the Palace to go to work. Most soldiers are so poor they cannot afford a car. Here was an immaculately dressed soldier carrying his automatic weapon walking through the neighborhood to the main road, and then he was going to walk the mile or so to the presidential palace to check in. And the whole time that this was dawning on me that this had just been a strange confluence of my fear and the weirdest of circumstances, loud laughter poured from the cell phone on the seat next to me. Keith thought this was the funniest thing he had ever heard. 

Laughing, not Keith Nicholson.

Now red faced with embarrassment, I picked up the phone and told him that everything was ok, and I would be there in 10 minutes. Keith repeated one more time how I was to get there, and I followed his instructions to the letter. I arrived at their house where there was a big wine celebration going on and of course all the Zimbos laughed at me because they thought it was very funny that the American who traveled around the world got lost and scared driving around the Presidential Palace. 

Well, the joke was on me. I took the good-natured ribbing for the rest of the night, had three or four glasses of wine to calm down and so that I would not get lost or die on my way back home my friends were kind enough to let me crash in their guest room. 

And that is how I survived the Road of Death in Harare, Zimbabwe. 

Below are photos from the NIAA school tour that we took after this adventure happened. Shots of myself and good friend Musa Saruro teaching improv and acting technique in and around Bulawayo 2013.

All opinions expressed are the personal opinions of the author. Tripswithjames.com is a copyright of Carey On Creative, LLC. 2023. Atlanta, GA.

Preview of the new film, LOVE POTION Coming July 2023

LOVE POTION THE FILM

PREVIEW OF LOVE POTION, A New James Carey Film, An Attic Studios Production, Produced by Lainie Smith, COMING JULY 2023

www.lovepotionthefilm.com

Watching the monitor as actors Alix Efaw and Jon Rust film a scene from Love Potion

LOVE POTION is a psychological horror story with supernatural overtones written and directed by award winning filmmaker James Carey and starring and produced by Lainie Smith. The Cinematographer  is Ahren Steis and Melissa Steis serves as the Production Coordinator. 

DIrector James Carey works with actors David Caprita and David Lee Garver

The cast includes David Lee Garver as Chris, a young man obsessed with getting his ex-girlfriend, played by Alix Efar, back at any cost. David Captria and Lainie Smith play the two people who can help realize that dream by selling him a magical love potion. Yet what is the price to your soul for making a person love you again after they have moved on.

Director of Photography Ahren Steis films a scene

The other cast members featured are VJ Roberts, Aubri Ebony, Shannon Thomas, AnaLisa Patterson, Elizabeth Gibbs, Rebecca Lambrusco and Samantha Goodell.  Our 1st AD was Justin Nicholson, sound was Rio Richardson, HMU was Samantha Goodell, and costume coordinator was Todd Graham.

#lovepotionthefilm #shortfilmmaking #filmmaker #atlfilm #horror #suspense #supernatural #films #movies #director #writer #producer #filmmakers #filmfestival2023 #awardwinning #madeingeorgia #atlanta #ATL #indiefilm #doityourself #justdoit #doingwhatwelove #producers #actors

Two Vintage Films to Help Make Your Summer More Fun.

MOONRISE KINGDOM & BLACKTHORN

Moonrise Kingdom

It was a slow night at home so what better time to watch a Wes Anderson film. I chose his film, Moonrise Kingdom from 2012. I had heard interesting things about Moonrise Kingdom. It was Wes Anderson after all, so at least it would be inventive. I had no idea or expectations or agenda, except to hopefully enjoy. What I got instead a shock!

It was wonderful. Quirky, funny, embarrassing, touching, and a million other words to describe this imaginative and inspired movie.

1ST TIME ACTRESS KARA HAYWARD IS EXCELLENT

I don’t go to Sundance. I love movies, but I am not a festival person who lives and breathes film. But I see over a 100 movies a year both old and new. I am a big popcorn movie fan during the summer, but you need a REAL story every now and then. For everyone, the serious movie goer or the looking for something different weekend movie goer, this is the movie to see.

Wes Anderson creates a world unlike any I have ever seen. The camera style, the almost flat, theatre-like opening tells you that you are in for something different. The whimsical nature of the tiny island that this adventure takes place on. The extremely funny use of Bob Balaban as a Greek chorus narrator to drive the action forward and tells us of impending events. The amazing cast that Anderson put together from Bruce Willis to Bill Murray, from Frances McDormand to Tilda Swinton. And the two preteen leads of the movie are wonderful. Both first time performers on screen, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are delightful as the two misunderstood teens who fall in love and run away, but only to the other side of the island. And of course, the singular vision of Wes Anderson always promises something off-beat and fanciful..

EDWARD NORTON LOOKING CONFUSED

 So, if you are already tired of all the big tent pole, super-hero movies or fast, furious car dramas, and all the other huge budget popcorn movies coming your way and it is only June. Then run, don’t walk to see Moonrise Kingdom. You will not regret it. You will laugh and grin and roll your eyes, and enjoyed  yourself immensely.

Moonrise can be streamed on Prime, Apple+, VUDU and Direct TV.

Blackthorn, Butch Cassidy Revisited!

Western!
Sam Shepard!
Bolivia?

Is Sam Shepard riding a Llama and wearing one of  those cute but funny Bolivian hats?

Answer – no!

Blackthorn takes up the story of Butch Cassidy 26 years after he supposedly died with Sundance in that Bolivian town. However, they both escaped – Butch unharmed and Sundance mortally wounded. Sundance dies, and Butch becames Blackthorn, an American expat who has a little ranch and raises horses. For 26 years, he hides out in plain site, sells his horses, writes letters to Etta Place who is in San Francisco, and life slowly works past him. He is lonely, but the peace of not running and just living in one place had replaced the need of adventure and danger.

A GRITTY REVISIONIST WESTERN SET IN BOLIVA

One day, he gets a letter from Etta. She is dying and she has a son – by Sundance or him. She is not sure, and she wants Butch to come back and get to know him. And so, Blackthorn starts the task of trying to end one life and return to another.

He sells his last horse, says goodbye to his local lover, and sets out on the long journey home. However, an unexpected encounter with a young Spanish thief thrust him into one last adventure, the likes of which he has not experienced since his days with Sundance.

SAM SHEPARD AS BLACKTHORN

This is a gritty, revisionist western and Sam Shepard gives a riveting performance as the unsentimental Blackthorn. The director, Mateo Gil and screenwriter, Migual Barros create a beautiful story of what might have happened to one of the American West’s great legends.

The movie is slow in some parts, and the plot doubles back on itself sometimes, but overall this is a tight, and worthwhile little Western. Well worth your 2 hours. Just for the simple pleasure of watching Sam Shepard in his best part since The Right Stuff. This is an excellent weekend treat for the senses. Plus you learn a lot about Bolivia and how much the West and their countryside were alike.  

SAM SHEPARD AS BLACKTHORN

Blackthorn streams on NetFlix. VUDU, FandangoNOW, YouTube, FlixFling, Magnolia Selects, Amazon, Redbox, The Roku Channel, iTunes, Tubi, and Pluto TV.

The Amazing Splendor of Florence and Milan

It was near the end of my month-long tour around Italy, and I was headed back to Zurich, Switzerland to catch my flight back to Atlanta. I had spent the last week on the Amalfi coast sightseeing and unwinding from what had been a very tense time for me during the Pandemic.

It was near the end of my month-long tour around Italy, and I was headed back to Zurich, Switzerland to catch my flight back to Atlanta. I had spent the last week on the Amalfi coast sightseeing and unwinding from what had been a very tense time for me during the Pandemic. When Europe started to open again, I saw a flight for Switzerland in November and knew from there I could catch a train all the way down to the Amalfi coast. And now I was on my way back but there were still two stops that I wanted to make before I thought my trip would be complete.

Florence Duomo Cathedral on a rainy day

The first was to make a stop in Florence, also known as Firenze in Italian. I visited Florence once before during the summer of 2005, and everything they say about the crowds and the congestion and how hard it is to get around is absolutely true. It is very crowded. When you are visiting Florence during the summer bring your patience and your camera because the architecture, the art and the scenery are magnificent. You just must wait in line for everything.

Waiting in the rain to see the frescos of Florence Duomo Cathedral

This time I was making a stop just to see one of my favorite pieces of art for the second time. It is so impressive to see live that I wanted to do it again. It is (the) David statue sculpted by Michelangelo. Sculpted from white marble that he went up into the mountains to select himself, this statue is incredibly beautiful. Based on the biblical figure of David, the statue is a masterpiece of renaissance sculpture standing 17 feet tall and weighing over 6 tons. It was sculpted by Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504 and when completed was placed in front of the City Hall of Florence where it stood for well over two hundred years before being moved inside and replaced with a replica. The statue is currently housed at the Galleria dell’Accademia which is in the city center of Florence.

A replica of the statue of David
The Replica of David outside Florence City Hall

Florence is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political and economic center. During the time that Michelangelo sculpted the David, the city was filled with the artistic and cultural elite of Europe. Imagine walking down a Florence street in the early 1500s and passing the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, and Niccolò Machiavelli, writer of the political handbook The Prince, which is about ruling and exercising power. All these artists and intellectuals were drawn to Florence by the power of the Medici family who ruled Florence and Tuscany and influenced Rome and the Catholic Church for well over three hundred years. The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Florence a World Heritage Site in 1982. Due to Florence’s artistic and architectural heritage, Forbes ranked it as the most beautiful city in the world in 2010.

View of Florence at Sunset from Piazzale Michelangelo

One of the most beautiful views of Florence is across the river and high on a hill that overlooks the city, the Piazzale Michelangelo. Offering spectacular views of the city especially at sunset as the fading sun reflects off the roofs of the city giving it a golden glow, the Piazzale Michelangelo is located in the Oltr’Arno section of the city (means literally ‘the other side of the river’) is an easy bus ride up into the hills and home to one of the famous sculptor’s three versions of David, offers stunning panoramic views of Florence. There are also restaurants, cafes and bars here, so you can enjoy a drink and a meal while you breathe it all in, often to the soundtrack of local musicians playing in the square. It is difficult to think of anywhere better suited to the quintessential Florentine experience.

DAVID by Michelangelo at the Galleria dell’Accademia

As you can tell from the photographs of (the) David by Michelangelo it portrays a naked man. During the Renaissance in Europe many paintings and sculptures portrayed naked women and men, or naked angels and saints. The human body was seen as something beautiful not something to be hidden away. I was reading recently where a teacher at a junior high school in Florida who had shown photographs of the David to her students was suspended for a few days when one or more of the parents complained about her showing one of the greatest works of European art to her students. The parents were upset that the statue was of a naked man. When the directors of the Galleria dell’Accademia heard about the American teacher being suspended, they offered her and a guest two business class round trip tickets to Florence so she could see the statue for herself for the first time. I am often confused by people who equate art showing naked people with pornography. These are two separate things. The human body by itself is not pornographic. It is beautiful. If you believe in a God, then that is how we were created. To take offense at having a teacher show a photograph of a world famous 600-year-old statue to her classroom, I think is ridiculous but that is my opinion. All I can say is if you are ever in Florence, the statue of David is worth standing in line to see. I have done it twice and I would not trade the experience for anything. It is truly a magnificent work of art.

Florence City Hall

The next morning, I got on a Euro-Star train which took me to the train station in Milan. The Milan train station (Milano Centrale) is a hub for travel for all of Italy and Europe itself. Located in the northern part of the country, if you are coming from Switzerland or from Germany or France you always stop in Milan to change trains to go to Rome, Naples or anywhere further south. Yet, I was not just coming to Milan for the train station, I was coming to spend time in this amazing city.

Milan is the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome. The city has a population of about 1.4 million. Its outer suburbs even stretch into the nearby country of Switzerland making it the fourth largest in the EU with 5.27 million inhabitants. According to national sources, the population within the wider Milan metropolitan area (also known as Greater Milan), is estimated between 8.2 million and 12.5 million making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the largest in the EU.

The city’s role as a major political center dates back to the late antiquity, when it served as the capital of the Western Roman Empire. Milan is recognized as one of the world’s four fashion capitals; many of the most famous luxury fashion brands in the world have their headquarters in the city, including: Armani, Prada, Versace, Moschino, Valentino and Zegna.

A fashion shoot in Milan

Milan is also a global center of tourism, receiving millions of visitors every year with museums and art galleries that include some of the most important collections in the world, such as major works by Leonardo da Vinci. In the field of sports, Milan is home to two of Europe’s most successful football teams, A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. The city will host the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2026.

Some of the most famous sites to see in the city (of so many to see) are:

The Milan Cathedral also known locally as “The Duomo.”

Milan Cathedral is an artistic monument, well known for its stunning architecture. Also known as Duomo di Milano in Italian, this cathedral is one of the most iconic structures that is also serves as a symbol of Milan. This magnificent cathedral is noted for its Gothic-style architecture and impressive look. The structure was built over a period of six centuries, it is also known for being the third largest church in the world.

On the same plaza is world’s oldest shopping malls, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

One of the major landmarks in Milan, it was first opened back in 1877. The iron-and-glass architecture of the gallery is particularly notable as it was unprecedented in any shopping gallery of those days. It is home to many iconic stores and coffeehouses.

Ospedale Maggiore di Milano

The Policlinico of Milan also known as Ospedale Maggiore di Milano, is one of the oldest hospitals in Italy, founded in 1456. It is a monumental complex which now lies mere steps from the Milan Cathedral and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in the heart of the historic city center. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was decided that the hospital needed to be moved. This move coincided with the founding of the University of Milan. The University took over the historic building complex and it now serves as one of the ten campus buildings spread throughout central Milan. The University is one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 60,000 students, and a permanent teaching and research staff of about 2,000. The Ospedale Maggiore di Milano today it is a modern hospital with nine hundred beds, with wards for adults, pregnant women and children. During the first COVID-19 breakout in March 2020, 300 of those beds were readapted for COVID-19 patients.

LA SCALA OPERA HOUSE

La Scala Opera House is considered one of the greatest opera houses in the world on the same scale as the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Inaugurated in 1778, this legendary opera house is known for hosting the finest operatic artists in the world. Most of Italy’s greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala. Its impressive repertoire of music directors includes names such as Arturo Toscanini.

Mural – The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

The Last Supper is a mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1495–1498, and is considered one of his major works. The painting represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with the Twelve Apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John – specifically the moment after Jesus announces that one of his apostles will betray him. Its handling of space, understanding of perspective, treatment of motion and complex display of human emotion has made it one of the Western world’s most recognizable paintings and among Leonardo’s most celebrated works. Due to the methods used, a variety of environmental factors, and intentional damage, little of the original painting remains today despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999. Housed in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Reservations are required all year and tickets can only be booked up to four months in advance but usually sell out very quickly. The official ticket site, Cenacolo Vinciano, releases tickets for sale for periods of two to four months in advance. If you just show up to see it, you will be turned away.

On your next or first trip to Italy, make sure to give yourself time in each place to enjoy the amazing history, art, architecture and glory of these ancient and historically important modern cities.

All photos by James Carey, except the photo of The Last Supper @Wallpaper Cave.

Some information is provide by Wikipedia.

Copyright 2023 – CareyOn Creative, LLC, Atlanta, GA

TripswithJames.com is a trademark of Carey On Creative, LLC

THE SECRET BATHING POOL OF THE QUEEN OF NAPOLI

The place where she meet her secret lovers while ruling for 40 years.


Outside the town of Sorrento, Italy, the Gateway to the famous Amalfi Coast is a hidden natural swimming pool with a natural arch that leads out to the sea. The pool is a beautiful bluish green color. It’s a beautiful and romantic protected cove and you can understand why the Queen of Naples would come here to relax and have fun in the sun. At one time there was an old Roman temple here (I do not know which God or Goddess it was for), so it has been an important place since before the birth of Christ.

Cliffs for swimming and fishing at Cape Sorrento

It was a moderately warm but drizzly day in Sorrento where I was staying for a few days as I toured around Italy. I had already walked all over the city, eating amazing Italian food, taking a wild bus ride along the cliffs of the Amalfi coast to Positano and I needed something to do on this gray day. I was not going to stay in my hotel room just because of a little rain. I had heard of Queen Giovanna’s bathing pool, so I decided to go see it for myself.

Queen Giovanna’s Pool

The swimming hole of Queen Giovanna is not actually a secret today. It is quite a famous tourist attraction during the summer months along the Amalfi coast because of its wonderful views of the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius, the cliffs and the swimming. This spot along the Cape of Sorrento has been a popular destination for the rich and famous since the start of the Roman Empire. The ruins of a sprawling Roman villa called – Villa Pollio Felice – dating from the 1st century BC. still stands and can be visited. You can go down into the foundations of this Roman villa and hang out if you want. Many people do as evidence from the graffiti covered walls, the empty beer cans and wine bottles, and the odor of weed that lingers in the air. The original owner of this Roman villa could have never imagined that what is basically his basement would become a party place over 2000 years later.

Foundations of Villa Pollio Felice

The area around Bagni Regina Giovanna (or translated to Queen Giovanna Baths) is an archeological site and park but in true Italian style it is not protected like an American archeological site. It is a secluded spot located off the beaten path and there is no supervision or guard on duty so you can do whatever you want here on the cliffs above the bay. You are free to wander around, swim or sunbath, fish, have a picnic or cliff dive if you want. Yet, you must be careful because the paths are very rocky, and some are in disrepair, so it is easy to slip and fall to the rocks below. A staircase leads down to the pool. It is shallow and perfect for swimming.

ruins of Villa Pollio Felice

How To Get There –

The baths and ruins are easily reached by bus with a short walk and climb. Begin on Via Capo from Sorrento, staying on this street until you reach Traversa Punta Capo. You can reach the road by cab for about 20 euros from city center you can also hop a bus here as well. There is a store where you can buy water, sandwiches, and basic supplies very close to the bus stop. Walk a few yards along Taversa Punta Capo and off to the right you will see what looks like an old Roman road with high walls along each side. You will follow the road down towards the Bay for about 20 minutes. You should take good walking shoes and the climb back up by this road can be tiring because it is uphill all the way, so you need to be in decent shape or take your time.

Road to the pool and villa

You will be passing old villas and homes – some lived in and several not, but on the other side of the walls are olive and lemon groves that seem to have been farmed for centuries. The road is wide enough for a small car or truck to pass by and the road is very old. It is paved but rough walking in many places.
You will eventually come to a staircase that will take you down into the park area. The trails in this area are in rough shape and the stairs down to the pool look unsteady but they seemed safe. You will find the Villa ruins here with its sweeping views, you can sneak down into the foundations if you want. You can make your way along a path that leads to a stony beach for swimming in the bay or take another staircase down to the bathing pool. I did it in November, so it was not crowded at all, and it was cool. During the summer months it will be much warmer and much more crowded so just follow the people.

Who was The Queen of Naples?

Queen Giovanna

Regina Giovanna or Joanna (1326–1382) was a legend before her time. She inherited the kingdom of Napoli from her grandfather at 17 years old during the time when it was extremely rare for a queen to be the ruler of any Kingdom. It was assumed by everyone that she would give up her authority to her husband as soon as she married. Her first marriage took place when she was seven years old, and she married her cousin from Hungary who was six years old. His name was Andrew and of course they did not consummate their marriage until she was 18. Giovanna was smart, ambitious and spent most of her life defending her right to be queen from all the medieval men who kept trying to take her throne. She was married four times, lost both of her children, and had to defend herself from the Pope, her Hungarian relatives and her own family members who were determined to take her throne. Yet in a time of male dominance and when the entire political system was turned against her, she managed to stay on her throne for over 40 years. In the end she was betrayed by one of her Hungarian relatives who invaded Napoli, laid siege to her castle, imprisoned her and finally put her to death.

Queen Giovanna’s Pool

Unfortunately for Giovanna she is not remembered for her determination to stay on the throne, but instead for the legends that accuse her of murder, ruthlessness, sluttiness and general bad behavior. Whoever she was and whatever she did, it is no wonder that because of all the political intrigue and drama that took place in her palace that she needed a place to get away too. That place was this secretive but beautiful protective cove which allowed her to escape the worries and cares of ruling Napoli. According to legend, the Queen spent much of her time at these baths where she and her ladies-in-waiting waded around the waters with their various lovers. Call it scandalous, or call it sexy, either way this paradise stays, and today the Queen is honored in her favorite place in Naples by thousands of visitors each year.

Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius

All Photos by James Carey

Copyright 2023 – CareyOn Creative, LLC. Atlanta GA.

Historic Charleston, South Carolina: A Journey into my Family’s Past

KING STREET NEAR BATTERY PARK

Over the holiday season, I went on a search for information on my father’s ancestors who first landed in historical Charleston, South Carolina, and while doing this, I also fell in love with this beautiful seaside city full of charm, history and grace. My family has a long history of being involved with Charleston, but I never experienced the city as an adult and had not been back in Charleston in over 30+ years. Though the trip started as a search for a family past, it quickly became a chance to discover this unique and lovely city and explore all it has to offer.

MAP OF PENINSULA CHARLESTON

While we all have multiple grandparents and great grandparents, my family name comes from a gentleman by the name of Thomas Carey, my great-great grandfather who landed in Charleston in the late 1840s. He escaped Ireland with his three brothers and came to the New World seeking a better life; a life free of hunger, oppression and cultural prejudice at the hands of their British masters at the end of the great Irish Potato Famine. The other three brothers ended up landing in New York City and their histories and whereabouts are lost to the mists of time. For some unknown reason Thomas decided to try his luck in Charleston, and in doing so he left behind him possible starvation, grinding poverty, religious and cultural prejudice and possible genocide by a Protestant British government against their Irish Catholic subjects in the United Kingdom.

ONE OF THE MANY GRAVEYARDS LOCATED IN THE PENINSULA

Now times were not any easier for my great-great grandfather in Charleston than they were in the United Kingdom. On a social scale in Pre-Civil War Charleston, Irish Catholics were only slightly above freed African Americans and slaves. First of all they were Catholic in a Protestant city, most of the time they were not well educated, and popular assumptions seemed that the only things that they could do well was farm, drink and sing songs. Yet this is not a story of how the Irish progressed in American society, this is the story of the Carey family and how they progressed in Charleston. This journey into the past  was also not a story of who married whom and where they’re buried, this is more story of how the Carey family lived and worked in historical Charleston.

FRENCH HUGUENOT CHURCH NEXT TO THOMAS CAREY’S HOUSE

Little is known about what part of Ireland Thomas came from and what his skill set may have been. All I managed to find out is that not long after he arrived he was somehow able to purchase a three-story building at 25 Queen St. just behind the French Huguenot Church on Church St. where he opened a bar on the ground floor and his family lived on the two top floors. Along the way he also became a stereotypical Irish cop walking a beat in Charleston and later a night watchman.

25 QUEEN STREET, THOMAS CAREY’S HOME

Thomas is remarkable for two things in terms of family history. He managed to fight in all five battles that took place around Charleston during the Civil War including the attack on Fort Sumter and the battle that was made famous in the movie “Glory” starring Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman. He also started a tradition that would last for four generations of Carey men only marrying Irish Catholic girls. Because of this my DNA according to Ancestry.com is 60% Irish even though the Carey family has been here for over four generations. My father was the first Carey male to marry someone who was not of Irish descent and outside the Catholic faith when he married my mother who was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister.

157 KING STREET, JAMES JOHN CAREY’S BUSINESS AND HOME

Thomas married a good Irish Catholic girl, and they had several children including a son by the name of James John who is my great grandfather. James John grew up in Charleston and became a very successful business owner who made his fortune installing gas lighting in people’s homes and along the streets of Charleston. He was so successful that he became an Alderman which was unusual for an Irish Catholic to accomplish in Charleston at that time. With his success he bought a building at 157 King St. which was the most prominent street in Charleston. His plumbing and pipe business was located on the first floor and his family lived above.  He and his wife Jennie Devine had three daughters and one son. The son was George Thomas Carey, my grandfather. James John passed away very young, age 36.

SIDE VIEW OF JAMES JOHN CAREY’S HOME

My grandfather was raised in Charleston and met my grandmother, Anna Sylveria Reynolds there. At some point George and Sylveria moved to Charlotte, NC, and raised five children there. In leaving Charleston, George became the last Carey male namesake to live in Charleston. His three sisters stayed in the Charleston area, and I have many cousins that live there. However when I was very young an estrangement occurred between my mother and my father’s brothers and sisters. What caused it, why it happened no one can remember, yet it was there. So when my father passed when I was in my early teens, the Carey family connections just faded into the background of my life. Now many years later I’m trying to pick up some of those threads and this trip to Charleston was part of that family journey.

REYNOLDS HOME IN CHARLESTON

Yet, the weekend was more than old addresses and digging into family history. Charleston is a beautiful historic and very walkable city filled with restaurants, bars, shops, art galleries, theaters and music venues. The center historical section of Charleston is the Peninsula which has the Ashley River on one side and the Cooper River on the other. At its widest the peninsula is 15 blocks wide and south of Mary Street, it is 20 blocks to world famous Battery Park, where the Civil War started. Contained within those blocks is a very walkable section of the city where you can reach any part in less than 30 minutes on foot and it contains history that dates back to the early 1700s. Charlestonians revel in their food, their art, their architecture, culture and history. Some of that history is very dark especially if you go to the Old Slave Mart Museum which is located in the actual old slave market, a market that was active until the end of the Civil War.

CANNON AT BATTERY PARK, CHARLESTON

I found this part of modern day Charleston, which is very tourist friendly to be diverse, culturally rich, very upscale and friendly in its southern hospitality. My partner and I snagged a very comfortable and affordable hotel room at the Hampton Inn which is part of the Hilton chain of hotels on the corner of Meeting and John Streets. The hotel also served a delicious breakfast in the morning for free. There are more expensive and luxurious hotels within the center section of Charleston, but this was perfect for us by meeting our budget and we were one block away from King Street which is the economic tourist center of the city.

CHARLESTON CITY MARKET, 4 BLOCKS LONG OF SHOPPING

And we walked a lot tracking down old family addresses, going to art galleries and finding wonderful off the beaten track restaurants and neighborhood bars. There was still so more stuff to do, and we didn’t even leave the peninsula to go to the other really enjoyable areas of Charleston. For a journey into the historical past and food that is the equal of New Orleans, I cannot recommend Charleston enough. We are looking forward to going back soon!

ONE OF THE MANY HISTORIC CHURCHES ON THE PENINSULA

Special Thanks to my second cousins Cliff Roberts and Charles Cansler, my first cousin Carey Roberts, and my sister Emilie Allen for the family information and history, and Laraine Smith for walking over 30 miles in two days as we wandered the streets of Charleston.  

copyright 2023 – CAREYON CREATIVE,LLC., Atlanta, GA.

Positano, Italy: City on a Cliff


Before I start my account about Positano, I owe my subscribers a bit of an apology. I promised this story to you almost three months ago and yet here it is the first time you’ve heard from me since August. My professional life has gotten very busy recently but that’s not an excuse. I just got lazy. Between directing a show, pre-production for a film, some acting jobs and being asked to write a film for a producer here in Atlanta, I just kept saying I’ll do the Positano story tomorrow. And of course I’m just getting to it now. So please pardon me and expect a lot more articles on Trips With James in the coming weeks.

Positano is the first village that you come to as you leave Sorrento, Italy on the Naples side of the Amalfi coast. It can be reached by bus along the cliffs, or you can take ferries from Naples and Sorrento to reach it by sea. Positano is a layer cake of houses and shops and churches built on a cliff side that reaches all the way down to the Bay of Naples.

The photographs and the short film that are part of this article describe much better than I can in words how beautiful and colorful Positano is. There’s one highway that comes into Positano and connects you with the rest of the Amalfi coast, and there is one road that goes through the village all the way down to the shoreline. Yet Positano is a city of steps and stairways that lead in all directions as you walk through the village. These steps and stairways and paths lead to plazas, elegant shops, beautiful homes, small churches, large cathedrals and everywhere restaurants. Each one of these places has a magnificent view of the Bay of Naples.

I have two brief tales of things that happened to me as I entered Positano. As some of you who have read this blog before know I am scared of heights. Not ones made by nature, but ones made by man himself. I am perfectly fine standing on a cliff or mountain but flying in an airplane or riding over a high bridge scare me stupid. Taking the bus from Sorrento towards Positano, I had climbed on board and sat on right side of the coach. The Italian roads around the Amalfi coast are very narrow but the bus drivers speed around those corners and curves like it’s the Indianapolis 500. To get from Sorrento to Positano you have to cross over a mountain and come down the other side and the views are incredible, but you are literally traveling on a road that is suspended over the ocean anywhere from 500 to 1000 feet above the Bay of Naples with all the views on my side of the bus. There was literally nothing next to us. We were completely supported on this tiny narrow road by man-made construction. There had never been a road there before and there really should not be a road there now. It was breathtakingly beautiful and incredibly scary as we whipped around those corners in this 30-foot bus.

As we arrived in the village an incident that took place was right out of any classic Italian genre comedy. What took place was so cliché that you almost would not believe that it happened, but it actually did. As I stated before the highway is very narrow and in the villages people actually park on both sides of the highway in many places so there’s only enough room for one car to get through one at a time, but Italians don’t wait for anybody they just keep going. As we pulled into the village there was a small pickup truck in front of our bus traveling in the same direction and coming from the opposite way was a very large Mercedes-Benz. They both arrived at the same place at the same time and neither one of them would move out of the way for the other. What ensued was 10 minutes of Italian drivers standing in the middle of the road screaming at each other and waving their hands around in that secret language of Italian hand gestures that only they understand. Our bus driver also got involved as he got out of the bus twice and went over to the group of screaming Italian men. He proceeded to yell and scream while jumping up and down a bit and then came back to the bus. With the cars stacking up behind us on the busy coastal road, drivers from 5, 6, 7 cars away would get out come to join the loud discussion and then walk back to their cars shaking their heads. Not knowing the language, I could only guess what the argument was about. It seemed that the driver of the Mercedes-Benz, a very elegantly dressed older man, seemed concerned that his Mercedes would get scratched by the pickup truck. The driver of the truck didn’t care and that seemed to be the main concern. Finally after 10 minutes of this comedy of errors in Italian, the elegantly dressed man got back in his Mercedes and actually could drive past the pickup truck. There had been really no reason for this entire kerfuffle to take place, but it was exciting to see that the cliches that you think happen in other countries like Italian drivers screaming at each other in the middle of a road actually do take place. No one pulled a gun, no one threw a punch, no one tried to stab anybody else, there was just a lot of yelling and screaming and gesticulating about who was supposed to go first or get out of the way.

It was a bright, clear and warm November day as I took my time wandering through Positano down staircases, across plazas, entering shops and the large cathedral there as I made my way down towards the shoreline. Arriving at the shore of the Bay of Naples, I turned around and realized what an amazing feat of architecture this was. It was a layer cake of colorful houses and shops, churches and plazas that are all built on top of each other. Places where people live and work and shop and eat and live their lives. It is incredible to behold, yet you wonder who was the first person to decide that we could build an entire village on a side of a cliff?

At the bottom of the cliff, the shoreline was filled with expensive eateries and restaurants that serve fresh seafood and amazing Italian pastas and wines. After lunch, of course, it took me a bit longer to go up the staircases to the road then to come down them. I almost missed the bus back to Sorrento because while there is a bus schedule it’s a little bit flexible in an Italian way. Most of these villages don’t have a bus station there’s just a place where people gather and if you miss the bus you may be there for another hour or so before one returns.

Positano is beautiful, colorful, and certainly worth the visit.





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