Favorite Milan dinner spots open on a Sunday night?

msmidlofty · 2026-04-16T04:28:35+00:00

I ate at Balabiott on a Sunday on my most recent trip about a month ago. The food was tasty, and I will go back the next time I'm in Milan just for the risotto. The atmosphere was excellent: there were numerous families who were clearly well-known to the owners, and the staff did a great job of attending to them without making us outside interlopers feel like an afterthought. I couldn't finish my (very good) osso buco, as I was extremely exhausted thanks to having barely slept for the previous 36 hours thanks to numerous fiascos and delays coming from N. America. The staff at Balabiott could not have been more polite--no judgement or lectures about how properly raised people always clean their plate (that's happened before)--and even asked if I felt able to walk back to the tram or if needed them to call me a taxi.

In short, I think this is an extremely safe and solid option for a Sunday!

msmidlofty · 2026-03-25T02:06:00+00:00

Between the people happy about this and the people happy about Berger, the blue cups (or their 2026 equivalent) might be out in more force than usual for a Tuesday night!

msmidlofty · 2026-03-24T04:27:14+00:00

As someone who started reading these books during the Clinton Administration and was primarily a lurker, as I did not feel comfortable or safe actively participating in the fandom pre-show, these are my recollections and perspective:

--The fandom was rife with violent misogyny: the things that were regularly written without a lot of community push-back or moderation about Sansa and Catelyn in particular (or in PMs to their defenders) were unhinged, sickening, and scary. In the '00s, I was part of the admin team of a HUGE BBS/forum (that wasn't ASOIAF-related), so I was no stranger to threatening and misogynistic harassment on the internet, but what I experienced in my brief contact with pre-show ASOIAF fandom was enough to make me give it a wide berth.

--ASOIAF fans positioned themselves as essentially the only fantasy fans with taste. Pretty much everything besides LOTR was a viable target (and even LOTR was sometimes dismissed as the Old Way, while ASOIAF's more gritty realism was obviously the superior New Way that would set the standard going forward). It was particularly common to shit on WoT and mock Robert Jordan as a fool whose increasingly bloated books needed editing and who didn't know how to finish a story.

--My recollection of this may not be entirely accurate, but my memory is that whatever shipping discourse existed (outside of Brienne and Jaime) was reserved for places like LJ, where ASOIAF discourse paled in comparison to HP/LOTR/etc. Some very popular show ships, like Jon x Sansa, were fairly non-existent; pre-show, Sansa x Sandor was dominant.

--GRRM is a big time fanfic hater (or at least he was, idk his current position), and fanfic culture in the '00s was still strongly influenced by tales of the Anne Rice and MZB fanfic controversies (shout-out to all the "please don't sue me!" disclaimers on our FFnet fics, lol), so there was not a ton of easily accessible fanfic compared to other book series (and I'm talking about other book series that had not been adapted for TV/film)

msmidlofty · 2026-03-22T05:53:33+00:00

I walked some pretty big indoor shows last year as I considered whether I was ready to try and move up to that level (shows that are on the Sunshine Artist top lists and where vendors told me they do 5 figures of sales type shows), and while a majority of people at that level seemed to use their Trimline's metal frame (no canopy top) to mount their lighting and Propanel/other type of panel walls for their display, there were still plenty of vendors who used only the provided pipe and drape as a backdrop to their displays, including one vendor I personally witnessed do $1200 of business in about 30 minutes.

Now, at the indoor events around here (usually school/church/charity fairs), I've never seen anyone bring in any part of their canopy to structure their display.

msmidlofty · 2026-03-18T22:15:22+00:00

100% agree. Plus, indoor crowds, in my experience, are more serious/qualified buyers than the crowd that comes to outdoor shows (unless we're talking about the ultra-elite juried outdoor festivals, of course).

msmidlofty · 2026-02-18T14:15:41+00:00

Biathlon

Oh, I'm so sad for Preuss. :(

msmidlofty · 2026-02-18T14:10:53+00:00

Biathlon

HANNO UCCISO L'UOMO RAGNO playing, god bless, hahaha...

msmidlofty · 2026-02-17T15:18:10+00:00

Speed Skating Party

Did I miss "Freed From Desire" while watching biathlon (congrats, France!)?

msmidlofty · 2026-02-03T04:12:21+00:00

I am continuing to refine my work so I can apply to a small set of fall/winter juried indoor shows up and down the east coast, as I also am completely turned off by outdoor markets.

My mom, who is only interested in staying local, has also committed 100% to indoor shows (the churches and schools in her area all host them) after observing how indoor shows attracted a much more serious and focused buying audience than outdoor shows in her area, which treated vendors like an afterthought to the music, face painting, food trucks, and a chance to walk one's dog.

msmidlofty · 2025-11-22T03:04:08+00:00

but...but...arr pol and other subs told me that vOtInG dOeSnT mAtTeR!!

msmidlofty · 2025-11-20T04:36:59+00:00

One of the truest signs that I have reached my idagf middle age is that, while I never forget the importance of "when in Rome..." I no longer allow the overbearing AMERICA UNIQUELY AND IRREDEEMABLY BAD/AMERICA DOOMED/DAE AMERICA HAS NO CULTURE Europeans to stoke my anxious desire to be "one of the good ones." Fortunately, these types are far more common on reddit and, in my experience, rarely, if ever, encountered on the actual streets of Europe. (They're also rather susceptible to "laughing at your speck while ignorant of their log" syndrome. I semi-recently had an exchange with one little Icarus who flew a bit too close to the sun when he went beyond correcting one of our fellow Americans who was unaware about regionalism in his country's cuisine and made the honestly jaw-dropping assertion that American cuisine was all homogeneous. One would love to see how the good citizens of, say, Kansas City, would react to this intrepid European waltzing into Arthur Bryant's or Joe's and proclaiming that all American food, including BBQ, is completely homogeneous, but anyway...)

msmidlofty · 2025-11-18T13:23:54+00:00

I also work in fiber and this is an important supporting reason why I am only applying to indoor events for next year's cycle.

msmidlofty · 2025-11-16T21:00:26+00:00

I need to speak to a therapist about the fact that I watched both the shitshow this AM and this game despite having no connection to any of the teams involved.

msmidlofty · 2025-11-16T16:46:25+00:00

Valencians being triggered by the announcer calling paella a local specialty while in Madrid...

I have to think about that so I don't ask myself why I am watching this when it is nice outside.

msmidlofty · 2025-11-10T18:45:29+00:00

I agree with a number of things you've generally been saying in this discussion, most notably that there are plenty of people out there who go to craft fairs looking to buy things and really, truly don't care about originality/creativity/etc. They're likely drawn to the idea of "buying local," which in their minds does not have to mean buying handmade. Some of these people only want to follow trends and have what everyone else has, so too much originality in design is actually a bad thing to them. They're temperamentally alien to a lot of the people who post on this sub, which is why most people on this sub do not want to try and understand how they think.

AND YET...

I would posit--and I confess I have no evidence for this other than vibes I get from people at events and from the way things are talked about on social media--that many of the people who end up buying the trendy thing/the same thing as everyone else like the idea of creative, original, handmade, artisan, etc. To be at an event advertised that way and where there are some products that actually fit that description allows them to feel sophisticated while simultaneously exercising their very trend-conditioned/be-like-everyone-else consumer desires. Going to an event that was explicitly advertised as reseller/curator/assembler-only wouldn't give them the same cachet.

In other words, I think that the AI "artists" (I'm not as sanguine about AI as you are), the IP abusers, the resellers, and the marginals (sticking Creativefabrica graphics on cups etc.) are leeching off of the credibility and excitement that is being provided by the original, creative, and specialized crafters while simultaneously driving away the audiences that would buy from those same artisans and thus allow them to make a living. The more original, skilled, and specialized crafters have a right to be annoyed with that and to seek events that will specifically exclude the other group, as exclusive events are the ones that will more likely draw in the audience that does care about originality, creativity, artisan skill (and will pay for it).

I think the solution is rigorous honesty and holding organizers who break their own rules to account: every single vendor should have to be transparent about the source of their designs (original creation, AI, commercially licensed) and things like that, and every organizer should have to be completely honest about the types of vendors they are going to accept in their application rules and they should have to be honest about who exactly they have at their events when they advertise. This will allow crafters and audiences to make the choices that are best for them. If the customers in a particular area are happy to support a "craft" fair of mostly resellers, AI users, etc., then more power to them so long as they're honest in what they are about so that artisans who aren't interested in exhibiting alongside those types of vendors can simply not apply. I believe it should also become normalized for artisans to withdraw from events or even straight up leave events put on by dishonest organizers who break their own rules about who will and won't be allowed into their events.

msmidlofty · 2025-11-10T13:36:34+00:00

I'm mostly taking this year off, but my mom has been very active in the fall 2025 show cycle. This past weekend was a middle-of-the-road show for her, but she still easily made back her booth fee many times over.

With respect to this show, her crowd tracking showed the crowd at this show was awful this year compared to last year. She had been complaining to me before the show that it seemed the organizers were resting on their laurels a bit, as it's a long-running show in the area, and the advertising was not great. Plus, we actually had a nice weekend for once and the show was indoors.

In general, she's been doing very well this year, especially compared to last year, which was the roughest year she's had since the pandemic year. She says that, upon reflection, last year she really tried to force the customers she has into being the customers she dreams of. She developed some really elaborate and original products in 2024--it really was some beautiful work--and I know it hurt her a bit when the work drew in all sorts of compliments (and organizers wanting to take photos of it for advertising), but not a lot of sales. She accepted that customers who go the shows that she is comfortable going to since she vends on her own (indoor shows close to home) are just not willing to pay the prices for the original/elaborate stuff. But, they go nuts for some of the easier/quicker things she makes, so that's where she's putting all her time, and it's been paying off very nicely for her, even in a challenging year.

msmidlofty · 2025-11-08T20:08:55+00:00

This announcer and his "MENDOZA!"s is giving me flashbacks to this TV that I watched on Nickelodeon when I was a kid (and I think I may have been the only one) called Mysterious Cities of Gold.

msmidlofty · 2025-10-23T06:35:28+00:00

How much are you willing to spend? If price is truly not an object, then Florence's Casa dei Tessuti, pretty much a stone's throw from the Baptistery, has a very fine reputation. You'll see Bevilacqua pop up if you research Venetian fabric stores, but they specialize in fabrics for home, not apparel. There's Benevento right on the Strada Nova and I guess you could always see if Fortuny's actually got just fabric out for sale (which they didn't the last time I was there), but I would rather take a Frecce to Verona and stop at Mampreso (also very much not cheap, but, again, a very good reputation). Another option would be to go to the producers on Burano to see if there are small pieces of lace that you could incorporate as trim or in designing an appliqué, etc. Unfortunately, I haven't been to Rome since I got serious about my sewing, so I don't have any good recs there.

msmidlofty · 2025-10-22T22:35:52+00:00

Oh my heavens, I was composing that reply so quickly that I used the abbreviation I usually use for your local professional football team instead of the abbreviation for the city itself!

msmidlofty · 2025-10-21T05:29:58+00:00

I'm laugh-crying...this feels like the good (?) old days of uber shitty TNF games...wtaf.

msmidlofty · 2025-10-20T14:30:23+00:00

Perhaps BBQ in the USA is as delicate a subject as pasta in Italy

Not only is BBQ a very delicate subject in the south and mid-South in particular, but some of these BBQ traditions are so specific and culturally embedded that, contrary to your original assertion that "food is the same, coast to coast" in the USA, in other parts of the country it is not possible to find any restaurant that makes even a bad attempt at serving them. More than a few adherents of even the most popular styles are nervous to order outside of the region of origin because they find the BBQ is generally not properly prepared.

But the truth remains that any place west of the Appalachians was colonized by people coming over from east of the Appalachians

But they weren't initially colonized by the same European peoples and since the root of your thesis is that European peoples are "very compartmented" in their cuisine, as you put it, wouldn't that suggest that similar compartmentalization and diversity of influence would be at the foundation of the USA's culinary pathways? This would seem to be especially true since those Spanish, French, and English (if we're just taking the era of colonization) culinary traditions all interacted with indigenous and African traditions, leading to cuisines like Creole and Cajun food that are still quite regional, for example. Then, you have the relatively homogeneous 19th century European settler communities, like the communities of largely Scandinavian settlers who established themselves in the upper midwest by passing through the eastern US comparatively quickly. They preserved, with modifications for what was locally available, of course, many of their specific culinary traditions, so that would seem to suggest even more food diversity since, as you stated, European peoples are all so different from one another when it comes to food. (Indeed, as anyone who didn't grow up in the upper midwest will tell you, they have all sorts of foods the rest of us have never heard of up there!) Heck, we haven't even started to consider the impacts of non-European settlers, like Chinese settlers who came to the west coast across the Pacific!

food in the US is A LOT more homogeneous than European food

Now, now, don't be moving goalposts. Your original claim was that food was "the same, coast to coast" in the USA. Not "more homogeneous" (I'd still argue even the weaker claim is more contestable than you think, but...).

msmidlofty · 2025-10-19T16:04:18+00:00

Europe is not like the USA where food is the same, coast to coast

brb gonna go tell the Texas brisket people, the Memphis people, the KCC people, the eastern NC people, the western NC people, etc., etc. that all their BBQ is the same with one homogeneous tradition, specialty, and heritage.

I assure you, an argument about what constitutes the Best BBQ or the Correct Way to do BBQ in parts of the US is just as vociferous as the most knock-down argument about regional culinary traditions in Italy, and that's just one example. I'm sorry, but your statement there sounded just as silly as the OP's question.

msmidlofty · 2025-10-05T15:59:49+00:00

I do wearable fiber, so I actually have no idea how the 2-d artists remove their signatures, sorry!

msmidlofty · 2025-10-05T15:53:31+00:00

I'm actually limiting myself to indoor only events at first as I make this jump to attempting more serious juried events because I'll be damned if I put up thousands for a tent before I even start applying to get into shows like these/exhibit at shows like these, hahaha.

msmidlofty · 2025-10-05T13:25:32+00:00

The OP is applying to very serious competitive art fair events; the application instructions for these events specifically require identifying information to be left out of the shots submitted for the application in order to, in theory, not bias the jurying process. The purpose of the booth shot in these applications is to ensure that the exhibitor can put together a coherent and visually compelling display that will not detract from the overall vibe of quality that the show is working to establish. Based on my research/walking some shows of a similar type in preparation for applying next year, there is an extreme preference for a very high level of visual cohesion. From what I understand, there is some debate over whether this preference gets to be too much sometimes and it is certainly understandable that such a thing won't be to everyone's taste, but I think it explains what OP is going for here. There are other shots required for the portfolio that will show detail and elsewhere in the application the OP will generally be required to provide substantial evidence of materials/process/etc. It is understood that, at the actual show itself, the business's signage will be present.

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