Daniel J Quinn - Personal pages

I was born in Florence, Italy, on October the 30th, 1951 (Scorpio), almost under the shadow of the "Cupolone" (Florence's main cathedral), from english father and italian mother. I took my first flight on an airplane when I was 14 months: I wanted to get off, as you normally do on buses.
At my first flight on my own (Milan-London) I was 7 years old: the blond hostess was so nice to me, that I fell in love with her (alas! That's where it ended too.. ). On my return to Italy, I started learning to play piano, but six years later I preferred the guitar, as it was definitely easier to carry about. Later in my life I returned to the piano, playing by heart, which I still do.

I recorded my first record when I was about 8 yrs old (I sung Modugno's " Come prima" and " Io") and the recording session took place in the home of a friend of my father's, Maestro Zucchetti. The one & only copy of the disc (78 rpm!) I jelously store in a safe place.

I was 10 when I started building my own 'crystal' radio sets - later I indulged on trasistor radios, which came from Japan in kits. The passion for electronics turned into a deep interest in microprocessors, computers & software, to such an extent that I left my job at the British Consulate in Florence, after six years of reasonably honoured service, to dive into this emerging field. At first I developed software as a freelance, then I started working for various firms, ending up as a commercial-tech, in the field of optical disk archiving systems.

In the "Fab" '60s I joined - as many youths, then - a band. With moderate success we played at many competitions that were so popular at the time. I now sing and/or play on very rare occasions (I like crooning Frank Sinatra / Nat King Cole style)i. Forr my own enjoyment, I recorded the second disc of my life, singing over midi files, found here & there. Click here for an example...

During the '70s I started approaching calligraphy: whilst shopping in London I came across a few calligraphy sets and manuals. I would practice now & then, but never really had a chance to put this art into practice much, until year 2000, when I finally decided that computers had bored me to death (working for them, not just using them..), so I opened "The Calligraphy Shop" in Florence.

In February 2008 I closed my 'physical' shop, continuing to do calligraphy at home and running an internet shop.

Thanks for your patience in reading all this...!