I am veneer

Two movies I've watched recently and liked, for different reasons: "Blood Diamonds" and "Shortbus" (Cleo, you MUST watch Shortbus and recommend it to the Bordello people.. You'll see why).

After Titanic, and the "Gilbert Grape something" film, I didn't think I'd ever cry watching Leo Di Caprio act again. It happened. The scene at the end of "Blood Diamonds", when greedy-son-of-a-bitch turned good Leo gets shot (he's helping his sidekick - a fisherman from Sierra Leone caught in the middle of the diamond-fueled civil war - and son to escape), he lets the others go ahead, then leans against a 5 million years old cliff overlooking the breathtaking nature of Africa, and calls the woman he likes (all this while the militia is approaching). She is thousand of miles away. He tells her all the things a man can't bring himself to say, until it's too late. She realizes what's happening. Heart-breaking "last conversation" follows. Then he hangs up and prepares to die, looking out to the trees and a sun as big as the sky. I cried my eyes out. That scene sums up the two things that cut my heart: fear of dying alone; bad timing in love. I feel like Leo, on the phone, talking to the woman who will never be.

Now, to "Shortbus": one of "the James", (young attractive gay man in a 4 years relationship with a loving guy, and he's always sad) attempts suicide; to the question asked by the man who saves him (the next door voyeur) "But don't you know everybody loves you, can't you feel the love around you?", he answers (quoting by memory, may not be verbatim) "YES! But it stops at my skin, it never gets in". And that is me again. I never feel it. I can never feel it (enough). Maybe it takes just one love you want and can't have to nullify the power of the others.

And finally, non related movie, but I re-watched it recently and I found it as powerful as the first time: "In my country". Recommended.

Will is legend. I am veneer (and Venus).

Jazz

From Toni Morrison's "Jazz"... tell me if this isn't one of sexiest, most romantic and beautifully written paragraphs you've ever read.

I was reading and I stopped and went back and re-read and said "wow" alone and aloud.

"A colored man floats out of the sky blowing a saxophone, and below him, in the space between two buildings, a girl talks earnestly to a man in a straw hat. He touches her lip to remove a bit of something there. Suddenly she is quiet. He tilts her chin up. They stand there. Her grip on her purse slackens and her neck makes a nice curve. The man puts his hand on the stone wall above her head. By the way his jaw moves and the turn of his head I know he has a golden tongue.

The sun sneaks into the alley behind them. It makes a pretty picture on the way down".

Plastic, Milan

Last night at Milan's Plastic (my sister Cleo's playground) > WILD BUNCH!

Check out Queen Mayday dancing for her birthday at Plastic's Bordello
Bordello at Plastic (Milan)

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And the photogallery at
Ducati's Flickr

I got Scottish in my family

UGK feat. Outkast, "International Player's Anthem". Love the video. Steel Magnolias meets Hustle and Flow. And Andre 3000! In a kilt! Getting hitched!

DEMF2007

Forget the Iliad. Forget 300. This was epic in a Mother of all conventions kind of feeling. It was a superheroes convention, as Professor Genius said. You know that episode where the Fantastic 4 hang out with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman? That. We renamed out hotel "techno hotel", since we kept on bumping into our "superheroes" lounging around. But it's not even that. We are not easily impressed by flesh and bone, we carry no "starhunter" DNA. We hunt for soul-nourishment, we hunt the music. And that made our trip worthwhile. The music. Model500 (with UR's Mike Banks on keyboards). Jeff Mills (with 3 tunrtables, 3 cd palyers and a 909). 3 Chairs. Monolake. Moodyman at the Rollerskating Rink. Detroit Electronic Music Festival 2007. And the Greektown minibaklavas!

Forget 300. The number is 3000, of course. And 500 - Juan Atkins came out to play. He's a warrior.

Check out photos at
http://flickr.com/photos/ducati75/sets/72157600286409399/

And my video of Model500
Model500 (DEMF2007)

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musick

Perfect, exactly what I need - another great music website to get myself lost it.. check out Critical Metrics

also, for a good laugh, the latest from our man in the closet - it's his album, and you can read about that nutty double-ride here

... AND WE'RE BACK!

What have I been up to? Well, for starters I've been making videos. Nothing pro, just little mementos - as always it's all about the music!

adios

this is the last post from yours truly.

I'm not stopping my nonsensical wordflow, just moving it to a different, more fit, environment. Those whom I consider to be my friends, know where it is (if I forgot to alert any of you, friends, just ask).

The others really don't even need to bother.

See you!

a cobra bit my tongue

so I can't talk. don't ask! I can't talk.

Don't miss

NUOVOMONDO aka The Golden Door (to represent Italy at this year's Academy Awards)

There is no greater story than that of the wave of immigrants who left the Old World to come to the New around the turn of the last century. The narrative of immigration embodies ideas of hope for a better future, of taking large risks with no guarantee of success, of shedding the skin of the past and creating a new person. This tale has been the inspiration for many works of art - just think of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, or Elia Kazan's magnificent America, America. Emanuele Crialese's sweeping new film is a fine addition to this genre. Beautifully shot and conceived, Golden Door also boasts a radiant, nuanced performance from the wonderful Charlotte Gainsbourg and Crialese's singular storyteller's finesse.

Set in 1913, the film begins in rugged, rural Sicily, where weather-beaten peasants have eked out a living working the same land for generations. One day, the monotony of their lives is interrupted by the arrival of a stranger from America, who passes along stories of wealth and good fortune, potatoes as big as train carriages, carrots as long as canoes and trees dripping with gold coins. His job is to accompany the families of men who have already emigrated and are now working happily across the ocean in America.

The Mancusos, a Sicilian peasant family, decide to chase the dream of a new beginning. Golden Door tells their story as they pack up family and possessions and, despite the objections of their grandmother, turn their backs on their country. The trip will not be an easy one. Physical hardships are certain, but the voyage will also require a new way of thinking - and this is what Crialese is so interested in depicting.

The Mancusos, all of whom must tentatively confront their hopes and fears, are beautifully portrayed. They become a microcosm of all those stoic travellers who left their homelands in search of a better life on this continent. Their journey - by cart to the port, by ship across the ocean, culminating in arrival at New York's Ellis Island (*where humiliating physical and psychological examinations await them, not to mention a degrading "raffle" for single women to be wed on the spot*) - becomes a captivating story of steely endurance and unanswered questions that does not end once their boat reaches land.

- Piers Handling (with a little add by Ducati, between **)

Emanuele Crialese was born in Rome and graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. His feature directorial debut, Once We Were Strangers, was completed in 1998 and his second feature, Respiro, played at the Festival in 2002. Nuovomondo aka The Golden Door (06) is his most recent feature *and was awarded the Silver Lion/Revelation at the 2006 Venice Film Festival*.

OH HELL Jay!

first single off the new Jay Z's "Kingdom come" .. if it's true .. 's hot

pair it up with Beyonce's video for "Ring the alarm'' and get ready to get smoked, right at the intersection of despicable and high brow, where we like to spend time from time to time

..

Hova !

So. There's this girl I know, she's the director of pr for the Italian division of a famous music/entertainment network, right?

We work together on a project and afterwards she tells me she's so happy with the result she's gonna invite me to one of their concerts, "next time you're in Italy".

Next thing you know I get to Italy, right? And "a promise is a promise" so she calls me and invites me to this concert, "but who's playing?" I ask. She doesn't know. In hindsight I think she prolly just wanted to suprise me.

I figure it has to be someone at least mildly interesting considering the concert is going down on the grounds of the new, titanic Milan's Fair and is co-sponsored by a famous brand of sodas...

But holy shit. Who would have thought. And look, I'm with security, two feet from the stage. And there's this 16yrs old boy behind me who's crying his eyes out.

And the Man is UN-believable.











Please... can I get an encore?

cover me/2

(great cover, great album, later renamed "Ain't no mountain high enough")

I'm currently addicted to my "Marvin Gaye" Pandora station - I swear coaching that thing is no walk in the park but it's helped me discover a few jewels. Among which: Switch, "My friend in the sky". Heavy rotation. HEAVVY. Almost embarrassed to link my iChat to iTunes... Seriously.

cover me

I've been postponing this for a long time. Album covers I very much dig, in no particular order. To be continued.

things I'll miss about nyc #3

Free concert.

Central Park SummerStage

Feat.
Prefuse 73
DJ Spooky
Talvin Singh
Asha Puthli
Dres of BlackSheep

It's 86 F. Asha is wearing white ostrich feathers. She does a higher-than-CeeLo version of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy". Then coos with BlackSheep's Dres "Yeah" she says "I am the real the black sheep". Finale with "Engine Engine Number 9". Surreal !