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 !

Vernon's Depeche

...in his new cd, Vernon tackles one of my fav songs ever. Can't wait to hear it. Here's what the Voice has to say about it...

"A Depeche Mode cover, "Enjoy the Silence," airs chiming octaved guitar in a bluesy then joyous motif, spiced by an oddball whammy bar effect that makes the CD sound like it's changing speed. And just when it seems like everything remotely possible has been wrung from the tune, the man on six-string delivers a forearm smash for good measure at the finish"

He touched Enjoy the Silence, I still can't believe it. It's like laying hands on the forbidden fruit. Oh what a sinful lot are we.

Very few people know it but Enjoy the Silence is the switch you gotta hit if you really wanna see me lose:
- my religion
- my restraint
- my mind

I've done the most stupid things under the influence of that song.
So much fun.

Visual stimulae

exhibit 1: what's left of my near-death experience. I'll call it fleur du mal.
exhibit 2: at East Hampton's IT brunch spot, Babette's, feeling nauseated by the crowd and how seriously they take themselves in between sips of Acai and mammoth bone powder frap, i venture to the bathroom and ... voila'. A nude. Confined, with guilty self-indulgent pleasure, to the only spot where it could be seriously savoured, removed from the pesto and sundried tomatoes omelettes. Vulgar (the pesto/tom omelette). Excelsus (the nude).

Things I'll miss about nyc #2

1. Tiresias and Truman Capote: every day on my block, around 6pm, an emaciated man wearing ruby-red silk payamas walks his dog, an equally emaciated blind old poodle (simply wiggling his tail makes his limbs shakeshakeshake, r-a-t-t-l-e), who always points his hollow iridescent corneas at me and frankly bugs me out. I call them Tiresias (like the bind seer in Oedipus) and Truman Capote (minus the body fat)

2. Dr. Z and his subway ads: in a series of ads on the subway, famous (infamous?) dermatholgist Dr. Z encourages the MTA riders to take a pop quiz to evaluate if they need a little nip'n'tuck. First question, "How many chins do you have?". I mean, are you serious?

3. The ethical hopscotch, the unspoken, softly spoken, shouted codes of conduct and morality (sex, friendship, politics, religion, income, education) one has to figure out along the way when living in New York City, like invisible lines you must be careful not to tread upon: every day on my way to work I walk past a peddler, squatting on the sidewalk near Lincoln Center, with a dog, a cart (or a bundle of newspapers, rags and miscellaneous belongings) and the traditional "help me" sign. His says: "Shalom. Hungry Jew".

I walked past him again a few days later and the word "Jew" had been crossed out. I wonder who told him to take it out and how.

Only in New York City.

for those who never got me (understanding Italy to understand me)

FINALLY AVAILABLE ON DVD

The Best of Youth
a k a La Meglio Gioventù
2003-Italy-Drama
N.Y. Times Review by A. O. Scott
* Critic's Pick

REVIEW SUMMARY
Orignally commissioned by Italian television as a miniseries, Marco Tullio Giordana's six-hour journey through recent Italian history is nothing less than a masterpiece, combining epic sweep with precise, heart-rending intimacy. At the center of its sprawling story of family and politics are two brothers, Matteo (Allessio Boni) and Nicola (Luigi lo Cascio), whose entwined and diverging fates become a microcosm of Italy's tumultrous transformation in the decades from 1966 to 2002. As rich with character and incident as a 19th-century novel, the film chronicles the radical politcs of the 1960's and 70's and glances at the political corruption of the years that follows, but its deep subject is the way the lives of ordinary citizens reflect and shape the life of a nation. While Nicola and Matteo journey to the extremes of ideological nihilism and encounter tragedy and frustration, their story is ultimately about the survival — indeed the triumph — of a humane, temperate world view, embodied in the thrift, decency and generosity of the middle class that bred them, and against which they both, in their youth, rebelled. — A. O. Scott, The New York Times

machines say G(L)O(W)

New York, June 25, 2006 — (...) condom sales (in the U.S.) should reach $409 million by the end of 2006, well above 2005 sales, when sales rose 2.8% to just shy of $400 million. While three U.S. marketers dominate the market—tracked sales alone show them controlling 98% of retail sales—innovative up-and-comers have helped renew interest in condom usage for pleasure as opposed to contraception and protection from STDs. In 2005, approximately two thirds of the condoms on the market were pleasure-oriented products (vibrating condoms, glow in the dark condoms, and condoms with climax delay lubricant).
(...)
Similarly, direct marketing to female purchasers of condoms has had a direct effect on increasing sales, as has the emergence of condoms and condom-related products from behind the pharmacy counter to retail spaces that are more prominent and easy to reach.

(from MarketResearch.com)

So what is the deal? We as a society are more horny than responsible? Maybe we have finally shed the weight of useless ipocrisy and guilt-soaked puritanism to embrace our true nature? Or could it be that in the light of so much socio-political unrest and gratuitous brutality we have decided to cut ourselves a little slack and bite into one of the little satisfactions left? Or is this a reaction to the rise of the machines, of a reality made of silicon, metal, plastic chips and shells and circuits surrounding us, encapsulating us?

Whatever the case, it's interesting that even in this stance my gender should be the one to set the rules, play the game, lead the way.

So heroically erotic, that's us. But let's not forget to protect ourselves.

Watch out for the Clan

Next August, the Wu-Tang Clan ( Witty Unpredictable Talented Natural Game ) will be hitting the road once again (NYC, Webster Hall, August 17-18). Wanna brush up on your knowledge of the group's lineup? Watch this

Only problem, I can't decide whose flow I like best. What about you?

p.s. interesting detail: in this version of the video at least, all weapons are blurred out.

wtf gwb

President Bush today used the first veto of his presidency to stop legislation that would have lifted restrictions on federally funded human embryonic stem cell research (...) The House and Senate do not appear to have the votes needed to override the veto, meaning it is unlikely the measure will become law this year. The Senate voted 63 to 37 yesterday to approve the bill, passed by the House last year.