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So much things to say right now...

Don't know where to start. many interesting things are deserving of blog attention.
Ok. one: i have a hangover.
But last night was really, really, really cool.
Two: Drew's at it again! Go Drew!
Three: went to comic shop today, found and immediately bought the new Sandman hardcover, Endless Nights. Had to do it.
Four: i'm tired, and i'm going to bed, so i'll tell the rest of the stuff tomorrow. it's been a long day.

Na Baixa do Sapateiro

Here's a nice page telling us about one of Ary Barroso's most famous tunes, after the ubiquitous Aquarela Do Brasil. The song is also known as Bahia, as anyone who's heard Fatha Hines' version knows(Pino - it was him wasn't it?). My personal favourites are Dorival Caymmi's heart-breaking guitar and (loud) vocal version, Joao Gilberto's solo guitar rendition, and Caetano Veloso's re-elaboration of the latter as a horn arrangement at the beginning of his own version, an overlooked gem in his reknowned 1997 Livro album.

Also, the song was so famous in the fifties, it was even featured in one of the dances in the landmark fifties comedy/entertainment movie, I Pompieri Di Viggiù. Bet you didn't know that.

And typing all of this has been very hard, because a cat has been sleeping on my lap throughout.

Food, food, glorious food. We hope.

Oh, i'm going through this nice interview to Neil Gaiman about food, so i thought i'd link to it here.
It's nothing fantastic, mind you, but it is themed in with what goes on tonight. Tonight, to celebrate my parents going on holiday for a few days, Fred and i are organizing a Polish Dinner here at WGD central. Fred's cooking.
Oh, let me repeat that:
Fred.
Is.
Cooking.
For.
Us.
Tonight.

I'll update on the different recipes later, when we get back from shopping. All i remember is that they had something to do with raw fish, lemon, diced raw onion and sliced salami. Oh, and lots and lots of drinks. But that was quite obvious, wasn't it?

Al Green - Let's Stay Together

I, I'm so in love with you
Whatever you want to do
Is all right with me
'Cause you make me feel so brand new
And I want to spend my life with you

Since, since we've been together
Loving you forever
Is what I need
Let me be the one you come running to
I'll never be untrue

Let's, let's stay together
Lovin' you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad

Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad

Why, why some people break up
Then turn around and make up
I just can't see
You'd never do that to me (would you, baby)
Staying around you is all I see
(Here's what I want us to do)

(repeat to fade):
Let's, we oughta stay together
Loving you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad

Been a while since i've last posted a song lyric. This last one is among my secret favourites, so secret i only realized it today, after Winamp random-played Tokyo Ska Paradise's cover right after Al Green's original version. And i also realized the tune had constantly been in my head for the past week or so. Well, that, and Wes Montgomery's version of Satin Doll.
Anyway, at the moment this is only one of the two songs i know by Al Green (the other one is Simply Beautiful, which i discovered via Arto Lindsay's wonderful cover). So somebody remind me to download anything available by the man next time i open WinMX.

(Also, i have to see Pulp Fiction again sometime soon. Haven't seen it in something like a year)

Ubi Maior, Smaller Quits

Which is just an ounce of the wisdom that can be found on my friend Nervo's recently created blog. Which is in italian, not in latin american like this post's title.
Also, Nervo's an extremely skilled keyboard player and vocalist, and you can check one of his bands out at this site.

Do you want fries with that? US congressmen at their best. (Warning-pdf file)

Via Mark Evanier.

McKean, again

Dave McKean is the featured artist at apple.com.
But he *still* doesn't have an official site. blah.

Dalì's Car

Salvador Dali - Rainy Taxi (1938)

Which is the sculpture/installation that inspired one of the three instrumentals from Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica album.
The song's title? Well, Dalì's Car, of course!

Ok, i know i've been going on and on about this album throughout the months. But i can't do anything about it. I love it to the extent that this blog is named after a piece of text from one of its songs. That's my excuse.

A Foreign Sound - Caetano Veloso Update

Some news.
Over at Elektra Nonesuch's website, the tracklist to Caetano's long-awaited english-language cover album can finally be found.
Said tracklist brings some surprises.
First of all, we're treated with a whopping 22 songs. Many songs not mentioned in this post (which, let me boast about it again, was the first english-language news about the album made available online) are there, including the Talking Heads' (Nothing But) Flowers, Dylan's It's Alright Ma, which features Naçao Zumbi's Pupillo on drums, and -Hear, Hear!- a cover of DNA's song Detached. This i HAVE to hear. DNA, as you all should know, was Arto Lindsay, Ikue Mori and Tim Wright's late seventies/early eighties noise-punk trio. And the song itself only ever appeared on an obscure movie soundtrack.

Other surprises, albeit far less radical, are the inclusion of Stevie Wonder's If It's Magic and the song Jamaica Farewell, of which i'm particularly fond of Harry Belafonte's version. To the extent that i urge you all to go download it, now.


A Foreign Sound, Caetano's 35th album, will be released in march in brazil, worldwide in april.

comics blogs

Ever since The Comics Journal's Journalista! went into hiatus earlier this month, i've had few chances of finding interesting comics-related sites or articles. Today i came across This Comixpedia article about the so-called Comics Blogosphere, and didn't even manage to finish reading it due to the sheer amount of great links it contained. And then i started following the links' links, and started finding fascinating articles like this one about Asterix or this one about Art Spiegelman's next project. So it's been hard to start getting work done this morning.

gigs, here and there.

The 13th of march will be a busy day.
First of all, i will very, very probably be in Verona attending my first Eelst gig of 2004.
But more importantly, londoners will be thrilled to know that another reknowned milan-based band, intuassenza, will be playing at the 12 Bar Club, 22-23 Denmark Place London, which is just around the cornr of Denmark Street, where i bought my first harmonica oh-so-many years ago.
...
ok, they're not *that* famous. But i hope they will be, because one of my best friends is in the band. So guys: go there, grab the drummer as soon as their set's over, avoid the ghastly headliner, and get him utterly sloshed. Two beers and a half are usually enough. If you're lucky, he'll even throw up.

Oh, the guitarist's also a cool gay.
Guy. I meant to say "guy". Damn.

Animals! On the Underground!

For all those of you currently residing, or planning to move to London: Animals on the Underground. Really, really, really cool.

Furious favourites

Did you know?
King Sunny Ade loves Brook Benton. Robert Moog loves Zappa's The Grand Wazoo. Blixa Bargeld loves Pete Seeger. And almost everybody loves Trout Mask Replica.
Figures!

Source: Furious.com - interviewee's favorite music.
Also check out their Arto Lindsay Interview and their Captain Beefheart and Harry Smith retrospectives.

Overheard in Venice, yesterday:

"What? You missed the bus for the submarine?"
-Some guy screaming into a cellphone, somewhere between San Marco and Rialto.


Which offers me a great excuse to recommend inpassing.org, one of the best humorous blogs around. My personal minuscule claim to fame is that i was in the pool of voters who got it admitted to the Bloggie finalists...
(yeah, i know, big deal.)

Ok, am leaving for Venice in twenty minutes or so. If you're in town for the Carnival, keep your eyes open for a large anthropomorphic cat. Which is how i usually dress up anyway, so it's no big deal.

This did NOT surprise me.

You're Godel, Escher, Bach!

by Douglas Hofstadter

Despite being interested in things like mathematical theory and the
secret lives of numbers, you're actually quite popular. You carry on great dialogues,
though you keep asking people about their heel. When faced with a flight of stairs,
you always have great difficulty knowing where you'll end up, and have been known to
consult a calculator. Despite these oddities, what you say is relevant to the future.
Though the day Deep Blue beat Kasparov, you sure were surprised!


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

nice clip

If you go to this page and scroll down a bit, you can watch the nice clip of Almamegretta's cover of the Robert Wyatt song, re-born again cretin.

Found this out by following the link at the end of Cristina Donà's beautiful Goccia clip, also featuring Mr. Wyatt. I recommend listening to anything by either of the two.

Not Enough, dammit!

These are the places i've been to in the world:


create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Of course, if you only look at europe, it's more reassuring:


create your personalized map of europe
or write about it on the open travel guide

I think i need a new continent.

Playlist for 12 February, 2004

This is so YOU can decide whether it sucked or not.

Approximate playlist for 12/2/04 (changed some things halfway through the broadcast, depending on some bizarre whim)

Earth, Wind and Fire-Got to get you into my life
The Beatles - I'm down
Led Zeppelin - Rock & roll
Righteous Brothers - Little latin lupe lu
James Brown - Out of sight
Blur - crazy beat
Tokyo Ska Paradise - Theme From Lupin The Third
Baden Powell - improviso em bossa nova
The Mike Flowers Pops - Light My Fire
Frank Zappa - My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
Skiantos - Eptadone
Radiogladio feat. 99posse & Moana Pozzi - Spendi Spandi Effendi
Ambitious Lovers - Ponta de lanca africano umbabarauma
Richard Cheese - Loser
Moreno Veloso - Arrivederci
Caetano Veloso - Shoot me dead
Lemon Jelly - Nice Water For Ducks
Los Pericos - Monkey Man
Mongo Santamaria - El Pussycat
Los Amigos Invisibles - Mami te extraño
Cibo Matto - Je t'aime, moi non plus
Pizzicato Five - LOUDLAND
Cornelius - Star Fruits Surf Rider
Frank Zappa - Camarillo Brillo
The Beatles - Besame mucho
Cake - Quizas, quizas, quizas
Radici Nel Cemento - Echelon
Bossa Cuca Nova - Falsa bahiana
United Future Organization - Make It Better (Kyoto Jazz Massive Remix)
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Sesame Street Theme
Cornelius -14- Count 5, 6, 7, 8 (Konishi Yasuharu Remix)
Blur - Money makes me crazy
Speech - Clock's in sync with mine
Jackson5 - I Want You Back (524 mix By Konishi Yasuharu)
Os Mutantes - A minha menina
Giuliano Palma & The Bluebeaters - Gimme a little sign
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Let's Stay Together
The Skatalites - Guns Of Navarone
tokyo ska paradise orchestra (again) - skaravan(with a drum solo)
Vinicio Capossela - Al Veglione (Live Premio Tenco 1998)

All this lasted over 2 hours, and was interspersed with random chattering by Yours Truly, who would tend to coordinate songs and commentary quite clumsily, and also stupidly left windows sounds on throughout. Thank god nobody managed to record it.

The SMS-bag

Have i not posted in that long?
Anyway,

We love your SMS's!

Lemme explain. At the beginning of this new year(2004, i think), we here at WGD had a small feature answering reader email. Today i got an sms (from the charming and talented Gnapppo, which is all rather remarkable considering he's actually just an unproportionate ant. I won't even mention what material he's allegedly made of) that reminded me of how many threads i'd left hanging over here on the blog.

Um. Would copy the text of said sms, but i seem to have accidentally erased it.
Also, would've just plain answered to it, but my credit's way down somewhere hot and full of little red guys with hooves and horns. So i'll just write a long post instead.

Anyway:
1. My military situation
A.k.a. The Cat Situation

That's been permanently -and temporarily- fixed.
Almost three weeks ago i applied for Civil Service. Doing this automatically removes you from Military Service lists, according to italian law. Unfortunately, it puts you in the Civil Service lists. Now i have to worry about weaseling my way out of this one, but luckily i have more time on my hands, and no longer run the risk of ending up peeling potatoes with a bayonet up my *ahem*
Oops, almost mentioned college staff there. Better be more careful.

2. My Exam

Oh, yeah, i passed. Or rather, we, the think-tank in the back left corner of the classroom, farthest from the teacher's view, passed. And i got an 18/30, the minimum for passing, which is emblematic considering it's one of the exams i've studied most for in my life. And my average is 28/30. Oh well, i'll find a way to pull that up again on the 7th of april, which is when the second half of the exam comes. Oral this time, so i'll be much more in control.

3. The Radio Program
Still temporarily(?) called Sostituire, last week's official debut (after last month's semi-fiasco) wasn't that bad at all. Some close friends even complimented me on it, and i'm really flattered for this. Unfortunately, attempts to record the program didn't quite work. But i'm looking on the bright side: it gives me an excuse to play those songs again in the next shows!
Hope to have another broadcast this week or next, i'm already rounding up a nice new playlist.

4. The carnival costume business

Large Antropomorphic Cat beats Frank Zappa 3 to 1!
Which means i have to find a way to dress up as that before saturday. Shouldn't be too hard at all.
Feel free to carry on voting, however. Shock me. Rock the vote. Change my costuming plans five minutes before the train to venice leaves.
Actually, this poll was all just an excuse for linking to Cat And Girl again...

5. My Health

Q: Hey, how are you?
A: Koff, koff.

Bit of a sore throat these days, doing my best to keep to my room so as not to contaminate other people.
On the other hand, have been drinking much less recently, as part of a promise i made. Don't ask.

Oh, and i officially became older a week or so ago. No big deal, i don't celebrate. Don't really believe in time.


And finally, why did this result not shock me in the slightest?


you are the cute but psycho happy bunny. You
adorable, but a little out there. It's alright,
you might not have it all, but there are worse


which happy bunny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Magic Band's New Official Website

...isn't ready yet.

Beefheart fans rejoice later.

speech.

Over at This Page you can find the text of the speech My Father pronounced at last year's closing ceremony. I suggest taking a look at the rest of the site, too. It's a very good example of how useful the duino experience can be. And of what the college isn't doing anymore, in my opinion at least.

downloads etc.

First of all: go read The Book of Noodles. Worth it.

Next: things can be downloaded from killuglyradio again.

And good ol'Sananda has made his latest album completely available on mp3 over at his site. Nice valentine's day treat.

Both will only be available for a week or so. So hurry.


Oh, and a cow walked into a bank the other day. Splash.

DO NOT LIVE IN SHAKY HOUSE!

Because it's dangerous, that's why.
This has been a public service.

help!

Can't find my new Ensemble Modern cd anywhere in my room!
Anybody out there seen it?
You know, bedroom wormholes and everything...

small satisfactions

It seems i'm the first to link to the great young brazilian singer Adriana Calcanhotto's newborn blog!
Good luck Adriana, and enjoy blogging!

In the past few days i've kept recieving spam from sites like sanvalentinoday.com (can't be bothered to know whether it actually exists or not). The first couple times, i would just delete it away with an annoyed "tsk". This morning, i saw one in my inbox and started shouting "AAAAH!! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!".
Problem is, i was in the library.

Anyway, i've noticed Verve Records has put out yet another series of compilations, this time intended "for lovers". And they had the decency to dedicate the series to "lovers and hopeful romantics". Cute!

NOW AIRING!

WJ Evaristo is on the air!
Don't laugh.

Anyway, info on how to hear me, as always, at RadioPhiga!

Little Update

Can't update much these days since WGD Central is -once again- experiencing 'net connection problems. Am currently updating from somebody else's office, on a win'95 platform. Stylish.

Anyway, tonight i will very very probably be broadcasting, or let's say "attempting to broadcast" on RadioPhiga once more, approximately from 22:00 GMT+1 onwards. Let's see if i last longer this time.

Can't stay, gotta catch a bus to Udine. If i'm victorious, i'll return happily clutching a Jacques Tati DVD box set. And a BIG smile on my face.

New Poll

Thank you to all those who voted on the last poll. All three of you. Bah, i'm leaving it there on the sidebar in case anyone else wants to make suggestions. By the by, i ordered four cds via cdflash the other day, and none of them had anything to do with the ones mentioned. Shows how much even i care about that last poll!
Anyway, this next poll is a seasonal one, so i'm just posting it over here, and when it's gone it's gone.

Now go vote.

Carnival's coming. What should i dress up as? Frank Zappa Large Anthropomorphic Cat

(please ignore the ugly html. Can't be bothered to learn to fix it.)

Frustration...

Why is this thing so damn expensive??? Ok, it's well worth the money, so let's rephrase that. Why is it so far out of my monetary reach????? Makes me wanna cry.

Resuming regular blogging(hopefully), here are some great nigerian proverbs, courtesy of the recently renewed Plep!

Also, check out this funny little image.

Valentine Day's coming. Here's how not to celebrate.
(Via Neil Gaiman)

smack the pingu!!!

My high score was 530. This is the kind of thing that gets me late to appointments.

Morning morning.

Smooth lights, clean clothes, and a Van Morrison album. Best way to begin a sunday morning.
Pity it's three o'clock in the afternoon, but let's not mention that.

necessary link

Had to link to this. Updates on the great Danijel Zezelj's art & occurrences.

ahem. er. oh. hee hee. Oh, whatever.

2004-02-06 19:29:55 GMT :
rimozione di http://evaristo.blogspot.com/
in corso

That's what Google told me ten minutes ago.
So, for ninety days or so, this blog won't be findable on google.

Why? Oh, i got a very polite phone call yesterday upon returning from Udine... And i don't mean that ironically. The call was from the same person who left this comment.

And i must say i can confirm everything in that comment. And must add that the person in question was extremely charming about the whole affair. And that my mutandine also remained clean throughout the call, even though they did get a little bit worried about their future when i was informed of how this page was found in the first place.

Ok, let's try to be clear:
The teacher mentioned here did not shit his pants. He was just worried about thirty-something college students walking into an osmizza, well knowing that the wine was bad and the roads back to duino even worse. As a matter of fact, it's a nuisance to have so many people coming along. If it's ten or so people, it's fine. You chat, you eat, you drink, you chat some more, and it's over. If it's thirty, you just drink up and have to carry people home, which isn't always very amusing. Even though the locals seem to enjoy watching us do it. But they don't enjoy having thirty people in a place which doesn't really fit them.
Was it his duty to inform anyone about this? not at all. He just did it because he was genuinely concerned. And he didn't call the headmaster, he called the teacher on duty. All that came after was luckily nothing to worry about.
People were carried home, as per usual, with almost no damage. And they all had a good laugh about it the following day.
The headmaster went to check, but found nothing. And we all had a good laugh about it the following day.
The teacher i mentioned found my site, didn't really appreciate the dissentery reference, called me up, and in the end we just had a good laugh about that, too. Although i still believe i owe the man a drink, he was just too kind about it.

The only thing that was an authentic cause of worries, as i was saying, is how this page was found in the first place.
He had googled for the headmaster's name and surname. And my blog showed up on the fourth page of results.
Which was not. good.

I checked, the page also shows up very easily when looking for "duino" and the name of the little house i used to live in.
So what i had to do was go back, remove the one time i had mentioned the HM by his full name, and then remove all else that might have been easily googleabole by the wrong people. Actually, i didn't remove anything, i just replaced stuff. Oh, and i also corrected one phrase in a post which i felt wasn't really comprehensible. Reading my old posts was such a pain, they all feel like something's wrong about them, and that was the only case in which i didn't manage to leave things how they were. But anyway.
The next step was to remove the site from google's indexes, which was just done. This means i won't be seen on google for the next ninety days or so. Not really a problem, considering the kind of referrals i had.
So no big deal. It would've been, if the person who found this hadn't been so friendly.

Ok, i think that's explained. And this post has gone on for a bit too long.

More tomorrow.

This will seem familiar to most people who have anything to do with a blog...

Slowly, i turned...

No updates these days - my exam's tomorrow, so i can't waste too much time. Yeah, right, as if i hadn't spent the last 45 minutes of open library last night reading Sight & Sound.

Anyway, remember that thing i linked to, but went offline five minutes later? Here's where you can find links to mirror download sites. After viewing, remember to ask yourselves how fucked up my mind has to be if i enjoy this kind of thing.

Exam tomorrow morning 9:30 GMT+1. Think of me. Hope i don't fall asleep.

The Beer Church

It is the goal of Beer Church to provide a fun, informative and useful Web site for persons all around the globe who are interested in and passionate about beer.

Oh, and Pino just redirected me to this site, which is probably one of the best spam-sites i've ever seen.

Some Folklore

Friday night was Osmizza Night, once more. Some thirty of us clambered our way up to Medeazza, followed the Bay Leaf indications, and took possession of what little tables were remaining in a room that looked much bigger before the rest of us got there.
Much fun was had. At some point, an accordion materialized between the hands of the locals, giving way to almost everybody's wild cavorting.

Meanwhile...

On arrival, a teacher was present. Said teacher was very charming about so many of his students entering an obscure homebrewed wine watering hole. He greeted us from his table, and when he left jokingly exchanged some chitchat with us.

He then proceeded to go home, shit his pants, and call the headmaster.
When the M.O.N.A. heard that a horde of his oh-so-childish-and-unreliable students were loitering in some small nearby town, he only saw it fitting to seek out such a small town, seek out the premises, and just generally give everybody a bad time. After all, that's what he thinks he's there for.

Luckily, he hasn't the slightest idea of what an osmizza is.

So he pulls out his car, put-putts his way up to Medeazza, goes around the town twice, sees nobody around, notes "no students here", goes home. He was quite obviously expecting to see a large flashing neon light saying "osmizza" in bold capital times new roman letters.
Meanwhile, we were all inside some local's house, drinking our heads off.

I consider all of this extremely folkloristic.