Another CD released that risks to make the wallet of me much lighter...(except that i don't really have a wallet, but that's another story)
Problem is, it seems shops will be stocking it at a rather steep price, since it comes with that extra-cool bonus DVD. Which of course has the "Bonus" status only outside italy. Ho hum.
Instead, i think i'll just download Sananda's New Song!

Um, let's just all ignore that last post, ok?
Thanks.

Mushroom.

Nothing to do tonight, all very mushroom.
Just stayed at home all night. Going to bed now.
Ciao.

So italian pianist Stefano Bollani released a new cd that looks quite interesting...will i resist the temptation of getting a copy? come to think of it, that would just get Angelo jealous of my musical tastes...
...so instead, i'll just wait for the seventeenth and pick up Ensemble Modern's new Zappa cd!

A little news before we carry on with our regular blogging...
Literary magazine Storie will be publishing an agenda called Natale Che Palle, featuring two new short stories by Aldo Nove and our ever-loved Elio e le Storie Tese.
Speaking of whom, photos of 10 october's historical(?) tour-ending concert are available here, courtesy of that adorable friend and colleague in geeky fandom, Chrissy. Of particular interest is this one,


this one.
where the people being pointed at are none other than those lovable UWCAD students, Aprilia, Arisci, Carbonchio, Cecchi, Giacomino et al. I'm particularly proud of them.

One last thing: Blogger has officially taken stance on the "dreaded Mom Scenario".

Actually, Reclusive Hangover Day only lasted until about 30 mins after that last post, when i realized there was a beautiful sky and went down to porto to take some more pictures of my voodoo doll. Then went to library, despite my *bad* hangover, and tried to study. Quite surprisingly, after three hours of suffering my head cleared out and some productivity was attained. I stayed there from five to ten, not a bad time after all. Even found some great texts to add to my thesis' bibliography. Yes, i'm actually working on it. And no, i still haven't started writing it. Surprise surprise.
Went to visit some friends in Pala afterwards. While there, i discovered i'd been to old offices last night. Or maybe not. If anybody sees some brain cells carrying luggage around an air terminal, ask them. It's not my problem anymore.
Now i hope to meet my sleeping deadlines. It's almost half past two, high time to go to bed. But first, link of the day!
Goodnight.

What day is it today?

It's Reclusive Hangover Day!
An entire day spent within the four walls of my room, listening to music, playing videogames, messing around on the 'net and watching the Special Edition Gorillaz DVD i got myself in Rome(for an absurdly low price). Yes, i like the Gorillaz. So?
I've only exited my room twice, once to shower and the other to go to the bathroom. I think my parents don't even know i got up. What they do know is that i got home at seven this morning.
Oh, and there've been carabinieri or policemen outside my window for the past two days, occasionally peeping up at me. But i'll worry about that tomorrow.

Everybody's linking to this, so i guess i should too.

Forgot!
My PC now works again, we found a new little fan. The old one has followed my example and has chosen to devote its life to Art. So expect it to show up in some future installation or performance.

Brown Shoes Don't Make It

Bought new shoes today. Brown. But don't worry, no risk of me doing nasty things with interns on the White House Lawn. Don't know what i'm talking about? go here and here.
Anyway, in 5 minutes i'll be going to pick My Father from the airport, then at a quarter past seven i'll be meeting fred and the as-yet-unidentified "others" to go up to some Osmizza. So my new shoes will immediately understand with what sort of person they're going to have to do with.
They're so nice and clean now. By tomorrow morning they'll probably have stains of anything ranging from wine to yesterday's lunch (beans). Poor guys.

And one of my favourite webcomics ended the other day. So sad.

i may not update for a little while - the little fan inside my computer decided to pursue more ambitious careers, so i'm stuck blogging from my dad's PC until he comes back from Spain, which if i'm not wrong should happen today.
And speaking of parents, i should be meeting my mother to buy new shoes in half an hour. Pity i don't remember if she said we should meet in piazza, her office, photocopy room, staff room or Kingston Bay, Jamaica. Hope it's the last one.

Made some changes, as you may see, to the contents of the sidebar.
A new link was added, along with two new sections, which i still have to decide whether to link to related pages or to the reviews i'll eventually get around to writing (yeah, right).

BREAKING NEWS! YES, AGAIN!

The great Artist, illustrator, designer, director, musician, etc. Dave Mckean who just happens to be one of my favourite living artists, will be in Trieste on the 30th of November.

The news is official, the details aren't yet. But as soon as i have official press releases to link to, they'll be linked to.
When i got the news, i started jumping up and down my room with glee. The noise caused my mother to have to come in and check what was going on. I felt extremely nerdy. But of a very happy nerdyness.

Zen Terrorism is born!

Last day in rome saw the birth of what i call Zen Terrorism.
What i did was, while shopping for books, to take out all the Feng Shui books from their section of the shop and then file each one of them in completely wrong places.

Subtle, but lots of fun. Had me giggling around the halls of at least four different large roman bookshops, and a couple of small ones. One of which in particular i endorse.

er.

Was writing a long post on music, art, and other stuff.

Lost everything because the college's line is so slow, it timed out while i tried to publish.

I'll eventually start it all over. Still sleepy anyway, think i'll roll over to my bed. Let's see if the cat on my lap approves.

Even quicker, from a webcafe somewhere in the Eternal City (Rome, not Codroipo. Although time does pass faster here.)
My bancomat just died out on me. Ho hum. Off to catch up with mia mamma so i can fill up with the €'s again. Oh, and i just met Michele Loi.
No money and Michele Loi. Now my karma owes me big.

Another quick one.

Still in rome.
Changed host: Moved from Giggi's place to the amazing apartment of Susan and Mohammed, two ex-UWCADers who live and work here.

Opening ceremony yesterday. Saw lots of friendly faces i'd been missing for quite some time, got lots of hugs from long-lost friends, indulged in free buffet, got sloshed on a boat-disco on the Tiber surrounded by students and ex-students, at a party i crashed into. Then, just when things were starting to get good with the ladies, got dragged out by my friends and ended up in a moroccan restaurant, smoking Narghile.

Extremely cool.

That was the highlight of this week, i think. Actually, i've had several very good moments. Strange to think tomorrow's the last day.

Going to see the Dadaists in Parco Della Musica, and doing my final shopping around for cds.

Will write more as soon as time is in my hands again. Probably monday.
Meanwhile, a big hug to all eastern-europeans who have started to visit this page in the past week. Miss you. You know who you are, moja sestra.
(yep, too busy to write but still insanely curious about Sitemeter's statistics. And who's that visiting from Singapore, eh?)

I'm alive.

Yep, I'm alive.
Too many things to tell.
Had fun.
Took train.
Studied[made up] my lecture for the following morning while everybody else partied.
Caught up partying when everybody was already drunk.
Got to Rome.
Started guided tour.
Wasn't bad.
Showed Matta mural in Piazza di Spagna metro station.
Tourists stopped to listen.
Enjoyed.
Got to Giggi's place.
Watched Tron DVD extras.
Fell asleep.
Woke up, apologized, felt guilty because it was interesting.
Went to bed.
Woke up, showered(finally).
Got to meeting point 10 mins late.
2nd day as guide wasn't as good, but still ok. Discovered some nice places.
Planned to meet people in termini, cellphone broke down, fell into despair for 15 minutes, called from payphone to cancel all appointments and apologize, started to worry about having to buy a new cellphone tomorrow.
Cellphone came back to life, cursed.
Met five beautiful music scholars on the way to Campo Dei Fiori. Had a drink and enjoyable chat with them.
Wrote a small message to a friend.
Got to Campo dei Fiori, joined Giggi, Mumble and others for a flashmob-planifying meeting.
Much fun was had.
Went home.
Met Ramesse.
Checked mail. Now blogging while Ram and JJ discuss programming behind me.

Sorry, no pope tomorrow. Maybe i could weasel myself in, but can't be bothered.

I guess that's it.

Met Giovanni, Valentina, Michele, Fabrizio, Filippo, Michele, luciano in different moments, will see them all again in the next few days.
Got mail from Micheleloi saying he's in Rome. Still wondering what to do about it.

Yap, that's it.
Rome's cool. Free day tomorrow, time to wag the bancomat card around some music and comic shops.

Cheers to all.
Anybody in Rome? Contact me.

The Program.

Ok, so here's the official program of the guided tour i'll be giving in rome.

Monday:

Morning - Meeting in Piazza S.Ignazio as soon as baggage is accounted for. Visit of Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio and Chiesa del Gesù.
Walk towards Piazza di Spagna passing through Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. Break. Viewing, explanation and commentaries to Roberto Matta's mural behind Spanish Steps.

16:00-Meeting point with rest of college.


Tuesday:

Morning - Meeting point: outside Sta Maria Trastevere church. 9:00 Sharp.We meet with Franz's Group.
Mosaics in rome, W/Franz's Group. Trastevere (monastero S. Cecilia). 2€.

Afternoon – Meeting point Piazza San Pietro 14:00 Sharp. The architectural influence of Sebastiano Serlio. Musei Vaticani: Raffaello’s Rooms! Shortly thereafter, visit of the churches of S.Maria della Pace and San Pietro in Montorio.


Wednesday:

Morning - Meeting point San Paolo Fuori le mura church. 9:00 Hours. We join Franz's Group for San Paolo Fuori le mura.

Afternoon - meeting point Ostiense station. 14:00 Hours. Ostia Antica.


Thursday:

Morning - 10:00 hrs meeting in front of Quirinale, visit to exhibition "Metafisica" in Quirinale (Mirò, Picasso, DeChirico, Dalì, Ernst, etc etc). 3€.

Afternoon - Visit to Facoltà di Lingue Università La Sapienza.

Evening 17:00 opening ceremony.

Evening 19:00 FREE BUFFET DINNER!


Friday:

Morning busy, DaimlerChrysler Event. Followed by Lunch Buffet.

Afternoon – Guided visit to Bernini’s work (Fountains) + Piazza Navona

Finishing the program for the project week. Gotta hand it in in an hour.
Pity i'm still drunk from last night.

We're Back!

Got up around 12 this morning. Had come home at 6. Had gone to pala at 18:00. Had not exited the premises in twelve hours.

Pala is looking very, very good this year. The second years have built themselves their own little personal environment, where they have made themselves extremely comfortable. I watched Bruce Almighty with them two nights ago, it was an extremely refreshing night, with movie, popcorn, good company and whisky+cola. The movie was funny. Nothing to write home about, basically a remake of Liar Liar where the Deus Ex Machina walks in at the beginning to make the trouble begin instead of at the end to make them finish. Now that's a twist. Made me realize how long it's been since i'd last seen a conventional, absolutely predictable hollywood movie. Relaxing nonetheless. After seeing it we all walked around talking like Jim Carrey. And hearing "one of us" on the supermarket loudspeakers the following day made me crack up in laughter.

But anyway, what really surprises me about pala this year are the first years. It's probably the friendliest crop we've had in a long time. I very often go to the dayroom, brought in by my automatic homing system(still not used to old offices), and enjoy very nice conversations with the people there. Then i sometimes look around and notice i'm surrounded by first years, and fear i might be becoming something like Noce, i.e. seen as "the old guy who sometimes shows up but nobody knows what he's doing with us seventeen-year-olds". But then when i make for the exit, much to my surprise three or four voices ask for me to stay, wondering what could be so wrong that would want me to leave.

Another good thing is the so-called Midnight Club. Some more adventurous first years have taken up the habit of always sleeping in the dayroom. Where by sleeping i mean "staying up talking until four or five in the morning when we all eventually doze off, and then going up to one's room around eight in the morning and sleeping till dark".

Last night, for example, i had gotten back from one of the weekend beer buying sprees Fred and i usually have when his parents are away, and got invited by Andres, the mexican first year, to stay around for dinner. He, Cristobal from Chile, Agi[Agnes] from Hungary and i all cooked together, mixing ingredients from different countries to make extremely interesting, although not necessarily healthy servings. After this long, interesting conversations ensued, eventually culminating with Agi's production of a Scrabble board thus beginning a match that would have continued until almost one o'clock in the morning. Around two, i was outside in the large concrete circle in front of the elementary school(i can imagine what whoever built the thing was thinking. "What can we build for the children to play in? I know! A large, concrete circle1 they'll love it!")with much of the same gang, plus Claudia from Ecuador and Marta from Latvia, drinking wine and generally enjoying the not-too-cold environment. Departing from the trodden path, Marta, Yael from Israel and I climbed to the elementary school roof and atched the world from above. Philosophical, sentimental and linguistic discussions followed. Then we pulled away our aura of intelligence and started talking about Paprika Island.

Sleep caught up with most of us in pala dayroom, all lying half-dead on the sofas we had amassed together, listening to Agi and Sara from Spain chatting away. Around six i decided it wouldn't have been a very good idea to stay around, since in any moment PS would have come down to check on the milk supplies. Once again, my departure was almost blocked by Agi's puppydog eyes telling me to stay a little longer. Denying her requests makes me so guilty, on the way back i felt like Hitler invading Poland. As usual, i was extremely punctual in my departure, for only minutes later he would have come down and, as Fred related to me some minutes ago on the phone, dropped his luggage on the dark pond outside the dayroom which, as they discovered, was nothing but a certain second year's lunch and dinner of the previous day. Remember that beer i'd told you about? Ecco.

So today i got up at twelve, and started working on the program for my project in Rome. Instead, wasted time making a CD for a friend and updating this blog. Oh, well.