Things are all right.

As of thirteen minutes ago as of writing, this blog is now five years old. To celebrate, i will proceed to pack my bags and go across the country to work at a big music festival. And then i will cross a sea wearing only clothes that will be very, very dirty by then and visit a nearby island i've never been to but that people have been asking me to visit for the past twelve years already. Who knows, i might even tell those people i'm coming.

The first part of the project vaguely described above is Italia Wave Love Festival which, as Pitchfork (oy) wrote recently, has one of the best festival names around. Vinicio Capossela sort of said the same thing when he played there ("there" being another town completely) and i prefer the way he said it, even if i don't remember the exact wording. Amusingly, in a way i would never be working there if it wasn't for this blog, which gave me visibility among certain particularly illuminated web people. For this website and the very-healthy-despite-not-updating-much eelst.splinder.com blog. Coincidentally both that blog and this one were born from the cinders of disastrous relationships, and both blogs brought me a great amount of luck both professionally and otherwise. I think this is a good thing, and at the same time i hope not to have to open any further blogs. I feel lucky enough as it is, thank you.

A couple of words about which way i see this web stuff going. I'm currently online on several different platforms both for personal and professional reasons. This has brought to less output on this blog, mainly due to lack of time (partially also due to nagging perfectionism, as the staggering amount of post drafts in my blogger dashboad can testify). I still hope to find more time to post here, because i still see this page as my online home. And i don't mean homepage, i mean "home" as in "place you can lie down on the sofa and take your shoes off and leave them on the floor and just relax".*
I have for example resolved to write less on twitter, and blog more. i've got the "write less on twitter" part figured out, it's the second bit that still fails me a little. The tone of my past month or so of tweets has been positively Gonzo, and it goes without saying that i have enjoyed it immensely and that considering what the past month was like it could not have been otherwise. From tomorrow it enters travel mode, like last year in Guča, and i will probably be updating via mobile again. Unless i find a way to sms my way to this blog, which i'm probably tech-savvy enough to do but definitely not nerdy enough.
Also, over the next week i'm one of the people in charge of the official ItaliaWave twitter. I suggest keeping an eye on that, too.
Tracklistmagazine is currently on brief hiatus while we refurbish it a little turning it into something different but similar at the same time. There will be shakeups. There will be music. There might even be updates. It's gonna be fun. Meanwhile, feel free to go back there and enjoy the archived content, there's some stuff there i'm still quite proud of.
I'm still covering the role of privileged guestblogger on VuotoSpinto.it, where i tend to go for a more political edge. Some examples can be found clicking here, but by all means read the other two guys' stuff too.
El Blog De Fidel, which more than one person has actually believed to be legit, is sort of retired although some people say it's still controlling everything from behind the scenes.
Cat Walking On A Keyboard is happy and purring and has shown interest to start blogging again. He has shown this interest by sitting on my laptop in random moments and blocking stuff.
The dreaded MySpace page is only there because it's there and i sort of loathe its being there. The less said about it the better.
Flickr is now Pro and will continue to be updated. I didn't have time to lately but there's loads of stuff i'm aching to put on.
All my personal networking is currently pretty much on FaceBook and if you've tried to add me even if i don't know you you are either very stupid, or very italian, or very both.

As for this blog, it will continue the way it always has, intermittently but intensely. I don't mention this page much in public but one time i did i was asked the question "Oh, you have a blog? What about?" which made me realize i'd never really thought blogs were supposed to be about anything, i always thought they were just there. It will however continue to be about what it is about, whatever that is. From what i recall in these past five years, it's a blog about how much Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica is absolutely wierd and reassuringly natural at the same time, it's about pictures of my cat taking a beauty nap on my bed, it's about me struggling not to write a post justifying my love for Pizzicato Five because guilty pleasures aren't fun if you take away the "guilty" and put in a "justified", it's about weekend downloads being given out on weekdays, it's about music videos from classic black and white comedies found on youtube, it's about whatever the wind brought through the window that morning and whichever shape the birds were flying in. I don't know what it's about but it's here. And now, it's five years old. Happy birthday to it.


*i would like to use this opportunity to divulge the definition of "home" which i personally coined in Pala Dayroom oh so many years ago: "Home is where you don't need to smell the carton before drinking the milk".

Morning reflection on job security.

For the past couple years, My Father has finally entered the monetary status in life where you no longer need to crash on someone's sofa when he travels, but can now resort to mid-low-budget hotel accomodation.

My Father will be seventy in December.

Hmmm.

And then, suddenly

Crowd inside Teatro Miela before Trabant concert/launch party




The webmaster comes on stage for the encore playing surprise guest air guitar impossible parts. Special thanks to Elena for sending me the pictures and for being the only person this decade who's managed to make me look good in a photo. And to Trabant of course for the graceful surprise invitation.


And this one is from Fallenlady.com.
There's also a video of the event online somewhere but there's no way i'm linking to that.


Crowd outside Teatro Miela after Trabant concert/launch party

And hardly a week after holding a sold-out concert before 450 people and publishing their debut LP, what does Trabant go on to do? They go and win Italia Wave of course. And i can't help mentioning how adorably surprised they are about all this attention, wondering why people want to have them come and play concerts outside their region and giving good reviews a suspicious look because you never know, it might just be an elaborate joke from their friends.

Update for other people

I realize i should post a little info about what i've been doing lately instead of hopping around the continent and blogging. But i have my priorities - there's much to be told but i'd rather talk about what other people have been up to first. All sorts of interesting stuff has been going on around here!

Trabant


For starters, i'll be in Teatro Miela in Trieste tonight for the launch of Trabant's first album. Yes, it finally came out! Reviews are everywhere! And the funny thing is, most of the reviews compare them to bands that have only started to show up in the year that passed between the album's being recorded and its publication, but i digress. It's tremendously exciting for me to see a band i've been loving for so long get the appreciation it deserves, and tonight we're going to celebrate that fact. I'll probably be going around with a video camera in the immediate pre- and post-concert moments, so if you also show up you'll have a good reason to avoid me. There, that last bit was the best publicity for a gig i could ever write.

So what else is good in this boot-shaped country?


So as i said, Trabant's album came out and it's rather good (i'm not that biased in that if i hadn't liked it i would have immediately started bothering chuk about it), but what else is good in the italian indie scene? You're in luck, my dear imaginary reader who asks rhetorical questions, for said scene has been enjoying a most exciting rebirth for the good part of a year already. One specific work i feel the obligation to point out is the debut album from My Awesome Mixtape which you can listen to in its entirety here. It's been a constant soundtrack here at WGD Central for the past month or so (along with the new flaming lips live album, the FPM greatest hits double album, and the usual healthy doses of beefheart and P5) with its somber moods and essential arrangements. All the more fitting if you consider how much this summer had been shaped by their more party-oriented EP whose main single, The Painter And The Anthropologist, has a title which seemed to be constructed especially to make me fall in deep deep geeky love with it.

speaking of this summer...

I've uploaded another video from our August Guča Adventures. Featuring: More dancing! More musicians! More macedonians! And more Mitko! Click here to view, 'cause i can't be bothered to embed it right now.

Not related but still most notable

The 17th of July has been a rather eventful day, not just because of our shenanigans at Italia Wave, which was just starting that day to everyone's amazement. It was also the day former members of one of my favourite bands ever, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, decided to (temporarily?) reform. They met up at bass player Sr.Flavio's radio show where they talked about old times and most importantly performed some of their old favourites for an hour or three. The whole historical event can be downloaded at pleasure from Vito Rivelli's marvellous lfcrarezas website. Whether the reunion was really temporary or a sign of new adventures starting remains to be seen. But Fabulosos Calavera continues to be one of the best albums ever published, so whatever they decide to do is fine by me.

Pinochet Update


oh, and speaking of Latin America, My Father sent me this image the other day.
And no, considering who i got it from it is definitely not in bad taste.

That's all for now. I'll soon be updating again with links to stuff i've done. Forgive me for linking to interesting things instead.

Um.

Ok, i'm back home. For fifteen minutes. Then i leave for Florence where the whole Italia Wave adventure begins. Still packing. Yesterday this blog turned four years old. Welcome to its fifth year of existence. I've got something special to celebrate, which will be online as soon as i find the files which mysteriously disappeared during my absence.
As for the sunsplash, i will try to keep this blog updated while i'm away. Which will be easier because i should be online quite a lot, but harder because i'm also supposed to be working. One thing's for sure - it's going to be fun.

Live post-mortem coverage

"If there is a hell, we have reason to believe that he is burning there as we speak"
-Geoffrey Robertson, Human Rights Watch, interviewed live by the BBC twenty minutes ago.

Webmaster's first reaction: "i won't believe it until i see the body"
Webmaster's second reaction: "Just another of his ploys to avoid the courtroom. Wonder what he'll think of next."

My Father's first reaction (on the phone): "Obviously a birthday present for Lucia Pinochet."
(It is also A. s birthday today, happy birthday again even if i already told you that earlier today. Thank you for this day.)

Gato's first reaction: "Purrrr."

Situation at the evaristo family habitat:
The phone rings.
My Father: "is it for you?"
Me: "You'd better take it, i'm afraid it might be the TV."

Babsi's first reaction: This link

And now this post is interrupted because my family and i are going out to the chinese restaurant, with a large weight off our heads. Thank you.

Seven Degrees

Excerpt from an online conversation between the webmaster and Pelodia, 20-21 August 2006. (translated, expanded and hyperlinked)

[01.23.21] evaristo: seven degrees of separation.
[01.23.28] evaristo: Goscinny, creator of Asterix
[01.23.49] evaristo: was in New York after the war and worked with Harvey Kurtzman, creator of Mad Magazine.
[01.24.28] evaristo: At about the same time he met Morris, with whom he started to write Lucky Luke.
[01.24.54] evaristo: Some twenty years later, it was Kurtzman who brought together the first cooperation between Terry Gilliam and John Cleese, on a magazine called Help!
[01.25.10] evaristo: Gilliam was friends with Zappa at the time - it was the Garrick Theatre days i suppose.
[01.25.26] evaristo: In fact, Gilliam can be heard as one of the background voices in America Drinks And goes Home, on the Absolutely Free album.
[01.25.54] evaristo: Then Gilliam moves to the uk, and gets back in contact with Cleese for finding some project to do together...
[01.26.12] evaristo: ...some ten years later they're looking for funding for the first Monty Python feature film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (Edit: got this one wrong: it was Life Of Brian, but i couldn't be bothered to change the image)
[01.26.24] evaristo: and they end up getting funded almost entirely by George Harrison
[01.26.39] evaristo: who remained very good friends with Gilliam to the extent that he could be seen playing guitar at his birthday parties.
[01.26.46] evaristo: There, that's seven.
[01.26.49] evaristo: If i didn't count them wrong.

[01.26.56] Pelodia: That's very good. Now you just have to find the connection between Kevin Bacon and Osama Bin Laden.



The webmaster (with accomplice) will be meeting Terry Gilliam in Trieste tomorrow, and is very excited.


Epilogue. It has been said many times that there was, and is, a certain unexplainable something that flows in british popular culture bringing sudden bouts of inspiration and creativity and changing determinate things about our everyday life in general, that comes and goes but reappears each time in a completely different medium. This special something is the imaginary line that connects the Goon Show to The Beatles to Monty Python to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and which i personally trace back to Segar's Thimble Theatre, very indirect inspiration for Milligan to name the Goon Show as such, but that's a theory for another day). This has often been said directly in connection with Douglas Adams, if not mentioned by the author himself. Pity i can't find the exact quote, even after a half-hour of thumbing through my paperback copy of The Salmon Of Doubt. I still felt like mentioning Douglas though, because i still miss him a lot.

Breaking News - Terry Gilliam visits Trieste, Webmaster goes bonkers.

This just in: Director, animator and comic artist Terry Gilliam will be visiting Trieste sometime between the 21st and the 26th of November 2006 as special guest of this year's Scienceplusfiction festival. Gilliam, who has worked with the likes of Harvey Kurtzman and Frank Zappa, and who rose to fame as a member of Monty Python, also happens to be the webmaster's favourite living director.

Gilliam links Here.
No news whatsoever Here (as of writing).

Upon receiving this information, the webmaster (who has already spoken to Gilliam on one documented occasion, but that's a story for another day) proceeded to start jumping around the house and hallucinating from excitement.

Videos of said hallucinations shall be published asap.