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".

Snippet

The players: Myself, M. (i know a ridiculous amount of M's, so it doesn't really make any difference)
The place: online.

Her: on the other hand, did you make your blog's layout unreadable on purpose?
Me: Funny story actually, 'cause you can see everything perfectly from my laptop. But then one day, months after changing template, many months after, i opened the page from my home computer and realized you can't understand a word.
Her: hahahaa
Me: What happened next is that i laughed for about ten minutes, then said "perfect" and turned everything off.

(end of anecdote)

(pause)

(announcement)

On Monday, July 14th this blog will be five years old. It was created on Monday, July 14th 2003. I don't know how it's still on a monday and even if you explained i wouldn't understand it. Coincidentally, on that same day (of 2008, not of 2003) i shall be departing for yet another Adventure. Updates from said Adventure shall be quite frequent, 'cause i'm even sort of getting paid to do it. To do the Adventure.
Hopefully i will manage to post again before that, perhaps rehashing one of those 22 (!) post drafts i just found in the blogger basement.

Oh, and i've had a new template for this blog sort of ready approximately since november. I'll actually install it one of these days. Hopefully before 2009.

June 2008: random picture post

Oh blimey, it's june already and my posting is once again at an all-time low. I keep reading good blogs which makes me feel like posting interesting things, the problem is i keep forgetting i have a blog in the first place. That, and i'm busy doing work and stuff. And if i blog about nonsense i feel guilty about not blogging about the interesting things i'm doing and so on. Therefore, to break the vicious circle, i will now post a few pictures i've taken in 2008. Without context or logic, just because i like them and it feels right at the moment. Oh, and as of writing this i have no idea which pictures i'm going to post.

If any one of these is found interesting by eventual readers, just ask and i'll provide context, commentary and eventual related pics.






Um, those were quite boring. Ok, here's a nicer one from a blogpost i've been planning since (gasp!) april 2007:


All this just reminded me that i'm planning to get myself a flickr pro account tomorrow morning. Which means Pelodia wins, damn everything.

Links for 15/04/08

In lieu of blogging, here's a list of things i've been linking to on various social networks or instant messengers over the day.

-Elio e le Storie Tese on TRL, yesterday (no music, just talking. Sorry, non italian-speakers)

-Of my recent articles on Tracklist, the London one is i think the one that turned out best.

-Takeshi from YMCK interviewed. They're one of the best bands currently active worldwide, and that's not just a personal opinion, and deserve to be checked out. I particularly liked this passage:

Unlike the real 8bit consoles, you can have as much polyphony with my plug-in as you want, so always have to be aware not to overdub it too much, so that the cheapness isn’t spoiled.

(Via JeanSnow)

-Latest work from Banksy. He's been sort of repeating himself over the past five years or so and no longer thrills me like when i first found out about him, but the accomplishment on such a grand scale is still impressive. Perhaps we should stop considering his works only physically and rather also take in account the risk factor involved. Or even only consider him an artist who works with risk and efforts not to be caught, and stop considering the painted result altogether. (Tnx to Ceci)

-A new cure to cancer - featuring hot dogs! (via RStevens)

-BIGGEST KEBAB EVAR (Tnx to Pelo)

-Adult Swim soft vinyl blind assortment from KidRobot.

-Motionportrait: an example of what can be done with Flash. (What can't be done with Flash?)

-Massive 16giga will-eat-your-parents nineties eurodance torrent. Haddaway, Dr.Alban, Corona, the whole lot. (Raw torrent file in link - beware)

-Groovisions official website with work samples. Lots of them. I don't even know what most of this stuff is but i know i want all of it. Also, it's interesting how their Warhol exhibition design is so similar to certain work they've done for Pizzicato 5, like the International Playboy&Playgirl album boxed set (both are visible in the "Works" section). Ah, but i digress.

-Tostoini plugs Gato (Grazie Roberta!)

-Suggested listening: Neil Gaiman - instructions. (128kps 4.7Mb right-click to download) A poem about what to do if you find yourself in a fairy tale.

These are all things i discovered, linked to, was directed towards, read and/or enjoyed in one day, whilst desperately attempting not to think about the results of the italian elections, and what to do about them.

a sort of big sort of update

I've felt like blogging for ages - and still have plenty to tell - but haven't had the time for, well, about two weeks now.
Much has been going on, often with my involvement, sometimes even successfully.
So this is just a much-delayed what-i've-been-doing update, hoping to be able to post more of the usual amusing ephemera sometime later (maybe in an hour, maybe next month).

I've been working for a band called Mariposa for the past three or four months. I'm doing online publicity for them of some sort, helping them out with their myriads of projects such as Magazzeno Bis, the concert/talk show/radio show they host every two weeks, and Indipendulo, their minifestival held within the annual independent label meetup of Faenza (MEI).
I'd been aware of them for some time, a listener for about a year and when i finally managed to see their live show two weeks ago i realized it was the closest i'd ever seen to the original Mothers of Invention from the late sixties. Hopefully we'll have some video online soon to give further proof to that comparison.

I'm still working for Elio e le Storie Tese, doing various unmentionable and ultimately minimal background stuff including but not limited to pissing the fans off on their forum. With a new album out and a week-long high profile late night tv show in the past month, things have been rather hectic on that front but luckily for me it was my longtime associate Pelodia who had to do most of the actual work while the rest of us sat around on the sidelines, boasting about our involvement to our real-life friends.

In addition to all that, i've been busy with a third much more ambitious project which launched at th end of last month. I've been invited to co-edit and write for a new online magazine called Tracklist. It's about music, about different tracklists based on our various moods or past experiences(hoping not to get too nickhornby-ish), about cool music stuff found online, and just about anything else that meets our fancy. The rest of the team and myself have put a great deal of energy into the project, so it's a gigantic satisfaction to have things up and running smoothly, at least at the moment (fingers always crossed).


A snapshot of what the site looks like as of this blogpost.

Considering all this stuff i've been doing just over tha past month or so, it's time for an arguably well-deserved break. I'll be in London and Oxford for a week from tomorrow, chilling with friends and visiting what i refer to as the Three D's: Duchamp, Doctor Who and Derf.

As always, updates will be present if and when time and unashamedly stolen wifi connections are available, and when i'm back i will hopefully manage to update with more pictures of the cat, girls kissing computer screens and myself on stage with one of my favourite bands. In that order because cuteness has a priority ticket here.

Cheating.

As you probably won't notice, there are still some slight changes going on in this here blog's appearance. I made some minimal changes to the template color and also didn't change the color of certain bits of the sidebar. I'm pointing this out because i had actually *tried* to make things look better but had ended up with one single big ugly mess and had to fight through the teeth to get things back how they were originally, which brought me to decide that hey, those particular bits didn't look that bad in the first place.

What you will see changing are the colors of the template: starting tomorrow, i'll be cycling them around to see how they fit better, which combination i like the most, and if i manage to not make a big ugly mess of things for a change. This you will notice, and please feel free to point out your preferences in the comments bin.

It would make no sense to make these changes if there were no updates, as it has been for quite a while in these whereabouts. Which is why in the past week i've forced myself to update every. single. day. and will try to keep going like this for as long as i can. I have a small backlog of posts for quieter/busier days and will concentrate my online thoughts and commentaries here instead of dispersing them here and there as profile updates, twitter updates or whatnots.
Except for today, of course. Today i'm just rambling about the template which does not at all count as an update. As a matter of fact, it counts as exactly what the title of this post is.

Fun with UbuWeb

Some links from the quintessential online archive, in case there's still someone i haven't forwarded these to personally. I usually visit ubu.com for the avantgarde audio and video archives, but occasionally come across unexpected gems like the following, which deserve greater diffusion.

Kenny G meets John Zorn (No, really)

The Gaylords sing american hits in italian (from the 2007 365 days project)

A visit to the Postojna Caves (Sadly, it makes no mention of the fantastic hot-dog stand outside - a favourite childhood memory of mine. However, may i suggest an expedition to accompany this soundtrack? Pino, ci sei?)

Telemundo - Dificultades tecnicas (probably the funkiest beat i've heard today)

The Most Wanted Song and The Most Unwanted Song (Featuring Vernon Reid on guitar, ladies and gentlemen!)

Simple demonstration

Yesterday was a busy work day. So busy in fact that i did not one but two of these while not working. Two.

28

92%DRUNKARD

This post has been offered by: Lazy&Neverupdating Bloggers Theatre.

This is only temporary.

You may notice some differences on this blog today. The not-exactly-new-just-very-temporary header, for starts. Thing is, the time has finally come for me to change this antiquated template and put something more up-to-date in its place. So for the next day or twenty this blog is going to look extremely wonky, since i haven't really made my mind up yet about what i want it to look like.
In the meantime, check out the search button i added in the sidebar. Unlike all previous attempts (all one of them), this one actually works! Hours of fun.

Presto!

Hey there, i'm back and have to report at work in about 10 hours. Sleeping must therefore ensue. Plenty of content will come for those who have patience.

Four days later.

Sure, i could write an update. But God, i'm tired.

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.

You still can't use a blog to swat a fly, but rss is a step in the right direction.

(Actually, it's Atom)
After at least two years of "yeah, i'll do it tomorrow", i finally added a link on the sidebar to this site's feed. So now you all know where to point your feedreaders and proceed to party like it's 2004. Yes, i'm also not very good at maths.

Um.

I am blogging from a new laptop.


(i love this strip)

For some reason, this very website makes the new laptop's browser crash.

upgrade

This blog is currently being upgraded. Things may look a bit wonky for a while. The webmaster doesn't exclude the possibility of throwing all this 2.0 rubbish away and just going back to the old version.

1hr later UPDATE: i guess i'll be leaving this new font as the old one for some reason gets the sidebar and post titles all pixelly. Most things are now accounted for.
What's left:
1. removal of links from post titles. If anybody has any clue about how to do this please let me know.
2. reinclusion and updating of "latest cds" sidebar section
3. don't remember. Maybe it had to do with getting the old font back.

2days later update: Ok, this font sort of stays. Title links are still a pain. I'm thinking of just picking another template and getting this over with. All this mess is a testament to the expression "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

New Post

Good morning. This is, i suppose, officially the first post of the new year. Funny thing is, i still haven't had the time to write the traditional end-of-2006 post. So traditional that at one point of our new year's dinner somebody asked "have you all written your end-of-year posts?", and everybody answered in the affirmative. That's 2006 to you, all but one of the people i was celebrating with have one or more blogs, or at least an internet presence. The one without, an increasingly rare plus, has my eternal admirement.
Certain things have been somewhat changing in the online world in the meantime. I woke up yesterday to find Blogger, Last.fm and Myspace functioning entirely in italian. In wrong italian. In Babelfish-translated italian. I now have nightmares of living in a world where everybody speaks a profoundly incorrect and rebabelfished version of their own languages, and where writing doesn't fit on street signs because nobody bothered to modify the template.

(Wrong Italian is, i assume, in the same linguistic family as Drunk English)

Luckily, some backstage fiddling and jiggledypokery fixed all that. And as a consequence, we now have tags. And if one of these days i feel crazy or suicidal enough, i might even try to start improving the template using all these beautiful new Blogger tools which quite frankly terrify me to the bone. Meanwhile, tags have been added to most recent posts for your enjoyment. Chances of me going back and tagging the entire archives: Yeah right. Good one.

So, that's all. Enjoy your 2007(which i certainly didn't ask for, 2006 was being particularly good for me already), expect new stuff on this page sometime soonish.

This is not an end-of-year post.

Things here at WGD Central have been rather hectic lately so as you may see not much of the ol'blogging has been done due to an extended case of the dreadful lots-of-interesting-stuff-to-be-done-away-from-the-internet disease. Usually what you would see here is a year-ending post of reflections, links and whatnot interspersed with my monotonous repetition of how little these festivities matter to me in the first place. It'll probably come, but not yet. Sometime in january. Or february would be cool too.
Thing is, i have loads of stuff to update about (i can't believe i haven't mentioned certain activities of mine here yet), two or three long unfinished posts, neat pictures to share and other online incarnations to make public but i just don't have the time right now. In the meantime i suppose you can make do with the links on the sidebar and the constantly growing del.icio.us sitefeed. And read some webcomics, webcomics will love you back. I'll be back after the break.
What you have just read is a reassuring "don't worry, the blog is not dead nor as a matter of fact am i" post. Happy new whatever you want it to be.

(A Parte: Oh dear, december 2006 seems to have become International Dead Dictators Month. Which brings back to mind tv images of Ceausescu's execution back on christmas day, 1987. I might be getting the year wrong but i'm quite sure about the day. Last time i spent christmas in Glasgow, i think. Anyway, i just wanted to say that the rejoicing done previously for Chile and Turkmenstan's gladly departed former rulers was not extended to Iraq's, at least in this old-fashioned anarchoid* household. As a matter of fact, we're all rather pissed off about what happened. There, i said it.)

*Temporary and debatable definition of the anarchoid household my upbringing stems from: Pre-spanish civil war, Post-Jacovitti.

Completely random update post

As you may have noticed, i've been rather busy lately. Which accounts for the lack of updates around here.

The type content on this website has been rather erratic over the past years. It started out as a sort of diary-like thing as i suppose most blogs begin. Then when i realized that reading about other people's lives on the internet is about as boring as an unsuccessful comparison, the blog started to center more on stuff that i found interesting, links and the like. I don't link much to interesting articles, websites, etc. anymore mainly because i've started to use de.licio.us quite conspiciously over the last few months. Here's a link to my account. I'll eventually add it to the sidebar. I wish i could have direct links to de.licio.us pages on the sidebar like pino, for one, has. But i assume that's not really possible on a lowly blogspot template.

Just to contradict what i just wrote, here are two links i found interesting today:

• John French aka Drumbo officially declares the natural ending of the Magic Band's reunion. Lovely recap of three years of reconstituted greatness.

• Momus reviews Cornelius' new single. I didn't think i'd ever say this nor probably will i ever again, but in this specific case i could not possibly agree more with Momus' opinion. (Although i obviously appreciated the Point album much more than he did)

(There's also another reason i'm not posting many links to cool stuff anymore - said reason will be revealed in a month or two, but i can assure you it's something cool)

While we're here, sorry about all the conversation snippets i've been posting lately. I realize they may be found uninteresting or incomprehensible, but that's just the way things go. There's no telling how things will evolve here but usually it's just stuff happening randomly and ending up on the internet. Although i do admit i may have been toying with the idea of giving a completely different twist to this blog, but as i said, there's no telling.

(If you've read until here, please notice that this has been a really long post centering basically on "sorry for not posting")

Also, i've had a cold lately. Was brought a lemsip few minutes ago. Plus a glass of lemonade "while the lemsip cools down". As i gulped on the lemonade, the cat on my lap watched me with compassion, still puzzling over why us humans insist on wasting time by eating with utensils and opposable thumbs instead of just using the mouth like he does, which is so much more practical. Can't blame him. Of course, this is the same feline quadruped who leaves in a huff if fed from anything other than his own personal bowl. So it's all relative.