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.

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.

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.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all...

Here's that announcement i'd mentioned... All readers are invited, of course. We'll make up an excuse for celebration on the way up. Over forty people are already expected, so feel free to pop by.
Tnx to Chuk@Tea for creating the flyer!

Old and familiar faces 4 - Derf

Time: late january
Place: Here.

Her: Robin, can i ask you a question?
Me: (sensing danger) Sure.
Her: You always used to hang out with Fred, didn't you?
Me: Yes, that's true.
Her: (shyly) Well...why don't you hang out with him anymore?
Me: I think that would have something to do with him studying and bartending in Oxford now.
Her: Oh.

Coincidentally at the exact same time, in Oxford:
Time: Morning
Location: A pub where Derf is bartending.

Customer: I have a terrible hangover, give me a double whisky.
Derf: Are you sure that's a good idea?
Customer: No, but if i add this aspirin...

(Both are true stories. Aren't they all? Derf will, however, be returning to these lands later today -and had already been here in spring- and an interesting announcement from both of us is forthcoming.)

When Great Bands Suck

I was going to post my ultra-rare edition of Sgt. Pepper, but far be it from me to succumb to all this tacky celebration-ing. Instead, we have something fascinating in its own right, thanks to badness.

As you very well should know if you're carbon-based, one of The Greatest Bands Of All Times recently reformed, reuniting all three original members and are currently touring. You may think this is a rather common circumstance nowadays, but finding a band with all three characteristics (reunited, original members, touring) is, i assure, extremely rare. And keeping high in quality, no less. So of course it's Police we're talking about here.

Indeed, some days ago i came across a link to an Mp3 of their second live gig of 2007, in Vancouver, and promptly procured myself it in the manner that is typical of this kind of ethereal artifact.

When i first heard this recording, however, i could tell something was wrong. I didn't pay too much attention to the feeling and went on doing my stuff, thinging my things. Then i read Stewart Copeland's fascinating, hilarious and utterly sincere post - on his own forum, of all places!
(Tnx to Pelodia for pointing me there)

We crash through MESSAGE and then go strait[sic] into SYNCHRONICITY. But there is just something wrong. We just can’t get on the good foot. We shamble through the song and hit the big ending. Last night Sting did a big leap for the cut-off hit, and he makes the same move tonight, but he gets the footwork just a little bit wrong and doesn’t quite achieve lift-off. The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock.

-S. Copeland, on the 27 May 2007 Police concert in Vancouver.

Since it's out there anyway, this is one of the many places you may find said recording of said show. 173 Megabytes of poorly recorded rock music, played rather badly by three of the greatest musicians of the genre. Perhaps the most fascinating thing you'll hear this month. (Link courtesy of some guy in a mailing list i still tolerate receiving on an email account i hardly ever check, anyway. It probably won't last so grab it while you still can.)

You will enjoy this.
And as for that hyper-rare Sgt. Pepper version which anybody who's known me for more than a day has heard me at least mention, just wait and it'll eventually make it to these pages. As if today's offering wasn't enough.


Pictured above: first Google Images result for "police+vancouver"

Disclaimer: The webmaster is not responsible for the unauthorized recording, digitalization or uploading of this concert. I am not hosting it on my server and don't even have one as a matter of fact. It is not being used for commercial purposes nor should it be, it is merely being shared for study and analysis. It is freely available all over the internet anyway and is actually quite bad in the first place.

realizations

I just realized something. I was translating a press release for Vinicio Capossela's upcoming US tour, and had just produced this phrase:

"(...)generating great interest and enthusiasm among audiences and record industry insiders"

when it dawned on me. Two things dawned on me, actually.
The first, and most immediate, is that a very, very very tiny part of Capossela's chances of success in the United States depends on the quality of my translation. Of course ninetynine point periodical nine percent depends on the Artist, the success of his concerts, the audience, the organization and management and touring conditions etcetera. But there's still that oh point periodical one percent which lies completely on my shoulders in this moment, which is made even more relevant if i think of how important his music was for me in certain moments of my life (before the existence of this blog), of the crazy, drunk version of Besame Mucho he performed at Teatro Miela in Trieste back in '97 or '98 with the Kocani Orkestar, of how the Live In Volvo cd was present in every italian musical aficionado's household at the end of the nineties, of how we used to whisper his songs in each other's ears with a person who would probably prefer to remain unmentioned in this context. (Oh, and i hardly listen to his stuff nowadays, two or three songs from his latest studio album were quite pleasant and i enjoy him playing with Marc Ribot but that's about it.)
In short, a part of Capossela's future was/is depending on me for a short period. No matter how small that part. A strange sensation, definitely.

Even stranger was the sensation i got immediately afterwards, when i realized i'm no longer part of the musical audience, but have slowly and perhaps even unintentionally become a record industry insider.

This i really can't describe. I can't but i will, at this conference i'll be giving at WaveCamp in July.
Oh, but we'll get to that in due time. Now i'll just dwell on these strange feelings for another while.
And hopefully finish the bloody translation, too.

(The webmaster believes he is a rather good translator from english to italian, but occasionally mediocre in the opposite direction. He hopes this not to be one of such cases.)

Unorthodox flight configurations

Birds, as filmed by the webmaster earlier today.

1 - 23sec


2 - 9sec

These probably qualify as hallucinations.