This song, the second in the show, is built around a pun. Peccato means “sin,” but the phrase Che peccato is used like the English “What a shame!”
The singers are Don Silvestro, the priest, and Clementina, the mayor’s daughter, who has a crush on him (which he, secretly, reciprocates) and goes daily to confess sins that she hasn’t actually committed, just to have an excuse to talk to him.
Continue reading Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola: Peccato Che Sia PeccatoI’m a huge fan of musical theater, grew up singing along with The Music Man, Camelot and Oliver. The first show I saw on stage was You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, in what must have been a local or travelling production, in San Francisco, when we were on home leave in 1969. I knew all these shows by heart, and by now know (and have seen) many more – most recently, Spamalot.
Continue reading Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola – An Italian MusicalI am subscribed to about 125 blogs at the moment. (Must cut that down.) Many are for work: blogs about “new” television and “new” media, broadband, Internet, Web 2.0, general tech news, etc. Then there are a bunch which apply my work but I’d read anyway: on design, customer service, marketing, user interaction, usability, how to run a happy business. One of my favorites in this (or any) category is Creating Passionate Users. Kathy Sierra is my hero – I hope I get to meet her someday.
Some I read just for fun and for useful tips.
Some I read to learn about different cultures, such as Adventures of a Lipstick Wahhabi – written not nearly often enough by a young woman in Saudi Arabia. I don’t understand half of what she writes in Roman letters (let alone the portions in Arabic), but it’s a fascinating glimpse into a world I’d like to know more about. I found her via Hilaliya, a TCK Kuwaiti whom I discovered because he linked to my TCK pages, and through him I’ve found a community sharing their lives in the Middle East via blogs.
Then there are the blogs I read to learn how different minds see the world.
When I want to shake my head sadly over the state of the world (which is quite often, lately), I go to Richard Dawkins’ site for links to articles about the world’s excesses in the name of religion.
I’m adding more and more Italian blogs to my list. I define as “Italian” blogsby Italians in Italian or in English (some use both), and blogs by foreigners inItaly.
Then there are blogs that advise me on how to make a living from blogging.
Recently I’ve started reading some very dangerous cooking blogs.
I don’t read all of these every day (even those that publish daily or even more often). One I do read as soon it’s published is Scott Adams’ Dilbert Blog. Adams is the author of the Dilbert cartoon (beloved by geeks like me, among others), but his blog is also consistently funny and/or thought-provoking. His mind doesn’t seem to work quite like most people’s, including most of his readers.
Steve van Rooy, a Woodstock alum (class of ’68) has started his own website with fascinating tales of growing up as a missionary kid in India and at Woodstock. Well-written and highly recommended!
Galacticast – A weekly videoblog of sci-fi spoofs and more – great fun!
A charmingly-animated take on the Ramayana, the classic Indian epic, from the point of view of Sita, the long-suffering heroine.
Many countries throughout the world (but not the US) celebrate March 8th as International Women’s Day, in Italy known as the Festa della Donna.
Everyone is supposed to show their appreciation for women’s achievements on this day. Men take their female colleagues to lunch and give them flowers. In Italy, the flower of choice for this is the mimosa. I have in the past cynically speculated that the reason for this choice is that, at least in northern Italy, mimosas are not yet in bloom as early as March 8th, so the flowers must be imported – on March 8th, everybody from street hawkers to greengrocers has little sprigs of mimosa to sell at ridiculous prices.
This year, global warming has foiled the profiteers: our neighbors’ mimosa trees are already in luscious full bloom, perfuming the air with their sweet scent, and enlivening the scenery with feathery foliage and bright yellow blooms like tiny pom-poms.
This is unfortunate for me, because I am dreadfully allergic to mimosa. And someone always gives me some for the Festa della Donna. I gracefully acknowledge (and truly appreciate) the gesture, then get rid of the flowers as quickly as I can. I would prefer red roses and dark chocolate, but I guess that would have been more appropriate for Valentine’s Day.
As with most holidays in this day and age, la Festa della Donna has become commercialized, with bars and restaurants offering what the Brits would call “hen nights” – male strippers, drinks and music, and a fixed menu including a cake called mimosa – a white cake base with lots of whipped cream, decorated with fluffy little yellow balls of something that look like mimosa blooms. (Also not my favorite – give me devil’s food any day.)
What will I do to celebrate this year? Probably what I do on this day every year, and what women mostly do all year round: work. I’m not feeling very celebratory. On top of premature spring allergies, I have my usual drug-resistant long-running sinus infection which refuses to go away after more than month. I’m on my second round of antibiotics now, plus aerosol etc. to try to clear out the gunk. Another effect of global warming (I suppose) has been an unusually dry winter, so Milan’s pollution is worse than ever. Between that and the boss’ cigars, going in to the office has become hazardous to my health.
Mar 9, 2008 – Read something about the origins of La Festa della Donna that I never knew!
