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A Whole New Me

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I’m a cartoon! I’m not quite sure where I got the idea (although, admittedly, a number of bloggers are doing it). Since the unifying theme of this site is me, it makes sense to use myself as a logo. But I rarely like photos of myself, and a cartoon portrait seemed like more fun anyway.

The artist is Mike Segawa, whose work I noticed on a (Not Safe For Work) Buffy fan site years ago – he had done some wonderful pictures of Buffy characters and scenes, and I wanted to track him down to find out if he had any more. Eventually I found an email address and dropped him a note, but got no reply – for two years. I guess he had kept my email, because when he finally did get a site up (mikesegawa.com) he wrote to let me know about it.

By then I had come up with the idea of a cartoon portrait for my site, so I wrote back immediately – but again got no reply. I kept Mike’s site in my bookmarks and visited now and then to see what was new (lots of yummy artwork besides – yay! – more Buffy). A few months ago he mentioned on his home page that the email address had been wrong, and offered a new one. I wrote to that, and finally we were in touch.

It took a little longer to get the project done, but here we are at last. It’s more portrait than cartoon – the family double chin is clearly in evidence – but, hey, that’s the real me. And the lean-back air of ironic amusement, with the skeptical Gromit eyebrows, seems appropriate for my site. What do you think?

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Italian culture, Italian songs

Learn Italian in Song: Azzurro

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A version sung last summer by the victorious Azzurri (Italian national football team), apparently as a fundraiser for charity. The guy in the blue shirt is Gianni Morandi (not a football player).

Azzurro – Sky Blue
Paolo Conte - Tournee - Azzurro

by Paolo Conte, made famous by Adriano Celentano
Cerco l’estate tutto l’anno I look for summer all year long
e all’improvviso eccola qua. And all of a sudden, here it is.
Lei é partita per le spiagge She has left for the beaches,
e sono solo quassu’ in citta’ , And I’m alone up here in the city.
sento fischiare sopra i tetti I hear whistling above the roofs
un aeroplano che se ne va. a plane that’s leaving.
Refrain
Azzurro,il pomeriggio é troppo azzurro Blue, the afternoon is too blue
e lungo per me. And long for me.
Mi accorgo I realize
di non avere piu’ risorse, That I have no more resources
e allora so now
io quasi quasi prendo il treno I could almost take the train
e vengo, vengo da te, And come, come to you
ma il treno dei desideri But the train of our desires
nei miei pensieri all’incontrario va. In my thoughts runs backwards.
Sembra quand’ero all’oratorio, It’s like when I was at the oratorio*
con tanto sole, tanti anni fa. With so much sun, so many years ago.
Quelle domeniche da solo Those Sundays alone
in un cortile, a passeggiar… Walking around in a courtyard
ora mi annoio piu’ di allora, Nowadays I get more bored than I did then
neanche un prete per chiacchierar… Not even a priest to chat with.
(refrain)
Cerco un po’ d’Africa in giardino, I look for a bit of Africa in the garden
tra l’oleandro e il baobab, Between the oleander and the baobab
come facevo da bambino, As I did when I was a kid
ma qui c’é gente, non si puo’ piu’, But there are people here, I can’t do that anymore
stanno innaffiando le tue rose, They’re watering your roses
non c’é il leone, But there’s no lion
chissa’ dov’é… who knows where it is.
(refrain)
*Oratorio in this context means a youth center, run by and physically attached to a Catholic church. They offer after school and summer programs to keep neighborhood kids out of trouble if their parents have to work.

if you find this useful and want more, let me know!

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Hot Water

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While in the UK a couple of weekends ago, I bought a hot water bottle at Boots, and packed it into my only luggage (carry-on) to bring back to Italy. The x-ray technician at security was momentarily confused: “Is that a hot water bottle?”

“Yes, they’re surprisingly hard to find in Italy,” I replied.

A security lady opened my bag carefully and pulled out a perfectly ordinary, red rubber hot water bottle, with the tag still on. (I had had a feeling that might be useful.)

“Well, you can’t carry it on,” she declared.

“It’s brand new and has never contained any liquid of any kind. What is the problem?”

“The rule says you can’t bring on water bottles,” she insisted stubbornly.

I wasn’t going to make a scene in airport security, but I was deeply puzzled. The lady asked a colleague his opinion.

“I don’t think it means that kind of water bottle,” he said.

“The rule says no water bottles!”

So she asked a supervisor, who looked bemused. “No, not that kind of water bottle. She can take it on.”

The lady looked put out – she apparently cherished the strictest possible interpretation of the rules. But I got to bring home my hot water bottle.

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media

News and Fiction

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I just got back from a visit to my dad in the UK. Because he is essentially bedridden, he watches a lot of TV, so I saw a great deal more of it than I usually do. The big news in Britain on Monday was the trial of Dhiren Barot, accused of being a top al Qaeda man, with big plans to make big bangs. None of these plans were ever actually carried out, for which, of course, we are thankful!

The press didn’t have much material to use in its hours of coverage: one photograph of the man and some court transcripts. They’re not allowed to film the trial, so they showed a photo of one of the barristers, superimposed on a computer-generated courtroom.

One of Barot’s ideas for causing mayhem had been to rent three limos, stuff them with gas cannisters and other explodables, and blow them up in garages underneath some of London’s swankiest hotels. To illustrate this point, the BBC showed footage of a white limosine, with an anonymous figure (head cut off by the framing of the shot) putting green gas cannisters inside. In other words: not having anything real to show, the BBC did a “recreation” of an event that never took place. At least they did not go so far as to fake up an explosion.

It seems that the line between news and fiction is getting mighty blurry.

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Italian language

Italian Slang: B

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Italian Slang Dictionary: intro A B C D E F G I L M N O P Q R S T U V X Z

Balle

[BAHL-lay] Balls. Usually synonymous with “Bullshit!” Mi ha raccontato un sacco di balle – “He/she told me a whole bunch of lies” (literally, “a bag of balls”). Can also be used like palle. Che due balle/palle – “What two balls” – can also be used like “What a pain in the ass.”

Barbone

[bar-BONE-ay] “Having a big beard”, but also used for homeless men.

Battona

[baht-TONE-ah] Streetwalker, because she “pounds (battere) the pavement”.

Beh

“So?” or “So what?” In some parts of Italy, this may be equivalent to boh. Not particularly rude.

Bocchino

[bock-KEE-no] “A little mouthful” – fellatio.

Boh

A verbal shrug. This isn’t rude – you can use it any time.

Botta

[BOT-ta] A blow, a punch, a coup, but also used to mean a dose of cocaine. Hence in botta is used to mean high (but not necessarily specifically on cocaine).

In Roman slang, botta or bottarella means a fuck. Le ho dato una bottarella – “I fucked her [a little].”

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Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia