Torino Film Festival - John Huston The Dead

After ten hours at the film festival with barely any break, I tragically fell asleep sitting next to Tony Houston while watching his father's The Dead, of which he wrote the screenplay (after James Joyce's Dubliners). So in less than one month I failed to recognize Alex Zanardi in NYC and fell asleep while literally sitting next to one of the authors of a movie at the theater. Not too bad for a track record.

A few pics from Finland

Orivesi

Somewhere between Helsinki and Tampere

Orivesi

Tampere

Tampere Bus Station

Tampere Bus Station

Orivesi

New York – Reading at KGB’s

Have you ever been to a reading at KGB's in the Lower East Side? It's on the second floor somewhere in E4th between Bowery and 2^nd avenue, you can't miss it, and it's a must if you like literature.

First of all, as the name suggests, it's all red. The walls are red, the atmosphere is red. You can drink something, sit at one of the tables and listen to somebody reading almost every night of the week at 7 p.m. Short-stories or poems, excerpts of novels and much more.

Grab your beer at the counter then sit at one of the tables with people you know or people you don't know, you'll end up knowing them very soon. Friendly people who listen carefully, take notes, comment and then, shortly after nine, leave, after a last beer, for their next destination.

The area is the damned Lower East Side described by Rick Moody in his book The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven. So no wonder Rick Moody came here to read. Just like Johathan Letham and many other well-known or less known authors.

Check it out.

Berlin Hackescher Markt

Before shopping in Neuer Schönhauser Strasse and walking through Mitte, it's nice to browse the Hackescher Markt, where there is an actual market (at least) on Saturdays. You can find crêpes, würstel, Italian pasta, Turkish kebab, salami and Leberkäse, organic fruits and vegetables and much more. Hard to resist if you are hungry. Nice to know it's just one of the dozens of markets that are scattered around the city on Saturdays.

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Berlin can be vibrant, on a Saturday morning, when you cross Alexanderplatz and the sun is shining, a guitar duo is playing on one corner, somebody is bungee-jumping from up the Park Inn and there's people everywhere. You go down the subway and a wonderful accordion player sounds like a whole organ.

Berlin can be sad, on a Saturday evening, when the same guitar duo is still playing, but the sun is not shining anymore and they look cold and tired, still trying to give the people the energy they need to leave a few coins. Berlin can be sad when you look around and now that the sun is not there you can only see the lights of Western chains and malls, which remind you of the saddest Western global streets of the city. You go down the subway and the accordion player is still there, still sounding like an organ, yet you know he has been sitting there for almost ten hours, and there's nothing romantic, there's nothing bohemian, there's nothing fascinating about that sound anymore. It's just the sound of misfortune.

Berlin Reading

There's one thing that German-speaking and English-speaking countries have in common, and that is their love for music and literature. So if you go to Berlin or New York, you will easily be going to a concert or to a reading.

This Friday night in Berlin is reading time. The café is one of the dozens of cafés on the streets of Prenzlauerberg, the city section that has undergone a massive gentrification process leaving it half as charming as it was, but certainly still very attractive. Old houses and old places. Wooden floors and wooden chairs. Big counters where the only concession to year 2010 is the coffee machine. Everything else is a perfect mix of tradition and alternative style.

A few chairs are scattered in the room, where a small wooden desk with a Bauhaus lamp will help a few candles lighten the place so that the author can read her papers. More papers are lying on the piano, there is always a piano in these places.

A few people are sitting on the chairs. Many of them know each other, but they are not hostile to new faces. The publisher shortly introduces the author and her works. Anecdotes are told about how a story was born or how people found themselves in different situations. Then the reading starts and it is intense and poetic and funny and makes you think.

After the first short story there is a short intermission. Time for a cappuccino or a drink. It's only October but it's already very cold in Berlin.

The second short story is even more interesting and funny and you start to feel at home even if you come from abroad, even if you have never been to this place before and even if you hardly know anybody here. You can go and talk to the author, to people, they will be interested in what you have to say and will have interesting things to say. It's about sharing a passion for literature, about opening up to new encounters and possibilities. No need to be part of anything, no need to be known for your work, as long as you share that same passion. Wouldn't that be enough everywhere?

scritto per franzmagazine.com

A Poet in Portland

I was in Portland – Oregon, last summer, when I met a young poet at the local farmers’ market. He was offering his art to the people.

“What would you like to listen?”, he asked. “Poems of love, revenge, deception, bad experiences with women?”

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Amy Tan on Creativity

Torino Spiritualità

I was not able to follow many of the readings and discussions and performances organized for this amazing gathering that is Torino Spiritualità, during which thousands of people come to Torino to listen to inspiring talks about spirituality.

I attended a performance by Fabrizio Vespa called Kumbhaka, something inbetween a concert and a reading. And was not totally enthusiastic about it.

I mean: take the bass player of one of the leading bands in Italy (Subsonica). Take the member of another iconic band (Africa Unite). Put them together. The music is almost done. Then take a few singers, poets, writers, painters. Put them altogether and stir slowly. What you are trying to cook here is a reproduction of the 10 commandments of the Catholic religion. Which they all represent in their own, non-religious way. All the ingredients should be there, yet there's something missing for the perfect recipe. The video is capturing at times but then distracting. The quality of the performance is not consistently good. If a couple of performers excel and their message goes straight to your heart or to your mind, a few of them are as insignificant as tasteless food. And, even if they are presented on the same table, they are not on the same menu. If at times you feel like you have to dance 'cause the music is compelling, at other times you really wonder what the message is that a few of these performers do not seem able to express in words nor feelings. These ups and downs kind of ruin the whole, so I could not say that I absolutely loved this performance, though I certainly liked a few of the things in it.

A very inspiring moment, on the other hand, was the talk by Davide Meghnagi intitled "The mystery of artistic creation". Mr. Meghnagi is professor at Università Roma Tre and teaches Clinical Psychology, Dynamic Psychology and Psychology. Through an interesting and passionate reconstruction of Freud's analysis of great masters such as Michelangelo and Leonardo, of his own feelings while admiring their works, he described the relationship of an author to his/her work and the final user, trying to identify what it is that makes all the subjects involved being alert and receptive.

I will try to follow next year's Torino Spiritualità more closely, let's see if I can.

Ben Cameron: The true power of the performing arts | Video on TED.com

Writing in English

I was recently confronted with the limits of my mother tongue. It’s a language everybody loves for its sound, for the richness of its cultural and literary past. People love it because it reminds them of the amazing food they had and the wonderful places they visited during their vacation. Yet, it’s a language that not many people talk.

During the 2^nd Writers’ and Literary Translators’ International Congress in Istanbul I met a lot of people from many different countries, and once I came back home I was hoping I could get to read a few of the things they had written. So I understood their disappointment when I had to tell them that everything I had was in Italian: translations, of course, but also other texts.

Furthermore, when I tried to pick a few of the things they were writing in Swedish in Facebook (lots of Swedish writers in Istanbul!), I felt very frustrated, because I could only partially figure out what they were talking about: I was quickly fed up with Google Translator and its deceptive (yet impressive, watch out, translators!) translations.  

So please bear with me while I try to write in English. It’s NOT my mother tongue. It’s not even the language I translate from, and still it’s the language everybody seems to be speaking right now in the world, so this is the language I chose to make myself understood. And even though it’s not perfect, it’s probably better than Google translator, for a few more years, at least.

Enjoy these thoughts, share your opinions with me and let’s make this a platform of exchange. Looking forward to seeing you here!