fakepuccino recovery

I am very difficult when it comes to cappuccino. You cannot possibly call cappuccino that sort of wishy washy transparent and bubbly milk foam (made with skimmed milk: quelle horreur!) below which a lake of boiling, onyx-black american coffee is going to burn your tongue. That is “american-coffee-with-skimmed-milk-foam”. But I call it fakepuccino.

Cappuccino is a completely different animal. It is solid. Reliable. Evenly mixed. And supports one coin on top. Let’s call it Euro.

The economic recovery that we are going through looks like fakepuccino. Watching it from here, close to San Lorenzo in Rome, it looks like fakepuccino. Stock prices fooling the sight, reality burning the tongue.

Gillo Dorfles and the quest for authenticity

Photo: compacteur

Unplug your wireless connection before diving in “Conformisti – the death of authenticity” by Gillo Dorfles.

Dorfles, born in Triest in 1910, is a true modern man and deserves full attention. And is writing is so enjoyable!

He explores, in this book dated 1997, the universe of conformismo, perbenismo, buon senso, senso comune (not the same as common sense), benpensanti, come il faut, yes-men.

In order to do this he analyzes society: behavior, approach to the arts (fantastic chapter on classical music!), fashion, politics, sex of course – and yes, even death – with a pragmatic angle. Like Isherwood, he could claim “I am a camera”.

13 years after its publication, this book’s authenticity is even higher.

In this recent video, taken form RAIperunanotte, he observes how facts have become “facts-oids”, democracy morphed into “democracy-oid” (or maybe post-democracy, quoting Colin Crouch).

Dorfles repeats his mantra: keep on comparing and contrasting what is told to you with the real facts if you want to seize the developments of society while keeping your head high above the tide of conformism. And beware of the “conformizzatori”, sometimes dressed as agents provocateurs or enfants terribles, but eventually acting as powerful compacteurs of the public opinion.

The man from Basel

Tonight we went to the Internazionali d’Italia, the Rome Tennis Italian Open. The evenings are becoming balmy and the orange trees fill the air with their sweet/bitter scent. Here a photo taken before the match Luczak-Volandri at the new Centrale at the Foro Italico.

Roger Federer played with Yves Allegro a nice double against Brunstrom and Rojer, the Swiss won…a few photos here of the Man from Basel…

The Berlin Detectives

Der nasse Fisch by Volcker Kutscher is an excellent detective story set in one of the most exciting historical periods, the dawn of the Weimar Republic, 1929.

Berlin is a violent town but the prussian Kripo has an excellent track record in solving cases. Just a few remain unsolved, the so called “wet fishes”.

Among Communists, Stahlhelm, SA, Ochrana agents and other assorted paramilitary nationalists, Gereon Rath investigates, not without bavures and other controversial practices. A hardboiled novel set in a hot Berlin summer, and in a hot political junction.

Gereon Rath joins Xavier March (“Vaterland” by Robert Harris) and Bernie Gunther (“March violets” and “A quiet flame” by Philip Kerr) among the legendary Berlin detectives…

sustainable immobility

It looks like Italy is a leader in sustainable mobility, if I look at the CEBIT Hannover Fair Italian page. Does that ring a bell? Maybe…one? In Rome and other big and medium cities since a few years we can benefit from the carsharing scheme, which is progressing nicely. That’s a successful exercise.

Yet Rome, Naples, Milan, Mestre epitomize unsustainable mobility. Often Italian towns are very dangerous town for both pedestrians and cyclists (and I would also add bikers).  Too many people take the car for small stretches and travel alone in big cars. Cabs are outrageously expensive, with opaque fees and kast-like behaviors when it comes to queues at the airport (for sure in Rome).

The quality of the air, especially in the Summer months, is worsening year after year. False disabled passes are the norm in the central pedestrian areas. Bus drivers have to put up with all sorts of lane invasion and probably take zen courses in order to maintain their calm.

If Italy is the leader of sustainable mobility, that’s excellent news. Some of that excellence should be implemented also at home, not only promoted abroad and exported.

Ash is king…

Today’s Reuters title made my day….”Iceland: we said send CASH!”. After the Icesave deposits débacle hitting many UK individual investors, a smattering of ash was not really what Europe needed!

Photo: Jon Gustavsson/AFP

make a virtue of necessity

The BerlinRomExpress train raison d’être

The BerlinRomExpress is a train of thought. An imaginary train linking Southern and Northern Europe. A train I wish I could take as often as I please in order to link my favorite towns.

But this week the BerlinRomExpress would have been the vehicle of choice of so many a traveler grounded due to volcanic ashes.

My friend Rosi, stuck in Venice and bound to Berlin for a week’s holiday. The Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel, who took the bus from Rome to Bolzano on her way to Germany. The many friends and business contacts who are sending me messages from towns where they’re stranded, airports where they’re grounded and car rental agencies where they’re getting depressed.

We here at BerlinRomExpress have always been strong advocates of train transport within Europe. True, even during the snow storm which got half Europe frozen and stuck in stupor in January, quite a few TGV lost their nerve due to the icy temperature. But eventually train transport, even if slowed down, ferried back and forth thousands of airline grounded passengers.

Flying offers unbeatable speed on trips distant more than 2-hrs by plane. But a tight schedule of night trains crossing Europe is something we could use. A lounge carriage for food, drinks, socializing and news (avoiding neon lights and garish colors could be a plus). Well-lit and attended bee-hive carriages with Japanese-style horizontal pods stacked in 2 rows would provide leg-room, relaxed and safe naps and contact with the outside world with wi-fi connections.

In each carriage a vending machine would distribute hot beverages, snacks, warm oshi-boris and toiletries. Bathrooms located in front of the Dzejournaya-Conducteur cabin (Deutsche Bahn-style) would incentive civilized use of common facilities.

The positioning would be lower than a 1st-class cabin service, yet higher than those  couchette nightmares. I know of many ladies who would consider traveling by night alone in this way. Not really the train of choice for the heavy spenders, but a viable alternative for many tourist and family transfers.

Pods may feel claustrophobic? I know nothing more claustrophobic than a giant flying toothpaste aluminium tube, shaken by a storm…and the odd nearby passenger snarling in your direction while slumbering.

Photo: Bombardier

Kulturkampf, Prada shoes and Kinky boots

As a student I never saw this strip in the Italian history school books. I had to enroll into my German history course in order to discover this curious bit of Kulturkampf… you will find the image on the German Wikipedia “Bismarck” page.

I think that, like in politics, when you are not considered as a citizen or a “soul” you still have an option. Vote with your credit card. Boycott products and services. It all comes down to money, sooner or later.

Fed up with parties? boycott the products of those companies most likely to benefit from conflicts of interest with the politicians. Disappointed by the church? stop paying the contributions.

There are surely other purveyors of products and services you can trust with your patronage, bypassing the Organisation.

I can’t avoid thinking that Ratzinger wears red Prada shoes…but I am a fan of Kinky Boots…(are you human enough?).

Benedict’s pontificate set out to strengthen the church through dialogue with the Eastern churches, the traditionalists and Catholics in China. But now Benedict XVI must look on as the temple begins to totter, and as a veritable furor develops against the Roman church, and not just north of the Alps. 

tutto il mondo e’ paese?! No!

It is very difficult to translate in English this typical (oh so typical!) Italian expression. “After all, anywhere in the world it’s just like in the small village” maybe?

It is very used in Italy in order to say that yeah, after all, also abroad the problems are the same. A sort of blasé imminent Schadenfreude or a self-indulgent nivelisation par le bas.

What’s the matter? There’s no use in getting excited about it…you silly one. After all, listen to me…everywhere it’s the same, didn’t you know? Calm down…and adapt.

Let’s not compete for being the best. Let’s be contempt in mediocrity, shall we?

Well, no. It’s not true that “tutto il mondo e’ paese”.