Archive for September, 2010

29
Sep
10

In praise of Slow Reading

Twos years down the road BerlinRomExpress – or BRX for the habitués – starts to have its own little personality. BRX is not exactly a proper blog, rich in personalization, hectic activity, du tac-au-tac comments, reparties and community buzz.

Rather than visitors, it has affectionate readers.

I feel that you as a reader have your habits when it comes to BerlinRomExpress. You are popping about, have a look at the cover. Sit back and relax. You sip an article or two. Like with a magazine.

Messages are a true pleasure and the majority still comes through via e-mail, commenting an article or sometimes a photograph. And it happens that we get to meet in the real life too! There is an interactive side to it, but more like “I drop you a line” rather than liking/sharing/making contacts/bookmarking etc. We all use social networks, but here on BRX there is no “productivity” intent. Just taking the time of writing and reading something.

Let’s call it a Slow Read approach, like in Slow Food. You are in for dégustation, not for feeder content accumulation. Gemütlich, comfortable. Do you recognize yourself?

For its affectionate readers BRX starts today its interview adventure. It will not always be easy. Most of the writing on BRX takes advantage of evening slots formerly allocated to television viewing. Whereas interviews need collaboration, setting up of appointments, and we are all so busy striking our work/life balance. But hey, let’s start! Intanto iniziamo poi si vedrà!

And then there’s also another reason: if my job is to give answers, in my free time, I’ve always liked to ask questions! ;D


27
Sep
10

give them macarons!

It’s hot from the presses! Jill’s book is out now! “Mad about Macarons – make macarons like the French”.

I haven’t read the book yet – still waiting from Amazon ;) – but I know the author very well eh he! I am sure the book has a zest of Scottish sense of humor and a flavour of Jill’s pragmatism!

See? it has none of that Garlic-and-Zucchini-Goddess irritating poise boasted by many a book of cooking, where the author poses on the cover surrounded by rosmarino pots in the Dordogneshire or sitting pretty at one table in her cupcake empire in Berlin.

And…you know what? I did taste Jill’s macarons. And they’re the best I ever had! (I know, you are sooo envious).

Well, Sofia, now you know where to source from the macarons for your next movie…

PS

and according to the Financial Times’ “Fast Lane” columnist Tyler Brule, wedges & macarons are all the rage in Ginza, Tokyo…

26
Sep
10

TV or not TV?

In Italy TV screens haunt us. Any trattoria, snack bar, cafe’, hairdresser, railway platform, airport lounge or takeaway pizzeria have a blaring giant screen. It’s an invasion of bodies, bodies, rosy faces speaking nonsense, commercials. Continue reading ‘TV or not TV?’

26
Sep
10

Inception – asleep and kicking

During our August Berlin shift we went to Sony Center to see Inception, the new movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio. We were under the spell of it for the following three days. Only Matrix had such an aftertaste as intense as Inception.

The viewer is sucked into the plot and the plot lives on long after leaving the movie theater. The photography is awesome and rich in nested in clues as in Matrix. Di Caprio is grossartig as usual and Marion Cotillard weaves a truly haunting character. But also the deuxième rôles are staffed with excellent actors and give way to intriguing characters. Joseph Gordon Hewitt and Ellen Page are actors we will keep following after this movie.

The movie opened in Italy this weekend. We’ll go back and see it for a second time, which we believe won’t be the last. We went through the obscure folds of the plot over and over, this second viewing will be a way to test our assumptions emerged after a month’s digestion of the plot.

A movie which releases a wave of powerful kicks.

23
Sep
10

BerlinPalermoExpress? va bene!

Tonight we went to the Roman HQ of Goethe Institut to the presentation of the road movie “Berlino-Palermo”. This movie is the brainchild of the Goethe “Va bene?!” initiative, designed to talk and make fun of the respective Italian and German mind sets, luoghi comuni and prejudices.

Beppe Severgnini from Il Corriere and Mark Spörrle from Die Zeit travelled together by train from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Palermo. The movie is hilarious. The two show us their packed luggage and sterotypes already start here, with the extremely previdente – and much younger – Spörrle. Severgnini drags his German counterpart to a soccer match in Milano, needless to say.

We from BerlinRomExpress, a railway-oriented blog, were enthousiastic about the train adventures of the two guys…so many stations, so many unpredictable cockups!

The most hilarious German bit of the movie is Severgnini’s stock taking in a Münich hotel room, where he counts the number of sharp, cutting edges in the furniture and tries to find links with the 4-star hotel businessman personality.

In Italy, the ubuesque ubiquitous presence of some Ferrovie Italiane PR department shadow nannies, haunting the trip form Bolzano to Palermo, provided a sense of otherwordly order which is out of this world and at odds with the normal level of service.

Laudatio for the (Italian) cameraman and the Dolmetscherin, who were athletic and supportive in following the two madmen from the Berlin marshes to Palermo’s beaches. We wonder if a Palermo-Berlin version will ever be produced, this time with a German cameraman…a Vorsprung durch Technik version of the movie!

It was a truly enjoyable evening, hundred of people packed the Goethe theater, un casino pazzesco, nice to see so much people LOL at each other’s clichés and  discovering surprises at the same time!

Counter-cliché: the dolce vita is no longer in Italy but in Germany (we at BerlinRomExpress are Chief Evangelists on this one). Cliché: “ach, das wunderbares Licht!” is always across the Brennero. Cliché: the Italian journalist is by definition simpatico and he does the big portion of the cazzeggio. Counter-cliché: the German is the good looking one! ;D

15
Sep
10

out of place

Tonight MeinMann and I went to the presentation of the book “Fuori Luogo” written by Claudia Ceroni and Federico Taddia at the Feltrinelli Colonna bookstore here in Rome.

Stories of Italians who had to expatriate in order for their project to be taken seriously, be it in research, the arts or architecture. Not all of them are 19 years old. Not all of them have a PhD.

It is not a book listing reasons for leaving, or a catalogue of frustrations. The people who left did so not because they were against something but rather, because they kept on pursuing a project beyond the border. They had an idea, tried to realize it in Italy, were considered excentric, outsiders, dreamers or wishful thinkers. Left the country.

They did not turn the idea in an instant success abroad, but they achieved their goals with the usual share of hard work. So no miracle recipe. Still, they proved that their idea was right, even if all what they got in Italy until then was discouragement and mockery. An example? Also an Italian guy and his ideas are behind the creation of the IdeaStore public libraries in East London.

The book was presented by Tiziana Ferrario, a former anchorwoman at RAI 1 (click on the link to know why she’s no longer on air). During question time, I asked the authors and the journalist if also the media share responsibilty for this discouragement. There are no longer programmes focusing on work on our TVs. Jobs such as the baker or the vet. The project manager or the teacher. The environmental engineer or the farmer. We can see these on Deutschewelle – for instance on EuroMaxx – whereas the only careers advertised by our media are footballers, showgirls (veline) and politicians.

Ms Ferrario answered that what you can expect from Italian media is even more cover-up, more tout va bien Madame la Marquise, more propaganda. “It is a system favoring appartenenza over meritocracy”. Appartenenza=belonging to a closed club/family/tribe/kast/political party.

And I would add, favoring appearance over substance. No wonder people want to leave. Sometimes without ideas or sufficient language skills. But with a lot of frustration. Just log into one of the many forum and blogs on the theme.

Today’s Herald Tribune cover showed the photo of a young Greek woman, 29, who will be leaving Athens in 2 weeks to start working as an hotel manager in Abu Dhabi. “In other countries, people are encouraged. In Greece they are held back”.

There are people with ideas. And countries without strategies (and plenty of debts).

Photo: voglioviverecosi

13
Sep
10

September bride

September is a favorite month for weddings in Rome: the light is soft and glowing, the breeze tames the sunny days. When we were Ragazze Terribili, my friend A. and I would do photographic ambushes to the brides and grooms posing in the usual Roman parks. We would take our pictures when the brides were puffing, scratching on their lacy and constraining corsets, making faces.

Tonight, approaching my bus stop, I saw this fantastic bride on the Ape Piaggio (Ape=bee). I got off the bus quickly, went around the bus and took a picture of the beautiful bride and the groom glued to his telefonino. The bride is beautifully Roman, don’t you think?




Enter your email address to keep track of what's going on at BerlinRomExpress - check your Inbox (and Junk mailbox too) to activate the subscription!

Join 19 other followers

Archives


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.