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April 16, 2006
I (double dog) dare you
Life is sometimes like a fluff, a cloud, an invitation and an apology, to what you've done and focused on cheeringly for some time. It is good, always, to see your words spreading on by third-party choice to many more, clear or not, bloody or soul and it is just silly to say writing is disconnected from an ear, an audience.
After a year almost Bernard Dewley, Managing Editor of handtoothnail.com finalized finally the second issue of this online poetry mag. I may have different views than Bernard but it is after all a joy to see my most recent flash prose unleashed to the public on handtoothnail. I appreciate what Bernard is doing. Walking Distance and Red Vs. Tan for which I have a special affection, you can find them on handtoothnail.com, April 2006.
The other gift is an easter's Egg. PixArtisan is live, finally. Enjoy.
PixArtisan is being linked from scene360 and reviewed by netdiver
Posted by lck at 02:19 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Benjamin Krain
Photo Journalism at its best.
Posted by lck at 11:28 PM | Comments (0)
United we fall
It was the first time ever we follow Italian Political elections start to end on our macs, sack TV. And it was surprisingly good. Thanks to La Repubblica and the Corriere della Sera, both with an informative and agile web presence.
Despite the very close results, a first for Italy, Prodi won the Deputy Chamber with some 24,000 votes over Berlusconi, which gives the Left coalition 340 Deputies versus Berlusconi's 277. The other chamber, the Senate, was also won by Prodi, 158 to 156.
This is a very close margin. Unusually close. It is remarkably important that one coalition has got both chambers, our constitutional procedurals would otherwise nightmarishingly stall. And still this is not what both parties were expecting.
The election law is new, wanted and drafted by Berlusconi, a tailor-made return to the past and to him, paradoxically, suicidal. On the other camp much more was expected that did not happen. If these elections were a call for voters to make a definite choice they didn't.
It is quite predictable now that chunks of the House of Freedom (Berlusconi's coalition) will quietly migrate from one camp to the other. It's Italian genes to follow the power where-ever power goes.
Berlusconi is still the guts and soul to millions. He is only fading, inevitably, away.
Startling and disturbing is, in the news today, Bernardo Provenzano finally captured. Undiscussed boss of bosses, the Padrino from Corleone was missing for 43 years and in power for that long according to informants. Provenzano was captured today by police in... Corleone, the place where he was born. With typical, possibly the only good left to what these men represent, he elegantly and nonchalantly responded to the obvious brigadiere's question, simply: "Yes, I am".
He was captured today. I am sure this is just a coincidence.
In a previous post I was recalling The Economist and the paper's open call to Italians to screw Silvio and sack him from job. He was. But he does not fall alone. Two men fall today. United by circumstances together they fall.
The long-term task of dealing with the ruins he has left behind for us to cope with has begun. It is now up to Mr. Prodi and his very diverse coalition to grow stronger and learn to talk to the other half of this country. This is the daunting task the winners are up to.
Fair winds, Professor Prodi.
Posted by lck at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2006
sack him
When The Economist comes out with a cover such as the one above (bigger banner for the occasion) it could signal a few different things:
The Economist is a socialist publication controlled by what's left of the former Russian Politburo (the paper's logo makes this pretty obvious, can't you see?)
or
John Peet (The editor) hates Berlusconi for his much overflowing power and wealth
or
Berlusconi secretly controls the Economist and is coming with an issue that will inevitably inflame the internal debate here in Italy, as he knows well victimization further divides, further conquers (just in case, you never know)
or
None of the above and the Economist is right, plus Peet is so immensely bored and shattered by how much time he is forced to waste everyday on the everyday BS coming from said celebrity's mouth.
Which wins?
The last one wins.
Hands down.
It is difficult to explain how Italians got so flexible, so indifferent and tolerant to their Prime Minister and his Juan Peron-like obsession to be loved, appreciated, every day over every pipe and every channel, apt to almost anything coming from what is inherently a seductive and rules-hater businessman, not a politician by any rate. Impossible, probably, to explain how today still such man can be trusted after countless proofs of his inability to produce any coherent vision and sell that and implement that to a country running on empty.
Mr. Berlusconi requested today that UN observers have a good eye on the incoming elections. Usually the contenders do that call, not the incumbent. But UN observers for... Italy?
Yesterday, in his grungiest and surreal call ever, he called opponent voters "dick-heads", a good approximation in English of the Italian term "coglioni". All said during public debates, newspapers everywhere on the daunting task to translate the term "coglioni", Spanish and French an easy job, a near-nightmare to others. A term once forbidden from public shows, debates and general conversation then literally everywhere overnight. My daughter came to me and asked...
I don't ask politics to solve much, especially under current trade of events and developments that are played more at the global level that any local can cope with. But, yes, I had enough.
Sack him. Legally, decisively and for good.
Thank The Economist to be in agreement with me.
P.S.: It is good practice to always give your P.M. a second chance. A good editor would go and see what other newspapers have to say about. I did. I have been for several days. International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, Financial Times. Apparently, if I can still read English, nobody is crying at the prospects of Berlusconi's downfall. And if the business community is not in tears then the following is also true: You call voters dick-heads, you'll have a chance, Monday night, to call us something else. How about fucking bastards?
Posted by lck at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2006
Onother one bites... the dust
Posted by lck at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)
