HOUSE OF GUCCI

HOUSE OF GUCCI

The Gucci family has repeatedly dissociated itself from the portrait that the film portrays, and I will not go into the merits, but now I can finally say that Lady Gaga in the House of Gucci is truly credible, for the vision I had of it.

So, taking up the talk on Patrizia Reggiani, apparently Lady Germanotta’s decision not to meet her did not affect the interpretation, despite Reggiani being annoyed.

Obviously I observed clothes, accessories, and outfits in general, with particular interest both for Gucci pieces and for 80s looks, and I have to say that I enjoyed the work of costume designer Yanti Yates.

Very scrupulous work, starting from months of study in the archives of the Gucci maison.

In an interview with the New York Times,  available in full on Instagram, Yanti Yates stated that Lady Gaga was hugely involved, not least because she is a complete clotheshorse and looks marvelous in everything. She was hugely focused on how her character might appear at a particular moment, and had very strong views on aspects like hair and makeup.

But also difficult work, again according to the statements made during the interview: I would create initial selections, and then she would select from there.

Gaga selected.

It also seems that there have been days when for her it was “not today.”

Moreover, the same Gucci website reports as an iconic statement from Yanti Yates: “Lady Gaga told me that in this movie she wanted to dress like her Italian mom. To create her looks, I was able to draw on both her personal and historical Gucci archives.”

Like her Italian mom

How good does this sentence sound?

At the same time, however, I have this doubt that is spinning in my head, so help me understand if my perception is deceiving me since, actually, in the early 70s despite I wasn’t really in the world from longer (also now I am not, but this is a other story).

Unfortunately I could not find the image of the scene in which Maurizio Gucci introduces Patrizia to his father Rodolfo, but more or less the same goes for the floral dress in this picture.

Obviously I’m nobody to question the reconstruction, which in all other situations I have admired, and I stress it well, but the idea of this dress leaves me perplexed. I’m wrong, right?

I leave you this roundup of outfits.

In addition to the clothes, House of Gucci offers the vision of a fantastic series of precious “vintage” cars.

In particular, I really loved the way director Ridley Scott frames the arrivals at Rodolfo Gucci’s home: focused on the entrance. From the outside to the outside.

This shot occurs more than once in the movie, with different cars arriving in front of that entrance.

For me it was a sort of “story within history,” almost a symbol to mark the time.

In the picture below, with the same principle, in contrast we are witnessing a departure.

Which is also a beginning: the beginning of a strategy for Maurizio being back in the company.

For the rest, I refer you to the review by Matavitatau, me, a bit like Cruella, I really enjoyed the non-original soundtrack.

As for the floral dresses, I felt a sort of temporal disorientation that in some cases conquered me, in others it left me a kind of question mark.

For example, I liked the choice for George Michael’s Faith as soundtrack of the wedding scene: despite the anachronistic incongruity, it gave me a joyfulness that counterbalanced the void created by the absence of Maurizio’s family.

On the contrary, I was perplexed listening to Ritornerai by Bruno Lauzi as the background to the scene in which Aldo Gucci goes with Maurizio and Patrizia to the estate where their historic breeding is located. The song is wonderful, ça va sans dire, and the meaning is centered on returning to the origins, but for my personal perception it is as if something screeches.

Apart from that, I could list one song more beautiful than the other, and I would like to propose them all: Here comes the rain again by Eurythmics, Heart of glass by Blondie, Ashes to ashes by the White Duke David Bowie, Blue Monday by New Order, Una notte speciale by Alice, Sono bugiarda by Caterina Caselli, but also Largo al factotum from Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini, Madame Butterfly and much more.

As you choose which one you prefer to listen to first, here are some coffees.

And… the final blessing.

FELICITY ACE

FELICITY ACE

There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip …

From the blue oceans we sustain people’s live and ensure a prosperous future.

This is the central sentence that appears on the Mitsui OSK Lines website, which is the domicile of Snowscape Car Carriers SA, Tokyo, Japan. 

Yet their Felicity Ace does not bring happiness, on the contrary, it turned out to be a terrible ace of spades.

This cargo ship, flying the Panamanian flag, sank off the Azores islands.

The site of the Portuguese Navy reports a photographic sequence

SMIT Salvage Pte Ltd. on February 18 publishes the following document:
A team of sixteen experts from subsidiary SMIT Salvage was mobilized yesterday and is present on the Azores where the large car carrier Felicity Ace is currently on fire. The ship was en route from Germany to the United States when the fire broke out. The entire crew has been safely evacuated and large equipment is on enroute from Spain and the Netherlands to assist with the fire fighting.

Also on February 18, Mitsui OSK Lines communicates through its website a disclosure of information on the FELICITY ACE accident which reports:
MOL operated car carrier FELICITY ACE has experienced a fire while underway in the Atlantic on February 16, and all crew has evacuated from the vessel safely. Information regarding this accident will be disclosed in the following website.
MOL regrets for the inconvenience and concern caused. MOL will make every effort to contain the damage and resolve the situation as the main priorities.

A second press release follows on 02 March:
Whilst the vessel was being towed to a safe area since February 25, it sank on March 1 having suffered a list to starboard.

On the site in charge, a chronology of events is listed which tells of a fire that broke out on board.

The following statement continues to report: is still assumed to remain on fire.

Until February 25: the smoke is no longer visible.

From February 16th to February 25th there are 9 days.

On March 1, the ship is reported to have sunk.

Yesterday, March 7: The vessel sank on March 1 around 9AM local time around 220nm off the Azores after having suffered a list to starboard side.
The oil film that was confirmed at the time of sinking of the Vessel remains on the sea surface, spreading thinly and disappearing gradually, but no new oil film has been confirmed.
After consultation with the relevant authorities, the tug and salvage crafts left the site on March 5, and will continue monitoring the area with regular observation by satellite and aircraft.

A thin oil film.

As if that was all.

Nothing appears on the EMSA website. 

The cars transported were electric cars, a probable cause of the fire could be lithium batteries, which require special equipment to be extinguished, as said the captain Joao Mendes Cabecas of the port of Hortas interviewed by Reuters

The Fire Brigade Working Group has drawn up an information handbook which explains in particular the Thermal Runaway and the risk of fire and explosion of ion batteries of lithium.

Do you know how a battery is “disposed of”?

I report verbatim from the Cobat website that is the Compulsory Consortium for Exhausted Lead Batteries and Waste Lead that explains Pyrometallurgy.

The plant recovers metals such as nickel, cobalt  and copper, liquefying the battery components at high temperatures.
Lithium and aluminum remain in the residues.
To recover the lithium, additional (expensive) processing steps are required.

The same Environment Area of the European Community declares that Li-ion batteries pose a special threat, as they contain a high percentage of dangerous heavy metals.

Always the source Reuters speaks of a total of about 4000 cars, all luxury: Porche, Audi, Bentley … with a presumable huge amount of battery accumulators.

I don’t know about you, but for me that “oil film” is not covering what has ended up on the bottom of the sea.

Is this really the zero impact we are told?

WE ARE THE GRANDCHILDREN OF KEYNES

WE ARE THE GRANDCHILDREN OF KEYNES

In 1930 John Maynard Keynes, a member economist of the Bloomsbury Group wrote Economic prospects for our grandchildren.

In this essay, which many consider visionary, a future prediction is hypothesized, taking into account technological development.

Some passages are in my opinion very interesting:

We are being afflicted with a new disease of which some readers may not yet have heard the name, but of which they will hear a great deal in the years to come — namely, technological unemployment. This means unemployment due to our discovery of means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labour.

And how we hear about it …

Let’s take cars for example: how many are produced in your opinion?
Now any model is equipped with technology.
How much have prices risen compared to an average salary?
I speak for the province: now there is a range of models that cost like a flat.

Indeed, to be honest, very often the price is not even mentioned anymore: car manufacturers advertise offers directly on the basis of a monthly fee.
It is no coincidence that long-term rental forms are proliferating on the market: Why Buy, Free2move Lease, Simply with you, are just some examples.

How do you consider this?

In many other cases, however, the products have less and less value.

Let’s continue with Keynes’s essay:
…But this is only a temporary phase of maladjustment. All this means in the long run that mankind is solving its economic problem.

I draw the conclusion that, assuming no important wars and no important increase in population, the economic problem may be solved, or be at least within sight of solution, within a hundred years.

We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on the butter — to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the problem for a great while. For three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the old Adam in most of us!

“Within a century,” Keyes predicted, to reach the 100-year deadline there are still 9, apparently few, even if we are experiencing on our skin how everything can change more quickly than we could imagine.

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