TATÀ

TATÀ

Apr 12, 2025 | BOOKS

Tatà is the pet name for Tante, which means aunt in French.

There is no two without three, although Three is actually the second of Valérie Perrin‘s books  I have read.

Valérie said she decided to write the story of an aunt after hearing a child shouting ‘Tatà!’

Does it ever happen to you that a single detail strikes you, turning into a kind of key to much bigger emotions or thoughts?

Where do you find your inspiration?

Valérie knows very well how to write a successful book, I imagine her a bit like an expert cook who uses many ingredients with the knowledge that they are right for the end result.

Tatà is set in Gueugnon in Burgundy, the author’s place of origin and deep province. 

Gueugnon is famous for its local soccer team  which has reached very high levels. Valérie’s father was a footballer in this team.

The heart of the story is told on the first page: the protagonist discovers that her aunt has re-dead.

Yes: re-dead, a term coined to represent the fact that she is told of the death of her aunt who has actually already been dead for three years.

Understanding how this is possible leads to the discovery of an aunt as immense as she is submerged like an iceberg.

How about you? Do you have an aunt of the heart?

THE BARD AND THE QUEEN

THE BARD AND THE QUEEN

Oct 5, 2024 | BOOKS, BOOKS

The Bard and the Queen is the book I received as a gift from my aunt and uncle, written by Paola Zannoner, known for writing many books for children, and published by DeA Planeta.

Paola Zannoner has a WordPress blog and the first thing she says about herself is that she lives in Florence.

I imagine that living in cities of art can confer the privilege of having an immense source of inspiration.

And it is the subject of inspiration that I would like to put to you, starting with this book.

I would say that there is no need to explain what a story entitled The Bard and the Queen could possibly be about.

I don’t know about you, but I have a particular fondness for Shakespeare.

I started reading the bilingual books, remember them? Every page had the text in the language opposite.

Il Bardo e la Regina

Back in the glorious days, which as you know I often quote, finding ways to learn languages was not a click away, and these books offered the possibility of having the translation available simultaneously, a bit like today’s online translators, and I point out ‘just a bit’ 🙂

Given that it is certainly not easy to choose, do you have a favourite work among all that Shakespeare has left us?

The book The Bard and the Queen mentions some of them in the course of our William’s life, explaining how they came about, that is, from the events that one day after another make up what is a person’s journey.

Do you think this is necessarily so?

I mean: can one write well about something one does not know?

Did Shakespeare live in the shoes of his characters?

Reading this book I visualised all the time the faces of the performers in the film Shakespeare in love.

But while my imagination did not particularly run to the faces, this book has in my opinion the merit of being sensory.

Smell.

The writer’s meticulous research focused my attention on the olfactory sense, succeeding in describing the atmosphere of a London that is not usually considered in this respect.

Have you ever read a book that was able to materialise one of the five senses?

I HAVE SEEN HER

I HAVE SEEN HER

Mar 9, 2024 | A COFFEE WITH, WOMEN, MUSIC, MUSIC, A COFFEE WITH, WOMEN

I saw her win it …

And “it” is the BB Global Force award presented by Billboard magazine during the BB Women in music ceremony. 

Global Force as an award given in recognition of a woman in the music industry who has made a significant contribution to the business and who, through her work and continued success, inspires generations of women to take on increasing responsibilities in the field.

The Women in music event celebrates women at the forefront of all fields of music from composers and songwriters to educators and all other music professions.

I saw her …

She needs no introduction: Annalisa, @nali is Global Force.

I did not follow her debut, and the first time I heard of her was in the measure of “good but second best.”

Until during a play organised by the middle school my son attends, a pupil struck me by singing about a blue cat. 

I then went to research and discovered that the song was by Annalisa.

Annalisa who for all these years has continued undaunted to be “good, but in second place”.

And yet there is not a person who does not know her ‘I saw her …’.

Despite having my radio perpetually on the frequency of Virgin, a radio that only plays rock music, without really knowing how or why, I have found the refrain of Mon amour in my head.

And ‘I saw her…’ has officially become part of my way of speaking: when I find myself describing something mixed, tangled, entangled.

Physics graduate Annalisa Scarrone, Nali, teaches us how to chase dreams and show the world the Global Force.

Did you see her win?

I dedicate this photo to Tony: ultimate Katy Perry connoisseur.

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL

Jul 1, 2023 | MUSIC, ROCK, WORLD

Glastonbury Festival is another iconic music event that takes place in the days following the summer solstice. 

Glastonbury is located about an hour from Stonehenge and is famous for the Glastonbury Tor or a hill on which St. Michael’s Tower is located.

 

There are legends about this place that lead back to Avalon, Ynys yr Afalon, the famous island linked to the myth of King Arthur, very exciting indeed.

Glastonbury also stands on a Ley line: a temporary line i.e. one of the lines that virtually connect places of historical significance related to the spiritual sphere.

Glastonbury Festival on the other hand concerns the musical sphere and was born in 1970 from the inspiration of Michael Evis after attending a Led Zeppelin performance.

What can we say … there is to be understood.

Throughout the years there have been memorable performances, difficult even to rank, out of all of them I would like to mention this one

Recently R.E.M. published on their twitter profile five songs taken from their 1999 concert asking their fans to vote for the best among: Loosing my religion, It’s the end of the world as we know it (we have already chatted about this song here)  Everybody hurts, At my most beautiful and Man on the moon. 

Would you know how to choose?
Or do you have your own favorite performance by any other artist?

The Glastonbury Festival is also a case opportunity to indulge in distinctive outfits, but they turn out differently than those sported in the California sunshine for Coachella. 

The British weather calls for raincoats and boots: here is a roundup of looks  among which we can admire Emma Watson. 

How about?
Sun or rain as long as there is good music!

And of course coffee 🙂 

CAT AT THE MET

CAT AT THE MET

May 6, 2023 | FASHION, MUSIC

 

Cat at the Met is the description that came to mind when I saw these images

 

 

on the instant I smiled but then I wondered what prompted Jared Leto to dress up as a cat. 

This is the Met Gala: an event created to raise funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute that over the years has become such a prestigious and coveted event not only in the fashion world that tickets, for those not included on the invitation list, are astronomically priced.

Nevertheless, the Met Gala has a strict rule: no cell phones and consequently no sharing on social media.

This perhaps contributes to the idea of exclusivity that Anna Wintour has built over the years making it an event that some refer to as “the Oscars of fashion.”

As a Meryl fan I inevitably associate Miranda Priestly,  by the way did you see that Andy was actually appearing in the video? 🙂

So back to the cat: Jared Leto was not the only one who wanted to follow the dress code of this edition by paying homage to Choupette, aka Karl Lagerfeld’s cat.

In fact, the Met Gala 2023 was also dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld as a preview of the Costume Institute’s exhibition A line of beauty:  at the Metropolitan Museum from May 5 to July 16.

Undoubtedly dressing up as a cat has made even we in our own small way are talking about it, but beyond that, do you find it a brilliant or irreverent idea?

Do you think this participation added a valuable contribution, or the risk of slipping into style fall?

Can we see it as a touch of irony or can it be a missed opportunity to give a message?

In general I think we all have a great need for levity, certainly we also have to learn from cats.

In the meantime we should maybe convince Jared Leto to be less tea guy 🙂 what do you think?

And maybe even less Cat at the Met.

Joking aside, now that he has felinely got our attention, we expect great things from the new Thirty seconds to Mars album due out on May 8, especially after the statements he made in an interview: listening to Italian 80s music during the filming of the movie House of Gucci  in which Jared played Paolo Gucci, left an important imprint of inspiration because it was able to reach the heart.

How can you blame him?

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