MY OPPONENT PLAYS TENNIS

MY OPPONENT PLAYS TENNIS

Jul 13, 2024 | PENDING COFFEE FOR, PENDING COFFEE FOR

My opponent plays tennis is the prelude to the challenge that Fabrizio Canciani was forced to face.

These days tennis is the focus of media attention and everyone, sport people or not, follows it in some way, but I would like to tell you about this different tennis match.

Fabrizio Canciani is a writer and singer-songwriter, an exponent of that artistic Milan  that always gives a strong sense of belonging and the beauty of that side that retains its characteristic connotation while downplaying its cosmopolitan aspect.

Defined as ‘the cabaret artist lent to the crime novel‘ Fabrizio has staged, among others, the show Murders and songs, which is also a book.

La mia avversaria gioca a tennis

His books published by Todaro Editore  number seven, between 2004 and 2011, and then there are books with other publishers.

To describe Fabrizio in an immediate and effective manner, I will quote the words of introduction to one of his books:
I met Canciani in an underground club, very underground, more underground than club, in short, in the suburbs; where, at a time of great television noise, they were trying their hand at intelligent cabaret. Or not.
He is a good one, even when he writes. I highly recommend reading his detective story.
Or not.
Enzo Jannacci 

La mia avversaria gioca a tennis

Among the songs Fabrizio has written, I cannot fail to mention Nerazzuri siamo noi. 

Fabrizio also sang at the San Siro for the Scudetto celebration in 2007.

La mia avversaria gioca a tennis

Sure he also sung for the double star this year, but not on the pitch.

Because his opponent plays tennis.

Antonius Block, a noble Scandinavian knight, on his return from the Crusades in the Holy Land, finds death waiting for him on the beach. She would like to take him away but the knight decides to challenge her at chess. An unequal challenge, death knows a thousand tricks, he is invincible. He is only trying to buy a little time, just a little time. Just the length of a film: The Seventh Seal by Igmar Bergman.
I wasn’t coming back from any crusade, I detest crusades, even crosswords bore me.
I had my life.
And I liked it. In fact, I was going through a really happy time, which is not so obvious these days.
But one day, on my way home, I too found an adversary waiting for me, to challenge me. Not on the beach, in the kitchen, at dinner.
Death? No, worse, worse. In the meantime, death plays chess, you sit there nice and quiet, you move the pawns, you think about it, you cannot hope for luck but only for ingenuity, and if you sweat it is only because of the tension.
My opponent plays tennis …

Go on reading here. 

La mia avversaria gioca a tennis

E PER LA GENTE CHE … AND FOR THE PEOPLE WHO

E PER LA GENTE CHE … AND FOR THE PEOPLE WHO

May 4, 2024 | ITALY, ITALY, MUSIC, MUSIC, SPORT, SPORT

And for people who
love only you
For all those kilometres I have travelled for you
International you must win!

I particularly like this ‘and for the people who.’ 

The people.
The people who, on Sunday 30 April, celebrated Inter’s second star when the championship is not yet over, after a year of great satisfaction that made up for loooooooong let’s say more unfortunate times.

But also people with a passion,
People who sing, cheer, smile, celebrate. Positive people, joyful people.

Supporters world is a varied galaxy that encompasses many types of people and undoubtedly part of if has many faults and criticisms.

Anyway Sunday was the day of those who prefer brotherhood to violence, of those who share and unite.

I’ll tell you a little episode that happened on the underground: a platform quite crowded with people waiting with flags, scarves, shirts and whatever else.

Four or five very young boys arrive from the opposite railway, see the fans and shout “Go Inter!”

Immediately the supporters dedicated to them a chorus.

A little girl with very long hair, up to that moment on the sidelines with her daddy, pulls out a flag bigger than her and starts waving it.

Joyful eyes, smiles.

And then the youngest of the kids in front exclaims ‘He’s a Milan fan though!’

General laughter.

Joy.

There, far from all the dynamics of the market, earnings, business, rivalry, rancour, danger, a small moment that we will always remember.

That’s what I like about soccer.

🎵And for the people who …🎵🎵

I think that listening to the Inter supporters singing this song in chorus is very evocative, not to mention when the voices are added to the lights of the mobile phones that create like a firmament in unison, in a word magic.

It happened that this chorus of lights in the stadium was followed by a lucky action, and someone attributed the phenomenon to the Love Frequency.

The famous 528Hz representing the DNA frequency as if the body knows how to tune in to this frequency. Have you ever heard of this?

In these contexts, the boundary between the spiritual sphere and the concrete part blends, but the theory rests on real grounds.

You can find an explanatory study here. 

Note that the test subjects were asked not to consume caffeine!

Crazy stuff … 🙂

Joking aside, oxytocin should go up, for example.

What do you think?

Are you a supporter?

What would be an appropriate song to create your Love Frequency?

aTUTTOCUORE

aTUTTOCUORE

Jan 27, 2024 | MUSIC, MUSIC

aTUTTOCUORE with all my heart I would like to thank my brother and sister-in-law because after Twelve Notes again this year my birthday present was a wonderful experience.

A musical experience but also a visual and sensorial one, because at every concert Claudio Baglioni manages to amaze with different versions while remaining true to himself.

After the debut in Pesaro, the indoor version of aTUTTOCUORE started at the Mediolanum Forum in MILAN on 20, 21 and 22 January and will continue on 5 and 6 February.

A show that you shouldn’t miss.

aTUTTOCUORE opens with E tu come stai? And it is just as if Claudio wanted to pick up the thread of the conversation with his fans: like a long public dialogue but at the same time intimate because of the way he gives himself.

This is followed by Dagli il via… and of course ‘the start’ is only the beginning of a long sequence of surprises.

Then Acqua dalla luna … hurry audience … you will see …

you will see the wonder created by the perfect combination of costumes by and choreography by Veronica Peparini directed by Giuliano Peparini.

I will continue with the set list:
Con tutto l’amore che posso and Quante volte featured by Claudio Baglioni’s funny dance moves and by the powerful peculiarity of this show: the images on the maxi-screens blending with the play of light and the evolutions of all the artists up and down the stairs of the stage set create an enthralling three-dimensionality. 

Then Un po di piu’
Gli anni più belli
Domani mai
Quanto ti voglio
Fammi andar via
Niente più
E adesso la pubblicità
A tutto cuore.

Claudio puts his heart into everything, in the sense of energy, in the sense of wanting to make music at its best, using his heart which, as he said in an interview, can also be considered a percussion instrument, as well as the calendar that marks our time.

And more: Mal d’amore
W l’Inghilterra
Sono io
Cuore D’Aliante
Uomo di varie età
Le ragazze dell’est
Uomini persi
Noi no
Amori in corso
Un nuovo giorno un giorno nuovo
Con voi

and with us Claudio sang illuminating the audience with multidirectional and totally inclusive beams of light.

Unmissable Questo piccolo grande amore
Dodici note
Io sono qui
Amore bello
Solo
Sabato pomeriggio
Porta portese in a current version enriched with a riot of cheerful playfulness.

Avrai
Io me ne andrei
That masterpiece of Mille giorni di me e di te
My favourite for ‘the hair-raising coffee Via

E tu
Strada facendo
La vita è adesso
and concluding with the music of Poster.

At that point, instead of going far away, you just want to stay so as not to interrupt the magic, but on the screen the faces of the countless musicians, choristers, dancers, artists and performers scroll by.

One above all is the dancer Antonio Ciarciello, chosen after an epic casting, given the number of candidates, who all the time dances as a sort of alter ego.

What do you say? The set list is quite long, yet there are always a few songs missing from the poems in music that Claudio has written.

As many as there are songs, as many are the jackets that Claudio Baglioni has worn: a different one for each song, without ever a moment’s interruption, in a constant succession.

Also incessant is the kaleidoscope of images, futuristic and current, as well as evocative and suggestive by light designer Ivan Pierri. 

Paolo Gianolio, who has collaborated uninterruptedly with Claudio Baglioni since the 1985 album La vita è adesso.

Many years have passed since then, and yet … La vita è adesso: life is now … is it?

Which is your favourite?

I’LL EVEN PUT IT IN COFFEE

I’LL EVEN PUT IT IN COFFEE

Sep 2, 2023 | WHO CARES, WHO CARES

I’ll even put it in coffee how many times have you said these words referring to something you like so much that you use it everywhere?

If you were to give a wacky example of something you would even put in coffee, what would you say?

What if I said oil?

Yes: extra virgin olive oil.

The person who thought of putting it in coffee is Howard Schultz aka the one who during a trip to Milan in the 1980s got the inspiration that led him to create Starbucks.

By the way, I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but associate Starbucks with this scene from You’ve got mail every time.

So we also listened again to Dolores‘ voice in Dreams.

But back to our evo oil, would you have dreamed of putting it in your coffee?

Howard Schulz did, and again the idea came to him during a vacation in Italy, this time in Sicily.

He even started a collaboration whereby Starbucks’ Oleato line is prepared strictly with Partanna oils. 

Unfortunately, I never tasted Partanna’s oil but undoubtedly in Italy extra virgin olive oil is excellent.

For example, the oil that a friend brought me from Puglia was almost as precious as liquid gold, so good that I had to get it out of sight, because with bread on hand I would not have been able to resist.

I could almost say that I liked it so much that I even put it in my coffee …

For that matter, it is not so outlandish: if we think of the more famous bullet coffee aka coffee with butter.

More precisely bulletproof coffee which more than bulletproof is hungerproof since it contains clarified butter and coconut oil and is on a mission to maintain satiety without taking food in the morning.

Will Oleato follow the same purpose in your opinion?

Actually, Starbucks has introduced a line of beverages that contain other ingredients in addition to coffee and oil.

The consistency of the oil can undoubtedly provide more body to the coffee, and it may be that it also works in terms of taste, the variables are many both in terms of the coffee blend and the degree of acidity of the evo, but is it the sum that makes the total?

MEMENTO MORI

MEMENTO MORI

Mar 18, 2023 | MUSIC, ROCK

Memento mori are the words on the official of Depeche mode website, written in an original way, under a countdown in red.

Memento mori is the title of Depeche Mode‘s  new work to be released on March 24th.

Do you ever find particular connections on multiple levels, with respect to artistic forms that represent elements that are particularly close to your heart?

Here it is: on the official Instagram profile you can find this video showing, somewhat in speed painting style, a huge mural depicting wings … and you know I have a thing for wings, right?

But my connection with Depeche Mode is very very far back in time: my first concert in Milan.

By the way, Milan recurs in their story because Violator was partly recorded right in Milan in the Mecenate area.

Legendary is the anecdote of the sound of footsteps on the staircase trumpet, other than electronic percussion …

Speaking of Violator tomorrow is the anniversary of its release: March 19, 1990.

33, like Jesus age, that Personal Jesus they wanted to personalize, humanize, make tangible.

Feeling unknown
And you’re all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I’ll make you a believer

This concept expressed in the song was somehow made real with the launch to promote the single: a simply brilliant idea.

On a page of the Melody Maker appeared only a telephone number accompanied by the words Your Own Personal Jesus.

Those who called the number had the opportunity to hear the fragment “reach out and touch faith” followed by the very famous riff.

Isn’t this music history?

By the way, doesn’t it make you nostalgic for the days when phones didn’t follow us every minute of the day, and when the idea of “fearing” unknown phone numbers as a potential source of commercial stalking would never have crossed our minds?

But back to Memento mori: it means “remember you must die.”

I fortunately or unfortunately can never think of these words without associating them with Non ci resta che piangere, so instead of crying, I smile.

Also Dave Gahan and Martin Gore want to mean their Memento mori in a positive sense, as a Carpe Diem: live to the fullest.

As Fletch would have it.

And so here they are, in the video once again edited by Anton Corbijn playing chess with death as in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal

Ghosts again …

The journey of life: from trying to make the spirit tangible, to thinking about being happy even after something is over.

Do you think it’s really the perfect balance of melancholy and joy like Dave Gahan?

Can you remind yourself that “you have to die”?

I know, posed like this, this question seems absurd, I often get angry with myself: when I get caught up in the daily delusions instead of valuing every single day, every single moment.

Tell me that you are better at this than I am.

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