Am I back at Warwick??

Well well well, I thought my period at Warwick was over; I thought I could never write in my Warwick-blog again…

but that's not true!

I am now in Italy, my butt is glued to the chair in my office, and I can write in my English blog… pretty cool!

I want to change something… the name of my blog?? I don't like shreds of beauty anymore, that's too sweet and weak for me.
Let's see something else… Satan? Childish… but I'd like to remain in the religious circle… Habemus Papam? I pretty like that!!
Yeah! Habemus Papam Josephum Sacrae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Ratzinger!!
Habemus Papam, new name for my blog!!

: 09 May 2005 10:02 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Shreds of Beauty

A new title. Maybe I have to give an explanation.
Due to my laziness and my chronic lack of time, it's not possible to write long and articulated entries.
That's why from now on (till I change again my ideas) I am writing short entries, some film review (always short) and then wonderful Shreds of Beauty, of which you've already read an example some days ago.
So, the explanation is over, and also this entry.
Beauty is all around. It's up to us to see it.

: 14 Feb 2005 17:08 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Review The Merchant of Venice

After the movie the only question left is:
where is Shakespeare??

The answer:
Far, far away from Michael Radford...

: 05 Feb 2005 16:32 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Review: Vera Drake

I have to clear my opinions: she is great, she is really a great actress, and the topic is so interesting!

BUT

the soundtrack was absolutely crap, and the movie, as a whole, was unbearably boring.
Why must good movies always be so boring? why do interesting topics (almost) always give birth to slow and "grey" movies?

AND

speaking with the audience: what kind of sick and stupid person do you have to be to laugh at Vera Drake's daughter's ugliness for the whole lenght of the whole movie?
How long can you be laughing at her?

: 02 Feb 2005 16:32 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

So Much Beauty

Down there everything is so still and silent that it lulls me to sleep.
It is a weird Lullaby, and so it is, but it is mine.
There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave - under the deep deep sea...

From The Piano, by Jane Campion, 1993.
The last three lines are from the poem Silence, by Thomas Hood (1799 – 1845).

: 26 Jan 2005 18:07 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

All of My Sadness

Yesterday I was told the probabily I'm going to spend another period in England, working as teacher of Italian in some "English school" (I have no idea of its level: University? High school??). The period would be from October 1st, 2005 till May 31st, 2006.
Now, after a day of hilarious joy, I am finally sad.
I had a dream last term, just before leaving for the Christmas vacation, about what I can call The Traveller's Sadness.
If you're a traveller, you have to leave a place that you consider "yours"/ "your home", and you have to leave your friends, your lovers, the people you love, to reach a place in which you're a stranger, with no friends, just "others".
Then, after the first days, you begin to settle down, you get to know the place, and, after a little bit more, you get to know someone. Time passes, and you realize that that place, so "foreign" to you, has now become "yours"/ "your home", and that the "people you know", actually can be considered as "friends".
You love that place, you love that people.
Actually, you even get used to the food, that now doesn't taste so horrible as the first days.
And now you have to leave.
You have to say: "Goodbye everybody! And, just in case we don't see each other again, have a wonderful life!".
You have to leave your room, your house, your home, your place and all the people you love, and reach a place in which you're a stranger, with no friends, just "others".
And it begins again.

When you realize that, you can understand the traveller's sadness.

: 18 Jan 2005 14:11 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I am back

Yeah, just like the sun in the morning, I am back in England. Just now I am in the IT Centre – and Kathryn is randomly talking of starting a new category of entries for the Things I Love About Life because she cannot get comments on her blog.
I have no idea of what I have to write, maybe just that I am back, that I am quite good – even if I have a terrible pain in my right ear – Dr. Shields said is an external otitis and it's gonna be over in a week – and that I am really missing my country.
When I first got here in England I just wanted to be far away from home, from my friends, from Italy. Coming back here after X-mas has been harder, I'm really missing home and friends. Can anybody tell me why? Someone told me that's because the first time everything was new in England, now it's just another routine. I disagree. The problem is not England, but Italy. Why did I start missing it? I don't know.

Oh, gosh, Kathryn has just deleted all of the entries of her Diary! They were so funny! I'm starting to think that she has some kind of strange craziness. For sure!

: 08 Jan 2005 21:19 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Back home!

Ok, we're arrived… finally tomorrow I'll be leaving to London, and then, on Tuesday, I'll take the flight to Rome, and I'll be back home.

I have to write something summing up the first three months (half) of my time in The University of Warwick.
My research: As you may know, I am doing my dissertation on Sodomy in the Renaissance (and its Representation in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama). I have found a lot of articles and books here in the library – and I haven't yet searched among the old texts… However, I have a lot of material, but the real problem is that I haven't read (all of) it. So: next term: I have to read. Ok, this is a plan.
My German: Well, I have no idea whether my German is improved or not. I hope so, 'cause I have to pass my last German exam in Italy (!). Well… I have to tell the truth: I don't think I'm improved. Oh, no!
My friends: Definitely, I got new friends here. Two or three of them will be, probabily, friends for all the rest of my life (poor them!), the others, I don't know. However, I thought I would have been full of friends, but that's not true. Maybe I am less friendly than I think… or maybe English people are really tough! (The second is the right answer. They're so cold – kind, but cold – in no way friendly.)
Me: Well, I'm changed. I'm probabily a worse human being than before (sharper, colder – I'd like to say: "Like a blade", but than I think: "Oh, c'mon! So rhetoric! So crap! Who do you want to impress?").
My health: In the end, not bad at all. I've got two colds, a sore throat (one-week long, but I am used to it), and a starting sore-throat (I killed it!), and, now, this new fucking illness just two days before leaving (fuck off!), a pain in the right ear and jaw-bone (and maybe a little bit of fever yesterday in the library). So now I am half deaf (more than half, since that was my good ear…!). Not bad, not bad.
My English: Can I be really critical? Well, maybe you're a little bit faster in your speaking (and hearing – I can understand people talking in the TV!), but you make a lot of mistakes, more than before. What does that mean? No idea. And I know something. If English people were a little bit more friendly, I could talk more in English, and so I could improve faster and faster. But usually they don't talk to me – and I have nothing to tell 'em. Shame on me!
My cooking skills: I guess they're improved, but I'm not sure. Things here are different from Italy, the taste is really different, so I've no idea.

What's left? Is something missing? I don't think…Let's see… Well, no romance, please, I am here only for six months… I don't speak other languages… The launderette does the washing for me… the Cleaning Ladies clean up my mess… Think I'm done. Oh, no! I am a great, great housewife!
My housewife skills: I can really do the shopping, and actually save money buying stuff in different places, studying the advertisement of the sales, and, with my Tesco card (that, actually, is anonimous - so it's not mine, but will be Kathryn's) I'm getting a lot of points! (more than 400 in less than three months!)
And I can iron very well! Is there someone that wants to marry me??

Yeah, this is a big step! The future is shining to me!

[This is the future that's shining to me through the present's un-shining-ness-es (have I told you that I'm a great generator of new words??)]

: 19 Dec 2004 19:42 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Hamlet (26th November 2004)

I really liked it!
I thought that a bunch of students would have done something terrible to my favourite English play, but, damn, it was good!
The actor who played Hamlet was good (Bravo, Ben!) – even if in the scene with the ghost of the father he was simply too much; I mean, at the end of that I was tired! That scene was a little bit too much – the whole of it (too much violence – he is his father! Isn't he?).
The Queen was really well played (and I have to admit that I cried in the scene when she gives flowers to poor dead Ophelia…!).
I cried even in the scene of the "yet to me what is it this quintessence of death?" – that was really (REALLY!) well done! Bravi!
I would like to ask something to someone (the director?):
Why was Horatio a woman? in this way you've cancelled all the homoerotic appeal of the play – but I have to admit that you've replaced it with the "lesbian" kiss between Guilderstern and Rosencratz.
And what about King Claudio? He seemed an Italian mafia godfather…
And why in the Cooler(now I know why they called it "COOLer")?
And who have chosen the music? It was perfect!
Are you guys going to play it again? If so, I book a seat!

: 29 Nov 2004 13:48 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I get tired

I don't know if I am the only one, but here in England I usually get tired of new stuff after a week.
I discovered that Brussels sprouts are really good if you let them cook in the microwave for two minutes (or something like that), and after a week, I simply cannot stand to see a single microwaved Brussel sprout.
Then I discovered the most delicious dish ever cooked: the Spinach Cannelloni by Bird's Eye (they sell them in Coastcutter for 99p). After a week, I simply vomit if I see a single Spinach Cannellone.
Now it's the same for the blog. I've been living for it for the past week, now I get so tired of it that I think I am, just now, wasting my preciuos time.
So, I think I'll get rid of it, or use it only for the pictures – that's its original purpose.
Thank you and goodbye!

: 21 Nov 2004 15:51 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem