the end of the world, as we know it, and I feel fine (at the moment)

I know, Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
I love R.E.M., I adore Michael Stipe, I think he has been my fav rockstar since I was a teenager.
Document is a masterpiece but I have to say that I prefer Monster, maybe because it represents a turning point in my life, maybe because it was dedicated to River Phoenix.

but I don't want to talk about R.E.M. and Michel Stipe and River Phoenix in this post.
no.

Frank Fenner is an Australian scientist in the field of virology. He helped to eradicate the smallpox in the world,he wrote and co-wrote more than 20 books, he received so many prizes and honours in his life (he's almost 96) that it is impossible to think he could talk nonsense.
This man has predicted to an Australian newspaper few days ago that human race is destined to estinction within 100 years.
WOW. this means that we don't have much time, especially our future grandchildren....
Frank Fenner claims that the extinction of the human race is unavoidable and this is due to two main reasons: climate change and uncontrolled consumption linked with the ever increasing population. so, the main cause of our extinction is our evolution. Fenner said that before this century is over, "billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable."
I know it may sound odd but I find this extremely fascinating.

ps: have a look at our apocalyptic memes on Mperience!

single ladies (put a ring on it)

I confess I consider Liza Minnelli a great artist. I loved her Sally Bowles from the first time I saw her.
As I was only a child my sister used to listen to the soundtrack of Cabaret almost every day, at least twice.
At ten even if I didn't speak a word of English I was perfectly able to sing Money at the top of my voice.
One year later during my Christmas holidays I saw The Wizard of Oz on TV. Someone told me that fantastic Dorothy Gale was Sally's mom. Yes, that Dorothy that tapped her heels three times singing "there's no place like home".
Incredible.
They both became my idols.

I saw the last Sex and the City movie a couple of weeks ago. it was worst than I expected, I'm sorry to say that. I read many bad reviews but I think those journalists were magnanimous at the end. They decided not to rage too much at this movie.
Ok, I'm a pain in the ass, I know... but there's one thing I can save in that movie, and it is exactly the one below.




Liza performing Single Ladies. I would forgive everything to this woman...

Watch this meme about Sex and the City on Mperience!

shutter island

First of all,unlike Gronwall Di Caprio is not at the top of my list even if I'm a heterosexual. I think he has the typical physiognomy which can attract teenagers (especially now that his face is becoming more and more roundish... sorry Gronwall).
In spite of this I believe he is a very talented and brilliant actor, so brilliant that Martin Scorsese recently seems very keen on having him in many of his movies. I really loved his interpretation of Arnie in What's eating Gilbert Grape by Lasse Hallstrom in 1993, it was simply moving.

About Shutter Island, my mother told me "You have to see it, it's your kind of movie".
"Is it Mum?"
"Yes, those strange movies you usually like and I don't"
"like what?"
"like I don't know, the ones you are into, monsters, ghosts,goblins, spirits, murderers, psychopaths, possessions, slaughters, graveyards, zombies,vampires, werewolves, poltergeists.... ".
"ok ok stop it...I think I understand now"

Shutter Island is not about monsters, but in a way it is.
The monsters I'm talking about are those produced by our minds, those that never die, those that repeatedly come back. Those monsters never leave us alone sometimes even when we sleep, even when we think they finally disappeared.
those monsters are connected with the Sleep of Reason that produces them.
I don't want this to be a spoiler so I won't say anything more about the plot. The movie reminded me a lot of Goya's etching El sueno de la Razon produce monstruos which I believe it to be a powerful iconic image of the unconscious.
Very brilliant performance of Mr Ben Kingsley.

a minute of mayhem

Mr Malcom McLaren died on the 8th of april this year at 64.
This controversial and bizarre man proclaimed himself the inventor of punk and I believe he was. In the early 70s he briefly managed the New York Dolls at the beginning of their career and later he was the brilliant impresario of Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Sid Vicious aka the Sex Pistols.
Some say he was a genius, some an impostor, others say he was just a marketing prodigy. I think he was all these things together, surely his great merit is to have brought Punk to a wider audience.
His funeral was held in London on April 22nd and his family asked to observe the funeral procession (the black horse-drawn coffin was painted with the words"too fast to live too young to die") and to observe "a minute of Mayhem"in his honor at noon. The precise instructions were "put on your fav record and let it RIP".
I'm really sorry I missed Mr McLaren's procession in Camden lock, but in my own small way I decided to play out loud the Buzzcocks ever fallen in love....
RestInPeace dear old genius bugger!

Amazing Things You can Discover about Yourself with Google's New Interface

I had a dream tonight, of Leonardo DiCaprio telling me: "I like to get kissed before I get fucked."

So sweet, uh?

Then, as soon as I reached my office, I went ask Google about that admittedly disturbing phrase (I'm flattered, Leo, really - would I ever have a gay experience, you're at the top of the list): you know, I often use Google (and the Web) as a supplementary Jungian unconscious- and I'm not the only one around doing so for sure (according to these guys, you'd better stay home on July 8th - a major terrorist attack is due by that date - provided that you really want to assist to the World War III, in theaters November 11th, 2010).

Thus I asked Google... and what a surprise!

Google's New Look

Go query Google! for whatever. You will notice this new panel on the left, with lots of options to chose from (click on "More" or "Show search tools").

Looking for videos? Or blogs? Want something new? Latest? Past 24 hours?

Are you annoyed by all that shopping sites? Filter them out.

Ok, the new Google's look can make you feel uncomfortable for a while: it's like an old friend of yours with a funny haircut or a new pair of glasses...

(Not the same feeling with Facebook's ever-changing interface, righ?:).

Ok, most of these things where already there, just somehow hidden. But I think it definitely improves the user experience...

What's your opinion, my dear reader?

But, before you answer, just one more thing...

The guys at Google added a new (at least for me) crazy feature.

Read on.

How I Discovered I'm 161 Years Old

I was searching for "Leonardo DiCaprio" when, suddenly, I noticed this tiny link: "Timeline" - the left panel, again.

C'mon, let's click!

A strange plot will show up, telling you where Leo left a sign on History.

For example, Google tells me that Leonardo DiCaprio's first appearance dates back to 1860 (Gangs of New York, I guess); then you have a lot of hits in the recent past, something you would expect; but you have to look at the mid 1950s to see where Leo really belongs to (guess again: Revolutionary Road?).

Cool.

Then I queried Google about myself: alas, nothing interesting... Then I tried with this extension of my ego - looked for Mperience.

Wow, guys, we're already there in 1849!

We feel so young and startuppish, but we are 161 years old, in fact...

The Challenge

Now, dear readers, go search for yourself.

How Google-old are you? Can you beat us? :)

PS: btw, Leonardo DiCaprio's quote - "I like to get kissed..." - is from Blood Diamond.

Jonathan Safran Foer/savouring the flavour of murder

While reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer I felt a strong empathy for the writer. But I am not a man, I am not jewish, I am not in my thirties, I am not American.
Eating Animals is a non-ficton work where Foer tries to explain why we (the first world) eat so much meat and why we shouldn't. The strange thing is that we love animals and we spend a lot of money for our loving pets (buying them even presents), and then we eat an incredible huge number of animals every year. The point is that we don't need to eat so much meat and also the animals we're eating are raised in barbaric conditions. In fact they are bred to produce the maximum amount of meat in the minimum amount of time and with the minimum cost. Foer ends up telling us many stories even concerning his childhood and his youth during which he tried several times to become a vegetarian and several times violated this intention. I liked very much this aspect of his personality maybe because doesn't make him appear a rigid and extremist animalist activist. Another story concerns the amount of antibiotics we ingest eating animals: the antibiotics farmers give to livestock create also new resistant germs called superbugs.
Moreover, farming industries strongly contribute to the pollution of our planet, in any possible way (eg: the pigs processed by a single company, Smithfield Foods, generate as much excrement as all of the human residents of the states of California and Texas combined.)
Then last but not least Foer talks about suffering, and sometimes I had to stop reading this part for a while: we now that animals are killed in the slaughterhouses but maybe we are not aware that sometimes cows are dismembered and skinned alive.
Do we need other reasons to stop eating or at least strongly reduce our consumption of meat?

That's what Morrisey wrote in 1985, at that time he was my guru:

Meat is Murder

Heifer whines could be human cries
Closer comes the screaming knife
This beautiful creature must die
This beautiful creature must die
A death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER

And the flesh you so fancifully fry
Is not succulent, tasty or kind
It's death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER

And the calf that you carve with a smile
It is MURDER
And the turkey you festively slice
It is MURDER
Do you know how animals die?

Kitchen aromas aren't very homely
It's not "comforting", cheery or kind
It's sizzling blood and the unholy stench
Of MURDER

It's not "natural", "normal" or kind
The flesh you so fancifully fry
The meat in your mouth
As you savour the flavour
Of MURDER

NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
Oh ... and who cares about an animals life?

I love Lovecraft

I usually don't buy writers collections but Lovecraft deserves it.
I found a collection of all his works including some letters (some believe that his correspondence is his biggest achievement) and very rare short stories. I was struck by this writer's weird and sad life: I didn't know that he'd lost both his mother and father in a mental hospital . As a boy, Lovecraft suffered from different ailments probably because of his psychological condition. He attended school until the age of eight. Then his mother withdrew him: according to some biographers, in order to justify this she convinced him he was so ugly that he couldn't go out.. as he would scare people. After his mother's death he was raised by his two old aunts and even got married (with a woman who was 7 years older than him). He lived for a while in New York with his wife, then he returned to Providence in 1926 and spent there the rest of his brief life writing, until he died ten years later.
During his life he was relatively unknown and published his stories on pulp magazines that scarcely payed him. Today he is considered an important American writer and a master of the horror fiction by many writers and film directors such as Stephen King, Clive Barker, John Carpenter, Guillelmo del Toro and many many others. Jorge Louis Borges wrote a short story in his memory and many rock bands were inspired by his masterpieces (among them Metallica). His creatures are so real and frightening that I have often dreamt about Cthulhu, Dagon and Ghouls during my best fanciful nightmares.

trying to explain to Travis what Mperience is....

What's Mperience? the doctor asks.
ok, so, let's start from the beginning, the doc is a bit slow on the uptake.
it's a web site.
really? I didn't know...
The doc is kidding me, he knew it.
It's a site where you can find connections, interrelations and associations among things.
"Wow!", says the doctor.
When he goes "wow" with that tone of voice I know he's not getting anything at all.
He goes "wow" with that same tone of voice everytime he watches a David Lynch movie!!
It's a site where you can find connections and where you can MAKE your own connections if you wish.
It's a site where you can give vent to your creative side, building connections between.. for example, a book and a movie.
or among a book, a drawing and a movie. or between a movie and a song, or even between a poem and a drawing, or between a novel and a movie.. between two movies, a movie character and a singer, an actor and a politician.. and between a movie character and a real character.
The doctor looks at me twisting his little head. He says nothing. He just stares at me with those little twinkling round eyes that look so much like marbles it makes me wanna hit them and play.
"Right!" he goes.
When he says "right" with that tone of voice I can tell a whole new world just opened up to him... it once happened when I told him that Ridley Scott's the Duellists is based on The Duel by Joseph Conrad... and it happened again when he found out that Captain Sensible was part of the Damned.. and again when he discovered George Eliot was a girl.

an unsophisticated Keyser Soze

Ronald Tackmann is a genius, no doubt about it. he's also an eclectic artist his inventiveness doesn't seem to have any limits.
I read about him on the New York Magazine and I was very amused by his story.
The man has been a guest of the Riker Island prison since 1985 (or even before?), when he first decided to escape. How? he made his own gun, carving it out of a soap. And he succeded in his break-out til two of his cons, hoping to get their sentences reduced jumped him. After six months he made another gun with a box of matches, graphite from a pencil and used cans. he ended up locked 23 hours a day and in that little cell became a jailhouse inventor. he projected energy efficient houses, jet helicopters, a pocket size survival tent and many many other weird and useless inventions.
About one year ago he entered the court of Manhattan as a prisoner and went out as a lawyer. They took him within 24 hours after he went to visit his mother and ate in his favourite restaurant in New York.
I think his biography could be a brilliant movie directed by Joel and Ethan Coen starring the talented John Turturro.

about Mperience

When I try to explain what Mperience is I always end up being very frustrated. I probably cannot find the right words and it seems all so complicate.
When I had the chance to show the homepage and the contents of Mperience the feedback had always been great. This demonstrates that things are always simpler than we think and imagine.
Due to this reason I thought that I can try to talk about Mperience in a way that I would do ON Mperience:
connecting my description with something else, a song for exemple.
There's a very nice song by Elvis Costello taken from his album Blood and Chocolate dated 1986, Uncomplicated.
the lyrics seems to be a bit hazy but I've always found my own meaning in this song, that is even if things seem to be complex, intricate and sometimes even tortuous in many cases they're not.



Blood and Chocolate
I hope you're satisfied what you have done
You think it's over now
But we've only just begun

I asked for water
And they gave me rose' wine
A horse that knows arithmetic
And a dog that tells your fortune

It's in your eyes
Uncomplicated

I want to buy you
A big blue Diamel
Cheap white plastic shoes
That don't walk out and don't let in

It's in your eyes
Uncomplicated

I want to show you
How I love you
When you're over me
There's no-one above you

It's in your eyes
Uncomplicated

You think it's over now
But this is only the beginning

It's in your eyes
Uncomplicated




Is it all clear now?

Mr Albarn & friends

During the Britpop years I definitely was a Blur supporter. I couldn't stand the Gallaghers and their unexplained air of superiority. Today Noel and Liam still haven't given up drinking quarreling and being rude to everyone.
On the contrary, Mr Albarn is the genius, brilliant leader and inventor of one of the most interesting musical projects of the last ten years, the virtual band Gorillaz (and he's still the sexiest boy around...).
The co-creator of the band, Jamie Hewlett is an incredibly talented cartoonist, I suggest reading his Tank Girl (the australian punk girl whose boyfriend is a mutant kangaroo) if you still haven't, you won't regret it.
Gorillaz are finally back after 5 years, and, let me say, they're unstoppable!
This new cd features guest appearances by Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), Mick Jones (the Clash), Bobby Womack and Mr Lou Reed.. in person.
Damon Albarn recorded in Beirut also with the National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music and with the orchestra Sinfonia ViVa.
Put in the pot classical, techno, punk, soul, rock, R&B, folk with a large amount of pure and simple POP, mix well together and you have Plastic Beach.
the first single Stylo, featuring Bobby Womack is marvelous, it seems that during the recording Womack was invited to sing freely whatever came to his mind. Even the videoclip is a masterpiece, featuring Bruce Willis driving an old chevrolet and chasing 2D, Murdoc and an apparently robotic Noodle.
My fav song is definitely Glitter Freeze only because hearing Mark E Smith's voice always gives me a thrill, remembering the good old days of the Fall.


ps: go on the new Plastic Beach site and watch Tattoo indicating you the lift and calling you Boss as in Fantasy Island.