8 1/2

I have never tried to hide it (just the opposite) but I am a huge admirer of the art of Federico Fellini. Frankly I consider him to be the greatest film director that ever lived. I have watched more than 15 of his movies (several times) and the more I watch them, the more enchanted I become with them.One of my favourite movies is 8 1/2 (Otto e mezzo) and although it is considered deeply intellectual it impresses mostly with its powerful imagery and vision. There are 2 moments that I really love in this movie and I have watched them over and over again.The first is when the main character Guido (starring Marcello Mastroianni) is a little boy and he goes with his friends from school to see a gypsy prostiture called Saraghina dancing the Rumba on the seashore. The dance of Saraghina is truly amazing - she is an unattractive but a lustful and demonic woman but what you see on her face is the pure passion to dance, to feel free and to be admired. She manages to capture the imgination of the boys and later a priest tells Guido: "Don't you know that Saraghina is the devil"

The other scene is when Guido starts imagining that he lives in a big house with all the women he met in his life - his wife, his mistress, his sister-in-law, his aunt, a stewardess he met on a flight to Coppenhagen and many more. He is the master of the house and all women love him and obey him. This is a story about an insecure intellectual who puts himself in the centre of the world but the imagery of the movies is brilliant. My favourite scene is when his women give him as a present a sexy black girl who starts dancing the Rumba for him (the same dance as Saraghina). Truly this is one of the most famous scenes in film history. It is not about men dominating over women - this is about the admiration and adorating that Fellini has for all women -the wat they enchant him and inspire him.... I recommend this movie to anyone who believes that cinema is not just a 2 hour kill-time entertainment but real art. In the future I plan to continue writing in brief about Fallini - I just hope that someone will take interest.

Just milk?

Here in Italy I have discovered something truly interesting. This week when I was shopping in the supermarket, I was about to buy some milk and I looked at its expiration date by chance. The label said that the milk would go bad in 3 days. The first thing I though was "I have to drink it all just for 3 days". Then I started looking for other kinds of milk and I found another package which was supposed to be milk with extended expiration date which was....6 days. And then the bell rang in my head- I recalled that back in Bulgaria I had been buying milk with more than 3 or 4 MONTHS expiration period. If you are a real Bulgarian patriot you might think: "This is because our milk is stronger than lame Western milk". I wish I were all that optimistic... It horrified me what exactly Bulgarian milk producers put in the milk to make it last for so long. I mean... you don't really expect that organic food would survive in the fridge for more then 10 days. And then all other bells started ringing in my head (really noisy, I tell you) - I remember when Bulgaria joined the EU, there were those huge protests and complaints that the EU does not allow Bulgarian farmers to export milk to the internal market. Bulgarian producers were shown as victims of the greedy, cruel, imperialistic EU. How about Bulgarian consumers ....

This whole experience disgusted me to the point that everytime I buy something I read the label in details. Luckily, in the EU there is a law that forces producers to provide information about their products... Luckily!!!

Pasta über alles!

One of the few successful events of my Italian existence - a nicely cooked, hot, delicious pasta! Usually my cooking is beyond terrible put this time I managed to make a simple recipe -just boil the pasta and put butter and tuna fish. I did enjoy it. After some time you start loving the pasta - Italians eat it all the time and I wonder how they don't get fat. On the other hand I have been trying to understand for 23 years why I don't get fat but all in vain. All guess it will all remain one of the big mysteries of our time - UFOs, pyramids, who killed Kennedy and I why the hell I don't put on any weight.
Anyway, who cares

The camera-man

The moment of truth has come... No, I am not adopted, I just have a new camera :) It's an Olympus FE 210 and I am damn happy with it. I spend this weekend walking around town taking pictures of anything that catches my eye. You know what this means, from now on I can post any pictures I want - from porn to art, from sighseeing to my unsuccessful cooking efforts (actually that happens to often, so I guess it would be best to post when I manage to cook something right).
I am posting some of the pictures that I did in Torino yesterday - one of the train-station Porta Nuova and one of the Palazzo Reale in the city centre where the Savoy dynasty used to live (before they kicked them out).

All my pictures available can be accessed easily by clicking this link HERE. I promise I will be updating them as often as I can. Check them out and tell me what you think!

Journey to Budapest

If you work for an international company, you kind of suspect that you might have to travel abroad. But even I was surprised when I had to go to Budapest (the capital of Hungary if you are still wondering) to attend an international IT conference with people from all over Europe. It was really great (despite for the fact that I got a bit sick) but the whole event was very educational and not to mention that Budapest is a beautiful city (don’t tell anyone but I like Prague more). Anyway, I just hope that you enjoy the pictures – one of the them is from the Hungarian parliament on the Danube river and the other one is an impressive monument on the hill across the river.

And by the way – if you miss the good old Boris, you might get happy to see some pictures. This is me, a bit unfocused but still with that charming, pervert, jolly smile – trying to look as professional as I can. The other one is me and my Italian manager Marisa – she is totally great and I am not saying that because she reads my blog. She is totally hilarious, great personality and an amazing professional - a 150% effective working machine.

To be continued….
A dopo, ragazzi!

Life in Italy

Well, it is kind of ironic, you try to go on an internship in a Nordic country and you end up on the other side of Europe in the most Mediterranean country. Anyway, who says I don't enjoy it :).

There are things about Italy that I really love:

1. Art - really, there is no other country with such a deep history in art, culture and having so many masterpieces on a square kilometer :). And everybody knows that France sucks anyway...

2. Food - the famous PASTA is just macaroni that people eat for dinner (not with jam though) however the Italians have the most fantastic types of cheese in the world (I told you I didn't like the French, so don't even mention it). And let's not forget the great wine and the amazing coffee that can kill an elephant or wake up a dead man (it is not known how the dead man will drink the coffee and what will do after he wakes up, it's just an expression, you know). Damn Italians drink it for less them a minute and I have it for 10 minutes in order not have a heart attack (it is VERY, VERY, VERY strong).

3. Friendly people – Italians are one of the few European nations that are not overly nationalistic or suffer from cultural elitism. I am constantly amazed how incredibly friendly, hospitable, easy-going they are. In a certain way I think they are pretty much like Bulgarians but lacking the typical Balkan rudeness or malice.

There are things about Italy that I don’t really love:

Well…..who says life is perfect. I don’t want to bitch about it, as I told you, I really like it in Italy but some things are hard to swallow (or easy since I am Bulgarian). Watch that movie which makes a comparison with Italians and other Europeans and tell me, does it remind of something.

Italians VS Europeans

P.S. Some of these are actually true. Hell is a place organized by Italians, as you might have heard.

Boris on the run

Well, this is me (BORIS), right now in Torino, Italy. Probably I want to say a lot things ot maybe I have nothing to say but i intend to use this blog to express my thoughts and give some info on what is going on with me.

I'd be happy if people feel free to post comments (if they don't feel free, it's their problem and mainly psychological) and keep me up-to-date with what is going on with them.

Just in case anybody is wondering, this is one of the most famous buidlings in Torino - La Mole Antonelliana