Pics from Madrid

Apologies for the delay- finally my pictures from Madrid.

Movie time

Besides going climbing (initially thought as walking) in the Alps, I had a a long weekend where I enjoyed the sinful pleasures of staying home and being lazy. Sue me, I am an information worker, I need my time off. Not to make it sound so bad I cleaned and watched some movies that made an impression.
The 1st one is a an old black and white Italian classics called "Il Sorpasso"("The Easy Life") starring the famous Italian actor Vittorio Gassman . The plot of the movies centres around the two main characters - the assertive, talkative and adventurous Bruno(Gassman) and the shy and insecure law student Roberto(Jean-Louis Trintignant). In a rather comic and suspicious way they meet and they start a journey with a Lancia Aurelia convertible (a funky thing at the time) throughout Italy inspired by the pushy Bruno. If you check the film in Wikipedia it says "It is poignant portrait of Italy in the early 60s when the economic miracle" was starting to transform the country from a traditionally family-centered society into an individualistic, consumeristic and shallower one". What it struck me with was the fact that Italy in 1962 is not so different from the one I know 46 years later. With risks of insulting my Italian friends, there is a contradiction that lives in the Italian spirit - the desire to be famous, interesting, successful in the eyes of others and at the same time the inability to overcome your background, the problems you have created in life and deep-rooted prejudices. I warmly recommend this movie to all Bulgarians as well because this is something that happened to us in the last years...

The other two movies I saw are in the "sick, pervert and kinky" section and you if are pregnant, conservative or a lost soul that came across my blog, you can stop reading NOW...
"Savage grace" is a film about a spoiled, rich American family that tries to hide its problems by travelling in fancy vacation places in Europe. The Mom (Julianne Moore), the son and the dad indulge themselves in all kinds of sexual practices including bisexuality, incest, adultery and partner swaps. Besides being strikingly aesthetic, the movie is actually sad and depressing making you think about the importance and priorities of life - that often behind glamour, success and beauty there is loneliness, cruelty and alienation. And actually the sickest of the sick is the film called "The Piano Teacher" . The mid-age piano professor Erika spends her life between her students that she secretly detests and her obsessive and dominant mother with whom she sill lives with. She is unable to express emotions and demonstrates her formidable intelligence through the music of Schubert and Schumann. But behind her cold mask there is a deeply sexually disturbed and confused woman that has an obs session with being beaten and humiliated. The movie reaches some high extremes when her student Walter falls in love with her and tries to win her love. At first Erika intimidates him with her sick fantasies but then she falls in the web that she has created becoming both a physical and an emotional victim. A rarely disturbing film that aims to show you that being too smart, often means you are the one with the biggest delusions.

P.S. I am getting my movie critics degree soon so vote for me :)

The Piano

My unhealthy musical obsession goes on and this Friday I was able to fulfill another musical dream of mine and see the noted Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. She performed the wonderful 9th Mozart piano concert (FYI, Mozart is a kinky classical composer with a frantic laughter). As things go my stay in Torino proves to be a successful musical investment as the city is full of culture and events.

Meanwhile I managed to see an old film that I remember vaguely from my childhood - The Piano. It talks of a mute woman pianist who arrives with her little daughter to New Zealand to get married for a local landowner. She is unable to say a word and expresses herself only through sign language and....her piano. She undergoes hardship and humiliation to keep the instrument close to her - starring is Holly Hunter who manages to portray excellently the pain and determination of her heroine. I find the movie quite enchanting because it shows us how people different from us have a deep and often misunderstood sensuality. The movie is set in a 19th century conservative society but if I look closely at my own country of Bulgaria, maybe not so much has changed in terms of tolerance and acceptance.

Madrid

It's difficult to describe a journey - here I am back from Madrid and the only word I can think of is "WOW". I spent 3 awesome days in the Spanish capital(I am talking about Madrid now, don't embarrass yourself). Bearing in mind I was on a business trip and I couldn't just leave the conference to go sightseeing, I didn't see a great part of the city and the few pictures I took were on the run. That BTW is not necessarily a bad thing as with time I realized I have developed the Japanese syndrome which means making 500 photos abroad and actually seeing where you have been when you get back home and see the photos.
Madrid is a beautiful city - big, classical, metropolitan and full of day and nightlife. People tend to wake up later in the day, go have fun outside and go to sleep (if they ever go to sleep) in the small hours. I can't really say which is better - Madrid or Barcelona but Spain is an incredible country. People are really outgoing, open and crazy (and that coming from a guy who lives in Italy...) and they don't miss any opportunity to have one.
A special section of this post I dedicate to my hotel Puerta America which a 5 star, 13 floor architectural miracle and any floor is different and unique. I was on the 4-th PLASMA floor which seemed a way too alien to me. I spent 2 hours sightseeing the hotel and made some awesome pictures.

The return of the jester

Trying set myself apart from the "I bring disasters" attitude, I can't help but comment the latest news from Italy. The return to power of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's richest man and media-empire mogul. For anyone not interested in Italian politics, Berlusconi has won a stable majority in the Italian parliament and is going to become a prime-minister for the 3rd time. He has also been the only prime-minister after WW2 that managed to complete his full mandate (that I will not comment as it is beyond my power of comprehension). He is noted for his controversial humour, big smile, plastic surgery, media monopoly and disastrous economic policies...a hell of a character, eh? Being non-Italian(so they say) and non-socialist you might find it rather surprising my harsh-toned criticism for him. Point is, I am not here to judge and pronounce sentences upon Italy's internal affairs ...just express my personal view.

I find it hard to believe how second-rate PR techniques, media brain-washing and ridiculous statements can convince the people of one the biggest economies in the world, a country with centuries of culture and history to vote for a man who turns politics into a TV show. What I find truly absurd is that they did that for the 3rd time after he brought nothing to Italy except international humiliation, a struggling economy and evaded reforms.

Unfortunately this is becoming a precedent in other parts of Europe as well. Poland had the Kaczynski brothers, France is ruled by the "I love Carla and promise you the stars" Sarkozy and the all mighty Boyko Borisov will probably rule in Bulgaria soon. All brilliant examples of that if people are disappointed, they tend to vote with their feet. Some time from now Italians might wake up with a terrible hangover...

P.S.
-Some of Berlusconi's most notable sayings:
I have little hair because my brain is so big it pushes (the hair) out.
-I am sorry for having said communists eat babies. But I can organise a conference in which I will prove communists have really eaten babies.
-(after the Twin Towers attack): WE should be conscious of the superiority of our civilisation, which has given people widespread prosperity in those countries ...
-He said to a German European deputy that he should take a film role as a Nazi concentration camp leader.
-Berlusconi advised a young woman, who complained that she could not find a job, to get married, since she was cute, “maybe to one of my sons, they are all rich”

Martha Argerich in Torino

Sometimes I can't really believe my luck...Most of you know about my (who said unhealthy) relationship with classical music and especially the music for piano. With sweet tenderness I recall the day when I got myself a Beethoven cassette for a tape recorder when I was 7 years old or when my mom took me to watch the Amadeus movie and I stood in the cinema saloon with a mouth wide open in dismay.
I know most of you don't give a shit a about it and think this music is dead and annoying but I find it profoundly deep and powerful. In the recent years I have developed a fondness for an Argentine pianist called Martha Argerich who I consider to be one of the most influential pianist of our time and a powerful music communicator. And last night in the RAI Auditorium here in Torino, there she was giving an outstanding performance on Prokofiev's 3rd piano concert. Prokofiev is a Russian composer (actually quite a modern one) who some describe as an enfant terrible (terrible child) and others have no issues calling him a sick fuck. A hell of a genius of you ask me, direct, sometimes brutal, with a hellish sense of humour and sarcasm. The thing about his 3rd piano concert it is incredibly difficult from the technical point of view and smashingly impressive as a musical impact.

So there was Martha, a woman of almost 70 years with grey hair and an ageing outlook. The moment her hands touched the keyboard of the piano she transformed into a powerful natural force and I could hardly believe what she was doing and if it physically and musically possible. By the end of the performance I had chills up and down my spine (as well as body parts of which existence I wasn't fully aware of) and I clapped and applauded her till exhaustion.

A BIG THANK YOU to my friends Laura and Lorenzo who shared this unique experience with me. Though they were not devoted admirers of classical music they were staggered by the perform ace. If you have managed to come to the end of this post, I can't offer you any financial reward but you can see an example of Martha Argerich strenght when playing HERE, HERE and HERE

Back from Barcelona

Yuhuuu, here am I back in Italy after a 5 day stay in Barcelona. I truly find it a geat city and having in mind that 1 picture says more than 1 000 words, you can view my photos here.
There are some things that made an impression on me:
- it's almost incredible how much Italy and Spain are alike in terms of mentality and lifestyle - Mediterranean all the way, I truly love it.
- yet I guess, Spain is more modern and international as Italy is more classical and stuck to its hitorical roots
- Barcelona is the city of Gaudi (the kinky genius Catalan architect) as Torino is one of the baroque capitals of Europe
- Nightlife in Barcelona is AWESOME but Italian food, coffee and wine blow the Spaniards away
- I am in love with the "manana" attitude that Spain has... this is why it took me so long to post this on the blog - have been delaying it for at least a week.
- the city is full of English and American tourists and even they can't spoil the unique colourfull spirit
- as much as I liked it, you can't really ignore the whores and drug dealers that you find almost anywhere in city centre
- I was able to speak Italian (yeah, OK, sort of...) with some Catalan people because the two lingos are very much alike. I was sorta disappointed that Spanish is not excatly like Italian with an "s" at the end of each word. But close anyway...just never say "buonos giornos", they will give you some very srange looks.