Hannibal In Firenze: The Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio a notte
Originally uploaded by aabitia.

The next entry about the film "Hannibal" in Florence features another prime attraction in the heart of the city, the Palazzo Vecchio, or "Old Palace". As you may recall from the film, it is here where Dr. Lecter illustrated his displeasure with the Italian Inspector Pazzi by dangling him off the edge of the balcony of the main building, also known as the Palazzo della Signoria. In the photo, you can just make out said balcony, above the main centre door. Now, if you've ever been to the Palazzo Vecchio, you'd know how eye-rollingly-ludicrous that scene in the movie was, simply because of the absence of people. At any time of the day, virtually around the clock, the square is teeming with humanity--not exactly conducive to pulling off the perfect clandestine crime. I suppose you could say that this was enough ruin the "realism" of the plot. True, but what really bugged me in that scene was that it appeared that between "Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal", Dr. Lecter seemed to have morphed from a bloodcurdling psychopath to some wildly off-kilter Garrison Keiller clone, using phrases like, "okey doke", just before he took care of Signore Pazzi. Give me a break.

Anyway, a bit of history: The Palazzo della Signoria was built between the 13th and 16th centuries. This main building was originally constructed as a palace for royalty, eventually becoming home to the Medici family. Soon after the Medicis took residence, part of the building and surrounding structures became what is today the world-famous Uffizi museum, the corner of which you can just see at the far right. After the passing of the Medicis and subsequent dego occupants, the building became the seat of the Italian government when Florence was the capital city of Italy. Today, it functions as the halls for the City Council; however, you can still tour much of it and see the actual locations of many of the scenes from the film, not to mention stunning architecture, paintings, frescoes and sculptures from such artists as Michelangelo and Donatello. Finally, also visible in the photo are two sculptures just in front of the Signoria building: "Fontana di Nettuno" (the Fountain of Neptune), and a copy of Michelangelo's "David", which replaced the original in the last century.

Before we conclude with this entry about "Hannibal" in Florence, I would just like to get on my "high horse" for a few moments. (I am exceedingly good at this.) I did have a personal conflict with this film because of the excessive violent content (combined with seemingly no moral message). Therefore, I will not watch it again. The reason I watched "Hannibal" was because of the setting of the film, and that is really all. However, I am not at all a fan of the "horror" film genre. The plots are thinner than the clear coats on 1980s Camaros, and on top of that, you've got to wonder about anyone who views the torture and dismemberment of human beings as a valid form of entertainment, particularly since these types of terrible incidents seem to be on the rise in American society, the perpetrators often acting out scenes from these idiotic films almost verbatim. Therefore, I would like to propose that real, live fans of "horror" films be taken out to a grassy field on a fully moonlit night and taunted with being maimed in some way via a lethal instrument, such as a red hot George Foreman grill, just so they can see how funny it is. (Yeah, real shocker: it isn't.)

All of this said, ultimately, the film "Hannibal" was indeed disturbing, but fortunately was overshadowed by the sheer stupidity of the script, which rendered it nearly laughable, untenable, and ultimately a bit boring, the impeccable Italian style of Dr. Lecter notwithstanding. So please, accept this as my explanation for these entries, and/or my sincere apology for giving such a violent film any further publicity. There, now you don't have to send me a nastygram; see how it all worked out in the end?

My love to you all. Okey doke, now let's move on to nicer things.

Hannibal In Firenze: The Pontevecchio

Hannibal Strolls Under Ponte Vecchio
Originally uploaded by aabitia.

Regardless of what you may think of Hannibal Lecter, there is no denying that the man (?) has an impeccible sense of style, as evidenced in this photo and his decision to move to the beautiful city of Firenze, Italy, after his stay at an asylum in the States (with a brief stop in Jamaica). Personally, I am not a fan of the "horror" film genre, however, in the film "Hannibal" you can see some stunning cinematography in Firenze--or to the layperson, "Florence". In this first entry about Hannibal in Florence, you can see him strolling beneath the Ponte Vecchio--in Italian, "old bridge"--a bridge which spans the Arno river. It is a prime attraction in Florence, built in 1345, and one of the few bridges to survive the bombing raids of World War II. Originally, the shops atop it were food shops, but in the 15th century, they became home to dozens of jewelry shops. Then, in the 21st century, the bridge itself became home to mass numbers of loud, rude American tourists with cellphones the size of Juicy Fruit gum packs, making them look like psychos themselves, talking to their hands. Sigh, if only Hannibal would turn his "attention" to them, phfffft phfffft phfffft phfffft phfffft. Anyway, just walking along the Ponte Vecchio is a feast of the eyes, I mean, uh, for the eyes. It's like walking in a corridor of gold. I would personally recommend "The Golden River", a very fine shop with a pleasant proprietor, a graceful (and pretty) young woman transplanted from Wales, to help you with your jewelry needs. (But honestly, you'd be hard pressed to note any distinguishing features between any of the shops.) If you make a purchase, be sure to ask her about the various export regulations, unless of course you're Hannibal Lecter, in which case export regulations (much less various petty legal documents such as passports and visas) mean nothing, and you can slip in and out of any country you wish, even though you're on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. That is what you call skill, my friends, and such is the magic of Hannibal Lecter.

Isobel Campbell on Radio Città del Capo

IsobelCampbell
Originally uploaded by aabitia.

Isobel Campbell is a singer from Scotland who has recaptured the essence of 60s chamberpop, folk and jazz, with her nursery-rhyme-like songs and her wistful, whisper of a voice. I am in like with this woman. I mean look at her holding that terrier...how could a man go wrong with a mousy-voiced, could-be Sesame Street cast member holding a terrier? Impossible. That creepy musing aside, if you enjoy music like Astrud Gilberto, Bacharach, and Belle & Sebastian, you might give her a listen. Her music is simple and beautiful, and in my opinion, absolutely buries most of the stuff getting airplay today, which is long on perfectly manufactured "edginess", noise and effects, but short on melody, meaning and cool sweetness.

If you'd like to hear some samples of her music and her thoughts on her music, you can listen to an interview of her on Radio Citta del Capo, which is a radio station in Bologna, Italy, in the Tuscan region, a region quite well known as the birthplace of all manner of exotic machines, from Ferraris to Ducatis. (Maybe it's her red jacket that got me to thinking of that.)

You may not realize that, despite my slight rhapsodic stumbling above about terriers and Sesame Street, I am showing considerable demureness in my description of Ms. Campbell, which is of course because I am a gentleman. Contrast this with the average ESPNed male, who would term her "friggin' hot dude" in between swigs of Busch. But after listening to this interview, hopefully you will understand why I have completely pledged my eternal devotion to her, though I have not yet actually contacted her to articulate said pledge with 12 page discourses in longhand, or perhaps with randomly clipped individual letters and phrases from fashion magazines, nicely arranged and pasted to form various messages on white college-ruled paper. Those tokens of affection might be considered by some dark-minded people to be a bit "tacky", and they may claim that such will not achieve the desired effect on the lady in question. Pish-posh, I say; they know nothing of romance.

Anyway, the half-hour interview is mostly in Italian, for all you Italian speakers out there, but you can still hear quite a lot of her answers in English, and also various tracks from her latest album, "Amorino", which, loosely translated means "angelic child". To listen to this interview, click here, then click on the link, "Ascolta!".

Sigur Ros in Ferrara, Italy

sigur_ros
Originally uploaded by aabitia.

My favorite band, Sigur Ros, played a concert at Piazza Castello, in Ferrara, Italy on June 23, 2003. Ferrara is in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy along the Po River, south of Venice and Padua. It is a city of bicycles, but you'll probably want to arrive on some sort of motorized transport, as it would take quite a while to ride a bike to Ferrara from, say, Los Angeles, especially underwater. This particular venue has become a "place to play" amongst a lot of the indie bands; Radiohead has played there too, for example. Incidentally, Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead, has proclaimed his eternal devotion to Sigur Ros, and has stated in various interviews that he considers them to be at the top of the heap. Or at least the top of his heap.

Anyway, if you'd like to see photos of the Sigur Ros event in Ferrara, Italy, click here. The concert was ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. Don't most people get to go to concerts in ancient Italian piazzas like that? Of course they don't. I was not there either. However, I was at their Los Angeles show a few weeks earlier; click to see photos of that show.

Closing word about Sigur Ros: If you're one of the MTV masses you probably haven't heard of them, nor will you like them. Nonetheless, if you're one of those lovers of Limpbizkit or Ashlee Simpson (now sponsored by Pepsi!), it would give me great joy to see the look of horror on your face as you run screaming from the CD player, hands over ears. Here's the website: www.sigur-ros.com

Italian and its Translation

A word about the Italian on this blog. I like Italian. I like to speak it and write it. However, there are some issues. First, it is not entirely possible to provide accurate translations for the Italian selections; that is, if you were to translate them word for word to English, a lot of the meaning would be lost, or would not quite be the same. For example, the part that talks about the Italian girl with the downturned eyes might get all messed up and you'd think I'm talking about a girl whose eyeballs keep popping out of their ocular cavities, or a girl who has glaucoma, or a girl who has a glass eye. Translations can be tricky. So, I won't always provide translations, but only occasionally will. Second, the aforementioned first point presupposes that my Italian skills are any good, and to be honest, my Italian is actually quite pedestrian. (As an aside, you can take all the Italian language classes you want, but you'll never know as steep a learning curve as being dropped in the middle of the boot-shaped land. "Oh, but English is the universal language," you say; wrong, the universal language is love, so unless you think you can order a Prosciutto panini by batting your eyelashes at the little old Italian man who is already way too weary of all sloppy-faced tourists, you'd better get cracking.)

Anyway, I know all this talk about Italian and translations and "getting the real meaning" might sound silly, so please let me say that the best way for you to get the precise meaning of the Italian selections on this fine blog would be to simply invent some kind of mind-reading machine (or just buy one on the Internet) which uses advanced satellite technology to find specific persons via DNA profiling, obtain some DNA from me, and then once you find me, focus the "laser" (?) energy on my forehead at night when I least suspect it (and hope I'm not tossing and turning from insomnia, thus focusing the energy on some other body part, such as my clavicus); then, you'd simply compile the raw data into usable form and then to English. During this process you'd have to cross your fingers and hope that your mind-reading machine has good Italian-to-English translation "algorithms", or else you're back to the same problem as before.

Well, it does appear that obtaining accurate Italian translations is a lot of work, so why bother? Why make the effort? For the sake of Art? Literature? Even Romance? Those things are pretty much dead anyway, thanks to the wonders of Instant Messaging, cellphones and Reality T.V. So you may wish to close this window and do something more apropos for the average American--google the internet for Lindsey Lohan's HOT new video, "I Gotta Get You Outta My Mind And Into My Semi-Germ-Free Hot Tub And Then Eventually My Lawyer's Office For Prenuptual Negotiations".

Really, I'm sure it'd be more interesting than all this boring Italian culture stuff.