vellutogrigio

Thank you all, too kind! @Azzo: I wish I were "him," but unfortunately I can't do fakes, it's stronger than me.

I’m happy to see that many share my opinion: it may have been a mediocre album (the title track, "Sangue impazzito," "Lombardia," and "Freedom" are the standout tracks) but it was a bit of a seal of an era, a sort of Italian counterpart to grunge. It’s just a shame about the end that Renga has come to!

They have always been good. The live album is definitely worse than the two previous ones, but I still prefer not to rate it for "sentimental" reasons (towards the band, and also towards the logo). In fact, it’s the farewell step of the band, since after Albert Bouchard's departure it wouldn't have been the same anymore.

Never praised enough. You are a certainty.

If the message is that true gender equality exists when an incompetent woman has the same chances as an incompetent man, I might agree. But what a sad Italy you describe (and represent).

Thank you all. @Carlo: the joke about Giulietta is truly epic, although my favorite is the one about the Florentines to the Como fans [Voi co-maschi, noi co' femmine]. I really know very few "true" Veronese (and not even completely), so I can't judge. I think, however, that the best way to experience a city or a place is to not really be part of it, not to be organic to its social system, and not to be "children" of it, neither biologically nor "culturally," and I can say I am fortunate not to be a child of either Verona or its wonderful southern or eastern suburbs. @azzo and gae: indeed, we were few, I spent days in anxiety thinking I wouldn’t be able to book and moving mountains and seas. Anyway, it's better this way; in the end, the atmosphere benefited from it, even if with a bit of gloom I think about how Ligabue fills the Arena with songs that are a failed imitation of a certain "muscly" American rock, in which great tradition Mould also belongs. @Kosmo: no melancholy, come on! Just the luck of being able to know certain artists, and even see them live in a place that seems sculpted by their songs.

Seen this afternoon on television with a certain delay compared to the original schedule - and, moreover, quite by chance - I particularly liked it for its photography and setting, almost abstract (in this regard, I recommend a comparison with the almost contemporary "L'ultima donna" by Ferreri, also featuring a young Ornella Muti in a role not too distant from that of Vincenzina, almost suggesting that all peripheries are the same, equally unhappy). The bleakness of the locations, both exterior and interior, metaphorically reflects that of all three protagonists of the drama/farce, who in the end find themselves equally defeated: poor Basletti certainly has the worst fate, mainly for failing to carry his surge of pride to extreme conclusions, turning out to be an absolute loser (notice the attempted suicide similar to that of Mascetti's wife in Amici miei Act II: same actor, same character with a penchant for gambling, same director, similar surnames!); the policeman Pizzullo perhaps fares the best among the three, as his limited horizons in life, his inability to internalize, and his view of Vincenzina as an interchangeable "fimmina" with another "fimmina" (the wife) render the affair as just another episode of life, not disturbing his childish, lowbrow demeanor (stunning when he makes coffee for Basletti!), his playful physicality that emerges even in the last scene where he plays - but we could say: frolics - with the airplanes. His defeat is akin to losing in a game or sport; lastly, Vincenzina, and here I must disagree with the review, as the end of the story with Basletti certainly does not make the girl free or independent. Not only because she later recounts other attempts at relationships with older and relatively richer and more powerful men that have gone awry, as a rehash of her dependence on figures like Basletti, but also because, in her journey through life, she as a unionist replicates the figure of her ex-husband. The scene where we see her cooking with a cigarette in her mouth seals a failure and a sad story, much like the song that closes the film.

On Current, there are interesting things, especially this documentary. Dramatic, vivid testimony.

Hey Ske', I changed my mind ;)))))... the links were working last night, anyway they are the official video of You Better... and a live of Cry If You Want. That's that.