Mike76

The honorary degree awarded to Blasco in 2005 demonstrates better than anything else how essential it is to implement university reform.

Beyond the useless embellishments surrounding it, I disagree with some assessments of the recession that border on oversimplification. This is not the story of an "oppressed people" against "colonial oppressors," because the French "Pieds Noirs" were a PEOPLE in every sense, mostly individuals born and raised in Algeria. The FNL terrorists represented the will of only PART of the Arab population, to the extent that initially they targeted their fellow Arabs who were too Westernized. Once the Pieds Noirs were expelled, hundreds of thousands of Algerians would follow them to France (so much for liberation and independence). Therefore, this story has very little to do with colonialism and resembles more closely the expulsion of Italians from Libya in 1970.

I had thought of writing it myself, but now I'm too lazy to do a review and free time is always less. One of the most interesting questions is: Is Pontecorvo more on the side of the Algerians or the French? Well, the film was commissioned by the Algerian Government and it seems it was never screened in France; the French are presented in some episodes in an unflattering way (the boy who trips the protagonist chased by the gendarmes, the assassination of two French journalists in the Casbah in response to the FNL's attacks on the gendarmes, which effectively expands the conflict to civilians, the "random" torture of Algerian prisoners by the French army). However, the Algerian Government appears to have been somewhat dissatisfied with the outcome. Even the Arabs are depicted unscrupulously, especially in the bombing massacres at the bar of the European quarter and at the racetrack, as well as in the bloody repressions with victims being Algerians too "Frenchified." As if that weren't enough, Pontecorvo also explains the reasons of the French; the brutal General Matiehu is actually portrayed as a pragmatic executor of the order he has been given: to keep the French in Algeria. To the journalists who accused him of torture and cruelty, he replies: “Despite certain differences of opinion, you all agree that we must stay. When the rebellion began, there weren't even differences of opinion. All the newspapers, even the leftist ones, demanded that the rebellion be suppressed [but] now I want to ask you a question: Should France stay in Algeria? If you answer 'yes,' then you must accept all the necessary consequences.” Or an officer at the end of the film says, "After all, [the Algerians] are good people; we've gotten along for 130 years." Thus, the greatness of Pontecorvo's film, aside from its technical and artistic merit, is also intellectual; it does not tilt the reasoning entirely to one side but distributes the blame and the reasons to both parties, giving the impression that events dragged people into that spiral of violence, rather than the other way around.

I went to Giovanni Lindo's concert just last Friday: a look reminiscent of Father Maximilian Kolbe from the year 1941 and a distinctive chant-nennia halfway between a muezzin and a Tibetan bonze, accompanied by a guitarist and a violinist (who also served as a second guitarist when needed), plus a sequencer for rhythmic and electronic backing tracks. At times (even long ones) soporific, but I admit that for his personality, charisma, and originality, this character is nonetheless an important asset of Italian music, especially for records like the one reviewed here.

I can practically quote 95% of Pretazzo's sermon, except for the judgment on Thirlwell's voice, which for me is an unimpressive halfway point between Beefheart and cartoon villains (Cave's voice has a different technical and expressive caliber, and I'm not particularly a fan of Cave). Then yes, I can feel the genre mixing too, but that doesn't make it exciting; by constantly feeding on kitsch subculture, it becomes kitsch itself. Maybe it's because I prefer Cabaret Voltaire to Zappa.

I’ve never really understood Foetus either, a melting pot of disparate genres (blues, musical, rock, tap dance, and whatever else you can throw in), an ugly and cloying voice always trying to be grotesque, and synthetic sounds that I find have aged poorly. The fact that he inspired Reznor feels more like a flaw than a merit to me.

It's actually a pretty funny camp crap, although I generally prefer the unintentional comedy of the great Italian trash masters, like the late Bruno Mattei, Aristide Massaccesi, and Lucio Fulci.

Kaczynski: "among the last masterpieces of the agonizing new wave." Well..... "Garlands," "Pornography," "Hex Enduction Hour," "...If I Die, I Die," "Y Pants," "Clandestine Anticipation," "Sulk," "Only Theatre Of Pain," "A Kiss in The Dreamhouse"...... "agonizing" doesn't really seem like the right term. If only we had "agonizing" musical movements like the New Wave of 1982 still today.

Listened to too little to judge it, but I don't have great memories. If I want a "nice" New Wave leaning towards pop, I prefer the Human League's "Dare!", the early Depeche Mode, or the singles by The Cure from '83, or the masters Soft Cell and Associates.

@MAGNUM P.I.: RHETORIC: an attitude marked by a vain and artificial search for effect with displays of ostentatious adherence to the most trivial clichés; RHETORICAL: an attitude characterized by an excess of artificiality or a conspicuous search for effect.