As of late, Italians are invading my life in books, food, movies, music and video games. Not sure why this Italian renaissance is coming into my life now but here’s some stuff discovering and rediscovering as of late:
This film was released in 1988 but just watched it this past weekend. It’s an endearing film about …life. When Salvatore’s mom calls him to tell him that a close family friend named Alfredo died, he has a flashback of growing up with this father figure who had introduced him to the world of Italian cinema. It is a delightful film that comes with as many laughs as tearjerkers. Alfredo was a wonderful actor and the boy who played Salvatore was adorable. And it was such a sweet surprise to find that the music was by my favorite movie composer, Ennio Morricone.
Morricone is a musical god to me. I first learned of his music through one of my favorite films, The Mission. The music is absolutely beautiful. One of the scores in that film, Gabriel’s Oboe, was so moving. I felt it perfectly reflected the scene where Gabriel, the Jesuit priest, plays his oboe at the top of the waterfall; the music was heavenly. I also loved how Morricone incorporated local instruments for this movie since it was about the Jesuit priests mission with the Guarani Indians. I posted the video of Gabriel’s Oboe before and will post again; it continues to mesmerize people and elicit so much praise:
After watching some other movies in which Morricone composed the music, I can definitely sense his style. Sometimes I find that the scores in “The Mission”, “Once Upon a Time in the West,” “The Untouchables,” and “El Cinema Paradiso” sound similar to each other.
I loved this book. I chanced upon it while looking at a bookshelf in my boyfriend’s apartment. (It’s his roommate’s, but he’s reading it now.) I felt like I could identify with what the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, was going through when she was having what appeared to be a mid-life crisis. Somehow the stars align and everything falls into place for her to take a year-long journey to Italy, India and Indonesia to detox or find herself.
I have to say her experience in Italy was my favorite part. She made me want to go to Italy again, eat pasta, go to a football game, speak Italian with my hands and eat tons of gelato in between.
Another book that is making me want to eat Italian is “Heat”. I bought it because it was on sale for $6 at The St. Marks Bookshop. (I picked up “Rogue Regime” for the same reason but reading it at the same time is kind of depressing since it’s about the lack of food in North Korea and Heat is all about food.) I’m only about 70 pages into “Heat” but so far it’s been a hilarious account of a cook working at Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo. Of course it’s making me want to visit the restaurant and eat some pasta….despite the account where Batali searched around in the garbage to see if he could find any scraps to cook. Tasty!
Awesome video game about a young Italian nobleman who avenges the death of his father and two brothers. I haven’t actually played it yet but I’ve watched my bf play it and it’s beautiful. It’s set in Florence in the 1600s and the details of the city are nice - from the Duomo to people’s clothes. Your character also gets to scale walls and ride a horse so the viewpoints are nice from those angles as well. I may buy it for my PSP…and I don’t even like role playing games.
Any other favorite Italian restaurants, artists or books I should look at, let me know. Capisci?
Sometimes I hate being considerate because you expect others to be as considerate. In lieu of this timely NYT article if we were born to be helpful, I have to post this rant.
Scene 1 - Caracas Arepa on 9th st.
I went to check out Caracas Arepas Saturday just because it’s always packed and I want wanted to see what the big deal is. And sure enough it was packed at 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon. I decided to eat in anyway after I noticed people were pretty much done and throwing their garbage away. By the time I ordered and got my arepa, people were still chatting away and texting even though they were finished eating. You’d have to be blind to miss that two people were standing and waiting for a table in that cramped arepas bar.
I’ll be the first to kick myself out in a restaurant when I see people crowding at the door because I know what it’s like to wait. But I guess many people feel so entitled to socialize and lounge around at restaurants and public spaces if they’re so inclined. All but one girl from the party that had finished eating ten minutes ago went outside. The girl was texting on her phone for crying out loud so I went up to her and asked her if she was done and she said, “Yeah, I’m leaving now.” I was so frikin annoyed. It wasn’t just them. It was a father and son at the bar. It was the couple who came in way after me that took a freed table that the manager gestured for me to sit at. People can be so rude and inconsiderate….
(The arepa was good though. I suggest the La Mulata. More on that later.)
Scene 2 The subway ride downtownon the D
It’s the same day and I’m sitting on the subway to go see “Mr. Fantastic Fox” at Union Square when my date suggests getting up for this old person in front of us. I didn’t even notice her because she had her back turned toward us and I was tired. After the arepas incident, I was reluctant to be considerate and did I mention I was tired? Why didn’t anyone else give up their seat?
So after we stood up, the old lady sits down and her middle-aged companion also rushes to sit down, as if I gave up the seat for her. I kinda blocked her because I saw this mother with a toddler coming on the train so I wanted the toddler to get the damn seat. Then the middle-aged lady offers the seat to the mother, “Oh you sit, sit,” as if it was her seat to offer all along. The mother at least gave me a thank you.
Third scene Regal Union Square Theater
We’re at the theater but came a little late to get the better seats. (Late meaning 5 min early) We were a party of three and decided to split up because there weren’t three empty seats for us except in the first few rows. I’m sitting alone but go over to my date to get a piece of gum before the movie started. But when I get back to my seat, my beau motions for me to come over because the couple next to him decided to move down one seat so that we can sit together.
Wasn’t that sweet?
Because one person decided to be kind and take the trouble to move down a seat, I was able to enjoy a movie sitting next to my boyfriend. So to that man, I just want to say thank you again; my day ended on a good note because of you.
Male driver just gets back into the car and drives off as light turns green.
I was pretty pissed. Don’t understand why people can’t take responsibility for their actions and try to blame others for things that were blatantly committed by them. I really wished I could’ve smacked her but I guess it’s not what Jesus would’ve done.
I want to watch the TV series “Thirty Something“. I don’t recall watching an entire episode since I was in my teens, but now it seems kind of interesting and pertinent to my life. (Bushy eyebrows and shoulder pads FTW!)
I heard Marianne Williamson say once that when you ask God into your life, you think he or she is going to come into your psychic house, look around, and see that you just need a new floor or better furniture and that everything needs just a little cleaning - and so you go along for the first six months thinking how nice life is now that God is there. Then you look out the window one day and see that there’s a wrecking ball outside. It turns out that God actually thinks your whole foundation is shot and you’re going to have to start over from scratch.
