Un-United we stand!

We (Italians) are one of the most fascinating breeds on earth! We love to complain, and whine, and scream! We do always look good while doing so, because we are quite stylish and fashionable! Last month we went to vote and guess what? Nobody won! We are so "perfectly" divided in Italy that we can't even win an election, whether would the winner be an insane comedian, a multi-millionaire who has commited several crimes or a not so charismatic guy who loves to speak by metaphores! What is the problem? Is it that we are so tired we don't even care about who we vote for any longer? Is it that the choices were not so exciting? Why is it so hard to bring in some change? And when I talk about change I'm not chanting in ode to the mad/sad comedian! When the new mayor of Milan was elected in 2011 I went to Duomo square to celebrate with my friends. It was exhilariting, contagious, and I got an optimistic look back on my native country. I thought, that after all, maybe it could happen here too... maybe inside of me I was telling myself "Yes We Can"! It's a strange feeling for me being able to vote for two countries that are so different in their political ways. Anyway, going back to the reason of my worries and disbelief is the result of this past election. I can't believe it really happened, I can't believe that "we" don't know what we want! Adn since we don't know, and our political representive keep arguing and playing as kids at the playground, our President decided he had enough of this crap and he thought that he better give back the lead of the country to the one who had the least votes along with 10 "wise men"... no joke! They call them "the 10 wise men"! (we are in the land of the Pope after all!!!). So now we are back again with a Technical Government, rather than a political one that seems to have temper tantrums, and it will be lead by people who are mostly experts in finance, economics and such... not bad as a background... but maybe it would be nice if they had a clue about politics too!?!?!? And what about women??? Why aren't there any "wise women"??? I was quite delighted at the election of Laura Boldrini as President of Camera dei Deputati, a woman with a very extensive and succesful experience in politics and nonetheless in the UN. So now what? Now we will have to go vote again! Italian politics are a little like the games you play as a child and you almost always end up getting "sorry, try again, next time you'll be more lucky!". Will people forget who they voted for in two months and get an amazing new result?

Melancholic 2nd goodbye...

Once upon a time... or should I say twice upon a time, I moved to the US, the second time indeed to Florida. I was not too keen to be moving back to the US, quite honestly it was very stressful to leave behind (again) my family, friends and beautiful island. It was a deja-vue all too familiar to me... having to meet and make new friends over and over again, it has been my way of life since a very young age (oddly enough now it's the only way I cna see myself!). First landed in Panama City FL... WOW... just beautiful from a nature perspective.... gorgeous beaches, and doplhins, and birds of all shapes, sizes and colors... and NOTHING else! I decided that if Florida had to be my temporary home, then it had to be a little bigger than that. In within a couple of months I moved to Orlando. Although I always knew that it was a teporary fix, it was much bigger, it was much more multi-cultural and I found a job, that little I knew would have brought into my life some of my closest friends ever, the kind you call family! I started to work at British Airways Tours as a call center agent, I argued on the phone with people who wanted to book a room in Paris with the ocean view! or even better they wanted to get a euro-train pass to go from London to France (that's still ok and possible), to Africa and maybe Mexico! What?!?!? That's when I would put them on hold, gently hang up on them and go for a ciggy break with my awesome friends. Then what heppened? I actually got promoted to be a Trainer and I loved it!!! I got to travel a lot and I loved it!!! I got even closer to my Floridian circle of friends and I loved it!!! As all stories though, it had to end... British Airways Tours shut down and relocated to Jacksonville. I travelled that road so many times, Orlando-Jacksonville, Jacksonville-Orlando, through good times and bad times, blasting the music in my blue little Isuzu Amigo so loud that my ears would be ringing at the end of the ride. Listening to Moby, Outkast, Manu Chao and Madonna over and over and over. It was a little clip of my life, a little videoclip that included some wonderful people that luckily I still have in my life despite the distance. Why am I sharing all this? Because one of us, one of the friends from my treasured circle of trust, still works there and now she told me they are once again shutting down! It's so sad... I left that job in 2002, but I still have nice memories of it. It makes me sad that my friend and all the other people that worked so hard there are going to be left home! And it's all because of globalization, money, capitalism, money... eventually we become too expensive for large companies and they need to relocate where the dirty work is cheaper. Is it fair?

Pizza, Pasta & Pinocchio!

Wow, I had not realized that it has been two years since my last posting! I guess I've been busy or not so annoyed... yes, because I've come to the realization that I really need to tell the world how I feel mostly when I'm bothered, upset or disappointed. This weekend Italy had the elections to vote for the Senate and the Parliament, a chance to get things moving and a window of hope for improvement from a quite critical situation that has been carrying along for too long! Italy has been dragged to an awful financial crisis, sky rocketing unemployment, lack of benefits and protection towards workers who are underpaid and overworked, continuously raising taxes of all sorts (medical, school tuition, housing, having a pet... having to breath!)... the situation is not so far away from the crisis that has been submerging Greece and Spain, in fact we are third on the list by the EU judgement. Most of this picturesque and muddy reality has been the result of the poor and fraudulent political behaviour that has been ruling this nation for the past 20 years. Everybody complains about that ugly troll that goes by the name of Berlusconi, yet as of today's voting results it seems quite clear that a good 30% of this country is still supporting him! I'm angry, disappointed, disgusted and shocked! How can people be so stupid? Please don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these people who judges others if they have different opinions from my very own. I'm very democratic in believing that each individual has the freedom and right to have his own preference... but this is not what I call a "preference"! This is showing to have no brain to think for their own, this is showing that we love to be bossed around by an ignorant pimp with lots of money, this is showing that we are truly the land of good Pasta, Pizza, and PINOCCHIO! That must be why it's the one fairytale that has made it global from our country! We love listening to thieves and liars, and we love believing in any illusion they throw in our gullible faces. We cheer with joy while drinking our wine and eating our lasagna! Stereotypical? Well... not so far from the truth after all... I know I'm not one of these brainless creatures, and I know that the people I call friends aren't either, however there is a large amount of masochists who still will do anything to support that donkey face (with all respect to actual donkeys which I think are really pretty). Tonight, a night that I thought might have marked a change, a night that I dreamed that was going to be somewhat similar to November 6th when Obama got re-elected... well tonight for the first time I really regret having moved back to a place where I really don't belong to any longer! I think I'll move anywhere, I might even move just to Switzerland to work in a coffee-shop to make cappuccinos! Staying here right now would mean accepting this absurd nonsense... and I just can't!

Yoga and my life as a comedy...

... no matter what I do and where I go I keep on having Life throw at me some situations that I can not help but share as I find ridiculous and hysterical! I really did naively believe that my urge to share my episodes would end once I would put into a show in LA... well I was wrong! I keep on collecting even funnier events! And while you all probably don't care to hear about them, I love torturing all of you with my rants, and bragging, and fake reviews I make up, and scrutinizing observations.
As I have mentioned before I am a big fan of NYE resolutions. One of them was to start going back to gym religiously like I used to and get back to my ideal shape. As I love having addictions, whether they are healthy or not, and I just can't give something up and not replace it with a brand new addiction or obsession; I am trying to give up lazing around on my PC and iPhone and substitute it with exercising. It is a fact I over produce adrenaline and need to burn out my excess energy.
So last month I proudly signed up at a gym. I have all the classes I want, the pool, everything... pretty much just like the gym I went to in LA... but a bit older looking. My pilates instructor is hilarious and seems like a coke addict, but she is really good. Today after the longest day at work I headed to the gym... cause now I am obsessed that I must go everyday, just to maintain my extreme behavior! I did my pilates class and I felt really good and happy. At which point I decided I needed to push myself a bit farther and stay also for the yoga class! What the heck, I was already there and warmed up, why waste it? Plus I thought I needed the extra zen moment to fully relax and get rid of any tension I had collected during my working hours. Well, I just did NOT know that my instructor would have been the mixed reincarnation of "Marquis de Sade" and Rasputin! Do I feel good and relaxed? NOOOO! I feel physically and mentally abused to be quite honest! He yelled at me, he did not let me take any breaks, and I'm pretty sure he made up a few poses that I never heard of or seen before... he probably got his inspiration from some sort of medieval torture manual! My instinct kept on telling me to run away from the class as fast as I could, but the my stubborn will power would not let of my ego! So I stayed for the whole hour with the evil yoga man giving us orders and getting upset if we were not doing things right. It was sort of a deja-vue from when I was in high-school and my German professor would only get angry at me if I made mistakes... I am not sure why he decided that I had to be the example for the rest of the slaves. By now I had decided that I would NEVER, EVER return to this hell class. At the end of session he had the guts to come and introduce himself to me and tell me how my body was perfectly created for yoga! Can I say "creepy and scary"? And why am I about to say what is coming up next I have no idea, but this thought makes me really laugh: can you imagine having sex with this freaky dude? this is what it would be like "No, you are NOT doing it right! Move that leg over there, no, not like that!!! Like this! Look at me, you are doing it wrong again!! Oh forget it, you are not good.... I will just fuck myself instead!"... that visual to me is so funny that I will find a way to add it in my next show for sure.
One last thought? Well... now I feel forced to go back to his class as he came to talk to me... I have this constant sense of duty that is very annoying to live with. I now feel that if I don't go back I will disappoint him and make him think that I was not good or tough enough! Who's the freak now?

Tamara Drew you can't enjoy the countryside without getting a little dirty

This is the perfect silly comedy to go watch on a boring rainy Sunday afternoon. I highly suggest to watch it when it's released for home entertaining. The story is simple and fun. The best part is the typically dark British humor. I think I laughed the most at the parts where my friends were horrified! That really revealed my evil side I guess! In my defense I would just like to say that I believe in karma and I love it when the cheater in the story gets served right! Even if that means being run over by a whole cattle! There are a few really good lines, but I think it probably lost most of its brilliant British humor in the translation... this is probably a movie that should be watched in its original version.

Tron Legacy

Tron Legacy it was in my humble opinion awesome! I do recognize this is not the kind of movie that everyone will love, some will hate it and some will love it, just simple as that. I was very curious after hearing so many extremely opposite reviews from my friends. Let's starts saying that I love the genre sci-fi and action. It also had all the winning elements, a suspenseful story that would keep you on the edge of your seat, a fantastic cast, spectacular special effects and the perfectly matched music by Daft Punk.

As I LOVE to over-analyze everything and anything that intrigues me I came up with a whole personal idea about the movie... which is probably not true but it is my theory and therefore I will stick to it! The character played by Jeff Bridges (which by the way I absolutely love him and I think he keeps on getting better and sexier), I think his character is traveling in within his subconscious. All the characters in the story could easily be his alter egos. Of course there is the obvious figure of Clu, his alter ego that he has opted to create to help him... who turns out to be his enemy... aren't we all our worst enemies? We are the ones who put obstacles to ourselves! Often in search of perfection we forget to see that what we were looking for is right in front of us... just as mentioned in the movie. His son represents his innocence and pure self still hopeful to succeed, still a fighting idealist... it's our inner child that is always wondering and easily believes in the impossible. Quorra is what he would like to be, his perfect side that is not even human, the paradox that perfection would not be naturally generated by him, he would find it and make it his project that everyone else wants to destroy. As entertaining as Zeus and Jenn were, I didn't really think they helped the plot go along.
Once again maybe I just read "a bit too much" into it, but I really found it to be quite a metaphysical and psychological story.

Last thoughts? It was HOT, HOT, HOT! But don't take my word for it, you might hate it!

2011 the year of resolutions!

First of all Happy New Year! I must say my past year has been a blessing. I have collected so many wise ways of being from all the people who I love and admire that I recognize the union of all this has helped me be who I am and where I am now. 2010 has been so good to me that I was quite sad it was already gone. That made me contemplate on all my past years, how I spent them, what I liked about them or what I disliked. As I have a philosophy of living with no regrets, I just make treasure of good and bad for the future. This time I might have set my goals a bit high, but I rather do so and aim for the fiction. I recently read a blog of some lady who claimed she never set resolutions nor goals for herself because she would consider that "setting herself for failure"... I think that is a very negative way of being and a masochist way of self-sabotaging herself. I totally disagree. For me it works great to set really high goals, then if needed I redesign them appropriately.
Last year I had three main goals, and I accomplished 2 out of 3. That makes me happy. This year, I decided to use some old ingredients from a couple of successes past and add a couple of long dragged dreams in it. The secret is to enjoy everything you do along the way, if you're not having fun in your life... well my dear you are doing something wrong and you should really give it some thought!

All the best wishes to all of you!!!