Blog
LEX SPOLETINA, 2011
date: 18 November 2011 at 16:39:01 - 1 comments
Dear friends,
We have been awarded the “Lex Spoletina 2011” together with the Italian actor and film director, Carlo Verdone.
The award ceremony will take place on Saturday, 19th November, in the town hall of Spoleto, Italy, at 11 a.m., and you are cordially invited to attend.
The prize – a copy of the ancient Roman law which protected the ‘sacred woods’ of the city – is given annually to a person who has contributed by means of his/her work to highlight the name of the city of Spoleto.
We live and work in the city, while Carlo Verdone has used Spoleto as a film set.
We are, of course, honoured to receive an award which has been presented in the past to important figures such as the theatre director, Luca Ronconi, the composer, Gian Carlo Menotti, the artist, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and the art critic, Giovanni Carandente.
Very best wishes,
Michael Gregorio.
LET’S BE KIND
date: 22 October 2011 at 09:56:11 - 0 comments
Muammar Gheddafi was murdered the other day.
Yesterday the Italian television broadcast some of the crudest and bloodiest footage ever shown at times when children are not in bed. Presumably, every other national television in the world showed the same material. A film of a murder, remember.
Today (in case we missed the show), the Italian radio announced that the web is full of films and video clips which portray Muammar Gheddafi just before, and just after, he was murdered. Next thing, of course, the film of the fatal moment when he was shot will appear.
Why the plethora of horror?
THE NEW LUDDITES?
date: 16 October 2011 at 10:56:39 - 0 comments
“The Luddites,” according to Wikipedia, “were a social movement of 19th-century English textile artisans who protested – often by destroying mechanised looms – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life. The movement was named after General Ned Ludd, or King Ludd, a mythical figure who, like Robin Hood, was reputed to live in Sherwood Forest.”
OF STUDIES
date: 12 October 2011 at 15:30:40 - 1 comments
In 1597 the great English writer, Francis Bacon, published “Effayes” which was “to be folde at the Blacke Beare in Chauncery Lane.” Among Bacon’s many fine ‘meditations,’ one of my favourites is “Of Studies,” which contains such gems as “Reade not to contradict, nor to believe, but to waigh and consider. Some bookes are to bee tasted, others to bee swallowed: That is, some bookes are to bee read only in partes; others to bee read, but cursorily, and some few to bee reade wholly and with diligence and attention.”
Which brings me back to a web site question to which I replied this morning: which book do you wish you were reading for the first time?
END OF AN ERA
date: 11 October 2011 at 11:21:57 - 0 comments
While we were in London, we heard the news that Steve Jobs had died. We were, of course, sorry to hear of the death of a man who was at the height of his inventive powers, and who was also relatively very young.