come in un branzino al sale ghiacciato su una lama di vetro
ecccolo, proprio mi mancava il freddo siberiano, eh forse pensavo scherzassero le previsioni del tempo,ma quando ci ho messo due ore per attraversare Milano sotto una tormenta di neve, a passo d’uomo e almeno altrettanto per fare l’autostrada ad una velocita’ media di 40 km ora con tratti di vento e neve raso asfalto modello patagonia a meno tre gradi beh sembrava di essere in un film. Fuori la macchina era avvolta da una crosta ben solida di ghiaccio ma dentro la temperatura era 40 gradi con musica soft (b side) ; ero quasi commosso nel sentire proprio a tema Bjork se non fosse che la strada era una lastra di ghiaccio unica e bastava sfiorare i freni per fare dei bei balletti.

troppa concentrazione e troppa tensione, io preferisco fare massaggi che riceverli ma qui ci starebbero proprio bene, magari in una vasca calda fumante…

una mia amica mi scrive dicendo “che possiamo fare per quella ragazza?”, un mio collega oltremanica, fedele lettore del mio weblog mi forwarda un e-mail con il testo da inviare all’ Ambasciata della Nigeria ( V. Orazio 18 – 00193 Roma e-mail: embassy@nigerian.it )

Ambasciata della Nigeria

Alla cortese attenzione

del signor Ambasciatore

embassy@nigerian.it

V.Orazio 18

00193 Roma

Signor Ambasciatore,

chiedo, per il Suo tramite, che il Presidente della Repubblica della

Nigeria voglia concedere la grazia a Safya Husseini Tungar-Tudu.

Sir,

I ask you to plead with the President of the Republic of Nigeria for the

life of Safya Husseini Tungar-Tudu.

Monsieur l’Ambassadeur,

je vous prie de demander au Président de la République du Nigeria de sauver

la vie de Safya Husseini Tungar-Tudu.

Grazie! Thanks! Merci!

———

un documento allegato completa la storia. quindi se volete fare qualcosa e’ piuttosto semplice, cosa state aspettando ?

chi scaglia la prima pietra ?
oggi sono a casa in ferie, e guardando la nebbia fuori e lo sciopero dei mezzi a Milano stamane, beh la cosa e’ consolatoria, ho anche tempo di leggere il giornale, e cosi’ sfoglio e arrivo ad un articolo che mi lascia tra il desolato ( nel senso di desolazione, come wasteland, to say the least) e l’incazzato come una iena, primo come persona, secondo come maschio, cioe’ l’idea che in Nigeria secondo la sharia (la legge islamica) questa donna che ha avuto un bambino concepito al di fuori dal matrimonio debba essere lapidata per scontare la pena. Dare alla luce un bambino e’ una cosa profondamente umana, ma permettemi, anche divina, come la creazione di una nuova vita, di conseguenza c’e’ un tale baratro che vedo che mi sembra veramente boh non so peggio che barbaro. Ecco non vorrei affermare supposte superiorita’ religiose di cristiani verso musulmani (certo Gesu’ aveva salvato una adultera dalla lapidazione) e nemmeno culturali , ah be la Nigeria… anche gli USA con la loro bella civilizzazione mandano a morire persone secondo le loro leggi (e non e’ che l’iniezione o la sedia elettrica siano piu’ civili [avete visto “Il Miglio Verde”, guardatelo,] certo che qui l’idea di una ragazza ora tenuta in vita per allattare il bambino e vederlo giusto crescere e poi essere interrata fino al seno ed essere lapidata e’ qualcosa di atroce, quindi se c’e’ da mobilitarsi mi sembra il minimo per lavare via questa cosa talmente vergognosa da non sembrare vero eppure probabilmente e’ solo una delle tante storie di sofferenza nascoste nelle pagine interne di un giornale

ok folks, i think i done all the reporting from the recent ani difranco tour, i know i’ve been enough verbose and i assume that non fans would think, geez, this guy has indeed lotsa free time to waste, say that i think it’s been an exciting experience and i just wanted to share with you, hence the choice to report in english while most of my recent weblog entries were in italian, my native language, i hope you appreciated, and my best recognition was receiving an e-mail from this person in NYC telling me Thanks for the kool review. I feel like I was there; wondered what her European tours were like. So life goes on and this space will host as usual normal random topics, 100% genuine content for ani in italy will be in its right place, peace&love.;

the grande familia and the surfin’ girl (Ani 5.dec.2k1 in Rome, Italy)
you’d call myself lucky, infact to go for a work mission in Rome for two days just ehm, magically in between one concert and with the hotel close 15 minutes from the venue and from the workplace requires a big straw of luck, and i appreciate this comfort, well not to say that i’d do also the hard part : when in February we’re here for the same reason i did drive with my car crossing half italy and got to sleep in my sleeping bag on a cold floor in a room with six girls (no, pls don’t envy me).
so here we go with the last show of Ani in Italy, in Rome, a city that she loves in a special way (see what she said last time she was here, err just a few months ago…).
We find again here as in Milan the Sungift as show opener, same remarks as below, i’d just add that a nice tank top left a nice view of the belly of the chick.. let’s go for more substance.


the Palacisalfa is quite a big venue (it’d host up to 2000 people) and it’s far away in the distance, there’s a gravel (ehm) road that leads there in almost darkness, we got a little earlier because of tickets to take (we got even a couple of free admission ticket by the band, wow) usual rush to gain the front row, you’d know that all shows in italy are general admission and there are no reserved seats, it’s just standing up , some seats may be way back just if you’re a lazybone or want to listen from a better position (sure closer to the soundboard acoustics is better but i’d not trade that for my front row place. Ain’t that the way opens the show , already at the beginning you’d see Ani is very relaxed (see one fine pic for an idea), she might not have that incisive side as in Milan but she’s just sweetly smiling at us, things sounds good trough firedoor that evolves into hat shaped hat, great job here by julie at keyboards, ah i was forgetting that at the beginning just in the middle of the front row this guy is ready to display a big sheet with “Ani let me play gravel with you” on, Ani sees it when it’s displayed and at first with a smile says uh the Turin Shroud and after some thinking says “shit we’ll have to figure out what to do..” when the guy tries to fold it back and it’s tough, ani bends and saying it looks like we’ve a problem here grab it and wrap herself around while she start singing.

after a while it becomes a problem playing with that stuff around and she trows away and just before Reg comes to clear the stage she kicks it away anticipating him with a nice grim. (ah for the usual clothes observers out there, ani was wearing a leather vest and ehm you’d see from low waist jeans a glitch of ehm uhm her black tanga, sexy!. Daren was then just kicking ass on Done Wrong;you had time was another intense and delicate moment with julie at a soft electric piano, Ani did join the keys section to play oh my my.

Another unforgettable moment was during freaskhow, after daren and ani were playing percussion the power on stage went off and instruments were just unplugged, so all of the band came as closer as possible to the edge of the stage so to be heard in the meantime Shawn and Reg were figuring out what’s going on (a similar thing happened in Turin 1999 and it’s amazing how quick they can react inventing something and go unplugged, Julie did even more she moved backward close to the edge and let herself fall on the audience, incredible, she was held up and did some surfing in circle on the audience till she was back on stage and in the meantime power did came back.again in the band introduction they all said how much they really love this place and we do just believe and saw living proof.
After the show we waited outside a while but it was not really possibile to catch’em leaving, we had a chat with Hans that was thanking all of us and remarking that we’re almost freezing out there but i told him that all in all with all the times we saw Ani we kinda got used to freeze our asses before and after show, they said they’ll be back on studio recording new stuff and hope to be back in our country next year hopefully in spring summer when the weather is fair. we’ll be there again.

Florence, the missing show…
well there ain’t much i can say about the Florence show apart from providing the setlist, just because i wasn’t there, people who were told me (and, ehm, i can somewhat confirm it) that the audience was sometimes really noisy and screaming, especially some english/americans, no wonder because in Florence there are a lot of foreign students. Ani did stop on both hands and waited for things to cool down and said: this is a very serious song, i’ve been reported also that someone was screaming on a slow song and someone of the band just did throw his towel at him, noisy audience was there also when Ani played in that same venue on february this year.
to the people who scream and sing along loudly so to disturb who’s on stage and other people in the audience, i’d just tell what’s in the living in clip insert : next time, shut the fuck up!

ok let me take a slight detour from the recent tales from the front row, it’s about some thoughts that have to do also with religion and the little folksinger, read with open mind or just ignore it, and believe me it’s just personal thoughts and hope you’re not offended at this putting close sacred and profane.
So i was at mass this morning (yes i’m roman catholic in case you wonder) and there was this reading from the Genesis where God looks for Adam and asks “where are you?”, the priest was commenting it recalling a story from the hebrew tradition (that i already read in a very interesting book by Martin Buber :”The Way of Man : According to the Teaching of Hasidism”) where a religious guide from Russia is put in jail and his guard asks him about what was God supposed to ask to Adam, if God knows everything why had He to ask Adam where he was, the religious replied that God indeed is talking to you, is asking to you where you are, what have you done up to now with your life, as an example He says: see it’s 46 years since you’re here, so where are you ?, the guard was higly surpised because that was his exact age.

Now let’s go more down to earth, this is a question that you and me can ask ourselves too, and one thing i’ve been admiring of Ani DiFranco is her doing so much in her life, touring, never stopping, fighting all the battles she believes in, first as a person and also in her songs you can read lines such as : did you do ? did you do all you could ? or how could you do nothing and say, i’m doing my best or again, one of my favorite : you’ve got your whole life to do something and that’s not very long. That’s it, think where you’re now in respect of your life and not just stay there but do what you’ve got to do.

Fierce and flawless folk fiesta at Rolling Stone (Ani 3.dec.2k1 in Milan, Italy)

here i’m catching up with stories from recent ani tour, so last monday we drove that little distance from my home to Milan (60 km) in between our usual companion: fog. Got there enough in advance where there were just no more than ten people according to some rumors from the day before an opening band was supposed to be there, they said a japanese guitarist/singer, when the got on stage we discovered we we’re more japanese than’em, a cute chick indeed and his guitarist both italians, they said they’re

the Sungift (never heard before) and even if she had quite a powerful voice (do you remember the singer of four non blondes?) she was quite.. cold, so we we’re just waiting for the main dish….
.

As in all the recent shows, the beginning of the show was a sampled clip by Utah Phillips (There comes a time when the operation of the machine is so odious that you cannot even passively participate) and Ani starts with Ain’t that the way and just after back into older songs such as 32 flavors. I’d say that the stage was at optimal height for us (2nd row) to see the whole band, while in Modena was honestly too high (kinda breakin’ the neck of the not-so-tall girls in our group) and Ani was wearing guess 2 layers of tank top (orange and above, one with the New York skyline). Providence was just intense(this is not a happy song she said) and people were just in silence, energy started to flow as the song go on and even more in letter to a john and jukebox with Ani jumping and her hair

drawing design in the air. Energy that was just ok side by side with tenderness and fragility as in You had time and imagine that, really if i’d choose a key to read the whole show it was damn close to a definition of a perfect concert, like a crystal clear sharp image, with harmony and strenght,Some people asked for stories

and she said well i can tell stories just in english, that’s fiiiine someone answered, and so my iq was a capella (and it was not in the setlist) and you’d follow every single movement and expression of her face, with a silence like in a church.
One thing i really like of her is how she’s able to revisit old song (like worthy, with Julie really doing good groovy work on the organ) and classics such as the diner and shameless and i just can’t get tired at them.

Daren was also in good shape (jukebox) and i got the feeling that Jason was playing funkier and was more incisive.Beginning sick of me people asked for more “stories” and she was thinking what to do when someone

asked what did she think about italy and her experience, well ok, she said, well i mean see i feel like a total brown noser, did you have that expression in italian ? you get a brown nose when kissing somebody’s ass, but it’s true i’m not trying to kiss your ass, i do really love this country so much, i mean i don’t know a shit of course, you know i come for two days ,i drive around i stuff my base(?) i go home i hold my belly, i sleep but i remember the first time i came to italy i noticed that there was an opposite reaction completely opposite to what i was used you know i travel around like mmmmhhmhm and in germany they said, you’re very angry, why? you know, and i go country to country and it’s the same shit, what the fuck is your problem and i remember the first time i came to italy and i got my first interview and that guy was like you’re so passionate, you are so cool so…wow (it’s a story she already told once in another interview but we love it and then Sick of me starts and it’s almost time to say goodbye.

A review of the show would end here but i’ll add that after the show we had the chance to give a nice present, proudly produced and created by the fine folks in the italian hardcore fan, it was a thing for ani but also for evevry single member of the band (and the manager too!) and sawing the band thanking us was almost kinda difficult to believe,but when gig after gig we’re always there, long before and after the show… you know…

At the end a dozen of us got into one of the milan headquarters of ani fan (paola,silvia and francesca flat) to have a nice pasta at 2.30 in the morning (rubbing elbows with the moon;) Me and a girl that was with me (at her first Ani gig, thank you again Mirta for just being there) drove way back home in the fog thicker than ever, and got home when it was almost 5 AM .Say i was considering what Douglas Coupland call “trip to Australia” but i did choose for some rest, to be ready for more.

work hard, play hard

got back home after a two days away where i’ve been in Rome doing product demos, that’s to say standing up all day long and talking to groups of people, it’s been really interesting and well done, and then, at close of business day, change of clothes, put away the business suit and my corporate colored necktie and just wore my hooded sweatshirt and comfy trousers and … tah dah… going to another Ani show at Palacisalfa in Rome….(bringin’ my anigigcounter to 3 out of 4 shows in the last week, 6 in this year and 11 overall). It’s been more relaxed compared to the one in Milan (anyway imho the best in this italian 2nd leg), let me get some rest and i’ll be back with fresh stories from the front row