On February the 16th (it’s a Saturday) at 17:00 will took place a presentation of the book “Circo Barnard” written by myself (Paolo Tassotti) and edited by Aletti Editore.
The location is the Church of San Lorenzo in Lucina in the Laurentina Room.
The event is open to everyone.
Write to info@paolotassotti.it for more information.
As many of you probably know, a few days ago took place the worldwide concert Live Earth promoted by USA former vice president Al Gore.
The aim of the new ambientalist guru was to alert public opinion about the great risks coming from global warming and consequent climate changes occuring on planet Earth in the last few years.
In order to support his ecological campain, the “almost president” (as he recently defined himself referring to the well-known quarrel on Florida state vote recount in 2004), called a bunch of music stars like Police, Genesis, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Duran Duran, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Cat Stevens (oops… Yusuf Islam ;-P ) and many more.
As Bob Geldof did for Live 8 in 2005, it was chosen the simultaneous concerts formula very suitable for a global event like this.
A part from the improper date choice (7/7/2007) (hoping dued to promotional aims instead of numerological or esoterical beliefs of the organisers), major blaim regarding Live Earth was the following: can a group of spoiled and over-paid V.I.P. really convince the “MTV generation” to change their daily habits in order to save power when their videoclips on TV are normally followed by ads promoting an immoral “don’t care” consumism ?
Probably there is too much confusion on this topic, expecially if you compare the opinions of two influent personalities like Madonna and London major Ken Livingstone about WCs.
The former seems she has to change her toilet everyday (!!!) while the latter loves saving water by flushing only once on a while…
I’ve just signed a contract with Aletti Editore for my debut book that will be entitled “Circo Barnard” as the omonimous short novel.
Due to lack of space, only a selection of my novels will be published: Circo Barnard, Alieni blasfemi, Ragazzi-bomba, Metronomica, Metronomica - La rivolta dei Mangianastri, Io voto Mathers e La città dei razzi.
Probably the book will be in the stores within next autumn. I will inform you about all promotional events that will take place in the coming months.
The shell as the self-isolation metaphor. The instrumental coda is based on a string ensemble pad with a choral harmonization on the above. Some electronics insert and processed guitar can be also heared by the more trained listeners.
Listen to mp3 excerpt here, read lyrics here
As you certainly understand, posting something against pedophilia phenomenon cannot be off-topic in any blog.
I advice you to watch the BBC report on sexual abuses committed by a number of clergymen, particularly in Ireland and in the USA, entitled “Sex crimes and the Vatican”.
The documentary shows some proofs of an attempted cover-up carried out by the higher vatican autorithies in order to avoid drawbacks in terms of public opinion trust.
But probably the real scandal is that here in Italy this survey hasn’t yet been broadcasted on traditional mass-media. The only way to watch it is on the Internet.
Fortunately yesterday the famous italian anchorman Michele Santoro has announced that he will buy the reproduction rights for Italy and the documentary will be soon transmitted in his program “Anno Zero” on the second channel of RAI television. Too much late in any case…
Anyway, I hope that Santoro won’t get misteriously ill in the next days like Albino Luciani (John Paul the first)…
The entire video is currently available both on Google Video Italia
and on YouTube .
Today let me get off-topic.
In these days the contrapposition between laic and catholic exponents is getting in our country more and more tough. Ethical debates on gay marriage, euthanasia, staminal cells research and aided fecundation are very common in both political and cultural entourage. It is not surprinsing that these discussions has caused deep cleavage in both political coalitions, creating unusual trasversal alliances.
Probably the conflict between western world and islamic terrorism has woke up in our collective inconscious some questions that previously were sleeping underneath because of our secolarized society. Muslim integralist tradition bans any form of laicism. Growing up immigration from islamic countries brings some integration issues.
Is it right to give recognition of Giudaic-Christian roots in European Constitution ? Is it right to forbit islamic women living in EC to wear chador ? Is it right to make a concordat with islamic autorithies ?
The list could continue indefinetely. As a matter of fact questions like these aren’t really off-topic in my website. Probably some of you has read the full-length version of my short novel “Alieni blasfemi” (Blasphemous aliens) and sure you can understand what I am referring to.
Now I wanna leave you with a little provocation: if someone would tell you that Jesus admitted divorce, cohabitation out of marriage, omosexuality and transexuality, you will consider him a fool ? Before coming to a fast conclusion please read carefully this excerpt from from the Gospel of Mattew:
“19, 1 And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan;
2 And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.
3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
Last tuesday I got in touch with discographical environment for the first time. I was contacted by VideoRadio, an indie label whom I sent my demo CD some weeks ago. Since they seemed very interested in my music we fixed a meeting in their studio in order to know each other.
Now I should to make a short digression about VideoRadio’s history. It was found in 1985 by Giuseppe Aleo, a drummer fairly famous in the italian prog scene of the ‘70. He was member of different bands: Il Sigillo di Horus and I Signori della Galassia .
Now let’s get back to the present times. Unfortunately the berth I slept in the train was not very comfortable. Nevertherless I got to VideoRadio studios, not very far from the station, very soon in the morning. With Giuseppe we get immediately both human and musical feeling, certainly due to our common musical backgrounds.
As in Bologna with Medimond, artistic and dreaming talks were soon left behind in favour of modern discographic market issues. Publishing an album is not a problem in itself. The real problem is creating a winning project in term of promotion and distribution. The naked truth is that nowadays record selling rates have dramatically fallen down. The main reason is certainly the increasing widespread of peer-to-peer programs on the Internet that allow free download of mp3.
“Let the one without sin cast the first stone…”
The illegal download phenomenon seems not to get rest. Police has very poor means to contrast this globalized habit of PC users. They have not enough resources to control every file being shared between users on the net. The major effort are then focused on more serious crimes like online pedopornography. So illegal mp3 download is now considered as a venial sin in the common sense. However copyright protection laws continue to be violate every second.
The second reason of current musical market crisis is more sociological. Most of record buyers are teenagers. So what are their tastes ? Is it true that we have impose them a dominant dis-culture made of reality shows, fake quarelling, gossip, paparazzi and bullism shooted with modern videophones ?
Giuseppe said something like: “Great artist of the past like Battisti and Dalla, would starve if they were born in these days”. Nobody can prove this statement, anyway I refuse to give up my personal struggle to change the italian culture…
I wonder what could be possible countermeasures to the status quo. The first the comes in my mind is to view Internet not as a threat but as an opportunity. Having a website including a download by payment mechanism (e.g. Paypal) is a must either for labels and artists, even if they have full access to traditional means of distribution.
A second countermeasure is obviously playing live. Not considering the earning for tickets, what is more important for both the artist and the label are the rights paid by the owner of pub (or whatever) to SIAE (the italian branch of CISAC). In this way the label can blanket the initial investment made to publish the record.
A third way, fairly unusual but certainly smart, is to find a sponsor willing to finance your project buying a number of copies of your CD. Certainly you can’t hope to find a real Mecenate. However economical advantages for a sponsor are clear. First of all fiscally the V.A.T can be detracted. Moreover, putting its logo on your CD the sponsor can exploit the artistic product for its own promotional aims.
In conclusion I can say that this meeting with Giuseppe Aleo cleared me certain aspects of discographical market that I didn’t know well. It was a positive experience and probably we will start soon a collaboration. Well, unless tomorrow someone will knock at my door with a proposal that cannot be refused. Who knows…
As you already know, besides musical production, I also write short novels. Willing to see my works published, I sent a manuscript to variuos book publishers.
Medimond from Bologna (Menduzzi publisher) was the first to answer me. Medimont has a section specifically dedicated to raising talents who want to publish their first work, GME.
We fixed a meeting on friday afternoon with Ms. Magnani, Medimont artistic director. I arrived to Bologna station at 13:00, just in time to take a look at commemorative headstone of terrorist bombing happened on August 2nd 1980.
Medimont main offices are situated in Maserati Street 5 in the industrial part of the city, just ten minutes by taxi from station.
I was nicely hosted in waiting room. While I was sitting there looking around my attention was focused on the amount of scientific publications placed in the bookshelf on my right. In fact, the main brand of Medimond are proceedings from various conferences around the world, expecially on Medical and Surgery.
Shortly I was called to Ms. Magnani office. She is a very nice person and she immediately let me see that she was really impressed from my short novels. I was told about the long and complicated selection procedure which my book was subject to. It was read by a number of Medimont external collaborators including some full professors in Literature. “Well, if I’ve arrived until this point I’ve passed the most diffucult part”, I thought.
But this was not the case. First of all Ms. Magnani make me note that my novels aren’t certainly devoted to a large public, being very different from a commercial product. As a matter of fact, my book would more likely be addressed to a restricted audience made of intellectuals. Anyway, I was conscious of this fact from the very beginning of my adventure, so I wasn’t disappointed from what Ms. Magnani were saying.
The thing that really disturbed me was the edition contract proposed to me. Ms. Magnani has frankly cleared that for a first work of an emerging author is very difficult to balance the initial investment with selling incomes. In order to avoid a certain loss, every book publisher ask the author to buy a number of copies of the book in order to cover the investment.
Apart from the fact of being able to afford the expense required (this is not the place suitable to discuss it), it is clear that earning perspectives are pratically null. The only feasible target is covering up all the initial investment, that is a very discouraging fact.
This makes me think about the very sad situation of culture here in Italy. People read very little. Often the only books read are commercial best-sellers of poor qualitative level (I don’t give names to avoid legal actions…). Alternatively, the big classics of the past often remains the only safety anchor for a little number of “hard-readers” belonging to the higher classes of society that prefer the safe path rather than a risky one. So, how much space remains for emerging talents ? Very little I sadly have to tell you. The shorter is the space the more unconventional is the book, as mine is.
I make a plea to all my readers: let’s try to create a mass movement intending to rebel against the poor level of culture in our country and make pressure on the autorithies in order to promote and sustain new initiatives from emerging talents. Don’t let our dreams die.
Great intellectual works are the only things that remain from the past. The rest is just dust. Let something of us will stay alive in the future.
Rome from my point of view… eternal, chaotic, ruled by the Pope. PS: what’s the use of ecologic sundays ?
Listen to mp3 excerpt here, read lyrics here
Nervous thoughts of a man caged in the modern metropolitan traffic jams. Will he succed to met Claudia ?
Listen to mp3 excerpt here, read lyrics here
