Baustelle in Milan on June 1st (social music works)

Social music works, at least it has for me so far!

In the recent past, my musical discoveries came either from friends or from the iTunes Store billboard (and neither seemed to provide any life-changing experience!).

I little while ago I began to experiment seriously with last.fm. It took a while for it to learn what kind of music I like (yes, it is quite varied!). Then, a couple of weeks back, it suggested a previously unknown (to me) band called Baustelle. So I gave it a try.



Bang! Great! According to last.fm tags it's alternative, indie, indie pop, indie rock. I simply find the music enjoyable and the lyrics very interesting. Listen for yourselves. My favourites from the last album is 'Il liberismo ha i giorni contati', for sure.

To make sure I would fully enjoy my new discovery, I then realise Milan is the opening concert of their live tour for Summer '08, and the location is Piazza Santo Stefano...excellent!

Who's around and wants to join?

Congratulazioni per il 15° scudetto

(For once, a post in Italian)



"Complimenti per il meritatissimo scudetto. Non capisco però perchè anche quando vince l'Inter si fa comunque ridere dietro da tutta Italia. Del resto l'Inter e' una squadra vincente con un presidente vincente e un allenatore vincente. Non poteva quindi perdere. Magari l'anno prossimo vince anche la Champions...certo che però è difficile che facciano escludere dalla Champions contemporaneamente Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcellona, Real Madrid, Bayern, Lione e magari anche il Villareal. Mah speriamo in SuperGuido..." (by Stefano)

5 Maggio...one more time?

http://www.5maggioonemoretime.com/

Via Leopardi is dead, long live Via Leopardi

The last day of Value Partners' glorious office in Via Leopardi 32 officially came to a close on Friday 9 May at 17:10 when the servers were shut down. Here's some pictures to commemorate this epic moment.

And here's some of the comments that animated the corporate email during the day. It all started with...

"Per chi è ancora qui, appena i server andranno in shut down, questo è il segnale convenuto, è previsto in sala conference un brindisi a questo magnifico palazzo e a tutte le idee che ha saputo far nascere"

...which gave birth...



--"Io qua dal Brasile con una caipirinha"
--"Partecipo spiritualmente in remoto al brindisi con un succo di mango"
--"...una caipirinha a metà mattina la vedo aggressiva...Visto che comunque avete lanciato questo thread...brindiamo anche qui da Atene con Ouzo e Mastika"
--"Beh a questo punto mi unisco anche io ... Qui si beve poco ma si mangia gran chicken masala. Un arrivederci a via Leopardi!"
--"Mi unisco anche io al brindisi da Buenos Aires con un buon bicchiere di Malbec.
Un saluto grande alla MITICA via Leopardi!!"
--"Da Roma mi unisco al brindisi con un 'Bianco dei Castelli'. E sentitamente partecipo allo spirito ed valore di questo momento"

...but also a touch of romance ;-)
--"Io tra queste mura ho trovato l'amore"

PS I promise to add any more pictures sent to me

Music from a long weekend

After spending most of my time travelling, I always enjoy spending some time at home relaxing, catching up with sleep, reading some good books...with music in the background all day.

My favourites from the weekend (courtesy of last.fm)

Stop the Clash of Civilizations

Sometimes I wonder: what's the point of posting something that has been already seen by over 2 million people on YouTube and commented over 40.000 times?

In this case, the video speaks for itself - a brilliant message against intolerance and prejudice, that in just over 2.30 minutes demolishes many preconceptions many people have, in both the Western world and Arab/Muslim countries.

PS Winner of the 2007 YouTube Award for the Politics category