COFFEE AT TIFFANY’S

COFFEE AT TIFFANY’S

Mar 8, 2020 | A COFFEE WITH, FASHION, MOVIES, WOMEN

I had other things in mind for today’s coffee, but honestly now I feel a strong need for lightness.
So who more than Audrey can represent the personification of lightness without ever being superficial and without taking anything away from the seriousness of the challenges life poses?
I am not talking about only to her characters: her personal journey is also a great example of strength, balance, and tenacity in all the stages she has gone through, in all the decisions she has made, while maintaining and defending her privacy.
Her style is to subtract, she taught us the value of the essential.
In these days, everything is screamed, every declaration amplified by the big chests of the desire to arrive first. It no longer matter whether true or false, no matter what it will entail or what reactions it will provoke, it is published everywhere, and then the consensus starts.
The damages are not taken into consideration anymore.
Why cannot we do it in civil conduct?
Elegance is not only image, elegance is also a way of being, behavior, as well as bearing.
And for me, today, elegance is also civic sense, and respect.
Among the many anecdotes about Audrey Hepburn, I would particularly like to mention the one related to the wedding dress donated. In 1952, the marriage to Lord James Hanson was canceled few days before the established date. The dress for Audrey made by the Fontana sisters is ready and of course, it is gorgeous. Such a pity. Audrey then orders that it be donated “to the most beautiful, poorest, Italian girl whom the Fontana sisters will be able to find“.
Beyond the fact that it sounds like a fairy tale, the concept is: if I cannot have or cannot do something anymore, it does not mean that I should also preclude it from others.
Here it is the thought I would like to leave today.
And then:
“remember, if you need a hand you’ll find it at the end of your arm. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others. “
Audrey Hepburn

ANNA POLITKVOSKAJA

ANNA POLITKVOSKAJA

Feb 26, 2020 | PENDING COFFEE FOR, WOMEN, WORLD

Pending coffee is a small gesture for the benefit of a stranger.
Here I thought I could extrapolate the idea by transforming it into a dedication.
The first suspended coffee is for Anna Politkvoskaja.
The reasons are many and in these days when we find ourselves reflecting on events, the lack of a certain type of Journalism with a capital J pulsates and is felt even more distinctly.
The first memory I have of her is related to the 2004 tragedy at the school in Ossetia: Beslan.
A name that has become synonymous with pure horror.
A lot has been said about the history of tea, but since we are talking about coffee, let’s go further. She was determined to go on the scene to try to negotiate, as she had already done with courage for the hostages of the Dubrovka theater. Subsequently, she remained alongside the relatives of the victims, advising them to go to the Strasbourg human rights court and making an important contribution in the fight for justice.
Anna was born in New York, yet she fought to report the violence of the Russian army in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, writing more than two hundred articles for Novaja Gazeta without ever being intimidated by the death threats received. Threats that have proven to be well founded in circumstances that I find particularly terrible.
But she left us the example of what it means to write for a newspaper, of what it means to look for the truth, of what it means not to be manipulated.
And every time we don’t get to the bottom of things, every time we accept flows of clearly piloted information, every time we content ourselves with not asking questions, it is as if we too betrayed her.
She is not the only one, of course, but she has done a lot alone, as long as she has been able.
One of her phrases is emblematic: “The duty of [the] journalist [is] to write what this journalist sees in the reality. It’s only one duty.“
When we realize that this does not happen, let’s try to watch by ourselves.

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

Feb 15, 2020 | A COFFEE WITH, ROCK, WOMEN

I start with Debbie Harry, simply because I particularly like this photo and I hope it can be an inspiration for you too.
I would skip the details of his life more strictly personal and I would speak directly of the mythical times of the CBGB after the meeting with Chris Stein and the creation of Blondie who have characterized the scene since 1974 for a long period full of successes.
Without a doubt, I mention Call Me for the collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, which has become an iconic soundtrack and more generally a piece that evokes an emotional flashback at every listening: new wave, disco music, dance rock.
Debbie stayed with Chris for fifteen years during which they also fought a serious illness together.
A wonderful Heart of glass, but at the same time a strong heart, this is the first thought I have of all about her.
A woman who at fifty-three continues marking history with a first place in the chart that enters Guinness.
A woman who knows how to cross past present and future without distinction, like her portrait made by Andy Wharol with the Amiga 1000 computer.
A woman also celebrated in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who has been able to become a symbol with her ruffled hair and an uncalculated look but framed by her determination.
And his One way or another, deliberately covered with joy as a “survival mechanism”, resounds sadly current, making us reflect once again on the fact that over time, we persist in not treasuring experiences and that we cannot learn from mistakes, getting worse.
Anyway, let’s start from her smile and her intent to restore lightness and take an example, one way or another …

NICOLETTA DOSIO LIKE JANE FONDA

NICOLETTA DOSIO LIKE JANE FONDA

Jan 2, 2020 | WOMEN, WOMEN

During the last months we have learned that: Every Friday, as the sun rises, Jane Fonda wakes up and knows that she will have to be arrested. Every Friday, as the sun rises, a policeman wakes up and knows that he will have to arrest Jane Fonda. Every Friday, as the sun rises, it does not matter whether you are Jane Fonda or a policeman, the important thing is that at 81 years old woman teaches us how not to stop expressing your opinion. Her first arrest, pictured on the mug, dates back to the 1970s when she fought against the war in Vietnam earning the nickname of Hanoi Jane. Also Jane Fonda has fought for other causes such as the war in Iraq, the occupation of Palestine and the Women March. And she did it with his own personal style: choosing a different colored coat every time. Indeed, anyone now associates her red coat with recent arrests for her support for the campaign that requires the Trump administration to sign the Green New Deal. But how many other equally courageous women demonstrate for what they believe without anyone noticing them? To know the story of Nicoletta Dosio, in fact, we had to find out that she was sent to prison at 73. She has red hair, and has been fighting for 30 years, but no one has ever cared for her: she was only one of the activists in the Val di Susa until she refused alternative measures to prison. Nicoletta Dosio will have to be in jail for a year due to a protest that dates back to 2012 against High Speed ​​Railway construction and against the Monti government. Nicoletta Dosio is guilty of having raised the bar of the highway exit allowing motorists to pass without toll, because the police the day before had beaten and picked up the people by force after attacking them with a rain of tear gas in the woods around Bussoleno. Nicoletta Dosio is “escaped” from house arrest and refused extenuating circumstances because in order to obtain them she would have had to recognize the neglect of her conduct. Nicoletta Dosio has applied the motto “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs” and has dedicated her life to teaching Greek and Latin but also to the No Tav cause for her territory, for her community, with her community. Nicoletta Dosio teaches us “the awareness that the present one is not the only one of the possible worlds.”  
DANCE IN WHITE BUT WITH RED SHOES

DANCE IN WHITE BUT WITH RED SHOES

Dec 12, 2019 | WOMEN

The traditional Grand novice dance with the cadets of the Naval Academy of Livorno was a prestigious event of solidarity and culture  taking place at the palace of Venaria Reale in Turin.
Personally, every time I see these dances of the past, I immediately think of Elizabeth Bennet, the famous character created by Jane Austen, and to her way to break the rules.
After all, there is also a need for levity, so for one evening it is nice to live a fairy tale.
However, with the typical white princess dress, the debutants decided to wear red shoes inspired by Elina Chauvet’s public art project.
The Mexican artist used them for the first time in an installation in front of the Mexican consulate in El Paso, Texas, in memory of the hundreds of women killed.
These shoes have turned into a silent march of absent women. A march we behoove. A march that we hope could stop as soon as possible.

Archives

Pin It on Pinterest