TELL ME A STORY

TELL ME A STORY

Oct 19, 2024 | STORIES

Raccontami una storia – Tell me a story is an initiative by Maria Guidi, La tana di Aloiz  and Sandra Giannetto. 

Raccontami una storia is a game that consists of writing a story following certain directions and a theme.

The theme of the second edition: ‘drawing inspiration from a painting!’

I suggest you follow the organisers to discover interviews with the three winners.

Then, if you feel like it, you can read my story: 

Even this morning, I am watching the sun rise beyond the skeleton of the building opposite: since the soft orangey pink has begun to contrast with the grey illuminating the sky and hope, I don’t want to miss the colours because they are proof that it is not over yet.

I thought I would never see them again, I thought my punishment for not having exploded yet was to become a useless part of a single inexorable leaden gloom.

I regret that I was unable to count the days accurately, that I succumbed to confusion, that I did not even take care of my memory.

Had I done so, I might now know how much time had passed.

But I didn’t want to think any more, I just wanted it all to end. Each new day was just another skipped meal, another interminable darkness strewn with anguish, another series of exhausting yet unsuccessful efforts in search of an impossible solution.

Instead, the light has begun to mark time again and I now believe it, it is not just a dream, nor a coincidence, nor even my illusion: the sun still exists.

One enemy lurks, however: fear.

I have not been hit, I have not been crushed, I have not been asphyxiated, and I have even managed to hide from the incursions of the human jackals, but I still cannot free myself from the grip that presses on my brain and paralyses me.

I tell myself it makes no sense.

Then I relive everything.

The gigantic ball igniting the sky and suddenly bouncing upwards, and immediately the shockwave.

A macabre, accelerated domino that shatters everything.

Without my eyes having time to see, the heat was already on me.

Pain is not food.

But I must eat more of it if I am to find real nourishment.

And then Frances is at the end of her tether, and I want to do everything I can, just as she did from the moment she dragged me by weight into the cistern until she taught me how to climb down the shaft to the warehouse.

She held the rope and sang U2 to give me courage

You’r in the mud
In the maze of her imagination
You love this town
Even if that doesn’t ring true…

The first time I wanted it to stop but I didn’t dare shout it out for fear that some of the marauding Huns would hear me. Yet if it hadn’t been for those sung words ‘sky falls, you feel like … it’s a beautiful day …’ I wouldn’t have been able to find enough strength to climb back up.

The more things I could carry, the longer I could rest in hiding again.

And to think that on the various occasions when I had more or less tried, I had never managed to climb up a rope: my hands burned within minutes and the non-existent muscles in my arms didn’t even pretend to contract.

Survival.

A huge challenge to overcome in order to stay alive, even when staying alive seems like the worst of ideas.

Adrenaline, instinct, terror, mixing in a closed circle of pulsations bouncing between heart and brain at uncontrollable speed.

Survival.

Force that becomes flesh split between two heads: hope and despair. Like a Cerberus whose paws rest on the breath with all their agonising weight.

Survival.

Thinking that there can never be anything worse until existence turns into waiting.

Waiting for respite, waiting for food, waiting for mercy. Waiting for a miracle, for help, for a new day.

Like today.

The painting is Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) by William Turner.

72 SEASONS

72 SEASONS

Apr 15, 2023 | ROCK

72 Seasons is the title chosen by Metallica for their new album released yesterday and anticipated by a global premiere on Thursday, April 13 at the same time in cinemas around the world.

72 Seasons equals the first eighteen years of life.

The 72 seasons of life before coming of age, before becoming an adult.

James Hetfield said he was inspired by the idea of maturation that occurs during these years reading a book.

None of the interviews I found ever asked what this book was, yet that is the first question I would ever ask, “James what book did you read?”

In general, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo 72 seasons have not been easy, and I think each of us periodically rethink to the 72 seasons period.

For example, I often say that after a carefree childhood, adolescence was a bit of a middle age in its negative sense.

What memories do you have of your 72 Seasons?

Still talking about darkness: James Hetfield reminds us of its importance because without it there would be no light.

I reflected on this concept for the first time precisely during my 72 Seasons ….

Speaking of light, Lux Æterna is the debut single from this album and by associating it with Memento Mori I wondered if these obvious references are a consequence of the historical period in which we are living.

Instead, James Hetfield called Lux Æterna a joyful song and a kind of throwback to the 80s. 

What do you think about this definition?

I personally haven’t decided yet if I completely agree with it, however, I am sure of one thing: the second excerpted track If Darkness had a son is perfect to give a remarkable power.

My son and I listened to it in the morning while we were in the car on our way to school and the office, and we had fun and nice smiling.

Indeed I’m not the only one who gets energy from Metallica, as the Virginia Tech team uses Enter Sandman for pre-game … of course you can’t compare it to aka, but for those without Maori roots and ancestors, the effect is powerful enough, isn’t it?

Aside from coffee, of course, what gets your power?

SHADOW

SHADOW

Oct 8, 2022 | TECHNOLOGY

Shadow, what is your first thought?

I start by quoting people: Nick. 

Then random: motors

Music

Movies

I could go on, more and more, would you like to mention other examples as well?

The world is full of shadows …

I wonder how the choice to call Shadow even a computer that can be accessed remotely came about.

It is is a powerful Windows PC that allows to use any kind of application without buying hardware, which as you know, tends to be obsolete very quickly, as well as expensive.

A faculty that opens up a kind of new and important revolution with respect to the use of technology in our daily lives.

Or do you see it more as another standardization?

The obvious and immediate benefits come in the form of being able to operate at maximum power without having to shell out large sums in equipment purchases.

Also at the level of the environment, the exploitation of certain materials would certainly be reduced, and above all, the need for disposal of many devices would be reduced, since everyone would be able to operate with the available device, simply by connecting.

However, connection may also be the first downside: if it goes off, all work would stop.

The same if the “server” would break.

And again: the conditions at the beginning may appear advantageous, but the costs could rise uncontrollably, as we are unfortunately seeing.

So there is a risk of finding oneself regretting the old PC, perhaps slow but working.

Light, or shadow?

While we decide, something “dark” undoubtedly is the cloud!

I can’t help but think about the scene in which Jason Segel yells at Cameron Diaz, “nobody knows what the cloud is!”

The infamous cloud: a kind of black hole where our data ends up, or a valuable opportunity?

To USerS 🙂 the harsh judgment.

EASY PLATO

EASY PLATO

Jan 7, 2022 | CULTURE, BOOKS

I immediately ask forgiveness for the heresy: “Itis Plato” obviously came to mind with reference to Paolini

 

I could listen to Marco Paolini for hours without ever getting tired, I discovered his ability to catalyze and maintain attention since Vajont, which has really remained as on the living skin.

Itis Galileo was also staged at the Cagnoni Theater in Vigevano in 2013.

At the beginning of the monologue Paolini asks who among the audience has attended classical high school rather than scientific high school and at the end he says that he will explain Galileo at the Technical Institute level because those who have studied at Itis: Technical Institute do not know philosophy.

Here I am.

It must also be said that I have to thank Francy, Franca and Francesco, as well as for the books on mathematics, also for a Novel about the history of philosophy: Sophie’s world, which has also become famous as a sort of “manual” if we can say so.

My husband Massimo then, taken by the Allegory of the cave, gave me Plato’s Republic which I read in my own way, trying to understand how I could.

This is why it occurred to me that perhaps I should also ask Marco Paolini for an Itis Plato, a triangle, as he ironically defines it.

And you? Are you Platonic?

Speaking of the cave, I’d like to create a rubric: imagine darkness and only a flashlight behind you.

What would you say to people to bring them out into the light?

TUTTOLANDIA

TUTTOLANDIA

Dec 14, 2021 | THE X-MAS CAROLS

The days go by and we are already at box number 7 of the Advent Calendar, The world of Shioren announced that the creations would include a bit of everything… we started with a drawing, then we had tales and a video.

Today Tuttolandia gives us a poem.

So far, in some cases more, in some cases less, I had first met the authors of the various blogs participating in this initiative, but in the case of Tuttolandia I am faced with a surprise in the round.

Reading what Paola writes about herself, I discover many aspects that unite us, and I smile at the thought of how fate sometimes makes us cross people in the strangest ways.

As I wrote in the comments to Paola, reading the poem she wrote immediately transported me to the kind of Christmas atmosphere that I particularly love. 

Light.
I feel the need for that light so much, and I think it should be a little bit like this for everyone.

You will tell me after reading The Tree and the Star:

The fir

master of the room

fondles himself as

a princess

coated

from rosy crystals

and thirst for

light ribbons.

go on here. 

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