Post-christmas recipe

 

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Post-christmas recipe (apply at least a couple of these points)

- sleep in
- take a loooong hot shower, with essences, beauty masks, deep moisturizers, scrubs and home made treatments (hot bath works even better)
- drink 2l of water
- eat lots of fruits and vegetables, but do not skip meals (it works for the worst), magari integral pasta with vegetable sauce
- have a walk
- wrap yourself up into baggy, soft and warm clothes, don't even tie your hair, don't wear makeup nor contacts (I'm going with hidrating drops!)
- password: lay back. Nap, read one of the books you found under the tree, paint, dig your hobbies, listen to music, do whatever, basically! And if you want to you can do nothing, too!
- we accept suggestions: what's your best post-christmas remedy? I'd really use some, today I was one of those who had to go to work!

Music for Ellesturm

Some time ago Lindsay, from Digital Plaster, asked me to give her some advice about italian music.

So, loads of time later, I'm here to answer her request. Though I'm not a big fan of italian bands, and though I do not know her music tastes (but once she mentioned Dani Filth, and to know who he is means that at the very very very least you listen to hard rock ;) ) I've decided I'll link to songs I like, regardless!

And many thanks go to Mr. Faun, for the help and the expertise. We sticked to italian-lyrics only, otherwise the list would have been longer.

DISCLAIMER: nineties -in looks, appearence and sonorities- galore!

I'll keep an alphabetical oder for bands, it's easier.

Now let me have some propaganda moment, let me introduce you my friends' bands!

Armonite, instrumental band

Deimos, Gamma Ray tribute band,

The 5th Element, original songs, they have no youtube clip, but a couple of samples on their myspace!

And last but not least my singing teacher's band, here's a cover of Lucio Battisti "Nessun Dolore"

What matter is to believe

Today i'm going to prove you that what other people think can't really harm you in any way, unless you let them.
More! Other people's opinion really have no value at all! (as always I'm speaking in a quiet-living perspective, the old "your freedom ends where someone else's freedom begins" is always true ;)

Very often we stop ourselves from doing something, or we change the way we do something for some strange "fear" of what others may think.
I'm eating something I don't like so mum will say I'm a good girl.
I'm not singing in public so they won't tell me I'm tonedeaf.
And so many other things, 'till unbelievable paroxisms.

Icon told me to read "Your erroneous zones" by Dyer, great great book. It demolishes one by one all those little voices we hear in our heads saying things like "No, don't, what will others think?" "No, don't, preserve yourself exactly this way, change is hard" "No, don't! Don't you see how easy this is? How people respond giving you what you think you want and this way we're all miserables together?".

I'm going to add further proof to Dyer's awesome book (read it and realize how many people in this world should read it too... even though not everyone will get its message).

Once upon a time, well, not long time ago, there were a wealthy american lady who had a dream: becoming a famous singer.
And, to be honest, she did mange to become a famous singer!
Very famous.
Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery famous.

But let's not skip steps. Our heroine, given the time in wich she lived, had to face many obstacles to achieve her goal, but trying and trying our Florence (this was her name, and maybe some of you already know where I'm heading to ;) starts to gain more and more soirées, more and more roles, more and more fame.

By this time you are wondering where and how other people's opinion do NOT matter.
We have proof, unrefutable proof, with pictures of her and most of all a recording.

She was patently awful.

BUT!

And here comes the great lesson we have to learn from this great woman: she thought of herself as a great singer, she thought she didn't need any operatic training, that what you heard in the theater weren't laughs, but compliments and applauses, that the "booing" came from envious people (most notably her envious collegues).
So she kept singing, for years, earning fame, ok, Florence Jenkins is known as "the worst soprano ever", but let's walk in her shoes for a while, instead that in those of listeners and critics. Let's think with our favourite (oh yes, she had plenty of fans and admirers) singer's mind: better, with her own words "People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing".

If you're still thinking "yeah, well, but she sucked!" you're not grasping the point here.
Which is precisely this: for how bad people thought, their thought had absolutely no power at all, no influence at all on Florence's life, she lived happily, ignoring all those nasty comments.

And if she did it, why on earth can't we do the same???

Pistoia Blues Festival

img by me ;)

Let's interrupt the quarter life crisis serie of post, shall we? It's crisis everywhere, you don't need me pointing out another one, do you?
But most of all I want to tell about my little holiday in Tuscany (you know that thursday my box will be filled with memorabilias from this trip, righ?)

Anyway, let's go backwards: we came back yesterday in the evening, straigth from Florence. It's always a wonderful city, majestic, wherever you look you find something to gaze upon in awe. It's a little bit pricy, an chaotic, even if finally the center is forbidden to cars. But after all, it's Florence.
Saturday we went to Lucca, we fell in love with this town: it's still surrounded by walls, and you can have a walk on those walls! Again a town filled with squares, churches, and monumental buildings to be left breathless, moreover it's clean, quiet... saturday there was a vintage market, all around town, so many wonderful things! And most of all we've already decided that we are going to go back for Lucca Comics and Games!
Friday it was Prato and Pistoia, I'm sorry for any Prato lovers, but to me that's a city to forget, ok, we've met John Malkovich (he had a show in Prato that night), but there is nothing I found remarkable about that town. On the other hand Pistoia is little, cute, there was a fair that night, so it was quite pleasant to walk around! Sadly Piazza del Duomo was inaccessible due to the concert...

But hey! The concert! Thursday night, after Faun picked me up in Parma, we went to the Pistoia Blues Festival, so we could see Piazza del Duomo and also we've attended a wonderful show.
I knew two bands out of four, but they've all been great, the sounds were almost always perfect, a screaming and enthusiast crowd (a collaborative one too: two giants in front of me, who kept moving just when I was about to snap a picture, kindly stopped and apologized after I shouted "holy s**t!"), unbelievable heat at the beginning, but luckily we had a little wind, after... and gallons of water drank non-stop. And I accidentally poked Fabio Lione with my elbow, but he was walking through the crowd, it happens!
I have to say that Labyrinth isn't my favourite kind of music, but I can assume that any fan had a realy great time. Didn't know Hammerfall either, but I'm definately checking out some albums when I can!
Then it was Gamma Ray time, wonderful lights (that let me take some good pictures, if I may say so myself!) and songs sung along with everybody out loud, to finish with Queensryche, who stayed onstage for an hour and a half... what can I say... I closed my eyes and felt like I was listening to a record, then I opened my eyes and they where some length in front of me.
Plus mr Tate has such a nice voice to listen to, whether he's singing or speaking, he should narrate some dramatic fantasy movie!

Honourary mention goes to our B&B, Ruri Est, they opened circa three years ago, in a home they clearly restored to new life, in a small village very near to anything we wanted to see (15 minutes to Pistoia and Prato, 20 to Lucca, and a bit more than half an hour to Florence... perfect!), it was surrounded by a nice planted garden, we had breakfast in the patio, filled with vintage photos, looking at that garden (oh, and the breakfast, was a sweet galore: cakes, cookies, croissants, jam, fruit juice, fresh fruit, you name it, you have it!), everything was clean, fresh, the rooms where comfortables and with modern furniture, they had a free wifi connection (but we didn't use it, we were on vacation!) and a bookshelf filled with maps, plans, guides and books on the surroundings, if you wanted to plot some visits.
In the end they gave me and handmade bath-rubbing-glove-thingy, how thoughtful!
Of course, in October, we will go back there for Lucca Comics and Games!

Ok, here are some pictures of the concerts, a small selection of the best ones!
I'm new to flickr so feel free to add me and such!