in viaggio

Ultimamente viaggio. Oggi scrivo da Oslo. Sarebbe dovuto venire anche Gipi ma ha fatto il bidone, come fa spesso per i festival in cui ci invitano. Sono qui, nella stanza 712 dell'hotel millenium che penso e scrivo, scelgo immagini e annoto. Frattanto Baobab 3 si appresta ad essere stampato e io lavoro ad Argento. Il romanzo che riscrivo sulle basi di quanto pubblicato in questo Blog. Ho idee anche per un'altra cosa, una cosa il cui aspetto si deve ancora precisare, che avrà un formato nuovo rispetto a quelli usati sinora. Ma non so neppure se mai vedrà la luce, per ora è in un quaderno e viaggia con me.
Grazie a tutti quelli che mi hanno scritto. Vi ho sentiti vicini. Mi ha confortato. Non ho parole, davvero.

on air

è uscito, lunedi' 28 gennaio, il mio nuovo disco. L'accoglienza per il momento è molto positiva. Qui un'intervista alla radio francese RFI che presenta l'album. In compagnia dell'ottima Laurence Aloir che conduceva con una verve oggi rara, veramente rock, e di Bruno Theol, direttore della prestigiosa etichetta Nocturne.
Qui il link per l'intervista.


Il disco, attualmente reperibile on line al sito di Coconino Press o Nocturne (Qui per un preascolto dei brani ) andrà in distribuzione a Marzo.

Qui il diario di bordo, ricco di illustrazioni, foto e slide show di igort & Lo Ciceros

baobab 3

disegno lentamente. Arrivano visioni e la storia si carica di livelli altri, inaspettati. Io assisto.

the love song of Alfred J. Prufrock

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question...
Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, 'Do I dare?' and, 'Do I dare?
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair --
[They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!]
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin --
[They will say: 'But how his arms and legs are thin!]
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all--
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all--
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!]
It is perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
. . . . .
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?...

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
. . . . .
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet--and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: 'I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all'--
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: 'That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.'

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor--
And this, and so much more?--
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
'That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.'
. . . . .
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

(T.S. Eliot and a small loop from Portishead)

è viva

dopo anni di incertezze una cosa che riscalda il cuore. Almeno sapere che Ingrid Betancourt, rapita da cinque anni dai montoneros in Colombia e tenuta in cattività nelle foreste, è ancora viva. Con lei oltre cinquemila altri rapiti.
Una cosa semplicemente atroce.

parole e musica

qui una chiacchierata sul disco CASINO' (igort & lo ciceros) e altri progetti musicali, ospiti di Radio X e Sardinia Media Factory. Conduce Sergio Benoni, amico, di vecchia data ed ex compagno di liceo, ritrovato con piacere questa estate nell'isola.

animamusica

A cagliari, in autunno, non sono più abituato a venirci. Questa occasione è un invito dell'Expo, un festival di comunicazione in cui insieme ad altri "tutor" parliamo delle esperienze, del nostro lavoro di autori, del supporto delle tecnologie, di come nascono le idee e come si trasformano. Sulla base dell'immagine di copertina del nuovo disco Bruno Olivieri fa una piccola animazione che sperio presto di postarvi. Eccolo al lavoro.