Province exhibit—There is a good little
exhibit currently running in the old church of the Incoronata
entitled Due Secoli
della Provincia (Two centuries of the
Province). It is a display of the problems of and progress in the province of
Naples since the time of the French presence here under
Murat. Exhibits show how the old
province, Terra del lavoro, was
subdivided; there are demographic charts, time-lines of
the eruptions of Vesuvius, displays on the birth and
growth of industry, the changes wrought by the
unification of Italy, the phenomenon of massive
emigration, the urban renewal (risanamento)
at the turn of the 19th-to-20th century, and the growth
of post-WWII Naples. The exhibit runs through November
15.Pino Daniele Lawsuit—Well-known Neapolitan cantautore (singer
songwriter),
Pino Daniele, is apparently going to have to cough up
500,000 euros for having defamed or slandered (I don't
know the difference) Umberto Bossi, the head of the Lega
Nord (Northern League). At the San Remo song
festival in 2001, Daniele publicly (from the stage)
referred to Bossi as "un
uomo di merda" (a man of s---). I guess that's
actionable, although it does not sit well with many
Italians (not just Neapolitans) who know that Bossi has
still to pay a cent or spend a day in jail for various
episodes of having defamed the Republic of Italy by —at least on one occasion— saying that he uses the
Italian flag for toilet paper. Bossi is a member of
parliament and enjoys immunity even for such outbursts.
(early November, 2007)
Capodimonte
exhibit— Tribute to Capodimonte,
from Caravaggio to Picasso is the title of a
truly world-class exhibit now on at the Capodimonte museum and
running through January 20, 2008. "Four centuries of
Masterpieces" is the additional blurb on the poster. I will no doubt have to
check this one out, just so that when my culture-vulture
friend (her
name is Laura) from abroad visits me, I don't have to listen
to, "What?!
You live here and you didn't go?!" Gasp. Sputter.[Also see Caravaggio]
Bagnoli
boat
harbor—On again/off again.
Back in 2002/3, Naples put in a bid for the 2007
Americas Cup boat regatta or race or sailapalooza or
whatever they call it. Winning the bid would have then
entailed building a new
boat harbor in Bagnoli, the proposed site for the
event. When the Americas Cup went to Valencia (boo!
hiss!) and not Bagnoli, I figured that the plan for the
harbor —which
both Leonardo da Vinci and I had considered bizarre and
unworkable—
would have been shelved and that Bagnoli would have to
limp along in some other way in its very ambitious plan
to rejuvenate itself from a century of decay.
Recent reports in the paper report that the plan is now "off again", meaning that it had been "on again" even after the Americas Cup idea got deep-sixed. I guess I wasn't paying attention. The concern is for "insabbiamento" of the area. If it were a river, that would be "silting up," so I suppose this is "sanding up." In any event, mayor Iervolino insists that the plan is going to go forward anyway, in spite of engineering and ecological concerns. So that means it's "on again." That, of course, may change.
Recent reports in the paper report that the plan is now "off again", meaning that it had been "on again" even after the Americas Cup idea got deep-sixed. I guess I wasn't paying attention. The concern is for "insabbiamento" of the area. If it were a river, that would be "silting up," so I suppose this is "sanding up." In any event, mayor Iervolino insists that the plan is going to go forward anyway, in spite of engineering and ecological concerns. So that means it's "on again." That, of course, may change.
A year ago, the Naples city council was
moved out of its long-time assembly hall in the historic
Maschio Angioino. The
intention was that the structure could then begin to
play more of a cultural role in the life of the city. So
far, that has not happened. The space that was gained
was to have served as a bee-hive of activity for "Programmazione e
progettazione Grandi Eventi"; that is, "Programming
and Planning of Major Events." These would include,
among other things, the yearly Monuments in May
open-house in which virtually every historic building in
Naples is open to the public; the "Christmas in Naples"
festivities; and the recently reorganized Piedigrotta
Festival, the most famous of all annual Neapolitan
street parades but which has fallen on hard times in
recent decades. (They got it off the ground this year,
though, but, sure enough, lack of practice showed when
one of the floats of Mt. Vesuvius caught fire, leading
spectators to ooh and aah for a while at how real it all
looked —until
it burned to the ground.) In any event, the space in the
Maschio Angioino is still sitting there unused and
untended.
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