Taranto-Saturday, June 5th-someone told me before we left that it was a VERY beautiful city (I think they are all beautiful here, to some degree), but the Italians remind us it is also the most polluted city in the country. Italy saves the refineries & smolteries & smelteries for the poor south. No one needs to remind us as we arrive at the city covered by a brown cloud spewing from tall brick smoke-stacks. Add to that the thick sticky air of an oil refinery, (reminiscent of my youth in the days of southern California smog-alerts & gas wars!) & you get a depressing 'buona sera' at the gates of Taranto. We push through & the city will only be a memory at sunset as the place to play is another 15 kilometers to the east. ABOVE: the entrance to COOPERITIVA ROBERT OWEN! Existing on farmland on the outskirts of town for 27 years. 15 people live here. They take in street people & other marginalized folks from the big city. When we arrive there is a man picking the leaves form wild arugula. Sonya sits down & helps him & he gives her the history I just revealed to you. I join in a pre-show jam-session that reminds me somehow of 'one flew over the cuckoo's nest.' Affectionately, I say the place is like a cross between the Lama Foundation in New Mexico & our local, beloved, ARCTISTICS.
"What say ye?" That America is a thief? Look close, the man is waiting for a bus--the bus, the yankee dollar comes, YAY! & off it goes again, with the poor man's clothes. Another look at how the 'world' sees us. Do you have a problem with it, pilgrim? Are our bankers & politicians proud of their role in the world? I think so, look at Mr. Bush & his "haves & have mores," that seems example enough. The world likes American music & puts up with American pirates. The shows go on.
"there is just one race, the HUMAN race." Is that Ghandi?D & Mag put a beautiful face on it.
American Gothic revisited.
Fricchitoni Fighi!
No comments:
Post a Comment