Cooperitiva Owen, (Part3) Art of Flying

Here is a typical dinner scene. The wild arugula appears on the table with tomatoes as a cold salad. Arugula is native to Italy, so I am told, & I am loving it; it shows up everywhere. There is a discussion here about the local wines & the guy next to me puts an end to it: "Why all this talk about wine in Italy when marijuana is still illegal!" It turns out that the good herb is his intoxicant of choice & it burns him that it isn't legal & everywhere & discussed like a local wine. More power to him, I am sure that many would agree. As for the beloved plant, (not my thing, for full disclosure here) it is not all that prevalent here. Hash, infrequently, discreetly, & mixed with tobacco is all that I ever see. We are told that the Mafia has a tight control on drugs & says where they can & cannot be sold. Punishment for infractions is death: no lawyers, no second chance, no last-minute appeals from Amy Goodman, sayanara sinsemilla sellers.

Here is a typical bedroom scene. Everywhere we play puts us up in some fashion or another. Rooms with lots of single beds &/or bunk-beds are the norm. We brought sleeping-bags & were prepared for pretty much anything.

Art of Flying takes the stage.

The Art Of Flying

Cooperitiva Owen, (Part 2) Bob Corn

Night after night I watched Tizio play--I can't seem to call him Bob Corn, but that IS his stage name--so on stage--that is who he is. "Rock & Roll," as the man would say. Night after night I enjoyed his music more & more. Not always the case, loving the other 'acts' act, & the opposite, hating it, is something to be feared when traveling together in a small van. Tizio's voice is just so beautiful. Singing & talking. The stories he tells in between the songs are part of his show--these being in Italian I could only guess what he might be saying; a beautiful, paint-by-numbers experience for me as I could imagine his tales of heart-break or phone-calls to old friends or anti-fascist conventions where 'everyone is wearing black,' & all the characters in them however I liked. More & more (that phrase again) I came to love being in a country where all of the conversations & TV shows & ads were the same way--a background 'music' of stories that I could impress upon with poetry & importance that may well have been the same as the local mundaneries of our own language.


Afternoon at Cooperativa Owen. Good to arrive, have a sit down & chill, have a drink of wine or beer. Over in the kitchen a crew is making dinner. Generally we sit down to eat after a load-in & sound-check, usually around 10pm, with the whole gang: the sound-man, his brother, the cooks, Tizio's friends at the show, our extended family on the road. And our big family has been welcome everywhere we have gone on this trip as that is just the way hospitality goes around here.

BOB CORN takes the stage.
In the background the 'smog' makes a pretty sunset.
Just like we used to say in So-Cal!
Something to agree on for the left & right.
Buona Notte.

ONWARD: to Taranto & Cooperitiva Robert Owen

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!

COSENZA

Friday June 4th, we arrive in Cosenza--deep in the heart of Calabria. We are pretty far south now at the home of Maria Grazia, Giuseppi, & Aleks (a 'plain name,' Aleks adds). That's the place behind our beloved white van. Luigi, a friend of theirs, is throwing the first, of what he hopes to be many parties, here. WHY? because the dining-room is elevated by 2 feet & looks exactly like a stage for a rock-show. Art of Flying is thrilled to inaugurate the new club. It is 3 flights up from the street! A feat that would normally be extremely daunting for a traveling band, but, behold, the power & beauty of traveling with 8 (now 9, Tizio has met us by train from Mirandola!) people. I wait in the street by the van.The gear goes up in a flash. As Tizio returns from delivering some equipment to the apartment he exclaims: "Molto Bello!" (Very Beautiful!) "Rock & Roll!" "I hope the neighbors don't mind," someone else exclaims.

Tizio, back with us now, booking more shows, working out the tour as we go! Outside the window behind him, is the ancient city of Cosenza. This ancientness is cool to me because the people are still living in it. Dirty & ancient with tiny streets, the little Cinque-Centos (Fiat 500's) even have trouble navigating the streets. Convents & laundry hanging out of windows & old men in front of the bars, Cosenza thrives its way off the beaten path of the tourists. Sonya & I, trying not to get lost in the maze of buildings, find some Greek food & a place full of antiques from everywhere BUT Italy...not too unlike wandering into Eklektic in Taos.


Doppio--I thought it was the perfect nick-name--it means double in Italian--for D; but, if the shoe don't fit, as they say...or...rather...don't blame your shoes on the problems of your feet, as Beckett says...whatever the case--a nick-name for the lost & found. I know I have my share. Here 'D,' (Tonight, let it be DASHING, tomorrow, DANGEROUS), is tuning up for the big show. Giuseppi is setting up the speakers, dinner was, as usual, amazing, now it's our turn to sing for the supper.

Day Off: (Part 3) And then went down to the ships...

SPERLONGA!

Sperlonga is a city by the beach, not too far from Itri. Don Fabio had a job here once delivering phone books. The locals claim it as the home of CIRCE, sorceress of ancient times who turned Odysseus' men into pigs. To foil her, Odysseus, with the help of Hermes, took some ancient herbs that made him immune to her charms. When she tried to transform him, he drew his sword & cursed her & made her promise to turn his men back into swarthy sailors. He then hung out as her lover while the men got anxious by the beach. This tells the ancient tale of drugs & sex & hypocrisy as our hero Odysseus will eventually return home to Ithaca to question his tireless wife, Penelope, of her faithfulness. Above is the cruel Circe's sneakers. True or not, the people of Sperlonga are proud of their beach!

Strusciamo in Sperlonga.
(Sonya's favorite phrase of the tour,
we can't agree on how to spell it as we only heard it spoken).
Though a true strusciare (sp?)
would mean to stroll while gently bumping into people in a crowded place.

Sonya & Don Fabio on the beach in Sperlonga.
Ciao, Don Fabio!!

Birra Medso

Add to Tizio's dictionary of 'bastardizations of the Italian language:' BIRRA MEDSO--or
beer-thirty as is said in the good old USA. The USA, (not to be confused with North America or Turtle Island) is not very old by Euro-standards--but, it IS a fountain of youthful slang! Tizio understood the sentiment very well. Larry Yes, on his visit to Italy coined: SCUSSALINI- (sp?)
This means a small excuse me-you might say, like..."scussalini, signoria,' as you weave your way back to the bar for another birra.


NO PROBLEMMISSIMO- is another phrase infected on the continent by our unclean selves. Maybe it was here long before us, though Tizio had never heard of it. It was given to Sonya & I by a friend who heard it in India of all places at a spot affectionately dubbed: Spaghetti Beach, (a beach in India frequented by Italians). A small problemmissimo with the phrase is the fact that: "issimo" makes the problem BIGGER, not smaller. o well.

Doppio: Scussalini, it's Birra Medso--over & out!

Rome Revisited

Our first night in Rome--We're the 'guests from the USA.' I know what it means to be 'from the USA,' but I'm not so sure what it means to be American, having no specific identification for the word. Italians have a decent picture: including Billy the Kid & Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen (not Leonard Peltier) & they know who the President is: "what happened to Obama?" a girl at the club asks. "Business as usual in the USA," is the best I can come up with for a reply. Being American definitely means I don't speak Italian. The Italians here speak a fair amount of English & sing in English, their second, maybe third language. I sing in English, my first & only tongue. It makes me very expert & versatile with it, but I also start feeling at this show that I am singing too many words. Back in the USA I sometimes feel the same way. During the tour I try & enunciate & sing & think clearer, never the worst intention for the singer/writer. Even now.

what a car looks like

Is this a Fiat Cinque-Cento? Maybe so, if not, it's very close. Sonya & I saw a lot of beautiful little cars here & noticed that one of those BMW minis, that are showing up in the USA, actually looks BIG here in Italy. So does her VW Golf. These wonders look just right! We even saw the family version with the station-wagon look on the back, (way above, in red). Out my bedroom window, back home in Taos, I can see a pick-up truck that could fit 5 or 6 of these in the back.

the MASSIVE crew at SPINO

Spino, in Italian, is slang for a little joint. A mary-juanna joint--not a taco stand. I have to leave the law & order of logical & linear time--which in this tour-diary is going backwards anyway, & make a shout out to the cast & crew behind the bar at the festival. This is Tizio's musical family (& his real-life brother in the St. Pauli jolly-roger). They poured wine MASSIVE & taught me some Italian for the road. Such beauties deserve whatever attention & praise a blog can give.
Salute. Arrividerci Spino!

a DAY off--(part 2): The CASTLE up close.

Fabio gets the keys to the castle like I said before, by telling the town that Marty is an American film director & he is scouting locations for his next movie. He picks Marty because of his goatee. For this amazing act we dub him "DON FABIO." The place has been rebuilt since the ruins that Don Fabio broke into to drink beer & party with his friends in. It is completely modernized & feels more like a museum than a home for an ancient bonds-trader & his family. Fabio hosts 2 music festivals a year here: 1 is a show consisting of 'one-man-bands' & I forget the other. His dream is to have a show with acts going on simultaneously throughout the place including trapeze & other high-wire acts; sound familiar?

Don Fabio defends the castle from the ramparts.

Tourists on the stairway.

Back at the apartment, Magdalena at the dinner table. Itri is known for its olive-oil & cheeses. We tried 4 or 5 different kinds of cheese that afternoon. The cheese on the plate above is braided mozzarella.

Brigadisco is the name of Don Fabio's record label. He also owns, with some friends, a sound reinforcement company: (he rents PA speakers for shows, etc...). The label is named after Italy's version of the American cowboy & outlaw: the 'brigands' who defended Italy's land & poor farmers against the encroaching mega-malls & fences of the elite. "Like Robin Hood," Don Fabio would say.

a DAY off ---(part 1)

Thursday-June, 3.....no show tonight. Fabio has been kind enough to invite... all 8 of us!--to stay another night at his very excellent apartment: a flat in down-town Itri that could win the award for best sleeping arrangements of the tour--top 3 for sure! Above is a view of the local castle from the balcony. A castle on the top of a near-by hill is a vision that separates a euro-view from an american one. No town here is complete without the giant stone house over-looking the vassals & streets below. The 'mansions on the hill' belonged to wealthy merchants & local over-lords here & not Kings & Queens as I have tended to imagine lording over such buildings. They always appear sad & lonely up there to me. Fabio loves this castle as he has been breaking into it since he was a teenager. Today we'll get the tour.

First a cappuccino. We walk down a stone road that was once a Roman highway from Calabria to Rome. We stop at Fabio's favorite bar. 9 cappuccinos & 9 cornettos-cornettos are pretty much like the croissants we get here- for 10 euros! Try that "world cup!"
A little snack when we reach the top of the hill. I don't know what it is about Italy-the climate, not being at 7000 feet, the culture, the lack of preservatives & sulfites, or who-knows what? but a person can go all day starting with a caffe & then a beer & then another caffe & then a glass of wine & then & caffe corretto (shot of espresso 'corrected' with your favorite addition: Tizio prefers Bailey's. I like grappa) & then some wine with dinner & feel perfectly fine about the whole day. I definitely love this about the country--especially since the same sort of day makes no sense at 'home.'

Art of Flying - ITRI

the MOUNTAINS above ITRI

On Wednesday we leave Rome & drive to Itri. We are still without our dedicated driver Tizio at this point. After the festival, realizing he had a huge festival to clean up after & a whole bunch of sleep to catch up with, Tizio gave us the keys to the van & some maps of Italy & said: "I'll meet you in Rome on Tuesday!" On Tuesday he called & said he would meet us on Friday in Cosenza. Rock&Roll--we were fine with navigating & driving ourselves. It was fun, even if we did get a little bit lost in Rome. Toni at Dal Werme arranged a show for us in Itri the next day, (our previous engagement for the night had fallen through). we would meet Fabio by the train station. Armed with our maps & Fabio's phone number we left Rome on a beautiful morning to drive south. First down the Autostrada & then in to the mountains. Just like home. We looked at the winding little road on the map & called Fabio: "is this the best way to Itri?" Fabio replied: "It's not a good way, but the other way is worse."
We met him in town & followed his car up into the mountains. Leaving the paved roads things became very familiar Taos-style. Up & up, round & round, a final burst with the little van, now packed with 8 people, gear, drumset, & luggage, slipping on the grass for the last 100 meters.
ARRIVAL. Look at the picture above! That's Claudio lighting a fire with olive wood. He'll boil the water for pasta over it. His grandfather rebuilt this house from a ruined foundation dating back to the Romans. Fabio & his friends throw parties up here. After lunch Art of Flying will play a show.
Sonya is cutting tomatoes for the salad. At lunch the olive oil is made by someone's father, another's grandfather made the wine, Fabio's mother made the ragu for the pasta & this killer dish with wild greens & fava beans. That's Fabio on the left. Later dubbed, Don Fabio as he scored the keys to the local castle telling the town that we were American film-makers scouting locations.
We play. Claudio ran a generator for Anne's bass. Fabio & friends sang along. One of the most beautiful settings (in or out of doors) I've ever played.

Art of Flying at DAL WERME, Rome. Tuesday June 1, 2010

QUANDO in ROMA

It turns out that I am not that much for the ANTIQUITIES-2 days in Rome & 1 picture--o well...I vote for Milan & the knock-it-down now-isms of its grimy scene--forgive my ignorance & new-world-centrism...the lack of pictures be proof. Let anyone & everyone else love Roma!
Sonya found a place to practice some Ashtanga yoga & I looked for a soccer jersey for my daughter Lucia. We played at 2 great clubs: Monday night at FANFULLO 101. A very in-your-face, here is Rome, street-adventure of a club to find. 2 hours late, but 'no problemissimo' as we were on Italian time. First some beer & wine-then some pizzas-then its time to play music. Tuesday night we played at Dal Werme (the worm) a cool bar with an underground stage. Run by Toni & Manuela (Manuela & her band DADA SWING have made it out to SUANFEST!) & some other friends, the club, like Fanfullo, is in trouble with the neighbors...SO, even though the party goes late, late late, in Rome---(4am) the music must stop early--like midnight. A bizarre feature of the tour as this happened a couple more times...each time we would stop early so the DJ could take over & blast American indie-rock louder than we were. No one said the country was perfect.
At the end of the night at Dal Werme--Sonya & I did drink some type of Pear Liquor. hand-made & no possibility of saying no--we drank the clear liquid. FIRST things FIRST: blow into the glass & smell--a PERFECT (yes PERFECT) image of a PEAR appears--a holographic pear, in the mind--this pear however-is not perfect--it has a small bruise near the top like it had been piled in a bowl of pears for a few days. Pearfection. Ciao Roma!

Art of Flying ~ Roma ~ Fanfulla 101

Musica Nelli valle

Sunday May 3oth 4pm is our set. Finally--after all the gnocchi fritto, sightseeing, band-listening & recuperating from the long flight--it's our chance to play...aaaahhhhh...it feels really good to PLAY some music--especially if your into that sort of thing, like I am...I assume the rest of Art of Flying feels pretty much the same way. The scene is cool here as far as fests go as there are 2 stages--with one for setting up while the other bands play--this keeps it pretty right on schedule.
Peter is sitting down for his first hits at the 'sonata' an Italian drum-kit. The dead-beat bass-drum will never be to our liking--but, Peter's giant kick will not make it to Europe until we start making some more serious euros...which is not the theme of this journey.HA!
CALCIO. or soccer, as the USA calls it. This is right outside the music house. I watched a bit & noticed that here in Italy even musicians have some mad 'skills' on the field. That little kid with the ball played pretty much 3 days straight with anyone who would join him.
Recycling is everywhere here in Italy--even the smallest towns (& San Martino Spino is about the size of Questa...imagine a 3 day music festival in Questa...& I am...) has these colorful bins on the street...plastic, glass, & paper....sometimes there is a bin for compost. The plastic, I must say, they really need as they rock through the plastic water bottles like no where else I've ever seen. The bottled water here is super-cheap.

Art of FLying ~ San Martino Spino

3 bands from the FEST

ALRIGHT--these pictures are NOT in chronological order--o well...they took a long time to load so--imagine if you will--this working its way into the past. This band above I didn't catch their name--too bad...they were very groovy & fire-balls of energy & jumping this way & that with sounds AND REALLY FUCKING LOUD. I dove in, took this picture & ran for it....I listened to the rest of the set from outside the walls. Are bands louder than the 'good old days?' It seems like they are. I know I've gotten a bit older&wiser since the days of yelling "MAKE US DEAF," at the Minutemen, but STILL---bands, to me, seem louder than ever. Outside, sipping some lambrusco, the show was still great.
Tizio joining Francesca-from Comaneche- for a song. A very lovely set taken up a notch with this duet. They toured the US together & did the North West with Larry Yes.

Here is WOOM from Oakland, California (soon to move to L.A.). A very much definite high-lite for my world--I loved their parallel singing harmonizing---really fast & sweet. Now I am wishing I bought their record-or traded for one.

Tiziano Sgarbi

Tiziano Sgarbi
When he takes the stage he is known as: Bob Corn.
For Musica Nelli Valle he made the bar his stage. A beautiful love-song singer. He sings in English, tells his stories in Italian, cuts his wine with water, (like Odysseus),
& drives the van, (like Mike Watt).

gnocchi fritto

gnocchi fritto-
back home in New Mexico better known as soppapilla or fried dough. I first had one in Questa stuffed with ground beef. At the pueblo it's the perfect snack to take the chill off of Christmas Eve. This ubiquitous munchie probably dates back to the Greeks or even further back all the way to the cavemen as the antidote to homesickness. Pictured here is the dough all rolled up. Tizio's friends busted these deep-fried delicacies out for 3 days straight. I preferred mine with cheese & honey-washed down with lambrusco-a local wine variety that is naturally bubbly. Out of the tap, out of the box, out of a used water-bottle-poured 'massive' as they called it when drank from a plastic beer cup, wine here in Italy is everywhere doing its job of cheering up the people without any need for pedigree.

italian adventures with art of flying

meravigliosa..whether spelled correctly or not is the word of the week. we arrived in milano, took a train to mirandola for the san martino spino music festival...a three day festival of musicians from europe and usa organized by our host tizzio. the video of aof playing outside in front of the beautiful brick building was filmed there.
5/31 tizzio stayed behind to wrap up the festival and all eight of us piled into our trusty van + amps, musical equipment, and luggage..roma or bust. found our way through the streets of rome to fanfulla 101, where the purply shot was taken. hosted by manu and friends....6/1 another day of adventure wandering the ancient streets of rome...another gig at dal verme...fantastic food, pear liquour....6/2 itri- farm house concert in an olive grove, struschiando en sperlonga, private castle tour and on to cosensa 6/4 house concert fantastic hospitality, homemade chorizo type sausage--worth breaking any vegetarianism for. on to taranto today...more to post next internet connection we get--stay posted. ciao for now.

trailer

ITALY!
San Martino Spino
We arrive at Tizio's house on a train from Milano Centrale. Friday afternoon-the festival starts in a few hours. We won't play until Sunday--but there are many amazing bands to watch...ALSO-Saturday morning--we make a little music movie-Theresa makes a movie of the movie being made.