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Reconnecting 20 Years On |
I just returned from two weeks in China and wanted to share my impressions with you. They can be summed up in words: Fascinating. Unexpected. Contrast. Energetic. Future-oriented. Moving.
Or, they can be summed up in the vocabulary of pictures. Take a look below (downloading the slideshow takes a few minutes, but plays on your computer in much better quality; try it):
Thorunn came personally to guarantee the good behavior of her volcanoes and, emboldened, some choice people joined her in Bologna. Thanks to Hans Hrabal and Michaela's husband, Alexander, we've documented the whole weekend.
Clearly, many of you chose to attend the Royal Wedding instead. We're sure you had a nice time. We understand you couldn't turn down the Queen. But take a look at this slideshow: no royal etiquette constrained us in Bologna, and the prosecco and vini flowed freely. There was even some Bunga Bunga (although, to not be misconstrued in post-DSK times, these photos are being withheld from publication).
Still, the best part of the reunion weekend is here in the slideshow: familiar faces who came from two continents to meet, laugh, and remind us why that year in Bologna was such a good one. Gli amici, baby.
The song accompanying the slideshow has some good lines, like "let's do it, let's do it, let's do it". Profound. You can't argue with this line, though: "we'll do it again".
Lo ripeteremo. Can't wait to see you in 2015.
Hansi Hrabal shows us how little has changed in La Cittá Rossa, Dotta e Grassa in 21 years. We loved these photos he took around Bo during the Reunion Weekend. He kindly let us download them from his Facebook album, where some of you may have seen them already. We've added some music, but the optics are pure Hansi. We hope they inspire you to join us in Bologna in 2015.
The next post will document how we got on during the weekend, so please check in again soon.
Ci veddiamo.
If you're like me, cari Bolognesi, you remember the soundtrack to our parties always included the Gipsy Kings. Whether we gathered in Via Irnerio in Bologna or Adams Morgan in D.C., these guys were usually strumming away in the background while we danced, shared wine, and negotiated with carabinieri about the noise level.
So lift a glass of vino rosso, play the video above, and re-live four minutes from 20 years ago. "Baila me", if I translate it correctly (Neus? Rosa? Ana?) means "I dance". Often enough, we did.
Twenty years ago this month, James Cameron's"Terminator II: Judgment Day" finished filming. We wouldn't see it in cinemas until July 4th (for those of us lucky enough to get tickets: the movie sold out days before its opening). Still, I couldn't resist tipping my hat to this hugely influential, hyperbolic, big-screen action movie before this blog goes to rest next month.
"T2" is a superbly-crafted action film, each scene setting up the next. It is also that rare case of a sequel that's better than the original. Whereas "Terminator" was a splendid, frenetic action movie, "T2" has a moral character and uplifting ending that makes it about more than just action. The movie's impact on popular culture has been great and sustained: The American Film Institute ranked the Terminator number 48 on its list of 100 greatest screen heroes of all time -- as well as number 22 on the list of greatest screen villains (from the first Terminator). For impact, think Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition from Terminator robot to Governator of California ... Linda Hamilton in buff camouflage fatigues ... indestructible cyborgs (akin to the present zombie-obsession) ... an adrenaline-fuelled motorcycle chase ... a melting metal bad guy from the future. And of course there's the "Hasta la vista, baby" bit -- true Hollywood.
Raised a Quaker, David Lean grew into a man with a wandering eye who amassed six wives. He also earned several Oscars and directed some of the most unforgettable images in film history. His cinematic approach -- classic, refined -- has aged extremely well.
Among his most influential films: "Brief Encounter" (his third film and winner of the Cannes Grand Prix in 1945), "Great Expectations", "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "Doctor Zhivago", and "A Passage to India".
David Lean films employed an enormous visual scope and the heavy use of natural light. A master example -- illustrated in the scene, above -- was "Lawrence of Arabia". It's the film I always associate with Lean; I watched "Lawrence" instead of CNN on the night of the Iraq Invasion of 2003.
As the iron Curtain between Western and Eastern Europe was crumbling in 1989, France's President proposed a new concept which led to the creation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Francois Mitterrand posed the question in Strasbourg:
"I am sure you will all agree that the most important event for Europe, perhaps for the world, since the Second World War is what is happening in eastern Europe. Poland, Hungary, the Soviet Union and, in the historic leading role, Mr Gorbachev, need to be helped .... What can Europe do? So much more! Why not set up a bank for Europe...."
In the last 20 years the Bank has invested in 29 countries in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe -- all the way to Mongolia. It has committed or mobilized financing of €180 billion for Telekom infrastructure, small and large business loans, support for pharmaceutical and cement producers, and rail building through the Caucasus.
As recent events in Japan have reminded us, the Ukrainian government has struggled with the aftermath of its Chernobyl nuclear accident. The EBRD is managing funds for Safe Confinement for the destroyed reactor, and storage for spent fuels is being built. That accident was in 1986 and, yes, this work is still incomplete.
April 9, 1991 the citizens of the Soviet Republic of Georgia voted on a referendum to restore Georgian independence (it had first been independent after the dissolution of the Russian Empire in 1918).
The referendum was approved by 99.5% of voters. The voting took place against the backdrop of growing south Ossetian independence aspirations -- another way of saying violence between separatist and Georgian forces. Hundreds had already died, and thousands fled their homes. Consequently, South Ossetians boycotted the referendum -- nearly 10% of the voting population.
As it happens, former US President Richard Nixon was conducting a private visit to the Soviet Republic on this day (here he is pictured above with soon-to-be-elected Georgian President Gamsakhurdia). He visited a few polling stations in Tbilisi before leaving for Moscow, where President Mikhail Gorbachev was struggling to hold the Soviet Union together. The results of the Georgian referendum gave the Soviet President no comfort.
Okay, this post stretches things a bit -- "Thelma and Louise" hit cinema screens in the summer of 1991, not in March. Still, do you blame me for taking the opportunity to reminisce about such an iconic film? A movie perhaps best summed up this way: "an Arkansas waitress and a housewife shoot a rapist and take off in a '66 Thunderbird."
True enough, as far as brief descriptions go. But I'd add: a neo-feminist- gender-switching-buddy-film-and-road-movie-about-accidental-outlaws-who-make-the-ultimate-escape-from-the-law. Just to be thorough.
Exuberant. Ridley Scott. Susan Sarandon. Brad Pitt. A Thunderbird convertible. What's not to enjoy?
No blog about our year in Bologna would be complete without a post about Divo Giulio, or "Divine Julius" (an epithet about Julius Caesar) – Giulio Andreotti, Italy's Prime Minister during our time and political operator straordinario. Hunchbacked, with comically large ears and outsized glasses, Andreotti began his government career with the Democrazia Cristiana Italiana (DCI) in 1947, enmeshed and implicated in scandal with every post he held.
He once commented: "Aside from the Punic Wars, which I was too young for, I have been blamed for everything." A short list:
Andreotti was accused of involvement in Il Scandolo Giuffrè (bank cheat) while Minister of Finance (1958) ... censored for irregularities in the construction of Fiumicino Airport (1962) ... condemned for leaking documents about a planned neo-fascist coup ("Piano Solo") to the secret masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2) as Minister of Defense ... acquitted for helping the far-right activist suspected of carrying out the Piazza Fontane Bombing at the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura headquarters that killed 18 (1969) ... criticised when, as Prime Minister, he refused to negotiate with the Brigate Rosso holding DCI leader Aldo Moro; Moros’s bullet-ridden body surfaced after a 2-month manhunt ... condemned in 1983 when, as Italian Foreign Minister, he revealed to Libya’s Foreign Minister that the US would bomb Libya the next day in retaliation for the Berlin Disco attack (the warning helped Qaddafi prepare for the assault, but Libya nevertheless fired 2 Scud missles the next day on Lampedusa. They missed.) ... implicated in providing the poisoned sugar that killed banker Michele Sindona in prison (1986).
During our first semester in Via Belmeloro, Andreotti revealed his and President Francesco Cossiga’s involvement in running Gladio, a clandestine paramilitary army. Secret armies, supported by NATO, the CIA and MI6, were set up in every western european country after WWII as a precaution against potential Soviet invasion. In Italy, Gladio became linked to a strategy of tension via terrorism: massacres, bombs, military actions were organised from within Italian institutions (with cooperation of the CIA) with the aim of triggering a state of emergency and halting Italy’s "slide to the left".
Finally, in 2002, Andreotti was sentenced to 24 years in prison for directing the assassination of the journalist who had published allegations of Andreotti's Mafia ties and linked him with the kidnapping of Moro.
Three years ago, Paolo Sorrentino’s biopic of Andreotti, "Il Divo", won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Acclaimed by critics as a masterpiece of Italian cinema, it hasn’t played much outside Europe. I found a trailer in English (at the top of the post), and it measures up to the diminuitive man who, in all other ways, is a giant.
Andreotti was acquitted of the murder charge in 2003, by the way – the same year a Palermo court acquitted him, due to the statue of limitations, of ties to the Mafia. The court had established that Andreotti had cultivated close ties to the Mafia until 1980, using them to further his political career "to the point that he could be considered a component of the Mafia itself."
Il Divo, a Lifetime Senator since 1991, is still going at 92.
This blog is the place to post everything about SAIS Bologna Class of 1990.
Just email your comments, photos, music, documents to tanya.lolonis@mac.com and she'll post it.
