Notice - Chiuso per ferie

Closed for holidays... until I'll come back.

Hello folks! I just wanna remember you that I'll be on holiday for the next two weeks. So, there will be no club meetings on 19 and 26 September. See you on 3 October!

Buon viaggio!

Relax 4 - 50s and 60s pop culture

I'd like to show you something about Italian popular culture in 50s and 60s.

In that period - after the very harsh years of World War II and post war reconstruction - Italy experienced some deep changes: strong economic growth based on industry, starting of mass consumption (one symbol is surely the "Vespa" scooter), mass migration from rural south to industrial north, spreading of television and birth of a popular culture.

Concerning this last issue - next to Carosello for children - a new generation of singers and musicians "imported" from United States and Great Britain new music and dances: rock'n'roll and beat generation were somehow adapted to Italian context and contributed to renovate the fast-changing Italian society.

Here some examples.

Rita Pavone - Il ballo del mattone - 1963

Mina - Tintarella di luna - 1959

Adriano Celentano - Il ragazzo della via Gluck - 1966

And now, Vacanze romane: an american movie, but settled in Rome, which shows the society of Italian fifties. Here, one of the most famous scenes: riding a Vespa in Rome's traffic.

To finish, let's see how 50s and 60s popular culture still has an influence today. I have chosen the example of one song, "Ragazzo di strada". It was originally recorded in 1966 by a band called "I Corvi". In 2003, however, it was re-recorded by the Spanish singer Tonino Carotone. As you can see, Tonino Carotone's video-clip relaunches many elements of Italian pop culture of 50s and 60s. Enjoy!

  

Language 3

Relax 3

I'd like to show you a couple of old advertisement: they are taken from Carosello, a show of Italian public television especially dedicated to ads, broadcasted from 1957 to1977. It was so popular, that parents used to say to children: "after Carosello, go to bed".

The protagonist of this first ad is Calimero, the black chick. He can't find his mum because he's dirty, but finally...

The cowboy Caballero is looking for his beloved Carmensita, but she's already in love with Paulista, the coffee man!

City 1 - Milano

Relax 2 - (Rude) hand language

It is said that Italians 'speak' a lot with hands, and it is certain.
So, why don't learn the meaning of the most common gestures? This could avoid misunderstanding while travelling through Italy or dealing with Italians :-)

Relax 1 - Europe vs Italy

Well, since this cartoon is quite old, probably authors were thinking about centre/northern Europe (Germany, Netherlands and so on).
What do you think, is there any Italian behaviour which could describe Lithuanians as well? :-)

Culture 1

Languages of Italy 
(commonly called 'dialects')

Not just standard Italian: in Italy several languages coexist with the official one (especially in small urban or rural areas, especially within aged people).
Of course it's a quite complex issue, used by some political parties in order to gain support (the most known example is Lega Nord - Northern League).
But I think it's important to know that the non homogeneous character of Italy is due - among other reasons - to languages.

For more information take a look here.