Marco profile picture

Marco

** Life's too short to take it seriously **

About Me

Italian expat in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), portable-sized, a bit nerdy, allegedly funny. I love making metal noise galore with my electric guitar and pretending I can strum my Indian sitar. I am the personal assistant of 2 lUvely cats and we all share our small apartment with a very cool chick: baroque cello player extraordinaire and a genuine knit-freak.

You can check out my gEEtår nÖiZe by listening to or downloading these nice lil' tunes here:
Innocent
I Am
A Sign

The slide show below is an attempt at showing you what kind of person I am by using a patchwork of images -- "Who do I think I am?"



My Interests

Making music (when I'm not working, alas, which does not leave much time for), movies, books (mainly non fiction, essays, esp. on music, language & linguistics, popular science), wine, beer, single malt scotch whisky, cats, skating, biking, trekking, nature, mountains, woods, lakes, good friendsCURRENT MOON lunar phase

I'd like to meet:

Frank Zappa, Ravi Shankar, Groucho Marx, Noam Chomsky, El Subcomandante Marcos, Basho, Issa, Ryokan, Prasanna (the guitar player), Fritz the Cat, Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar, Pinocchio, Sam Gamgee, Marco Travaglio, Ellen Ten Damme... interesting people I can learn from, I can communicate with, I can cheer up and be friends with. In short: if you're a nice person, I probably would be very happy to meet you. (If you happen to like guitars, Indian music, B-movies, dark chocolate, good wine and cats, I definitely want to meet you).

Yeah yeah another useless widget... anyway it's fun to see where visitors are from

Music:



pfffff very chaotic field of interest. From metal (mainly alternative like Freak Kitchen, Bumblefoot, Buckethead, Meshuggah, Aghora, Planet X, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Behold...The Arctopus), to Indian music (Hindustani for the wonderful melodies, Carnatic for the crazy rhythmic patterns, Bollywood bcs it so much fun), to Arabic & Turkish music, almost any tune where there's an oud or a duduk playing, anything by Frank Zappa, to contemporary jazz (mainly guitar players like Bill Frisell, Mike Stern, but also piano players like Stefano Battaglia & Giovanni Allievi or the super classic guys Miles Davis & John Coltrane), to early Baroque music (Buxtehude or Tobias Hume)

Movies:

especially B-movies, SF, horror, fantasy... oh well, provided it's bad taste I'll probably like it. Just about anything with a space ship and aliens wielding an X-ray gun will sedate my understanding of aesthetics. Evil Dead I and II by Sam Raimi. Russ Meyer's early movies (up to the early 70s, then it gets way too tacky). All movies by Nanni Moretti. Roberto Benigni's early stuff (which is not so cheesy and "volémosebbène"-style). Peter Jackson's movies, from the juicy Bad Taste to the gore-fest displayed in Braindead (this title should tell you something about me by the way...), until LOTR (yeah yeah, the book is much better and totally different, however I loved the extended version of this trilogy). Star Wars (the old one). Mel Brook's movies. The movies by Grouche, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo Marx. Woody Allen. Some movies by Federico Fellini. Documentaries if they are honest, sincere and have something to say. Spinal Tap, Best In Show, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind. American Splendor. Final Fantasy VI and VII. Akira. Ghost In The Shell. Well, anime stuff.

Television:

Hardly watch any TV at all, I've got a life to live, that takes almost all my time. But I liked The Office (BBC series), Extras (same guy as The Office), Family Guy and I don't miss an episode of the Ed The Shred series on YouTube.

Books:

Lord Of The Rings, Gun with Occasional Music, Big Fish, Too Loud A Solitude, almost all books by P.H. Dick, essays by John McPhee, anything by Ennio Flaiano, Altri libertini by Tondelli, Bint by F Bordewijk, De Uitvreter by Nescio, poems by F Villon, Issa, Basho, Ryokan. The Divine Comedy is still one of the finest examples of Italian poetry of all times. Essays about music and languages/linguistics.

Heroes:

Nigel Tufnel, my 2 cats. Come on, heroes are the product of an aristocratic society, we're a bunch of lil' bourgeois people (yeah, blame it on the French Revolution), heroes don't fit among us. I prefer nice people (and cats) to heroes anyway.

My Blog

Zappa Plays Zappa

Zappa Plays Zappa It's not the same thing as HIM, but if that's what you're looking for, you're mistaken. ZPZ keep FZ alive by performing his music. If this is what you're looking for, it is a high...
Posted by Marco on Sun, 07 Oct 2007 01:57:00 PST

Responsible, aware people (not blind consumers)

In my previous post I hinted briefly at trying to be responsible and aware consumers. What can you do to make the world a better place? Well, you're just one guy, so not much. But there's quite some ...
Posted by Marco on Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:47:00 PST

Myanmar is red with fire and blood

Myanmar Don't forget about these people standing up for their right to have freedom and democracy: Buddhist monks and Burmese people are marching through the streets of Yangoon, withstanding tea...
Posted by Marco on Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:19:00 PST

What it takes to be a death metal star

What it takes to be a death metal starLast night I went to a death metal concert. In fact, it was sympho death. I attended the event more out of curiosity than because I actually dig this genre. The K...
Posted by Marco on Mon, 24 Sep 2007 08:59:00 PST

One word about 9/11

One word about 9/11I waited a little while to let this thought settle down a bit.9/11 2001: 2,750 casualties as a result of the Twin Towers terrorist attack9/11/ 2007: let's have a look at the USA inv...
Posted by Marco on Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:11:00 PST

Talk Like A Pirate Day -- Arrrrrrrr!

Today 'tis Talk Like A Swashbuckler Tide! I did me best t' practice 't at work -- software an' sea dogs do nay seem t' get along very well an' me boss did nay appreciate me translation o' "Jab aye t` ...
Posted by Marco on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:08:00 PST

Sitar gig!

Sitar gig! Ganesh with sitar Tabla setYesterday afternoon (Saturday 15th September 2007) I had a very fun sitar gig at the World Festival in Amsterdam:Stichting Wereldbuurt The location was...
Posted by Marco on Sun, 16 Sep 2007 05:59:00 PST

Please call WWF now!

I have red hair. I read the news. I can be easily influenced and manipulated. Some news can upset me and get me all panicky. Oh boy.On the Brink of Extinctionpeople with red hair see a significant dec...
Posted by Marco on Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:31:00 PST

V-Day -- Vaffanculo Day

V-Day.V does not stand for Vendetta. It stands for Vaffanculo. No translation required I guess.On 8th September 1943, the big bosses in the fascist party officially surrendered to the Uhmericans: they...
Posted by Marco on Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:14:00 PST

Rainbow in the city

Rainbow in the cityThis morning I was about to get on my scooter to go to work when it started raining. Pouring down. Typical. That's why I moved to Holland after all. This, French fries with mayonnai...
Posted by Marco on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 03:15:00 PST