Shawn Levy: 'Dolce Vita Confidential' (2016)

Shawn Levy's Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi, and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016) takes us on a wild Italian ride from about the end of World War Two until the mid-1960s. 

Barely five or ten years after the war, economic activity "mushroomed . . . recasting Italy from the buffoonish ally of Nazi Germany into a hive of style, culture, fine craft, genteel living, and even heavy industry."  (pages 195-196). During that time, it became one of the hippest places in the world to experience firsthand. 

There are so many characters in Dolce Vita Confidential, some large and some small, that one cannot help being drawn in. 

Consider Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Marquis of Portago (aka Fon de Portago), a Spaniard by lineage and sometime race-car driver, and his philosophy of life:

"'I want to live to be 105 . . . I'm enchanted with life. But no matter how long I live, I still won't have time for all the things I want to do. I won't hear all the music I want to hear, I won't be able to read all the books I want to read, I won't have all the women I want to have. I won't be able to do a twentieth of the things I want to do. And besides just the doing, I insist on getting something out of it.'" (page 214).

In 1957, the Fon was killed in a racing accident while driving a Ferrari -- along with a slew of others -- at age twenty-eight.

In addition to memorable stories about film directors, actors, designers, photographers, expatriates, and trouble-makers, Dolce Vita Confidential includes very helpful endnotes, bibliography and list of films from the period, making it a nifty reference work as well as a tasty treat. 

Today's Rune:  Breakthrough. 

La Vie En Rose

Chimes at midnight. One new revenue source for plugging the Michigan budget gap comes from extending the 6% state sales tax to astrological services. I'm sure that'll raise a bundle. Ha!

Hell, it's Deborah Kerr's birthday, time to break out From Here to Eternity (1953), the all-star movie based on James Jones' 1951 novel of the same name. Might as well, because midnight seems like an eternity away.


Birthday and Vespa "girl" Angie Dickinson. Anyone remember Police Woman?

Marion Cotillard from an English language edition poster for La Môme / La Vie En Rose (2007). In the movie, she stars as Edith Piaf. Cotillard is, in fact, beautiful, whereas the Little Sparrow compensated for any aesthetic imperfections with charisma and voice. Sort of the spiritual cousin of Billie Holliday.

Monica Belluci -- hot, hot, hot. Just like Italian coffee. And cool as Italian ice.

Today's Rune: Growth.

Birthdays: Rumi (Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī), José María Teclo Morelos y Pavón, William Wrigley Jr., Buddy Rich, Deborah Kerr, Truman Capote, Elie Wiesel, Angie Dickinson, Anna Kashfi, Johnny Mathis, Frankie Lymon, Marc Bolan, Eric Stoltz, Monica Bellucci. Jenna Elfman, Marion Cotillard.

Message to the Michigan Legislature:

Ciao!

Seven Years in Tibet

Viva Gabriele Pauli! She's running for leadership of the Catholic-tinged Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) in Deutschland (aka Germany), and on September 19, 2007, she proposed that marriages should automatically dissolve after seven years. Love it! That's chutzpah, certainly.

The crux is, couples could sign up for another seven years, or peacefully part ways without having to file for divorce.

I like the idea -- as a voluntary option. It's like a shorter mortgage arrangement, or a prenuptial agreement. Couples getting married (or forming a civil union) could choose option A) Presumed lifetime deal; or option B) Seven year version. Either contract would be voluntary, and both parties would have to agree on the same option.

Unsurprisingly, religious groups immediately get bent out of shape about the idea, but too bad. We're talking civil society, separation of church/synagogue/mosque and state.

Here's a link to Gabriel Paul's website: http://www.gabriele-pauli.de/

If nothing else, this would make an interesting framework for a story.

I'm comfortable with the idea, certainly. For the last ten years, I've been working under one year contracts. Tenure means nothing to me. Besides, as the taoists say, there is wisdom in insecurity. Real security is an illusion, so why not embrace insecurity? It sure spices things up.


The Vespa spices things up, too. As gas prices skyrocket, more and more of them are popping up on the back roads. Very stylish. As the seventh year approaches, you might want to get one for fast getaways.


And affordable. See http://www.detroiteurocycles.com/ for more information. The Vespa poster "girls" from the 1960s and 1970s often bear a striking resemblance to "Bond girls." In the world of 007, seven years is a long time for any relationship.

Ciao for now!

Must Learn Turkish!

Yesterday, I hiked along Franklin Street in Chapel Hill and am guessing that downtown is about one third the same as back there when I was in library school, two thirds different. Of course, that was nearly twenty years ago, just when The Simpsons was beginning. The Intimate Book Store is long shut, but Internationalist Books survives in a third location since its opening by Bob Sheldon in the 1980s, and across the street still survives The Bookshop, though a large number of books were being conspicuously boxed up at the back of the sprawling space at 400 West Franklin. I didn't have the heart to ask whether they were about to close, move, or downsize. Maybe they were just rearranging for the fall. . .

The best new find -- by far -- was coming across Talullas (or Talulla's) Messe-Pide-Bar-Lounge at 456 W. Franklin. Yum-yum-yum-yum! It was like walking right onto the set of From Russia With Love, complete with excellent (and comely) Turkish servers and a wide assortment of exotic, well-prepared food. Must learn Turkish!

Another place that looks good is just down the street -- Vespa Ristorante, a Tuscan place at 306-D W. Franklin. A further indication of the Vespa craze: black and silver Vespas parked out front and also zipping up and down Franklin in near-100 degree heat.

Tar Heel novelist Thomas Wolfe famously observed You Can't Go Home Again. Luckily, you can still go home to visit and, furthermore -- not all change is bad.


Today's Rune: Fertility.

Birthdays: Diamond Jim Brady, Katharine Lee Bates, Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, Edith Hamilton, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Cecil B. DeMille, Pauline Frederick (Libby), Marion Lorne, Zerna Sharp, Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes, Samuel Fuller, Porter Wagoner, Buck Owens, William Goldman, Miss Cleo (Youree Dell Harris), Peter Krause, Anthony Swofford, Rebecca Gayheart, Muqtada al-Sadr, Dominique Swain.

Güle güle gidin!

Half the Clothes and Twice the Money

Now this here story I'm about to unfold took place in the early '90s -- just about the time of our [first] conflict with Sad'm and the I-raqis. I only mention it because sometimes there's a man . . . I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? Sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about the Dude here . . . (~~The Stranger in The Big Lebowski, 1998).

I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. (~~Meursault in Albert Camus' The Stranger, 1942).


"Bond Girl" Karin Dor in space age silver. When traveling, pack half the clothes and twice the money and -- if you can swing it -- something silvery like the moral equivalent of a pistol. Crash helmets extra unless riding a bike or a Vespa. You don't even need the actual money -- electronic access should suffice.

Today's Rune: Protection.

Birthdays: John Dryden, William B. Travis (The Alamo), Philip Larkin, Sam Elliott, Jonathan Kellerman, Melanie Griffith, Amy Stiller, Whitney Houston, Gillian Anderson, Rhona Mitra.


She got the gold, she got the silver: Michelle Yeoh, reprised.

Ciao, Chapel Hill!

The Return of the Vespa

Today is Selma Blair's birthday. She's co-starred with Reese Witherspoon and seems pretty cool to me. From Metro Detroit, Ms. Blair attended Cranbrook, Kalamazoo College and the University of Michigan. It's also the birthday of June Carter, played brilliantly by Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line (2005).


I've been noticing more Vespas on the road these days. Not only are they hip (at least for women), but they make sense, given pump prices these days. This shot is from 1971.

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

Birthdays: Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763-1814; b. Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie), Carl Reinecke, Anna Akhmatova (Anna Andreevna Gorenko), Jean Anouilh, Milt Hinton, Muhammad Boudiaf, Bob Fosse, June Carter Cash, Vint Cerf, Glenn Danzig (b. Glenn Allen Anzalone), Jordan (b. Pamela Rooke), Frances McDormand, Selma Blair (b. Beitner; Southfield, Michigan).