Nel tempo ho imparato a capire cosa significa quando nelle biografie degli autori si legge "vive tra... e la...". In questo periodo mi trovo in Sicilia e nel prossimo mese e mezzo curerò un Laboratorio di scrittura per la narrativa e il fumetto per cui le iscrizioni sono ancora aperte. Gli incontri si terranno presso il Centro Giovanile Mistero Buffo di Acireale (CT), sede del locale Circolo Arci e dell' Associazione Scarti , realtà da anni attive sul territorio nell'ambito della promozione sociale e della diffusione della cultura. Si partirà sabato 19 Marzo alle ore 18 . Dopo proseguiremo ogni giovedi (sempre alle ore 18) until April 21. The activity is aimed at those who are interested in writing, seek opportunity to discover, refine and improve their skills.
During the workshop we will explore the theoretical knowledge and shall exercise will be held for the composition of a narrative story and a cartoon, a view that considers the experience of writing as a channel of communication with the outside world and expression of reality. For information about the course (duration, cost, etc.. Etc.) Ask me. Finally there is also a facebook page dedicated. The striking poster above instead was kindly created by Roberta Nanfitò.
No, not rhetoric. The cataclysm that is shaking the Japanese can not really leave me indifferent. In the first instance as in Japan lives a dear relative. During the day we were able to hear from him. The first thought was honest about his condition, very frightened but otherwise all right. Compared to the affected areas of the South, to be precise in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, on the east coast of the country, fortunately, the least affected by the violence of the shock and tsunami. Later, our thoughts go to Japan as a whole, this country so far yet so close to ours, especially for the generations of the past forty years have intertwined with Japanese culture more or less ties pronfondi due mainly to Japanese comics and animation, but also to the cinema, literature, all 'art of the country of the Rising Sun. Our imagination, like it or not, is partly soaked in influences of Japan, it seems obvious, no need to disturb the talented essayists in the industry. in mind we are all a little 'Japanese. Finally, the historical reasons. During World War II Italy and Japan were allies. We know how that turned out. Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked a tipping point in human history. The Japanese to overcome the disasters have shown great tenacity and a willingness in the past. In Japan, however, many nuclear plants have suffered serious damage from the quake. The latest news admit the possibility of leakage of radioactivity into the environment. What is happening should lead all to a deep reflection on the relationship between man and nature. And the fate of man on Earth. We also cartoonists have to deal with the reality of these arguments, we can not remain indifferent. The image above is a reproduction of a work by Japanese Katsushika Hokusai entitled The Great Wave of Kanagawa , which is part of a cycle dedicated to the broader views of Mount Fuji taken in the early nineteenth century. Hard not to think of the tsunami that struck Japan. If the paint can "see" before, even the comic then it could "get" before. To help understand the present and imagine a different future.
Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, or if the (S) tory flew across the ring (part terdecima)
The parting of Muhammad Ali
We are approaching, so the final phase of the parable of racing Muhammad Ali which closed in 1977 with two points against the allegations, as we read above, Alfredo Evangelista and Earnie Shavers. By now our sailed for thirty-six years and the horizon loomed the match against a boxer Leon Spinks of twenty-four originally from Missouri who had landed at the only professional on January 15 of that year and had a particularly low studded honors to just seven matches in which he achieved six wins - four knock-out, a knock-out technical points and a win - ed un pareggio. Era, però, un pugile particolarmente dotato sia sotto un profilo meramente tecnico che stilistico e si era fregiato, l'anno precedente, della medaglia d'oro alle olimpiadi di Montreal nella categoria dei mediomassimi ripercorrendo, se vogliamo, la stessa trafila di Ali per cui faceva della agilità sul quadrato una delle sue armi vincenti. Si è molto discusso, all'epoca, sulla opportunità di consentire ad un pugile neofita di cimentarsi, dopo appena un anno dal suo approdo al professionismo, contro il detentore della corona mondiale dei massimi ; io ritengo che Spinks, in quel momento almeno, fosse davvero l'unico antagonista credibile tenendo conto che l'altro esponente di rilievo della boxe era, adesso, proprio quel Larry Holmes che giammai, però, avrebbe affrontato il suo maestro sul ring per tutta una serie di motivazioni di cui abbiamo, ampiamente, discusso sopra e che lo indurranno a fregiarsi del titolo mondiale solamente il 9 giugno del 1978 quando si impose, ai punti, contro Ken Norton ma nella federazione della W.B.C. e non in quella della W.B.A. nella quale si sarebbe cimentato, nella rivincita conto Spinks, Muhammad Ali laddove, nel primo incontro fra i due, la posta in palio erano entrambe le corone. Si stava profilando, quindi, sempre più pressante la problematica inerente la presenza contestuale di due federazioni ognuna delle quali aveva i suoi rating, i suoi big match ed i suoi detentori della corona tant'è che sotto un profilo puramente statistico non è del tutto corretto asserire che Ali si fregiò per tre volte del titolo di campione del mondo perchè la sua vittoria con Spinks gli consentì di fregiarsi solamente di quello della W.B.A. per cui, simultaneamente, alla fine del 1978 c'erano due detentori dei massimi ovvero il nostro ed, appunto, Larry Holmes nella W.B.C. Aprire un inciso, doveroso a mio giudizio, sulle federazioni boxistiche statunitensi rischierebbe di portarci completamente fuori tema eppure, ciò nondimeno, va sottolineato che questa proliferazione indiscriminata è stata una delle cause principali della disaffezione del grande pubblico al pugilato perchè ha generato una confusione tale da precludere una chiara visione d'insieme del mondo della boxe tant'è che, a bruciapelo, dubito che persino un addetto ai lavori - ed io non lo sono - sia in grado, oggi, di dire chi sia il detentore della corona mondiale dei pesi massimi. Ad ogni modo ritornando al primo dei due incontri fra Muhammad Ali e Leon Spinks, programmato per il 15 febbraio dek 1978 all'Hilton Hotel di Las Vegas nel Nevada, va evidenziato che il nostro non soltanto ci arrivò in una forma fisica alquanto precaria - non era una novità questa visto che all'appuntamento con Jimmy Young arrivò, addirittura, con qualche filo di grasso di troppo - ma, altresì, in condizioni psicologiche non ottimali in quanto, già reduce da una separazione, stava attraversando una fase non felicissima con la sua coeva compagna, they divorced after a while, so when he climbed into the ring he did it with his head somewhere else, even if, on the other hand, it should also be noted that Spinks, one night at least, proved to be very strong despite the the decision of the judges and the referee did not prove a unanimous points victory in the decree. rival Ali suffered terribly for all fifteen shots ending in apparent oxygen debt, static target for lightning-quick combinations that came close to Spinks, almost, to put it down, almost, of course, because only the imponderable power of chance could have put carpet to a boxer who had survived the onslaught of the most powerful weight maximum of all time in that of Kinshasa. But the outcome turned in favor of Spinks also the manner of stylistic boxer who had preserved the elegance of the light heavyweight weapon, this, part of the technical background of Ali also that this time, however, failed him and On the other hand, the attempt to revive the script Africa collided with the lack of speed of his shots in the proverbial straight line also because, like Fraizer, Spinks was a tall, slightly, to 1.85 m which, while not having the same mobility as Smokin 'Joe, managed to evade the blows of the barrier of the rival swaying, constantly on the trunk. Nothing to say then, in the opinion of the writer at least, the outcome of the first meeting. different story, however, was the second held on September 15 of that year at the Superdome in New Orleans in Louisiana and, therefore, at the home of Muhammad Ali that he used to support typical of those present, to say the least, the football stadium . Our introduces himself in much better shape conditions of recording, on balance, the weight of 221 pounds - 100.24 pounds - and playing the match, this time in his own way. Spinks was stormed from the earliest times and speed combinations Ali immediately put him on the corner. And when Ali catch his breath his skirmishes, the fastest, in a straight line centered, more often, the face of challenger went embassy and tried in every way, to balance the match, throwing in a senseless attack that it offered, however, the side shock of our meeting. But what, indeed, astonishing was the fourteenth round in which Ali began to dance, dance, and dance without, however, this time hitting the opponent with their jobs but merely to send him, repeatedly, to not wanting to deface almost empty that wonderful choreography that was being fitted for the benefit of the audience, viewers, boxing, sports in general. was the last image, glorious, Ali charmed that, really, and all that, and nothing else, was his real farewell from the world of boxing by which, of course, had much but which, together, had given so much, but so much more. Muhammad Ali had thus triumphed and won on all fronts. From a purely technical was successful, unique in combining two antithetical ways of thinking about boxing or that of the dancer - unsuccessfully mimicked by too many boxers, now - which allowed him to use his mobility and speed, which made its combinations meeting in a straight line, on the one hand, and that the stone setter, on the other, which, especially in the last phase of his career, he would propose the alternative framework and at the same meeting. But we had won, especially outside dal ring perchè con lui si impone un nuovo modello di afroamericano cosciente il quale, pur rivendicando orgogliosamente le proprie origini nonchè denunciando la spoliazione culturale e religiosa a cui le sue comunità erano andate incontro nell'atto della trasmigrazione da un continente all'altro, non rinuncia ad essere ed a sentirsi, sine conditio, americano in quanto la critica, anche caustica, all'establishment del potere - allora semplicisticamente definito potere bianco - non equivale ad un antiamericanismo tout-court così come è stato, maliziosamente, interpretato allora ed, in parte, ancora oggi soprattutto da sedicenti opinionisti nostrani che non rinunciano a leggere ed a filtrare, ovvero interpretare, la realtà statunitense through ideological filters - Marxists, of course - absolutely incapable of penetrating the complexity and versatility for the consumption of a user, fortunately more and more small though noisy ideological Wont even interpret recent events as the crisis in Egypt and Libya with old-growth categories mental as bourgeois, proletarian, capitalist and anti-capitalist - nineteenth century phrases with no sense, now - but it corresponds to a different way - more aware, of course - to reclaim their Americanness. I realize that journalists such as Mina, and some for him, may be disappointed by the course post-athletes Muhammad Ali - within the limits granted him by the disease she contracted, some - ma, ahiloro, quel che non avevano capito allora - e, tantomeno, non riescono a capire oggi - è che il pugile è stato, era ed è una elevata espressione autocosciente di americanità perchè Ali è stato, era ed è un (A)mericano. Criticare l'intervento militare in Vietnam, così come fece il pugile che pagò un dazio salatissimo sotto tutti i profili, non equivaleva ad auspicare una disfatta militare nè, tantomeno, una strage di giovanissimi, moltissimi dei quali afroamericani tra l'altro, prelevati da nuclei familiari anche indigenti. Significava, invece, un auspicio verso un approccio diverso alle problematiche del paese asiatico e, più in generale, verso il terzomondismo in senso lato attraverso, magari, azioni volte ad enfatizzare aspetti prettamente diplomatici riservando l'uso dell'impiego bellico solamente come estrema ratio laddove, in quegli anni in maniera particolare, l'attitudine statunitense a mostrare i muscoli, per così dire, per dirimere questioni anche spinose - la crisi coreana, ad esempio - era quella di organizzare spedizioni militari ed occupare, fisicamente, il territorio attitudine, questa, che sta nuovamente caratterizzando troppa politica estera americana negli ultimi decenni specie, poi, dopo l'implosione del blocco sovietico. E, ancor prima dell'attentato alle Twin Towers dell'undici settembre, non dimentichiamoci che la marina militare americana presidiò, in pieno assetto di guerra, challenging the coast of Taiwan, openly, and Chinese military forces, on the other hand, the drawing up of a coalition of the willing to resolve the Afghan crisis says a lot about a certain understanding of U.S. foreign policy in recent years. Muhammad Ali, then, was - and is a part - of that intelligentsia which, in many ways, could be identified in that multilateralism who led the political action of a great American president, now clouded, the same as Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon, who, apart from Watergate, was no less, one of the greatest presidents in recent U.S. history and, anyway, charisma and prestige of the boxer puts it, still in a position very privileged as a reliable partner, as well as credible, even by Central American caudillo - Fidel, so dear to our Mina - or by dictators like Saddam Hussein tout-court by which, with the help of an interpreter, Ali treated for release, sine condition of some American hostages taken and displayed on the Arab media as I hope I repeat, potential human shields. But this propensity to be able to speak to the hearts of people - apart, that is, social status and intellectual of him - make him the protagonist, among other things, also a rescue, in extremis, a potential suicide in that of Los Angeles back in 1981 when contacted by some bystanders in a loud voice, Ali salì sul grattacielo ed indusse un ragazzo afroamericano disagiato e labile psicologicamente a desistere da quell'insano gesto. Ali era, innanzi tutto, una personalità dal carisma, a dir poco, straordinario che riusciva a catalizzare, come pochissimi altri, l'attenzione del sistema mediatico americano usufruendone come pochi altri in quanto, istintiamente direi, faceva della comunicazione, in senso lato, una delle sue armi vincenti. La sua negritudine, quindi, rifletteva quella di una fascia elitaria delle comunità afroamericane di quegli anni ed un anelito verso una integrazione su basi diverse nel nuovo modello socioeconomico che andava affermandosi a cavallo fra gli anni '60 e '70 e che, assai più del vetusto modello segregationist reflected the sea change that the United States were going through and will culminate in its decree signed by Richard Nixon affrancherà that the U.S. central bank from issuing dollars in close contingency of the real availability of auriferous country will entail, physiologically, in an entry national and international circuits of a huge amount of money whose value now was solely determined by the confidence of foreign exchange markets. was an unprecedented revolution in the history of the world economy - that nobody, or almost, you know nothing - that brought an abnormal liquidity which resulted in an overall increase in U.S. economic and social welfare but that went him the need to overcome racial and ethnic barriers to the free movement of money that all those movements for civil rights were, unknowingly, in the same direction dished up by U.S. banks. And, incidentally, the emancipation of the above will also lead to release of dollars into the channels of monetary and financial implosion of the Soviet bloc and determine which Gorbachev tried desperately to fight through his measures, timid and uncertain, unfortunately, in support of a mixed economy that would maintain the political institutions of the country which, if you will, was made on time from China which, however, was able to prepare for the meeting time thanks - storico - fra lo stesso Nixon e Mao che gettò le basi per una cooperazione incrociata ai danni del colosso sovietico. Ritornando ad Ali, ed alla nostra disamina, ritengo che, purtroppo, il morbo di Parkinson ci abbia precluso l'ascesa di un politico perchè Muhammad Ali era, innanzi tutto, un politico di prima grandezza che aveva trovato, quasi per caso, il proscenio del ring per imporsi all'attenzione generale ed ancora oggi, nonostante il decorso della malattia, preserva un fascino ed un carisma straordinario che indussero gli organizzatori dei giochi di Atlanta a rivolgersi a lui, the greatest, per inaugurare quella edizione olimpica. Inutile rammentare che quelle immagini nelle quali un Ali tremante, quasi esitante, sotto lo sguardo considerate of the American swimmer Janet Evans - also trembling with emotion in handing the torch - can, and not without difficulties of any kind, to light the sacred flame of Olympia aroused great emotion that led, among other things, George Foreman, the His great rival of the African night in Kinshasa, to weep for joy at the great honor paid it. The presence of Muhammad Ali as the last torchbearer cloaked the opening ceremony of an allegorical meaning that went, well, that merely because the sport across America now, we not only recognize, endorse, the Americans, but also the value and immense that to the American he Muhammad Ali was able to give and on the other hand, in hindsight, as no other could boast of one of our fitness are comfortable with. The controversy, however barren, raised in Italy - as it happens! - Dramatization of the disease on alleged Ali would not deserve even one iota of feedback if not denote, again, the grim provincialism with which we are accustomed to looking at the world imbued with American, as only we soliamo be italic, ideology and conspiracy and if the writer was not, likewise, Italian. America has recognized not only the disabled, in a broad sense, but it was the first country in the world to give a legal value sine conditio approntando una serie di norme cogenti volte, ad esempio, all’abbattimento delle barriere architettoniche una conquista, questa, che in Italia, tanto per intenderci, siamo ancora lungi dal recepire tant’è che, in molti – troppi - uffici pubblici – cosa gravissima, questa – nonché, in particolar modo, nell’edilizia privata, lamentiamo ancora delle discriminazioni senza precedenti che denotano, concretamente, una totale mancanza di sensibilità e di consapevolezza verso il diversamente abile guardato con commiserazione nonchè mai accettato, talora financo rispettato, per la sua persona un problema culturale, questo, enorme che temo nessuna giurisdizione, per quanto possa recepire dettami ed inviti sovranazionali, potrà mai adeguatamente sopperire. La nostra grettezza permea, in maniera inconscia ed indelebile, anche le persone migliori quando formulano giudizi di merito sugli accadimenti cogenti nella penisola ; figuriamoci, dunque, quando cercano, disperatamente, di esprimere una opinione che travalichi le nostre misere frontiere sociali, culturali e geografiche. Muhammad Ali ha vergato, a caratteri indelebili, alcune delle pagine più belle, in senso assoluto, non soltanto della boxe afroamericana ma, direi, della storia recente degli Stati Uniti d'America e deve indurre qualche riflessione di sorta in coloro i quali esemplificano, in maniera marxista, la storia di questo grande paese attraverso categorie antithetical to the purely moral (S) tory - and politics, if you will - have nothing to do because if it is true, how true it is that Americans are the ones in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan is also true that they are the home of the movements for civil rights, integration of disparate ethnic groups, of Marthin Luther King, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward - The Washington Post reporters who led the Watergate investigation - of John and Robert Kennedy and, of course, Muhammad Ali.
La giornata speciale riservata agli iscritti di questa edizione invece sarà animata da uno degli autori più importanti dell'attuale panorama italiano del fumetto e dell'animazione: Leo Ortolani, il creatore di Rat-Man !
Per tutti coloro i quali volessero approfondire, scoprire o migliorare le proprie capacità di scrittura il worshop rappresenta una occasione da cogliere the fly, the more so given the possibility of a close comparison with an author who has made his writing an unmistakable sign of style .
Currently I only have time to answer those who ask me a personal consultation seriously, I apologize for the waiting time for answers, but I prefer quality over quantity, and they happen to respond quickly, but even after seven or more days. I beg all those who write me to ask bibliographies, tips and various information, tutorials and more, to understand that I can not answer all your needs: for now the only thing I do see are the individual. What I have to teach in my articles I write in several blogs are very helpful and Guidelines are the fruits of research and direct experience, in my opinion it is a good starting point to continue their studies by alone. Those who ask to see Tarot and divination should send name, date, time and place of birth and even a picture as possible lately. It will not be made in consultation with those who do not follow my methodology, or seeks to impose its rules to my work ... Within this month there will be new posts about astrology and more. Thank you for your understanding and I wish you all good to all those who write to me and I have written.
As anticipated, I resume the discussion on ideas for writing about 's autobiography . Currently, the phenomenon has lost much of its echo, it is possible to summarize the conclusions in this regard. Until recently, the noise deafened the ears of barrels of comic-dom: autobiography was the key word or rdine . It seemed it was not possible to say anything more significant than telling the facts own. As if by itself enough to confer the autobiographical component absolute value to the narrative. A misunderstanding of the principle value which gave foundation to the stories do not always memorable, unfortunately. Of course, I confirm the assumption that in the story write about things I know and have lived is the best way to write something sincere and honest : while I think of the scope of comics stories Adrian Tomine - books like Sleepwalker and Other Stories, Summer Blonde and A slight imperfection - or Joe Matt - see the extraordinary Poor bastard - and comics Gipi, Paul Bacilieri or Marco Corona in which the autobiographical element becomes expansive engine of the story and sign for the decline experienced by individual experience to universal story. One thing much more difficult than simply autobiography understood as the end of the story and not a means. Between 2007 and 2008 I wrote the screenplay for No memory - published in 2009. sull'autobiografismo My first thoughts go back to that time when I tried to build and give more strength to my writing and begin to treat the matter autobiographical stories of families, personal experiences. There must also be said that our lives do not always contain something so important to feed the story, however, remain convinced that writing about what you know and live is the best way to narratives honest and sincere. To avoid the risk of resorting to tricks and grimaces and find themselves in a story false and useless - as a reader and writer that I find quite boring. (pictured above, Narcissus, oil on canvas of the end of the 500 attributed to Caravaggio)
The activity is aimed at those who are interested in writing, seek opportunity to discover, refine and improve their skills. 
