nuzzaci - an online journal

Two weeks ago Willow and I flew down to Taranto, Italy, to attend my cuisine, Benedetta, and her fiancé’s, Angelo, wedding. (above illustration is an illustration of Benedetta and Angelo. It was illustrated by Willow and was part of the wedding gift.)

It was really nice. I don’t meet up with my italian side that often any more — when I was younger I stayed down there every summer for a few weeks, now that i’m older I manage to get a few days every other year — so when I’m down there it is extra special. They are all so lovely.

Due to the lack of time spent in Italy, my Italian isn’t really up to scratch. Normally it takes me a few days to get into it, so these short weekends aren’t long enough for my brain to re-adjust. Being Swedish and having an English girlfriend doesn’t make it any easier. My brain kind of spazzes out from time to time (excuses excuses excuses).

I also experienced my longest and largest dinner up to date. I think it was about 9 courses; over 6 hours!! It truly was something special. A funny anecdote from the dinner was when they told me during the starter that I shouldn’t eat too much since much more awaits on ‘il secondo piano’; which means ‘on the second floor’. Now I thought that ‘il secondo piano’ was a metaphor for going ‘to the next level’, so I was a bit amused when we were asked to actually go up to the second floor to continue the meal! Another funny anecdote: when we got home from this marathon of a dinner, Rita, my aunt, sat the table and started to bring out more food! Yeah It took me and Willow a few days in London before we had fully digested all the goodness.

As usual, during weddings, “wedding-talks” starts. And the big family question already on the same evening was: who’s next? Personally I feel no pressure (being the youngest and all) and am putting my money on Lucilla (Benedetta’s little sister).

Anyway. Just wanted to do a short digital congratulation to A and B!!

So, we are now a few weeks into 2007 and it’s about time to look back at 2006 and see what actually happened. Since I have had this digital online journal for almost a year (1st of May), 80% of what I’m mentioning here have already been documented earlier.

2006 for me started with coming back from San Francisco (where I had celebrated Christmas (in Lake Tahoe) and New Years (San Francisco) with my girlfriend Willow and her family) and began moving in with Willow to her flat.

During 2006 we had done quite a few improvements to this flat. First we extended the loft so the bedroom got a bit bigger, then we changed the flooring and built a loft bed in one of the bedrooms. But 2006 has just been the beginning… If everything goes as planed, during 2007 I will tell you all about the new kitchen, the new bathroom and the new staircase up to the loft.

 

Work

I don’t talk much about work on this journal. And that’s not because I don’t do any work or that nothing exiting happens at work. No, the main reasons is when i’m not working, and sitting by the computer, I prefer not to talk, reflect or spend time on work related stuff.

I have been at POKE for over three years now, and during these three years a lot has happened e.g. we have grown 462.5% in size, changed offices twice, rolled out a lot of really nice work and won more awards than I can remember. So, as a big reward for our great achievements, about a month ago, we moved into 10000 sq. ft. of dedicated private space.

So 2007 surely kicks off big.
It’s a bit of a fresh start.
A new start.

Two of the bigger pieces of work I been involved in during 2006 was the new topshop.com and the GoodFood magazine website. Thanks to a brilliant team and exceptionally brilliant client, I can look at them both and be extremely satisfied.

 

Sport (F1 basically)

2006 brought me back to Formula One, and the 2006 season was amazing and it definitely made way for an exciting 2007!! The biggest news was of cause the creation of the new 10th of September tradition of German beer and spaghetti tomato sauce, a new tradition to salute and remember the announcement by Scuteria Ferrari of Micheal Schumacher’s retirement as a race driver.

 

Music

So what’s the best album 2006… well it turns out being quite hard… all the ones I’d thought of, turned out being released in 2005! Such as With Teeth by Nine Inch Nails, Go Down! by David Sandstrom and Potemkin City Limits by Propagandhi.

Don’t know, was 2006 a dry year for people with my kind of music taste? What have I missed…

Born In The U.K. by Badly Drawn Boy, 9 by Damien Rice and Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of The Mountain by Sparklehorse are OK, wouldn’t go so far and give them the title ‘Best Album of 2006. (they have done better).

The one album that took me by surprise was Comfort Of Strangers by Beth Orton. So, until further notice Comfort of Strangers can wear the crown of Album of the Year 2006.

 
During the end of 2005 i decided to ‘grab myself in the collar’ and take care of the concert opportunities that comes with living in London. So I ended 2005 strongly with seeing Anthony and the Johnsons, Eels, Unseen, Randy, Flogging Molly, Millencolin and Jeff Tweedy, and have followed through into 2006. Some concert reviews pre this blog can be found on my last.fm journal.

2005 I also left The Above. Which means that during 2006 I have been ‘bandless’. Think that’s one of the main reasons I have managed to get up to so much stuff. I do miss playing though, and might just pick it up again in 2007…

Below is a list of the gig’s I went to during 2006. The absolute highlights was the acoustic Foo Fighters concert and the Tindersticks concert.

1. Jason Mraz, warm up by Raul Midon

   The Mraz gig was probably this years biggest disappointment. Saw him preform an ‘absolute masterpiece’ two years prior, and this time he just managed to reach ‘average commercial ass-selling and record label selling shite’. He didn’t even get close to his potential and wasn’t even near to meet my expectations.

2. Nizlopi

   Willow almost passed out on this gig.

3. Iron & Wine and Calexico

   Saw Calexico back in 1998 in a small pub in Stockholm, Sweden. Calexico 2006 is definitely another band on stage (in a good way). For Iron & Wine the venue was a bit to big.

4. The Shins

   Read more here.

5. Foo Fighters

   One of the best concerts I’ve been to. Read more here.

6. Foo Fighters, warm up by Juliette & the Licks, Angels & Airwaves, Queens of the Stone Age, Motörhead

   The biggest concert I have ever been to. 85.000 people in Hyde Park. It was HUGE. Read more here.

7. Death Cab for Cutie

   Saw DCFC twice in 2006, first in March and then in June. Tom Hostler took me along to the March gig, and since they were so damn good, we booked tickets for June gig as well. Read more about the June concert here.

8. The Cult

   As Billy Duffy changed guitar a few songs into the set, I told Willow, “That’s probably the nicest guitar in the world”. Then, on my 28th birthday, Miss W gave me Miss G.

9. The Rolling Stones

   Read more here

10. The Veils

    Another suggestion by The Hoss, and again, another band I saw twice in 2006. Read more on Willows blog.

11. Tindersticks

    Tindersticks preforming their album Tindersticks II. Totally amazing. Read more here.

12. Hello Saferide

    The most common ’search keyword’ that brings traffic to this site is ‘songs about ocd‘. The search brings me on place nr 8 on Google and points to the post I wrote about this concert. Read the post here.

13. Tom Mcrae, Joe Purdy, Steve Reynolds, Jim Bianco

    Read more here.

14. Robyn

    A weird 5 song mini gig at a small bar in Shoreditch.

15. David & the Citizens

    See photos from this gig on Willow’s flickr

 

Travels

I have never travelled as much during a year as I have done during 2006. The weird bit is that even if I have been around a bit, I manage to have 6 holidays left towards the end of the year, which leed to an extra week off in London. To prevent this from happaning in 2007 I have already booked off 15 days of my holidays, all 15 to be spend before the second week in March.

1. San Francisco, United States of America

   Even though the year stared in San Francisco: The Lake Tahoe and San Francisco trip belongs in an non-existing 2005 review and not in this. But it [the trip] was very very nice.

2. Paris, France

   We spent Easter in Paris. Which was a bit of a disappointment. Paris was not even close to what I expected it to be…

3. Rome, Italy

   In May we went down to Rome, Italy, to celebrate my dad and his 60th birthday. It was lovely. Think the Paris trip made me realise how much i like Rome. You can read more about the Rome trip here and here.

4. Rosili Bay, Whales

   In June we went to Rhossili Bay, Swansea, Wales, with David Marks. Read more here.

5. Skelleftea, Sweden

   As a tradition done every year since I moved to London, Middsummer was spent in Skelleftea. Read more about the trip here and here.

6. Hel, Poland

   Read more about the amazing week in Hel, Poland, here

7. Skelleftea, Sweden

   Went back to Skelleftea in the end of October to celebrate my sisters 30th birthday. Read more here.

8. Newcastle, United Kingdom

   Similar to the midsummer tradition in Skelleftea, Thanksgiving is a trip to Newcastle. This year I made something special.

9. Dover, United Kingdom

   This was just a one day trip down to the white rocks in Dover. I didn’t know that it was just an hours boat trip between Dover and Calais. The Freestyle song Dover-Calais make it seem like it is at least a few hours; since in the song they meet ’somewhere between’. Read misleading lyrics here.

10. Rome, Italy

    Anyone who ever meet or knew my uncle Antonio Nuzzaci will remember the end of 2006 as a very sad moment. During the early hours of Thursday 21st of December he passed away. This cast a shadow over the ending of 2006. Willow and I flew down to Rome to attend the funeral on the 22nd of December, and then we stayed in Rome over Christmas.

11. Taranto, Italy

    Last week of the year was spent in my parents house in the south of Italy. This might have been the last time we visited Viale Die Pini 18, since a few weeks back they sold the house and are planing to move up to Tuscany. Photos from the Italy trip can be found on Willow’s flickr.

In Sweden, wine needed to be sold in Tetra Pak - box model - before people started buying it. The illusion that it’s cheaper to buy 3 litres, and that it is easier to ‘just drink a glass’ seem to be the main reason for it success.

Being raised with an Italian kitchen culture, this seem very very wrong and unrespectful. Shocking really. I have said many time that selling wine in Tetra Pak is something they would never allow in Italy.

What I didn’t know, until reading this past Sundays Observer, was how right i really was.

The article in the Observer, title: Canned wine is fine for Paris but not in Italy, said:

Under Italian law, wine can be sold only in bottles.

The article was about how the people in the Conegliano/Valdobbiadene region in Italy were angry and upset over the fact that their famous grape, used to make their famous white sparkling wine with the same name, Prosecco, was sold in Red-Bull-looking cans, labeled Rich, and marketed with the face of Paris Hilton in order to target a shallow audience in countries such as Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Rich Prosecco have basically bypassed the ‘bottles only law’ by distributing the canned wine abroad only.

Giancarlo Vettorello, director of Consorzio del Tutela del Prosecco:

It is a debasement of our product and something that we will not passively accept.

It’s not the first time that countries outside of Italy have been served an fabricated story about a product and it’s connections to the Italian lifestyle and culture. Quite often products gets anchored in lies - “given values” - in the aim to get a bigger or another revenue stream.

You can’t, for instance, buy the Peroni Nastro Azzurro beer in Italy, even though it’s market as “Peroni Nastro Azzurro is Italian style in a bottle. It brings out the Italian in you.”

In Italy, Peroni is one type of beer and Nastro Azzurro another. Peroni Nastro Azzurro is just a re-branded Nastro Azzurro that’s been given a few new values so that it can be repositioned in the beer market - made it into ‘fashion’ - in an attempt to bring in more revenue from another consumer channel.
This is nothing new, barely an example.

But I absolutely love the transparency, and the deep shallowness and stupidity of the Prosecco campaign. I think Paris Hilton says it best her self, in her song, which is also brilliantly tied to the campaign and available on the Prescco website, Stars are Blind.

Even though the gods are crazy
Even though the stars are blind
If you show me real love baby
I’ll show you mine

Some external links:

• Wine in a box at systembolaget, Sweden
• www.richprosecco.com/
• www.peroni.it/
• www.nastroazzurro.it/
• www.peroniitaly.com/

The World Cup have reminded me that I do have Italian blood pumping in my veins.