Another year is behind us, a new one begins.
This may seem like something to do with the passage of time, but it is relative to space: the year exists because we are moving, carried by our planet-arch along its sidereal trajectory around a fiery star.
In short, the New Year reminds us that even when we seem to be standing still, we are actually always on the move.
And I have been traveling the length and breadth of Italy again for a few months now, at work on some books whose details I will reveal in the coming times. I hope the fruits of my wanderings will be enticing enough to make you want to indulge in the very surreal thrill of travel!
For now, I wish you all my warmest wishes for a 2023 full of oddities and quirks… Keep The World Weird!
There is always an unexpected point in a celebration where an embarrassed silence falls for a moment.
Then a tiny crack of uncertainty opens, in which the diners seem to realize the futility of the party itself. It’s just a small treacherous blow, under the belt of smiles and jokes, an imperceptible hesitation from which we recover immediately.
But as a boy I hated parties and secretly enjoyed those moments of estrangement: “Human beings have been partying for centuries, for millennia, but what the hell is there to celebrate? Don’t they see the cosmos out there, how scary and cold and terrible it is? ”
Perhaps, I said to myself – with the classic haughtiness of the adolescent who thinks he’s the first to notice certain things – perhaps it is precisely in order not to see the void, to dispel the thought of nonsense, that these pathetic fools dance and they shout and laugh like madmen!
It took me a shamefully long time, and a lot of effort, to get over this thought. To admit the colossal courage necessary for the affirmation of joy; to understand the mystery, still alive today, of the ancient Dionysian fury; to recognize that the urgency of dance is just as powerful as the need for poetry.
This year that we are denied any kind of partying, its cardinal importance is even more evident: the flesh itself seems to claim its right to be unleashed, released.
My wish, therefore, for anyone who is reading, is to soon go back to dancing together, each following their own rhythm – unique, funny, deviant, rambling, capricious, clumsy or irregular … in the face of convention, but also in the face of that universe we imagine to be cold and inhospitable.
Perhaps, dancing for no reason is just what the stars have always been doing.
New Year’s Day is just a convention; yet this holiday’s ultimate meaning is to make us aware of seasons, of the cyclic nature of things, to remind us that Time is both an incessant end and a continuous beginning. We suddenly feel able to turn the page, to start anew, allowing ourselves those very reveries and hopes we held back until the day before. New Year’s Day is the time to dream new dreams.
As for Bizzarro Bazar, 2017 promises to be an annus mirabilis: plenty of new things coming our way.
I still have to keep most of these projects secret (they wouldn’t be suprises, would they), but all will be revealed in due time throughout the year.
A first anticipation leaked out yesterday on Facebook. Cult+, an RSI (Swiss Radio and Television) web format, will devote some episodes of the next season to the macabre and curious side of Rome: who do you think they called to be their guide?
The eccentric Ronco (Stefano Roncoroni, creator of the series), asked me to introduce him not just to the darker side of the Capital and Italy’s macabre heritage, but also to Rome’s underworld of seekers, scholars and creators of wonder.
An ever more present reality, which — I say this with a bit of pride — is emerging also thanks to this blog acting as a catalyst, in particular with the successful initiatives of the Academy of Enchantment. The Swiss crew was present at one of our meetings at the wunderkammer Mirabilia, interviewing both lecturers and participants from the audience; it will be interesting to see what a foreign eye saw in our passions!
You can follow all the developments on Cult+ Facebook page.
But every new year also entails looking back.
Therefore, as a welcome to 2017, I thought I would gather my four years of collaborations with the art magazine Illustrati, published by Logos, in one single e-book.
The Illustrati Archives 2012-2016 is an anthology of all the articles published on the magazine until now, pieces which never appeared on this blog.
Here’s a glance of what awaits you:
A deaf and dumb abbott sculpting a secret, monumental work; several men surviving for six years trapped in a bunker; one single man causes more damage to the planet than any other organism in the history of the world. And then: trousers made of human skin, zombie ants, haunted forests, mini porn stars, wacky scientific theories, and the mystery of the color blue – which for the ancient Greeks did not exist.
Three dollars for thirty treats of wonder.
The Kindle e-book is available at this link.
(My gratitude to those who will choose to support Bizzarro Bazar this way.)
And now back to work, unearthing new oddities, of which reality is always prodigal.
Because “the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder“.
Ogni capodanno, il solito vecchio gioco ricomincia. C’è chi si sente in dovere di stilare il bilancio dell’anno appena trascorso, chinandosi sul passato per studiarselo ben bene, e chi invece preferisce sorvolare e dedicarsi ad assaporare nuove speranze. C’è chi magari scopre un vago sentimento d’inquietudine per tutte le sfide senza volto che il destino gli riserva.
E c’è chi diffida del passato e, a dirla tutta, non stravede per il futuro – si abbandona quindi al presente, come se esistesse soltanto quello… e allora sì, che si brinda per davvero!
Poi ci sono quelli fissati con i “buoni propositi” per l’anno che arriva.
Sapete quale, secondo noi, potrebbe essere un ottimo proposito per il futuro?
Riprometterci di fare come Mae West, che dichiarava: “tra i due mali, sceglierò sempre quello che non ho ancora provato“.
Oppure ancora ricordare, nel decennale della morte, le parole del nostro amato Hunter S. Thompson:
La vita non dovrebbe essere un viaggio verso la tomba con l’intenzione di arrivarci senza rischi, in un corpo bello e ben preservato, ma piuttosto sbandare in derapata in una nuvola di fumo, completamente esausti, totalmente consumati, gridando forte: “WOW! Che corsa è stata!”
Per concludere, quindi, il buon proposito di Bizzarro Bazar è di impegnarsi affinché il 2015 sia ancora più strano e folle dell’anno che lo ha preceduto!
Auguri a tutti, e… Keep the world weird!
L’anno che sta per finire ha visto un interesse sempre crescente nei riguardi di questo piccolo blog: alcuni nostri articoli sono apparsi su testate sia cartacee che online, e perfino su Swide, il lifestyle magazine internazionale di Dolce&Gabbana (!). Nel caso l’aveste persa, vi segnalo anche questa intervista per il giornale online Mediaxpress.
E quindi, sì, ci sbilanciamo: il 2014 porterà qualche bella novità per Bizzarro Bazar – anche se per il momento non possiamo spingerci oltre nelle rivelazioni. Restate sintonizzati!
Quest’anno, però, è stato per molti difficile e travagliato. Ecco dunque quattro video per cominciare il 2014 con il giusto spirito, ricordandoci di altrettante qualità umane che abbiamo sempre cercato di sottolineare sulle nostre pagine.
1. L’ironia
“Che cos’è il genio? È fantasia, intuizione, decisione e velocità d’esecuzione.” (Amici miei)
3. L’entusiasmo
Ci scrive Ipnosarcoma: “Da guardare fino in fondo, 4 minuti e 48 secondi ben spesi, e dal minuto 1:34 inizia qualcosa di strepitoso, incredibile. Esistevano davvero artisti così? E che cosa è successo al mondo 70 anni dopo?”
Un augurio a tutti i lettori di Bizzarro Bazar per l’ultimo anno che resta a questo pianeta!
Visto che questi saranno i nostri ultimi 12 mesi di vita prima dell’Apocalisse, preconizzata con grande precisione dai Maya e da Roberto Giacobbo, perché non passarli con gioia, allegria, e dimenticando le differenze e i rancori?
E se proprio non volete rassegnarvi, ecco un kit di sopravvivenza che vi terrà al riparo da qualsiasi pericolo. Garantito al 100%, anche perché se non funzionasse non potreste rivalervi sul costruttore.
