XL REPUBBLICA - how Mika keeps himself busy ;-)

[krysady]

Gianni Santoro ‏@GianniSantor0

To @mikasounds fans: Mika's column for the new issue of @LaRepubblicaXL is a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Landing in 2 days. #spoiler pic.twitter.com/leKGAMefwm

 

 

:excite:

[IngievV]

I bet it's about socks.

[eloise.shaw]

I bet it's about socks.

 

I bloody hope so. I bloody love socks.

[BiaIchihara]

For those asking for the english version

 

Gianni Santoro ‏@GianniSantor0

 

@Rakpenguin63 Of course. I will post the link of the English version.

[silver]

I bloody hope so. I bloody love socks.

 

[robertina]

For those asking for the english version

 

Gianni Santoro ‏@GianniSantor0

 

@Rakpenguin63 Of course. I will post the link of the English version.

 

[PemberlyPenmanship]

I laughed out loud at the socks comment! I mean, I bet Mika's the best authority. He matches socks and suspenders like no others.

 

--> Random question from an ignorant American...is "braces" the typical English term for suspenders?

[basicamenteyo]

I laughed out loud at the socks comment! I mean, I bet Mika's the best authority. He matches socks and suspenders like no others.

 

--> Random question from an ignorant American...is "braces" the typical English term for suspenders?

 

Yes

[Christine]

--> Random question from an ignorant American...is "braces" the typical English term for suspenders?

 

And to further confuse things their term for garter belt is suspenders.

[mamiam]

 

I can hardly wait for this - lucikly just only one day left now

 

Love,love

me

[RAK1]

And to further confuse things their term for garter belt is suspenders.

 

And vest is waistcoat, and wife beater is vest,and sweater is jumper, it goes on and on

[mer]

And vest is waistcoat, and wife beater is vest,and sweater is jumper, it goes on and on

are you made in Japan??

[mamiam]

And vest is waistcoat, and wife beater is vest,and sweater is jumper, it goes on and on

 

How funny!! I use the words "vest" and "jumper" daily - norw. words also...

 

Love,love

me

[PemberlyPenmanship]

I love how American English and British English differ so much in structure and word usage. It keeps things interesting (and romantic sometimes). Once a teacher at my school declaredthere wasn't too much difference between modern American and British culture, clearly all her years as a literature teacher had done her a lot of good *ahem*.

 

But anyway, the column. Yep, excited! I too think his family narratives are wonderful.

[robertina]

got the magazine!

 

he writes about the movie in Lisbon and about Asia Argento.

 

This means the column was written very late

[robertina]

as promised...the english version!

 

http://videodrome-xl.blogautore.repubblica.it/2013/02/28/mika-pop-up-english-version/

[robertina]

The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Nigh-time

 

«In a small fish restaurant in Lisbon, Asia Argento sips her glass of white wine. We have escaped the set of Fanny Ardent’s new movie in which the Italian actress is starring. She plays a cellist and I appear as her accompanist in the final scene. I refuse wine, afraid to fall asleep on set and complain about the hours of waiting. She laughs and says smiling, “Don’t you know? Actors aren’t paid to act, they’re paid to wait!”. We have only met a few hours ago, and now at lunch I realise how much I could like this girl. She is brutally candid and thoroughly un-judgemental. She watches me quietly as I eat and listens to my rant on art and its limits. I tell her about my desire to make a piece of theatre based on Henry Darger and his little girls. Its at this point that Asia cuts me off, holds her hand up and says sternly, “two things you never touch in your work, kids and animals, trust me I know.”

Asia proceeded to tell me the story of how she ended up kissing a dog in Abel Ferrara’s Go Go Tales. Later on I watched the scene. Yes its slightly shocking and very weird but isn’t that the point? “It almost ruined my career” Asia tells me later. “Out of all the shocking, trashy and hardcore scenes I’ve done in my life, I never expected this one to be so scandalous and it made me feel ashamed”. Asia plays the role of a stripper. During a striptease, she leans provocatively towards the dog and sticks out her tongue. The animal licks her mouth and she lingers for a second or two before pulling back and continuing her dance. The scandal lost her several movie contracts and made her a figure of hate and ridicule in Italy.

Much of the anger is justifiable. The dog was not an actor, nor was it paid to play a role which some saw as bestiality. It wasn’t faked nor suggested, it was improvised and actually happened. Reading the coverage however, its clear to me that the mockery took a nasty turn. It became about Asia being a perverted sex freak with no limits. A sort of anti-christ, the girl you don’t want your daughter to turn into, and less about the rights of the animal. This woman is actually one of the most interesting and knowledgeable actresses I’ve ever talked to. “I never saw the morbidity that people projected on to the scene. I channel something that comes from within and provokes anger because its like a mirror that shows the dark side of people. I end up forcing open all these doors just by being myself.” When I ask her if she regrets the movie, she says yes. I ask her if she likes dogs and she says she does but that her own is getting on a bit, “he’s very old and I wish for him that he would die. He’s like Berlusconi” she adds, “He’s old, he has a huge dick, no teeth and has suffered from a limp for the past four years.”

Asia story reminds me of a similar scandal where reality and film came too close for comfort. In Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny, Chloe Sevigny and Gallo act out a sex scene with real (and visible) penetration. Although both were willing actors, the scene made a lot of noise and posed many questions about sex and reality in film. When I ask Asia if she relates to that story, she strongly declines, “Absolutely not, I’m not a fashionista and I’m not sucking fashionista cock”. She repeatedly express her dislike of ‘cool’ and I suspect its because she has suffered a lot growing up from those around her who were considered cool. “I don’t relate to fashion, I relate to outsider artists, many of whom are my friends”.

The day before, I had visited the Museum of Everything in Paris. A travelling exhibition of outsider art which includes the work of Henry Darger. Much of the work in this exhibition explores what would normally be considered un-explorable as the artists were not restricted by normal social taboos. Darger, the most famous outsider artist of them all, was a janitor from Chicago who had been institutionalised and suffered abuse in his childhood. A self taught painter, he would copy and trace idealised girls from catalogues and magazines and place them in his extreme fantasy world where they fight a rebellion against child slavery. They appear dressed like dolls and often naked, with tails or horns. Some even have male genitalia. They flip from looking like religious icons to soft porn pulp fiction vixens. The pictures are extremely beautiful and give us a very rare insight into the psyche of a man who in the intimacy of his anonymity was able to explore the image of childhood innocence as well as exorcise his past. You could say that for these artists, many of whom have been institutionalised, their art justifies their ‘madness’. They themselves are freaks to the world yet their art is sold for hundreds of thousands in auction houses.

Asia shares my fascination with these artists and agrees with me that public collections are the true home for such pieces. I can’t help but see her as a victim of hype but also as an underdog. So much of what she says rings true to me. Like Asia, having grown up with bullying, what made me saddest was that I felt like I was an unavoidable part of the system. If it wasn’t me being mocked and bullied, then it would be someone else and why would I want to wish that on others. Strangely, this gave me strength, I found a way through music and art to assert myself and avoid trying to integrate. Its the same story for her. “After the movie, I tried to play the Italian Bourgeois for a while. Now I don’t care. I am a freak and you need freaks. Like in Tod Brownings Freaks, you go to the circus so you can laugh at the freak and point and feel better for they are freaks and you are not”. I look at her, stylishly dressed and clearly very beautiful and I’m confused. “Why are you a freak? You seem completely normal to me.” I ask. “Ah, that is because maybe you are freak too”».

Mika

[robertina]

in Italian

 

http://videodrome-xl.blogautore.repubblica.it/2013/02/28/mika-pop-up-9/

 

 

Mai toccare due cose nel nostro lavoro: bambini e animali

 

«In un piccolo ristorante di pesce di Lisbona Asia Argento sorseggia un calice di vino bianco. Siamo in fuga dal set del nuovo film di Fanny Ardant, di cui l’attrice italiana è protagonista. Interpreta una violoncellista e nella scena finale io le faccio da accompagnamento. Preferisco non bere vino, temo mi dia sonnolenza sul set, e mi lamento dei lunghi tempi di attesa. Asia ride: “Non lo sapevi? Gli attori sono pagati per aspettare, non per recitare!”. Ci conosciamo solo da qualche ora e già mi è chiaro quanto possa piacermi questa ragazza. È di una spontaneità direi brutale, totalmente priva di preconcetti. Mi osserva in silenzio mentre mangio e farnetico sull’arte e i suoi limiti. Le spiego che vorrei mettere in scena una piece basata sull’opera di Henry Darger, sulle sue bambine. Ma Asia mi interrompe, alza severa la mano e dice: “Mai toccare due cose nel nostro lavoro, bambini e animali, fidati, lo so per certo.”

E mi racconta di come è arrivata a baciare un cane nel film di Abel Ferrara Go Go Tales. Più tardi sono andato a vedermi la scena. Beh, è un po’ scioccante e molto bizzarra, ma cosa c’entra? “Per poco non mi ha rovinato la carriera”, mi dice Asia poi. “Di tutte le scene sconvolgenti, spinte e esplicite che ho girato nella mia vita mai mi sarei aspettata di suscitare tanto scandalo, di provare vergogna per quei fotogrammi”. Nel film è una spogliarellista che, durante un’esibizione, si protende provocante verso un cane, mostrando la lingua. L’animale le lecca la bocca e Asia indugia qualche secondo prima di ritrarsi e continuare la sua danza. Lo scandalo di quella scena le è costato vari contratti e l’ha messa alla berlina in Italia, attirandole odio addosso.

Gran parte dell’indignazione è giustificabile. Il cane non era un attore, né era pagato per interpretare una scena che alcuni hanno definito di sesso con animali. In effetti era esplicita, frutto di improvvisazione, ma reale. Ma più che sui diritti degli animali i media si sono concentrati su Asia e dallo sfottò iniziale sono andati giù pesanti, definendola una pervertita, una sorta di anticristo, quello che non vorresti mai diventasse tua figlia. Questa donna è in realtà una delle attrici più interessanti e preparate con cui io abbia mai parlato. “Non ho mai visto nella scena la morbosità che la gente vi ha proiettato. Faccio emergere qualcosa che viene da dentro e provoca indignazione perché è una sorta di specchio che mostra il lato oscuro delle persone. Finisco per spalancare tutte queste porte semplicemente essendo me stessa”. Le chiedo se rimpiange di aver girato il film e mi risponde affermativamente. Le chiedo se le piacciono i cani e dice di si, ma che il suo è un po’ avanti con l’età. “È vecchissimo e mi auguro, per lui, che muoia. È come Berlusconi”, aggiunge, “È vecchio, ha un pisello enorme, non ha denti e da quattro anni è zoppo”.

La vicenda di Asia mi ricorda uno scandalo simile in cui realtà e finzione cinematografica si sono avvicinate al punto da creare disagio. In The Brown Bunny di Vincent Gallo, Chloe Sevigny e lo stesso Gallo vengono ripresi durante un rapporto orale reale (e visibile). Benché in questo caso si trattasse di due attori consenzienti la scena suscitò un polverone ponendo molti interrogativi su sesso e realtà nei film. Chiedo ad Asia se si identifica con quella vicenda, ma nega con decisione: “Assolutamente no. Non sono una fashionista e non succhio il cazzo fashionista”. Ripete più volte che detesta tutto ciò che è “cool” e credo sia perché ha sofferto molto crescendo per colpa di quelli che venivano considerati dei “fighi”. “Non ho niente a che spartire con la moda, mi identifico con gli artisti outsider, molti dei quali sono miei amici”.

[robertina]

[krysady]

Thank you,Robertina!

[mamiam]

 

Thank you !! Looks lovely - and very Mikaish

Really look forward to the english version

 

Love,love

me

[tiibet]

I love the way he writes... And I love how he is playing with words. The book is one of my favorites, it tells about a boy with Asperger's syndrome.

 

Thanks for the link! Amazing how fast they published the original!

[mamiam]

I love the way he writes... And I love how he is playing with words. The book is one of my favorites, it tells about a boy with Asperger's syndrome.

 

Thanks for the link! Amazing how fast they published the original!

 

Thanks for explaining!

 

Love,love

me

[tiibet]

Thanks for explaining!

 

Love,love

me

 

I just assumed he is referring to the Mark Haddon novel because he is writing about freaks. And about dogs too, lol

[krysady]

Thank you !! Looks lovely - and very Mikaish

Really look forward to the english version

 

Love,love

me

 

as promised...the english version!

 

http://videodrome-xl.blogautore.repubblica.it/2013/02/28/mika-pop-up-english-version/