He's been probably poisoned over a week ago. By the very people he probably trusted. He lived less than two years, but he had fun... ooh, yes he had!
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
Missing Mac
He's been Nedda's and mine house cat, loved and well cared for. Mac was his name, although I simply called him "Gatto", 'cause he reminded me of Shrek Puss in Boots. He was gentle, trusting and loved people.
He's been probably poisoned over a week ago. By the very people he probably trusted. He lived less than two years, but he had fun... ooh, yes he had!
He's been probably poisoned over a week ago. By the very people he probably trusted. He lived less than two years, but he had fun... ooh, yes he had!
Thursday, 5 November 2015
Doctor Who (with a bit of Star Trek) in Lucca
September 23rd
I received a phone call from RAI 4. Massimiliano told me wanted me to be the host of a panel for the launch of Doctor Who's ninth season at Lucca Comics & Games. I accepted.
A few days later more details came in - and finally...
October 9th
... the word was out - I'd be host of a Q&A with none other than Steven Moffat and Jamie Mathieson. I was honoured beyond belief.
October 30th
For the launch of the ninth series, which will air next year on RAI4 starting January 3rd, another event has been organized: the preview of the first episode dubbed in Italian.
That's what I worked hard for, that's why I went to Multimedia Network in Rome last September. That's why I had to keep the secret for such a long time!
Being in the theatre must have not been easy for Steven Moffat, especially because, after his own introduction, he watched the first few minutes of his episode with an audience of Whovians who speak another language. It was certainly not easy for me, being accountable for those very Italian lines.
So, it was good to see the audience with their sonic screwdrivers lit during the opening titles. It was good to hear the cheers when Missy appears, the roars when Peter Capaldi makes his grand entrance playing the guitar. And I appreciated the laughter when my Italian equivalent for "Dudes" was heard for the first time!
But make no mistakes, I'm not the one who organized everything in Lucca. The Doctor Who Italian Club was, managing the queues, the flash mobs and all the fan activities. There were a lot of fans - more than I expected (and I had high expectations!) - who cosplayed Doctor Who characters for hours while waiting to enter the theatre and the next day...
October 31st
... waiting to enter the auditorium for the panel. So many people for too few seats, so many whovians had to stand at the back of the hall, and many more had to stay outside, peeking from the open doors.
I broke the ice of the Q&A with two of my questions and then people had so many interesting questions that the 40 minutes allotted past by in a flash!
Steven Moffat took a picture of a "Missy" (one of the many!) and promised to send it to Michelle Gomez. He also took a selfie with him and Jamie Mathieson in front of the whole audience. But the best part was when Steven asked us to voice the name "Capaldi"... with our proper Italian pronunciation!
Personally I had the chance to talk with Moffat and Mathieson for just a few minutes, before and after the Q&A, and my impression was of two men positively surprised of the quantity of Italian Whovians and the quality of their knowledge of the series.
I wished to have been able to present a brief history of our Italian Doctor Who fandom, but I didn’t wanted to steal the show. So I’m taking the chance here to thank...
- my great group, Doctor Who Hermits United for being such a nice bunch of people, specifically Ennio, Federica, Elena, Chiara & Michela,
- Fabio, for his “battaglia a suon di metallo” (credits go where credits are due!),
- Doctor-Who.it, that is Francesco “Laz” and his "companions", who do a really good job with their amateur subtitles,
- and last but not least, Doctor Who Italian Club whose members, as I already said, have been constantly busy in organizing people around the town!
The frenzy was over sooner than I thought. I closed the Doctor Who chapter and opened the Star Trek one. Unfortunately, on the Saturday afternoon and evening, my staying at the Ultimo Avamposto / STIC-AL's stand was brief due to a fierce headache that forced me to return to my hotel in Viareggio earlier than I wished.
November 1st
My last day in Lucca I spent it with friends, in queue for a meal and for most of the afternoon at Ultimo Avamposto / STIC-AL's stand. My Star Trek reboot costume was a red shirt (Scotty's in my mind), but very few seemed to notice.
Maybe next year, when celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the franchise will be travelling at warp ten, there will be more trekkers around.
As a footnote, I wish to give a huge thank you to BBC, RAI 4 and Multimedia Network for trusting me with their franchise. I worked (and I’m still working) to the best of my abilities for Doctor Who!
As I had done (and, who knows, maybe I'll do) for Star Trek!
I haven't covered everything in this brief report. But if you ask me, I'll edit this post to reply to your queries!
I received a phone call from RAI 4. Massimiliano told me wanted me to be the host of a panel for the launch of Doctor Who's ninth season at Lucca Comics & Games. I accepted.
A few days later more details came in - and finally...
... the word was out - I'd be host of a Q&A with none other than Steven Moffat and Jamie Mathieson. I was honoured beyond belief.
October 30th
For the launch of the ninth series, which will air next year on RAI4 starting January 3rd, another event has been organized: the preview of the first episode dubbed in Italian.
That's what I worked hard for, that's why I went to Multimedia Network in Rome last September. That's why I had to keep the secret for such a long time!
Being in the theatre must have not been easy for Steven Moffat, especially because, after his own introduction, he watched the first few minutes of his episode with an audience of Whovians who speak another language. It was certainly not easy for me, being accountable for those very Italian lines.
So, it was good to see the audience with their sonic screwdrivers lit during the opening titles. It was good to hear the cheers when Missy appears, the roars when Peter Capaldi makes his grand entrance playing the guitar. And I appreciated the laughter when my Italian equivalent for "Dudes" was heard for the first time!
 |
| For "Dude" I had to resort to some anachronistic slang word, short enough and funny enough! Hence... Bellazio! Multimedia's professionals accepted my suggestion and there it was! |
But make no mistakes, I'm not the one who organized everything in Lucca. The Doctor Who Italian Club was, managing the queues, the flash mobs and all the fan activities. There were a lot of fans - more than I expected (and I had high expectations!) - who cosplayed Doctor Who characters for hours while waiting to enter the theatre and the next day...
... waiting to enter the auditorium for the panel. So many people for too few seats, so many whovians had to stand at the back of the hall, and many more had to stay outside, peeking from the open doors.
I broke the ice of the Q&A with two of my questions and then people had so many interesting questions that the 40 minutes allotted past by in a flash!
Steven Moffat took a picture of a "Missy" (one of the many!) and promised to send it to Michelle Gomez. He also took a selfie with him and Jamie Mathieson in front of the whole audience. But the best part was when Steven asked us to voice the name "Capaldi"... with our proper Italian pronunciation!
Personally I had the chance to talk with Moffat and Mathieson for just a few minutes, before and after the Q&A, and my impression was of two men positively surprised of the quantity of Italian Whovians and the quality of their knowledge of the series.
I wished to have been able to present a brief history of our Italian Doctor Who fandom, but I didn’t wanted to steal the show. So I’m taking the chance here to thank...
- my great group, Doctor Who Hermits United for being such a nice bunch of people, specifically Ennio, Federica, Elena, Chiara & Michela,
- Fabio, for his “battaglia a suon di metallo” (credits go where credits are due!),
- Doctor-Who.it, that is Francesco “Laz” and his "companions", who do a really good job with their amateur subtitles,
- and last but not least, Doctor Who Italian Club whose members, as I already said, have been constantly busy in organizing people around the town!
The frenzy was over sooner than I thought. I closed the Doctor Who chapter and opened the Star Trek one. Unfortunately, on the Saturday afternoon and evening, my staying at the Ultimo Avamposto / STIC-AL's stand was brief due to a fierce headache that forced me to return to my hotel in Viareggio earlier than I wished.
November 1st
My last day in Lucca I spent it with friends, in queue for a meal and for most of the afternoon at Ultimo Avamposto / STIC-AL's stand. My Star Trek reboot costume was a red shirt (Scotty's in my mind), but very few seemed to notice.
Maybe next year, when celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the franchise will be travelling at warp ten, there will be more trekkers around.
As a footnote, I wish to give a huge thank you to BBC, RAI 4 and Multimedia Network for trusting me with their franchise. I worked (and I’m still working) to the best of my abilities for Doctor Who!
As I had done (and, who knows, maybe I'll do) for Star Trek!
I haven't covered everything in this brief report. But if you ask me, I'll edit this post to reply to your queries!
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
A song in my head
I'm slowly absorbing the news
the worst nightmare
within the nightmare.
I'm not sure for how long I will be able
to fake a smile, so I better write it down.
A reminder for the future.
I have to endure!
I have to go on!
I can't escape this!
Don't ask.
I won't tell.
Don't ask.
I won't tell.
Don't ask.
I won't tell.
the worst nightmare
within the nightmare.
I'm not sure for how long I will be able
to fake a smile, so I better write it down.
A reminder for the future.
I have to endure!
I have to go on!
I can't escape this!
Don't ask.
I won't tell.
Don't ask.
I won't tell.
Don't ask.
I won't tell.
Monday, 28 September 2015
Nine hundred ninety nine
I may have already written what I'm about to write - but that would only mean that nothing has changed.
Every day I write down a list of things that I'd wanted to do with Alberto, things that I cannot do anymore since his death. The list is so long that I'm thinking of stopping writing it!
Because everything I'm doing I would have wanted to do with him - personal moments, mundane things, hobbies, parties, conventions, travels...
The problem is not just that I am alone in "enjoying" those things, but I am excruciatingly aware that Alberto cannot enjoy them as well. He lost so many occasions of feeling happy or moved or satisfied...
Alberto lost nine hundred ninety nine days of "our" life together!
Forgive me if I will be refusing to watch a movie with you, or if the only TV series I follow are the ones I feel "responsible" for (Star Trek and Doctor Who, because I have to think about you, the children we never had). Forgive me if I stopped reading books, or taking photographs. Forgive me if sometime my smile will not be true, but every day is a day that I have to endure and sometime this is a heavy burden to carry.
I wish I could go back nine hundred and ninety nine days in the past. And tomorrow I will wish I could go back one thousand days...
Every day I write down a list of things that I'd wanted to do with Alberto, things that I cannot do anymore since his death. The list is so long that I'm thinking of stopping writing it!
Because everything I'm doing I would have wanted to do with him - personal moments, mundane things, hobbies, parties, conventions, travels...
The problem is not just that I am alone in "enjoying" those things, but I am excruciatingly aware that Alberto cannot enjoy them as well. He lost so many occasions of feeling happy or moved or satisfied...
Alberto lost nine hundred ninety nine days of "our" life together!
Forgive me if I will be refusing to watch a movie with you, or if the only TV series I follow are the ones I feel "responsible" for (Star Trek and Doctor Who, because I have to think about you, the children we never had). Forgive me if I stopped reading books, or taking photographs. Forgive me if sometime my smile will not be true, but every day is a day that I have to endure and sometime this is a heavy burden to carry.
I wish I could go back nine hundred and ninety nine days in the past. And tomorrow I will wish I could go back one thousand days...
Tuesday, 11 August 2015
Multiverses
If the quantum mechanics theory is true, then there is at least one universe where Alberto is not dead.
Where he survived his heart attack or he didn't even have one.
A universe where in this very moment his Gabriella is having fun arranging his birthday - suggesting presents to his friends, shopping for the buffet with his closest friends, booking his birthday cake with him.
In that universe Alberto is enjoying the preparations, and is planning a huge battle with water guns.
In that universe Gabriella is happy to see him enjoying these days.
I've always thought the multiverse theory was logical, but lately it's become my only "belief".
So, even if in this universe there will be no smile on Alberto's face for me to enjoy these days, I want to believe somewhere there is a version of me who is happy and looking forward to August 13th.
I'm not happy, but I am peaceful - somewhere, in some other layer of existence, some other me is still whole.
Gabriella
Where he survived his heart attack or he didn't even have one.
A universe where in this very moment his Gabriella is having fun arranging his birthday - suggesting presents to his friends, shopping for the buffet with his closest friends, booking his birthday cake with him.
In that universe Alberto is enjoying the preparations, and is planning a huge battle with water guns.
In that universe Gabriella is happy to see him enjoying these days.
I've always thought the multiverse theory was logical, but lately it's become my only "belief".
So, even if in this universe there will be no smile on Alberto's face for me to enjoy these days, I want to believe somewhere there is a version of me who is happy and looking forward to August 13th.
I'm not happy, but I am peaceful - somewhere, in some other layer of existence, some other me is still whole.
Gabriella
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Am I cheating?
In one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko tells Worf something that I never understood until now.
"Part of being a captain is knowing when to smile, to make the troops happy. Even when it's the last thing in the world you want to do. Because they're your troops, and you have to take care of them."
I always felt that doing it was cheating those who trust me. I felt that even smiling when I don't feel like smiling was a kind of cheat.
So, when the moment came to start thinking about going to the STICCON as every year since 1988, I felt that I could not cheat on my "troops", on my friends. On you!
So I told you that I didn't feel like going because it was a stress, the smallest of stresses, a stress that - especially now that I'm under treatment - I should endure easily. But a stress nonetheless because Alberto is not living the STICCON with me anymore.
And you started to feel sad. You didn't pushed me, you didn't forced me. You just begged me to allow you to make me enjoy your companionship.
And that's when I understood what Sisko meant.
There's nothing more important that you, my friends - my "troops" is all I have. Especially now that Alberto is not at my side. You are! And even if I think I don't feel like smiling, you will make me feel like smiling again. This is the trick! By taking care of my troops I will be taking care of myself.
Going to the STICCON may be the last thing in the world I want to do, but part of being a captain is knowing when to smile, to make the troops happy. Because you're my troops, and you will take care of me.
Here I come, STICCON!
Gabriella
"Part of being a captain is knowing when to smile, to make the troops happy. Even when it's the last thing in the world you want to do. Because they're your troops, and you have to take care of them."
I always felt that doing it was cheating those who trust me. I felt that even smiling when I don't feel like smiling was a kind of cheat.
So, when the moment came to start thinking about going to the STICCON as every year since 1988, I felt that I could not cheat on my "troops", on my friends. On you!
So I told you that I didn't feel like going because it was a stress, the smallest of stresses, a stress that - especially now that I'm under treatment - I should endure easily. But a stress nonetheless because Alberto is not living the STICCON with me anymore.
And you started to feel sad. You didn't pushed me, you didn't forced me. You just begged me to allow you to make me enjoy your companionship.
And that's when I understood what Sisko meant.
There's nothing more important that you, my friends - my "troops" is all I have. Especially now that Alberto is not at my side. You are! And even if I think I don't feel like smiling, you will make me feel like smiling again. This is the trick! By taking care of my troops I will be taking care of myself.
Going to the STICCON may be the last thing in the world I want to do, but part of being a captain is knowing when to smile, to make the troops happy. Because you're my troops, and you will take care of me.
Here I come, STICCON!
Gabriella
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