A quote from Forrest Gump. My soundtrack for this:
Love Is the Answer (England Dan & John Ford Coley, 1979)

Above: Nights are Forever (1976), LP cover.
Picture released by Dan Coulter under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license.

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17 years old.
39 songs in three minutes played with a Novation Launchpad.
3,5 million views, and counting.
This boy rules.

Madeon. Electronica/House/Pop. Listen: Pop Culture, For You, Shuriken and DJ.

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“You look aroused
You look awake
You are the light
Turned on”

Tom Vek. Alternative rock. See and listen: Aroused (from Leisure Seizure, 2011).

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“Despair has never sounded so sweet”

Loney Dear. Indie/pop. Listen: Ignorant Boy, Beautiful Girl (from Citadel Band, 2004).

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“Not bad for two chords.”

Little Red, or “The Beach Boys meets The Strokes”. Indie/Pop/Rock.
See and listen: Rock it.

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Don’t teach children
don’t teach them your morality
It’s so tired and sick
might hurt
Maybe it’s a serious imprudence
leave them at the mercy of a false consciousness.

Ring around the rosey,
the world changes.

Giorgio Gaber: Non insegnate ai bambini (Don’t teach children, 2003)

Lyrics in Italian; requires Flash Player

“You always have the option to change the road you travel every day
Even if the road is the same you can see different things
Isn’t this enough to live?
Or rather, may not be enough?”

The Sky Crawlers (Sukai Kurora, 2008) “is set in an alternate history where, although the world is at peace, in order to ease the tension of a populace accustomed to war and aggression, private corporations contract fighter pilots to stage combat operations against each other for show.”.

Music by Kenji Kawai. Listen: Main Theme (ending).

Above: screenshot from the official trailer, detail.

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If you hear it, at some point you see it
(no hidden sounds).”.

Pomplamoose. Indie.
Listen and see: Jungle Animal and September.

Above: Nataly Dawn in Telephone (from: Tribute to Famous People), detail.

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(Matteo Caccia)

I break an unwritten rule, presenting something in Italian. It’s worth it.

Vendo Tutto (Everything for Sale): a radio program written and hosted by Matteo Caccia on Radio 24.

You can listen the podcast and the archive of the previous episodes. The sale, real, was on Ebay.
The signature tune is: Ten Millions Slaves by Otis Taylor.

Above: Matteo Caccia, photo from his page on Ebay, detail.

Here, the English summary of: L’orologio da parete (The wall clock, © Il Sole 24 Ore)

The wall clock

“The first time I went to dinner with Giulia’s parents was a very awkward evening.

They had both graduated in philosophy and were both teachers.
They inherited a fortune and never touched a penny of it.
From the little Giulia had told me, I realized that in their youth they had been a couple of hippies.

One Tuesday, Giulia said it was her mother’s birthday and it was about time we met.
I hadn’t done anything all day other than wait for that single most important of events: the Champions League match between Valencia and Inter Milan.

Giulia had to repeat herself three times for her words to sink in.
The third time wasn’t exactly in the politest of terms.
I tried to find an excuse, and found none.

So I got up, pulled on a jumper, a pair of jeans, my old pair of Nike trainers and shouted:
“Let’s go!”

Giulia gave me that look only she could master, and said:
“No way are you going dressed like that.”

She cursed my ex-girlfriends and chose instead a light-blue shirt, a dark blue pair of trousers and a velvet jacket.
I had to admit, I didn’t look half bad.

Giulia’s mother exuded radiance. She was clearly one of life’s enthusiasts.
I gave her my wishes and she said Giulia never told her anything, she knew precisely nothing about me other than that I worked in the world of cinema.
She then took me by the arm and said:
“Come, I’ll introduce you to the cook.”

We went into the kitchen; and I was about to graciously greet the father of the woman I loved when the guy turned round and, stood in front of me, was a dark-skinned man of indeterminate age.

The various possibilities whirled round my mind: a second husband, a white daughter born of a mixed marriage, a lover. She then said:
“This is Anaoura, he’s from Sri Lanka and a fabulous cook.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, partly because now I understood his role, but also because I noticed Anaoura had the television on and tuned in to the match.

In the dining room, I finally met Giulia’s father.
Unlike her mother, he did everything in his power to make me feel ill at ease.
I tried to ignore him, though I had the feeling that, somehow, he was taking the mick.

The dinner was agony though Anaoura’s food was delicious.

While Giulia’s mother was telling us how she yearned to take a course in drama, I excused myself to go to the bathroom; I stood up and as soon as I was round the corner, I made a beeline for the kitchen. Anaoura was watching the screen with his mouth hanging open.

I went in and asked:
“Inter?”
He shook his head and said:
“They’re out.”

Back at the table, Giulia was on her feet and bidding her father farewell.
He then did the oddest of things. He faced the wall and took down the clock. He turned round and handed it to me. For a moment, time stood still. I wasn’t sure if this was a joke, or what. He held the clock out at arm’s length, saying:
“Take it, Matteo. This is yours now.”

In the car, I didn’t trust myself to speak, but a question kept going round and round my mind: what the hell was the meaning of that clock?”

The National. Indie/Rock/Alternative.

See and listen: Bloodbuzz Ohio.
From High Violet, released on May 11, 2010.

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