Das Goebbels Experiment

"The Nazi propaganda mastermind behind Hitler speaks in first person as actor Kenneth Branagh reads pages of the diary kept by the chief of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, revealing the man's most inner thoughts."

Why Parallel Lives?

"I began the writing of my "Lives" for the sake of others, but I find that I am continuing the work and delighting in it now for my own sake also, using history as a mirror and endeavouring in a manner to fashion and adorn my life in conformity with the virtues therein depicted. For the result is like nothing else than daily living and associating together, when I receive and welcome each subject of my history in turn as my guest, so to speak, and observe carefully "how large he was and of what mien,"( As Priam admired Achilles, Iliad) and select from his career what is most important and most beautiful to know.

"And oh! what greater joy than this canst thou obtain,"

Sophocles

 

and more efficacious for moral improvement? Democritus says we ought to pray that we may be visited by phantoms which are propitious, and that from out the circumambient air such only may encounter us as are agreeable to our natures and good, rather than those which are perverse and bad, thereby intruding into philosophy a doctrine which is not true, and which leads astray into boundless superstitions. But in my own case, the study of history and the familiarity with it which my writing produces,enables me, since I always cherish in my soul the records of the noblest and most estimable characters, to repel and put far from me whatever base, malicious, or ignoble suggestion my enforced associations may intrude upon me, calmly and dispassionately turning my thoughts away from them to the fairest of my examples."

PLUTARCH "The Life of Aemilius" 

 

(Save the picture at your desktop and then click "Zoon In" to read a bio of Plutarch)

IANVA - Antica Fonografia il Levriero

"IANVA (pronounced "ya-noo-ah") was born as the meeting of a group of musicians with different backgrounds united by the common goal to give sense to forgotten words as “passion”, “boldness” and “dignity” and by the will to preserve those few own things of the Italian.

Many are the names involved in IANVA: Mercy e Francesco La Rosa – both already known for their work in Malombra, Il Segno Del Comando and Helden Rune, three cult Italian projects with strong roots in old school “dark sound” (in the ‘70s meaning of this term) atmospheres; Stefania T. D’Alterio, ex singer of Wagooba, a peculiar combo inspired by cinematic-rétro atmospheres with a touch of irony, and one of the very few Italian pens interested in weirdness and so called “apocalypse culture”; Argento and Azoth, members of Italian top black metal band Spite Extreme Wing (and their cult side project Antropofagus). Last but not least, classical trained musicians Fabio Gremo and Giuseppe Spanò (from prog-rock band Daedalus), Fabio Fabbri and Davide La Rosa, and last but not least the new entry Fabio Carfagna (already part of Malombra too) complete the roster.

These different paths, are just a little contribution to the IANVA project which is completely devoted to its concept and its musical Italian character, with wide influences form the very first excellent Italian new wave, to the Masters of the Pure Art of Film-score (as Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Armando Trovajoli, Franco Micalizzi, Stelvio Cipriani, Guido and Maurizio De Angelis…); keeping always in mind ideal protagonists as Scott Walker and Marc Almond and chansonniers as Fabrizio De Andrè, Piero Ciampi and Jacques Brel. A declaration of love to good old glittery nocturnal ballads of Britain’s most decadent glam tradition, and to those totem figures of Italian mainstream as Mina, Gabriella Ferri, Milly, Mia Martini, Milva, Dalida, Massimo Ranieri and Lucio Battisti.

The only concession to “actuality” is some attention to some of the best and most refined representatives of today’s folk noir scene WITH NO HIDDEN POLITICAL AGENDA (and far away from most of the pale so called neo-folk bandwagon), which enrich the peculiar mélange of this sound and concept, coming from the past, but cast in the future: ARCHEOFUTURIST..."

http://www.illevriero.it/ianva/index-e.asp