2009 November archive at eternallycool.net

Archive for November, 2009

Nov

Berlusconi Declared Rock Star of the Year!

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Advertising, Humor and Text & the City

Berlusconi-Rolling-Stone

This news is a few days old, so some eCoolers may have already seen it. This fab development in the ongoing rock opera that is the life of Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi is so good, however, that we want to make sure that no one misses it.

Inspired by the 73-year-old Berlusconi’s fast-paced lifestyle, Italy’s version of Rolling Stone named the prime minister “rock star of the year” and granted him a place on the magazine’s cover. The title was awarded by Rolling Stone’s employees who voted unanimously for the premier, finding Silvio’s lifestyle to be “worthy of the greatest rock star.”

The magazine’s editor, Carlo Antonelli, further elaborated on the choice, saying: “Rod Stewart, Brian Jones, Keith Richards in their prime were schoolboys compared to him” and noting that “this year the choice was unanimous, for his obvious merits due to a lifestyle for which the words ‘rock and roll’ fall short,” said Mr Antonelli in a statement.

We at the Compound extend our warmest congratulations to Mr. Berlusconi and we anticipate that the prime minster – who in September of this year declared “I sincerely believe I am by far the best prime minister Italy has had in its 150-year history” – will receive innumerable honors of equal if not greater prestige in the coming months.

Berlusconi-Rolling-Stone-2

Nov

Photo Wednesday: It’s Tuscany Time!

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Outside Rome, Photo Friday and Photography

Tuscany-Time

Like so many of you American eCoolers, we’re headed into the Thanksgiving holidays here at the Compound, preparing to stuff ourselves with turkey, cranberries, stuffing and other traditional items.

But, before we scoot our chairs up to the table, we wanted to touch base and let all of know that we’re still around and that we’re grateful for your patience amidst the past few weeks of eCool silence. After a couple years of regular posting, we found that we needed a bit of a break from the blog machine and so things we took one. We promise to make it up to you in the upcoming weeks and months.

We’ll start today with a fabulous photograph taken by our photostar Susan Sanders. The big wide road and the decidedly American car on it will make clear the fact that this is not Italy, but America. It’s Atlanta, in fact, where our intrepid shutterbug has recently been passing some time. Even an ocean away, however, Susan sees Italy everywhere, as in this lovely roadside clock indicating that it’s time to head to Tuscany.

For more photos by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View.

Nov

This Could Have Been an Ad for Sexy Lingerie

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Advertising and Food & Wine

FernetBrancaOutdoor

We think this ad for Fernet Branca, an Italian amaro or “bitter” made of herbs and spices, that is usually served as a digestif after a meal but may also be served with coffee and espresso or mixed into coffee and espresso drinks.

The text atop the bottle reads, “This could have been an ad for sexy lingerie, but we bought the space first.” Below the bottle, in smaller type, it says, “Life is Bitter.”

Here at the compound, we love amari or bitters, but recognize that they’re an acquired taste. In an article in the Atlantic Monthly, Wayne Curtis described the process of learning to enjoy these quintessentially Italian drinks:

Your first sip of Fernet Branca, an Italian liqueur, will be akin to waking up in a foreign country and finding a crowd of people arguing in agitated, thorny voices outside your hotel window. It’s an event that’s at once alarming and slightly thrilling, and leaves you wanting to know more.

You can read the rest of his article here, in which he details a visit to the Fernet Branca factory and describes the drink as “the taste of a time that’s long since passed us by.” Time is not passing by Fernet Branca’s ad executives, however, who seem to be keeping up with the times just fine.

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Copenhagen, Denmark
Copywriter: Mikkel Elung-Jensen
Art Director: Claus Collstrup

Nov

Aglio e Olio

By idcrome 1 Comment

Categories: Advertising and Food & Wine

Aglioween

We wish we’d seen these ad last week, but being still a bit in the Halloween spirit here at the Compound (and being generally charmed by the ads of Esselunga, an Italian supermarket chain, the advertising of which we’ve highlighted before) we thought we’d go ahead and drop these onto your screen despite the fact that Aglioween has already passed us by.

Esselunga’s ad designers showed a tendency to dress food up in funny costumes in 2008, the year that these sweet ‘n savories were released. Aglioween – an ad in which heads of garlic or aglio have donned witches hats – is just hilarious. And we love the American Gothic look of the aglio e olio or garlic and oil version below as well.

Agio-e-Olio

Nov

Calling All Angels

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Art & Design

Calling-All-Angles

In June of 2008, our favorite street artists, Sten, Lex & Lucamaleonte did up Via Nuoro with some Dante images that still make us smile. Though we haven’t ventured there lately ourselves, the infallible Wooster Collective posted more work by the same artists at Via Nuoro today and we had to share it immediately.

Wingless cherubs or putti seem to be tumbling out of the wall in this latest urban embellishment and it absolutely makes us swoon.

Nov

We Who Are About to Wiggle…

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Shopping

Bobble-Head-Gladiators

Over and over, we hear visitors to Rome complaining that there’s just nothing to buy in the Eterna that you can’t find elsewhere in the world as well. We’re mostly in agreement: increasing globalization means that the Italian standards, whether Barilla pasta, Fendi bags, or balsamic vinegar, are almost as widely available in the US, Canada, Japan, or Sweden as they are in Italy themselves.

So what to bring family and friends from Rome? You can make pilgrimages to tiny alimentari and to farms in out-of-the-way places hoping to find some divine food product produced only regionally and not distributed by way of cargo ships and 747s (such a task is not so difficult as it sounds). But, should you be looking for something else – an object that’s funny and playful and as likely to appeal to a kid as to a grown-up foodie – then we think we’ve found a fabulous solution!

There’s a little store on the last block of Via dei Serpenti, just before the street intersects with Via Cavour, where you can pick up a couple of bobble-headed gladiators and a bobbing Roman Emperor that will make almost anyone giggle. Various inhabitants of the eCool Compound have reason to walk by the store regularly and these swaying and nodding figures crack us up every time. We ourselves haven’t purchased yet, but we warned that we’re going to start hoarding these babies soon. Even better is the fact that they’re on sale: 1 goes for 15 euro while you can get 2 for 25 euro.