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Aug

Photo Sunday: Spell Check

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Humor, On the Street, Photo Friday and Photography

Be Responsable Truck

In Rome, things move a bit more slowly in August. It’s hot; almost everyone is out of town; stores and restaurants are closed; only a fraction of the usual buses and taxis are on the street. In short, there’s just no reason to hurry.

The lazy slowness of August is exactly and precisely the reason that we’re a bit late with our Photo Friday post this week–though our tardiness makes Susan Sanders’ shot no less humorous. She snapped this photo of a Bernabei van in Piazza del Popolo. Bernabei is one of Rome’s major distributors of alcohol, so we’re betting that the van’s exterior embellishment is meant to encourage those who imbibe to consider their actions carefully while under the influence.

The icons on the van suggest that such activities as littering, painting on walls, sleeping in piazzas, and talking loudly should be avoided. We agree. We’d also go so far as to suggest that one’s spelling should always be checked–even in cases of extreme inebriation.

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

Jul

Fiddling While Rome Burns

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Advertising, Humor and Past & Present

Oxfam Photo for the G-8

There are lots of clever protests and attention-getting antics going on in Rome ahead of tomorrow’s G-8 meeting. Polar bears took to the streets yesterday, rightfully protesting the loss of their homeland to global warming.

Oxfam, a group of non-governmental organizations from three continents working worldwide to fight poverty and injustice, chose another tactic, staging a stunt photo in the Circus Maximus.

Oxfam G-8 Protest in Rome

In this mise en scène, bobble-headed G8 leaders lye on a triclinium, eating grapes and reciting ancient poems accompanied by a cithera, whilst huge flames destroy Rome. The message? The eight leaders of the most powerful countries are, like Emperor Nero, ignoring the flaming crisis engulfing the world around them.

Sweet dreams are made of this.

Not surprisingly, Bono is getting into the action too. Yesterday he published a love letter to Italy in La Stampa, in which he pleaded for the Berlusconi-led G8 to fulfill its obligations to the world’s poorest people.

Oxfam G-8 Protest in Rome

Photos by Oxfam its partner UCODEP are posted on Flickr.

Jun

A Thong for a Song…and Some Teeth to Go Along

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Everything Else and Humor

Thong & Teeth Vending Machines in Italy

Here at the eCool Compound we are grateful for each and every one of our readers. We light candles in honor of the eCooling crowd each time we go into a church and we spend lots of time thinking about and discussing what might humor and amaze you.

That said, we must acknowledge the fact that there’s a particular class of eCooler that amazes and astounds us. They’re the readers that have reached a stratosphere of Roman cool that we can only hope to achieve. Leading that pack is today’s honorary Compound Citizen, Jennifer, who sent us these amazing photos of a pair of vending machines that she spotted in an out-of-the-way town in Umbria.

That on the left, as you have no doubt discovered, sells 14 different kinds of funny teeth. There’s the “Worms” variety, the “Bugs” variety, the “Candy Corn” variety, and the “Cave Man” variety, just to name a few. They cost only 1 euro and interested parties are encouraged to “Collect All 14!”

Don’t need any fake teeth with which to gross out your friends and chew on your enemies? Maybe you’re not looking for disgusting dentures as you stroll down the street but instead are wishing that you had a fresh pair of underwear – a nice new thong that really showcased the effect of all those lunges you’ve been doing in the gym? Then it’s your lucky day as there’s a vending machine selling those too, right next to the terrible teeth machine! Honorary Compound Citizen Jennifer notes, however, that those thongs are getting expensive, as we spotted our own thong machine in a different town some years ago, when that oh-so-necessary accessory cost only 1 euro. Seems that they’ve gone up to 2 euro in the meantime (other details below).

This is the just the kind of wacky juxtaposition of which our dreams are made. We live for this stuff! A million thanks to Jennifer for sending this our way (BTW, Jennifer has sent us some fine things in the past too. Take a look at this advertising riff on the Belvedere Torso that she discovered a while back.)

Thong Vending Machine in Italy

May

Do You Smell That?

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Art & Design, Humor and On the Street

David Holding His Nose

On one of our many recent public transporation odysseys, members of the eCool team found themselves strolling down Via Cavour. It’s not the thoroughfare one would choose for an evening walkabout given the traffic, the fume-filled air, and the endless string of cheap tourist eateries. The experience proved rewarding nonetheless when we found ourselves face to face with an advertisement we’d seen some five years ago but failed to photograph — a failure that had left a regrettable hole in our encyclopedic collection of works of art used as advertising.

There, on the back of a bus stop sign was the much-longed for ad. Other posters that had been layered upon it over the years, served to preserve it (isn’t that so archaeological?) but have now had peeled away, leaving us with an image of Michelangelo’s David holding his nose and a clean-up-the-city tagline that reads, “You could cut the air with a knife in Italy’s cities.”

A survey around the eCool Compound suggests that things haven’t improved much since this version of the David first appeared in Italian cities some years ago — a fact suggested by the pollution-grey of the sky behind the sign.

Want more David? There’s a David made of Legos and Fat David as well as a photograph of David as homeland security.

May

Give them Bread & Circuses….and Beer

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Historic Sites, Humor and Sports

Heineken Colosseum in Rome's Termini Train Station

Sporty eCoolers will remember that on 27 May, the UEFA Champions League Final will be held in Rome (the rest of you may need to refer to your Cliffs Notes to discover that the UEFA is the Union of European Football Associations and that the game will decide which club is champion of the European league).

A few weeks there was hot discussion about whether or not soccer fields should be set up around the Colosseum in celebration of this event. We’ll admit that we didn’t follow the discussion that closely and thought that the idea had been vetoed by various superintendents of archaeology and culture ministers — that is, until this weekend, when we began to see elegant little banners flapping on Rome’s bridges with images of the classical-urn-shaped trophy and an announcement that there would be some sort of soccer celebration in the valley of the Colosseum in upcoming days.

Around town there are other indications of just how eagerly Romans (and sponsoring corporations) are anticipating this event. Heienken, always a big advertiser in the Eterna, has really gone all out. They’ve built a Colosseum out of beer bottles in the Termini train station. The base on which the monument stands is “inscribed” with the date of the game in Roman numerals: XXVII. V. MMIX and the motto “History is made in Rome.”

Colosseum built of Heineken beer bottles in Rome's Termini Train station

May

Comics Are Art. Just Funnier.

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Advertising and Humor

Museum of Comics, Ancona

We just saw these fabulous ads for the Comics Museum in Lucca on Ads of the World and we had to share them with you. The tagline on all three is “Comics are art. Just funnier,” and to illustrate the principle they’ve taken three masterpieces of art and made a comic strip of them.

We’re still giggling about cartoon called “The Shot” that’s a play on Mantegna’s Saint Sebastian (above). The comic strips begins with the poor pierced saint tied to a pagan column. To make matters worse for this early Christian martyr, a hand reaches over and places an apple on his head, making him the human target for some not-so-skilled archers who riddle his body with arrows.

Jacques-Louis David must be laughing in his grave at the Comic Museums’ version of The Death of Marat. The comic is titled “The Bill” (below) and begins with Marat in his bathtub while a hand reaches in from the right and with a just-written bill. In the center panel, a close-up shows us that the bill is for room service and that the total is exhorbitant. It’s the shock of that sum that causes the death of Marat in the last panel.

Museum of Comics in Lucca

And then there’s “The Waking Up” (below), a play on Mantegna’s Dead Christ. Christ, brilliantly foreshortened, lays in bed with a clock ticking beside him. At 7:00, the alarm goes off and we see a close-up of Christ’s hand as he reaches over to push the snooze button. In the final panel, we’re looking at Mantegna’s original painting and we see Christ slumbering for a few more moments before the alarm clock resurrects him again.

We don’t know much about the Museum of Comics in Lucca — called the Museo Nazionale del Fumetto e del Imagine — but we love these ads.

Advertising Agency: JWT Italia, Milan, Italy
Executive Creative Director: Pietro Maestri
Art Directors: Cristiana Boccassini, Flavio Mainoli
Copywriters: Bruno Bertelli, Paolo Cesano
Illustrator: Manlio Truscia

Museum of Comics, Lucca

Apr

Games in Honor of Rome’s 2762nd Birthday!

By idcrome 1 Comment

Categories: Historic Sites, Humor, Past & Present and Sports

Chariot Bike Race in Honor of Rome's 2762nd Birthday

A bit later this week, on the 21st April, Rome will celebrate its 2762nd birthday–she’s looking good for her age, wouldn’t you say?

In honor of this big event, a long series of concerts, historic reenactments, speeches, and inaugurations began today and will continue through Tuesday.

Chariot Bike Race in the Circus Maximus

The fesivities were scheduled to kick off this morning at 10:00am with the traditional parade staged by the historic reenactment organization called the Gruppo Storico Romano. Rain made the parade a bit less impressive and less photogenic than those of other years, so if you’re interested, we suggest you click over and take a look at our 2008 photos of the birthday celebration.

The rain did hold off long enough, however, to allow the for a “chariot race” in the Circus Maximus–a new event devised to honor the Eterna.

Chariot Bike Races in Rome's circus Maximus

A patriotic group of bikers sporting giallo e rosso (yellow and red) athletic gear cleverly transformed their bicycles into race horses that pulled bigas, or two-wheeled chariots, manned by enthusiastic charioteers. While ancient Roman chariot teams were divided by color into the greens, the blues, the whites, and the yellows, these modern day Ben-Hurs formed two teams distinguished by their headgear–the helmet heads and the brush heads. Eager for a bit of Sunday-morning competition, they lined up at one end of the Circus and at the signal, the race for glory and fame began!

Each horse and chariot were required to complete three turns around the spina or central spine of the circus. Just as in antiquity, things got a little hairy on the tight turn opposite the starting line. Ancient sources suggest that seating in that area of the circus was desirable, as one of the attractions of the chariot races were the “shipwrecks” or crashes that occurred when chariots took the tight turn at a high speed.

Down the Back Stretch in the Bike Chariot Race in the Circus Maximus

Though the highly trained horses and charioteers of today’s race managed to navigate the turn without any crashes, spectators were still pleased as the terrain is rough at that end of the Circus Maximus and thus it gave the racing teams an opportunity to exhibit their superior skills.

At the finish, a helmet-head (no doubt aided by the aerodynamic design of his headgear) nosed ahead of the leading brush-head chariot, taking the prize!

Stay tuned! We’ll be covering more of the birthday festivities in coming days! And, we’re wondering if anyone out there has a She-Wolf cake pan we can borrow?

Chariot Bike Races in Rome's Circus Maximus

Apr

Dante Twitters His Way to Paradise

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Everything Else and Humor

A few days ago we gave a shout-out to Julius Caesar, who’s Twittering his way across the Roman Empire. Thus, upon receiving the news that Dante’s at it too, we felt it necessary to provide equal time and space to the famed medieval meanderer.

Mr. Epic Poem is sharing some great stuff (but no spoilers here) and we wonder if Twitter is the new Spark Notes for the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso?

If so, it’s definitely got a rival in Facebook, where Vergil’s hard at work summing up The Aeneid in status reports and super pokes.

Apr

Julius Caesar on Twitter

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Humor and Ides of March

Most of us here at the eCool Compound have been trying to keep our OCD tendencies far, far from Twitter. It’s not really so hard for us to imagine a complete breakdown of our social and professional lives, as we succumb to the temptation of monitoring every single Twitter posted by our dearly beloveds.

Our resolve held firm…until today…when one of us awoke to the news that even Julius Caesar is twittering. If you want a piece of that action O friends, Romans, and countrymen, just click here.

Thanks to Quid Plura for letting us know about Caesar’s latest publicity stunt.

Mar

Getting at the Truth

By idcrome 1 Comment

Categories: Humor and Past & Present

Bocca della Verita Palm-Reading Machine

Always on the lookout for super-cool Roman stuff to share with our readers (especially those kinds of things you can enjoy at home–no matter where that may be), the eCool team was particularly thrilled to stumble upon this Bocca della Verita palm reading machine. Nothing livens up a toga party like your very own Mouth of Truth!

It seems that such magical truth-telling machines have been manufacutured in Italy by DPS-Promatic since 1987. The company boasts, however, that their newest model, released in January of this year and seen above, is the best ever!

Made of fiberglass, the machines stands about 3.5 feet tall and can be installed indoors or outdoors. Once plugged in, it attracts customers by speaking in a deep voice, thereby enticing people to put their hand in its mouth, to slip a coin in the slot, and then to wait a second or two while the “mouth of truth” reads their palm. After 30 seconds or so of careful thought, the Bocca della Verita tells all, spitting out a sheet printed with the customer’s reading.

A sample reading on the DPS-Promatic website suggests that the Bocca della Verita doesn’t mince words and cares little for your feelings (it is the mouth of truth, after all):

You sometimes can’t enjoy close personal relationships.

You indulge to luxury and showy extravagant things.

You are not suspicious or over-cautious.

You tend to be unfaithful and are sometimes incapable of loyalty or constancy.

You risk becoming easy prey to jealousy and possessiveness where your partner is concerned.

Your capricious and inconstant nature will make it difficult for you to get on

If that reading is representative of those spit out by this machine, we wonder if you might be better off throwing your coins in the Trevi Fountain!

For more from eCool on the Bocca della Verita, click here.