Trash in Lecco:
New Collection
And More Expensive Tax
Lecco like the USA:
the 24 hour store is coming
[To which I say: yay!]
Left: Hangs himself under the railway bridge at only 24 years because he’s gay. [Yes, it happens here, too, sadly.]
Colombo trial: Gilardi names Lecco’s leading citizens.
Right: Loan-sharking: Half of Lecco trembles
Crash on motorcycle: No hope for 20-year-old Lecchese
Mar, 2007 – (handwritten) Sunday [we’re] always open
[formal complaint to the police] – Too lively: the janitor insults and threatens the children
Writing and drawings defame the principal of Grassi high school
Mar, 2007 – Exhibitionist terrorizes [female] cyclists – denounced [formal complaint made to police]
Fines “Auxiliary [traffic police] [should be] more tolerant with the citizens”
Lecco, March 2007
Bread baker fired without reason – Now he’s full of debts
In Lecco a good 1,000 Alpini parade
Three climbers fall from the wall of the Medale and die
Girl raped near the Meridiana [local shopping center]
“They were absolved, but they are the murderers”
Raped in [town] center
The Sheikh in Lecco
The tragedy of San Martino [peak]: The truth in two nails [climbing pitons]
Post office: [office in] via Dante closes, but the ex-Piccolo [another location] does not open
Reader Stefano Tonti sent me this photo. The headline says “Doctor beaten with a shovel”. ata is a suffix you can add to many nouns to create a word meaning “an application of [noun]”. Badile = shovel or spade, so someone applied a shovel to this poor doctor (unfortunately, we didn’t buy the newspaper so we don’t know why). A more common construction is sassata, stoning – as in, throw rocks at – sasso = stone.
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April, 2007 – from left to right:
Usury [loan sharking]: half of Lecco trembles / Motorcycle crash – 20 year old Lecchese without hopes [of living – in fact, she died]
Abusive construction [i.e., without proper building permits] – the beach of the “Bear” [a local disco, Orsa Maggiore – Ursa Major] impounded
Old people, new center at Germanedo
ICI [property tax] and TARSU [some other tax] – The municipality on the hunt for tax evaders: wants to recover two million euros
Forza Italia [political party] at war for the presidency of the “twinnings” [?]
Falls while on motorcycle: grave [seriously hurt] girl of Lecco
The mayor: “We’re looking for the area for the new stadium.”
The case – ALER claims that Bodega [a former mayor] has the right to public housing at 28 euros a month
Soccer: The Lecco [team] goes to Biella with victory in its sights
| by Franco Battiato – This song seems to be largely nonsense, but when I first heard it, it occurred to me that the chorus expresses something many people feel – unfortunately. Though the song is by Battiato, who is shown in the video here, musically I much prefer the Neri per Caso cover. | |||
Centro di Gravita’ Permanente |
Permanent Center of Gravity |
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| Una vecchia bretone con un cappello e un ombrello | An old Breton [woman] with a hat and an umbrella | ||
| di carta di riso e canna di bambu` | of rice paper and bamboo cane | ||
| capitani coraggiosi | Captains courageous | ||
| furbi contrabbandieri macedoni | Clever Macedonian smugglers | ||
| gesuiti euclidei | Euclidean Jesuits | ||
| vestiti come dei bonzi per entrare a corte | Dressed like Buddhist monks to go to the court | ||
| degli imperatori della dinastia dei Ming. | of the Emperors of the Ming dynasty. | ||
| ritornello: | refrain: | ||
| Cerco un centro di gravita` permanente | I’m seeking a permanent center of gravity | ||
| che non mi faccia mai cambiare idea | That won’t make me ever change my mind | ||
| sulle cose sulla gente | About things, about people | ||
| avrei bisogno di… | I would need… | ||
| Over and over again. | [surely you don’t need me to translate this line!] | ||
| Per le strade di Pechino erano giorni di maggio | On the streets of Peking there were days of May | ||
| tra noi si scherzava a raccogliere ortiche | We joked among ourselves gathering nettles | ||
| non sopporto i cori russi la musica finto rock | I can’t stand Russian choruses, fake rock music, | ||
| la new wave italiana il free jazz punk inglese | the Italian New Wave, free jazz, English punk | ||
| neanche la nera africana. | nor even the black African. | ||
| (ritornello) | (refrain) | ||
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if you find this useful and want more, let me know!
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Don Silvestro needs wood to build an ark so he can save the inhabitants of the village. As it happens, Clementina’s father the Mayor is also a lumber dealer and has plenty of wood, but he refuses to believe that God has spoken to Don Silvestro and demands proof – a miracle, in fact.
Don Silvestro causes all the bells in the village to ring by simply pointing at them.
| Avete veduto, avete sentito, suono’ le campane col gesto di un dito. | You saw, you heard, he played the bells with the gesture of a finger. | ||
| Abbiamo veduto, abbiamo sentito, | We saw, we heard | ||
| suono’ le campane col gesto di un dito, | he played the bells with the gesture of a finger. | ||
| col gesto di un dito, col gesto di un dito, il gesto di un dito. | with the gesture of a finger… | ||
| din do do din don di di do do din don… | [bell sounds] | ||
| Don Silvestro: | |||
| Ma il campanaro non sono io il campanaro é Domine Iddio | But the bell-ringer isn’t me, the bell-ringer is Lord God | ||
| che vuole farvi sapere tramite mio | who wants to show you by way of me | ||
| ch’é proprio vero quel che vi dissi io. | that what I said is really true. | ||
| coro: | chorus [townspeople]: | ||
| Che meraviglia, che cosa strana din don dan do do din don dan | What a marvel, what a strange thing [bell sounds] | ||
| questo concerto per prete e campana din don dan do do din don dan | this concert for priest and bells | ||
| il Sindaco: | the Mayor: | ||
| Ma se tutto sto scampanamento piu’ che un miracolo | But what if all this ringing rather than a miracle | ||
| fosse uno stupido scherzo – di chi? – del vento; | was a stupid joke – by whom? – of the wind | ||
| ma se tutto questo mistero piu’ che un miracolo | What if all this mystery rather than a miracle | ||
| fosse una gabola fatta, inventata – da chi? – dal clero. | was a trick done, invente – by whom? – by the priest | ||
| coro: Riprova un po’, riprovaci un po’, fagli vedere se é miracolo o no. | chorus: Try again, try it again, show himn whether it’s a mircale or not | ||
| Che meraviglia, che cosa strana questo concerto per prete e campana; | What a marvel, what a strange thing this concert for priest and bells | ||
| che cosa stupenda che musica strana questo concerto suona cosi’ | What a stupendous thing, what strange music, this concert that sounds like this: | ||
| din don din dan din don din dan din don din do do din dan | [bell sounds] | ||
| Che gran solista sono io! | What a great soloist I am! |
In spite of this miraculous proof that Don Silvestro is in contact with God – and heavy pressure from his family and the villagers (in the song Buttalo Via – “throw it away, it’s no good to you now”) – the mayor refuses to give up his wood for the cause. He is eventually tricked by Don Silvestro (with some help from God) into believing that all his purchasers have cancelled their contracts for the wood.
Still smelling a rat somewhere, the mayor threatens to contact the authorities to have Don Silvestro arrested for fraud or declared insane. God has warned Don Silvestro that it is imperative that no one outside the village know of the impending flood. The villagers lock up the mayor to keep him from spreading the news.
next: Buttalo Via
