Naples
Miscellany 3 (late-June, 2007) Links
to
all Naples Miscellany pages:
 —Some benevolent
organization named Napoli Subway
Letteratura has returned for its fourth edition of Juke-Box Letterario, distributing
free
booklets (average about 16-20 pages) of short stories and essays by
young Neapolitan authors. The small-format staple-bound booklets sit in
racks at most metro and cable-car stops; they are gobbled up almost
immediately by the waiting masses. Similar projects in Rome, Milan,
Palermo and
Venice have met with success.—One of the worst eye-sores in the city for the last 20 years has been the burned-out shell of the Jai Lai stadium in Fuori Grotta. It burned down in 1986 under mysterious circumstances ("Say, who was that masked man with the Molotov cocktail?") and since then has been sitting there. If you thought the national ball sport of the noble Basques was pretty much useless in Naples—well, they tell me that people used to go to bet on the games—the latest spin on "useless" is the plan that calls for the renovation and conversion of the premises to an ice-skating rink! Work was supposed to start nine months ago, but according to a local paper, "the workers didn't show up." (That's fearless investigative journalism for you! Why not just say that if the Mob doesn't want you to play Basque-t Ball, why would they possibly want you to ice-skate? A flabby populace is a vulnerable populace.) There is opposition to the plan from quarters that see the premises as more socially relevant in the guise, perhaps, of a center for activities for youth or the elderly. So, who says that kids and old people might not enjoy some time on the ice? [Also see Two Things that are Gone.] —A totally modern 550-bed hospital—one of the largest in Italy—is under construction in Ponticelli, an eastern suburb of Naples. The so-called Ospedale del Mare ("hospital of the sea") was planned by local architect, Pasquale Manduca and will be "earthquake proof." It had better be, say critics of the plan, for the premises are right on the edge of the "red zone," the area near Mt. Vesuvius that civil defence planners have to evacuate in case the scourge of Pompei and Herculaneum decides to erupt again. In any event, completion of the hospital is optimistically set for 2008.  —The oldest basilca in
Naples, the church of Santa Maria
Maggiore (photo, right) was ceremoniously reopened
this month with a concert by the "Ensemble
vocale
di
Napoli." The reopening of ancient churches in the
city—if
only as centers of historical and
cultural focus—is dear to the
heart of a number of organizations in the city, including the Portosalvo Committee, named for
one such church of extreme interest and
in a state of extreme disrepair. —Some (Jason Lanier)
call it "digital Mao-ism" and some call it Whitmanesque faith in the
ultimate wisdom of the people. I call it "Wackipedia." Those familiar
with the anyone-can-edit on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia, know that the
articles range from world-class scholarship to rabid teenagers writing
about their favorite garage bands (usually their own). The Italian
Wikpedia article on Antonio Bassolino (photo, right) former mayor of
Naples and
current president of the Campania region of Italy is very short, no
doubt due to the tendency of partisan know-it-alls and party hacks to
delete sections that they don't agree with (a technique, you will
recall, much favored by
the late Josef Goebbels). The discussion behind the
article is much more interesting than the article itself because that's
where they shouting matches take place. The Wikimeisters have had to
block the article from further editing. Links
to
all Naples Miscellany pages:
to main index to portal for miscellaneous |