Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Media


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Silvano Campeggi, a small gallery

Yesterday we lost Silvano Campeggi, aka Nano, one of the greatest movie poster artists to have graced the field.
Born in Florence in 1923, Campeggi created many iconic Hollywood posters – and a measure of his staggering production can be gleaned from the fact that sixty-four of the movies for which he created posters were nominated for Oscars.
It’s been calculated that all in all, Nano Campeggi created theposters for a total of 3000 movies.

What follows is a small gallery of his work.
He will be missed.


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Imaginary girls after one month

imaginary girls banner IGThe Imaginary Girls experiment has been going on for one month now, and I have published on my Instagram and on my Patreon five 100-words short-short stories associated with five photographs:

  • Livia
  • Cheryl
  • Michelle
  • Alice
  • Carol

The idea was to experiment with the format and do something a bit different with my Instagram, attracting a few new subscribers to my profile, and maybe to my Patreon.
The first month has turned out a 50/50 success: my Instagram (where you get the photos and the stories in English) saw a good increase in subscribers, while my Patreon (where you get the photos, the stories in both English and Italian and brief notes) basically did not cut it.

But a 50/50 success is more than I expected, and now that I have taken confidence with the format, I think I’ll be able to flex my genre muscles, and do a few science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller and assorted pulpish adventure shorts in the coming months.

If you are interested, please check out my Instagram profile.
Or my Patreon (hey, it’s worth a try, right?) – there is even a dedicated pledge level, called the Imaginary Girls Mezzanine.

And now, here is a gallery of the first five images, plus the publicity banners I created for the launch of the project.
Enjoy!


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The Lady Vanishes, 1938

My admiration for Margaret Lockwood is on record – a beautiful woman, an excellent actress, protagonist of at least three indispensable films.
One of these happens to be a film by Alfred Hitchcock, whose anniversary was a few days back. The movie is called The Lady Vanishes, and was shot in 1938, based on a novel by Ethel Lina White, called The Wheel Spins, and published in 1936.

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Orson Welles watched it, he said, eleven times, and Truffaut pointed it out as his favorite movie in Hitchcock’s opus.

11217And for some strange coincidence I have been browsing White’s novel these days – having acquired a few of her titles. White was beloved by screenwriters, and another of her thrillers was adapted into the classic The Spiral Staircase. Another, was the seminal “haunted wax museum” story. Today she is largely forgotten, but in the 30s she was considered on a par with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers as a thriller writer.
I’ve half a mind of doing a post on her books, because they intersect a number of interests of mine.

But for the moment, there’s a lot of good reasons for a post on the 1938 novie: Hitch’s anniversary, my love of Margaret Lockwood, my recent discovery of Ethel Lina White.
Let’s see…

Continue reading →


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Songs, with a bang, & Food, in context

I mentioned the course I am following about podcasts.
One of the added values of the course (that is excellent, BTW) is, I am exploring the podcast offer out there, and I have found two that I think my readers might be interested in.

Song_ExploderThe first is called Songs Exploded, and it’s a very simple idea: each program is a 15/20 minutes interview with a musician, about the bits and pieces that make up one of their songs… followed by the song itself.
You get established artists and indie artists, all stripes and colors and genres of music. It’s absolutely great, and if you are curious about how music works, how imagination and storytelling and technique mix into the final product, it’s absolutely perfect.

gastropodThe second is called Gastropod and is, get this, a podcast about history and food – and the history and science of food. Food is a huge component of any culture, and by looking at how a food – or a spice, or a recipe – developed, evolved and was intertwined with culture and historical events makes for fascinating listening.
This is an excellent find for history buffs and for writers – because you never know where a story idea can come from.

Both podcasts can be followed through iTunes or directly with your podcast client/podcatcher of choice.
I am using that old reliable, the VLC media player, and I am growing my personal “radio programme”.
Is there any podcast you are listening regularly and you’d like to suggest?
The comments are open.