Today is the 27th anniversary of Ava Gardner’s death.
One of the most beautiful women to grace the silver screen, she was a star in noir and historical movies, including the epic 55 Days in Peking, and in one of my guilty pleasures, Mogambo.
She also played Venus, in a perfect casting choice.
So here is a small gallery of pictures of Ava.
I’ve just enrolled in an Archaeoastronomy MOOC for the late-winter/early spring term.
I have a number of other MOOCs coming (the first starts tomorrow), but these are strictly professionally-oriented courses1.
The Archaeoastronomy thing is purely leisure oriented – but with an eye to my writing, and one to future Karavansara posts.
The fun thing is, the course is based in Milan, 80 kms from where I am sitting, and I am accessing its contents in English, through an international platform, from my home2.
Archaeoastronomy, for the uninitiated, is that branch of archaeology that studies the astronomical relations of ancient structures, like Stonehenge, Cheops’ Pyramid or the Nazca lines. Continue reading
Daniel Polansky’s The Builders has been one of the best fantasy stories I read in the last two years.
It was only natural that when Acheron Books gave me a gig as editor for Zenobia, their new line of science fiction and fantasy stories in translation, The Builders was one of the first three titles I put on my list.
I am now happy to share with you this press release
We are excited to announce the Italian publication of the fantasy novel THE BUILDERS, by Daniel Polansky, Hugo Award 2016 finalist. Coming soon for Acheron Books (Zenobia series, translated by Davide Mana – cover in progress by Alberto Besi)
While we wait for the Italian cover, here is the original…
… and now, back to translating.
Paolo Conte, a jazzman from the hills of Astigianistan and therefore a neighbor of mine, in a way, wrote a song about the lure of the sea on the staid Piedmontese farmers that live in these lands. A sea that speaks of distant places that are at the same time scary and exciting. It’s called Genova per noi, and it’s not the subject of this post.
The subject of this post is a typical example of the lure of the sea on the Piedmontese peasantry in years past and, maybe, also today.
Fact is, you see, I’ve got a job, part-time and occasional: I write articles about little-known Piedmontese historical characters. Unsung heroes, adventurers, artists and explorers, people that contradicted with their example the cliché that wants the Piedmontese to be cheerless, stubborn peasants too busy working on their land to lift their gaze and watch the stars.
Here’s the story of one of my first subjects… Continue reading
… and talking about reading matter, I just got my copy of Occult Detective Quarterly, Issue #1, edited by Sam Gafford and John Linwood Grant and all I can say is, what a wonder.
I backed the Kickstarter, and got my copy, and there’s my name in it. Great!
As you can imagine, the mag deals with occult detectives – and contrary to what some might expect, there are ample variety and diversity in the category: occult detectives come in all shapes and sizes, and Occult Detective Quarterly seems to be set to give its readers a fine sample. Continue reading
Just a very quick post to thank the 100 people that listened to Episode 0 of the KaravanCast during the week!
Two days ago I posted on my Italian-language blog a few stats, derived and reworked from Jess Nevin’s The Pulps about the incidence of spicy pulps and romance pulps on the overall pulp magazines market.
Because by reading certain books about the pulps, sometimes it feels like the pulp magazine rack was somehow dominated by Adventure, and The Argosy, and Weird tales. Black Mask vied for space against the Astounding, the Amazing and the Unknown.
And then, oh, yes, there was Spicy Mysteries too.
The numbers of different magazines per category tell a different story. Continue reading
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