It’s Ferragosto (feriae Augusti) time again! The day of the year established by our emperor Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus Augustus to rest! And this is even the day to celebrate Summer. And Summer is bikini time too! As in previous years something on this topic, just like my Blood Bowl team painted by Filippo Simoncini…

And more. A clip from a great Japanese film about girls and machine-guns:

Buon Ferragosto! : )

Some news about anime world: old ideas but good things that never fades away.

After the new tv series:

After the live action film:

Now the new anime film:

Some important news that I want to share about my all time favourite Japan anime/manga series: Gundam, Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell. And about a big lizard.

We are arrived to the 35° anniversary of the first Gundam transmission on television. Among other celebrations and anime, the greater news is a new anime series divided in four parts about the years before the events of the first series. It is called Origin and it is adapted from the manga of the same name.

It was a long time that we don’t hear news about this great series. Now they have thought to propose a live action version. It is a retelling of the same story with real actors but they changed uniforms look and something. 13 episodes on television and a film in 2015.

It is ongoing the new Ghost in the Shell series called Arise. It is composed by four parts and two of them are released as it is. It focuses on early years of the Section 9, its creation. And the Fuchikomas/Takikomas have got a new primitive look and colour: red.

And now something always from the Japan but this time produced by USA. A little different than the crap made by Emmerich…

All things that I will watch in the following months and years…

I’m thinking to the next Lucca Comics & Games. Yes, it is for the 1st of November but I have to prepare something to show to the audience. I haven’t got Zen Garden boxes anymore because I stopped their production. Maybe a new release in cardboard? Well, I wish newer things to old ones so I don’t think to give new life to the garden. This year I must complete my gladiatorial rules, so I haven’t so much time to develop another set of rules. Neither a fill-in. I have a great idea and I have started to work on this new project, but now it’s not the right moment. I hope my long awaited Ferrum et Gloria will be ready for November. Yeah, I know that I’m saying this thing year after year… So what to do? A playable and simplified demo? Playing with bigger figures? Propose a larger table with special effects? However I and Andrea have to think to what will be ready at that date for Ganesha Games so we can focus our efforts on some presentation. In the meantime the old Lucca C&G 2013 strike back. I found this official video on our Miniature Island. Sad thing: I and my table is not on it! However you have a general view of our space and Andrea is on it. Enjoy.

The 18th of the last month we met at Sergio’s house to play a “big battle” with Drums & Shakos Large Battle. Four people versus four people, French versus Russian on a large 300×180 table. Armies were divided in three sub-armies with three players and another player was the commander in chief. People from Arezzo took Russian, Sergio and Romans took French. Sergio is thinking about some definitive rules to administrate these big battles. He will publish them soon or after.

French troops toward the battle.

Russian march column towards glory.

The centre of the fight. Coloured cubes are troops fatigue.

To have a detailed explanation of the various phases of the battle go to the Sergio’s blog. Under a photo-video of the battle made by the winners, the Russian.

They started almost at 10 and finished in mid afternoon. With a pizza lunch in the middle. While these brave men from two opposite empires dying, in another room, I and Andrea tested something for the 2016…

While I’m packing my miniatures for the next event, the DBA tournament in Terni, I wish to let you know about something of Lucca convention. Well, we were more that 200000 people… I still need some sleep, I have a lot of work to do, so I will publish photos and reports as soon as possible to me. In the meantime a video overview from Lucca C&G official channel.

Today is Ferragosto time again! This day is dedicated to holidays at sea and pig out with really heavy food, sometimes dangerously deadly for the extreme temperatures of the day.

Bikini is the dress for girls during these days. And I have to confess that I saw the last Star Trek film only after I saw this picture. I don’t mind about pointed ears, this is better. The right advertising campaign, I believe.

Always on the girl dressing, I wish to speak about female armour. How we know it from comics and films it is obviously useless. But crucial if they want to have a male public who read comics and watch films. Yes, these female armours are unreal, but even females that wield a sword is an inconceivable thing. Please, turn off your political correctness and enjoy the spectacle.
And now a fun video about the protective capabilities of a female armour!

For a more deep debate on this topic go here.

Before my current lead addiction I spend my days following my local hardcore punk community. This is true especially for the years 1988-1995. Before them I was a metal-head but of black and thrash fringe. As my most relevant activities of that period, I realised a couple of fanzines, was a regular writer for a magazine, and helped with a record label. Nowadays I still hear a lot of music: hardcore punk, oi!, black metal and power electronics. I was very involved with hardcore music. Well, it is more than music, it was my life, because hardcore is not a form of music but an aptitude. A young movement, but a strong one. You cannot understand it if you are used to mainstream music, it is a matter of live in a unconventional way hearing unconventional music. And “music” is not the right word, “noise” is better, because it is the sound of rage.

A couple of years ago, a young veteran of my local community (when I was around he was just an adolescent) thought to film a documentary on that world, realising various interviews with crucial people from Roma hardcore community of that years, with a focus on the 1989-1999 period. After a lot of time he edited the material and now it is a film.

I went to a modern art museum (!!!) to see this documentary, screened for two months during an art exhibition. It is weird to go to a museum to see a piece of your life! And it is an institutional art museum, as if my life and that of my mates were involved in some art project. I wasn’t interviewed but I hoped that some part of me or my work was present in the pit (the name of the place below the stage) among other faces. Nothing, I wasn’t there. Pity! I saw only some group photos that I took: I was the “official photographer” of the community, so I was always behind the objective! Those photos were in the official catalogue of the show too, obviously without my name. This is the sad way of the photographer…

This documentary is not for commerce. I didn’t repeat this nostalgia moment with another screening session. But I wish to buy a copy to search better my face among the crowd…

More informations about the film on the website www.rmhc-film.com.

Then a photographic book was edited about these years in the left fringe of the Roman skinhead community. This time I can find myself in the pit. But only by shoulder and a little of my face. However maybe it was the last live gig that I saw, a couple of years ago. Time flies.