Monday, 8 September 2025
Friday, 7 March 2025
The Truffle Hunters
I thought this was a movie.
It started off super slow and it must jjave been a good twenty minutes into the film when I realised it was a documentary but done in a very unintrusive manner with long scenes where not too much happens.
It's about four truffle hunters in the North West, Piedmont region of Italy. It's just a handful of old men who still hunt for truffles. They know each other as their paths cross from time to time. One of them, Angelo refuses to hunt any more as it's too commercial, cut throat and dangerous. Competing truffle hunters leave poisoned bait to kill the truffle hunters dogs. Angelo is a poetic figure with a strong sense of principle due to his disillusionment with the greed and corruption that have infiltrated the trade. He is shown rejecting offers from dealers who try to coax him back into the field, emphasizing his resolve to leave that life behind. His decision is rooted in a desire to preserve the purity of the tradition against the encroaching commercialization and unethical practices
The other three guys are Carlo - An elderly truffle hunter in his 80s, who goes out at night with his dog to avoid detection. He is portrayed as somewhat reckless, ignoring his wife Maria Teresa's concerns about his safety due to his age and the risks of nighttime hunting. Aurelio - A 90-year-old truffle hunter who is deeply attached to his dog, Birba. He is a bachelor with no children and expresses a hope that someone will care for Birba after he’s gone, reflecting his solitary yet dedicated life in the truffle forests. Sergio - Another truffle hunter and the youngest of them in his mid sixties, who hunts with his dogs, Biri and Fiona. He is shown as methodical and protective of his tradecraft secrets and likes to play the drums on his patio when he's not working.
It's a bucolic documentary about a way of life that is, if not quite dying out due to the extraordinary prices the truffles can command, is lived by an aging workforce who have no incentive to give away their knowledge.
White truffles, like those in Piedmont, are rarer and harder to quantify than the black truffles — estimates suggest 10-20 tons annually, but much goes unreported due to cash transactions and tax evasion. At prices ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 per pound for white truffles (and up to $6,000 for exceptional specimens), Piedmont’s white truffle trade alone could be worth $20-60 million yearly, conservatively.
There was something very charming about this film and it reminded me of the Italians we would meet driving from Germany to Malta as a child. Authentic, deeply connected toi the land and proud of their heritage. The old couple Carlo and his wife Maria Theresa had a small wine production and garden vegetable harvests with canning of tomatoes and so forth.
Their lives are guided by the seasons and customs and the growing or fermenting calendar. We don't have that any more. I sort of remember it, but it was evaporating, even back then as a child.
The Truffle Hunters reminded me of it once again.
Sunday, 3 September 2023
Melvyn Bragg Interviews Gore Vidal - Southbank Show - 2008
It's a wonderful conversation although for me, there are two exceptional moments in this 2008 Southbank production. Baron Bragg says he saw the US President was in Africa on TV that morning but Gore Vidal interrupts his story.
'How can they tell?'
Lord Melvyn Bragg tries not to laugh louder and it's worth paying attention.
I'll come back to the second moment a little later.
As a little Torquemada?
— LAsky (@LAsky66) September 6, 2023
Took ages to find out the word I couldn't understand. I find listening very difficult in any language and generally respond to body language more than words. That's why podcasts are the best way of learning for me. Nothing to distract my eyes. In any case Gore Vidal is referring to Torquemada. A name I've never heard before.
What's striking is the comparison with Bobby Kennedy and saying it on camera. This is why Gore Vidal was a Greek among Romans. He said what he thought even if it took its toll, as he did with the Salzburgers who own the New York Times, now even worse and inarguably a propaganda rag. GV was an insider and knew the Kennedys so it's an exceptional piece of intel as we're now presented with RFK Jr who has done an excellent job on the Covid scamdemic only to declare his unfailing support for Zionism despite Ben Gurion's role as the highest authority (he reported to the next level up) for initiating JFK's and by extension RFK's assassination. To understand all that do a search on JFK + PERMINDEX then look at the correspondence between JFK and Ben Gurion on Dimona. JFK was adamant that Israel would have no nukes and that decision cost him his life.
Don't get me wrong. JFK upset everyone you could imagine (CIA, DoD and the FED etc) but the one thing nobody discusses is that he was bloodline and he chose to make the speech that went too far at the Waldorf Astoria which is Astor bloodline. They had to take him. He was doing everything he could to expose them.
Another gem that I picked up from Gore is that his blind Senator grandfather was 33 Degree Mason and that it's common in bloodline families for one child to be clued up and another to have no idea. They are 5th Dan black belts in secrecy and most people haven't a clue.
I'm going to use this space to share a little more of what this video confirmed for me but only those who bother to check back on this post will know. I have no intention of embarrassing anyone, but the above video confirms my hypothesis and that's a confirmation that is mostly for my indulgence. I hope the future looks upon In Our Time as a very classy effort at asking difficult questions to answer about their lies.
The credit goes to the man in the arena.
Tuesday, 27 September 2022
Giorgi Meloni - Italy's New Leader - Based & Red Pilled
Wednesday, 13 May 2020
The Godfather - Parts I, II and III
How magnificent is Sofia Coppola, in Godfather III?
Very, is the answer.
There's a kind of circularity, in so much as in one scene, she takes the camera, while being directed by her father, Francis Ford Coppola, only to end up having an extraordinary female director's success in her later career.
Part III lacks the texture and richness of Part 1 and 2, but what it lacks in slow, moody and baroque-lit scenes, is compensated by more excellent Sicilian and Vatican film locations. For some reason, the critics panned her performance, but this is clearly a case of ignorance or envy. Mary Corleone, played by Sofia is spelling binding.
I'd probably have to watch this triptych again to scrape away at some of the more resonant topics visited in this excellent set of movies.
Update: Happy Birthday Sofia.
What a coincidence or should I say synchronicity?
Sunday, 29 March 2020
The Irishman - 2019
Saturday, 15 July 2017
A Bigger Splash
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Gomorrah
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Beppe Grillo, Gianroberto Casaleggio & Italy's Five Star Movement
Wow. I've been so jaded with politics, that I completely took my eye off the ball and missed the Italian elections. Earlier today I had a conversation with someone I respect politically and learned that the new superstar party in Italy might not be so cool with immigration issues which is the hot potato issue that the power elite want to divide Western Democracy with.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Put 'Em Up Captain (He's So Good Looking)
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
New Electrics - The Magic Of Mr Rossi & Death Of Thermodynamics
This is self evident if you think this through from a logical progression perspective instead of the brief anomaly of history called brands that lasted less than the duration of wig wearing.