ERC Advanced Grant 2010 presented

I was recently involved in the presentation of an ERC Advanced Grant. The list of currently open calls are published by the European Research Council official website, here.

The project aims at realizing a wide and exhaustive study on the Mycenaean culture diffusion within the Eastern Mediterranean basin in the Late II Millennium B.C. with the support of a proper cross-medial research, in order to build up a user friendly macro DataBase of the whole archaeological evidences coming from the wide area of interest.

Principal investigator of the proposed grant is Anna Margherita Jasink. Her research activity addressed a variety of topics in continuous evolution with time, with a distinct interdisciplinary approach. In fact her field research has been concerned with both philological and historical themes connected to the Ancient Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean/Near Eastern civilisations.

The following investigators are the other members of the team:

• Prof. Stefania Mazzoni, professor of Archaeology ad Arts History of Near-Eastern civilisations in the University of Florence. With her expertise in Levantine world she will be in charge of coordinating the aspects concerning the presence of Mycenaeans in Syro-Palestinian area and in Anatolia;
• Prof. Gloria Rosati, Prof. of Egyptology in the University of Florence.  With her expertise in Egyptian world she will be in charge of coordinating the aspects concerning the presence of Mycenaeans in Egypt;
• Prof. Giampaolo Graziadio, Prof. of Aegean civilisations in the University of Pisa. With his expertise in Mycenaean and Cypriote civilisations he will be in charge of coordinating the aspects concerning from one side the presence of Mycenaeans in Cyprus and from the other the role of Cyprus as an intermediary between Mycenaeans and the near-eastern countries;
• Dr. Luca Bombardieri, postdoc researcher in the University of Florence. With his expertise in field archaeology in Cyprus and Syria he will be in charge of coordinating the problematic question of the indirect contacts between the Mycenaean world and far away countries like Mesopotamia and Jordan.
• Eng. Thomas Alisi, postdoc consultant for the University of Florence. With his expertise in the field of interactive media environments and semantic web he will be in charge of the design of the overall software architecture, the definition of interaction models, coordination of the development team and delivery of project demonstrators.

The time frame has a schedule for delivering the first results in August, fingers crossed.

The National, Electric Ballroom

Electric Ballroom è una piccola venue accanto alla tube di Camden, sono andato insieme a Maud per la prima volta a vedere i Silver Mt. Zion, il posto mi aveva subito affascinato per la sua sudata calca intima e dell'apertura ufficiale del tour High Violet avevo una grande aspettativa. Il disco, non si potrebbe dire, l'avevo ascoltato qualche volta, sufficiente per percepire l'atmosfera, ma non abbastanza per avere i pezzi in mente, ad eccezione della prima traccia, maledettamente affascinante e identica ad ogni altro pezzo dei National del quale non si può fare a meno.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUhpzyun8SE]

Fatto sta che il concerto scorre via come il precedente che avevo visto a Minehead, per un ATP di quel che sembra un milione di anni fa: si alternano lacrime di estasi commossa, risate da adolescente, brevi momenti di noia subito smentiti dal crescendo coinvolgente.

E poi il bis.

A chi non c'era posso solamente dire che mi ricorderò per sempre della incredulità del bouncer, che perplesso ci chiede se quanto sta accadendo sia normale. Dei metri di cavo del microfono buttati in mezzo al pubblico, per poi scendere nel mezzo ad abbracciarlo. Delle parole gridate "I'm a human being". Di essere là accanto a cantare con tutto l'Electric Ballroom davanti "It’s a terrible love and I’m walking with spiders"...

A new home

As I moved to London I decided that my old home had to close since it did not represent me anymore. It still exists, and you can find my archive here but, you know, being a great fan of ATP, I can't stop thinking of these few words: don't look back.
I have a new mac, a new flat, a brand new national insurance number, a new passion in programming android applications for mobile, and a good ol' addiction for gigs, good wines and joy for life. So if you like all the above and you have a few minutes to spare, read through and I hope we could discuss about all these things. And I won't promise this blog will be completely in this crappy english.