weekend in LA and decades in Rome

This weekend was quite a lovely one. Beginning with the imaginary boyfriend sighting on Friday night. Saturday was Lamika’s and Daniel’s wedding – two friends who are involved with InnerCHANGE. After returning home around 11, the “birthday” party for two 5 year old neighbors (twins) was still going on. (I think it was more an excuse to have a party.) The set-up was similar to New Year’s Eve. With the large stereo brought outside - disco lights, and all. They actually started the music around noon-time, before Kim and I had left for the wedding. So…until about 1:30 am I stayed outside, talked with neighbors, and salsa danced. My neighbors are always amused that I’m a good dancer – being white and all.

Sunday I woke up just in time to go to church – which was great. And on my home I felt like I really wanted a bagel. I ended up stopping by the Hollywood farmer’s market. I knew this went on, as every Sunday I pass people on the street with fresh produce and flowers, but never really saw where it was. Well, it’s just off Sunset – and it was really nice…I even found some Thai eggplants that I love to make curry out of and cut Dahlias, one of my favorite flowers. I still wanted a bagel so decided to try a new cafe, which ended up being terrific…the atmosphere, the coffee, and the everything bagel too!

But…all of this is REALLY leading to the interesting article that I read on a paper I picked up near to me while at the cafe. It’s titled “The empire’s new clothes: Obsessed by architecture, Mussolini strove to turn Rome into a showcase for fascism.”(read whole article here) It talks about all the changes Mussolini made to the city of Rome beginning in 1926 up until WWII got too involved in the 40s.

Using architecture as a political statement isn’t really something that’s in our periphery these days. Who needs it, when we have the all-powerful form of media to communicate such propaganda? Which…if you would’ve asked someone in 1920 whether it would be more obstructive to restructure Rome or to communicate via “moving pictures,” billboards, and newsprint – it’s quite obvious what they would say. On one hand, thankfully leaders don’t feel the need to restructure entire cities to make their statement…on the other hand, media affects our lives in ways we would have never dreamed and will never fully realize.

It makes me wonder…what did people think while this restructuring was going on? What did the people who were employed to build it think? One of the projects included tearing out whole sections of old tenant buildings in the city center and moving all the people to outer suburban like “borgates.” Not only did this wipe out these peoples communities and some of their livelihoods – but it was all done in order to pave a large, straight, street to the center of St. Peter’s basilica. Now, in the 1600’s the area around the basilica was created by sculptor, Bernini with small streets curving around in front of the Vatican to “amaze people approaching the biggest church in the world fro the narrow streets around it.” The art of that plan was bulldozed away.

Another project involved tearing down old tenement buildings to create a straight, wide street between the window of Mussolini’s office to the Colosseum. After bulldozing, the boulevard was lined with statues of great emperors and fascist symbols. This seems so overt to me. I suppose when you have to go to such great measures to get your message across – you better get it across loud and clear. How did people think about this while it was going on?With media, it isn’t so necessary to make the message as clear. You can obstruct it so it’s a little more covert. Because unlike blazing down buildings – it can be done over and over and over again. At once less dangerous but I think in the end much, much more. At least back in the days people could easily comprehend what was being communicated to them and then form their response. Nowadays I think we find difficulty in responding. In order to form a reply to the messages, we first have to pinpoint them out and then decipher them and then figure out what truth is - which isn't always easy because we’ve been so well programmed by media. Our messages have been muddled beyond easy comprehension.

In the end, Mussolini was killed (it’s debated if it was by communists or undercover British), he and other leaders were hung upside on meat-hooks in the square. It sounds barbarian (although the same thing was done BY Mussolini while he was in power), but it definitely got the point across. What happens when it’s the market who has the power of control over us? How do we fight back against that? When there’s no single dictator in power but rather a huge engine of media?