Silvio's Ruby Red, er, Brown Bread

[Flynnie]

Check these out.

A significant portion of the country is broken (recall that Tuttosport is 100% Juventino abd CdS is from Rome)

https://twitter.com/footballitalia/status/1668392991222816768?s=61&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

It's no more broken than the rehabilitation of George W. Bush, or George Steinbrenner for that matter. One of the podcasts I was listening to pointed out that a big difference between him and Trump was Trump is a miserable fuck, Berlusconi was much more of a smoothie, and combined with that and the really terrible governments Italy have had since him, he comes out looking good.

Not actually good, he was a terrible administrator, but when you have bankers on the left heading technocratic governments, a Blairite years after Blairism was discredited, and fash, his airy free market liberalism/let's all have a good time with big boobs and lots of money looks pretty good.

I think Berlusconi is easily the most interesting politician of the last thirty years in so many ways. As far as I can tell, he was the first really high profile businessman to go into politics; his wealth seems to come from a sense of anticipating the Americanization of culture. Milano Due as a European take on an American upper middle class suburb. He then went into advertising, a most American profession. Telemilano and Mediaset were all about American TV shows. Even AC Milan comes from a sense of the growing commercialization and professionalization of football where eventually football would be megabusiness like American sports. Everybody talks about Milan Lab, diet, sports psychologists, just the fact they had PR and comms people years before anybody else, that was all ripped out of the NFL. I'm not sure Berlusconi spoke English (I listened to a clip of him in front of congress, he's halting but OK, but other sources say no) but he seemed to have some preternatural ability to incorporate all this into his sales pitch.

[ursus arctos]

That's a very fine post, Flynnie

[Nefertiti2]

sadly I am unable to post that great picture of Tony and Cherie on hyoliday with Silvio - but it feels like it needs another airing

[Flynnie]

That's a very fine post, Flynnie

Another interesting thing about Berlusconi is a comment I read from a woman about his sexism working to his advantage with women, particularly housewives, women in towns and those who didn’t go to university.

The suffocating Catholic conservatism of DC and the austere sexual politics of the PCI helped create an environment where the showgirls in tight dresses on Canal 5 looked like aspirational go-getters when viewed from a different lens. His seemingly free, easy and numerous sexual liaisons, combined with his obvious love and belief in his own ability to seduce — no grabbing them by the pussy here — seemed to foretell a world of sex for pleasure, with more people and at your own initiative. If you lived in the South or a small town where feminism had never arrived, much less made a serious impact, or you were in your fifties and weren’t around for the bra burning, that could be very alluring.

I’m not sure if he ever explicitly mentioned it, but the fact your university educated daughter or younger sister, or just the average Milanese or Bolognese feminist totally hated it probably made it even more delicious.

[ursus arctos]

[diggedy derek]

Is "brown bread" rhyming slang for "dead"? That had genuinely never occurred to me. I always thought it was a reference to someone's body disintegrating and being reduced to dust, as it were.

[ursus arctos]

We know several Italian women who match Flynnie's last post.

They are unlikely to live in Central Milan, but are not unknown outside the centre (including in Milano Due).

[ad hoc]

I read an interesting twitter thread yesterday about how Berlusconi's media empire could be held partly responsible for the number of Romanians now living in Italy. His channels were all over the TV here in the nineties and noughties to the point where Romanians felt a close affinity with Italy as well as a (perceived) cultural understanding of things (as much as Berlusconi TV gave one a cultural understanding)

[ursus arctos]

Our Moldovan babysitter told a similar story

[Flynnie]

That Russian tribute to 80s Italian TV and culture that happens every New Year has to be inspired by Mediaset, right?

[Nocturnal Submission]

Is "brown bread" rhyming slang for "dead"? That had genuinely never occurred to me. I always thought it was a reference to someone's body disintegrating and being reduced to dust, as it were.

Yup.

[ursus arctos]

That Russian tribute to 80s Italian TV and culture that happens every New Year has to be inspired by Mediaset, right?

I believe so

[Gangster Octopus]

Is "brown bread" rhyming slang for "dead"? That had genuinely never occurred to me. I always thought it was a reference to someone's body disintegrating and being reduced to dust, as it were.

I'm worried that you may overthink things at times.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/crazyitalianpol/status/1668955436450553857?s=61&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/crazyitalianpol/status/1668878012882845699?s=61&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[Nesta]

Ah, Berlusconi and the Duomo. Remember him this way.

[diggedy derek]

I'm worried that you may overthink things at times.

Tell you what, when I heard you might be a member of the Masonic Lodge, my mind went into overdrive.

[Wouter D]

At least he left a legacy.

The heirs of Silvio Berlusconi inherited billions from his empire but now they are faced with a dilemma: what to do with his vast collection of mostly worthless artwork, including paintings of nude women and the Madonna, stored in a warehouse opposite his home near Milan. The former prime minister, who died in June at the age of 86, reportedly amassed the 25,000 works during the final years of his life, buying the majority from late-night shopping channels in his quest to become a top collector.

[...]

According to La Repubblica newspaper, the collection is a burden for Berlusconi’s five offspring, not least because it costs €800,000 a year to maintain the huge warehouse opposite Villa San Martino, his main residence in Arcore near Milan, in which the works are stored.

[...]

La Repubblica reported that the Berlusconi family was planning to demolish the art collection, save for a few pieces deemed to be the most valuable. “I don’t know if the destruction of those paintings has already started,” [culture ministry undersecretary and art critic] Sgarbi was cited by the newspaper as saying. “I do know that, at least on an artistic level, it wouldn’t be a crime.”

[ursus arctos]

Such a fitting one.

I have been by that warehouse, but did not stop or attempt to get access.

[San Bernardhinault]

You didn't try and sneak in to steal some of Silvio's QVC art?

[ursus arctos]

Given that my phone was already being tapped by his goons, that would not have been a prudent course of action.

[Nefertiti2]

the fact that the paintings featured nude women and the madonna doesn't necessarily mean they're worthless.

I think we need a bit more on the "Berlusconi's goons tapped my phon"e story ursus arctos- you can''t just leave it at that.

[San Bernardhinault]

I think the fact that they were bought on late night TV and appealed to Berlusconi's aesthetic both hint at them being worthless.

[ursus arctos]

I'm sure that I've mentioned it before, but since you ask

I was one of an estimated three million at the time and happened to be working on a series of transactions involving state owned entities.

They weren't at all discerning, rather like their boss.