Adventures and Dinosaurs

I came to Turin for the most part to see Springsteen, not expecting much at all from the rest of the city. An intriguing sounding cinema museum was enough to make me book two nights, but other than that it was really a gig detour.

So on that note, I’ve kinda liked it.

I got here yesterday afternoon and after a pretty awful walk through the industrial part of town I hit the hostel. It’s gotta be said, this place is pretty unfortunate. It’s hidden in desolate streets in what seems to be a pretty industrial area – too inner-city to have the homely feeling of the suburbs, but too far outside of the action to have any sense of activity. And while the dorms themselves are okay (apart from the dude grinding his teeth last night), the bathrooms are the worst I’ve ever seen – one shower lacks a curtain, one lacks hot water, and they are both a faucet hanging in a bathtub. And don’t get me started on the rest… nasty stuff.

Not to worry though, because I threw my bags straight down and walked down to Stadio Olimpico to finally catch The Boss in action.

Springsteen gigs are obviously a massive deal, but there seems to be way more activity around them in Italy than i’m used to. The surrounds became a marketplace for shameless bootleg vendors, with at least 30 massive stalls set up with fake tshirts, and plenty of snack food vendors also trying to sell their stuff.

Inside the venue was a hive of activity too… In an attempt to get a good spot I got there 2 1/2 hours early, and already the venue was a third full. Unfortunately that meant missing out on being in the inner barricade, but with the spot I got just outside, it wasn’t a big deal.

And the man himself? Amazing. Anyone who half knows his music knows his live reputation so I’ll just say that it was more than fulfilled. Highlights came in the form of Backstreets, Born to Run, 41 Shots and Drive All Night, and ending the three hour set with a ridiculously fun version of Twist And Shout was a good call too. And it was a blast seeing the E Street Band too… Clarence Clemons has unbelievable swagger and Steve Van Zandt’s rock poses with Bruce were awesome.

One thing Bruce knows how to do is put on a performance that feels exactly like an EPIC SPRINGSTEEN GIG. the stage is set up for him to run to the front of the stage and along the length of his end of the stadium all the time, and even the cameras were positioned well, with one of then behind him, ensuring plenty of classic “Springsteen rocking out while facing a massive stadium of fans” moments on the big screen. I was also intrigued by how reminiscent his onstage persona was to that of a pro wrestler… I reckon I know where Hulk Hogan got his crowd-hyping skills from.

So the gig ended, red bull girls were giving out free cans on the way out (do this at every gig pls), and I went to sleep.

Today i afforded myself a sleep in and headed for a walk down Via Roma (the main shopping district, which didn’t offer much) and towards the Museo Nazionale del Cinema. I was hoping it would be good, and it certainly was… taking up almost my entire day, it had a floor dedicated to early light and perspective experiments – the 18-19th century precursors to cinema that wowed people at fairs and exhibitions. I wasn’t expecting it to be so intriguing, but it truly was. It was perfectly staged so that in the space of an hour you went from experiencing early shadowplay, to viewmaster-esque attractions with 3D perspectives (noblewomen gone wild… 1860s 3D porn hell yeah!) to early experiments with animation and projection such as the Zoetrope. Somehow each step still felt like a breakthrough, and with each room you would feel more and more in awe of the technical achievements, despite them being primitive.

The museum continued throughout props, portraits and behind the scenes delights from the world of cinema… things like Superman’s cape, Darth Vader’s helmet, manuscripts for Godfather II and Citizen Kane, Cannes portraits of everyone from Brigitte Bardot to Jim Jarmusch, and a crazy amount of posters.

The museum ended on the ground floor with themed rooms showing clips from films – my fave was the absurdist room with toilets for chairs and fake clouds, but the animation room beats it on account of having original cells from Peter Pan, Fantasia and Yellow Submarine.

The last bit was the lift to the top of the building, a huge dome which was once the tallest building in Europe apparently. The ride itself was surprisingly spectacular, going through the middle of the building’s spiralling interior in a small glass elevator. With a wide open space in the middle of the building connecting it’s 5ish floors with a spiral walkway, it made for a giddy ride up. The view from the top was great too, although ive done a lot of dome panoramas lately.

So after disappointingly finding out that their cinema’s screening of Lars von Trier’s seemingly notirious newie Antichrist was an Italian dub (as cultured as Italy is, even their most film-geeky cinemas show dubs), I got some food and did some exploring before retiring back to the hostel at about 9 to get a good rest before Paris tomorrow. That said, with the intense, Coldplay-fuelled British Brodown happening across the hall, I’m not sure how likely that is.