Sunday, July 6, 2008

The Academy Awards

It is late and I have just returned from the post award ceremony dinner. As I mentioned, we had been invited by Gloria and a friend of hers to attend a dinner last night, the award ceremony tonight, and then a late dinner afterward. Gloria’s friend Simona was the organizer of the whole affair – thus our seating at the head table. We really didn’t know what to expect. It turns out that this was a whole academy award like thing with an entire small town taken over in a sort, for this event. When we arrived by boat, the castle standing not far off shore atop a large rock island was completely lit by several very large flood lamps. The ceremony was actually a taping for a Euro-television show that will broadcast here on Monday night. The MC was the top female entertainer in Italy. There was a featured Italian band, flamenco dancers and a comedian. They handed out several journalism awards in assorted categories between filler of music and comedy – nearly all of which was in Italian. Timothy Ash from Oxford, England received his international award  -  the grand prize  - which by the end of our 1am dinner was already in the newspaper.  We were very small fish in a big pond – sitting with the likes of the former head of Fiat, the head of Italian Telecom, actors and actresses, politicians and mobsters. The lines are blurred here between some of the distinctions. It was great fun and at 1am we were back on the sale one hundred foot buffet, the same 50+ sharply dressed waiters.

The cops were wearing their dress uniforms and I will do my best to get a good portrait of one – incredible uniform designed by one of the world’s great Italian designers.

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