Ever wondered what the world thinks about Italians? Some times its quite disconcerting to see how the world perceives us from the old boot, but still other times its quite funny… and sometimes also accurate.

Well, gone are the day of ancient Romans and the Roman Empire… now we are the land of odd gestures… Here are some fun examples…

The movie below is from Bruno Bozzetto and is good for foreigners to get an education on how Italy is different from the rest of Europe, specifically northern Europe.

As for this clip from the movie Eurotrip… its an absolute lie!!!

Russel Peters instead makes a great impression of Italians, accent and all…

As for those who wonder what all those gestures Italians do actually mean… see below.

What do you think?

First… this sign… that shows the way to a rollerblade shop…

The second are these two girls…

The sign at their feet is better seen below…

Any comments? What do you think?

“Il Messaggero,” a major Italian newspaper reports a few interesting facts:

1. In Bronzolo (Bolzano) somebody tried to go public with all the infidelities that are going on in the small town by posting a flier in the town hall that listed everybody. The Carabinieri are investigating…
2. In Canicatti‘ (Agrigento) somebody posted 20,000 fliers that point out a certain woman and say that she is “easy.” They also point to his husband, announcing he has been made a honored member of the “Canicatti’ men with horns club” for his enduring patience in tolerating his wife’s many infidelities with friends of his. The Carabinieri are waiting for somebody to press charges before they start investigating…
3. In Frosinone a 20 year old girl left his boyfriend to become a nun. The dude went up to the convent and laid out a banner that said “I Love You.” The Carabinieri give their support to the young boy in love.

From the Universal Studios in Universal City, LA… here is a real 747 (or maybe a 767) that was used in the War of the Worlds…

Buying the non-functional plane… $40K.

Transporting the plane to the set: $200K.

Tearing the plane to pieces: Priceless.

I love it! Buy a house and get another one for free… Real Estate market must be really hurting in Southern California… (highjacked from the LA Times):

In a sign of how difficult it is to sell new homes in Southern California right now, a San Diego developer is offering a “buy one, get one free” deal, pairing million-dollar homes with less expensive homes.

“We thought, ‘Why does it just have to be on Pop Tarts and restaurants? Why not buy one home, get one free,’” Dawn Berry of Michael Crews Development told 10 News in San Diego.

More: “Michael Crews Development is offering new, 2000-square foot cityscape row-homes worth $400,000 in Escondido for free — if you buy one Royal View Estate home in San Pasqual Valley starting at $1.6 million. ‘You know it’s a straight-up legit deal; no prices have been increased, there are no hidden costs. Michael is just giving away a free home for people that buy at Royal View,’ said Berry.”

“Adam Rossman of Michael Crews Development added, ‘People have been coming in saying, ‘How can you do this?’ Well, it’s our way of dealing with current market conditions to move some inventory.’ “

BTW - public KUDOS to whoever figures out who’s house is the one in the picture below…

A few days ago I was walking through Venice Beach with a couple of good friends and I managed to take some pics of the Sunset in Venice (California, not Italy).

It’s a nice walk, the whole stretch from Santa Monica to Marina del Rey and it was nice to have my friends around and enjoy both the nice day and how my friends were reacting to the weird Venice scenario.

Find a bigger version of this here.

Things tend to look normal once you’ve seen them a hundred times. I guess that also goes with quality of life.

When I first moved to West LA I simply loved it… “Oh Wow!” Everything was cool and I simply adored being so close to the ocean.

This is some sort of building where you’re not allowed to go in. I don’t know if its something of the coast guard, of the military, or simply of the Baywatch…

It does look interesting with the sun behind it…

So, going back to the whole…”getting used to stuff.” It took me more or less three months to go from, “oh wow” to “nice…”

I wonder how much time will it take to get me to “meh.”

This getting used to the wonders around me… I think it’s something I really need to correct… even if I do think its quite part of human nature.

(Find a wallpaper version of this pic here.)

My friends who visit (and hence are less used to what I see every day) do help me notice that I live in an awesome place (thanks guys) and every now and then I manage to pull out of my busy days and just go for a walk and really appreciate what’s around. On the other hand, I think I do the same for them, when I visit them in Italy, Japan or whatnot… :)

Do you ever realize that you are overlooking something awesome that next to you just cause you got used to it?

You might remember the post on the Royal/T - the maid cafe in Culver City?

Well, On August 3rd the Royal/T held a “Lolita & Friends Tea Party.”

Melrose’s Japanese pop-culture store, JapanLA, and Culver City’s Royal/T presents High Tea Sunday, a special meet up event and High Tea for L.A. Lolitas and friends at Royal/T. Join us on Sunday, August 3, from 2-5 pm for: • JapanLA will screen a never before released Gloomy Bear music video by Mori Chack from 2-4pm in the Royal/T VIP video lounge. • Photographer Neil Sharum taking pictures of Lolitas who step into the looking glass of the Kawaii Kills shop window display to become living mannequins. • A special Lolita High Tea including mini pastries, macaroons, kappa maki finger sandwiches, a mini quiche, and a pot of tea [...]

If you think this sounds awesome? Just look at the pictures to get a full overload of colors and ribbons and whatnot all embedded in the beautiful artistic scenario provided by the Royal/T… ^_^

Which is your favorite Lolita?

(Full Gallery also at BOTTOM of POST)

Nobody was shy at all.

Do they make their own dresses?

The cupcake with the fangs was quite fantastic… If I had more space in my apartment I would’ve bought one.

The wigs are simply amazing…

Posing is a second nature for Lolitas, I guess.

Let’s not forget the maids…

The Royal/T was really crowded for this event - it almost felt like being in Japan :)

I think those squids they are playing with are extremely expensive pieces of art…

More Lolita’s in Thumb Gallery Below :) (find your favorite)

“How fast was that dude on that motorcycle going?” That’s a question that happens often in Rome - where motorcycles are widespread and people generally drive like they have the the grim reaper trying to get them on his white horse… but what about bike racing in Rome?

Rome’s “grande raccordo anulare” is a circular freeway that encompasses the whole of Rome. Some Bikers use that to get their tires warm enough for the races they later on do in the streets. Keep in mind, some of these bikes can hit 300 kilometers per hour - most can hit 260… and a good number does 0 to 100 KMH in 4 seconds or less…

Nuts… right… but still they don’t do their races in the busy roman alleys (they would splatter against a wall at the first turn on the ancient and slippery cobblestones) but on the major roads that are considered Rome’s arteries. Still nuts…

Many bikers say that they do these races at night, when there are less cars around and the cops cant cover all areas.

One also says that “they risk their own lives, not the lives of others.”

Ok…so if a bike hits the side of my car at 250 kilometers per hour, what’s my chance of survival? If it’s anything under 100% I really don’t agree with that biker.

Personally I understand/prefer those who, when in Rome race at the Vallelunga track.

Do you bike? What do you have and what do you prefer?

I’m not a big fan of what below (viewer discretion is advised)…

I’m honestly not for speed, and enjoy a slow ride full of curves in the mountains… I much prefer this below…

Call me boring…

Find the original article (in Italian) here.

I thought I had seen it all when I met a dude in Sicily that used his trained falcon as an anti-theft system for his car (very effective unless the robber’s eyes had already been gouged out)… but here is some other crazy news from good old Italy.

63 year old Carmelo Schepis, who lives next to Messina in Sicily, used bow and arrow to defend himself from the court appointee who had been sent to notify him of his eviction.

Had he been playing serious amounts of  World of Warcraft? The only drops that poor officer left were probable in his pants.

But it gets better! The man is was arrested and the judge gave him house arrest! So now, by criminal code law, even if evicted, he can’t leave his home!!!

Oh whatever, then people make fun of our (the Italian) judiciary system in the rest of the world…

Original article is here (in Italian).

Find the WoW art here.

Highjacked from Pink Tentacle is the awesome/freaky mutated x-man version of a monster Octopus that’s on permanent display at the Shima Aquarium.

Check it out… it has definitely more than 8 tentacles… Can you count how many?

96… 96 freaking tentacles…

Ever been to a maid cafe’?

I finally managed to go to the Royal/T, the maid cafe in Culver City, after finding it closed the last time.

So I was in Culver… and I have to say, it was a nice experience. If I were to organize an event - especially one with a Japan or Tech or Trendy flavor to it - I would definitely think of the Royal/T. Even cause it’s the place where I found the awesome iPod Toilet (see that here) and the colorful Lolita Tea Party.

Situated in what looks like a refurbished and highly refined storehouse, The Royal/T has various elements that blend together into this hybrid venue for entertainment:

1. a Maid Cafe
2. a Art Gallery - with a lot of Takashi Murakami art.
   
3. a small goody shop

The Maid Cafe’ is refined, with the waitresses all dressing in the typical Akiba attire - but naye, they do not call you Master. (understand a bit more about Akiba here).

The quality of their bar is really good, the silverware fancy, the service kind and good looking.

I got a cappuccino and was extremely pleased with it… (and being Italian that should be a pretty good endorsement ^_^)

The bar area has a bit of detailing the gives it that touch of extra Akiba flavor, while probably trying to stay away from making it Otaku…

The cafe area is also placed in the middle of a series of expo rooms enclosed by plexiglass which give the whole place the feeling of being in the cafe of some fancy museum/art gallery… I’d like to buy some of these pieces, but I think they are uber expensive…

Weird one eyed thingy in a box…

And some more art.

Finally you can visit the store area… almost not a real store. It still feels like something that is put in place to try to capture the Akiba feel…

The prices on some of the statues on sale here confirm that the Royal/T does not want to turn into a Otaku-fest where LA otakus come to chill and by Akiba kind of stuff…

What? $145???!?!

Yeah, there are only 4 models in the store and the prices are quite high. That clearly states, this is not an Akiba shop.

On the other hand the maid cafe menu is good and not pricey… here is an excerpt.

Imho - the Royal/T is a great place for a bit of Akiba flavor but is definitely not the same as an Akiba maid cafe’. It’s more like a art gallery meets a maid cafe … the result is a great entertainment venue with a lot of style.

So, don’t go buy your manga and statues there, but do go experience some great art, atmosphere and a touch of Akiba while eating at a refined little restaurant/cafe.

Well, if you live on the Westside, you can go to the Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica - (if you live in other areas check out the links to various delis at the end of this post).

This place not only has some of the BEST Italian subs on the planet (as the uber line of people ever-present is witness too) but also a lot of fine Italian grocery brands imported from Europe.

I use this place any time I want to cook Italian and seek that original experience that reminds me of home…

Decide whatever you want in your sandwiches or buy deli cuts and other stuff to take home…

Then take a look at just some of the great Italian brands you can buy…

A massive selection of pastas… they also have fresh made pasta made daily…

Various “sottoli” and “sottaceti”

Just a small part of their oil and vinegar selection below…

Some of their sauces and rices…

There is sooo much more, cheeses, wines, grappa, anything from Italy you could think about!

All in all, I can say that the place is just awesome and I always find everything I need. Even the fresh mozzarella is (almost) like the Italian one… or at least as good as it gets here in the US.

With $57… here is what I bought:

• 2 cans of Cirio peeled tomatoes for sauce
• 2 fresh mozzarella
• 3 trays of fresh tagliatelle
• 2 boxes of savoiardi (cookies used to make tiramisu)
• 4 thick slices of original pancetta (soooo good)
• A vat of mascarpone (still for the tiramisu)
• A box of imported pasta
• 2 oil dispensers
• 1 jar of anchovies

1

That’s not bad… the fresh tagliatelle were a great deal… some $2.50 for each tray.

If you’re not in the Westside area of Los Angeles, you might want to check out the links below for some Italian grocery/deli experience.

• Domingo’s Italian Grocery in Encino
• Sorrento Italian Market in Culver City
• Claro Italian Market in La Habra
• Angelo’s in Seal Beach or Long Beach
• Foggia in Lakewood
• A1 Imported Groceries in San Pedro
• Cortina’s in Anaheim

Any other I should add to the list?

Diggit (if you liked it ^_^)

Venice Beach (Los Angeles) doesn’t only have the Baywatch cliche’ but also skateboarders, lots and lots of them.

Enjoi (picture above I took In Venice Beach at a Red Bull skateboarding event) is just one of the skating brands, but it definitely has an interesting logo…

Doesn’t that just feel wrong? I mean, don’t Pandas just chill out all the time and eat bamboo? And that’s why there aren’t a lot around anymore?

However Red Bull organizes quite a few events like this, as I understand once a year in Venice. But this is the first one I saw here…

A movie I found from the 2007 one…

Any of you have a skateboard or an Enjoi? Lot of skateboarding in your area?

As an Italian myself, I think Russel is 100% correct ^_^

Anybody been there and agree or disagree? :)

Any good stories?

The only things I’ve ever bought in a Japanese vending machine have been Coke and Boss (a drink endorsed by Tommy Lee Jones and advertised all across vending machines and billboards in Tokyo).

But after reading an article on CScout and Danny Choo about a Smart Car vending machine, I just had to look for more pics. And below is my top 5 best vending machines and a bunch of photos to go with them.

1) The Smart Car machine (even if its fake)

2) The Eco Machine (with nice grass on the sides)

3) The Porn Machine (3 machines secluded in a shack… I would be scared of finding Zed and some guy in a gimp suit in there)…

4) The Used Panty Machine (even if its old news its still hilarious)

5) The Egg Machine (would you buy eggs from a vending machine?)

Honorable mention, the Robot Machine (!).

Picture sources: Photomann, Pingmag, CScout & Darkroastedblend.

LA is a weird city, with a lot of cookie cutter areas that kind of look all the same. Culver City is not one of those and its one of the up and coming areas of Los Angeles. The nice thing is that it has the “feel” of Downtown LA while being right next to the Westside, which makes it not only cooler in the summer (you broil Downtown in the summer), but also easily accessible to westsiders like me. Unfortunately, as nice as it is, the “central” Culver area is pretty small and all the rest is residential. But its a nice place to go for a quick stroll on a Sunday Afternoon or to buy some organic and not expensive food at the local Trader Joe’s.

The murales above and below is right in front of the Sony Picture Studios and is one of my favorite buildings in Culver.

Even the regular Starbucks is nicer in Culver City, not the usual “cut and paste” ones you can find around and that, by the way, have been closing down. Well, there are so many Starbucks that I’m not worrying about where I’ll get my next coffee fix.

I normally get a Doppio Expresso or a Tall Drip, no 5 worders (things like “Venti vanilla non fat latteeee”) that normally also cost 5 bucks (something that makes me go insane). What’s your Starbucks fix? Do you have Starbucks in your area?

A quick stop at the Royal/T, the artsy maid cafe that just opened in Culver just to find out that it closes at 6PM… that was a drag. So if you are planning on going there, keep in mind, it’s closed on Mondays and it shuts down at 6PM. (I later found it open, see the post on Royal/T here)

Have you ever been to a real Maid Cafe in Akihabara? I’ve been only once.

Here are some (sad) pictures from the outside…

Next stop was the old Culver Hotel. This Hotel, which isn’t that high when compared to other cities, stands out like blazing pinnacle in the otherwise “low-rise” Culver City.

Right around it are a few statues, the first one is Wizard of Oz inspired and has a nice little fountain around it…

The second statue, or set of statues, is actually fairly creepy. You see a lot of these around LA… statues of people doing something mundane, typically sitting on a bench or on the side of a fountain. It’s kind of like the Medusa strolled by and just had a go at turning some random people to stone…

Heading back we hit another historical landmark. People from my country (Italy) might laugh at something from 1929 being called a historical landmark ~ in Rome we can’t manage to create a real subway system cause every time we dig a whole deeper than half a foot we hit some ancient Roman dudes bathroom and the Ministry for Cultural Goods shuts down works for a few years…

Still, this is a nice building and there should be more so around LA. I really think LA should adopt an “embellishment act” similar to what goes on in Boston, where you get your plans to pull up a new building approved only if it improves the skyline.

Culver is also an artsy area of town, there are a lot of galleries (even the Royal/T is mainly an art gallery). Still, as artsy as it is, I don’t understand why they are sticking these wood tree cutouts on this building…

See how low buildings normally are in LA? I find it difficult to get used to it, having grown up in a place where everything is at least 6 stories high.

This Korean BBQ looks fancy… doesn’t seem open though. Once it is, I’m going to try it out for sure.

I think below is an example of Spanish architecture (am I right? does anybody know?). You definitely don’t see a lot of office areas that look this good in LA. This is just another reason I like Culver :)

To sum it up, here are my reasons to like Culver City:

• Great little restaurants
• Nice Art Galleries
• Interesting Architecture
• Trader Joe’s
• The feeling you are in the central area of a real town (something you don’t get a lot in LA)

It’s Monday morning, 6:30 pm… nothing better to wake me up than 3 cups of coffee in a row and some good Japanese Robot fighting. The best is that they even have their own professional referee! Sometimes they look a bit “displaced” but some of these robots even have special moves… its just great!

Who do you think will win?

By the way, my favorite is “balloon dude.”

A recent article in the “Il Messaggero,” talks about common strategies thieves could use the rob you of your belongings in Rome (I’ve talked about security while traveling to Italy before and about the security tips the US embassy gives tourists). So let’s have a look at some of these odd thieving strategies that are reported by the Roman Police…

• fake floods: the thieves flood the apartment from the outside (front door) using a small tube. Once the victim opens the door to see what’s going on, she is immobilized and the house is robbed.
• cat strategy: the thieves tell the victim (normally a woman) that she hit a cat with her car. When the victim goes to check out what’s going on, the thieves steal her purse from the car.
• fake delivery: the thief shows up and says he is delivering a PC, DVD player, etc that the son of the victim (normally an elder citizen) has ordered. He then requests to be paid the final fees and rest of payment for the goods.
• spiked pastries: the thieves, in this case typically women, show up to the door of elder citizens who have daughters saying that they are there to visit her for a surprise mini-party. They obviously know the daughter is not around so they offer the pastries they have brought with them to the victim, who dozes off ass soon as she eats them. Then, the thieves rob the house.
• pharmacy discounts: the victim receives a fake call from the local pharmacy stating there are discounts, but only for today. The victim leaves to check it out, finds out its not true, then returns to find her house emptied.
• cut tires: this targets people who are going to ATMs. The thieves knife the tires of the victim . Then, once the victim is back from the ATM and rides off, the thieves ride their moped to his window and let him know he has a low tire. Once the victims stops to change the tire…

Any odd thieving strategies in your area?

Find the original article (in Italian) here.

Would you eat clams you fish out of a Marina? Would even try fishing them out of a Marina?

Well, the beach and the ocean are a place where you need to pay attention, hence a lot of interesting signs… with a lot of rules (like the ones you can find in Venice Beach)

The sign below is taken from the strip that is right on the boat entrance to Marina del Rey, where Pacific and Marina converge at the end of the Marina Peninsula.

Well, the sign says that Mussels fished here are really bad for you and that its unlawful to collect, eat and sell them “for the period… May 1 to October 1.” The fact that selling them is actually mentioned makes me not want to buy mussels ever again…

Especially since pollution in the Marina del Rey beaches has always been a problem.

On another note, you can eat the clams - as the bottom of the sign reads - after “discarding all dark parts which may contain poison.”

What, dark parts that may contain poison?

Since they don’t talk about fish, I must expect that any fish caught is considered fare game. Still I don’t think I’d eat neither fish, nor mussels, nor clams fished out of these waters… would you?

Yesterday was a fun day at the Anime Expo, some really nice cosplay and I also managed to buy some goodies (not as many as I wanted, though)…

This year the Expo was moved from Long Beach to the LA convention center, which gave it a lot more room to breath. I don’t know data un numbers right now, but for a Thursday, the Anime Expo looked pretty packed, but well spread out. Moreover the registration process was easy.

Still, finding a place to park proved to be a bit difficult and the lines at the Starbucks and the ATMs (for all those who wanted to buy more stuff than they thought…) were really long.

At usual great cosplay and statues (more pics of those here)… so lets have a look.

But let’s have a look at the at some Cosplay.

This Ichigo’s sword was really well done… and I thought it would be the biggest around, till later I saw Zabusa…

Something is going on at the Funimation booth.

I don’t know what anime/theme was the most sought after at the show. Since we’re in the US and A, Naruto and Bleach had probably the most cosplay fans, but also Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy had a lot.

This Son Goku was so good I made it available at a higher rez… :) And I mean, the guy was striking serious poses… once I did the pic he relaxed and gasped for like a minute.

Some FF and Naruto fans here… and this Kakashi was the best I saw around even if I later met a good runner up…

Zabusa was tired. I bet, look at the sword he was toting around!

Good old Alphonse…

This Kaneda was so well done I asked him to turn around so I could show the back of jacket detail.

Your beard and hair aren’t the right color, but this guy is a 9 out of 10 Solid Snake for me.

But what about this Link?

I don’t know what character this guy is, can you help me out?

I ended up staying till close looking around for a Range Murata statue I always wanted. Found it just before the show was closing down.

Below I’m adding some morethumbnails, have a look. I’l be updating shortly with more.

(Not enough? Check out more cosplay and Anime Expo at Broken Anime)