shelidonMarch 1, 20201 Comment on Week #2 from Milan

Good morning, my darlings, here we are again. There is no official announcement yet, but it has been made clear that here in Milan we will spend another 8 days in pretty much the same situation we had the last week: schools of all kinds and order will still be closed, although it isn’t clear if the ban will extend on museums, theaters, sports activities and such. The authorities have confirmed that 7 days is way too little to know if these measures are having any result at all. Apparently, 14 is the magic number. Hopefully.

I will not deny that things are weird.

It’s like August, when Milan is empty and you can wander around as if you don’t have a worry in the whole world, although cars are regularly parked on the side of the streets and people do look like they have all the worries in the world.

During this week, our Mayor has promoted the launch of a video I very much align with: #Milanononsiferma, Milan doesn’t stop.

Which of course does not mean we will disregard public safety and, as I previously said, we will go around licking lamp posts.

It just means that we will not stay empty-handed, crying over spilled milk and waiting for the situation to sort itself. It’s not in our nature.
We will improvise, we will adapt, we will mitigate damages and we will find new ways of doing business.
Because this is what we do, this is who we are and this is how Milan got to become what it is now.

There are lots of institutions who already went on with contingency plans and I urge you to support them, to look up what they are doing and learn from them.

1. Music

LaVerdi, the symphonic orchestra that calls home the auditorium just a stone’s throw from my house, launched a #lamusicanonsiferma program (Music doesn’t stop), assembled its musicians regardless of the ban and is offering videos for free. Their YouTube channel is this one. Below you have one of the videos. The choice of showing a background of empty chairs and turning off the comments on the video is a strong one and, to me, it is highly emotional. I have no doubt I will pay them a visit (any concert will do) as soon as this whole thing is over.

Musician Francesca Michielin also joined the #lamusicanonsiferma movement and broadcasted from Officine Meccaniche, alongside Coima_Cose.
Cosmopolitan talked about them here.

On pogoproductions.it there’s also a sort of musical marathon, organized by Music Innovation Hub, Base Milano and Zero Milano. The lineup is not my cup of tea, but some of you might find it interesting.

• 18.00 Alioscia aka BBDai
• 18.40 Fresh Prince Night / Wusketti + Wow ↠ La festa indie / Ilaria Gr
• 19.30 Voci di periferia + Parole in fuga_freestyle / Diamante & guests
• 19.55 Eternal Love x Discoteca Paradiso / Federico Facchinetti & Nicolò Posenato
• 20.40 Masquerada / Missin Red
• 21.25 Balera Favela
• 22.10 Nice Club / Milangeles
• 22.55 Linoleum / Davide Ragazzoni & Edo Goodvibes
• 23.40 Q Club / Marco DS
• 00.20 Lele Sacchi
• 01.00 Take It Easy / DJLMP
• 01.40 Club Domani / Sergio Tavelli & Andrea Ratti
• 02.20 Discosizer / Camilla Gligorov & Psycho Mind Transmission

2. Art

There is no trace of this on their official webpage, but arch. Stefano Boeri has announced that even La Triennale, one of the most respected and well-established museum institution in Milan around design and modern art, will go on-line with a streaming program. Their main exhibition – The State of the Art of Architecture Milano – already involved a heavy use of streaming and the performances by Radio Raheem are being broadcasted through Instagram.

The local Science Museum launched a program called #Storieaportechiuse (Stories behind closed doors) and is having a series of appointments on their most famous exhibits:

• March 2nd, 6 pm. Leonardo da Vinci and his drawings (with curator Caudio Giorgione);
• March 3rd, 6 pm. Leonardo da Vinci: waterways and landscape (with Caudio Giorgione);
• March 4th, 6 pm. Astronomy: discover the sky (with curator Luca Reduzzi);
• March 5th, 6 pm. Life aboard a submarine (with curator Marco Iezzi).

If you haven’t seen the marvelous submarine Toti we have here in Milan, I highly recommend the last date.

The same goes for our Pinacoteca di Brera, they are struggling to come up with alternative ways to open their (virtual) doors and its director published a beautiful set of small contributions titled Personal Notes for a Cultural Resilience (Appunti per una Resilienza Culturale), which I highly recommend.

3. Movies

Movies are also taking a strong hit because of the stop: theaters are closed and I doubt people will want to go there even if they were opened. Disney+ still hasn’t arrived here (a personal tragedy, for me: I would have all the time in the world) and people are squeezing Netflix dry, so our local Cineteca rushed to put up its catalog for free streaming. You can register here. I repeat: it’s for free.

4. Learning

Lessons are being held online as well: one of the first institutions to start was the Politecnico Business School, followed by its mother branch. We are also organizing something with our CLEX and I talked about it here.
If you don’t know what to do, this might be a good chance to look up some courses on LinkedIn learning (formerly known as Lynda), a beautiful platform I already had the chance to recommend to lots of you guys. Some courses are held by friends and you have the chance of learning from literally the best guys in the industry. Following, a couple of advises from sincerely yours. Now, if you will forgive me, I am going out. It’s the carnival, here in Milan, and I need to buy some tortelli. Extra custard, please.

4.1. Revit
Literally everything ever recorded by Brian Myers, or, if you want to go classic, look up Paul Aubin. He is a well established instructor.

4.2 Dynamo
You might want to start with Dynamo 2.x Essential Training by Ian Siegel. It’s not a fun ride, but it’s a useful ride. And Ian is one of the best, most accurate and more skilled professionals within the industry. Especially recommended if you are approaching the topic from scratch.
When you are done with it, should you want to have some fun instead, you can look up Paneling with Dynamo for Revit by Colin McCrone.