Quartiere San Lorenzo, Rome. October 2010.

NYU Film Institute flyer meets Nazi swastika. Note the Obama campaign slogan détournement. Rome, January 2010.

Silvio Berlusconi may have parented many things. However, nobody predicted he’d be a linguistic innovator. Opposition poster satirizes the Prime Minister’s term for “sex party.” Rome, two blocks from the defense ministry, early October.

Migrant worker sells Italy’s largest circulation center-left daily. Highway on-ramp,  Quartiere San Lorenzo. Rome, early October.

Yesterday I got queried about my opinions on Cablegate, the latest Wikileaks revelations. The subject? Their Israeli content. In an article in today’s edition of Rome newspaper Il Riformista, by Milanese journalist Anna Momigliano. My ten shekels appear at the end.

Well, not exactly. But you get the idea. To Germans, Italy is the south. Imagine an Egyptian-Italian hip-hop MC coming up here from Rome, and it seems that much further away. That Amir’s identity is already wrapped up in a different kind of ‘south’ makes him seem that much more foreign.

Even though Italian hip-hop artists will play outside the country (for example, the legendary Assalti Frontali played in Berlin last summer) despite backing from majors, the idiom has not been picked up abroad, in the same way that, for example, Baile funk, or African rap, have been noticed.

That is, picked up by hipsters. Nevertheless, I’d imagine there are plenty of Italian autoworkers here who’d go out to see Amir. Even if they hadn’t heard him before (he’s not exactly a household name, like the omnipresent Fabri Fibra), the Italian flag at the top of the flyer is an obvious lure.

Rome’s old Jewish ghetto is full of arresting political and religious posters and flyers.

World War II is everywhere, or so it seems. Famagosta tube station, Milan, mid-February.

Judging from the dozens of red stars hanging from the ceiling, the politics of this restaurant were unmistakeable. That the agitprop coincided with the best plate of meatballs I’ve ever had made it all that much more amusing. Trastevere, 12/28.

The hummus was excellent, even though it could have used a bit more tahina. Jennifer was definitely impressed.

All I could think about was repurposing the name of the place for a new book title. Vacationing in Trastevere, 12/29.

Still a member of the opposition. The door of our neighborhood squat. Milan, early December.

Berlin comparisons are warranted. Visually, the district is on fire. San Lorenzo, Rome, 12/28.