Veniceblog: Techno Music and Elderly Baristas

We were outside San Zanipolo (San Giovanni e Paolo), visiting Verrocchio's equestrian statue of Colleoni one boiling summer day. Seeking emergency cold fluids, we ducked into Bar Colleoni 100 feet away. As we hydrated in front of a rotating fan, we were treated to throbbing trance music that was blowing out of a vintage stereo system behind the bar. The only other person in the joint was the proprietor, a gentleman in his 70's, calmly cleaning glasses and tidying up.

To be honest, it didn't strike me as odd until Lorraine mentioned it to me. She said that she seen the same thing all over Venice: elderly baristas, storekeeps, and restaurant owners kicking it to the driving sounds of House, Techno, Breakbeat, Jungle and Drum and Bass.

Sure enough, I started noticing it myself. It's not like it was every septuagenerian-plus in every store you walked in. But it was a phenomenon all right. Whenever it happened, Lorraine would shoot me a knowing look. How to explain this? Q-Burns and Orbital where there should be Kenny G and John Tesh.

My theory: it's all about Venetian pride. Pride of place like I have seen nowhere else. Author Jan Morris wrote a hilarious bit on this subject in The World Of Venice :

"Every Venetian is a connoissuer, with a strong bias towards the local product. The guides at the Doge's Palace rarely bother to mention the startling paintings by Hieronymus Bosch that hang near the Bridge of Sighs -- he was not, after all, a Venetian. The Venetian libraries concern themselves assidiously with Venice. The pictures in the Venetian houses are nearly always of Venetian scenes. Venice is a shamelessly self-centered place, in the constant glow of elderly narcissism".

So what does Venetian pride have to do with house music? There is one radio station in Venice: Radio Venezia. And they often program blocks of electronica. I'm betting that if Radio Venezia programmed Chilean marching music, that's what we would have heard in Bar Colleoni that blistering day.

Comments

Great post!

Who are current Venetian musicians/writers?

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Not sure about writers of current vintage. I don't do much novel/book reading in Italian. Oliver Skardy and Pittura Freska, which I wrote about earlier are fine reggae musicians from Venezia.

Posted by: Kurt | February 24, 2004 at 09:57 AM

It's even more apparent in the summer, when every store has their doors open(unless they've all gotten AC since I was last there in '98). I still remember the Radio Venezia Sound and Radio Mestre jingles... Techno music brings back 'sogni di Venezia' for me even quicker than 'La Biondina in Gondoleta', it was the constant soundtrack of my Venetian life. I'm a big fan of Pitura, wish I could get their albums on CD. Currently I just have them on tape since my sole music source in my Venice days was a tape walkman. Any Italian web music stores ship to the USA? I remember singing along to 'Pin Floi' with a roomful of Venetians at a karaoke bar in Castello circa '93...
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Pittura Freska has a web site (google it). Skandy is on his own now, alas.

Posted by: 7train | February 24, 2005 at 09:11 AM

Great site. Too bad the band broke up - I could have gone to see them live in Treviso in '95 but didn't jump on it, alas... I checked Amazon.com for Pitura CDs and they actually have them all listed-guess what's going on my wish list, haha...
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From my window on la Giudecca, used to be able to hear the sax player practicing during the lunch break.

Posted by: 7train | March 04, 2005 at 07:32 AM