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Naples Miscellany 3 (late-June, 2007)
by Jeff Matthews
  Some benevolent organization named Napoli Subway Letteratura has returned for its fourth edition of Juke-Box Letterario, distributing free booklets (average about 16-20 pages) of short stories and essays by young Neapolitan authors. The small-format staple-bound booklets sit in racks at most metro and cable-car stops (top photo); they are gobbled up almost immediately by the waiting masses. Similar projects in Rome, Milan, Palermo and Venice have met with success. One of the worst eye-sores in the city for the last 20 years has been the burned-out shell of the Jai Lai stadium in Fuori Grotta. It burned down in 1986 under mysterious circumstances ("Say, who was that masked man with the Molotov cocktail?") and since then has been sitting there. If you thought the national ball sport of the noble Basques was pretty much useless in Naples—well, they tell me that people used to go to bet on the games—the latest spin on "useless" is the plan that calls for the renovation and conversion of the premises to an ice-skating rink! Work was supposed to start nine months ago, but according to a local paper, "the workers didn't show up." (That's fearless investigative journalism for you! Why not just say that if the Mob doesn't want you to play Basque-t Ball, why would they possibly want you to ice-skate? A flabby populace is a vulnerable populace.) There is opposition to the plan from quarters that see the premises as more socially relevant in the guise, perhaps, of a center for activities for youth or the elderly. So, who says that kids and old people might not enjoy some time on the ice? A totally modern 550-bed hospital—one of the largest in Italy—is under construction in Ponticelli, an eastern suburb of Naples. The so-called Ospedale del Mare ("Hospital of the Sea") was planned by local architect, Pasquale Manduca and will be "earthquake proof." It had better be, say critics of the plan, for the premises are right on the edge of the "red zone," the area near Mt. Vesuvius that civil defence planners have to evacuate in case the scourge of Pompei and Herculaneum decides to erupt again. In any event, completion of the hospital is optimistically set for 2008. The oldest basilca in Naples, the church of Santa Maria Maggiore (photo, bottom left) was ceremoniously reopened this month with a concert by the "Ensemble vocale di Napoli." The reopening of ancient churches in the city—if only as centers of historical and cultural focus—is dear to the heart of a number of organizations in the city, including the Portosalvo Committee, named for one such church of extreme interest and in a state of extreme disrepair. A large port for pleasure craft has just opened at Castellammare di Stabia, right at the beginning of the long Sorrentine peninsula. It is billed as the largest in Campania and one of the most important in the Mediterranean. That last claim has yet to be tested, but it is attractively close to Sorrento, Capri and the entire bay; also, it much less congested than competing ports farther in towards Naples. The port can host 1,200 craft at floating piers and 200 at shore. Gee, Jennifer Lopez has already showed up in her 63-meter "Phoenix." From what I hear, she has quite a beam on her. The "Phoenix." Some (Jason Lanier) call it "digital Mao-ism" and some call it Whitmanesque faith in the ultimate wisdom of the people. I call it "Wackipedia." Those familiar with the anyone-can-edit on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia, know that the articles range from world- class scholarship to rabid teenagers writing about their favorite garage bands (usually their own). The Italian Wikpedia article on Antonio Bassolini (photo, bottom right) former mayor of Naples and current president of the Campania region of Italy is very short, no doubt due to the tendency of partisan know-it-alls and party hacks to delete sections that they don't agree with (a technique, you will recall, much favored by the late Josef Goebbels). The discussion behind the article is much more interesting than the article itself because that's where they shouting matches take place. The Wikimeisters have had to block the article from further editing.
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