The vintage creeps us out. The enthusiasts of this genre are anxious about the beginning of the new season of Bates Motel, the prequel of Psycho, the very famous movie by Alfred Hitchcock. Transmitted by Netflix, the Tv series has been created by Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin that claim to have been inspired also by David Lynch; and, actually, we can find some references to Twin Peaks. Bates Motel doesn’t take place in the 50s, even if it talks about the relationship between mother and son before the murder: the screenplay set the story today. But, detail that adds mistery and charm, the two protagonists , Vera Farmiga (Norma Louise Bates) and Freddie Highmore (Norman Bates), are dressed in 50s’ style. As two ghosts thrown into the present, dis-united in an obsessive relationship that will lead to tragedy. In the new season, Marion Crane (the girl of the memorable scene of the shower, played by Janet Leigh in Psycho), will be played by Rihanna: let’s see if she will wear vintage clothes too.

It reminds me… He was not charming, nor good-looking. But sometimes he was wonderful. Lucio Battisti appeared very rarely even in the golden years of RAI. He barely took part in only one Festival of Sanremo, in 1969 in a duet with Wilson Pickett with Un’avventura. First and last time. Lucio Battisti never made concerts, the only live appearance was in 1972 for Teatro 10, in a duet with Mina. Battisti’s voice could reach high keys, a kind of falsetto, sometimes nearly touching the bad note; but the timbre was deep, heartfelt, enchanting, touching. Among the very few pictures of him, if we don’t include those shot for the albums’ covers (but since 1979 he didn’t want to appear even on them), those by Cesare Monti, shot in his country house during his free time, stand out. In his free singing (canto libero, from one of his song), Battisti wrote the most beautiful pages of italian pop music and transmitted a sense of privacy and nostalgia, a lonely inspiration that infected other great songwriters like De Gregori and Fossati.

Do you like this gender? Gender – No Gender. Nothing to do with transvestism, transsexuality nor homosexuality. Is good to distinguish the social-cultural and scientific side from the fashion one. In the second case, gender is a term (sometimes used improperly) that describes a kind of style that mixes harmoniously masculine elements with feminine ones. The line between the two sexes becomes finer. One of the main trends of contemporary apparel, maybe thanks also to the physical similarities of today’s teenagers (boys are thinner with long hair and girls have their hair cut short and wear gladly men’s blazers, T-shirts and jeans, like in the Seventies), accompanies and enhances a phenomenon attributable to males’ desire of showing their fragility and females’ desire of imposing their strenght. There’s nothing wrong like there’s nothing right, there’s not to be proud nor disgusted. As in all things, everybody has the right to choose.

Special effects. “Susy Benner decided to improve her ballet level in the most famous dance school in Europe, the Friburg Academy. She arrived in Germany from New York at 22:45…”. This is how the nightmare of Susy/Jessica Harper starts. Suspiria (1977), 2nd only to Deep Red (1977), is one of Dario Argento’s best movies and represents his passage from thrillers to horrors. Creepy soundtrack and special effects (with the limits of that years) that set new standards. The photography by Luciano Tovoli is a very strong connotative element: bright colours, invasions of shades of red and blue. The academy’s wallpapers with surreal patterns were inspired by the drawings of Maurits Cornelis Escher. A pop and at the same time claustrophobic opera. A must-see.

Facing the style. “A well-cut suit makes you look thinner, taller and sexier” word of sir Paul Smith, a real expert of menstyle. Menstyle, one word that contains the emanation of what a man would like to be and own. The Style. One Style. One, because it changes depending on the person. But, overall, a Universal Style exists, and it refers indeed to the suit, that can even modify and improve the corporeality better than a plastic surgeon and has the power of adding an appeal that is not possible to reach otherwise. Fashion trends are almost a negligible detail; there’s the year of the narrow lapels, then the year of the peaked lapels, like in the 40s: here the proportions come into play. If you are short, the width of the “peak” worsen the situation, for example. Tricks that men have learnt to consider. I don’t think we still need the columns that teach how to tie a tie. We’re much sharper than in the past. Or not? We are, come on.