Duran Duran Set Milano On Fire on June 12, 2016!!

Duran Duran closed their 5 dates Italian Tour in Milano on Sunday June 12 with a bang!! The crowd was overwhelmed by the energy and charisma of this fantastic band once again!!
This time unfortunately I was able to go to only one concert of their Italian Tour but I am SO happy I went to the show in Milano, because I think it was the best of the Italian Tour. After seeing the other shows in streaming on Facebook I thought I knew what to expect, but I was wrong. Seeing the show live was nothing like seeing it on the computer…. the energy of the band and Simon’s immense charisma just blew me away!! The set list was exactly the same as the other Italian shows:

Many people complained about this set list but I don’t, I went to the show with a friend who doesn’t know much about the band so I was happy she would hear their hits and I was pretty sure she would enjoy the show! I was so happy when the next day she thanked me for the wonderful experience, and I can say this was the ideal set list for someone who has never seen the band live…the only complain I can have is that it was a bit short, about 1 hour and 50 minutes…I understand a show like this takes its toll especially on Simon, but even without adding any songs they could have stretched the intros of The Reflex and Notorious and the Band Intro, like they did in the last tour, and voila, the show would have been 10 minutes longer! Strange they didn’t think of doing this!

Simon during Paper Gods

We were in the first row in front of Dom but it was really hard to look at anyone else but Simon, because his stage presence is immense….he seemed to be in a very good mood, smiling all the time, driving the crowd wild with his facial expressions and moves…he is a great frontman and he knows it!!! He talked with the crowd much more than in the other Italian shows (he was probably happy this crazy Italian week was finally over!) and there was also a funny part when he said “Hello Milano, hello Toscana”….Milano is not in Toscana, so he was like “Oh, wrong place?? What is it, Lombardia? Excuse me, I’m a small frontman with a small mind…hello Italy…we are in Italy, right?? Yes, very much in Italy”!!

Musically the band was in top shape and Simon’s voice was good, he had a bad moment at the end of Ordinary World when he couldn’t hold the higher note, but he came out of it pretty well. He seemed to have a cold this week, so if you think he sang 5 concerts in 8 days with a cold, I’d say he did a great job. The show doesn’t have a dull moment, the crowd basically has no rest, one hit after another that keep you dancing and singing for the whole concert. Personally I would have taken What Are The Chances off the set list, it’s a beautiful song but for people who has not bought the latest album, it’s not as catchy a ballad as Come Undone or Ordinary World. Very touching moment was the tribute to David Bowie, when they mashed up Planet Earth with Space Oddity…I had to shed a tear or two there…Simon was just great, that’s all I can say. Fans loved the (Reach Up For The) Sunrise / New Moon On Monday mash up too, and the beautiful confetti explosion that came at the end of the song drove us all wild!! Save A Prayer is always  a special moment…I am not crazy about the whole “Light up your mobile phones” things, call me old fashioned but I still prefer to see the good old lighters instead of phone lights!! Anyway there were definitely too many people paying more attention to taking photos and immediately put them on Facebook or taking videos than to the show!! Personally I took maybe 15 photos…I couldn’t keep the camera still enough so the photos were mostly out of focus…so I decided to enjoy the show and forget about the photos!! 

The end of the show is always Rio and they threw 4 big beach balls into the crowd so that we could play with them during the end of the song…I did manage to touch one of them only briefly…some lucky persons got to bring them home!! Some fans including me and my friend wanted to make a coreography with pink and blue sequin hats …of course the coreography didn’t work as not enough people had the hats, but someone first threw a pink hat on stage, so Simon put it on, so I immediately put on my pink hat too and kept it on until the end of the show…during Rio Simon asked another fan to give him her blue hat saying “Blue is more my colour” and then gave it back to her. I felt sorry for the girl who threw the pink hat because Simon then launched it into the crowd so she couldn’t get it back, but I guess the emotion for Simon wearing it was enough for her! Later I saw that he got himself a pink sequin hat and he wore it during some shows in Canada and Usa, so he really liked the hats idea!! Dear Canadian and American fans, it all started here in Milano!!! 

All I can say is if you have the chance to go to a Duran Duran concert…GO TO SEE THEM!! You won’t regret it!! No matter what’s the cost of the ticket, the show will be worth it!! Duran Duran is the band designed to make you party…and party you will, my friends!!!

“Curvy” Barbie dolls: Why I don’t like them

Is the new Barbie Fashionistas line of dolls nice or not??
Mattel has released some months ago its new Fashionistas line of Barbie dolls and immediately on Tv we heard stuff like “Finally Mattel has created a line of dolls based on normal women” or “These dolls will help little girls realize they don’t need to be extra thin to be beautiful”…. Well, let me tell you what I think about this whole “Barbie is too thin, Barbie is not like a real woman” subject….IT’S A DOLL, FOR FUCK’S SAKE!!! It’s not a woman, it’s not a model you should base your life on, it’s a doll!!! Dolls are meant to make little girls play and dream, let their imagination flow, create all sorts of worlds… they are not made to shape your own life on! Sure when I was a kid I wanted to be like Barbie: blonde, tall, with big tits and blue eyes…. eventually I dyed my hair blond, my tits are OK (and no, I didn’t get fake boobs to look like Barbie, they are my own tits!), if I want to have blue eyes I can get coloured lenses, but there is one thing I will never, ever be, and that’s TALL!!  Well, guess what?? I learned to live with it!! And why blame A DOLL saying it makes little girls ashamed if their bodies are not perfect while on the runaways we have anorexic models that look like skeletons, and everywhere in magazines they keep telling us how much we need to lose weight?? I would say these are the wrong role models, because these are real humans, Barbie is a doll! It’s up to you to explain to your little girl that this is a doll and not all women will look like Barbie (and why’s that?? Again, because it’s a doll!!), and if your daughter grows up and starts asking to have plastic surgery to look like Barbie (like the stupid Russian girl did…) instead of blaming a doll maybe you should question what did you teach her about women’s bodies (also with your own example) and have a good talk with her!

The New Fashionistas line of dolls

Ok, having said this, here is a picture of the new Fashionistas dolls (you can go on www.mattel.com to see more pictures of the single dolls). Would you say these dolls are beautiful?? Do they look like Barbie dolls at all?? In my opinion the answer to both questions is: NO. I am a Barbie Collector, and I don’t see any doll here that I would buy. Frankly, I don’t see any doll I would like to have even if I didn’t have to pay for it. There are curvy dolls, short dolls, tall dolls (how come only the short ones are really curvy anyway?? Isn’t this discrimination against short girls?? Soon someone will say that too..), but beside the shape of their bodies, I look at the dresses and I don’t like them at all…there isn’t a single beautiful dress on these dolls. And their faces?? Plain, no nice make up (is there a crusade against make up too?) and the features are not as detailed as they used to be. Take a look at the Barbie faces in the pictures below, and then take a look at the new dolls…you will see the difference for yourself.

Now compare the faces of these dolls with the new dolls…I think you can clearly see the difference. It’s not just the make up, because if you look at the last doll, she hasn’t got much make up on but her facial features are so much nicer than the new doll’s.

And do we want to talk about these dolls’ dresses??? Come on, what are these, housewives Barbies? Not that there is anything wrong with being an housewive (been there, done that), but even as a kid, when I wanted to buy a new Barbie, it was a lot about the dress she was wearing! I don’t believe in this new line of “Barbie Vet” or “Barbie Doctor”…dolls are made to make little girls dream, in my opinion there is no need to dream to be a Vet, you can do that, so what’s to dream about?? Dream about being  Princess, a Rockstar, an Actress, an Astronaut, a Character from a movie, but please, DREAM!! Dream Big, or don’t bother to dream!

If you want to see some wonderful Collector’s Barbies you can to go http://www.thebarbiecollection.com and you’ll see there what I call THE REAL BARBIE DOLLS!!

The Blonds Blond Gold Barbie Doll By Bill Greening

Haunted Beauty Zombie Bride Barbie Doll By BIll Greening

In my opinion these new Fashionistas dolls are not Barbie. Give them other names, sell them as relatives (like Skipper) or friends of Barbie, but these dolls have nothing to do with the real Barbie. They kinda look like those cheap imitations they sell for a few bucks…this is not a nice thing to say, but as a Barbie fan I feel kinda “betrayed” by the look of these dolls. 

What do you think?? Do you like them???