6 - Dispatch From the Shrug

Dateline Lucca:

Italians have a well-deserved reputation for talking with their hands.  We all have seen the pinched fingertips turned up in front-of-the-face exclamation point - and the rude flip of the fingers out from under the chin. This is an Italian art form, an opera of pantomime, a libretto of punctuation - to be used with or without words.

"Sit here or there or on your thumb"

Italians used to stand outside phone booths to allow more room for the gestures - they now will pull over to the side of the road because they can’t steer while carrying on a cell phone conversation.  I once worked with an airtraffic controller of that extraction who would gesture, sometimes rudely, at aircraft miles away - even ones only on radar.  To test his hand/mouth connection, we once waited for a busy time to hug him from behind, leaving him free to use only the microphone button in his hand.  This was not a good idea.

"Some space please you little people."

After my few weeks of observation here, my favorite of these gestures is the Italian shrug.  A timeless move recorded since before photography yet still cutting edge.  From Caruso to the Prime Minister - whose recent scandal of partying with underage ladies - caused the papers to report a collective “Italian Shrug.”

"I'm no angel." 

To attempt this shrug, raise your chin and cock the head slightly with the eyes looking up, just over the head of your subject.  

 "I am 93, I can do what I want."

At the same time raise both arms about a foot ahead and off your sides, palms up, elbows more or less bent.  Place the thumbs and fingers cupped together. Keeping the wrists limp, raise the shoulders up toward the ears, chest out.  Make an exaggerated frown, raise the eyebrows as high as possible 

- slowly close the eyes and pout like a clown.

Then for extra points, add or soften the parts of the pose to provide the subtle options that allows this gesture to say so many things - from “I don’t know/who knows?” to “Alas, we all must accept the inevitable.”

"Proseceo, prosciutto - who cares?"

For example, just by opening the hands you say, “It has always been this way and it always will be.”  Looking down the nose at the asker says, “I don't know/I can't help."  

Wrinkle up the nose and you question the need for any questions - and the intelligence of the asker presumptuous enough to ask them.

This is a useful import we should adapt.  Use a mirror.  Practice.  Take a photo.  Send me your best shot and let’s see what meaning you can impart in Italian style.

- Signaling Stew

email: rodsdispatches@gmail.com

text: 650-224-3158