Ben Hur - went fast, turned left

I'm lucky enough to ride past the Circus Maximus in Rome most days*. While it's little more now than a giant earthwork, the layout of what was Rome's biggest and oldest chariot racing track is still clear. There was seating for 150,000 spectators around the three-quarter-mile track, with its long, fast straights and notoriously tight bends.

Chariots raced anti-clockwise with horses harnessed four abreast and the laps were counted down by huge, gilded tilting dolphins - of course. This clip from Ben Hur strikes me as being, in many ways, pretty authentic, for a Hollywood product. Ah, what it would have been to be in the stands with a bag of wolf's nipple chips and a skin of rough plonk. MP

*Perhaps I should explain. While Sideburn is based in England, our deputy editor, Mick, lives in the Italian capital. GI

Dead end

Another skull spotted in a church here in Rome, this one with full-on crossed femurs. It's in the portico of the 5th century church of Santa Cecilia in the restaurant-heavy Trastevere district. Eternity? Life's brevity? Or a warning not to have the shellfish on a Monday? MP

Dennis Hopper in Rome

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DENNIS HOPPER

Questa è la storia di un uomo/bambino che decise di sviluppare i suoi cinque sensi e di vivere e fare esperienze piuttosto che limitarsi a leggere. - Dennis Hopper

La mostra è stata realizzata in collaborazione con The Hopper Art Trust, dedito alla salvaguardia dell'opera e della memoria di Dennis Hopper. The Hopper Art Trust é stato fondato dal Dennis Hopper Estate nel 2010 e ha sede a Los Angeles, California.
www.dennishopper.com

FINO A NOVEMBRE 8, 2014
INGRESSO GRATUITO

GAGOSIAN GALLERY
VIA FRANCESCO CRISPI 16, 00187 ROME
+39 06 4208 6498
WWW.GAGOSIAN.COM

All Saints Day

Great piece of street poster art, measuring about 3ft (a metre) long and spotted on the parapet of a railway bridge crossing Via delle Conce in Rome's Ostiense district. By the time I got to it, some moronic graffiti scrote had already obliterated the legend at the bottom, which reads: Maria Vergine Augusta, guidami sulla giusta strada e proteggimi dalle buche [August Virgin Mary, guide me on the right road and protect me from the potholes]. It's by Fabio Giannotti, who goes by the name of Ex Voto and more of his work is, or has been, about Rome. MP

Rising Star

My mate Arturo has been working on this BSA Royal Star bobber/chop/special for a while and it's starting to come together. Rome doesn't see nearly enough of this sort of thing. Lots more at The Rising Star. MP

Flatplan

After Gary's lovely post on Sideburn 7 at the printer's, I thought I'd cough up this artefact from the building of the mag. As our regulars know, Sideburn is distilled out of the ether that covers a triangle with its points in Spalding (GI), Bristol (BP) and Rome (MP). Given that Sideburn work fits in around our day jobs, and that its words and pics bounce thousands of miles between us time and again, it's easy for things to get messy and we all have our ways of wrestling the greased Sideburn pig into its pen.

This is my incarnation of the flatplan and it marks a glorious moment just before #7 was finished, with only the merchandise page to be ticked off. About an hour later I was lying on the floor next to my desk at home in a pool of my own urine, surrounded by empty wine bottles and squashed pasta. Nothing to do with Sideburn, it's just a bad habit I've got into.

Anyway, here you go, a bit of Sideburn belly button fluff. MP

The Doors (of Ranaldi)

Away from Rome's towering monuments and impressive piazzas, the centre is a maze of winding cobbled streets. I'd often passed this workshop, which is tiny inside, but wanted to get a shot of the doors closed, just because they're brilliant - look at that big old latch. Robespierre Ranaldi set up Ranaldi Moto Racing in 1939 in Via del Governo Vecchio and it's now run by his son Luigi and grandson Sandro. They have a particular love of off-road strokers. MP