The day after I posted my first blog entry I realized I had not introduced myself, which might sound a tad conceited, if not downright rude… Obviously, while it was my intention all the time to write something about myself for those who do not know me yet, I let myself be carried away by the enthusiasm at finally having taken the plunge. Hopefully none of my readers will hold it against me!
My real name is Raffaella (yes, with two f‘s and two l’s…), and I am one of the many Italians who have left their country to emigrate to the USA – though in my case it was not for financial or work-related reasons, but rather because of love. Born and raised in Rome, now I live in the fair city of Alexandria in Northern Virginia, a short metro ride from downtown Washington, D.C. At present I teach Italian in a local language school (two, actually), and am very happy to have been able to resume this activity, which is what I do best – besides, of course, writing music reviews!
Indeed, this blog will mostly be about reviews of CDs I love – something that I do not get to do very often these days. Since June 2009 I have been one of three official reviewers for the 12-year-old, Uzbekistan-based ProgressoR website – whose founder and owner, the legendary Vitaly Menshikov, gave me the nickname of Progmistress, which I have adopted as my username here. Before that, I was a collaborator of ProgArchives for about four years, though now I see myself as retired. As some of my readers may know, I met my current husband there, in the spring of 2006 – so, I can in all honesty say that my love of progressive rock changed my life for the better!
Now, being an official reviewer for a website or magazine has its rewards, but it also means that you do not always get to review stuff you like. When I was still active on ProgArchives, on the other hand, I was able to pick and choose what I wanted to review – which in some ways made things easier, though not as challenging as my current activity on behalf of ProgressoR. With the steady growth of our shared collection (my husband being as big a music fan as I am), I thought that starting my own blog – as other friends of mine had already done – was a good way to share my views on my favourite music with a wider audience.
Though I suspect I will not always have the time to post reviews on a regular basis, I will do my best to provide you, my dear readers, with enough information, and hopefully entertainment as well. Please feel free to drop by and leave a comment if something I have written strikes you as interesting – this blog is meant for sharing, and not just as a vanity project.
Fire of Unknown Origin 
Ciao Raffaella, anche per me è un vero piacere conoscerti. Grazie per il tuo apprezzamento alla recensione su Dennis Rea.
Leggo che oltre all’amore per il Prog e alla voglia di condividerlo, abbiamo in comune anche il mestiere, anche se ormai io non sono per niente “happy to do it”.
Vado a curiosare fra le tue recensioni, a presto
Alfonso
A Belated Response 🙂
I’ll be following your posts here as well as those at Progressor.
Keep up the great writing!
av
Cool. So how did you start to like prog music; and, how did you learn to write in English so well?
I have been into prog for a long time – it was very big in Italy when I was growing up, and I used to hear songs by PFM, Banco and Le Orme on national radio in the early Seventies. As to the language thing, I have a degree in English language and literature, and one in Teaching English, and have written extensively in the past 15 years or so.