Almost twenty years ago, captivated by the convenience of new web technologies, we moved all our mail services to Google, migrating all our friends and clients who — having requested and obtained their personal @bastard.it email — wanted to join the initiative. Gmail was still in public beta—it would remain so for another couple of years—and Google promoted its adoption by providing free and unlimited infrastructure and support to select clients, including Those Lazy Italians @ bastard.

Hyper-Dependence and a Single Point of Failure

Today, Google is what’s known as a global hyperscaler, with a number of registered accounts equal to almost one-third of the entire world’s population. Dozens of services are offered, going far beyond the mail and calendar that prompted our initial migration. They are all interconnected and rely on a user’s single Google account. The lock-in is extremely powerful, the costs are high, and the concentration is such that a global downtime of its data centers, even for just a few hours, would have devastating economic and social consequences, revealing the fragility of a web built on very few pillars.

Piercing the Veil

We are leaving. Partly because we are dreamers, always used to making things for ourselves—and not just clothes—and partly because we believe that on the other side, there still exists a universe made of people, machines, and interconnected nodes. A universe upon which to re-build a network based on fundamental protocols and not just on centralized services and social networks, open, free, and why not, perhaps even distributed.

Returning to the Web, With New Tools

So what? We’re still smiling.

Starting in January 2026, all our mail services will be self-managed. The old-fashioned way, but with today’s open-source technology stacks and the timeless protocols.

If you have a @bastard.it address and want information about the migration, write to us at postmaster@bastard.it

See you around!

#deGoogle #selfhosting #DIY

If you are so lazy to not even find the time for a visit in via Scipio Slataper 19, Milano – even now that we have the ISTRIA subway stop on the M5 line – at least you can take an online virtual tour of the bastard store… click on the small square at top right of the image and check it out.

Sure, you can always buy our stuff on the web, but that’s not the same.

P.S. If in the virtual tour you find my beloved Penny skateboard that I lost, please tell me!

We always knew that skateboarding was born in the 50’s in California by surfers moving on the city sidewalks… what if we suddenly realize that in the Nazi Germany of 1943, Goebbels’ son was using something really similar to what we ride today?

In this video documentary of National Geographic that recently went public on the italian television a skateboard is shown, with tail, trucks, wheels and a proto-ramp for dropping in. Dogtown leftover?

Since some time Electric, besides cranking out brand new sunglasses,  is interested in speargun fishing, which makes me happy because i love fishing. I was just about to send my “sponsor me” fishing pictures but I desisted when I realized how cool are the fishermen that Electric supports.

They guy in the picture below is Brandon Wahlers, extreme speargun fisherman, that recently speared and caught a 358lb yellowfin tuna, 162 kg! Unfortunately he wasn’t able to find a certified scale within 100 miles to weigh it and he lost the chance to have it certified as a world record.

If Brandon could send us a piece from the belly of this tuna we would be very grateful.

This bastard ad was the first one of a series on italian movies… Io sto con gli ippopotami with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill (1979).

It was never published but we’ve always kept the draft hanging on the wall in our offices as it was too cool and it portrays Marcin and Nikolai together.

Andrea Vecchi got trapped in Chengdu – big city in the southwest part of China – during his last trip for the new bastard samples check, as his VISA ran out of validity. Government authorities attached two cops to him with the order to follow him everywhere.

If you are travelling China and need a safe guide for the country…

Here below is direct tale and more pictures:

While I was in transit for Shanghai, they realized my VISA ran out of validity on december the 30^th 2010. So they stopped me at the airport while I was struggling to solve the problem. Chinese people feel very sorry in these kind of situations so they helped me out a lot, let me call from their cells, offered me tea and always spoke on my behalf.

As it was Sunday there was nothing to do and so I asked to spend the night in a nearby hotel. At that point these two young and shy cops arrived.They did not speak english and were triyng to act serious even if often they couldn’t help laughing about the situation… they were always on my side and were taking turns to sleep – after breakfast they both passed out though – and they wouldn’t even let me look at my passport. Such an experience! I think i may even have developed Stockholm syndrome!

The bookshop of the bastard store is getting bigger. Among the new arrivals it’s worth recommending two titles.

Rock Candy is a collection of illustrations from one of the most interesting Pop Surrealism interpreters we have in Europe.

The superblonde Femke Hiemstra is indeed from Amsterdam, where she still lives and works. Her visionary works (twisted and a bit esoteric) picture surreal settings, mainly with animals, fruit, objects, flowers and antropomorphic distorted bugs handling opium pipes, kitchenware and other oddities.

The black and white collection of characters in Travis Louies‘s Curiosities is grotesque, fascinating and slightly surreal.

These works look like old pictures stolen from a 1900’s photo album or portraits of actors starring in old noir silent movies…nothing strange about that except for demon horns, ogre-like men, dozens-eyed men, while ladies expose sharp canines, tapered ears and charming spectral looks.

Visting Left Loft is always a pleasure.

Last Friday they opened up their offices to Ortaie, the company that usually stocks up their kitchen with biological products. So they turned their everyday offices in a fruit and vegetable market where one could buy fresh and genuine earth products grown right outside of Milan.

This way you can sip an aperitivo while you’re grocery shopping, a great time saving option in a city like Milan.

Today September 16th Ciclart grand opens at 12pm. It is one of the seven events the city of Milano is organizing for the European Week of Mobility.

The exhibition confirms the binomial art/bicycle with the transformation of a machine, already perfect, in art object that stimulates the creativity of many artists.
Along with the old customized bike UBM – Urban Bike Messengers, sponsor of the event will show the bikes that they use everyday for echo deliveries in the city of Milan.

The exhibition takes place in the cloister of Palazzo Isimbardi located in Via Viavaio, 1 Milano and it will stay open to public on Thursday, September 16th from 2pm to 6pm and from Friday 17th through Wednesday 22nd from 10am to 6pm.

Geir & Olav, my very good friends and favourite Norwegian architects, built this gigantic musical instrument with their student at NTNU, where they are currently teaching, to celebrate the 100 years of the school. Perhaps if someone happens to pay a visit, there might be other things that can be shown inside that horn…