Legacy

La Ciotat train station
La Ciotat train station today

Legacy of a Suspended Dream

Starico was a free website about art and entertainment. Its name originated as a recursive acronym meaning: Starico induces critical overview. The motto was: Watch, Listen, Play… Think! Words that refer to the world of Music, Cinema, and Video Games.

My goal was to create a place where I could initiate an unprecedented discourse on modern arts, connecting them while stimulating analysis and critical thinking.

It was meant to be an extraordinary journey! Starting from history, necessary to properly see, listen to, and think about what we today mean by the word “art“.

At the end of that necessary step, I would have arrived at the present time, making the adventure even more beautiful and stimulating. The features under development would have generated an interactive site, easily navigable through its extensive catalog of information.

A gargantuan project with great amount of work and behind-the-scenes development.

The Cost of Quality

Clicks, impressions, CTR, search position. Year 2023-2024

Over the years, the few articles on Starico have been consulted by millions of visitors worldwide and cited dozens of times by major international publications like Forbes, Wired, Digital Trends, and many others. Even Wikipedia, in various languages around the world, cited my writings as sources. Not bad for an abandoned personal project. Yes. Due to work, time, and money issues, the last truly relevant updates date back to 2016.

Only now, in January 2025, after years of darkness, I’ve decided to let the past go by abandoning the project, but… Certainly not “The Pillars” that supported it! All the founding ideas that pushed me to start it are still valid, alive, and burning within me.

Taking care of all development: server, database, code, logos, graphics, images, research, texts written in Italian and then translated in English (yes!) with interactive images and video editing, there was only one person: Andrea Brandi. Who’s writing now. 🙂

But quality only pays off over time. In the immediate term, it has a high personal cost in terms of invested time and “free work” that affects you physically and psychologically.

Collapse and Rebuild

I collapsed under the weight of my ambition. Obviously. The complications that accompanied me over the years didn’t help. Yet, despite how terrible the difficulties in my life have been, how hard they hit me and slowed me down in every possible way, I’m still gathering my energy in the pursuit of that dream: realize my original vision, the same one that in 2014 pushed me to start this project.

But unfortunately (or fortunately?) I’m still alone. All the people I had collaborated with abandoned me, hurt me, or betrayed me, making promises they didn’t keep, exploiting my work and ideas without even having the courage or decency to say “Thank you!”

But something has changed: in 2025, it’s a bit easier to “be alone”. Thanks to artificial intelligence, to new powerful tools available to individual creatives, it’s more convenient to work by “automating” tedious operations and concentrate forces on what really matters: say something powerful, important, knowing how to say it: with quality and creativity.

This is why I wanna cultivate new digital spaces to grow healthy and strong. Where philosophy and critical thinking, which permeate my being, combine with modern art in natural and fascinating ways. I want to be free from the past and fly towards new creative horizons.

What Have I Learned?

If you don’t learn from mistakes, failure is useless. This is what, in my opinion, gone wrong:

1) I had lots of passion and enthusiasm, but little control over the medium-long term situation. By wanting to do too many things and being too ambitious, without planning everything in minute detail months and months in advance, taking into account every possible setback and slowdown, I destined myself to a slow and unavoidable decline.

2) I was obsessed with creating original and innovative content. For this reason, I studied and studied, without publishing anything, for weeks or even months, racking my brains to produce the most original thing possible. The result? I often discovered I had been “anticipated” by others, even if they were less elaborate and thorough (sometimes banal). But having failed the impossible attempt to be 100% original, I abandoned the manuscripts. I had to learn with great effort, over years (Thanks YouTube, where everyone copy everyone) that being original is an infection of the creative mind. The greatest works in the world are personal reinterpretations of non-original content. But that obsession caused me psychological “locks” that lasted years.

3) I focused heavily on website speed and content quality without a personal reputation. For example, initially, I didn’t care if people remembered of “me”, Andrea Brandi, but rather of the informational content I published. I wanted to stimulate people to learn and think. But when doesn’t remain impressed upon the reader that the information is curated by me, the personal benefits obtained are minimal and web reputation grows little. My naivety made me underestimate this phenomenon. People tend to forget from whom they received information and, more or less consciously, they kind of “steal” them, unless the source is very well-known, then the phenomenon reduces because the possibility of being caught out increases. This triggered strong discomfort in me. I deluded myself that I would receive certificates of esteem and admiration, but it didn’t happen, rather, the opposite happened…

4) I developed a psychosis about being plagiarized and not cited (sadly, a common practice). That terror gradually made me close into total mutism. The reason is simple: those few times I had managed to be truly original in my analyses or predictions – being little known by people and refusing to write for more visible and famous magazines – my content was copied left and right. And guess what? Those content had more visibility than mine and shared around. This phenomenon drove me crazy nuts. For years I wrote only “private articles” that I could “refer to” in the future (some, obviously, became obsolete over time), not for fear of others’ judgment but because: “this way they can’t copy.”

5) I wasted too much energy creating all content in Italian and English, going into burnout. The dual language was a good theoretical insight, but at the beginning, I should have focused strongly on Italian and the Italian audience. When I try to speak in English, I think in Italian and mentally translate into English: that’s how my “native Italian” mind works. Without the right tools to translate quickly (and decently) at the time (2014-2015) I was moving slowly and became discouraged.

6) I gradually moved away from collaborators. I am very introverted and work much, much better alone, without interference. Also, I considered almost a slave anyone who sold their passion for a few bucks. Having an uncontainable passion for discussions, analysis, and reflections (I’ve been writing every day since I was born), I refused to write for others for a bunch of pennies. If I had been born rich, I could have afforded this luxury. But no, I condemned myself to isolation and also the misery of not earning by doing what I love. This led me to redirect my time towards activities that would make me earn living money, downgrading this project to “non-priority.”

What Was It Supposed to Be?

In 2014, those were the ideal pillars that should have supported the project.

Quick and easy


Starico should be fast and easy to read, ahead of its time. Optimized to be displayed on all modern operating systems and devices: PC, console, tablet and smartphone.

Modern and interactive


Starico must be a familiar and interactive place to discover new music, films and video games. Sections will be enriched with in-depth cards, photo galleries, videos, trailers, and interactive content..

Complete and schematic


Starico must be schematic but complete. A coherent guide on modern art, accompanied by cards and articles on music, movies and video games, with the goal, not only to inform people but also to stimulate reflection.

Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread through shadows to the edge of the night, until the stars are all alight. Then world behind and home ahead, we’ll wander back and home to bed. Mist and twilight, cloud and shade, away shall fade! Away shall fade!
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)