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  • Art & Culture

    Carmen Consoli: Special Guest for Joe’s Pub 10th Anniversary

    October 1: Carmen Consoli is ready to reply the great success she had at Joe’s Pub during the Park Series of September 2007.  

    This time her voice will be accompanied by guitar, accordion and traditional Sicilian instruments in a completely new show entitled “Anello Mancante” (Missing Ring). The Sicilian singer will re-interpreter her by-now classics in a minimalist fashion, so to denude them up to their intimate essence. 
    In an intimate atmosphere, Consoli will retrace with her public her career as a songwriter, citing the figures of the Italian artistic panorama that have inspired and guided her the most. Among them, the writer and director Pier Paolo Pasolini, the roman singer and showgirl Gabriella Ferri and many exponents of the Italian and international cinema industry.  

    The 34-year-old Sicilian singer-writer has already experienced ten years of great successes. In her song she talks with elegance, sensibility and passion of wide themes such as love, illness, family, and friendship. Although her point of view tends to be often feminine – and sometimes feminist – she has managed to conquer also the male public with her original mixture of Italian classic style with indie-rock influences, bossa nova rhythms and jazz and blues-inspired riffs.  
    By creating this unequalled she is now considered to be the most successful and famous contemporary Italian female singer. 
    Numbers speak out: Consoli registers on her records six studio albums and two live albums, all platinum in Italy. Her last effort, Eva Contro Eva" (Eve Against Eve), after debuting as Number One on the Italian charts in May 2006, also launched the artist in the USA.  
    The album was registered in Catania-the artist’s hometown-and was introduced in our country by Universal Music Latino. In her new work the attention is focused on the contradictions - the beauties and hardships- Consoli encounters in contemporary life in Sicily.  
    The artist is in effect still deeply attached to her origins despite to the fame she gained. It, in turn, allowed her to be honored with several awards: the MTV Italian Music Award for Best Video (Parole di Burro) in 2001; Best Female Artist at the Italian Music Awards in 2002 and 2003 and Best Song at the Taormina Film Festival for the soundtrack of the international hit film "L'Ultimo Bacio" (The Last Kiss) – from which Zach Braff got the inspiration for his recent film “The Last Kiss”.
     
    Fame has also strengthen the artist’s engagement in beneficial and humanitarian projects: in May 2004 she participated in Quincy Jones ' "We Are The Future" project, a live concert that took place at the Circus Maximus in Rome, organized to raise funds to support children in war-torn zones.  
    Moreover, after being chosen to represent Italy at the Africa Unite concert in Ethiopia,-organized to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Bob Marley's birth- in May 2006 she was also nominate Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. 
    Carmen Consoli’s journey is now taking her back to the USA. New York audience is thus invited to assist to the performance of this extraordinarily talented vocalist and writer and to celebrate with her “Joe’s Pub” milestone anniversary.
    Wed. 10/1/08 - Joe's Pub
    425 Lafayette Street. Sets at 7:30pm and 9:30pm 
    Tickets: $25
    Info.: http://www.joespub.com/component/option,com_shows/task,view/Itemid,40/id,2217 or 212-967-7555

    (M.M.)
     
  • Facts & Stories

    Columbus Day Parade. Admiral Giambastiani will be Grand Marshal

     The President of the Columbus Citizens Foundation Louis Tallarini announced last month that Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be Grand Marshal of the 2008 Columbus Day Parade in New York City. “Admiral Giambastiani has devoted his life to the service of the United States, and we are grateful and delighted that he has agreed to lead our annual celebration of Italian-American heritage and achievement”, said the President in his announcement.

     
    A native of Canastota, N.Y., the Admiral is a highly honored officer who has achieved important accomplishments in several fields.
    His career was initially significantly boosted by a graduation from the United States Naval Academy with leadership distinction in 1970.
    Well known for the remarkable capacities he showed during his long service in the areas of joint and naval strategy, he became an important link between the U.S. and the NATO. Moreover, he served in the U.S. Army itself directing submarine and anti-submarine operations and contributing to the Military’s innovation by backing the usage of new sophisticated technologies.
    Among the awards he obtained, twelve Defense and Service Distinguished Service Medals and 19 unit awards. He has also been assigned three honorary PhDs in engineering, science and engineering technology.
     
    Nowadays, besides directing the Atlantic Council of the United States, Monster Worldwide, Inc. and the QinetiQ Group plc in the United Kingdom,  he is also President of Alenia Aeronautica and Finmeccanica, the largest Italian aerospace company.
    Moreover, he is adviser to the Department of Defense and other governamental agencies.
     

    His life was not only marked by career successes. He is in fact the head of a beautiful family and a present father of two children: Peter Giambastiani, a Naval Academy graduate and a Naval Reserve officer who is Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Congressman Jeff Miller of Florida; and Catherine A. McElroy, a government lawyer. Now the Admiral and his wife, Cindy Giambastiani, also experiment the joy to be grandparents of the little Hannah.   
     A generous and altruist man, he collaborates with several non-profit organizations, among which the Bob Woodruff Family Foundation.
    Family and fraternity: two strong Italian values that he shows to deeply believe in. Characteristics that certainly made of him the perfect candidate to lead the upcoming Parade.
     
    “I am very honored to serve as Grand Marshal of New York’s Columbus Day Parade. I immediately thought of my mother, my father, and all my grandparents who devoted themselves to this great country and to their children and who always had great affection for the home of their ancestors, Italy, a country that has given so much to all the people of the United States and to Western civilization”, Giambastiani declared.
     
     The Parade will take place on October 13 from noon to 3:00 pm on Fifth Avenue.  The march will start on the 44th Street and end of the 79th. It will involve about 35.000 people, among which dignitaries, entertainers, civil servants and members of the U.S. Marine Corps Band, all  accompanied by music groups playing in alternation with marching bands.
    Finally, colorful floats will showcase Italian and Italian American tradition. They will significativily contribute to create a joyful environment, of the kind due for the worldwide largest celebration dedicated to the Italian-American culture and tradition.  The event will be broadcasted by the NBC affiliates and RAI Italian television  
     
    The Columbus Citizens Foundation is the major organizer of the Parade since 1929. It is a non-profit organization in New York City whose purpose is to promote and preserve the Italian-American heritage. The Foundation also offers to meritorious Italian-American youngsters the chance to continue their studies through various scholarships and grant programs.  
     

    (M.M.)
  • Art & Culture

    In the Shadow of No Towers. (After Art Spiegelman)


    Following its 2007 performance at Italy's Signal Festival, the Syntax Error will perform the American debut of their piece In the Shadow of No Tower (After Art Spiegelman) at ISSUE Project Room on September 11, 2008. An animated film and conceptual meagerie based on Art Spiegelman's graphic novel In The Shadow of No Towers, in which relates his personal experiences during the September 11th attacks, this multifaceted piece will be accompanied by a live experimental soundtrack, interwoven with spoken word.

    Inspired by the compassion, light and irony evoked in Spiegelman's book,  Anne Rothshild, Maria Isabel Gouverneur and Marco Cappelli transposed and transformed the account into a video piece, paired with nuanced compositions that sweep through various musical vernaculars rooted in kaleidescopic improvisation. One of two special guests joining the ensemble for this premier will be renowned multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer Elliott Sharp, who will contribute guitar, bass clarinet and live electronic elements. The other is acclaimed actor, monologist and Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Eric Bogosian, who will lend his distinctive minimalist style as narrator of the piece.

    directions: (http://issueprojectroom.org/contact.html)

    Thursday September 11th

    @ ISSUE PROJECT ROOM - 8pm


    ISSUE PROJECT ROOM

    The (OA) Can Factory

    232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor

    Brooklyn, NY 11215


    Telephone: 718-330-0313

    MASS TRANSIT:

    Subway F Line, Subway G Line

    to CARROLL ST-SMITH ST stop

    Walk East down Third St over Gowanus Canal to Third Av = 5 min walk
    Subway F Line, Subway M Line, Subway R Line

    to NINTH ST-FOURTH AVE stop

    Walk North on Fourth Av. West on Third St to Third Av = 5 min walk
    Bus B37, Bus B71

    to THIRD AVE-THIRD ST (Westbound) or THIRD AVE-UNION ST (Eastbound)

    From Union St, walk South on Third Ave to Third St = 3 min walk
     
    CAR:
    From Manhattan Bridge = 5-10 min drive

    Proceed straight on to Flatbush Ave. Right on Third Ave (just after Fulton-Nevins Sts) to Third St.
    From Brooklyn Bridge = 5-10 min drive

    Proceed straight on to Adams St. Left on Atlantic Ave. Right on Third Ave to Third St.
    From Battery Tunnel (Right lane toll booth) = 3-5 min drive

    Take first exit (just after toll) on to Hamilton Ave. Left on Smith St. Right on Third St to Third Ave.
    From BQE (278) West = 5-10 min drive

    Exit on Tillary St. Left on Flatbush Ave. Right on Third Ave to Third St.
    From Gowanus Expwy (278) East = 5-10 min drive

    Exit at 39 St. First left on Fourth Ave. Left on Third St to Third Ave.
    From Prospect Expwy (27) North = 3-5 min drive

    Exit at Fourth Ave. Right on Fourth Ave. Left on Third St to Third Ave.
     
  • Facts & Stories

    Want to Live Longer? Drink a Glass of Wine!


     When Giovanni de Munari decided to restructure his pharmacy some time ago he could never imagine what was expecting him. Finding a recipe for the long-life elixir is something that everybody thinks could happen only in fairy tales or in fiction movies.  

    But not in real life. Not until now.  
      
    De Munari’s shop is one of the oldest apothecaries in Italy and is situated in Asciano, near Siena.  
     There, behind the shelves, the pharmacist’s ancestors had hidden the recipe in the 18th century. He finally found it and, together with his wife, ha mixed the required ingredients following the directions indicated on the old piece of paper.  
    The resulting potion is essentially a Chianti-based elixir. ''They may not have known the names of the chemicals back then, but they were sure red wine, and Chianti in particular, was a boon for old age,'' de Munari suggested. 
      
    Recent discoveries have actually confirmed that the chemical substances contained in the red wine, in particular the anti-oxidants, help preventing heart problems and other age-related diseases. 
      
    The discovery will also become a good source of earnings: ''We achieved such a convincing result that we're now collaborating with a Treviso-based distillery to make the elixir on an industrial scale'' de Munari has enthusiastically declared.      

    (M.M.)
  • Facts & Stories

    Berlusconi in the U.S. on Columbus Day


    The piece of new was given today by the Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi during a press-release at Palazzo Chigi.

     At the presence of the US Vice-President Dick Cheney he explained that his decision is due to a particularly kind invitation extended by President Bush: "He has asked me to go to the United States for Columbus Day. He desires to organize a dinner in my honor", he said.
     
    The Premier claimed that he has advised Bush to postpone the invitation due to the political commitments the latter will have to face in view of the imminent US Presidential elections.
     
    But, as Berlusconi himself suggested, the President has insisted to the point that he has finally decided to accept: "I am deeply grateful to Bush and I will certainly be in the United States on Columbus Day. It will be a great occasion to celebrate and renew our long-lasting and intimate friendship", he finally added.

    (M.M.)
  • Life & People

    Stylist Mila Schon Dies

    Fashion designer Mila Schon, 89, passed away last Thursday night.

    She was well known for her peculiar style, in which classical lines elegantly presented modern features : pieces of art in part inspired by contermporary artists such as Lucio Fontana.

    Considered an icon, her dresses were wore all throughout the world. From Jackie Kennedy and the Rockfellers in the USA to Mina, Milva and the Agnelli family in Italy, the upper classes have always shown to deeply appreciate her style.

    ''We have lost one of the pillars of Italian fashion. She has done a great deal of good for Italian fashion around the world"  said Mario Boselli, head of the Italian Chamber of Fashion. 

    Milan city council also definied Schon ''an ambassador for Milanese elegance'' when asking to the citizens a minute of silence for her on Friday.

    Schon’s real name was Maria Carmen Nutrizio. She was born in 1919 in a territory once part of the  Italian Dalmatia but nowadays annexed to Croazia. She moved in Italy when she was just a little girl, and she was helped by her wealthy aristocratic family to open her first small atelier in 1958. She was mainly inspired by Balenciaga and Dior’s styles, whose clothes she used to buy. She then waited 7 years before organizing her first important fashion show in 1965 in Florence.   

    That was a fundamental year for her career: from that time on she gained more and more success and she finally opened her first boutique in via Montenapoleone, Milan’s Fashion Street.  

    By 1971 she managed to complete a whole line for both men and women and, later on, she also began designing accessories and making perfumes.  

    Her style proved to be polyvalent: several companies decided to refer to her for the production of their employees’ uniforms. Among them, Alitalia and Iran Air.  

     By then her shops were spread in many Italian cities, in Los Angeles and in Japan – where she also produced and sold lingerie, watches and lighters.

    Years of devoted work brought Schon to win the Golden Lion for career achievement in 1985.

    Although the Japanese corporation Itochu bought her group in 1993, she still managed to supervise the designs produced under her griffe. She maintained this role also when the property of her former company passed to the Mariella Burani Group in 1999. Thus her brand has continued to be synonymous of high quality and classical Italian style until today.

    Schon died not without having assisted to a recent and properly great celebration in her honor: just in July the Roma Fashion Fest, Alta Roma, paid homage to the 50 years of the Schon house with a documentary and a retrospective of her most famous creations.

    (M.M.)

  • Gina Lollobrigida: Once an Actress, Today a Sculptress

    The Italian movie star Gina Lollobrigida will soon expose her sculptures in an exhibition named “Vissi d’Arte”. It will take place in Pietrasanta, a small village in Tuscany.  
    In this coastal town more than 30 bronzes, plastic and marble pieces of art will pay tribute to the artist's long career.  
      
    The collection is the result of ten years of work and it mostly portraits the diva’s most famous screen characters.      
      
    The sculptures will be disposed in two different spots: in the 14th-century Sant’Agostino’s Church and in the central Piazza del Duomo. In particular, in the former, a five-metre bronze statue representing the actress in the role of Esmeralda will stick out. It will be erected in front of the statue of Quasimodo, interpreted in the 1957 edition of the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" by the actor Anthony Quinn.  

     
    Among the other pieces of art, two marble statues: one represents Lollobrigida playing “La Bersagliera” in the movie "Pane Amore e Fantasia" (1953), a role that gave her great popularity; the other, named “La Amica”, homages her friendship to Marilyn Monroe.   
      
    In the exposition the actress also shows to be deeply concerned with the problems tormenting the modern society. She has in fact put great efforts in shaping a statue called “Il mondo per I Bambini” (the World for the Children). The work also represents her innumerable-year collaboration with UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders.  
     
    The diva’s passion for sculpturing is not recent. When she was a young woman she cultivated this inclination, which brought her to finally win a scholarship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. 
    Her movie career started only in 1947 when, at the age of 20, she attracted the attention of Italian film directors after having won the Third Price in the Miss Italy competition. As she would often say, “ I studied painting and sculpture at school and became an actress by mistake”.
       
    After a long and magnificent career in the cinematography industry, in 1970 she finally decided to become a photojournalist. She had great success also in this case, being one of the few occidental reporters who managed to interview Cuban leader Fidel Castro. 
     
    But sculpturing was still on her mind. She turned back to it in 1992 when she represented Italy at the Seville Expo with a sculpture named “Living Together”: it symbolized, through the figure of a girl on a eagle, the harmonization of relationships between humanity and nature. For this work the then French President, François Mitterand, awarded her the Legion of Honour for artistic merit.  
     

    After that her works began to be exposed in different countries. A collection of them was also included in an exhibition in Moscow's Pushkin Museum in 2003. 
     
    In Pietrasanta, for the first time in her career, the whole display will be dedicated only to her pieces of art.  
     
    The exhibition will take place from September 20 until November 16, after which it will tour the US. 

    (M.M.)
  • Art & Culture

    Lumarzo Homages Frank Sinatra

    This weekend Italy will be the theater of great celebrations dedicated to the Italian-American celebrity Frank Sinatra and his family.

    The initiative has been launched by the town of Lumarzo, near Genoa.
    From this small charming village Natalina Garaventa, known as Dolly, emigrated to the United States. She settled down in Hoboken, New Jearsy, where she married Martin Sinatra. He himself was an Italian immigrant, coming from the town of Lercara Freddi, near Palermo.

     
    After their only child was born, the couple got deeply involved in the local social and political life. In particular Natalina, besides being a midwife, became a really influential exponent of the Hoboken Democratic Party.
     
    Their marriage is now honored through a partnership between Lumarzo and Lercara Freddi, which will join the former by presenting the original copy of Natalina's birth certificate.    
     
    For the occasion the promoters have planned a memorable concert: several interpreters will present their own versions of The Voice masterpieces.
     

    (M.M.)
  • Art & Culture

    New Voices on Primo Levi


     “New Voices on Primo Levi” is the title given this year to the symposium organized by the Centro Primo Levi, in collaboration with New York University Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò and the Italian Cultural Institute. 

     
    On September 8, 9, 15, at 7 pm, New York audience is invited to participate to a series of debates and presentations focused on the figure of the famous Jewish writer. The aim is to reinterpret Levi’s works and vision in the light of his positions both as a political and public figure. 
     
    Rediscovered by the youngest readers, Levi is also object of  study for world experts and emerging scholars who for the occasion will gather to discuss the role of his secular humanism in the contemporary modern society.  
     
    Among the speakers stand out the names of Franco Baldasso (New York University), Uri Cohen (Columbia University), Sergio Parussa (Wesley College), Luigi Dei (University of Florence), Robert Weil (WW Norton), Andrea Fiano (Centro Primo Levi), Marc Greif (American Prospect, London Review of Books), Moni Ovadia (actor and playwright).  
     
    Operating under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy in New York and in collaboration with the Italian Association for Jewish Studies, Centro Primo Levi pursues the mission of studying the history and culture of Italian Jewry with the purpose of sharing, promoting and cultivating it. 
     
     (M.M.)

     
     
     

    Program of the symposium:

     

     

     

     

    SEPTEMBER 8
    Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò

    24 West 12 Street, NYC

    free admission
     
     
    Primo Levi: Writer and Scientist
    7:00 - 8:00 pm - Elements of Writing: Primo Levi Today

    A conversation on new trends and views in the reading of Primo Levi hosted by Franco Baldasso (New York University) with Uri Cohen (Columbia University).
    8:30 -9:30 pm - A Bridge Between Science and Literature

    Luigi Dei (Department of Chemistry, Università di Firenze).

    Introduced by Andrea Fiano (CPL).
     
    SEPTEMBER 9
    Italian Cultural Institute

    686 Park Avenue (68 Street) NYC
    free admission. RSVP: 212-879-4242 ext. 361
     
    Reading Primo Levi
    7:00 pm

    Actor-playwright Moni Ovadia reads excerpts from Primo Levi’s writings.

    Italian w/English supertitles.


     
    SEPTEMBER 15

    Center for Jewish History

    15 West 16 Street, NYC

    7:00 pm
    Admission: $15, $10 for members of CPL, Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò and

    Italian Cultural Institute.

    Tickets: 212-868-4444     www.smarttix.com
     
    Primo Levi, Historian and Public Figure.
    7:00 pm - Film premiere: “Primo Levi’s on Television” by Roberto Olla.

    Italian w/English subtitles.
    7:30 - 8:30 pm - The politics of memory - A conversation with Marc Greif

    (American Prospect, London Review of Books), Robert Weil (W.W.Norton and

    co-editor of the upcoming complete works of Primo Levi), Sergio Parussa

    (Wesley College), Andrea Fiano (CPL).
  • Art & Culture

    The New Image of the Venice Architectural Biennal

    The 2008 edition of the Venice Architecture Biennial is about to start: from September 14 to November 23 the exhibition will showcase new architectural models and tendencies to the great public.

    The aim is to abandon the conventional approach to the subject which had characterized the past editions: "The challenge of the 11th exhibition is to bring together and encourage experimentation with ephemeral subjects, visions of other worlds, or tangible evidence of a better world", said Aaron Betsky, the event Director and also former head of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam.

    Thus, "This biennial will not feature buildings that already exist and that are used for everyday life. It will not propose abstract solutions to social problems. Instead it will try to see if architecture, experimenting in and with reality, can offer concrete alternative forms and seductive images'', he adds.

    The festival, named ''Out There: Architecture Beyond Building'', will let the audience explore and discover new and different aspects of architecture,  conveniently shown in separate sections.

    Among them the section "Installations", featuring about 20 works designed and created purposely for the event.''These installations will be extremely large and will be accompanied by manifestos for architecture that look beyond construction,'' explains Biennial President Paolo Baratta.

    In other sections will be exposed experimental works by young architects and also six established "Masters of the Experiment". The "Uneternal City. Thirty Years of Uninterrupted Rome" is one of them: 12 visionary designs will induce the public to hypothesize a 'new Rome' as part of a major project aiming to explore different cities during each edition of the Biennial.

    In the final section solutions to Italy's housing problem will be proposed.

    ''Overall, we want a festival that offers a view of architecture that has been liberated from the stricture of buildings, one that tackles key issues in our society,'' sais Betsky. '"At the end of all these different sections, we hope people will view the world with fresh eyes'", he finally adds.

    (M.M.)

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