The Colossus of Watts: Sam Rodia – Designer and Builder of the Watts Towers
By Niccoló Graffio "Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings, and also experience them." – Lyof N. Tolstoy: What is Art?, 1898 When I was a teenager my father would take us every s...
AAIS Conference: Voyage to Italy. A Cinematic Journey on Contemporary Italian Cinema
Call for papers: AAIS 2015, Boulder, Colorado, 26-29 March 2015Voyage to Italy: a Cinematic Journey on Contemporary Italian Cinema (Panel)Organizer: Tina Pugliese (University of Colorado at Boulder)The panel is open to contributions that explore modern and contemporary Italian cinematic representations and most recent trends in Italian cinema, and...
IMAESTRI Connecting American Designers With High Quality Italian Manufacturers
IMAESTRI is a new company founded by Paolo Timoni in efforts to create a design marketplace for professionals to discover and source artisanal Italian products for the home. The online platform, www.imaestri.com, serves to bring exclusive home furnishings of authentic Italian craftsmanship to the U.S. market by connecting architects, inter...
2016 Fiat 500X Trekking Plus: A compact crossover with Italian style
by Tom Strongman The Fiat 500X compact crossover is the antithesis of the original Fiat 500, a tiny city car whose 479cc, two-cylinder, air-cooled engine delivered 13 horsepower. The first 500, called Cinquecento in Italian, was built from 1957 to 1975, and it was Italy's equivalent of the Volkswagen Beetle. The 500X, designed wit...
Italian singer/pianist CHIARA CIVELLO Announces American Return with October Album Release and Tour Dates
Italian singer, pianist and songwriter Chiara Civello announces her return to the US this October with an East Coast tour in support of the album release of "Canzoni" (Songs). Available October 9th on Quarter Moon via SonyMusic Independent Network (SIN), "Canzoni" is the contemporary Italian songbook as never heard before. Drawing on repertoire fro...
Santa Margherita Wines Now Exclusively Imported By Santa Margherita USA Inc.
Santa Margherita USA Inc. announces today it is now the exclusive importer of the Santa Margherita wine brand to the United States. This flagship wine brand will be the anchor to a portfolio of diverse and dynamic premium Italian wines imported by Santa Margherita USA Inc. Over the past 80 years, Santa Margherita has grown into one of the...
Women Dealing with Women: PW Talks with Louisa Ermelino
In her new collection of short stories, Louisa Ermelino (PW's reviews director) returns to some of the materials that have engaged her imagination across her three earlier novels. The 16 stories in Malafemmena, which will be published by Sarabande Books in August, invoke a range of experiential material: seat of the pants bohemian travel though Asi...
'Preserving Italy' offers delicious recipes for putting by summer's bounty: Cookbook Review
In a nutshell: Italians are masters of preserving the harvest. From dry salami to mixed vegetable giardiniera and canned tomato sauce, it's an integral part of their cooking traditions. In her seventh cookbook, Italian cooking expert Domenica Marchietti shares her passion of the Italian way of preserving foods. The book is divided into cha...
Mafiosi Are Not Italian
by Guy Graybill Any group, in any nation, that shows disrespect, of criminal proportions, for others within their own nation or elsewhere, cannot claim to be members of the national populace. Therefore, the Mafiosi are not true Italians, or – in America – they are not true Italian-Americans. Similarly, the Klansmen of America are...
Italian boxers took Irish names to deter discrimination
To the untrained eye, it seemed that prior to the 1920s there were few noteworthy American boxers of Italian origin and only a limited presence in the decades that followed. But behind many Irish boxing names there frequently stood an olive-skinned, dark-haired battler with a hidden identity. More than one thousand Italian professional boxers went...
Morano Gelato Unveils U.S. Expansion Plans
Looking to capitalize on the growing popularity of gelato is Morano Gelato, ampoule a New England-based franchise that Forbes magazine previously recognized as having "the best gelato in America." With two shops already open and operating in Massachusetts and New Hampshire along with two new franchisees that recently signed in New Hampshire...
Mount Rushmore's unknown Italian American chief carver is subject of new book
Carving a Niche for Himself; The Untold Story of Luigi Del Bianco and Mount Rushmore, author Douglas J. Gladstone's valentine to the obscure Italian American immigrant who served as chief carver of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, will be published by Bordighera Press, it was recently announced. Featuring a foreword by Italian American busine...