Lady Gaga helps Liza Minnelli in admirable display of friendship at the Oscars: ‘I got you’
People are calling Lady Gaga “a class act” for the way she supported Liza Minnelli at the Oscars. The “Chromatica” singer, 36, and the legendary “Cabaret” star, 76, took the stage together to present the final award of the night: best picture, which went to "CODA." “You see that? The public, they love you,” Lady Gaga told Minnelli after the crowd g...
Tina Modotti: Photographer Made Revolutionary
Her biography is a ready-made storyline for a movie (Hollywood, do you hear me?). In the end, how many of us are poor workers who make an acting career in Hollywood, who then become photographers who later turn into full-time communist activists? Meet Tina Modotti, a photographer made revolutionary, and don’t forget her name. Phase 0: At the Spinni...
A Talented Italian American Tenor From Queens
Jimmy Alleva is a talented Italian American tenor. He specializes in classical Neapolitan music, but his shows include romantic Italian American songs. Jimmy was born in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens, NY. He graduated from Holy Cross High School in 1986. It was at an early age when Jimmy discovered his admiration for Italian music. The Allev...
The Mayor of Genoa Bucci writes to the American revisionist mayors
The Mayor of Genova Marco Bucci says enough is enough and is pushing back on cancel culture. In a recently published article in il Secolo XIX, the Genovese newspaper, Bucci expressed his disappointment in American mayors, especially in that of Genova's Sister City, Columbus, Ohio, who have removed Christopher Columbus statues in their cities. Bucci...
Paesano, History of a forgotten concept
The words that we use determine how we see the world and an ambiguous word in the Italian language explains why many descendants of Italian migrants have a limited concept of our country. All too often we blame the lack of schooling as the reason for the ignorance of Italy, as well as of its habits, history and Culture of migrants and consequently...
How Italy Had A Direct Influence On Food Network's Christian Petroni - Exclusive
It's no secret that Food Network star Christian Petroni is a native New Yorker from the Bronx and a first-generation Italian-American. But, in an exclusive interview with Mashed, Petroni revealed how his career and life have been deeply influenced by his boyhood summers in Italy. Food has always been a big part of the chef's life, and he refers to...
How Italian food like pizza and pasta became American as apple pie
The inspiration for Ian MacAllen’s book came to him one night several years ago over a plate of veal Parmesan at the now-closed West Village restaurant Trattoria Spaghetto. “I knew they would look strangely at you if you ordered that in Italy,” says MacAllen, who has Italian ancestry. “But [veal Parmesan] was such a different food from what my wife...
WWI in the Alps: An American Journalist on the Italian Front Lines
Edward Alexander Powell was born in 1879 in Syracuse, New York. After studying at Syracuse University and Oberlin College, he began his journalism career at the Syracuse Journal. In 1903 he moved to London to work as an advertising manager for the Smith Premier Typewriter Company, which was based in Syracuse, but within a couple of years he returne...
Book Review: “The Archeology of a Good Ragù” — A “Bipolar” Memoir
Back in the early 1990s, I had a brief correspondence with journalist and author Gay Talese. I’d been reading his memoir, Unto the Sons, a 635-page tome described as “an Italian Roots” by Washington Post Book World. In our exchange of letters — actual pen and paper — Talese and I lamented the dearth of books about the Italian-American experience (d...
Italian Immigration in the American West, 1870-1940, by Kenneth Scambray, Univ. of Nevada Press: 2021
Among the features of Prof. Kenneth Scambray’s new book, Italian Immigration in the American West, 1870-1940, that stand out are the episodes he relates coming directly from his Family Papers. These are by no means gratuitous or filio-pietistic boastings about his own immigrant family. Rather, they are integral to his overall thesis, especially re...
A Guide to ‘The Godfather’ Filming Locations in New York City
In an iconic scene in The Godfather, Michael Corleone attends his newborn son’s christening. The scene unfolds inside the hallowed walls of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in Lower Manhattan and is punctuated by a montage of grisly murders unfolding throughout New York City at the hands of the Corleone mob family. Director Francis Ford Coppola largely...
9 Essential John Travolta Performances
John Travolta has been wowing audiences with his performances since the ’70s. Starring in more than 50 movies, he has taken on a number of iconic roles throughout his career, from Saturday Night Fever to Pulp Fiction. His films have grossed $4 billion at the global box office. From a teen heartthrob to an indie darling and action star, Travolta has...