Another season another burst of Italianism in the San Francisco’s Bay Area. It must be the spring, or the fact that Italian-American are not longer ashamed of their ethnicity, after all Ethnic is so in now in the US, but the Miss Italia-USA California Pageant which was held in Sausalito was a roarin’ success. 12 contestant, an interesting Polaroid of how how ethnicity has evolved in the Golden State, took stage at the Gene Hiller Building were flanked by Samantha Ferro and Manuel De Peppe as hosts and entertained by Don Novello, the infamous Father Sarducci of then Saturday Night Live, and E Street’s saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Besides some inanities relating to the Mafia, certainly due to an inebriated state of mind of the lady who proffered them, the night was a swell, and here are the photos to prove it.
Great success also for the Cuticchio Pupi’s Company. Coming form Palermo the Cuticchios, sons and daughters of art, from Marin to San Francisco to Stanford astonished the public and academics alike. I had a chance to see them at the symposium Mad Orlando’s Legacy at the Stanford University I cannot tell you the beauty of the show, the great acting abilities of the Cuticchios and the level of innovation they brought to the genera.
Here too some photos and a video.
Paolo Pontoniere is a Neapolitan Journalist, who has been living in California for years and writes for major Italian media. Paraphrasing Charles V of Bourbon he would say that his interests curiosity never rests.
From Stones to sex, from science to conscience, from politics to pandemics, he follows with equal passion all events of which it is worth telling a story. Twists and turns of life led him to become an economic reporter, but as it happened with the Che, it was all due to a misunderstanding.
When his editors at the time asked during an editorial meeting if anybody knew anything about the economy he said yes, but he meant to say that to survive he didn’t need much. You see it was one of those artsy copy offices, full of practitioners of experimental arts; dreamers who breathed big ideas, had high minded ideals and lived on nothing else but sandwiches and cigarettes. Now things are different though. To live and work in Baghdad By the Bay one needs serious money, and he says, he too now understands the real Economy.
