Profiles

Just north of Spokane lies the tiny community of Clayton, Wash., population 443, founded in 1889 and named after the abundant clay deposits nearby. The town became home to the Washington Brick Company, renowned for its beautiful decorative tiles and …

KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio station – founded at the conclusion of WWII – broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College, in the beachfront city of the same name.   Its soundwaves traverse the ether …

Chef Vinny Dotolo (born in Clearwater, Florida) was not the typical kid messing about the kitchen’s stoves and dreaming to head one day the organized bedlam of his own kitchen. However, he was brought up on his Italian-American grandma’s recipes, …

Italian ballerina Carla Fracci turns 80 on August 20. Lately she performed in late July at the Versiliana Festival with the Balletto del Sud in Fredy Franzutti’s staging of “Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights” as Queen Thalassa, the …

1908 is a crucial year in L.A.’s Italian-American history for at least two reasons. First of all, in that year L’Italo-Americano was founded by the cultured Florentine, Gabriello Spini. Secondly, in that same 1908, it was built the Italian Hall …

Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci might be famous for their early explorations of the New World, yet another Italian adventurer who commanded a four-year expedition to the Pacific Northwest, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand—said to be one of the …

Giorgio Serafini – who was born in Brussels, Belgium from Italian parents and currently lives in L.A. – must have been charmed by Political Science and International Relations, from spending his youth in the de facto capital of the European …

One cannot say that Rosalba Carriera was the best woman painter in Europe, since in the opinion of most art critics that merit belongs to Artemisia Gentileschi. But one can affirm without a doubt that Rosalba Carriera had the most …

Three-time Oscar winner, Vittorio Storaro is more than just a legendary Italian cinematographer – recognized by the Academy for his outstanding visual work in Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Beatty’s Reds and Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor – he is a philosopher of …

Why am I comparing up-and-coming, Italian-American filmmaker, Laurence Vannicelli to Federico Fellini, the most celebrated Italian auteur of all times? Well, because the source of inspiration for Laurence’s upcoming film, La Certa – set in the surroundings of L’Aquila, in …