It's Italian Festa Time in Los Angeles - Feast of San Gennaro LA (Part 2)

Ciao a tutti,

Today I learned something very interesting, how to put captions under pictures. This could prove very important to me. The question now is, will I allow the pictures to speak their proverbial "thousand words," for themselves, or will I still feel compelled to write a thousand words or so, and risk being too verbose, or worse, redundant.

The other choice I might make is to post a thousand pictures. How many words does that make?
That's a million words, right?

Better yet, in regard to this particular post, I not only have the pictures and the new know-how of how to add captions, but I also have a short video of Chef Richard and I having fun with some of our friends, old and new, performing the live version of our Filippo and the Chef Radio show on the Jimmy Kimmel Live stage of the Feast of San Gennaro in Los Angeles this past week.

So, I have decided to let the pictures do the talking, as well as the video below and wish you all a happy browsing.

But I just have to say one thing, Penny Marshall pictured with me here was sooo sweet. Well, so was Tanya and Marisa and Joan Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel's Mom, who won't be pictured because I don't have a picture with her but you can see her cooking with Chef Richard and I on the video.

But Penny was just as funny as you would have expected her to be. She had a busy rehearsal schedule that day but she came out to the Feast in the middle of her work day just to celebrate her Italian heritage with us, and make us all laugh.

And incidentally, yes, she is Italian-American. Hear her tell you herself in the video below. I just had to post all these pictures of her because her expressions are priceless.

And speaking of video, wait, one more thing. I have to mention Pat Battistini. It's because of him that we have such a cool video. He is a writer/ director/ producer/ editor and you can learn more about him at Hoosier Daddy Films. Incidently he is also an actor, you might recognize his face from the picture I posted here but you can check out his reel by clicking here.

Thank you all for helping make this years Feast of San Gennaro LA so memorable for all of us, especially Chef Richard and myself.
I guess that answered that, I still had to write a lot of words. He, he.

Filippo

P.S. If you cannot watch the video on this post, you can always go to www.Youtube.com and Search "Filippo and the Chef," or actually, just click on the following link.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w8pJg2S-tco







Me Dancing with Actress and Model, Marisa Petroro





Me with Australian-Italian Singer Alfio






Actress and TV Host Tanya Memme Cooking with Chef Richard and I





Dean Martin's Son Ricci Martin and I Backstage.






KTLA News Reporter, Kim Rouggie (left) and KTLA Weather Anchor and former Miss USA 1994, Lu Parker, (right) and I





A Group we affectionately called "Filippo and the CHEFS" was a huge hit at the festival. The singing Doo Wop Group was comprised of Actors Bobby Costanzo and Johnny Capodice, Chef Richard Lombardi and myself





Me singing to Actress and TV Host Tanya Memme





Me enjoying a Zeppole (Photo taken by Photographer Tricia Wall)





Chef Richard Lombardi on stage with TV Hosts Mark DeCarlo and Marisa Petroro





Chef Richard and I





Australian-Italian Singer Alfio and I





Soprano Autumn Scarlett and I






Ricci Martin and I





Comedian Mike Marino and Chef Richard dancing while I was singing





A young Festival Performer and I





TV Host Mark DeCarlo and Actress and Model Marisa Petroro and I





Actor Mario Macaluso, Comedian Mike Marino, Chef Richard and I





Marisa Petroro and I at the Filippo and the Chef Booth





TV Host Tanya Memme, Chef Richard and I





KTLA TV News Reporter Kim Rouggie and I




Musician/Composer Marco Missinato performing during our Live Show




TV Host Tanya Memme and I





Chef Richard with cooking with Actor Mario Macaluso





The Filippo and the Chef Show Stage with TV Host Tanya Memme, Chef Richard, Musician/Composer Marco Missinato and me.





Actress Model Marisa Petroro and I





Me

Festa In Famiglia - Keiko's Compleanno (Birthday) Party

Sapete che la famiglia Italiana sta crescendo a Los Angeles? (Did you know that the family of Italians is growing in Los Angeles?)

Actually, I am not referring to Italians per se, but to would be Italians, those who love the culture and the language.

Specifically, I am referring to a community of Italian students. I have a friend, Elisabetta Missinato, who teaches Italiano here in Los Angeles. I interviewed her for a Valentine's Day Show a couple years ago on the Filippo and the Chef Show. On that show we learned about some of the fun things she does with her students to help them learn the language in an entertaining way.

She has developed a large student base because of it and is having great results. Besides private lessons, she also teaches in groups, and there again, it is so fun, that the group classes are turning into more like family gatherings. Never is that more evident than when the gathering is an actual party.

A group of Elisabetta's Italian students threw a surprise party for another of her friends and finest students, Keiko. That is a picture of Keiko and I above. Keiko is Japanese, born and bred, but if you ask her, she will say she is Italiana. And she is starting to speak like a native, with a Japanese accent.

The Italian students came out in droves to wish Keiko a Buon Compleanno, and to speak Italian as much as they could. Not only does Elisabetta's growing family of students support her every event, but so do her immediate family, and me too, whenever possible.

Elisabetta's brother Marco Missinato supported the festivities by providing some entertainment for the night, to which you see me dancing above with Elisabetta, or rather, acting more silly than dancing in the picture below Keiko and I.

Elisabetta's mother, Anna happened also to be in town from Rome, and came to the party. This was very fortuitous for all of us there because Anna ended up cooking up a storm. What could have been better, the food was delicious.

Above is a picture of me dancing with Anna and here with yet another one of these friends and students of Elisabetta, Grace, who now speaks Italian so much like a native, it makes you stop and ask, "are you Italian?." Though "technically" the answer would be no, she answers "yes," as do all these lovers of all things Italian. And here are a few more pictures from the party.

Incidentally, the family is growing on the Internet too. Elisabetta has started an internet connection service for all her growing family of lovers of the Italian language. You can find it yourself at http://italian.meetup.com/508/

And so, la famiglia cresce, (the family grows).

Filippo

P.S. Writing about learning Italian, I am reminded of a cousin of mine who came from Italy and told me that he learned English by watching American cartoons. As a gag, a friend sent this video from Youtube.com just in time to make it on this blog post. Here is Donald Duck and family and friends dancing the Tarantella, sort of. I thought you would get a kick out of it.

Marco Ierva - A Man of Many Names and Many Talents

Ciao a tutti,

Through my friend Marco Missinato I had the pleasure of meeting another Marco, in this case Marco Ierva. I had heard from my friend Marco that he was a man of many talents and was quite the man about town in Italy, more specifically Rome.

Fortunately I didn't just get to meet him, but actually got to know him by being able to spend some time with him during his recent stay here in Los Angeles. I love to speak Italian and to learn more about Italy any chance I get. So to be able to share this kind of time with a man who has done so much in Italy in so many fields was such a pleasure because we could talk about so many things, not to mention he is a really great guy.

In the end, I just had to interview him for the Filippo and the Chef radio show and have him share with our radio audience some of the interesting stories and experiences he shared with me.

The reason I titled this post "A Man of Many Names and Many Talents" is because the night before the interview I did my due diligence and went on the Internet to learn more about Marco so I would be better prepared for the interview. I was surprised to learn that for someone who had done so much, all of which I had believed was true, and was verified by many others that knew him from Italy, there was so little about him on the net.

I didn't quite know how to say this to him when I saw him the next day for the interview. But I found a way to tactfully broach the subject. He knew where I was going right away and laughed. Afterwards he told me that he used to go by the name Iervasutti, and that I would find much more information about him under that name.

But even better than that. Since his name starts with the letter "i," it is some times misread as a "j" and therefore both his names, "Ierva" and "Iervasutti" have been misspelled as "Jerva" and "Jervasutti" many times. The next thing I know we are on the Internet together proving his point. And right he was. He was everywhere under all those names.

He was listed as the winner of a singing competition as a young child in a rock band. I found listings of his winning the European equivalent of "Most Valuable Player," in the field of Water Polo (Pallanuoto). This of course meant that he was one of the top players in his day and the one that all the girls used to chase after and the one who had everyone wanting to be his friend. In Italy, that must be a fun life to live, even if it is only for a few years.

Of course, now that he is a husband and father he might not think about all that anymore. Nevertheless, I think about those things, he, he. Lets see, I didn't find listings of him as a husband and father but I found listings of him as an actor, a dance choreographer, a Physical Ed Teacher, a coach for the Italian Olympic synchronized swimming team, play writer, dancer, and the list goes on. This was big stuff, not just local theater but nationally televised stuff.

The thing that impressed me the most were the many articles that referred to him as a person who cared about people. For example he was the Stage Director for a theater event called "Sirene Per Una Notte," (Sirens For A Night), and as part of it he used a sign language translator. This had never been done for a national and televised event of this nature. One article praised his insistence on not wanting to leave anyone out and to be able to communicate with as many people as he could, including the deaf.

The article that got my attention in another respect was about his recent Artistic Directing of the Internationally televised "Ali della Vittoria" (Wings of Victory), which is like the "Oscars" of Soccer. And you know that in Italy a Gala night like that is the biggest night of the year, second only to the soccer championships themselves. And he was the Director.

Evidently, he is up for that honor again this year and I told him that when he gets it to let me know so I can book my ticket early. I want to go and interview all the best loved soccer players that those of us that are into it get to watch play their hearts out game after game. You know which ones I am talking about, and Marco knows all of them.

At any rate, the interview came out great. His English was good enough to understand and rough enough to make it exciting and keep you on your toes. Evidently, my Italian is like that too, at least so I am told by people in the know. We had a fun and interesting time together to say the least and I look forward to seeing him here or in Italy soon.

If nothing else, Marco, "see you at the 'Oscars!'"

A presto,

Filippo

P.S. The pictures above are of Marco Ierva and myself, of Ierva with Marco Missinato, and of the two of us with Ornella, a mutual friend visiting from Italy, at a get together at my place. And speaking of a man of many talents introducing new things to theater, here is a new piece of theater structured by Italians and performed by Italians, in a way that I have never seen done before. It is using multi-media, mainly comic strip type visuals and live actors as characters. (In English)

A Garden Party - It Must Be Summer

One of the things I really like about what I do and about my life is that I get to meet a lot of people. I usually meet them in all kinds of different circumstances. One way is I get invited to a lot of really fun and interesting events.

This week I was invited to a Garden Party at the beautiful Santa Monica home of Kara Fox because of a friend of mine who co hosted it, Linda Breakstone, former CBS national television news investigative reporter and political editor, both pictured here (Kara is on the left).

Of course, Linda Kara being involved in the art foundations and Linda being a former anchor woman you would expect that many of their friends have similar backgrounds, though not all. So I wasn't surprised to run into TV personalities that I knew and happy to meet ones I didn't.

One person that we all know from CBS television, especially in Los Angeles for example, is Laura Diaz,

who I was happy to meet again and this time get a photo with her so I could post it. We played around with the shots and I would say, had fun doing it.

Pictured below on my right is another anchor woman you may recognize and on my left is a former CBS news producer and the host of the All About Race Blog at www.AllAboutRace.com, is Carmen Dix. I have read her blog and it talks about racial issues and prejudice on all races, and since our meeting, her blog now includes articles on prejudice against Italians in this Country.

One of the great surprises I have had in a long time was seeing this next person at the party. Here is the

story. You know how we tend to run around and socialize in different groups of friends during certain periods of our lives? If not you, then me, I do.

In any event, one particular group of friends that I enjoyed and I used to socialize with often for several year disbanded about ten years ago, one person died, one person moved to Italy, another person to Las Vegas, another got married... you know. And somehow some of us didn't see each other again for years.

Well, I was talking to a person within that group who I hadn't even talked to in over five years and I thought about Ian Jessel. And I mentioned him in the conversation saying how I would love to see him and connect with him again. After hanging up the phone from that conversation I got my phone book and looked up his number. As I was about to call him, I was distracted and ended up having to do something else. I remember saying to myself, oh well, I'll call him eventually, but I wish I could see him soon, I would enjoy that.

Well, here I am sitting at this party talking to a bunch of beautiful people at a table outside and who walks out into the yard from the house, not a week after I said that? Ian Jessel, who I had not seen in ten years. Is that a story or what?

I think I startled everyone at the table including Ian when I yelled out his name in surprise and amazement. He looked at me like who is this crazy person and then recognized me immediately. Ian is a Producer a former President of MiraMax Films, a member of the Academy Awards Governing Board and the British

Film Academy, and on and on, and at the moment I might say he even speaks Italian better than I. He is pictured here sitting with me and his good friend Kara.

I won't talk about everyone at the party, I promise, but this is fun for me, I must say to write about and relive. Okay, this is the last person I will talk about and then I will just post fun pictures for all who wanted to be on the blog to see themselves.

This next person is a composer, so you know I have to talk about him. Pictured above with me is Carter Larsen who is making a splash with his music appropriately called Fantasia Suite. You will want to check out his website at www.Fantasiasuite.com and see and hear what I am talking about.

He and his music are being requested to appear throughout the world with this new style that he says he discovered. I only learned about it at

this party but it sounded fascinating and I couldn't wait to go to the party and hear it. We are planning to get together one of these days and discuss music, as we musicians do, and I look forward to that. Maybe I will have more to report.

Okay, no more stores on this post or names, except my shout out to my friends Marco Missinato and Isabella Carlini who were at the party with me and to Rick Orlov, the "Dean" of City Hall Bureau Reporters for the Los Angeles Daily News, because I promised him I would put him in my blog. You will see them all below.

And so as to make sure I don't say anything more as I post these pictures I will sign off now.

Filippo

P.S. Since I always end with a video, and since I have mentioned so many anchor women, I thought it would be cute to post a video of an Italian news team (Telegiornale). This is one I found on Youtube that is of a show called "Ora TV Toritto," a young student broadcast. This is not the national evening news, and better yet, it features a few bloopers. (In Italian) (See video at the end of all the picture posts).