I have noticed that the way I look at some of the experiences in my life, growing up Italian-American, and things I say in my live shows and on my radio show, Filippo and the Chef, strike a chord with so many people, Italians, Italian-Americans and people of all walks of life, that I decided to journal some of them on a weekly basis and I invite everyone to chime in about their Italian connections and experiences.
Tonight marked the night of the Seventh Annual NIAF Media Networking Forum in Los Angeles. And as always it was well attended by noted media industry representatives from various aspects of the business from the greater Los Angeles area.
This year it was held at a well established Italian Restaurant in Studio City, Ca' Del Sole and co-hosted by Silvia Bizio and Laurence Darmiento. As Marcella Leonetti-Tyler, NIAF Area Coordinator, it was a wonderful occasion to met professionals in the field of communications and share ideas.
It was good to get together with other like minded people in the Industry who wish to work together to promote the positive contributions our ancestors and Italian-Americans have made to make America great.
Elissa Ruffino introduced the "Italian Language Camp" in New Jersey and encouraged all to share it with the children in our lives who may be interested in attending and being submerged in Italian language and culture. Sharing it with you is my way of doing my part. Click on the following link to learn more about it, www.niaf.org/concordia.
These are a few picture from the evening.
A Buona Sera it was and a Buona Sera a tutti,
Filippo
P.S. Here is a video I found on Youtube.com of a Public Service Announcement Italian-American Actor Alan Alda of the "MASH" TV fame did for NIAF. (In English)
This year Chef Richard and I were invited to perform a live version of the "Filippo and the Chef" show at the 2007 NIAF (National Italian American Foundation) Convention in Washington, D.C.
I had been invited to perform at the Convention and Gala a few times before, but this was the first time with the "Filippo and the Chef" show which normally includes a celebrity guest or two.
This show was a first all the way around. Not only was it a first for us to be performing it at NIAF, but we had four celebrity guests and Chef Richard and I on the stage all cooking and talking at the same time. There was Tony Lo Bianco, Jerry Vale, Deana Martin and Vince Ferragamo.
You would think that with the six of us Italian-American performers and "chefs" (every Italian I know, cooks) on stage, that it would be a free-for-all and that too many chefs would spoil the soup, but quite the opposite. It was beautiful and harmonious.
In fact, at one point, someone from the audience yelled out "Jerry, sing." Knowing Jerry wouldn't be up to that, I responded that when those of us cook we sometimes play the music of Jerry Vale. Now that we are watching Jerry cook, we should be singing for him." Not missing a beat, Jerry said, under his breath while stirring his Pasta Puttanesca, "Deana will sing."
Sure enough, as if on cue Deana started to sing "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes," one of her father Dean Martin's hits and a song from her own CD "Memories Are Made of This." And what do you suppose happened next? As if we were all following a script, one by one we all joined in, first Tony Lo Bianco, then Me, then Vince Ferragamo, Richard Lombardi, and finally, Jerry Vale started and the chorus of beautiful voices was complete.
The audience went nuts. Forget the audience, I went nuts. That was too much. How many people can say that they have sung with Jerry Vale, alone. But to be on a stage singing with Jerry, Deana, Tony and Vince and of course Richard, what a dream come true.
As you would imagine, the show went on much longer than planned. Between the joking and bantering and cooking, tasting and merrymaking, we all lost track of time, and no one was all the wise, in fact we were all having too much fun.
That is until the Director of the whole convention came up to the stage and handed me a handwritten note from the NIAF Executive Director, John Salamone, himself, that read, "Filippo, shut the show down, we need the celebrities for our auction."
Evidently, there was to be a celebrity auction going on at that point in another area of the convention that he himself was hosting and all the celebrities including the audience were all still at our show.
I know John, but I hadn't seen John throughout the whole convention weekend, and like a good Italian raised on guilt, I knew for sure it was because he was angry with me.
Of course it had nothing to do with him being the busiest person there. Then when I went to go pick up my tickets for the Gala and they weren't there, nor was my name on the list, I knew for sure he was angry.
Of course I went to the Gala and the tickets and my name were eventually found, but it wasn't until I finally made it to a private reception in John's suite at the end of the convention that we were able to laugh about the story I had invented in my head.
In all actuality, we were immediately invited back for next year's convention and we already talked about more time so that we can have all the Italian-American cooking and singing and chatting time on stage we can have.
Oh, and speaking of stories we invent in our heads, I forgot to mention another special moment that happened just before the show. I got to meet and speak with Yogi Berra. And while I was talking to him, he gifted me with a Yogi-ism, just for me.
Yogi came to the show, and I saw him in the audience so I went over to say hello, introduce myself and thank him for coming to the show. I sat and chatted with him a minute and before I left, I asked him if he would like to be acknowledged from the stage. He asked me why I would do that? I told him "so that people would know that you are here." And here it comes. He said to me, very matter of factly, "They already know I'm here, because I'm here!"
There you go folks, my very own Yogi-ism, thank you Yogi! I laughed all the way up to the stage. What a great way to psyche oneself up for a show.
Needless to say, from the convention to the Gala, NIAF puts on quite a star studded affair and not only was a good time had by all, but much work got done too. Because we also had a "Filippo and the Chef" booth at the convention hall, I didn't get to attend too many of the conferences but the ones I did get to attend made me even more proud to be Italian-American.
Watching and listening to Italian-Americans making plans for the continuation of traditions and the betterment of our community and the world made me proud for our future.
And here's to the future of NIAF, see you next year!
P.S. My only regret, (another "great" Italian trait or tradition, regret) was that I didn't get to meet actress Ellen Pompeo. I know I will have the opportunity soon, so I am okay with that. In the meantime however, here is the video that NIAF had made of her and her Italian roots as posted on Youtube.com. (In English)
At table 31 at the NIAF Gala
With Actress Jodi London & NIAF's A. Kenneth Ciongoli
So here I was singing on stage at the FestaItaliana in Milwaukee when all of a sudden Carol Plantamura comes and sits down in the middle of the audience. Now you might ask, why is that important and who is Carol Plantamura.
Well, Carol was one of my singing teachers when I was a student at UCSD and she is a really cool lady, one who I haven't seen since I graduated years ago. So much has happened since those days at UCSD, and so much has changed, including my voice, after many other voice teachers and many more years of study, becoming a professional singer, recording, etc.
It was quite exciting to have Carol in the audience hearing me sing after all these years. So when I finished my song, I said to the audience that one of my former voice teachers was in the audience and she is Carol Plantamura.
Now, the Carol I knew would have been thrilled to be recognized and would have jumped up and said hello to the audience. Of course, Carol has had many years of performing 17th Century and 20th Century classical and Experimental music with six or so recordings under her belt. So, Carol is not shy around audiences.
But as the audience applauded, she just looked at me and smiled. And I decided to leave it alone. Maybe she had changed. I then finished the the show and was hoping to see her afterwards, but for some reason she wasn't there. So, I figured, maybe she had to leave or maybe she just wasn't Carol.
That night was the night I had been invited to the house of Al Rolandi. Al is a NIAF Area Coordinator for Milwaukee and we have been friendly over the years having seen each other at NIAF events in Washington and Chicago, and at Festivals and shows in Milwaukee and Racine, etc. I debated whether I wanted to go to a big party.
I had one more show to do the next day before the end of the Festival. I had been interviewing people, meeting people, talking with fans, etc. and felt like attending a big loud party was the last thing I wanted to do.
Al assured me that he hadn't invited very many people, only a handful of select friends, as he put it, and that it was going to be a lot of fun. He convinced me and I rode with him to his house. Being a jokster, the whole way there Al was telling me how a "few" people to him meant about a hundred and that he had a small apartment with an old '60's pink tiled bathroom, why that was funny, I don't know but it just was.
At that point I wasn't sure what to believe. All I knew is that we drove into in a beautiful area of Milwaukee and stopped in front of a beautiful home.
It was no small apartment and there was no pink tiled bathroom, I checked. And as for the people, well, Al was true, he hadn't invited very many people at all, literally just a handful of fellow entertainers and some close friends of his, including, of all people, the mystery lady, Carol Plantamura.
Upon seeing her, I rushed to her and said, are you not Carol? And she said, "No, I am Al's wife, Karen." Here she was my hostess for the evening all along, what are the coincidences? I asked her why she hadn't responded when I asked her if she was Carol from the stage, and why she didn't stay till the end.
She said that Al had told her I was a jokster like him and so she thought I was just playing a joke on her from the stage, like he does, ('60's style pink tiled bathroom, etc). She went on to say that she had to leave to get ready for the party and that's why she didn't stick around to meet me. Isn't that funny? We laughed the rest of the night about that.
To me she looks just like I remember Carol looking. So, in the picture just above here are Karen and I, and then below is a head shot of Carol Plantamura I just found on the Internet. Come on, it's pretty close, especially if you're standing on a stage looking down on an audience member far away, it's an even closer resemblance.
Karen wasn't the only surprise at the party. Al had rented an electric keyboard so those of us who wanted to could sing, since he probably felt that we hadn't been singing enough over the past week at the festival. But the ever so talented Aaron Caruso put fingers to the keys and started entertaining as if he were doing an old Vegas Lounge act.
It was interesting after having just seen him sing such beautiful opera arias on stage at the festival and some classical pieces etc., to see him sing Standards, and old traditional Italian songs, and tell jokes and basically show people a really good time. He is an all around entertainer, that's for sure, and now I know, a really nice guy too.
We had met a couple times before but hadn't really gotten to know each other, so this was a welcome opportunity. Aaron got his friend, fellow performer, Cory Pesaturo, accordionist extraordinare, to play piano for him so he could sing and do his shtick. That's not to say that he wasn't singing and doing shtick while he was playing at the piano, but it was good for a change of pace.
That's Aaron leaning back selling a song with Cory Pesaturo at the keyboards in a picture above. Basically, the first and third picture is of Al Rolandi and myself. The second one is of Aaron Caruso and I. Then the fourth picture above is of Soprano, and fellow entertainer, Christina Luna and myself on one of Al's collectibles, a bicycle built for two.
Christina was another singer I had met but never have had an opportunity to know, so this time around, we actually got to know each other by riding this bicycle, singing a duet, and dancing to Corey's and Aaron's Italian Polka's.
You should hear Cory on the accordion, he really is something else. The great thing about him too is that he not only plays the pieces you would expect him to play on an accordion, but he plays jazz and all kinds of styles that you have never heard on that instrument before, bringing the instrument into this Century in a unique way.
Actually, I could speak volumes about these artists, and hopefully someday I will have the opportunity to do so. In the meantime, back to the party.
Now that you know the players, the rest of the pictures are self explanatory. All except maybe this one above, which includes yet another singer, Joe Girard in between Aaron and I.
I don't remember exactly what we were singing at this point but I know it was fun. Joe is a Standards singer, singing the Great American Songbook, so he knows so many of those songs that crooners like me love to sing and listen too.
Along with being a performer Joe is an executive who has worked in TV, radio and in the music Industry, so he was such a wealth of information, fascinating to talk to and interesting to have met. And none of this would have happened if Al hadn't thrown a party, or better yet, if he hadn't persuaded me to come.
At the end of the night, a night which would have gone on forever for sure had more than a few of us not had to perform the next day, Al, the classy guy that he is, called us a Limousine service to make sure we all got back to our respective hotels safely and in style. What a guy, what a guy. And Karen, or Carol, no, Karen, what a hostess. Grazie!
Al, here's to the next party!
Filippo
P.S. Earlier in the post I mentioned how you should hear Cory Pesaturo play accordion. Well, I thought I would check Youtube.com to see if there happened to be a video of him on there and low and behold there was. Well, this is not a video but more of a montage of pictures taken at the recording studio while he recorded his Jazz CD "Change In The Weather." Enjoy (Not Spoken)
Ciao a tutti,
