'Libira Me' - Roman Catholic chant

Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day,
 
When the heavens and the earth shall be moved,
 
When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
 
I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgment be upon us, and the coming wrath,
 
When the heavens and the earth shall be moved.
 
That day, day of wrath, calamity, and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness,
 
When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
 
Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.


Libira Me (Wikipedia)

Líbera me ("Deliver me") is a Roman Catholic responsory that is sung in the Office of the Dead and at the absolution of the dead, a service of prayers for the dead said beside the coffin immediately after the Requiem Mass and before burial. The text of Libera Me asks God to have mercy upon the deceased person at the Last Judgment.

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FIAT 500L "Italian invasion" commercial

This is one of the recent FIAT commercials. FIAT has emerged as a major player in the automobile industry worldwide. The northern Cisalpine industrial centers have been at the cutting edge of this industry from the very beginning. I feel a slight urge to write something a little sarcastic, but I don't want to get in the way of everyone's fun!

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Frangelico

Frangelico Liqueur

From the label:

According to legend Frangelico lived three centuries ago in a hilly area bounded by the right bank of the river Po, and the ridge of mountains dividing Piedmont from Liguria.

Although we are not sure of his real name, we do know that the local farming population used to call him Frangelico because, he lived as a hermit and he greatly loved nature.

Through his love of nature and deep knowledge of its secrets he was able to create many original recipes for liqueurs and drinks.

The most precious of them was a liqueur made from the wild hazel-nuts growing in the woods, exquisitely blended with infusions of other berries and flowers to enrich the flavour.

We carry on the tradition of preparing the ancient liqueur and in doing so we want to keep alive the name of the man who created it for the first time.

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Current Miss Padania, Serena Bignami, wearing an American t-shirt

Serena Bignami is a native of Lodi, Lombardy.

Miss Padania 2012 video

Miss Padania Wikipedia page












Miss Padania video site

We also have a "Lodi" in Northern California as well. One of it's famous residents was Robert Mondavi.

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California Wine 2013

Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle published its annual 'California Wine' section. It was subtitled 'Sunny days - Now's the best time in years to enjoy the state's bounty.' In it were numerous articles about regional wines, corresponding foods, fall events, wine tasting, and different grapes. Unfortunately, this group of articles isn't available as a separate section online; but here is the link to their "wine" homepage.

No aspect of regional northern California culture brings out more the long standing local Cisalpine heritage than the wine industry. Not just the older wineries, but newer ones; as well as Cisalpines who came here in later times like Robert Mondavi. One of the wineries featured is the Fanucchi Vineyards in Fresno County.

In one of the articles entitled 'A toast to California wines', it states "California wine is booming as never before. You can see it clearly in the numbers. As we'll relate in the following pages, the state's wine industry remains on a nearly two-decde surge of popularity, accounting for more than $34 billion in sales last year."

In another article from the section entitled 'California wine enjoys a long boom', a sub-section shows the following facts:
*California's wine economy
-$61.5 billion in overall economic impact in the state
-330,000 jobs generated
-$12.3 billion in wages
-$14.7 billion generated in state and federal taxes

I often like to try foreign wines, and it's easy for for locals to forget that we live in very likely the best wine producing region in the world. One interesting development in recent years has been the growth of wine in Sonoma County; although I don't really know if it actually comes close to challenging the famous Napa County wine region in sales. Another interesting aspect of this industry is that there are big growers who don't even have a label of their own, and find it profitable enough in the farming end of the business.

The wine community of Lodi in the Central Valley--a city named after Lodi, Lombardy--had a full page ad to promote their wines, with their website LodiWine.com. If you're near a Chronicle distributor, you could just walk in and purchase the Sunday paper of August 26; especially if you wanted to attend some of the late Summer and Fall events. I find sfgate.com to be hard to search and navigate. Lastly, St. Helena is the heart of the wine industry in North America. It truly is a great place to visit. Our people were predominant in making this industry from it's inception.

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Caffe D'Melanio: Restaurent Review

Being keenly interested in Argentina, I took notice recently while driving down Ocean Avenue in San Francisco when I saw the sign "Caffe D'Melanio - Argentinean Italian Cuisine." I dined there this past week, and wanted to review it. A quick glance at yelp.com showed inconsistent reviews, but mostly very positive. The establishment is both a coffee shop and deli during the day, and a restaurant and bar in the evening. It was named after the Argentine-expatriate owner Melanio Duarte, who passed away a couple of years ago, and seemed to live a very interesting life. I don't know if there is any Italian heritage connection or not; a person doesn't have to be Italian to serve Italian food, and certainly it is a very prominent culture in Argentina.

I noticed while quickly scanning the reviews, and from my own experience there, that's it's a difficult place to "review." It comes down to personal preference. I went on a weeknight at 5:30 PM, and we were the only ones there except for a person to two at the bar. It's a spacious place with a high ceiling, and well maintained, with a mixture of modern equipment and rustic art on the walls that reminded me of what I at least perceived to be South American. There was a type of monitor near one side playing oldies with the volume low at this time, with trivia, etc. I got the impression that they had been busy with coffee all day, and were making the transition to the restaurant part of the business. There was a bar near the entrance with big coffee blenders. They seem to cater to college students during the day, and there is a Wifi available.

I'm not familiar with "Italian-Argentinian cuisine," so I wasn't certain what items may have been Argentinian; but to me it looked like Italian and eclectic items (ex. Greek salad). Wine was available and they brought bread. I ordered the Chicken Pesto Ravioli and the other person ordered the salmon. My order was $11, but they have a nightly special which was about $6. I thought the homemade pomodoro sauce was very good, and the ravioli's were large and tasty. If you have a big appetite, then you probably should get an appetizer as well. It was pretty adequate food, although not a big menu.

Being a "politicophobe," I didn't care for the political statement(s) on the wall though. Then I had remembered when I scanned the article above, that the founder was a political activist who had fled to Brazil, then fled there apparently. Personally, I can't see a dime's worth of difference between far-right dictatorships and far-left dictatorships in Latin America. Anyway, what's the rule-of-thumb with strangers? "No religion and no politics." If this establishment was closer to places that I frequent more often, I would be more interested. I would like to go back to try their coffee. Basically, I liked it and its casual atmosphere. It looks like what you would think a cafe would appear like in Buenos Aires. It is like a little touch of the cone of South America.

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'Le Nozze Di Figaro' ("Opera Song" from the 'Shawshank Redemption')

'Le Nozze Di Figaro', or 'The Marriage of Figaro', was the "Opera Song" featured in the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption'.

From Wikipedia: Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata (The Marriage of Figaro, or The Day of Madness), K. 492, is an opera buffa (comic opera) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (1784).

Quote from the movie: I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singin about. Truth is I dont wanna know. Id like to think they were singin about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away and for the briefest of moments every last man in Shawshank felt free.

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