For all who didn't get the head's up: I'll be in Alaska until September 9th doing the vacation family thing (fishing!) and doing research... along with lots of Storia biz!  I've got new products from Italy including some super soft Italian silk scarves with retro polka dots and stripes and lots of bags-- plus some other surprises.  Check out the Secret Stash if you want the exclusive access to the new line- discounted from Euro prices and with zero shipping.  You'll need the password, so just ask and you shall receive!  

It is here, it is real, it is now.  It is diverse, it is powerful, and yes my friends, it is truly Roman.  It is Buona Pace from the Italian hip hop icons, Cor Veleno. 

Released this week on May 25 from RCA/Sony Music, Buona Pace is the newest addition to Cor Veleno's long line of discography and makes a grand entrance into today's capricious music industry in a terrific way.  It is true that rap can and almost must be direct to a confrontational level and stirring to an abrasive level, and in fact this is a rap album, but anyone with even a basal appreciation of any music genre would be silly (for lack of better words) to pass these twelve tracks by.  

Cor Veleno: Buona Pace (Sony Music)

• Dentro te
• Buona Pace
• L’odore Del Mare
• Pensami Forte
• Falso
• La Pelle E’ La Mia
• Anche Piu’ Facile
• Spezzami L’Anima
• Sto Cor Veleno
• Quello Che Verrà Domani
• Bam Bam (Bonus)
• Nessuna Bandiera Bianca (Bonus)

The trio that is Cor Veleno- Primo, Grandi Numeri & Squarta- has successfully, artfully created an album that embodies not just a hybrid music genre theory, but an evolved hip hop music theory. Buona Pace is comparable to a well-curated art exhibition in which each track would need its own room with blank walls to fully express its distinctive personality.  With reggae, rock and classical undertones just to name a few Buona Pace proposes a new sound without compromising the intelligent, charismatic attributes so characteristic of Cor Veleno's previous work.  If anything, the new sound is indicative of a talent only shared amongst the most passionate musicians at work these days.  

Following the heavy rotation single "L'Odore del Mare", Buona Pace is now available on iTunes as well as in music stores across Italy.  If you are American (like me) and have to fight with iTunes to get this album save yourself from banging your head against the wall (like I did) and go straight to 7digital.com where you can even pay with PayPal. 


We hope everyone in the Storia world will check out Buona Pace- not just because the Cor Veleno guys are good friends of ours and die-hard Storia supporters, but because they are legit.  And nobody knows legit like we know legit.  


Give it a look, then give it a go, but more than anything... ENJOY.


COR VELENO OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Let's face it. Working from home has all of it's pluses, but every once in a while you have to get out!  Actually, more than every once in a while, more like daily, is ideal.  Anyone who has ever worked from a home office knows what I mean; more than X amount of hours in front of the computer/sewing machine/etc and your productivity level goes down very quickly.  This entry shares a little bit about my playground, my brainstorming zone, my nap time spot, my place of escape.  And, when you really need some fresh air is there really any better place to go than an old villa once known to Romans as Bel Respiro?  I think not.

I have the great fortune of living next to the largest public park in Rome: Villa Doria Pamphili.  Villa Pamphili is the old property of the Papal Pamphili family as well as the inherited property of the royal Doria family.  If you look at an aerial view of Rome you will see two huge splotches of green interrupting the urban layout- one is the also famous Villa Borghese and the other one is my backyard...

It is a well known fact that exercise does 'ya good.  It's also a well known fact (here in Rome at least) that if you want to get away from the city and go jogging, Villa Pamphili is one of the best places to go.  But, as I only really like running on poorly groomed trails in thick forests with the possibility of running into large, dangerous wildlife (you can take the girl out of Alaska, but you can't take...)- let's just say that I don't come to Villa Pamphili to jog.

I'm more likely to be found plopped down under a tree, face to the sun, thinking up a storm, possibly with my iPod in hand.  I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world for several reasons and one definitely has to do with this place.  I can't think of a better way to "get out of the house", revive creativity, pass the siesta hour, get a tan and dream up new "impossible" plans than basking in the front lawn of one of the most powerful families that made Rome.  

Plus, the statues are big Storia fans.

-Jonathan Swift

"The period of 'not knowing' at the outset of an unfamiliar task or challenge is a window of opportunity.  When you don't know what should be done, or how something is supposed to work, it's a brief pocket of possibility.  You are free to speculate on something unencumbered by the conventional structures." -Warren Berger

"Art has been veritably invaded by life, if life means flux, change, chance, time unpredictability... Sometimes the difference between the two is sheer consciousness, the awareness that what seemed to be a stain on the wall is in fact a work of art."-Michael Kimmelman