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(09/26/07 1:15am)
MILAN, Italy – Showing Giorgio Armani on the first day of the Milan fashion week is like serving dessert before the main course. After such a treat, is there room for more?\nIn years past, Armani would close the preview collections, summing up the message Italian design was sending out for next season. But recently, the 73-year-old maestro of Italian ready-to-wear has become increasingly his own man, prone to throwing fashion darts at his colleagues, and above all, interested in keeping his multibillion dollar industry in the limelight.\nSo why not get his fashion view in ahead of the pack?\nThe latest Armani look for the Spring-Summer 2008, presented Monday afternoon, points south to Sicily, where the designer has a summer home on the exclusive isle of Panarea. Head scarves, netted shawls, flared skirts and knickerbockers gathered at the knee like a beachcomber’s rolled up pants are underlined by a palette of sandy beige, shrub green and sea blue. Together, they combine to evoke Mediterranean lore.\nThe plunging necklines of Armani’s eveningwear, however, tell a more contemporary tale. Although now a dying breed, many women in Sicily up until a few years ago were still shrouded in black.\nThe new Armani jacket dubbed “petite,” which is closer to a bolero than a spencer, barely covers the demurely flared blouse underneath, and is worn with a softly pleated skirt or the flared knickers. There is not a man-tailored pantsuit – the designer’s trademark – in sight.\nOften enigmatic with his choice of footwear (one season he paired running shoes with evening gowns), Armani next season switches day and night. High heels accompany the beach-inspired daywear, and flat sandals are paired with the ultra-light, richly embroidered gowns. To underline the sea theme of his collection, Armani adorns his wears with fish-shaped brooches and boxy handbags in the shape of a miniature treasure chest.\nAfter home furnishings and hotel design, Armani’s latest venture is a deal with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics for a line of high-end electronic goods. The first item of the new partnership is a credit-card sized cell phone bearing his name, which the designer unveiled at a news conference Monday morning. The multifunction phone will be on sale in Europe in November. Early next year, Armani plans to unveil his version of an LCD television.
(03/29/07 4:00am)
Legendary reggae artist Bob Marley had 13 children. Many of them went on to become musicians themselves. Child No. 4, Stephen, who is known for his work in his brother Ziggy's group, The Melody Makers, and producing his brother Damian's albums now has his own debut album out. Ya mon.\nStephen has generated a lot of hype with his previous work, winning Grammy after Grammy. Mind Control showcases his abilities as an MC but falls short in several places. Stephen relies too much on guest appearances from the likes of brothers Julian and Damian, Mos Def and Ben Harper. These cameos merely bog things down in places and are unnecessary; Stephen's talented enough to carry his own weight.\nWhat Stephen does accomplish is creating an island feel and mixing it with hip-hop, R&B, rock and dance hall. \nThe single, "The Traffic Jam," (featuring Damian and Buju Baton), is very dance hall, but sadly is annoying as hell. "Chase Dem" is the most old-school reggae-sounding song, very reminiscent of his father's brand of reggae. Stephen's voice sounds very similar to his father's while still sounding very unique.\nModern reggae is overproduced and Mind Control is no exception. The appeal of reggae is that islanders, many of whom live impoverished lives, get together and play a very raw, emotional form of music. Stephen's songs are still very political and personal. On "Iron Bars," he wails, "I'm a prisoner, locked up for what? Freedom of speech ain't got all we got." He's very socially aware, and it shines throughout this album.\nAs diverse as Mind Control is, Stephen is strongest when recreating the sound of Bob and staying true to the roots of reggae. The hip-hop beats are weak and take away from the authentic reggae feel. Better than Damian, not as good as Bob and definitely not Toots.
(02/20/07 5:00am)
VATICAN CITY – A 450-year-old receipt has provided proof that Michelangelo kept a private room in St. Peter’s Basilica while working as the pope’s chief architect, Vatican experts said.\nWhile going through the basilica archives for an exhibit on the 500th anniversary of the church last year, researchers came across an entry for a key to a chest “in the room in St. Peter’s where Master Michelangelo retires.”\nThe Renaissance painter and sculptor, whose frescoes adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, was put in charge of the restoration of St. Peter’s Basilica by Pope Paul III at age 71 in 1546, a job he held until his death in 1564.\nMichelangelo’s greatest contribution to the basilica was his design for the central dome or cupola, a universally acknowledged architectural triumph.\n“We now know that Michelangelo definitely had a private space in the basilica. The next step is to identify it,” said Maria Cristina Carlo-Stella, who runs the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office where the basilica’s archives are kept.\nCarlo-Stella spoke to The Associated Press in an interview in the past week.\nThe ink-scripted entry for the key was contained in a parchment-covered volume listing the expenditures of the Fabbrica for the years 1556-1558. It refers to the payment of 10 scudos to the blacksmith who forged the key, but offers no details about the chest or the location of the room.\nVatican officials reported the find during the current exhibition, although the volume was not put on display.\nThe basilica – 610 feet long and 449 feet at its widest – took 120 years to build over a previous Roman basilica, constructed by the emperor Constantine. The first stone was placed by Pope Julius II in 1506 and Pope Urban VIII consecrated it in 1626.\nAt least 10 architects succeeded each other as directors of the construction, among them Donato Bramante, who drew up the initial project, and Michelangelo.\nA frescoed room with a cozy fireplace in the area where the archives are housed has traditionally been called “la stanza di Michelangelo,” or Michelangelo’s room. Located on an upper floor in the left wing of the basilica, it is connected to the ground floor by a winding, marble staircase – fueling speculation that the room could have been the artist’s private sanctuary.\nHowever, research shows the room was added during renovations after Michelangelo’s death.\n“The theory is very romantic and conspiratorial, but totally unfounded,” said Federico Bellini, an art historian who works in the archives department.\nHe said a 16th-century sketch of the left wing of the basilica shows it was nothing more than a pile of rubble intertwined with vegetation during Michelangelo’s time at the Vatican. The Fabbrica, whose documents date from as far back as 1506, was originally housed in the right wing of the basilica, which had already been built at the time of Michelangelo. sans had been allotted lodgings there, leading experts to direct their search for Michelangelo’s studio to that area.\nOne detail the 450-year-old receipt does reveal is that Michelangelo had requested a very expensive key. According to archivist Simona Turriziani, 10 scudos in the 1550s was more than the monthly salary of many of the artisans working on the basilica.\n“The key was surely meant to keep that chest tightly locked,” she said.