Camille Cusumano

Sunday, October 12, 2008, 1 p.m to 4 p.m.

at the MUSEO ITALOAMERICANO, Fort Mason Center, Building C,San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 673-2200
sfmuseo@sbcglobal.net

A Tango Party

Writer Camille Cusumano will read from her latest book, Tango, an Argentine Love Story

She’ll talk briefly about how Italians put the go in Tango. Most seasoned travelers know that Buenos Aires is more Italian than anything else. But did you know that the most esteemed tango composers—DiSarli, D’Agostino, D’Arienzo, Biagi, Piazzola, Pugliese, to name but a few—whose music is played even today, were Italian? What better way to spend Columbus Day?

The following is excerpted verbatim from my mother’s cookbook she’s been assembling for her kids for many years (July 31 she will turn 86—she’s still cookin’). I’ve excerpted only a few savory ones. Soon, I’ll post some of her cookies and other sweets.

Welcome to La Cucina di Carmela!
For many years, my children would call me and ask how to cook a certain recipe they remembered—that Broccoli Soup or Pizza the way we ate it on Fridays when meat was forbidden. So for many years I’ve wanted to collect these recipes in one place. As time went on, I also added new recipes from good friends who enjoyed the simple pleasures of cooking and eating. You’ll find recipes as humble as Pasta and Peas and as fancy as Beef Wellington. As some guy, I think he was French said: To eat is a necessity, to eat well is an art. That’s why I am so excited to finally present these recipes, old and new ones, to my ten children, their spouses and partners, my twenty-four grandchildren, my fifteen great-grandchildren, plus, at this writing, the seven great-grand-kids on the way (in the oven, so to speak) and to my many good friends. As we Sicilians say, a tavola, mangiamo!

Portland TangoFest XII Wed-Mon, October 15 through 20, 2008

Camille Cusumano will be in attendance of many events at the Portland Tango Festival and also among the vendors selling her book, Tango, an Argentine Love Story.

Praise for Tango

“Tango is a remarkable addition to contemporary dharma literature. It reads like a thriller, a romance, and above all it shows the redemptive potential of a sincere spiritual practice.”
—Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

Wednesday, October 22, 7 p.m.

A reading from:

Tango, an Argentine Love Story by Camille Cusumano.

Check back to confirm time.

GET LOST BOOKSTORE

1825 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 437-0529

Everything you wanted to know about tango and Buenos Aires.

Praise for TangoPraise for Tango

“Tango is a remarkable addition to contemporary dharma literature. It reads like a thriller, a romance, and above all it shows the redemptive potential of a sincere spiritual practice.”
—Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

Excerpted from an in-progress collection of essays, Wilderness Begins at Home.

My brother Chuck, like all four of my brothers, is of a generally conservative persuasion. I, like most of my five sisters, am liberal. Opposing politics make for lively family gatherings. Each summer, though, Chuck and I meet on common ground-on our backpack trips in the Sierra Nevada. Out in the rarefied air of gods’ country, we avoid, with only an occasional slip, discussing our opposing political views.

This is not to say we don’t argue. We argue relentlessly.

In my middle years
I’ve become rather fond of the way.
Sometimes I go alone through the forest
to see things that only I can see.
I follow streams to the source
and sit and watch clouds come up.
Or perhaps I meet another [backpacker] and
we laugh and sing and I forget the way home.

Adapted from a poem by Wang Wei, 8th century (Tang Dynasty) poet

Powell’s Bookstore, Portland, Oregon

A reading from:

Tango, an Argentine Love Story by Camille Cusumano.

7:30 pm to 9 pm

• Everything you ever wanted to know about tango

• Watch dancing demos, too.

•Note that the following day October 15, opens the Portland Tango Festival, which runs through October 20.

Powell’s is at 1005 W Burnside Portland, OR 97209 USA

“From humble storefront beginnings in 1971 on a derelict corner of northwest Portland, Oregon, Powell’s Books has grown into one of the world’s great bookstores, with seven locations in the Portland metropolitan area, and one of the book world’s most successful dot-coms (www.powells.com), serving customers worldwide.” from their web site.