Shakshouka
In the genre of foreign language food hip hop, my preference might still be for poutine (squish squish), but the ode to shakshouka is a close second:
Filed under
Oy gevalt
Just couldn’t resist sharing this. I honestly think he’s got chops.
Filed under
Open Mic, New York 10013
There’s a whole post on how much I love Elisa Albert, the featured reader at the 92Y Tribeca Open Mic tonight — alongside with the wondrous Sway Machinery — but here, let me just rant a bit about how excited I am that it’s happening in the first place. Yes, the name is a bit of a mystery — I mean, it’s nowhere near 92nd Street — but that’s New York for you.
But here’s what it is: A fast-paced (3 minutes, or 1 sheet of paper), exciting open stage where people can come to do poetry, stories, songs, or anything they want that inspires them. I spent most of my life trying to get to this city, and now that I’m here — and I’m surrounded by a hundred of my favorite writers and artists — I kind of want to get everyone together, not just to do their hit single, but to drop any piece that they’re in the mood to read. Last week, I got to talk to Dara Horn, one of my favorite novelists, and she told me this idea she had for a new book — and it was half an hour of me sitting in a cafe with my jaw steadily progressing lower and lower toward the ground.
It was that kind of moment — the kind where she’s pumped with creative energy and I’m pumped with oh-WOW-wtf energy and we both recognize that a bona fide creative moment happened. So, if you have anything to share — or just want to hear a bunch of really cool people do really cool things — stop by tonight. It’s free. Oh, and there’s a bar attached, so things will just get interestinger and interestinger.
Filed under
Stereophonics Rebooted as Idelsohn Society
You remember Reboot, right? They’re the five-year-old organization “committed to creating opportunities for our peers to gather, to engage, to question and to self-organize with their own networks, in their own way, in their own time.” While I will admit to being suspicious of their summits - as I am of most gatherings of Jews in fancy places to think about nothing in particular - I will equally admit to being enamored with their quarterly journal Guilt & Pleasure and especially with their record label, Reboot Stereophonics.
The label, devoted to reissuing obscure musical evidence of American Jews’ experimentation with the melting pot, launched with Irving Field’s not-at-kitchy-as-it-sounds Bagels and Bongos. At the time, I was working for my local Jewish newspaper and had the opportunity to interview both Fields and Stereophonics’ co-founder, Roger Bennett. I practically begged Bennett to give a second life to my favorite out-of-print album, The Barry Sisters Sing Fiddler on the Roof. (At some other point, I promise to wax rhapsodic about the album, especially its bongo-driven take on “Far From The Home I Love,” but I digress.)
So far, that release hasn’t happened, but today my inbox lit up with the news that the label has renamed itself, and the first release under the new name is the Sisters’ final effort, Our Way. 
I haven’t heard the entire album yet, but a couple of years ago a friend e-mailed me some MP3s of the duo’s Yiddish-language takes on such hits as “Cabaret” and “My Way,” and let me tell you, they are not to be missed. Now, will this fulfill Reboot’s hope that Jews of our generation will be spurred to explore and discuss the interaction of Judaism and American culture? Unclear. But whether you end up discussing the relationship between singing pop hits in Yiddish to singing tefillot to pop melodies or starting a dissertation on the epistemology of cover songs or simply humming along to some excellent performances of timeless songs, I don’t think that’s such a problem.
And what of the name change? According to the e-mail,
Our project is named in honor of Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, the godfather of Jewish musicology. Idelsohn devoted his life to studying, gathering, and classifying Jewish music in all of its forms in order to better understand the very nature of Jewishness itself, much in the same spirit as American folklorist Alan Lomax who used the collection of music as a means of understanding national culture and tradition. Idelsohn penned the ten volume Thesaurus of Hebrew and Oriental Melodies and is responsible for writing the lyrics to “Hava Nagila,” a Chassidic nigunim that he helped transform into the unofficial anthem of international Jewry.
It looks like they haven’t finalized the transformation yet, with the main Reboot website offering no sign of Idelsohn whatsoever, but there is a new wiki at www.idelsounds.com. The new site is a little bit more of a work-in-progress than I would like to see at a site’s launch, but shows promise if all those wonderful people out there in internetland do what the nice people want and fill in the blanks. (And I’ve got to admit, seeing all those incomplete entries nearly sent me into an orgy of picture and information gathering before I remembered I have a day job. And a second job, for that matter. But this may spur some of the conversations around the music that Bennett et al hope to foster.)
Post-Script #1 - Idelsohn Society mavens Bennett and Josh Kun are also releasing a book of Jewish History through LP Covers that looks promising: And You Shall Know Us By The Trail Of Our Vinyl.
Post-Script #2 - The Barry Sisters seem to be experiencing a mini-revival at the moment, with several of their other albums making their CD debuts courtesy of Collectors’ Choice Music. Alas, still no Fiddler.
Filed under
“A New Beat for a New Israel” — Balkan Beat Box!
Dudes and dudettes, I’m stoked to announce a project that’s been long coming and is now fit for public announcement — Balkan Beat Box is going to play the 13th annual New Generations Benefit, the marquee event for New Israel Fund’s young leadership gang!
All the official bladdy blah aside (see below the fold), I’ve been on the Benefit Committee for this event before and really I cannot stress how empowering and fun this cluster of people and purposes is. It’s 500 folks in their 20s and 30s, totally excited to put a few bucks down for some raffles and auctions, a great party, and (this year) one of the most rockin’ bands from the Israeli scene.
It’s empowering because all the money goes to social change in Israel. If you’re an activist doing social change work in Israel, chances are your org got it’s founding grant from NIF, currently gets NIF money, or gets consulting from NIF’s 100-person training wing, Shatil.
I had the chance to interview the Israel-side staff of Shatil and NIF, who really shocked me with some numbers. What’s stunning is that, I shit you not, nobody in the funding world is supporting grassroots orgs in Israel like NIF. You’d think the OJC could send even half of NIF’s $28 million a year. But they’re not.
Orgs working for the rights of women, gays, minorities, foreign workers, immigrants, and refugees; economic, social and racial equality; the environment; and religious pluralism and freedom. Over 100 a year.
Really, if you give a damn about real Israelis, social pioneers building their country, then this is the event and the cause for you. Sign up for the Benefit Committee. Buy a floor ticket to the show. Buy a bigger ticket to the private party. See you there.
Filed under
If you want to kiss this sky, better learn how to kneel…
In a course at the U of North Texas, R’ Geoffrey Dennis asked his students to offer a kabbalistic commentary on U2’s mysterious ways. He’s posted some of the choicest bits over at his blog.
Johnny take a dive with your sister in the rain
K.Gr. - Water = Divine experience.
A.D. - Go to the waterside and pray. The Shekhinah will reveal the hidden to you and your soul will awaken.
W. Got - [Into] the feminine side of the Sefirot power.
K.F. - Let [God's] glory fall on you; dive as deep as you can.Let her talk about the things you can’t explain
J.P.H. - The esoteric.
V.I. - Donkey drivers and women can reveal things that are profound, even thought they don’t seem important.
C.D. - A tzadik or rebbe is required to talk about the things you [the hasid] can’t explain yourself.
K.F. - Find the meaning, keep asking questions.
Anybody got any other pop songs with obvious kabbalistic imagery? YehuditBrachah once told me that “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bil Withers is about the departure of the Shekhina.
Full story.
Filed under
20 Things To Do With Matzah
Passover’s over, and wouldn’t it be neat
if you could use all the matzah that you didn’t eat?
More at MatzahSong.com
Filed under
This Is Not Jewish
And yet it must be posted.
Filed under
Purim from Haman’s Perpective
My former classmate Matt Bar is the founder of The Bible Raps Project, “a holistic educational venture centered on rap music, aimed at creating a sense of wonder and appreciation for Biblical Jewish texts and Midrash.” He has an album due out this summer which integrates original pieces with online curriculum.
This won’t be the last time we get to enjoy Matt’s entertainment/education excellent-ness. This independent video was produced in Jerusalem and we now bring it to you here:
Filed under
Indie minyan collectibles
Indie minyaneers…get your accessories! My minyan (the Mission Minyan in San Francisco) launched this beaut of a bencher this morning. We don’t actually stand to fundraise that much with it, but we wanted to get more Shabbat shwag out there into a community that - let’s be honest - doesn’t see that many weddings in any given year (Yours Truly’s efforts notwithstanding.)
I have a fantasy that other minyans will follow suit, and I can put together a collection of minyan loot from all over the country. Get on it, ya’ll. I want my DC Minyan mousepad and my Hadar frisbee!
Filed under
Jacques Attali and the State of Frum Rock
biz posted last week about the Big Event, but to recap briefly; a group of Charedi Rabbis signed a ban for a concert featuring the vocal ‘talents’ of singers like Sheya Mendlowitz, Shloime Gertner, and Lipa Schmeltzer. Well, today, the NY Times finally picked up the story. Suffice it to say; It doesn’t look particularly good. The last graph of the story says:
Assemblyman Hikind said he planned to meet with the rabbis involved. “Suddenly, when it comes to faith in the rabbis, there is this big question mark,†he said. “And when you don’t explain to the young people, you lose them, plain and simple.â€
I couldn’t help but think of Jacques Attali’s Noise: The Political Economy of Music. He writes:
Since it is a threat of death, noise is a concern of power; when power founds its legitimacy on the fear it inspires, on its capacity to create social order, on its univocal monopoly of violence, it monopolizes noise. Thus in most cultures, the theme of noise, its audition and endowment with form, lies at the origin of the religious idea.
But by rejecting that concern - by rejecting the use of noise, the authority is abdicating its own power. They should be embracing people like Schmeltzer and Gertner (because at least they aren’t Nirvana and Guns & Roses). But by delegitimizing even those Chassidic artists, the authorities are equivocating them with Kurt Cobain and Axel Rose. Why listen to Schmeltzer instead of Metallica if they are both banned? The distinctions disappear, as does the Rabbi’s monopoly on people’s listening. As someone who spent time in Charedi Yeshivas, I can attest to the fact that when you ban Soul Farm, they become just as contraband as the Sex Pistols. And you can’t keep people from trying to listen to music (unless you are the Taliban and have an actual physical authority over them).
Before I let this go on for too long, I just wanted to say how struck I was by another NY Times article this week that discussed the relationship between Orthodox Rabbis in Israel and the same in the USA:
A marriage registrar given a letter from an Orthodox rabbi abroad certifying that a person is Jewish is now expected to check with the office of Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, which maintains a list of diaspora clergy whose letters are to be trusted. The list is not publicly available. If the rabbi who wrote the letter is not on the list, the applicant is asked for other proof or referred to the rabbinic courts… “The rabbinate in Israel has put the Orthodox rabbinate” — meaning Orthodox rabbis in the United States — “on the same level as Reform rabbis,” Angel said.
So there’s obviously some tension as well, as the United States Charedi Rabbinate attempt to compete and prove themselves to their Israel counterparts. This is going to get worse before it gets better, though, if Attali is right, banning music might completely backfire.
Filed under
Shemspeed Remix Contest
Listen up Jewschoolers:
Shemspeed is giving you all the chance to remix from our files. First up is Y-Love next will be Pharaoh’s Daughter and they will keep coming. Here is how it works!
We give you the instrumentals and accapellas and you use whatever program you would like to make your own remixes from these files. We recommend Ableton (download a free trial here). You have the chance to remix four different singles off the “This is Babylon” album.
Once you finish the remix submit it to Shemspeed (djhandler {at} shemspeed(.)com) and have a chance to win a Shemspeed fun pack (includes CDs, Stickers, Posters, Fliers and an official Shemspeed T Shirt).
have fun!
DOWNLOAD ALL FILES AT www.ylovemusic.com/remix to listen to the songs in full go to myspace.com/ylove.
Filed under
Chasing Humpty
In this happiest month of Adar, we look back in history at all the joyous events that have taken place in Adars past. Can you believe that it has been 18 years (and 24 Adars) since Digital Underground released their album Sex Packets, on 29 Adar 5750?
On Thursday night at a “Def Adar Jam” in southern Jerusalem, I performed a folk version of “The Humpty Dance” on acoustic guitar in honor of this milestone. Yes, there are other versions floating around the Internet, but if I may say so, my rendition is better. (And no, my version isn’t on YouTube and never will be. By day, I teach high school, and I don’t need my students googling me and hearing me sing about how I’m still getting in the girls’ pants.)
Here’s the thing though. It’s not really my version. I first heard it at Hillel Leaders Assembly in 1999.
In Megillat Esther, an Adar classic, after Mordechai uncovers the plot to assassinate the king, Esther passes this information on to Achashverosh in Mordechai’s name (Esther 2:22). The rabbis of the Talmud derive from this that anyone who says a thing in the name of the one who said it brings redemption to the world (Megillah 15a). Wait, no. Rabbi Eliezer taught it in the name of Rabbi Hanina. That’s better.
So I’d like to give proper credit to the person from whom I learned this acoustic folk version of the Humpty Dance, and thereby bring redemption to the world. There’s only one problem. I never got his name. I’ve been chasing Humpty ever since.
Then I realized that there’s really no good reason that this mystery hasn’t been solved yet. The Jewish world just isn’t that big, especially the subset of it who were Hillel student leaders in 1999 and play guitar. This person shouldn’t be more than a couple degrees of separation away from me. But he (yes, I’m pretty sure about the gender) has remained at large for 8.5 years. So I’m bringing in the big guns and asking the blogosphere. If you played the acoustic Humpty Dance at Hillel Leaders Assembly in 1999, please identify yourself so that the world can be redeemed. And if it wasn’t you, but you have a hunch of who it might be, please forward this post to them, so that together we may usher in an era of peace and humptiness forever.
Thanks in advance!
Filed under
PITOM hits up Jerusalem
From Yoshie Fruchter and the gang: PITOM does a short tour in Israel this weekend and next week. First a solo Beyond the Book show and then a trio PITOM gig, both in Jerusalem. Very different vibes for each gig, but both should be a lot of fun. If you have any friends or family in Israel that you think would dig, please let them know.
BEYOND THE BOOK at OU Israel Center
WHERE:22 Keren HaYesod • POB 37015 • Jerusalem 91370
phone: (02) 566 7787 • fax: (02) 566-0156
WHEN: Saturday night, Feb. 25th, 8:30pm
PRICE: 40 Shekels
YOSHIE FRUCHTER’S PITOM (acoustic trio with Tomer Tzur and Oded Goldschmidt)
WHERE: Artel jazz club, Jerusalem
Heleni Hamalka 9, Tel: 077 9620165
When: Monday night, Feb 25th, 10pm
PRICE: 20 shekels
Filed under
Happy Purim!!
Today was Shushan Purim Katan here in Jerusalem. That is, in a year with two months of Adar, the first month we don’t celebrate the full holiday, but we maybe drink a little bit, and a day later than non-walled cities.
I wanted to tell y’all about the new Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo Podcast - you can subscribe here, or click here to add the podcast to itunes.
So far, we have a special talk on R’ Shlomo Carlebach’s music with Ben Zion Solomon, probably the world’s most knowledgeable person on that topic, as well as Reb Chaim Kramer of the Breslov Research Institute giving over a teaching of Rebbe Nachman on Purim.
Soon to come, Kabbalistic and Chassidic Insights into Purim with Rabbi Avraham Aryeh Trugman.
I had no idea the depths of Purim until recently - and these talks should help you reach the heights of the highest day of the year.
Last week, one of my teachers remarked to me before class that he’d almost had a heart attack when he looked at my facebook page, due to one of my friends wearing a bikini in her profile picture. He then picked up the theme and taught this Torah from the Mei Hashiloach (at the end of the PDF) all about Purim and nudity. Gevaldt.
Purim sameach to everyone!
(also, there’s a shiur here from Aish Kodesh in New York on Purim Katan that’s probably worthwhile)
Filed under
Kein, Annu Yicholim (Yes, We Can)
With Super Tuesday upon us, a music video version of a Barack Obama speech featuring Will.i.am, Jesse Dylan, Common, Scarlett Johansson, and many others, has been forwarded to me more times than the smear emails have. As the JTA notes, two of the only departures from the actual text are when Maya Rubin appears on the screen to say, “Kein, Annu Yicholim” (Yes, We Can).
If you are in a primary state, Jewschool has already urged you to vote today. As for me, I urge you to watch this video before you do.
Filed under
Bayit, MD
Richard Kaplan, the mystically-inclined world-music hazzan from the East Bay, reports that tomorrow night’s episode of House, MD will feature his rendition of the Niggun of the Alter Rebbe. He writes:
The episode begins with an Hasidic bedeken, to the davvening sounds of yours truly. They have asked for 2 1/2 minutes of the recording from my 2nd CD “Life of the Worlds.” There is a very long chance that in the final editing last Thursday, something may have changed, but in all likelihood the song is “in.”
Tuesday night, February 5th
9pm on FOX
Filed under
Shir Yaakov releases FIVE new albums
For anyone looking for some good tunes to snuggle up with during these winter days (even snowing in Israel this week!), soul songster Shir Yaakov has released five albums compiling most of his work to date, including his Musical Midrash project (see Beresheit5764, Vayikra5764, and Bamidbar5764) and newest tracks (see Is he free?) as well as some older work.
Filed under
