I Played the Snarky Role of Seth Word from: Mordy

I just spent the weekend in Bethany Beach in what could be considered the Jewish equivalent of The O.C. (or Laguna Beach for MTV fans). Beautiful beach house, loads of alcohol and a variety of personalities that would make for compelling television... if we could've rolled the cameras on Shabbos.

Which organizer of a major Jewish music event didn't listen to any Jewish music all weekend? The same one who played Rage Against the Machine, The Grateful Dead and sung along to the new Audioslave song. To be fair though, the new Audioslave song definitely has some creator/creation issues.

Hey hey I said
Near as I can figure
You gave me life now
Show me how to live

And not to stir up any more trouble than is needed, but which popular Jewish artist said he isn't playing Yidstock this year because his wife is due that weekend, but he is playing a different show a day or so before Yidstock? (Yeah. I'm not sure if I plan on going yet, either.)

In other news, Slate discusses the phenomenon of secular Jews fighting for certain aspects of Shabbat to be kept in Israel. And my pick for forum conversation of the week comes from Indie Jews where the question of being an Indie Jew, and specifically a Jewish Artist, is discussed.

"Desperate Land" Word from: Alieza

Speaking of Russia (well, its a loose connection anyways), I just saw some Moscow style circus performers in Jerusalem. Last week the Jerusalem municipality set up a Circus Stage in the middle of Kikar Zion, the heart of Jersualem. Trapeze artists stood out starkly against the night sky in silver and yellow. The trapeze and the high wire were all strung up above the hard pavement of the Midrachov, there was no net, no padding. Two men danced with fire. It looked like their very arms were on fire, windmills spinning to an electric trance beat.

I was thinking about the circus the next day as I was reading the newspaper. Sitting in a 70's themed coffee shop in Jerusalem, "The End" from the Doors blares. I'm reading about bombs in England, Egypt, Iraq; Orange wearing hippies simply believe a miracle will stop the disengagement; The Christian Right sends a traveling billboard exhibit of bloody corpses from Rwanda juxtaposed to aborted fetuses around Europe; Growing Messianic Aliyah; Anti-Semitism in France; Sharon's son indicted; A group of Rabbis curse Sharon and expect him to die in 30 days; The "Apocalypse Now" sound track is sounding eerily appropriate.

I can't help but feel that this frenetic energy of the circus in the street all comes back to the world spiraling into the abyss: their need to light up the night with their bodies and their very hands, to fly through the air with no thought of falling, no thoughts of tomorrow. If a comet of red fire was burning its way into the atmosphere, would you overcome your fears, jump on it's back, and ride it into the darkness for as long as you can?

The ride is exhilarating; but be careful there is no padding in this country.

Pharaoh's (Jewish?) Daughter Word from: menachem

Far be it from me to even entertain the blasphemous thought that I could contribute further to a discussion about Russian arts that Jake has initiated, but here goes:
I was at the Bolshoi Performance (Zakharova, Tsiskaridze, Alexandrova) of Pharaoh's Daughter at the Metropolitan Opera, and I think there is an interesting Jewish angle on it. I may be writing about this in my Jewish Press column, so here is a taste, with more to follow (unless Jake kicks me off before then). Maya Plisetskaya, who became the prima ballerina at the Bolshoi in 1945, has a fascinating memoir out from Yale UP, called I, Maya Plisetskaya, which deals with her trials as a Jew (and a revolutionary) in Russia.

Further, one character is called Ta-hor (pure?), the story is about Basya (the prototype, not Schechter the Other Pharaoh's Daughter) and it involves a social realism (the curtain is decorated by an Akhenaten like caricature that certainly smells of mono-theism). Also, the costume design is Arabesque. Can you get more Jewish than that?
Still not convinced? Take these names from the children dancers: Sarah E. Goldstein and William S. Rosenberg (there are others as well).
More on this later, perhaps.

Mash dem! Moshihist-mon, I... Word from: Jake

The word has it that when Mashiah arrives and establishes the broiling godliness, psychoanalytic freedom, uninhibited marxism, free love, etc., Tisha B'Av will become a holiday. And the three weeks preceeding it, a massive continuous feast. Full of wild anticipation, I've been hitting up some very festive musical events this past week.

On Wednesday, I saw the Bolshoy Ballet, doing Bright Stream, witty mise en abyme about a dance troop that comes to perform at a god-forsaken "kolhoz" (collective farm, Soviet precussor to kibbutz). Kolhoz tractorist falls in love with a ballerina and abandons his cow-milking girlfriend Zina. Zina quickly learns a few moves from the ballerina and proves the ingrate that she is not only a first-class worker, but also superb graceful dancer, worthy of any tractorist's love. The best part was Bolshoy's mimicking of the peasants who dance most awkwardly. Prof Lee back in YU always warned me about the 'imitation fallacy', parodying somebody and then falling into the pit of the same imperfection (i.e. writing a parody of a cliche poem that's full of the same dumb cliches...). These guys were so above any imitation fallacy, it was mind-blowing - and edifying, too.

Last night I went to see the great Jamaican roots-reggae band, Israel Vibration. In the small world of genre's appreciators, they're as legendary as Marley's Wailers. And as old: both of the lead singers are on crutches. So, as you can imagine, the vibe was quite laid-back (even as far as reggae goes) but so juicy and nourishing that blissful trance was upon all. The trademark falsetto voices didn't falter one bit; Skelley and Wiss swayed and swung on their crutches. One of their anthem tunes goes:

or whether you're a Bobo
or whether you're an Orthodox
or whether you're a Binghi Natty Dread
or whether you're a twelve tribe of Israel
we all gonna sing the same song...

You know which line I was cheering at the most (Emcee: "All of de Orthodox people on da house..." Three of us in the corner: "yeee!!")

Skankin' shabbos vibes all!

Urban Legends and Settlers Word from: Mordy

For Urban Legends not covered by Snopes (ie: the exclusively Jewish ones), my recent article in The Forward on the topic is a good starting point. "Decoding the Modern Jewish Urban Legend." There are still a bunch that were too edgy to be published in The Forward, so I'm on the lookout for an edgy Jewish outlet looking for Jewish Urban Legends about murder, demonology, sexual perversion and numerous 'cides (homicide, suicide, fratricide, deicide...).

Also have an article this week about a group of Lubavitchers in Crown Heights called True Peace, who are releasing animations and parody songs against the disengagement. They said they were inspired by the flash game Wild West Bank. The article is here.

In music news, Yidstock have started selling tickets. Piamenta, Blue Fringe, Beyond Eden, Moshav Band, Eden (a different band than Beyond Eden? Is Beyond Eden better?), Soulfarm and two other bands that I'm now too lazy to write. Hopefully this won't be anything like the last Woodstock. Or rather, hopefully it will be. That would breath some life into the Jewish music genre. Considering that Piamenta is a big Hendrix fan, can we hope for the Star Spangled Banner?

Liz Phair's new album is called "Somebody's Miracle." She'll be mine if she makes an album as good as "Exile in Guysville." She'll be a label exec's miracle if she does another one like the last.

And finally, seems Vendyl Jones is proposing to dig up the Ark of the Covenent before Tisha B'av. He, for all ye of little love for the famous trilogy of movies, was the real life inspiration for Indiana Jones. Someone should remind him to close his eyes when they open the Ark. Otherwise he'll end up like the Nazi's at the end of the movie. (Like, they totally got their souls sucked out their eyes).

The Sacred & Profane Word from: David

Israel-Music has a surprising new item-Safra has made recordings of the Chumash, or as they call it, 'The Hebrew Bible.' This collection of 13 CD's stirs debate on how to approach a sacred text. Is 'going to sleep with a chapter from "Bereshit" or driving the car listening to the most beautiful stories in the world'-as an Israeli reviewer suggested-appropriate? Must Torah be read in a formal setting? My only quibble is that the recording lacks trop (cantillation), which would recreate the Pre-Guttenberg (and Soncino) experience of solely hearing the Torah, making the humble etnachta (pause) and his musical friends (Azla, Munach, etc.) so much more important.

Another development in the Seforim world is an Artscroll Siddur for women. I counted nine women thanked in the introduction for their involvement in this undertaking. Two were donors and seven were typists and copywriters, but I'd like to think a modest but influential woman, perhaps a Rebbetzin or seminary teacher was working behind the scenes. Thoughts on whether this book is a recognition that women have religous obligations (which has immense halachic and philosophical relevance) or a ponderous attempt to deal with feminism (or both) are appreciated. Nu, at least it comes in three colors.

Suffice it to say the Ohel Sarah is in better taste than the Brick Testament. For once, using the phrase 'Lehavdil' may be apropos. This site is best described as your third-grade Chumash project (surely someone out there made a mini Beit HaMikdash from Lego blocks) reinterpreted by a sardonic hipster invoking the spirit of Jacob Katz's Voltaire. Were it not for the latent political undertones sprinkled within the project, a case could have been made for this site's value as an educational tool. In related news, the American Bible Society has opened an art gallery called MoBia. This acronym fad needs to stop-and where has the display of Bibles translated to Cherokee, Tok Pisin, and thousands of other languages gone?

I leave you with this picture of rapper Lil' Jon and his overpriced zirconium-decorated goblet aka 'pimp cup.' Some would call it a silly photoshop in poor taste, but I prefer to see it as an exploration of cultural boundaries, 'The Other', and Yayin Nesech.

Sketchbook: Playing with Color Word from: Shlomo

The Shpiel World Word from: Lilit Marcus

A friend of mine suggested that I apply for The Real World. Alas, it would have been cool to pull an Eggers on them and do the whole process ironically, but MTV bought irony three years ago and now commodifies it for screaming teenagers in belly shirts. Apparently, viewers are so sick of seeing the same couple of people (VERONICA) on every challenge that MTV is now inviting common folk to apply for the next edition of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge.

Her suggestion was that I get on the show by offering to be the token Yid. If there's anything MTV does beautifully, it's tokenism. However, this sent me on a kick regarding Real World Jews of the past. Surely in all its fifteen or so seasons of "stop being polite and start getting real," they've included religious minorities along with racial and sexual ones, right?

Well, there's the infamous Seattle season where Steven, a black guy who had converted to Judaism, bitch-slapped that Irene chick and threw her teddy bear in the Puget Sound. He was pissed because she said he was gay. Now, apparently, he's uncloseted. Not sure whether he's still a Jew, though. Later: the Hawaii season, the one best known for DrunkRuthie and NakedRuthie, plus that guy Teck who ended up having a sidekick role in National Lampoon's Van Wilder. Amaya, who everyone remembers for crying a lot and being in love with that loser Colin guy, also proclaimed her Judaism on TV. Apparently she was half-Jewish, or a quarter Jewish, or something like that, and only ever mentioned it the one time someone said something mildly offensive about Jewish people, thus giving her another reason to cry and yell at Colin. Not like anyone needed reasons to yell at Colin, mind you.

However, there has never been a shul-attending, Shabbat-observing Jew on this show. They've made plenty of effort to explore (read: exploit) Julie the Mormon from New Orleans, Elka the Catholic from Boston, and Jon the (Southern) Baptist from Los Angeles, even giving the threesome a prime-time special where they talked about how cool abstinence is. You think MTV would jump all over the chance to make themselves look open-minded and pushing-the-envelope by sticking a chabadnik in the house with a "flamy gay guy" or "angry black woman." Hey, I'd go to the freaking casting call, but they'd never think I was a Jew.

That reminds me. The Jews for Jesus are still ignoring me. They also are ignoring me in Madison Square Park on my lunch break. Further bulletins as events warrant.

Sketchbook: Luminaries/K-d-sh-h Word from: Shlomo

Quick caricatures of a couple important Jewish figures:












And from the archives, a serious sketch:

The Forward, HEEB, and Jewish Music Word from: Mordy

The Forward has started a new section in their newspaper. The section is a lighter attempt at a Jewish Page Six. Celebrity gossip, snarky remarks, etc. Of course, guess who immediately felt their territory was being threatened? If you guessed HEEB, the purveyors of all that is lowbrow Jewish culture, you'd be correct. In a Jewschool exclusive, David Kelsey calls the new section desperate, unsettling and upsetting.

Let me move on. Monday, September 19th, HEEB and the NYJMHF are putting on the First Annual Jewish Music Awards. Tickets are $30. Much cheaper than Grammy seats. And what do you get for your money? You get categories like: Best Blend of Jazz & Heritage, Best Danceable, and Best Middle Eastern Blend. I don't even understand the catagories. Best Danceable? Come again?

Worse are the candidates. Obviously struggling to find bands that fit the categories, HEEB truly stretches it, showing a lack of knowledge of Jewish music as wide as their judgment for other Jewish periodicals. (That would be very little, for all you keeping tabs at home.) Best Jewish Punk includes nominations like Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies and New Found Glory. So basically, a punk cover band and a band whose only Jewish affiliation are their bris milahs. Why exactly does HEEB think NFG deserve to be nominated for this award? Since when is "My Friends Over You" a Jewish song? Instead of nominating Yidcore, or Kletka Red, two actual real live Jewish Punk bands, they pick two inane choices. Unfortunately, this trend of calling an artist who happens to be Jewish, a Jewish artist continues throughout the awards. Joey Ramone is getting a HEEB Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award. And Peaches is nominated for Best New Approach (another category that leaves me speechless. Since when is having sexual relations with your father a Jewish theme? Oh. Since Noah, huh?)

So yeah. I'll admit this post has a bias. I write for the Forward and feel very protective of it. But next time you want to bash a newspaper and call their new section desperate, look into your own awards ceremony and see how far you're willing to stretch a poor concept.

Anti-Gematria Word from: David

Primo: I refuse to discuss this Broadway play in a glib way, especially as it has been given the most respectful reviews from the likes of NPR. Leave it at this: Primo Levi. 'If This Is A Man'. Sir Anthony Sher. Playing through August 7th. Seeing this production or reading the book on which it is based is a must.

Two Truths: A figure I should have mentioned in my previous post on Art & Religious Zionism is the late poet Uri Zvi Greenberg. His writing may be the missing link between the mystical writings of Rabbi A.I Kook and the earthly enterprises of his son Rabbi Z. Y Kook, leader of 'Gush Emunim'. Greenberg was something of an extremist Amos Oz notes how he had talked about killing Menachem Begin after he made a peace treaty with Egypt. (Oz, as readers of 'A Tale of Love and Darkness' will know, was raised in a Revisionist household, left it for a kibbutz, where he edited 'The Seventh Day: Soldiers Speak Out', which included a blistering essay that encaspulates his political views to this day.) Greenberg too is a harsh read-he is emotional to the point of messianism, but articulates some of the deepest collective fears that other contemporary writers would have dismissed as 'vestiges of the diaspora.'

Three Weeks: Bein HaMeiztraim or as I translate it: Dire Straits.

3:28: Length of 'Exodus', which beat out 'The Ten Commandments' and Abba Eban's 'Israel: A Nation Is Born' as my 17th of Tammuz entertainment. Other DVD prospects included 'General Idi Amin Dada' (seeing him training the Ugandan Army for an invasion of Israel is surreal) and 'Fear of A Black Hat' , which is a mockumentary parodying early 90's Californian rap groups-not Haredim.

Page 39: In his loosely autobiographical novel 'Shosha' Isaac Bashevis Singer has a character say 'Don't spare the schmaltz. Today's Jews like three things-sex, Torah, and Revolution, all mixed together.'

47th Grammy Awards: Miri Ben-Ari, Israeli 'Fiddler In Da Hood' wins a Grammy for her writing contributions (and virtuoso violin playing) in Kanye West's hit 'Jesus Walks.' Only in America...

$!?: How much was Williamsburg resident Busta Rhymes bribed to collaborate with the Pussycat Dolls, a Tznius (and talent) Free group that includes actress Carmit 'Foxy' Bachar?

Stoned but not Heedoosh'd Word from: Jake

Last Thursday night I finally made it to The Stone, a new hang out opened by John Zorn. (Zorn is one of the biggest names on the American avant-garde music scene. He also owns Tzadik Records, what he calls the "experimental music of the Radical Jewish Culture")

The Stone turned out to be a very discreet East Village hole in the wall of a place, with signs of the previous owner (Chinese fast-food take out) still visible. Hardly a stage. Bunch of folding chairs. No bar. As it says on the website "all the expenses are paid by the music itself - no drinks or merchandise." There, Shlomo, it's all about the concept, right?

Mark Dresser was playing a solo gig. On the upright bass. It was extremely avant-garde. Futuristic and disturbing. I was traumatized for the first 20 minutes with discourses a-la "nothing is too big words... if this can be transcribed into notes, why not all of my crises and internal god-grindings etc" but then I got more into it and had a few moments of transcendence.

At the same time, Heedosh and Blue Fringe were playing at Lion's Den in the West Village. I passed by to say hello to a friend. Didn't go in.

Ali G and the Chamber of Secrets Word from: Mordy

"Probing prejudice is a motif for Mr. Baron Cohen, who is an observant Jew. In an episode broadcast on HBO last year, Borat's open-mic night performance at a Tucson bar inspired patrons to join in a chorus of 'Throw the Jew down the well!'"

So says NY Times in a recent article about Ali G. Question? Does anyone proofread this stuff?

Also, got this in my email box:

"Please visit JEW, a chapter a week." Seems to be the first blog-online-installment-Jewish-book. I'm not sure if there is any significance in it.

And check out the upcoming The Complete New Yorker. It will have every issue of New Yorker on it in the magazine's first 80 years. I'm totally getting that.

Holocaust Marketing Word from: matthue

Okay, first of all, some serious ego-blogging: for all the Harry Potter stuff, I think I've got dibs on one of the earliest Jewish HP articles (contemporaneous with Book 4, baby!): Haim Pottervich and the Kiddush Cup of Fire, from the oft-mourned Farbrengen magazine. I remember a few months after it came out, when the amazing Rabbi YY Jacobson started giving lectures about him, oh no - now everyone's gonna think it was HIS idea. Fast-forward six years (and three HP volumes) and everyone's got their own theory on how Mad-Eye Moody is a metaphor for Holocaust survivors.

And, in that arena: what in the world is going on with Jewstar.com? You've probably gotten the forwards to join this bagels-and-lox version of Friendster (heh!), but has everyone noticed the copy on the site's front page -- "Be a part of the goal of connecting six million stars worldwide" -- and the more in-detail blurb inside: "As grandsons of Holocaust survivors and participants of The March of the Living, [the site's founders] have realized that Jewish people must stick together." Now, imagine you're on the board of a Jewish grant committee and try to reject that application -- your dead ancestors are gonna be rolling over in their cremation chambers. Holocaust guilt sinks to a new low.

Sketchbook: Dialectical Man Word from: Shlomo

Bumped into a friend of mine today, who's working on a documentary on the Rav. "What's so great about the Rav?" I asked. "Ahhh, you need to see our documentary" he answered. Whatever, he's still ahistorical...

how's that for gossip, Mordy?

Like Page Six for Jewish Arts! Word from: Mordy

The Silver Jews have a new song, "The Farmer's Hotel."

Spin Magazine has an exclusive online Q&A with Chuck Klosterman (who better to conduct the interview?), who just wrote a new book. Lilit and I saw Chuck as the Von Bondies concert. He looked very sad until the Bondies last song, C'mon C'mon, when he started bobbing his head slightly. As far as I can tell, the new book is about musicians attaining immortality through death. To quote Woody Allen, "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve immortality by not dying." The New York Times reviews the new book here.

Also, in a profile in Elle (I like Vogue more), Joel Stein talks about Jessica Simpson role in her new movie. At one point, in describing her new found loves in life, he says, "She even became the only person in America to love the new Woody Allen movie, Melinda and Melinda. Apparently that can happen if you've never seen a Woody Allen movie."

And, some gossip. (This is totally turning into the Page 6 for Jewish Arts and Culture). I've heard, though it is completely unverified, that at a recent Matisyahu concert, an anti-Semitic remark was made. Apparently, Matisyahu had thrown some free stuff into the crowd, and the following act made the comment, "Appreciate what you've got, that will be the last time you get anything free from a Jew." Like I said, this is completely unverified, and as the Matisyahu forums didn't seem to mention it, I have my doubts.

And finally, I just heard the new Disturbed single, "Striken." I'm not sure what the songs about (couldn't find a lyrics sheet, it hasn't been officially released yet), but it sounds like a rant against G-d. Of course, knowing David Draiman's personal background (from an Orthodox family) I may just be reading into it. Then again, doesn't all his music -- with its wa-oh-uh's and raging against a higher power -- sound like rebellion music?

Green Lines (Don't Cross Them) Word from: David

This afternoon the poetry forum was hacked into by 'Schipotez, Indonesian community hackers, who want freedome (sic) 4 Palestine and Iraq.' What a bunch of Gado-Gado eating, Gamelan playing jerks! What would President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono think of such antics? Well, now that I have proven my geography nerdiness once again, turn your attention to Kfar Maimon, a farming village in the Western Negev where tens of thousands of opponents of disengagment gathered to try and march to the Gush Katif areas of the Gaza Strip. Footage of their protest was filled with darbouka drumming, random guys with guitars, plenty of Braslav and Chabad style dancing, but they had no seminal song.

Clearly, these orange-garbed masses still haven't found their anthem, a quest well described in this Ha'Aretz article. All major crises in Israeli history call for their own folk song. Some suceed (think 'Yerushalayim Shel Zahav', 'Shir L'Shalom' or 'Hevron, Hevron') some lose their political meaning (like David Broza's 'Yihye Tov') and some miss the mark (like Yehoram Gaon's 'Eretz Zvi' commemorating the rescue of hostages in Uganda.) This is not surprising, if one realizes the dearth of lyricism, within 'dati leumi' music. Kaveret's 'Yo Ya' is now more than thirty years old, but has remained a staple at events due to it's clever use of Rabbinic quotes and lack of alternatives. In the rare event that a song is a not religous text set to music, it tends to be a parody of a secular song. Occasionally it's clever-like taking the angst out of Aviv Gefen's phrase 'we are a screwed up [mezunyan] generation' and changing it to 'we are an excellent [metzuyan] generation.' Generally, such parodies are trite and tiresome.

Still looking to show that you're more Zionist than Ariel Sharon, as you drive to Dougie's in Teaneck? Buy a 'Lovin' Gush Katif' album featuring the likes of Blue Fringe. Hebrew-speakers can listen to a song by aging rocker Ariel Zilber, seen in this article, and available to listeners here. Call me biased because I disagree with Zilber's political opinions, but 'Yehudi Lo Megaresh Yehudi' (A Jew Doesn't Expel A Jew) has disengaged from the witty lyrics that made the man one of Israel's first bona fide rock stars. Etti Levi, an underrated Mizrahi singer and Zehava Ben look-alike released a melancholy pro-settlement song called 'Argazim' (Crates). Perhaps the biggest surprise of 05' is that the T.A.C.T family, which includes rappers like Subliminal, has remained nationalist, while moving away from the right. Their last album had 'Viens Ici' a song decrying French racism, but also included 'Peace In The Middle East, performed for Shimon Peres on Israeli television. The collection of rappers and singers also released a remake of an seventies Israeli army song called 'Prahim B'Kane' (Flowers in the Cannon) which had previously been covered by EthniX-track 14, if you're listening.

Orange you glad I made a reference to Grandmaster Flash in the title?

The Jews for Jesus have been in the Union Square subway station every day for the last two weeks. I am one of the two bajillion people going through that station at rush hour on the way to work, which I imagine is why the J4J picked it for their proselytizing. I'm annoyed enough with them anyway about the whole 50 Shekel debacle (seriously, guys, he is low-rate Weird Al. Weird Al.) and how Mordy and I both almost-but-not-really got onto Page Six. (That's the art/culture aspect of my post, Jake, just so you can check it off).

The J4J, wearing matching T-shirts reading "Jesus Made Life Kosher," have been handing out their literature (as someone who has a degree in Literature and Theory and reads Proust for fun, the use of this word to refer to cheesy pamphlets annoys me for a multitude of reasons) to people who... well... "look Jewish." Anybody with dark hair, an olive complexion, or a non-button nose has been getting offered one. And me? Nothing.

So what if I am pale, redheaded, and... oh... wearing a Star of David necklace? Surely I can't be a descendant of Abraham! Part of me is thrilled that the J4Js are leaving me the hell alone, but part of me wants them to approach me so that I can yell at them and thus reduce my number of morning teas by one stress-relieving cup. Thoughts? Opinions? I need advice, people! What if they realize their mission is a failure and abandon the station before I have decided what do about their presence? Help!

More on Harry Potter Word from: Jake

I have no bones (broomsticks, etc.) to pick with J.K. Rowling. I work for Random House, which publishes all Potter audio books, and their popularity positively echoes on such trivialities as job security, year-end bonus, etc. But other people, they got major bones. For instance, Harold Bloom, one of the leading academics of the day, 300-lb-of-brain lecturer at Yale University had this review in the WSJ a few years back. If anything, it's quite entertaining, like this quote here:

One can reasonably doubt that "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is going to prove a classic of children's literature, but Rowling, whatever the aesthetic weaknesses of her work, is at least a millennial index to our popular culture. So huge an audience gives her importance akin to rock stars, movie idols, TV anchors, and successful politicians. Her prose style, heavy on cliche, makes no demands upon her readers. In an arbitrarily chosen single page--page 4--of the first Harry Potter book, I count seven cliches, all of the "stretch his legs" variety.

Frankly, I think the essay is a cheap shot. It's a little too easy for the academically trained person to gloat over a little innocent pop-culture crowd-pleaser. What does he expect, Virginia Woolf? But definitely read the review, it's very funny.

Despite his brilliant reputation, by the way, back in the 90's Harold Bloom had a major screw-up with his once-best-selling Book of J. He basically stripped out all of the Breshit & Shmot that uses YKVK (also known as the "J-narrative"), and argued that the whole exract was written by a certain woman in King Solomon's court. Possibly a lover of the guy who wrote the E-narrative ("Elokist"). Cool idea, no? The problem was that the p'sukim he used were badly translated - poeticized in the wrong direction by David Rosenberg, and much of Bloom's analysis was based on the erroneous translation choices. He did not rely on Hebrew whatsoever. Robert Alter in The World of Biblical Literature, mercilessly bashed him for it. And you know something? I'm sure Bloom was much more embarrassed and distressed than J.K. Rowling, when she read Bloom's article in the WSJ.

I'm curious what others think - is Potter really that detrimental? Does it exacerbate the dominance of pop-culture in the lit world?

Photo credit: Globe Photos

Why I Haven't Posted Word from: Mordy

Blame Harry Potter. I just finished the 6th book in the series moments ago. It is a quick read and in some ways the best book in the series (thematically, as far as the actual writing goes it may be the worst).

The best of the web. About.com tells about the real world S0rcerer's Stone, including a guest appearance by Abraham the Jew:

"Flamel was able to discern from the first pages of the book that it was written by someone who called himself Abraham the Jew - "a prince, priest, Levite, astrologer and philosopher.""

And a comparison between Harry Potter and the Left Behind series from Slate. (You mean besides the fact that they are both complete fantasies?) You can get the rest of Slate's Harry Potter articles here.

The best though comes last. Cantor Amy O. Miller is speaking at the Harry Potter convention this July: "Is Harry Potter Still a Nice Jewish Boy?" Uh. Was he ever?

not quite MC, but close Word from: Charlotte

So at the moment I'm in my town of suburbia Illinios at the library. Whenever I go in, I have the complete compulsion to check out the DVD collection. There have been times that I've been shocked silly by the most random movies that include Manhattan (Woody Allen flick), BeastMaster ( never saw it), and Y tu mama tambien (the R rated version). I have also seen titles such as Kaddish and Tora Tora Tora make their appearance and I am still waiting for Snatch to show up. Perhaps that title is on constant rotation on someone's card and I will never have the chance to listen to the uncomprehendable script.
Anyways, one day and out of nowhere appears The Hebrew Hammer! Written anddirected by Jonathan Kesselman with the great tag line of: "Part man. Part Street. 100% Kosher."

I find this movie selection funny on a couple of different fronts. Since this IS a town which as a large population of Jews, it is hardly one where I would think that a movie about an Orthodox Jew would have much of an audience here. Yet, it is just an updated, cute version of the original storyline, I can't complain. It allows us Jews to laugh at ourselves.

The following post that I read from Hammer (in the prose forum) (7/15/05) reminds me that we can laugh ourselves, even outside of New York. Have a good weekend!

Hammer: Strange new connection

"I normally dont stand out as looking typically Jewish nor do I even wear a kippah to work but recently I had a strange occurance at my job. I am in the creative field, I am a producer for a certain ad agency that handles very high profile accounts, we are all educated, talented and "with it" here at the studio. Now I often times try to mask the act that I am an orthodox Jew as not to create any uncomfortable separation between myself and my co-workers. The other day I get an email from one of the executives that started off pretty normal, business as usual, blah blah blah, this and that, but the last paragraph was what startled me....

he writes me:

Finally, would you mind if I started to refer to you as "the Hammer"? As in, the Hebrew Hammer. Obviously, meant with all due respect coming from a fellow Jew.

Enjoy your day.

Now this threw me back, i wasnt sure if i should be honored or insulted. Now dont get me wrong I think the movie was a cultural breakthrough, it did wonders for those Jews who saw a real Jewish hero. I just wanted to share that funny awkward Jewish office moment.

I invite others to share thier workplace Jewish moments... im sure we can all benefit."

The Shtetl Myth Word from: Jake

Mordy mentioned Jewsrock.org. I saw it the other day, having googled for "Lou+Reed+Jewish." It's kitschy and tasteless but ultimately, gratifying. Look: the myth of the shtetl is making its rounds into pop-culture. And, like it or not, we here are part of that process. (Except for maybe Shlomo, whose conceptually non-iconographic gorilla doesn't fit into the pop-doors and has to hang on the avant-garde stoop.) This is not a bad time / place to be living in.

It ain't Berlin of 1930's, where Yiddish writer Dovid Bergelson has escaped to as a refugee from Ukraine. There was such a thing as a "Jewish refugee" in Berlin around then. Bergelson writes in a language that's dressed like a character out of Vishniac's Vanished World, but in the inside pocket, carries volumes of Proust and Kafka. Shaken by the Revolution, pogroms, he's reflecting on it all - skeptically, but with a bit of hope that he finally landed in a safe place. Germany, 1930's. Given the context, his collection "Shadows of Berlin" is heart-wrenching from the outset, but there's so much more - clash of modernism and folk, very tight writing, and dark, dark humor. It came out last month from the legendary Beatnik publishing house City Lights. Nextbook has got a review, wonderfully informative but long-winded, and it doesn't get to the literary guts of the work. For that matter, neither does my review which is coming out in Jewish Book World one of these days. Somebody should do Bergelson justice.

P.S. I went to the Wailers concert last night. Bob Marley's old band. Absolutely cosmic. Rastas were kicking it by the river, a few blocks away from the "downtown Babylon" - Wall Street, etc. Another great reggae act, Israel Vibration will be playing at BBKings in two weeks.

Sketchbook: Jewish Order Word from: Shlomo

This Sketch follows in the vein of my first post. I'd like to think that this drawing is working with jewish ideas as well, evoking imagery of closed jewish discourses, that are still able to leap between metaphors. (for example, its not standard to compare G-d to gravity, but its ok to switch between the metaphors king and father without a problem)

Tangent:
I was talking with an old yeshiva classmate, Avi Kessner, over the weekend, about my current drawings. He mentioned that during highschool he had tried to draw an image about judaism without using standard iconography. What he came up with was a drawing of a tree branch with smaller trees sprouting from it. Judaism as details. I thought that was really great-- a artistic concept that deals with Jewish orthodoxy as it really is lived.

Soce, the Elemental Wizard Word from: Mordy

Soce, the Elemental Wizard, bills himself as the first gay, Jewish, white rapper. His next show is this Saturday night at the Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg. My favorite song is Work/Play which starts with the line, "This is the Bar-Mitzvah remix," before heading into territory too dirty to be mentioned on the Mimaamakim blog.

The World Cafe, with David Dye, will be broadcasting a Matisyahu music session on Friday, July 29th, 2005. Mark Jacobson told me today that someone had recently told him about the Jewish Eminem, "Starts with an M or something?" he asked. I had to think. "Mattisyahu?" He nodded. Interesting. Mattisyahu is the Jewish Eminem?

Jewish Mayhem Magazine apparently just set up a chat room, promising, "Our member's list is literally, a who's who of the Jewish world! so consider participating in the forums or in the CHAT, you never know who might be watching." The Jewish world? So, like, R' Reuvan Feinstein may hang out on Jewish Mayhem? How enlightening!

And final news for the day, best forum thread of the week: Why is Paul Simon Always Singing About Jesus? from Jewsrock.org. I asked my mother the same question when I was young. The next day her Bookends album got caught in the stereo system and came out shredded. She accussed me of cursing the system. Years later I still listen to Mrs. Robinson...

Speaking of Hassidim (and Pissaro) Word from: Jake

Apparently as of late, Hassidim have not only been making their way into fashion commercials, but also into certain high-profile literary-bent publications. Allegra Goodman, author of Kaaterskill Falls and Family Markowitz, had a story in the New Yorker, take a look. I'm not going to spoil it for you (especially since the whole plot can be summarized in two sentences) but I'll just say that there's a quirky unexpected split in the narrative towards the end. Here's one quick quote:

He lived in Canaan, almost halfway between Boston and Providence, on Fuller Circle, a small road linking Emerson and Thoreau Streets. The street names lent a literary air to the modest Capes and white ranch houses in the neighborhood, although the only transcendentalists who had ever taken up residence in the town were the Bialystoker Hasidim, who had set up house on Alcott. These Bialystokers, Rabbi Zylberfenig and his wife and children, had been sent as emissaries from Brooklyn to return the unaffiliated Jews of Canaan to Judaism.

And my favorite bit:

It was only Tuesday afternoon, and the pain was already rising again. He thought of it as the pain now, not his pain but a larger, impersonal force. The pain - the way opera singers speak of their instrument, the voice.

While we talking New Yorker there's also that Cezanne-Pissaro article about the MOMA exhibit. It's scathing as far as Pissaro goes, which is moderately disappointing just because Pissaro was a Sephardic Jew, but what can you do - the author's probably right in calling the exhibit

a pitiless comparison of stylistically related painters, one great and one just very good, with results that are instructive - providing vigorous exercise for the thinking eye - while sort of painful.

But you can check out the two masters for yourself, if you haven't yet already, either in person or online.

Photo of Allegra Goodman copyright © Marion Ettlinger

American Apparel Goes Hasidic Word from: Mordy

One of the latest ads from American Apparel. This one appeared on the back cover of the latest issue of The L. The small words at the top say, "Photos taken at a Hasidic clothing store in Montreal." I didn't know that was how American Apparel was riding these days. Black and white. Anyone know what store the photos were taken at? One of our Canadian readers?

Sketchbook: Stumbling and Ruminating Word from: Shlomo

One day a couple years ago I taped a piece of paper to my wall and sketched this out. The trick to understanding it is that all the figures represents the same person at different moments. The two lines represent parallel possible narratives.

What was on my mind: Sometimes we stumble and pick ourselves up. Other times we give in and leave ourselves to hopelessness and helplessness. Subsequently, there's a difficulty in investigating even our own actions and explaining why we chose what we chose.

Another Religious Cult! Word from: Mordy

Slate reported in Chatterbox:

"A new religious cult is growing, one that seeks purification through acts and statements of self-abasement. Its members are Jews who love Jew-bashers, and, like Jews for Jesus, it embraces contradiction. The group does not have a name, and thus far its members are united chiefly by their fealty to a single cult leader who commands their loyalty through steadfast support for Israel and the writing of big checks. I hereby dub this evolving cult Jews for Malek."

Ok, before I get jumped on for obsessing over Jews and cults (the Kabalah post, my Forward article on 50 Shekel and Jews for Jesus), the Malek in question is actually Fred Malek, managing partner of the Washington Baseball Club. Basically, Nixon asked him to do some anti-Semetic stuff, and he acquiested. What's odd is that the Republican Jewish Convention is defending him. Why do they care about Major League Baseball?

You can read the full article here.

greetings, salutations, hello and thank goodness it's friday.
please take a look at the following poem:


Elie: Thu May 05, 2005 1:16 am posted his piece: Dust

"Dust lingers on my poems of old,
im tired of waiting for reply.
Kept in the dark and growing cold,
please shed some light and tell me why. "

I'd like to connect it to several things running through my mind at the moment.
One of which are the attacks in London.
The attacks in Israel where dust is constant and I can only imagine wisps at night as 100 degree heat subsides.
Think of all those moments where our personal dust has setteled on old memories and we are tired of waiting for the time to make things less than what we thought of them.

Think of all the times we've wondered when will we leave 'the dark' whither that be mental or physical.


I can't help but feel for those people overseas, if it's Israel or London, Ireland, at this point it doesn't matter whose politics, but the fact that we as people, as humanity, are killing each other.
I remember last summer I had a summer school classmate whose boyfriend was overseas. There is the former barista at the Bowery Poetry Club, her sister is overseas.
Yesterday the car up ahead had one of those magnets -ya know the yellow ones 'support our troops'-except this one was black and had POW and MIA and I can only assume that it their children or family are overseas.
I can't for the day I can send those magnets into the ocean so they too can be sent overseas.
Shabbat Shalom.

JDUB Records Word from: Mordy

The Forward writes about Balkan Beat Box this week. Their new album has been released in Israel, and JDUB Records is going to be the label releasing it in the US. It sounds good to me. Also, I've got tickets to see Mattisyahu this Motzei Shabbos in Philadelphia at World Cafe Live. sigh. I remember hanging with Mattisyahu in Crown Heights and now he's playing huge venues. Gotta shep some nachas.

There's been some controversy over Mattisyahu playing with Trey during the Nine Days; Orthodox Jews generally don't listen to music (or at least live music) during that time period because of its significance historically. (The Holy Temple in Jerusalem was burnt down on the 9th of Av, so the nine days preceding it have special status).

And I've gotta mention how awesome the Von Bondies show last night at the piers was. The venue was great and "Come On, Come On," is still glorious rockn'roll. Plus, I promised Lilit I'd rub it in Jake's face that he couldn't make it. And if you're wondering what makes it Jewish, let me quote: "Some people say art needs to explicitly be about Jews to be Jewish. Others say it only takes a Jewish artist. I say, the moment I arrive at an event, regardless of the circumstances, it becomes Jewish." That said, I was shmoozing with Sarah "Ultragirrrl" about the show and bemoaned the fact that she didn't get to see any frummies. (She claimed in her bio in an old Spin magazine that she's Orthodox.)

For my last cultural remark of the week: For anyone who caught the premiere of Carl0s Mencia's new show on Comedy Central knows that he started the show saying, "No matter what ethnicity you are, I am going to offend you sometime tonight." He then completely slighted Jews by not mentioning us once during the entire half an hour episode. I am offended by having not been offended. The New York Times still thinks humor like this is edgy, but honestly? I was a little bored.

Chukas: Circling Laws a-la M.C. Escher Word from: Jake

19-1: Ad-noy spoke to Moshe and Aharon, saying. 19-2: This is the statute of the Torah which Ad-noy commanded, saying; speak to Bnei Yisroel...etc.

This is not your regular case of the good old Biblical redundancy. Ad-noy is actually speaking about himself in the third person. Baal haTanya points that out; his explanation of such rhetoric could qualify for Webster definition of the trope "out there"; friend and I struggled with it but couldn't quite crack. I had an alternative thought on the subject. It's not merely the fact that g-d is referring to himself in the third person - second verse tops the first in a way that turns the flow of the narrative in a circular fashion (A says to M that A says that...) This reminds me of M.C. Escher's drawings of spiraling staircases / frames which link into one another, offering neither entrance nor exit. A similar effect is accomplished here, by means of linguistics.

The idea of chukim, described in the parsha, is the sort of a discourse, which one can't come into or leave with logical conclusions: it all boils down to tautology, "do this so because I tell you to do it so, that's why." Moreover, in the case of para adumah the unexplainable aspect of the law (chok-ness) is mainly enclosed in the alternation of purity and impurity: burning of the cow occurs outside of the camp, presumably because it causes impurity for everybody around - the cohen, person who washes cohen's clothing, and person who collects the ashes. Yet, these ashes will later become the only means of national purification. Again, a circle.

Ultimately, though, the law of para adumah links to the subject of life and death. A person becomes impure through the contact with a corpse - often, morally encouraged contact via hevra kadisha, other funeral rites, etc - and needs to go through the process of purification in order to become part of the normal life again, i.e. be member of the "pure" camp. Obviously, encounter with the dead ensues deepest existentialist questions, meaning of life, god, etc. These questions, too, keep looping on without the possibility of a conclusive logical outing. Existential crisis can't be quelled by words and meanings; it can only go further up the spiral of obscure into the new round of madness of unknowing and not understanding. Perhaps, this is one meaning behind the opening verses' structure.

Sketchbook: Tough Gorilla Word from: Shlomo

For this post, I decided to shoot for a different tone than the last and stumbled upon this gem from a couple of years back. You see I used to draw a lot on my computer during my years in Yeshiva University using the extremely primitive, yet delightful, windows paint program and one of those little furry knobs that they stick in the center of the keyboard (what are those called?).

This period also coincided with the development of my still-strong association with Mr. Elijah Gorilla (pictured here). Idunno, people just seem to like my portraits of this fellow. Enjoy!

Kabalah the New Scientology! Word from: Mordy

In reference to Radar's remark that scientology is Hollywood's favorite new cult, I asked my local Scientologist on the street (In front of Loew's on 7th) how they feel about being displaced.

"Uh - That's misinforma - It's not true, people just say that. Scientology isn't a cult." I was hoping that what wasn't true were the claims that Scientology had lost its throne as cult to the stars.

Meanwhile the Village Voice spotlighted Post Secret this week, implying that most of the revelations are fake. If you haven't visited the website yet, though, you definitely should. It's like a private Vidui broadcast for the entire shul to hear on Yom Kippur.

I heard Meshuggah's new album, and it rocks hard. Alternative Press gave it a good review in the last issue. But no, just because the word means crazy in Yiddish, doesn't mean that Scandinavian thrash has anything to do with Judaism. In related metal news, the new issue of Decibel Magazine discusses As I Lay Dying's Christianity. In a religious explanation, they make the following comment:

"Whatever the case, we have no way of knowing exactly who or what Jesus Christ really was. Even the "Son of God" tag doesn't tell us much. Early on in Judaism, "God" was a composite entity -- the Elohim. Yahweh, our "God the Father" wasn't even the most exalted part of the organism; that distinction fell to for El Shaddai, "The Almighty" -- most likely a very ancient stellar diety who antedated Judaism's solar, patriarchal society and somehow managed to avoid the demonization inflicted on his Egyptian counterpart -- Set."

Uh.... ok. Well, the music sounds great, even if the explanation is confusing. I thought Judaism was more lunar than solar.