Classic Tune All Jazzed Up

Growing up, I never heard the name Shlomo Carlebach.  Unknowingly, I knew one of his classic tunes "Veha'er Eineinu."  I think I heard it at a Chassidic Song Festival that my parents took me to in the late '70s.

Stango, my musical husband, raged this tune tonight on the piano.   Not to be missed!

Here is Shlomo singing his tune, just for comparison sake.  My preference is Stango's funkier one.

 

What? Me? Persnikedy?

As I mention from time to time, this isn't a Phish blog, but as a huge fan, I feel compelled to share this wonderful 2 minute clip from a recent interview on CBS Sunday Morning with Phish's lead guitarist, Trey Anastasio.  It shows Trey in such a real way - he loves his fans and that they give him the ability to feel  "openmindness...encouragement to take risks...a desire to go at least a little bit somewhere that is new and unexplored."

As I told the Nunever, the only persnikediness I feel is that I haven't been consulted personally on what I think are great ideas for the band, and that's no joke.

Which leads me to remembering a great lesson I learned this week..."Who is rich?   One who is happy with her lot." -Pirkei Avot

And though I have heard it many times over, the lesson learned is that everyone has a lot, or a portion.  No one will ever have everything.  We all get a portion.  So, perhaps my portion with regard to Phish is simply to enjoy where I am and what I have already experienced with this incredible musical outfit.

Trey Anastasio with CBS Sunday Morning's Anthony Mason     photo courtesy of liveforlivemsic.com

A Couple of Years Behind Schedule

I'll be truthful:  I don't know much about current popular culture.  For whatever reason I decided to finally catch up on the entire 8 years of Entourage, the hit HBO show about life in the Hollywood fast lane.  Putting aside the profanities and sex, I am actually pretty grateful for a lot of the stuff I'm learning from it.  And I'll be ready for the film they're making as a follow-up to the show.  It's been green-lit, so we should hope to expect it soon!

Put aside as well the question that looms through your mind, which is, "Why does Loony really need to poison herself with this meaningless shtuss?"

I don't really feel like defending myself, but first and foremost is all of the music I am hearing for the first time.    From Blind Melon to Jane's Addiction to LL Cool J, I am hearing some familiar tunes but also tons of music that I should know but don't.

With that, I leave you with some Funkadelic circa 1971, which appears at the end of Season 5.  Ya'd think a girl who loves going to see music would know this stuff already.  Think again.  And yet it's never too late to learn new things.  Indeed, I did see Bernie Worrell, an original Funkadelic member, perform a couple of years ago.

me with Bernie Worrell at a Steve Kimock show I think end of December 2011

Mama, I'm Hungry

Here is Stango the other day at the piano, playing "Al HaNisim" which is sung on Purim and Chanukah.  Purim is in less than two weeks, so we're getting ready.  Watch (or, yes you can admit it, skip) till the end when The Wolfman whispers a little thing to me.

Yidl Itzik aka Ed Koch, Of Blessed Memory

Just caught a glimpse of the most over the top Jewish funeral I have witnessed, that of the former mayor of New York City, Ed Koch z'l.  I had the privilege of working a temp job in the late 90s where Mayor Koch was renting some office space, so for a couple of weeks there I saw him come in and out of the office.  He was a great mayor.  I liked him.  The funeral was held at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.  I always know it was a shmancy Reform synagogue, and I was happy to see that the rabbi was wearing a kippa.  The irony, though, was that most of the other head-cover bearing men were members of the NYPD.  Not even Bloomberg was wearing one.

And then the casket escort of the synagogue out to the songs "New York, New York" and "Lullaby of Broadway."  As my friend Emily mentioned, it was like a Liza Minnelli concert.  We all joked how we couldn't help think about the Milford Plaza.

I'm glad I was able to catch his name during the memorial prayer.  Baruch Dayan emet to Yidl Itzik.

Stevie, You've Been on my Mind

A bit less than a year ago, I had Stevie Wonder on my mind, and now he's crept back in.  Why didn't I know his funky '70s stuff back in the day?  Stango said it's because I knew his newer stuff in the 80s, Ebony and Ivory and the like.

Now that I know it, I'll stick with the '70s funk.

 

This is from later, but it's got that leftover disco beat from the late 70s





And of course as a Phish loving mama (cuz they cover this tune), I can't forget Boogie On...





If you've gotten this far, here's the inspiration for this blog post title.  Bob, the prophet and poet, yet again saves the day.





Speaking of getting this far, if you're reading this, why not give a shout out and let me know your thoughts.  I feel like Rodney Dangerfield..."I don't get no respect!"  (meaning, I get little feedback and desire it!)

xoxo

Loony

It's a Fruit Rap

Every year around this time I try to find something fun for my children to watch about the birthday of the trees.  Usually  there's nothing great.  Not this year!

With Tu B'Shvat just around the corner this Friday night and Shabbat, you gotta check out this video.  My old friend Elana Greenspan is the talent behind it.  Actually she is my old friend Chana's friend but who's counting.

So cute!

And funny!

This is one great mama doing good things for her family and the world.  Love you Elana!

Only thing to improve is:  Let's see your smiling face, Elana!

Too Jewy For Youie

Really loving the newish neighborhood here in Philly, but I can't get Albert Brooks' line of being "too Jewy" from This is 40 out of my head.

Didn't sit well with me, but hey, that's Hollywood.  Hollywood's just Jewy enough to not be too Jewy.  Just ask good ole uncle Ralph about not being too Jewy.  What Wasp is gonna buy into Lifshitz?  Or wannabe Wasp who hides her Jewyness so well (Yes, Tory, I'm talkin' bout you, sister).

Lest you think I didn't like This is 40, stop right there.  Judd Apatow is basically a genious and I love his writing.  Boy can write.  And of course you might know by now my love for Paul Rudd.  All those years of drooling over Adam Sandler?  Gone?!  Now, finally, ever since I saw him on our honeymoon in Hawaii in 2002, it's all about the positive.  With Adam it was just so much negative.  With Paul, it's all happy and good.

I keep telling Stango that it would be nice to find some more like-minded friends around these parts.  Anybody else too Jewy around here?  The problem is most folks who are too Jewy are just too Jewy.  I'd need you to too earthy, too brainy, too pop culturey, too Gen-Xey, too hippy and still be all good with luxury and Louis.

Ok, if you dig Bottega, that's all good too.








And just because I can, here is the man who I have a very silly Hollywood crush on.  (Yes, I told Stango and he laughed).

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Jewperhero

Leave it to the clever Chabad youngin's - dare I say hipsteresque -  to come up with something like Jewperhero.  Moshe Kravitsky is putting out weekly videos of "The Moshe Show," in which he pounds the New York pavement and does Jewish outreach in his somewhat outlandish, extroverted heimish mitzvah-seeking, light-spreading comedic style that only a Chabad chassid can pull off.  Yasher koach, Moshe!


This video where he goes to Union Square and passes out dreidels is pretty funny.  Love the guy who spins the dreidel upside down on the subway, as if he's saying, "yeah yeah, I know the drill."  Moshe has chutzpah, stamina, and doesn't take no for an answer.  And he does it all in such a mentschluch way!

What a breath of fresh air in light of the Weberman verdict this week.  B'h that animal is going to the slammer where he belongs.  Sorry to bring you down but, as Deborah Feldman said, this court case was a true Chanukah miracle.  Ken yehi ratzon.

Good shabbos!  My challahs are just cooling off and it's fer sure time for bed!

Blues For Challah Setlist Recap

We're nearly done unpacking from Blues For Challah:  The Second Set, and what a weekend it was.  The Whole Phamily was so grateful to have the opportunity to provide social media services and onsite kids' programming to this weekend.  I hope that these efforts were successful.  Here are some highlights:

 Seth Rogovoy's presentation on Bob Dylan's link to Judaism was polished, well-delivered, and entertaining in its own right.  I wrote about Rogovoy's book earlier, but had no clue that his presentation would include live performance.  How happy was I when he confirmed my suspicions regarding the messianic theme of Quinn the Eskimo?!?   And even happier when I shared that Phish's rendition brings Quinn to a new level.





Meeting Michelle Esrick, the brainchild i.e. filmmaker behind the Wavy Gravy movie Saint Misbehavin', was a real treat.  We sat at the same table on Friday night and I was thrilled, since I am connected to challah baking, to be asked to explain the symbolism behind using two challot and salt at a shabbes table.  Her sister and I connected on mindfulness meditation.  I lamented I have yet to read Jon Kabet-Zinn's book on it that Stango gave to me already a few years ago.  Michelle's film was educational about Wavy Gravy's life and mission.  Because of the weekend's intimate setting, I couldn't have imagined a more perfect scene.  I loved that Concealed Light asked after the film's screening, "what's the big deal about Wavy Gravy?"  This film, therefore, opened the door for my 9 year old regarding the whys behind the 60s counterculture.  Sure, she knows we love Dylan and the Dead, and that we read plenty of books about MLK, Jr in February, but a two sentence explanation (end of Camelot, fight for Civil Rights, end of Baby Boom, the Beatles, Vietnam) was a good start.

Me and Michelle Esrick, producer/director of Saint Misbehavin'

Of course, I loved that Michelle expressed that her presence at this weekend was bashert and from Hashem (two terms she learned just this weekend).  Doesn't everything happen for a reason?  Hakol bashamayim hi.  (you can ask your rabbi what that one means).

Meeting Rabbi Moshe "Mickey" Shur finally was inspiring.  He grew up with Stango's close childhood friend's father.  We had long-heard of Berman's dad's hippy cum frum friend.  I was thrilled to see that, even though I didn't know him when he knew Wavy Gravy while living in San Francisco in the 60s, he maintained his open, loving, laid-back, funny, warm vibe that was clearly a product of those years.

Saturday night jam:  a bunch of participants brought out their guitars, drums and voices for a really fun homegrown Dead jam.  What an interesting mix of people.  The diversity of Jewish folks is captured in this brief video where we see Rabbi Moshe "Mickey" Shur's son on vocals (long payos dude).





Stango was most impressed by Arthur Kurtzweil's presentations on lyrics.  He was also the keynote speaker.  Stango liked that he got to the real truth on a high intellectual plane without fluff, pretense, or glamour.  That's my husband for ya.

I ran the kids groups for which I received positive feedback.  We made centerpiece tablescapes for the dining room tables with Duplos .  We acted out a play about the parsha with the parts of Yaakov, Eisav and Hashem.  We read the parsha story.  We visited the goats.  We ate fantastic snacks provided by Isabella Freedman.  We dressed up as turtles, pirates and creative play silk creatures.  We read books about being a young farmer.  We played Uno and Zingo.   We enjoyed Pez as a Shabbes treat which was cleared ahead of time with the program director (since I am sensitive to the healthy food vibe at Isabella Freedman; I am, after all, an advocate of drinking raw milk and eating fermented foods), though it wasn't for everyone.

photo from jkrglobal.com

Pez at a Dead show is just so much fun, so that was where I was going with that.  Or just a couple of Mike and Ike's.  But I don't know if the kids fully understood that this was very specific to being at a Dead show.  They likely just saw it as candy.

Here are some more photos and footage.

Stango and Concealed Light at Dead Jam

Stango and The Nunever.  Rodeo!  Note the lovely Gucci scarf.

these guys knew how to jam!  Another son of Rabbi Shur and Rabbi Jeff Hoffman

Concealed Light felt stifled that she couldn't read chords.  Clearly was too tired to improvise and jam, which I know she is capable of.

 And how is it that I always thought this was a Peter, Paul and Mary song?

 


What a success!  Hope to join again next year!