February 03, 2010

An Entry in the Museum of Bad Art's Iterpretator Challenge

The Museum of Bad Art in Massachusetts is a little-known treasure of American culture. It challenges notions of good and bad in art, and makes the viewer stop and think, seriously, about what makes a work of art interesting, challenging, or plain ridiculous.

It recently closed the submission period for its seventh "Guest Interpretator Challenge." In this, members of the art-astute public were invited to submit a title and an intepretation for a new acquisition of MOBA. Always being up for a challenge, I looked at this vibrant canvas from every possible angle. After consulting many serious tomes on philosophy, artistic technique and cross-cultural ramifications, I created this submission, of which I am justifiably proud:

Worlds in Collision: When Karl Met Carrot Top

Pointless psychosexual and meteorological tensions permeate this tour de force, depicting an imagined meeting of European fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and American comedian Carrot Top as a youth. The negative space between the two captures the historic conflict between Europe and America. Sartorially sinister Lagerfeld, embodying the Old World’s dark perspective and penchant for donning sunglasses at night, leers at virginal Carrot Top, the naïve but spunkily practical symbol of America. By placing Lagerfeld on an inexplicable red platform, the confused artist adds either an ominous neo-fascist tonality or suggests that Lagerfeld is a space alien standing on the transporter that beamed him down from the mothership. Behind Lagerfeld, the calm sea, sunset and twinkling stars connote either a peaceful summer evening or a stormy, tragic meditation on the fin de siècle hopelessness of Lagerfeld’s fashion and art weltanschauung. In either case, the painting’s je ne sais quoi remains elusive.

Van | 02/03/10 at 06:29 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 08, 2009

From the Archives: Restlessness, 1974

Going through some files, I found this piece I wrote on March 21, 1974, when I was 16 years old. It has more than historical interest.

Restlessness

As I write this essay, I can look out the window onto the field between the school building and the street. I've looked out this window a thousand times and I will look through it again 10,000 times. The clouds keep rolling by with the wind, where from or where to or what for I cannot even guess.

Along the street seven cars, one truck camper and a single station wagon are parked. Again. I have no idea to whom they might belong.

So many things I do not know, and so many things that I see only on the surface. I go to school with 1,800 others. How many of them do I not know, or should know? Behind every face is a story, a long, unique story. How many of those stories do I know? How many know my story? I pass by people, like two fish in the ocean. Like the clouds drifting outside the window we neither know where to or where from or what for about each other, or even ourselves.

Van | 11/08/09 at 07:32 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 13, 2009

Pick to Click: "The Secret Speech" by Tom Rob Smith

On Friday I finished reading "The Secret Speech" by Tom Rob Smith, his smashing sequel to the justly praised "Child 44," about a serial killer in the closing months of Stalinist Russia. Both books captivated me. While the sequel got more mixed reviews on Amazon, I liked it a lot. The plot spins and twists through the territory of loyalty, betrayal, guilt and savagery of Soviet Russia in the 1950s. The prose is what I aspire to as a writer. I could cite many passages; here's one sample set in Budapest's secret police headquarters during the abortive Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Leo is the main character:

The offices were filled with citizens searching through files. Reading by candlelight, men and women thumbed through the information stored about them. Watching many of them cry, Leo didn't need the documents translated. The files contained the names of family and friends who'd denounced them, the words spoken against them. Like a hundred mirrors dropped on the floor, all around he saw faith in mankind shattering.

Wow.

Continue reading "Pick to Click: "The Secret Speech" by Tom Rob Smith"

Van | 09/13/09 at 11:03 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 19, 2009

Song List for an Imaginary iPod

I recently got a request on Facebook to list 25 random songs on my iPod. Alas, I don't have an iPod, so I've pulled together this imaginary list. It mixes Latin, hearbroken cowboy tunes, some show music, and classic jazz. I could do a separate list for each genre, but this gives a sense of what I like. I've even included some new stuff -- I've heard "Panic Switch" on WXRP in New York and like it, something I have said about maybe five pop songs in the last 25 years.

Without further ado, with lyric selections:

1. Carnivália, Tribalistas
2. Já Sei Namorar, Tribalistas
3. Amor Pra Recomeçar, Roberto Frejat
4. Dois Pra Lá, Dois Pra Cá, Elis Regina
5. Encontros e Despedidas, Maria Rita
6. Nena, Malo
7. Viva Tirado, El Chicano
8. Mr. Brightside, the Killers ("It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this?")
9. Panic Switch, Silversun Pickups
10. New World Man, Rush ("He's old enough to know what's right and young enough not to do it")
11. Time Changes Everything, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys ("You've gone your way and I'll go mine, 'cause time changes everything")
12. Willin’, Little Feat ("I stayed on the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed")
13. Glamorous Life, Sheila E.
14. Closing Time, Semisonic ("Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end")
15. Long Distance Call, Muddy Waters ("There's another mule kickin' in your stall")
16. One of These Nights, the Eagles
17. The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, Traffic ("Take me for a ride, strip me of everything including my pride")
18. Gringo Honeymoon, Robert Earl Keen
19. Possession Obsession, Hall and Oates
20. Not a Day Goes By, Bernadette Peters
21. Blue Train, John Coltrane
22. Lush Life, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
23. Stranded in Your Love, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (with the great line, “Is it romance or circumstance?”)
24. New World Symphony, Antonín Dvořák
25. Remember, Micky and the Motorcars

Van | 08/19/09 at 07:08 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 09, 2009

A Baptist Chick in a Halter Top

I confess: my favorite erotic aroma is chlorine. I can’t resist its siren song of smell. Chlorine imprinted itself on me as a pre-teen and I never escaped.

I thank Mrs. Walsh for this. Mrs. Walsh held swimming classes every summer at the pool of the Fontana Motor Hotel in Mission, my home town in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The pool reeked of chlorine, which clung to me and wafted around the whole complex. I could even smell it in the Fontana’s lobby, where I wandered after class.

Ever the curious reader, I checked out the magazines in the lobby’s gift shop. There I found Playboy. Golly, I thought, this is a change from Hot Rod and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Even then, I knew an 11-year-old shouldn’t really scan Playboy, so I slipped the magazine into another one – male readers know this drill. I flipped through the issue, trying to look nonchalant. But Misses June and July dazzled me with their undraped allure and bubbly smiles.

Case in point: I still swoon for July 1969 cover girl Barbie Benton, a/k/a Barbara Klein. In the unpainted passageways of my brain, the Fontana’s chlorinic aroma mixed with this vision of Barbie on the beach. A whiff of chlorine returns me to July 1969 – those eyes, those shoulders, Barbie’s brown hair tumbling down her curving waterslide of a back. In a flash I’m back in the Fontana’s lobby, where Mrs. Walsh’s class ended and my introduction to another wet side of life began.

Continue reading "A Baptist Chick in a Halter Top"

Van | 08/09/09 at 05:21 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 05, 2009

Behind the Bedroom Door: Women Write About Sex

The personal essay collection "Behind the Bedroom Door: Essays About Sex by Today's Most Gifted Women Writers," had some striking pieces. The themes varied, from warm and amusing to deeply serious: illness, betrayal, the appeal of greasy leather-clad bad boys, infertility, craziness (in many senses of the word), children's impact on love lives, and lots of sexuality intertwined with drug and alcohol use. Editor Paula Derrow selected essays that are not particularly explicit -- what you would find in Cosmopolitan. Short bios of authors suggest follow-up reading and the website is exceptionally valuable.

If I had to pick a favorite, I'd go with "Turn Me On, Turn Me Off," by Bella Pollen. Its male character made me cringe with a sense of self-recognition, and Pollen has a prose style I like:

A woman's desire is a fragile thing, blown this way and that by the winds of change. Our likes and dislikes flip-flop depending on where, exactly, we are on our personal evolutionary curve, what phase of life we are in. Women have far more roles to play than men, and each comes with its own emotional and physical wish list. We want to be held! We want to be screwed! We want security! Danger! Comfort! Passion! I don't know a woman who isn't constantly torn between the mutually exclusive needs for the intimacy of a long-term relationship and the thrill of a one-night stand. Frankly, we should consider ourselves lucky if we get enough of both. . . . Personally, I find it humbling that men are prepared to ride the roller coaster of women's ever-changing emotional needs.

If you're looking for a summer book that'll make you smile, sigh and maybe even squirm deliciously on your towel at the pool, this is the collection to grab. Share it with someone you love and/or lust after.

Van | 07/05/09 at 10:57 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 26, 2009

Idan Raichel Project Rocks the House in Ridgefield

I had never even heard of Israeli musician Idan Raichel until a few weeks ago when a friend tipped me off to Idan and his group, the Idan Raichel Project. Based on the good taste of my music source, I bought the new CD "Within My Walls" at the Virgin Megastore early in its closing sale. I liked the CD, but the mix of languages and styles made it hard for me to get a grip on the music. My image of the music tied very closely to Idan, a fashion-forward looking guy in dreadlocks on the cover of the album.

Still, I jumped at the chance to expand my music horizons last Sunday when the Project played, improbably enough, at the Ridgefield Playhouse here in the Nutmeg State. I snagged second-row seats, which gave me and a friend a fantastic view of what turned out to be an amazingly memorable performance -- one of the bravura music shows I've ever seen.

What the CD barely even hints at is the Project's great stage presence. Looking at the CD, I thought of the group as a one-man sort of operation, Idan center stage, dreadlocks gently swaying like Hebraic seaweed to the tune of mellow Kenny G-like vibes.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. While the group leader, Idan stayed to stage left behind his electric keyboard and let the other nine members of the group carry the show. The musicianship and great vocal power of two women and a man created a varied, propulsive show that I didn't want to see end -- it was that good. Even the pacing worked well, as tempos and moods varied.

The evening ended with enthusiastic standing ovations, lots of picture taking (the Project didn't mind at all), and a real sense of people coming together under a common musical experience. I've listened to the CD more since then and it hangs together much better now that I have visual images to connect to it.

If you see the Idan Raichel Project coming to your town, then run, don't walk, to get tickets. Tell them Van sent you.

Van | 03/26/09 at 10:07 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 05, 2009

"Tonight: Lola Blau" to Appear at La MaMa in NYC

The one-woman play "Tonight: Lola Blau" starts next Friday, March 13, at New York's La MaMa theater at 74A East 4th Street. Written in 1971, the play deals with some sensitive and always compelling post-Holocaust issues. The website describes them succinctly:

Lola Blau is a Jewish singer trying to find work in Nazi-occupied Vienna. Escaping to the United States, she is obliged to sing in seedy nightclubs before achieving fame. After the war, she returns, with some trepidation, to Vienna. Her story is told in a nearly continuous flow of seventeen Kurt Weill-style songs, each cleverly evoking a mood, a period or environment in wickedly accurate parody and pastiche. In Lola's return concert, she slyly condemns all those who failed to notice the disappearance of six million Jews and confronts the audience with its prejudices. She dares the audience to share Kreisler's (the composer's) disgust at Austria's posing as a victim of Nazism rather than as a collaborator.

I for one doubt I'll have any difficult sharing Lola's disgust at Austria.

Playing the part of Lola is Anna Krämer, who has appeared in both New York and Germany.

"Tonight: Lola Blau" has only six performances, so if this sounds intriguing, get to the phones. And at $15, the tickets are a bargain.

(Truth in blogging: Through circumstances too complicated to describe here, I edited materials for the program guide. So, support the play and you get the pleasure of reading my sparkling, if uncredited, prose.)

Van | 03/05/09 at 09:23 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 04, 2009

Idan and Hank III: My Last Waltz at the Virgin Megastore

As soon as I read in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that all the Virgin Megastores are closing, I knew what I had to do. The flagship Times Square location is only three blocks from my office, so at lunch I raced over, ready to scoop up whatever caught my fancy.

The depressingly common "Everything Must Go!" sale looked like it had started days before. I beelined to the World Music section, where I already found evidence of shrinking stocks. I looked around, the floor reeling under my feet like a sinking ship. The retail music scene I loved was collapsing on me again. This time, however, no new store stands in the wings to claim my affection and shopping dollar.

To get the full context of my intense connection to music retailers, let's rewind a few years.

Continue reading "Idan and Hank III: My Last Waltz at the Virgin Megastore"

Van | 03/04/09 at 10:45 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 08, 2009

Defiance: Der Yiddisher Wild Bunch Goes to Lithuania

If you can see only ONE movie with Nazis from the current bonanza, go see "Defiance," about the fighting Bielski brothers. Daniel Craig does a great turn as a partisan leader, with the much quoted line, "Our revenge is to live."

It's a good quote, and the characters back up that let's-live philosophy with heapin' helpings of Jew-on-Jerry revenge scenes. Germans and collaborators are stabbed, bombed, machine-gunned and subject to summary execution. I liked it, I really liked it! One striking scene inside a German police station gets a slow-motion Sam Peckinpah "Wild Bunch" treatment in slow-motion with the blood flying.

In fact, I wish Peckinpah had been around to make this movie. I've got nothing against Ed Zwick, and the movie combines Yiddishkeit and slaughter in an aesthetically pleasing way, but I wish the director had pushed the mayhem even further in a delirious screw-you "Wild Bunch" style. Now that I think about it, the perfect (living) director for this film would have been Paul Verhoeven, whose Black Book was a stunning riot of guns, girls and, ultimately, grisly payback. I saw the film with a Dutch-Jewish friend and we were both mightily impressed.

Meanwhile, in another of the Nazi flick universe, I can't believe "The Reader" got all those Oscar nominations. I found it watchable and uniformly interesting, but my ability to emotionally connect with the angst of chain-smoking Germans is limited. Seeing it on a big screen adds nothing to the experience; bag the theater and wait for the DVD. Its saving grace is the appearance, in a small but crucial dual role, of Lena Olin, who grabbed my imagination in 1988's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Hats and undershirts never looked the same after I saw Olin in this movie.

Van | 02/08/09 at 07:59 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 05, 2009

Reading a Non-Trilogy Russian Trilogy

Recently I read three Russian-themed books by separate authors and enjoyed them all. They are not strictly related, but in my mind they stand as a trilogy, starting in 1941, moving to 1953, and then on to the current social miasma that is Russia. In the correct order, the books are "City of Thieves" by David Benioff; "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith; and "Stalin's Ghost" by Martin Cruz Smith.

Two of the books have strikingly similar openings. Child 44's first page says,

That had been the moment Maria decided to die, with nothing to eat and nothing to love.

City of Thieves has an equally haunting sentence, in which a character tells his grandson:

You have never been so hungry; you have never been so cold.

Stalin's Ghost brings back Moscow investigator Arkady Renko for another round of battles against bureaucracy, criminals, memory of his father, and a well-heeled rival for the hand of his girlfriend Eva.

All the books mesmerized me with their mix of history, danger and romance in a cold, dangerous place. For readers who want even more Eastern European skullduggery, Alan Furst's The Spies of Warsaw has a French-Polish atmosphere, with Russian spies sliding into the plot at key points.

Fans can join me in twitching in anticipation, because Tom Rob Smith is writing a sequel to Child 44, called "The Secret Speech," a reference to the 1956 denunciation of Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev. All I can say is -- bring it on.

Van | 01/05/09 at 07:50 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 20, 2008

Dissolving: James Joyce's "The Dead"

Snow and illness stalk my thoughts this weekend. In that light, James Joyce's "The Dead" strikes me as a work of great emotional truth.

The air of the room chilled his shoulders. He stretched himself cautiously along under the sheets and lay down beside his wife. One by one, they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age. He thought of how she who lay beside him had locked in her heart for so many years that image of her lover's eyes when he had told her that he did not wish to live.

Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman, but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling.

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Van | 12/20/08 at 06:44 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 18, 2008

Drinking and Blogging

Drinking and driving is a bad combination; drinking and blogging is almost as dangerous, as impaired judgment can lead a blogger to bang out the most outlandish thoughts and think, "how profound."

At the office party this afternoon I let my freak flag fly by having a Bud Light-Lime, a line extension that I liked, although it wasn't nearly as good as any drink with a little umbrella in it, but I'll take what I can get. Given various life issues bearing down on me, a little release tasted good. I had enough common sense to avoid a second Bud Light-Lime, because, as I told a friend, that would have me up on a table bawling out "Danny Boy."

I then strolled steadily to Grand Central Terminal, obsessively playing the Muddy Waters song "Long Distance Call" in my head, which has the greatest line of blues lyrics ever written: "Another mule is kickin' in your stall."

Finally, however, even as my head cleared, I couldn't resist the temptation to recite from memory the lyrics to Merle Haggard's immortal "Mama Tried," with these lyrics:

Continue reading "Drinking and Blogging"

Van | 12/18/08 at 10:48 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 23, 2008

24: Jack, Back, Hack

After 18 months off the air, 24 returned with a two-hour movie, "24 Redemption" that took Jack Bauer out of LA and plopped him down somewhere in Africa. The Africa sequences were very well done, but the political chicanery in Washington foretold a tedious season of 24 with the usual sneaking around in the White House with cell phones, crooked corporations, trouble members of the extended First Family -- hasn't 24 covered that territory over and over and OVER again?

Watching 24 again feels more like an obligation than a pleasure. It's a good thing Fox sticks in plenty of commercials for more important matters.

Van | 11/23/08 at 10:42 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 31, 2008

Wallach Does Sondheim

Wallach does Sondheim? I'm not referring to me, but to that tall and talented Wallach -- my nephew Tyler, the one who can sing and dance and act. Last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing him star as Robert in Stephen Sondheim's "Company" at Texas State University-San Marcos. I hadn't seen the play in years, so I came at it fresh, and thoroughly enjoyed the Saturday closing performance at TSU's outdoor Glade Theatre.

The topic, being single in New York, resonated with me from my younger days of being, well, single in New York in the 1980s. And the songs are unforgettable: "Sorry-Grateful" (boy, did that bring up some feelings), "Marry Me a Little," "The Ladies Who Lunch" (with a spine-tingling performance by Lindsay Hicks as Joanne) and the closing "Being Alive."

Tyler added Company to an already impressive resume, which includes The Rocky Horror Show (he was Brad!), Move Over Mrs. Markham (Alistair) and A Chorus Line (Mike). As the doting uncle, I've already given him a permanent claim to space in my apartment when he comes to the Big Apple for auditions.

In the photo below, Tyler and delightfully bubbly cast member Macey Mayfield celebrate after the play. All I can think of now is the great line from 42nd Street:

"You're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"

Van | 10/31/08 at 01:52 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 01, 2008

What I Did on April 29, 1972

On April 29, 1972, I bought the triple-album Woodstock soundtrack. I know, because I wrote the date on the album, as I have done with almost every album and CD I've bought in the last 35 years (not that I'm . . . more »

Van | 09/01/08 at 08:50 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 24, 2008

Sopranos Meets L Word, Hilarity Ensues

First I got hooked on The Sopranos and powered my way through every DVD set. I even wrote an essay using material from the show. Now I'm grinding my way through "The L Word," which is growing on me bit . . . more »

Van | 07/24/08 at 10:03 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 06, 2008

Charlton Heston, Sci-Fi Visionary

When I think of Charlton Heston, who died yesterday, I think of him in his three epochal sci-fi roles: Planet of the Apes (1968), The Omega Man (1971), and Soylent Green (1973). I saw the latter two when they first . . . more »

Van | 04/06/08 at 07:43 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 04, 2008

Imaginary Duets: Mac and Lazarus

Last night I had the pleasure of watching Black Snake Moan with Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci. Besides having the greatest poster so far in the 21st century, Black Snake Moan gives a heartfelt picture of failings and redemption . . . more »

Van | 04/04/08 at 02:47 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 29, 2007

A Wee Bit o' Klezmer from Scotland

I've been listening to a klezmer CD that came my way lately, and I like it. "Zing!" by the Yiddish Song Project combines some original tunes, such as "Chicken Soup Freylekhs - A Love Song" with classics like "Bay Mir . . . more »

Van | 12/29/07 at 09:39 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 21, 2007

The Gale of Creative Destruction Claims Another Victim

First it destroyed the buggy whip industry, then US-made consumer electronics, then the auto industry. Is no sector of the American economy safe from the disruptive forces of technological and social change? Evidently not. Now, pornographers are getting blown away . . . more »

Van | 11/21/07 at 09:02 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 26, 2007

A poignant fact about this video is that Chicago native and beloved folk/blues singer-songwriter Steve Goodman, Cubs fan, and author of Arlo Guthrie's hit "City of New Orleans," was dying of leukemia when he sang this. He died in 1984 . . . more »

Judith | 10/26/07 at 08:40 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 25, 2007

I Have Heard the Future of Baby Boomer Comic Folk Rock, And It's Called 'Modern Man'

I recently heard the group "Modern Man" play in NY, after hearing the group's three members on the invaluable WFUV. I told my son, when we heard them plug a show the next day at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, . . . more »

Van | 10/25/07 at 07:06 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 24, 2007

You Gotta Have Heart

. . . more »

Judith | 10/24/07 at 10:51 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 22, 2007

More scenes from my iTunes library : I Don't

I Don't Believe You - Bob Dylan I Don't Care - Shivaree I Don't Care Anymore - Laurie Freelove I Don't Get It - Cowboy Junkies I Don't Know - Kate & Anna McGarrigle I Don't Know Where I Stand . . . more »

Judith | 10/22/07 at 10:01 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 12, 2007

Scenes from my iTunes library: Angel

Boachem L'shalom, Malachei haShalom, Malachei Elyon. . . . Angel - Belly Angel Dance - Los Lobos Angel in the Dark - Laura Nyro Angel Mine - Cowboy Junkies Angel Song - Shlomo Carlebach Angel's Share - 27 Angels de . . . more »

Judith | 10/12/07 at 06:00 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 11, 2007

She sent him letters, and he received them with a strange delight...

Via the Corner, a poignant story about mating in captivity: A married couple who didn't realise they were chatting each other up on the internet are divorcing. Sana Klaric and husband Adnan, who used the names "Sweetie" and "Prince of . . . more »

Judith | 10/11/07 at 07:12 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 10, 2007

Bad dancing around the world

Hey, wherethehellismatt was in Israel this summer! Dancing in Dizengoff Square. I look forward to that video. Interview with Matt: . . . more »

Judith | 10/10/07 at 08:30 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 21, 2007

More scenes from my iTunes library: God

Apropos for Yom Kippur. Sort of. God Bless the Child - Asleep at the Wheel God Give Me Strength - Elvis Costello God is a Real Estate Developer - Michelle Shocked God is Not Sleeping (live) - Mavis Staples God . . . more »

Judith | 09/21/07 at 04:06 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 16, 2007

"The current biggest provider of snuff pornography is the Muslim extremist movement."

Interview with film director David Cronenberg. Amy Taubin: I want to ask you about "At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World" [Cronenberg’s four-minute film for Chacun son cinéma, the compilation . . . more »

Judith | 09/16/07 at 07:18 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 15, 2007

Scenes from my iTunes library: Ballad

Ballad - the Four Bags Ballad Of A Thin Man - Bob Dylan Ballad Of Alfie Hinds - Martin Carthy The Ballad of Easy Rider - Fairport Convention The Ballad Of Horselover Fat - The Court and Spark The Ballad . . . more »

Judith | 09/15/07 at 09:05 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 04, 2007

Democracy Whiskey Sexy 2007

The Stuck Mojo video showcased on LGF reminded me of Dr Frank's response to the invasion of Iraq, "Democracy Whiskey Sexy." (Lyrics below) I was going to link to an mp3 but I wasn't able to find one on . . . more »

Judith | 07/04/07 at 12:50 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

June 19, 2007

Hellloooo, Oscar: National Lampoon's '72 Virgins'

The creative wits at National Lampoon have released a trailer for a possible movie called "National Lampoon's 72 Virgins." You can vote here on whether it should be made or not. What do KTers think? Number one with a bullet? . . . more »

Van | 06/19/07 at 06:15 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

June 01, 2007

I Love You, You're Perfect, You're Chinese

Staying firmly behind the cultural curve, I barely had any awareness of the smash musical "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" until I had a chance to see it recently -- the Mandarin version playing through this weekend at . . . more »

Van | 06/01/07 at 06:57 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 31, 2007

Kinky Jews Film Night in B'klyn: Passion Under the D Train

Those rascals at Kinky Jews are having a gala double feature on Sunday in Brooklyn, as two classics of Jewish cinematic erotica (the only ones?) unspool: are you ready for Assraelis and Yiddish Erotica? Alas, I won't be able to . . . more »

Van | 05/31/07 at 08:57 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 11, 2007

Teapacks at Eurovision

Remember Teapacks, the Israeli band whose entry to the Eurovision contest, "Push the Button," was deemed too edgy and political (but was entered anyway after an outcry from their fans)? We posted about the controversy and a bunch of their . . . more »

Judith | 05/11/07 at 07:24 AM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 07, 2007

The Words and Worlds of Alan Furst

I finished the last page of "The Foreign Correspondent" and realized I have read every novel by Alan Furst. I've never done that before. That says something about what I think about his novels, all set in the 1930s and . . . more »

Van | 05/07/07 at 07:10 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 04, 2007

Lit Cafe: Jewish Women Who Walk the Walk and Write the Talk

The JCC in Manhattan hosted a rollicking event last week with its Lit Cafe. What a theme: "Young, Jewish and S-xual: Women Writers Who Walk the Walk and Write the Talk." Not only did the all-star line-up write the talk, . . . more »

Van | 05/04/07 at 06:50 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 03, 2007

'Black Book': Verhoeven Blasts Off with Bombs and Beauties

I never thought I saw films based on their director, but I have to revise that claim. After seeing "Black Book" recently, I decided I owe it to myself to see as many works by Paul Verhoeven as possible. I . . . more »

Van | 05/03/07 at 06:47 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 30, 2007

Hangin' with Lubovitch (Lar, Not Chabad)

I recently had the pleasure of hanging out with Lubovitch -- not Chabadniks in Crown Heights, but rather the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, which peformed a series at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University. I . . . more »

Van | 04/30/07 at 11:28 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 19, 2007

'Maude' on DVD: The Unbearable Lightness of Adrienne Barbeau

Those of us who worship at the delirously cantilevered shrine of Adrienne Barbeau cried out in delight recently when the first season of the 1970s TV show "Maude" appeared on DVD. Justly praised as a star vehicle for Bea Arthur, . . . more »

Van | 04/19/07 at 09:58 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 09, 2007

Ellen Barkin: World Enough and Time on Page Six

Continuing her brave self-healing as a struggling single mom, Jewish love goddess Ellen Barkin showed the kind of spunk that has made her a favorite celebrity among Kesher Talk readers, who clamor for constant coverage of her new life. According . . . more »

Van | 04/09/07 at 06:24 AM | 5 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 08, 2007

He is Risen, Indeed: Horndog Preachers Speak Out

Discussions of evangelical Christians rarely mention s-e-x in a positive light. The shenanigans of Jimmy Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and now Ted Haggard keep alive that stereotype of repression and acting out. "Completely heterosexual" Haggard was back in the news lately . . . more »

Van | 04/08/07 at 10:42 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 07, 2007

Otter Love

If you can stand the kitchy-koo soundtrack, this really is sweet. Watch all the way to the end. (Via Done With Mirrors) . . . more »

Judith | 04/07/07 at 08:45 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 04, 2007

Scary-Voice Man Gets a New Gig

I was placidly listening to WQXR this afternoon when a familiar voice cut through my bovine contentment. The voice was pitching the BMW Series 7, luring me to Deutchland's finest levels of engineered comfort and confidence when it hit me. . . . more »

Van | 04/04/07 at 10:29 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 27, 2007

Push the Button gets the nod

Some good news: "Push the Button" has been allowed into the Eurovision contest, after some controversy over the lyrics. So that's a good excuse to post the video again. (More Teapacks videos here.) UPDATE: Ra'anana Ramblings waxes nostalgic about Eurovision . . . more »

Judith | 03/27/07 at 09:04 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

'South Park' Meets Dickens: The Crisis Deepens

The songs of the "South Park" movie continue to echo in my happy household. A few weeks ago "Blame Canada" captured my son Shmoikel's attention, and that led to an entry, "South Park Meets Sondheim," that called down the wrath . . . more »

Van | 03/27/07 at 08:05 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 23, 2007

A Thumping Good Time at KinkyJews Lit Event

KinkyJews packed the house last night at the KGB Bar on E. 4th Street for its Jewish lit-erotica readings. I arrived before the 7:30 start time and found the first reading already in progress (what, a Jewish event that starts . . . more »

Van | 03/23/07 at 07:04 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 21, 2007

Ben's Non-Review of 300, part II

Via Rubicon3, the 300 Workout. Yes, you too can train like a bare-chested pseudo-Spartan. (More about the workout and the gym.) [ UPDATE: About the training, from the gym itself. ] Ben from NYC's previous nonreview of 300 is here. . . . more »

Judith | 03/21/07 at 10:02 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 19, 2007

Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™ From Mary, who got it from Karol, who got it from Rightthinking Girl, who got it from Sheila O'Malley (who I hadn't read for awhile and was happy to be reacquainted with; . . . more »

Judith | 03/19/07 at 09:57 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 16, 2007

Calling All KinkyJews for an Evening of Fine Literature

Our fun-loving landsmen at Kinky Jews are having a haimishe literary event on March 22 at the KGB Bar in New York, from 7 pm to 9:30 pm. Called "An Evening of Jewish Lit-Erotica," it promises to be an exploration . . . more »

Van | 03/16/07 at 07:20 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 11, 2007

Michael Stipe with Hair

Time for a palate-cleanser. Last month the Way-Back Machine of YouTube brought us 3 Woodstocks. This month it's a coupla train songs from REM. Rockin performance of "Driver 8" and "Can't Get There from Here" from 1985. One of my . . . more »

Judith | 03/11/07 at 08:47 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 07, 2007

Sondheim Does South Park: "Something For Everyone, Blame Canada Tonight!"

A strange musical confluence on Saturday compelled me to write this. First, my son Shmoikel told me he couldn't get a song to stop running through his head. That's "Blame Canada," from "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut." Some of . . . more »

Van | 03/07/07 at 06:46 AM | 0 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 06, 2007

Kesher Talk: we never stop working for you

You may have noticed all the recent Amazon links - we enjoy finding books and media which are relevant to our posts, and we hope you enjoy the convenience and maybe some pleasant and unexpected discoveries. I also went back . . . more »

Judith | 03/06/07 at 09:02 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Sex Toys of Doom: Links Now Available

The many hundreds of KT readers who felt a burning sense of anxiety at not being able to read Tristan Taormino's two-part expose in the Village Voice called "Dangerous Dildos" can relax. Since KT first reported on her shocking report, . . . more »

Van | 03/06/07 at 06:47 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 04, 2007

More Tipex/Teapacks videos

I added more Tipex videos from YouTube - at the end of this post. Also a translation of "Push the Button" from one of the YouTube postings. UPDATE: Via Aussie Dave, a more lengthy article in the Independent, with full . . . more »

Judith | 03/04/07 at 02:55 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 01, 2007

Push the Button

[ UPDATE: More Teapacks videos added! Plus translation. ] The Israeli Eurovision entry that is causing such a stir. (And the usual double standard - see the end of this post.) Sort of the Pogues crossed with Gogol Bordello, brought . . . more »

Judith | 03/01/07 at 11:43 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Farewell, New Mix 102.7, Buenvenidos, 92.7 Que Buena

Imagine my shock recently when I turned on my car radio to 102.7 FM, WNEW, "The New Mix," home of beloved dance classics (Barry White, Tavares, Donna Summer, stuff I've never heard) and genuine non-robotic DJs with a Brooklyn edge . . . more »

Van | 03/01/07 at 07:15 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 27, 2007

Mediterranean lamb marinade

I just made a marinade for a lamb chop. Or maybe it's a relish. Proportions are for you to decide. Toast pinenuts in olive oil till light brown. Add more olive oil. (Try Aguri or Agrumato Meyer Lemon infused olive . . . more »

Judith | 02/27/07 at 01:19 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Consumer Alert: Beware the Adult Toys of Doom

Village Voice columnist Tristan Taormino has written two eye-opening pieces in her "Pucker Up" column in the Village Voice about toxic adult toys. Many such items -- you know what they are -- have a component from industrial chemicals called . . . more »

Van | 02/27/07 at 06:21 AM | 3 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 26, 2007

Crass commercialism

I'm playing with putting specific Amazon ads in some posts - what do you think? If I stick with that I'll take down the Amazon sidebar ads which never make me any money anyway. I'm also going to start embedding . . . more »

Judith | 02/26/07 at 11:43 PM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 25, 2007

3 Woodstocks

[ Welcome Pajamas Media readers. The Amazon links at the bottom act dodgy on some browsers - sorry. I would love it if some CSS mavens help me figure it out. ] I've been listening to a lot of Patricia . . . more »

Judith | 02/25/07 at 02:14 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 17, 2007

If Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson were drinks, what would they be?

[ Judith says - Wow! Synchronicity! ] From the collected humor of Just One Minute Syl contributes: Valerie Flame: Valery Flame: water Valery Flame, NOC: water with paper umbrella Wilson: mint tea Wilson morning after: Important Hair of the Dog . . . more »

Alcibiades | 02/17/07 at 09:06 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

The mystery of the Plaid Martini

For several years my blogging partner-in-crime Mary has been in search of a possibly apocryphal libation called a "plaid martini." She and I have accosted countless bartenders in vain, even deeply experienced and scholarly mixologists like those at Park Blue, . . . more »

Judith | 02/17/07 at 08:58 PM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 15, 2007

More Josef6

Occasional Kesher Talk co-blogger Benjamin Kerstein is still posting his novel online. So far five six chapters are up. It's about a mass delusion. Or is it? . . . more »

Judith | 02/15/07 at 08:18 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 13, 2007

Winter

There's a Nor'easter blowing in. . . . . . . more »

Judith | 02/13/07 at 11:23 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

If you please

Via the Corner - the Siamese Cat Song from "The Lady and the Tramp" - in Hebrew. . . . more »

Judith | 02/13/07 at 07:25 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 12, 2007

NYTimes gets the kaffiyeh kraze wrong too

Speaking of people who think Israel is an "apartheid state" . . . . you might assume a scruffy youngster with a kaffiyeh around his/her neck would be booking it down to the Judson Church for some (self) righteous Palestinian . . . more »

Judith | 02/12/07 at 12:26 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 31, 2007

Has '24' Jumped the Shark?

The sixth season of '24' still draws me every week, but it's doing a worse job drawing me in. Other places have commented on the especially wooden civics debates and the PC tendencies in those stilted conversations. The series feels . . . more »

Van | 01/31/07 at 07:00 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 29, 2007

Via Pajamas . . . . the geekiest film ever. The Erik Spiekermann clip is a riot. (Think Sprockets.) I studied graphic design in my first round of art school, and made a modest living as a calligrapher in . . . more »

Judith | 01/29/07 at 10:54 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

I'm Spending Time Up on Choctaw Ridge

When I hear the same 40-year old song twice on the same day, I try to find cosmic meaning in the event. The song in question: that chilling acoustic slice of Southern gothic, "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry. . . . more »

Van | 01/29/07 at 09:44 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 17, 2007

More home movies from Israel

The other thing I like about Video Egg is that the video goes live as soon as you post the code, no waitng for it to "process" and get approved. The upload process itself takes a few minutes, but still . . . more »

Judith | 01/17/07 at 03:25 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Evening at the Akko Harbor

I'm going to put up the conference videos with Video Egg. In YouTube there is no way to make a video just available to whoever reads your blog. Either it's out there for anyone to access at YouTube, or you . . . more »

Judith | 01/17/07 at 08:13 AM | 6 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 15, 2007

2 out of the 24 of '24'

'24' started off mid-crisis last night in its two-hour ad-soaked kick-off, instead of building up to a threat. Bombs are exploding in major cities, the government is befuddled and/or aggressive, CTU is bickering. Jack is back. Blogs4Bauer has it all. . . . more »

Van | 01/15/07 at 07:07 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 14, 2007

'24' Goes Mel Gibson

The two-hour kick-off of '24' comes soon, and I want to see how far the show goes with its depictions of the ravaged body and soul of Yaacov "Jack" Bauer, the Jewish terrorist-fighter kidnapped by the Chinese at the end . . . more »

Van | 01/14/07 at 06:00 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 05, 2007

To Start the Morning Laughing . . .

. . . try watching the unrated version of Team America: World Police. For extra naughtiness, be sure to get the uncensored version I almost choked on my toast. And now, back to Durkadurkastan. . . . more »

Van | 01/05/07 at 07:05 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 04, 2007

Pan's Labyrinth

I saw Pan's Labyrinth over the holiday weekend; and unlike the vast majority of films these days, I was still puzzling over the meaning days later. I've been unhappy with it the last few days because I felt the . . . more »

Alcibiades | 01/04/07 at 11:33 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 23, 2006

Shabbat music Saturday: Shabbat menucha

Laura Wetzler sings about the day of rest. An old Sephardic melody - you can hear the flamenco influence. I didn't go to the kotel for Shabbat after all. It was raining. I hate rain anyway and standing outside for . . . more »

Judith | 12/23/06 at 11:44 PM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 17, 2006

Last Waltz at Tower Records

Tower Records is finally closing this week. I took one last spin through the store on 67th Street and Broadway in New York and for under $40 scooped up the following: Los Mocosos -- Shades of Brown Los Mocosos -- . . . more »

Van | 12/17/06 at 07:27 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 12, 2006

Schaap & Schwartz: The Super Ultra Mega Music Brains

In the realm of music influences, radio personalities Phil Schaap and Jonathan Schwartz both made me what I am today. In the early 1980s, listening to them on New York radio completed my move away from Top 40 into the . . . more »

Van | 12/12/06 at 11:28 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 11, 2006

Not the same old kugel

See that ad in the left sidebar? Pamphlet Guys took a break from war reporting to offer a palate cleanser (literally) in the form of a blogger cookbook. A Jewish blogger cookbook. It's about 50 black and white pages, no . . . more »

Judith | 12/11/06 at 01:17 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 07, 2006

The Transfatty Manifesto

Now that New York City has banned the use of trans fat in restaurants, I expect a fevered underground of of artery-clogging speakeasies to arise in the shadows of the city. They will operate quietly, via secret knocks and code . . . more »

Van | 12/07/06 at 09:54 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 26, 2006

Things Spotted Around NYC on the Post Thanksgiving Weekend

So, the first Christmas trees are already on sale on Broadway on the Upper West Side. Actually, the scent of the Christmas trees as you stroll around the streets is ne of my favorite things about the Holiday season. I . . . more »

Alcibiades | 11/26/06 at 02:48 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 24, 2006

Shabbat music Friday: Proclaim freedom

Someone else out there likes Divahn. Here's a YouTube creation using their version of popular Shabbat song Dror Yikra as a soundtrack to images of Jews and Israel: I can't wait till that second album comes out. In the meantime, . . . more »

Judith | 11/24/06 at 11:47 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 23, 2006

Now be thankful

An early live recording of Fairport Convention, in the spirit of the season: Back when Dave Swarbrick and Richard Thompson had baby faces...... . . . more »

Judith | 11/23/06 at 12:20 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

"May I ask what the turkey did?"

A joke from my friend Pamela: A young man named Jon received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced . . . more »

Judith | 11/23/06 at 11:13 AM | 5 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 20, 2006

Monday 6:30 PM Actor's Workshop - be there!

If you are in the NYC area this evening (Monday), head down to the Actor's Playhouse on 7th Avenue just south of Sheridan Square, for NEWS TO ME! Doors open at 6:30pm, show starts at 7pm. NEWS TO ME features . . . more »

Judith | 11/20/06 at 04:18 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 06, 2006

A day in the life

Via Bill INDC . . . . the ultimate YouTube cliche: . . . more »

Judith | 11/06/06 at 12:31 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 05, 2006

The New Metrosexual James Bond

Look, It's not just for the US army, it's become a World Wide Meme The sharing and caring side to Bond: Strong yet sensitive, introducing the Bond that bleeds. Casino Royale is the story of how Bond got started, . . . more »

Alcibiades | 11/05/06 at 07:06 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 01, 2006

Let us now praise weird snacks

Fairway, the gourmet supermarket of the Upper West Side, is now carrying dried gooseberries again. I used to buy them whenever I shopped there (although they are expensive), and then they stopped carrying them. They look like large raisins, but . . . more »

Judith | 11/01/06 at 03:26 PM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 27, 2006

Michael Weiss Quintet at the Vanguard thru Sunday night

My brother got a rave review in the NYTimes yesterday, well-deserved and overdue. He has been slaving in the jazz trenches for 25 years, appreciated by cognocenti and unknown by everyone else. The pianist Michael Weiss knows a lot . . . more »

Judith | 10/27/06 at 05:42 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 26, 2006

Future News: Campuses Explode After Jeff Foxworthy CD Found in Toilet

Nov. 15, 2006: Southern campuses in the U.S. exploded in rage today following reports that a Jeff Foxworthy CD had been found in a toilet at the University of Georgia. "Death to those who insult Jeff Foxworthy!" screamed thousands of . . . more »

Van | 10/26/06 at 09:18 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 25, 2006

Gotcha

To accompany any grim vengeful mood you may be in . . . . Patricia Barber, ladies and gentlemen . . . Any woman who doesn't wear makeup and sips Cognac on stage is okay by me. . . . more »

Judith | 10/25/06 at 03:51 PM | 0 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 22, 2006

Good News for '24' Fanatics: Season 6 Trailer Coming

If the year has two seasons for you -- '24' season and the rest of the year -- then the first signs of changing weather are coming. On Tuesday, Fox will broadcast a trailer for season six, online and during . . . more »

Van | 10/22/06 at 09:24 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 19, 2006

One Night With the King

Check this out - a cheesy costume drama of Megillat Esther! (via Life of Rubin) I still want to see it, tho. It's got John Rhys-Davies and Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole. The scenery-chewing will be first-class. (Find a theater . . . more »

Judith | 10/19/06 at 08:36 PM | 3 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 17, 2006

"My Name is Rachel Corrie": All the Rachels

The original US producer of the new off-Broadway run of the London hit "My Name is Rachel Corrie" wanted to "contextualize" the play by providing for structured discussion, but the UK producers refused and the production languished until taken up . . . more »

Judith | 10/17/06 at 10:28 PM | 4 Comments | 3 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

The controversy behind "My Name is Rachel Corrie"

We wrote about the attempt this spring to bring this polemical monologue to New York, from its wildly popular run in London. The American producer got cold feet, the British producers claimed that the arts community version of the Israel . . . more »

Judith | 10/17/06 at 07:34 PM | 1 Comments | 4 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

More Manly Virtues

It seems I'm not the only lady blogger who thought Robert Jensen's commentary decrying the supposed evils of manhood was not only ridiculous, but suggested a far from desirable outcome. Desolving masculinity, that is. Fausta accurately labels Jensen a "wuss" . . . more »

Cinnamon | 10/17/06 at 01:12 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Tower Records, Matchmaker

After 46 years, Tower Records has been sold to a liquidator who will shut the chain down. I've been browsing, even buying, at Tower since the first New York store opened at 4th Street and Broadway in New York in . . . more »

Van | 10/17/06 at 06:51 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 16, 2006

Gone to find the North Star

I'm writing a couple of new political posts and surfing YouTube for my favorite music, which is sort of singer-songwriter/world/trad, and I found this video of Sandy Denny performing one of my favorite songs at her piano. . . . more »

Judith | 10/16/06 at 11:21 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 15, 2006

Long Live the Manly Virtues!

A friend forwarded me University of Texas Journalism Professor Robert Jensen's ode to pathetic wimpiness (which is posted at SFGate.com, for whom I also write), "Men being men is a bad deal, Guys should evolve beyond masculinity." Guys should evolve . . . more »

Cinnamon | 10/15/06 at 12:32 PM | 8 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 12, 2006

Introducing the Lynne Stewart Prison Film Collection

As lawyer Lynne Stewart prepares for a stretch in the Big House, we at Kesher Talk want to help her in any way we can. Fortunately, many fine movies have described with great detail and accuracy the challenges and, yes, . . . more »

Van | 10/12/06 at 11:21 AM | 0 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 10, 2006

Sukkot 4: I've heard there was a secret chord that David played to please the Lord

All Yamim Noraim posts here, including one post a day from Rosh Chodesh Ellul 5766 through Yom Kippur 5767. All chagim posts here, including one post a day from the first day of Sukkot through Simchat Torah 5767. (Each of . . . more »

Judith | 10/10/06 at 11:59 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 09, 2006

Season of our joy

This is my response to Van's Black Sabbath Nissan Truck commercial. I guess we just come from different generations..... Those were the days: . . . more »

Judith | 10/09/06 at 08:41 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 06, 2006

"Vengeance From the Grave . . . AND Great Off-Road Handling!"

I love the new ads for the Nissan Titan truck. They play the opening chords of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man." That slamming intro takes me right back to my 13-year old heavy-metal days, when Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and . . . more »

Van | 10/06/06 at 03:17 PM | 8 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 04, 2006

Sat in your lap

After all the Yamim Noraim posts, and before all the Sukkot posts . . . a palate cleanser . . . . . . more »

Judith | 10/04/06 at 08:35 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 03, 2006

The politics of one more ageing-hippy supergroup

I'm not a fan of stadium-sized multimedia extravaganzas by superannuated sixties groups, so I'm glad I didn't even hear about this one.A couple months ago, the CSNY tour came through here. While the first half of the concert was a . . . more »

Judith | 10/03/06 at 09:54 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 25, 2006

Stephen Colbert explains the 10 days of repentance to you

Call 1-800- כלי צדיך. Operators are standing by. This one is pretty cute: . . . more »

Judith | 09/25/06 at 10:49 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 21, 2006

I Have Seen the Future of Rock n Roll, and It's Called OK Go

I recently was cooling my heels in New York's Virgin Megastore and I stopped to watch a music video by the group OK Go on a monitor. It stopped me cold. I watched in slack-jawed admiration of the group's sound . . . more »

Van | 09/21/06 at 11:34 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 20, 2006

Ellul 26, selichot 4: Yehi ratzon milfanechah

Teshuva contemplations every day until Yom Kippur here. You can also find the link on the sidebar under "Yamim Noraim." This week of selichot coincides with the last week of Rabbi Scheinerman's guide to teshuvah. Resolution. - to take . . . more »

Judith | 09/20/06 at 12:42 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 18, 2006

Attention, Jewish Singles: Let's Prepare for the New Year By Obsessing On Our Non-Coupled Status

With Rosh Hashanah fast approaching, Jewish singles have an entire week to obsess about their un-coupled status in life in the old year, thanks to National Unmarried and Single Americans Week. Running Sept. 17-23, National USA Week, as it bills . . . more »

Van | 09/18/06 at 09:36 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Jewcifer

This is probably not any more appropriate for Ellul than Jews doing burlesque, but . . . . . . . . more »

Judith | 09/18/06 at 04:25 PM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 14, 2006

You, Too, Can be a Kinky Jew, at Oyhoo

The Oyhoo festival wraps up this weekend in New York. Alas, I won't be able to attend the Satuday night blow-out at the 14th Street Y featuring Kosher ChiXXX. I would gladly gargle with rancid shmaltz to see this show, . . . more »

Van | 09/14/06 at 06:56 PM | 1 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 28, 2006

In Praise of Kinky Jews

[ My apologies to everyone who has tried leaving comments on this post and getting an error message: my spam filter doesn't like certain words, and I can't figure out where in the system this is taking place so I . . . more »

Benjamin | 08/28/06 at 05:18 AM | 9 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 22, 2006

Rosh Chodesh Ellul begins this Thursday evening

As a harbinger of new beginnings and the upcoming ritual marking the season of new beginnings . . . . Our latest fun sidebar item (lower left right, under the still-grossly-underpopulated and intermittant del.icio.us tag cloud as part of a . . . more »

Judith | 08/22/06 at 07:36 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 19, 2006

Tribute Concert Set for Klezmer Great German Goldenshteyn

Klezmer great German Goldenshteyn, who died last month at 71, will be honored at a concert in Brooklyn next month to raise money to support his family. The concert will be held Sept. 17 at 8 pm at Southpaw, . . . more »

Van | 08/19/06 at 04:56 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 18, 2006

Shabbat Shalom! from Sfat

Some Shabbat music for you, from Shira Chadasha, the feminist Orthodox minyan in Jerusalem. (This is from a CD and I can't find order info online - will post it when I do.) [L'cha Dodi] was composed in the . . . more »

Judith | 08/18/06 at 06:27 PM | 5 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 07, 2006

Beauty Treatments Go Futuristic and Not in A Good Way

The stem cell debate is a gray on gray area for many people. Nor is it a debate, as currently framed in the US, on which I feel strongly, because I think each side has a point. But this is . . . more »

Alcibiades | 08/07/06 at 11:47 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 06, 2006

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Helena Bonham Carter looking kind of witchy Helena Bonham Carter has been cast as Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter 5. I think that's a great bit of casting. I can imagine her, quite well, being deliciously, powerfully evil on screen. . . . more »

Alcibiades | 08/06/06 at 05:33 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

A Cole Porter Tribute

I was going to post this in July but then the war started, and I was way over my bandwidth allowance, and then I didn't want to post any music until after Tisha B'Av. . . . anyway, after . . . more »

Judith | 08/06/06 at 12:23 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 29, 2006

Mad Mel redux

We had occasion to write a lot about Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" when it came out. That and our coverage of "Munich" may be the most thorough fiskings of films you have ever seen. So now that . . . more »

Judith | 07/29/06 at 08:56 PM | 3 Comments | 3 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 28, 2006

Quatermass: Sci-Fi That Asks, "You're a Jew?"

I've read Jewish sci-fi before, such as the "Wandering Stars" anthology, but have rarely seen a sci-fi movie with an explicitly Jewish angle (Trekkies are welcome to instruct me on Vulcan Semitic speculations). Now I have: over the weekend my . . . more »

Van | 07/28/06 at 09:55 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 11, 2006

So If Zidane was Objecting to Being Called the Son of a Terrorist Whore...

as the London Times claims...and regarding that comment as a great insult, then that is a bit of all right, uh, not that it excuses, etc, etc. Well as long as Zidane was objecting to the terrorist part as well . . . more »

Alcibiades | 07/11/06 at 11:07 AM | 6 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 07, 2006

The World Cup Final

[ Here's one "team" definitely supporting the Italians. Though it's kind of an "I'll scratch your, erm, back, if you'll scratch mine" situation. ] Though I'm darn glad it is both Italy and France that reached the final, I'm undecided . . . more »

Alcibiades | 07/07/06 at 10:09 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 06, 2006

The Frisco Kid online

The promo video for the new Jewish Life TV Network starts off with an interview with the writer of "The Frisco Kid." Then you can watch the whole movie! (via Canonist) . . . more »

Judith | 07/06/06 at 08:29 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 04, 2006

Democracy Whiskey Sexy: a 4th of July playlist

The text of the Declaration of Independence. A fisking of the Declaration of Independence. A fisking of opinion polls, and some good advice, from Christopher Hitchens. Some loosely-defined Americana from my iTunes library for your pleasure (upbeat, downbeat, wacky, . . . more »

Judith | 07/04/06 at 11:22 PM | 6 Comments | 9 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

June 05, 2006

Recent recipes with currants

I haven't posted any recipes in a while (you can find all of them here), but recently I did some things with currants that turned out tasty, so . . . . Lamb shoulder chop: Marinade: olive oil, a few . . . more »

Judith | 06/05/06 at 08:04 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

June 02, 2006

Newsweek Rethinks "The Marriage Crunch" -- But Whatever Happened to "Luscious and Looking"?

Digging into its archives, Newsweek magazine has re-examined the data and the daters in its notorious June 1986 cover article "The Marriage Crunch." The article spun statistics in a study called "Marriage Patterns in the United States." Women across America . . . more »

Van | 06/02/06 at 09:21 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 19, 2006

Gor Lives!

Turns out there's a sex-slave cult devoted to the science fiction world of Gor whose proponents are merrily going about their existence in Britain. A sex slavery cult based on a series of 1960s science fiction novels has been uncovered . . . more »

Alcibiades | 05/19/06 at 09:37 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Unzipping "The Da Vinci Load," Both of Them

Today marks the release of "The Da Vinci Code," based on the profound, puzzle-packed book that ignited worldwide controversy about the roots of Christianity, the dark side of the Catholic Church, albinos, and now Tom Hanks' hair, as the most . . . more »

Van | 05/19/06 at 07:41 AM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 06, 2006

Mercy On Broadway

You know how you get a sudden craving for the comfort foods of your youth? I've been satisfying a sudden craving for the comfort music of my youth. For some reason last week I had a sudden craving for . . . more »

Judith | 05/06/06 at 09:04 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 27, 2006

"The Limits of Tolerance?" at NY Public Library

Sorry for the short notice on this. If the program tomorrow night doesn't sound that interesting, follow the links on Michnik and Bruckner. PEN WORLD VOICES: The New York Festival of International Literature. is a series of talks and panels . . . more »

Judith | 04/27/06 at 10:48 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 22, 2006

Soundtrack for a neocon revolution

Right after the Iraq War, Dr Frank penned the first pop hit of the new neocons, a musical setting of the famous exclamation of a newly liberated Iraqi as American troops rolled by: "Democracy Whiskey Sexy!" (Well, it was a . . . more »

Judith | 04/22/06 at 05:25 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 20, 2006

Retro-meme

Time for another iTunes shuffle . . . . . . . more »

Judith | 04/20/06 at 11:55 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Now that Passover is Over...

We can all appreciate again just how much fun it is to eat spaghetti. . . . more »

Alcibiades | 04/20/06 at 11:10 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 02, 2006

I Have Heard the Future of Rock 'n Roll, and It Sounds Like "The Right Brothers"

A group called the Right Brothers (TRB) has released a tail-kicking three-minute raver called "Bush Was Right." See it here. Check out the lyrics, which include: Ted Kennedy -- wrong! Cindy Sheehan -- wrong! France -- WRONG! Zell Miller -- . . . more »

Van | 04/02/06 at 09:51 PM | 0 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 31, 2006

Fear of a Jihadi Planet, cont.

Previous depressing posts on this topic here and here. Here is the new issue of Free Inquiry - the one Borders has declined to carry. Unfortunately, Barnes & Noble may be caving too: Barnes & Noble, the magazine's second-largest retailer, . . . more »

Judith | 03/31/06 at 07:06 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 27, 2006

Cherchez le blog

Is there any connection between our "exceeded bandwidth" messages last night and Van's infusion of babeoliciousness into the main page of our straight-laced blog? Just wondering . . . . . . . more »

Judith | 03/27/06 at 10:00 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Cherchez La Femme: The Return of Adrienne Barbeau, My Most Dangerous Woman

I've known some dangerous women in my life. They combine killer looks with personalities that threaten to chew up any man who crosses them. They have hard romantic histories, burdened by bad men that leave them vulnerable and hard-shelled at . . . more »

Van | 03/27/06 at 09:24 AM | 1 Comments | 2 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 14, 2006

The soundtrack of my life, Tiger edition

In honor of zeroing out my hard drives, installing OSX 10.4.5, downloading and reinstalling all my apps, restoring all my data and preferences, repairing my permissions, deleting unneeded localizations, and importing about 25% of my music collection into iTunes . . . . more »

Judith | 03/14/06 at 08:38 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 13, 2006

It's Purim, get out your shovel

Several years ago, Jordan Max, while digging out his driveway in Toronto, imagined various Jewish leaders giving him advice on shovelling snow, his parody travelled around the internet, and inspired me to lampoon the Jewish Renewal leaders I was fond . . . more »

Judith | 03/13/06 at 02:13 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 11, 2006

War Poetry Contest

The War Poetry Contest is now in its 5th year. $3,000 in prizes, including a top prize of $1,500. Sponsored by Winning Writers, one of the "101 Best Web Sites for Writers" (Writer's Digest, 2005). Postmark deadline: May 31 Judge: . . . more »

Judith | 03/11/06 at 04:05 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 06, 2006

HUMOR: H'wood Homophobes Nix Dix Pix; Chix-Lix Flix Clix?

America reeled last night as the hidden homophobes of Hollywood denied "Brokeback Mountain" its rightful Oscar for Best Picture, instead giving the precious little statuette to "Crash," some movie about race relations in Los Angeles with a title that sounds . . . more »

Van | 03/06/06 at 10:43 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Mullah's Version of "Get Up, I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine"

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, performed the classic version of the song "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine," with the powerfully poetic lyrics Fellas, I'm ready to get up and do my thing I wanta get . . . more »

Van | 03/06/06 at 12:15 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 05, 2006

Jews support the arts

[ UPDATE: What were these people thinking??? ] Apropos of the Rachel Corrie play: The NY Theater Workshop director states that the delay in mounting the New York production has nothing to do with pressure from the Jewish community. The . . . more »

Judith | 03/05/06 at 10:20 AM | 3 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 26, 2006

You Ain't Nothin' But a Jihad Dog, Killin' All the Time

The West continues to find its voice, now singing through the Velvet Prophet: With or without fluorescent paint, few things are as quintessentially kitschy as black velvet paintings. But many political leaders in Europe and the United States seem to . . . more »

Van | 02/26/06 at 06:39 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 24, 2006

Good for Sasha Cohen for Winning Silver

That is, since she didn't hit gold. She may have screwed up two jumps in the long program, but I thought her artistry was fantastic, the best by far. The Times seems to disdain her. Typically, I disdain the . . . more »

Alcibiades | 02/24/06 at 12:43 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 23, 2006

"Chinatown" Enchantment

When I saw Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" when it was released in 1974, the music haunted me as much as the story. "I Can't Get Started" and "The Way You Look Tonight" hinted at a world of music and emotion beyond . . . more »

Van | 02/23/06 at 11:26 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 13, 2006

Hot boy on boy action redux

Glenn's 14-year-old niece explains the success of "Brokeback Mountain": "It's a chick-flick with nothing but hot guys." Well, duh. In December I linked to a happily married woman in Australia who explains "slash" to a film critic: Just a comment . . . more »

Judith | 02/13/06 at 11:33 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 12, 2006

"The Vagina Monologues:" Secret Weapon in the Struggle Against Terror

Only 48 hours remain until Valentine's Day, and the excitement is building. Love is in the air -- actually, that's the smell of burning Valentine's Day cards, courtesy of . . . oh, take a guess. First they came for . . . more »

Van | 02/12/06 at 08:12 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 02, 2006

Sprint's "Sticking It to the Man" Ad: The "Brokeback Mountain" of Cellphone Marketing

The best ad on TV for several months comes from Sprint, promoting its Fair & Flexible Plan for cell phones. You know the one: an executive talks about the plan and smugly says it's his way of "sticking it to . . . more »

Van | 02/02/06 at 05:06 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 01, 2006

Dear Achmed . . . .

Via Done With Mirrors, an Arab joke about ethnic profiling. (In the comments, we find that the same joke has been told about Irishmen and rednecks.) One sign of a good joke is that it travels well. . . . more »

Judith | 02/01/06 at 09:47 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 29, 2006

Charming Hostess is back in town

Charming Hostess is playing at Tonic this Sunday evening at 10 PM. From their concert at the Jewish Heritage Museum in NYC last year: A Ladino wedding song (dumbek by Eve Sicular) From the setting of poems by Sem . . . more »

Judith | 01/29/06 at 12:47 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 23, 2006

Bukharin Food in Queens, NY

I think this looks and sounds delicious -- but then I love Central Asian food. I used to have some delicious recipes, mostly of kinds of meat dumplings. (Well I still do, I just haven't made them for a . . . more »

Alcibiades | 01/23/06 at 02:31 PM | 8 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 17, 2006

More bounty from the freezer

It's that time of year. And I've had the ingredients in the freezer since last winter, when my last chili was a contestant in Karol's cook-off. This chili is fleischig. If you don't keep kosher it tastes great with shredded . . . more »

Judith | 01/17/06 at 02:32 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 28, 2005

Boy on boy action

I was wondering if anyone was going to bring this up. . . . Just a comment about straight men and their wives not going to “Brokeback Mountain.” Jeffrey, their wives will be going with the other wives. The straight . . . more »

Judith | 12/28/05 at 06:29 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 09, 2005

The soundtrack of my evening

Most of the tagging memes require too much soul-searching, but this one is fun and easy. I don't have an iPod but I put iTunes on party shuffle. . . . more »

Judith | 12/09/05 at 01:57 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 05, 2005

The bounty of the freezer

Like your average single person, since I don't usually have to plan meals for more than one person, my cooking is pretty reactive to what foodstuffs I have in the kitchen: pasta, eggs, frozen veggies, prepared meals, take-out. So it's . . . more »

Judith | 12/05/05 at 06:45 AM | 1 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 25, 2005

NY Times offended by "Kabbalah"

Have you noticed the BlogAd in my right sidebar for a play called "Kabbalah," written directed and performed by the Jewish Theater of New York? I just got an email from them. Apparently the "Newspaper of Record" thought the play . . . more »

Judith | 11/25/05 at 03:20 PM | 6 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

November 22, 2005

Seasonal blogging

My recipe for squash soup with sweet red pepper aioli is here.Pomegranates. Truly seasonal - very hard to get at other times of the year. Fun but dangerous to eat; they spurt and stain your clothes. And delicious. There is . . . more »

Judith | 11/22/05 at 12:01 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Judith's squash soup with sweet red pepper aioli

Served in Austin TX, Thanksgiving 2003 and 2005. This soup can be made meat, dairy, or pareve. The amounts given here makes enough for 10 people to have one bowl each with some left over to freeze or give guests . . . more »

Judith | 11/22/05 at 11:06 AM | 1 Comments | 4 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

October 14, 2005

Political Correctness

[ UPDATE: Rightwingnuthouse agrees with Roger and me about Harold Pinter and art in general. (Roger and me - wasn't that a movie . . . .? ] Roger Simon was asked what he thought of Harold Pinter being awarded . . . more »

Judith | 10/14/05 at 12:33 PM | 1 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 29, 2005

Beach haven

Mary and I went to the beach again last week. We missed the exit for Island Beach State Park so we ended up on the next barrier island down the Jersey shore. Since it was September, the area was pretty . . . more »

Judith | 09/29/05 at 06:04 PM | 3 Comments | 1 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

Heh! Good for you after all!

Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday. . . . more »

Alcibiades | 09/29/05 at 12:13 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 21, 2005

Mixing

We all like to play DJ. First it was mix tapes from LPs. Very tedious to produce; a real labor of love. Then CDs enabled one to make the segues a bit tighter. Then CD burners enabled the layperson to . . . more »

Judith | 09/21/05 at 05:16 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 20, 2005

FREE Concert tomorrow

I can brag that I was at Divahn's very first concert when the whole band lived in Austin, and I think I saw every show they did until I moved to NYC. (Austin aficionados, think Cactus Cafe, Empanada Parlour, Clay . . . more »

Judith | 09/20/05 at 05:59 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 18, 2005

Charming Hostess tonight in NYC

I posted this last week, but I want to see a good crowd tonight for Charming Hostess, the nerdy sexy commie girlie harmony group from Berkeley CA (their own description). Bowery Poetry Club (scroll down) Sunday, September 18th 308 Bowery . . . more »

Judith | 09/18/05 at 01:09 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 16, 2005

Jewish girlie world music 4 U in NYC & more

Two of my favorite all-girl world music bands will be performing in NYC next week as part of the NY Jewish Heritage and Music Festival: Divahn and Charming Hostess. Both groups feature incredible musicianship and creative arrangements of traditional sources, . . . more »

Judith | 09/16/05 at 09:19 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 04, 2005

". . . a lot of the locations from her songs are now underwater . . ."

I had exactly the same thought last night as I drifted off to sleep. . . Everybody's had a few Now they're talking about who knows who I'm going back to the Crescent City Where everything's still the same This . . . more »

Judith | 09/04/05 at 06:54 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 02, 2005

The wonderfulness of ads

If all those ads are annoying you, check this out. It's a podcast of Bukharan Jewish music, via Nextbook, which I clicked on from one of the CrispAds links. . . . more »

Judith | 09/02/05 at 07:54 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 23, 2005

Mmm, cookies

I just want to report I made Judith's cardamom cookie recipe. And that, strangely they are almost all gone. Really yummy. . . . more »

Alcibiades | 08/23/05 at 01:36 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 12, 2005

Temple Mount blogburst: Poetry pierces the iron curtain

Tisha B'Av Temple Mount blogburst main page. Jews confront the historical reality of our calamities, but we also transform the potent metaphors of our prophetic tradition into moral lessons. The Three Weeks begins the season of repentence which culminates in . . . more »

Judith | 08/12/05 at 02:53 PM | 1 Comments | 4 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 10, 2005

The iconoclastic career of Steven Vincent

I would take issue with the sweeping generalization of the subhead, but this is a fascinating look at murdered journalist Steven Vincent's personal life and history. . . . more »

Judith | 08/10/05 at 12:31 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 09, 2005

In the oven

I'm not that great a baker and I'm trying to regulate the amount of carbs in my kitchen, so I don't keep flour and sugar around, usually. However, I was going to bake these cookies for someone who really likes . . . more »

Judith | 08/09/05 at 12:50 PM | 2 Comments | 2 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 26, 2005

Gypsy Solitaire

Periodically I listen to cassettes which I taped from LPs before I moved from Philadelphia to Austin, and I get a hankering to replace them with CDs. Sometimes those obscure recordings have been re-released on CD, as with Ellen MacIlwaine . . . more »

Judith | 07/26/05 at 10:08 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 19, 2005

Quick dinner

Does anyone like chicken liver besides me? My mom made great chopped liver. Actually it was more of a pate; she put it in the blender. I don't have her recipe. But I saute thinly sliced onion in butter, push . . . more »

Judith | 07/19/05 at 10:09 PM | 9 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 18, 2005

Busy salad

The stuff in the fridge that was soon going to go bad held a dialogue with the stuff in the freezer that hadn't been used for way too long and came up with this: Arugula. Mesclun mix. Tomato chunks. Nectarine . . . more »

Judith | 07/18/05 at 05:43 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 15, 2005

More WWII photos

After browsing this link I posted (which I found via Chicagoboyz), Rona emailed me the following (reproduced with permission):That found film link was cool. In WWII my father found a whole reel of unexposed 35mm film for movie making. He . . . more »

Judith | 07/15/05 at 04:05 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 12, 2005

Brief Martha Stewart moment revisited

Last summer I had some suggestions for keeping cool with the abundance of fresh fruit and veggies available. I've already started freezing the boxes of blueberries, and I've got some gazpacho from Fairway in there waiting for the next muggy . . . more »

Judith | 07/12/05 at 11:57 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 06, 2005

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

July 6 is National Kissing Day in the U.K., says Amber. I guess those proper Brits need to formally commemorate the activity. However, from shortly after the invention of the automobile to the decade of Free Love, America was the . . . more »

Judith | 07/06/05 at 05:16 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 17, 2005

I want my MTV, er, NPR

More oppression of free speech from the fascist Bushitler:Last month, the corporation's board, which is dominated by Republicans named by President Bush, told the staff at a meeting that it should prepare to redirect the relatively modest number of . . . more »

Judith | 05/17/05 at 03:42 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 14, 2005

The Feminist Sex Wars revisited

I've been reading blog eulogies for Andrea Dworkin, and remembering the Feminist Sex Wars of the early 80s, when the Dworkin-McKinnon anti-porn movement was in full swing. The anti-porn wing generated an opposition which became known as the pro-sex . . . more »

Judith | 04/14/05 at 08:02 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 28, 2005

I was saving this post for a time when this blog needs some levity

Tim Blair presents Texaco Tracey-Lou and her Toeless Tennessee Tappers:MoonSEAL Daughter My momma was a moonbat Daddy was a Navy SEAL So I grew up conflicted The way a moonSEAL daughter will Momma went to demonstrations But Daddy liked to . . . more »

Judith | 03/28/05 at 09:06 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 14, 2005

Subliminal in NYC

I didn't go see Zionist Israeli rapper Subliminal last night, although I publicized his upcoming show. I'm not into rap in general and tickets were $40. But Yaron has a review. . . . more »

Judith | 03/14/05 at 06:09 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 04, 2005

Biladi

Subliminal is going to be in NYC March 13, at BBKing's.Israeli rapper Subliminal makes his U.S. debut tonight in Los Angeles, but his presence has already been felt around the world. Known as a right-wing Zionist, the hip-hop star . . . more »

Judith | 03/04/05 at 12:01 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 02, 2005

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the park . . .

I thought I was done with Gates blogging, but I must note this valiant attempt to keep the meme going. . . . more »

Judith | 03/02/05 at 12:22 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 22, 2005

Ringside seat

Watching Horowitz and Hitchens argue about Israel would be worth the price of this trip. . . . more »

Judith | 02/22/05 at 11:28 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 21, 2005

Sha'arey gan Orange, cont.

Rabbi Michael Strassfeld - former rabbi of the shul I sauntered forth from on Saturday and current rabbi of one even closer to Central Park - took his kahal to the Park the previous Shabbat and gave a drash . . . more »

Judith | 02/21/05 at 04:56 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 20, 2005

Sha'arey Gan Orange, cont.

I guess I should keep posting Christo Gates items as long as they are installed (about a week left now). Yesterday I finally got my Gates walk, as about 12 people from one of my minyans left the shul . . . more »

Judith | 02/20/05 at 07:03 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 18, 2005

Buy this CD

The hazzan of my shul back in Austin just released a recording, and one of the most influential Jewish music critics thinks he likes it:Neil Blumofe: �Moses� Muses� (Horeb) Well, it�s not often I get to say this but . . . more »

Judith | 02/18/05 at 09:37 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 14, 2005

How the other half lives

I keep an eye on eBay auctions of Wolford pantyhose - the Rolls Royce of pantyhose - so I can occasionally acquire a few pair on the cheap. This brings me into glancing contact with a rarified world which . . . more »

Judith | 02/14/05 at 03:41 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 12, 2005

Open the gates!

While I'm in bed with the post-nasal crud, the latest Christo environmental extravaganza is being unveiled 3 blocks from my apartment. Last week I walked through parts of the preparations on my way home from a doctor's appointment. I . . . more »

Judith | 02/12/05 at 10:45 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 19, 2005

The fourth annual War Poetry Contest

Sponsored by Winning Writers. Prizes of $1,500, $500, $250 and 10 honorable mentions of $75 each will be awarded. Submit 1-3 original, unpublished poems on the theme of war, up to 500 lines in all. $12 entry fee, payable . . . more »

Judith | 01/19/05 at 09:58 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 28, 2004

Aging irrelevant cool stuff: Pop culture

I'm cleaning out my "cool stuff" bookmarks, so some of this is old news. (Apologies if you saw it already or if you provided the original link and I can't remember who you were.) This might be the cover . . . more »

Judith | 12/28/04 at 06:50 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

December 16, 2004

The rocket's red gleaming. . .

Gunner Palace is finally finished and will premier in February, with a wider opening in March. . . . more »

Judith | 12/16/04 at 08:38 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 06, 2004

Divine Divahn

My favorite Jewish world music band will be at Satalla on Wednesday with new musicians on cello and violin. Oi Va Voi will be at Makor at the same time, which is one of those Manhattan cultural cornucopia hard . . . more »

Judith | 09/06/04 at 06:00 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

September 03, 2004

Krispy Kremes for the Homeless

At the opening of the new Krispy Kreme in Washington DC, former Kesher Talk contributor, Rami Genauer, won himself donuts for life by being the first in line... but it turns out he does not eat them, so he will . . . more »

William | 09/03/04 at 11:21 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 11, 2004

Brief Martha Stewart moment

Frozen fruit is my mainstay in the summer. It's nutritious, flavorful, not too caloric or carbful (berries and citrus, anyway), and it keeps you cool. Frozen orange pops: Buy large navel oranges. Quarter skin, avoiding cutting into flesh as . . . more »

Judith | 08/11/04 at 06:03 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 11, 2004

Being Terry Teachout

Time for the latest blogosphere quiz craze, guys and dolls. Pass means "no opinion because of insufficient exposure to one or both options" or "no strong opinion." Exclamation point means I have a strong opinion. Background. Latest list of . . . more »

Judith | 07/11/04 at 11:00 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 05, 2004

Parasha poetry

It's World Blog Haiku Day, so I blogged a string of syllabic poems on parashat Pinchas. Then I ran across this post about Parsha Senryu (from Fiddish). Apparently there's a grassroots movement of people writing senryu (syllabic poems following . . . more »

Rachel | 07/05/04 at 12:40 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

June 16, 2004

. . . yes I said yes I will Yes

Today is Bloomsday. In fact, today is the centenary of Bloomsday.The date is as well known to students of English literature as the beginning of the first world war is to military historians: June 16th 1904 is �Bloomsday�, the . . . more »

Judith | 06/16/04 at 05:56 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 24, 2004

Most obscure pop/folk record ever

So true:Best Album not yet on CD: "Frazer & DeBolt with Ian Guenther."One of only four google hits for "Frazer & DeBolt." Here's another: Top albums at CKVN in Vancouver (probably a college indy station), for 3/5/71: . . . more »

Judith | 05/24/04 at 06:28 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 21, 2004

Read the book

The good news is that the wonderful novel Bee Season is being made into a movie. The bad news is that the actors chosen for the 2 adult leads are even more inappropriate than the usual Hollywood glamming-up of . . . more »

Judith | 05/21/04 at 02:45 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 20, 2004

The purpose of art

While browsing in a used CD store I found the live recording of Laurie Anderson's performances in NYC on September 19-20, 2001. I just now got around to listening to it. A resident of downtown Manhattan for decades, she . . . more »

Judith | 05/20/04 at 11:29 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 16, 2004

High school summer reading list

High school summer reading list blog thing that's going around. . . . more »

Judith | 05/16/04 at 02:27 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

May 10, 2004

"Sometimes I think God is a shit."

A Wrinkle in Time was my favorite book from the age of ten when I first read it, right through my teens. I must have reread it 50 times. Via Protocols, an interview with the author, who it turns . . . more »

Judith | 05/10/04 at 11:51 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 02, 2004

Separated at birth?

The movie Starsky and Hutch, being released Friday, stars Ben Stiller as Starsky and Owen Wilson as Hutch. Based on the trailer it seems to have more in common with Sabotage, the brilliant parody of 70's cop shows by . . . more »

William | 03/02/04 at 09:16 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 17, 2004

Dazzling literature

This week I've been reading Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, the true story of her childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, told in graphic novel form. (Does that make it a graphic memoir?) . . . more »

Rachel | 02/17/04 at 06:07 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 10, 2004

Big Bend

Sasha Castel understands the lure of Big Bend (one of the most underrated - and remote - wilderness areas in the continental US). As I note in the comments, most Easterners - even hiking/camping aficionados - have never heard . . . more »

Judith | 02/10/04 at 10:30 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

February 09, 2004

It was 40 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play . . .

I saw that show. It was right after my 11th birthday. I became a screaming Beatles fan immediately. From there I moved on to fake Correges white leather miniboots, Mary Quant haircuts, red paisley Nehru jackets, and faded hip-hugger . . . more »

Judith | 02/09/04 at 11:43 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 23, 2004

The great chicken soup cookoff

On January 8 the National Jewish Outreach Program announced its Chicken Soup Challenge, a national contest to find the best chicken soup in America (beside your mother's) in an effort to promote the organization's 8th annual Shabbat Across America . . . more »

William | 01/23/04 at 09:01 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

January 04, 2004

Ladies and gentlemen: the bagel

Living in Austin for 10 years taught me to appreciate real bagels when I can find them. As a New Yorker, Ed Levine understands one of my pet peeves:A bagel is a round bread made of simple, elegant ingredients: high-gluten . . . more »

Judith | 01/04/04 at 11:51 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

June 24, 2003

Penmanship

Palmer cursive is hard to do well and slow. However, chancery cursive (the closest typeface is Zapf Chancery), written without an edged nib, is clean, easy to read, easy to learn, and very fast. People think of this as "calligraphy" . . . more »

Judith | 06/24/03 at 08:20 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures

June 22, 2003

We Five

My judgment may be obscured by the fact that I've owned this record since I was 12 (I am now listening to a tape), but wasn't You Were on My Mind one of the best pop records of the last . . . more »

Judith | 06/22/03 at 08:21 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures