Bobby Conn, the 11th Plague

The Passover season is here. It seemed a bit chilly and snowy to be doing spring cleaning, but it's been a cold endless winter here on the North Coast. What can you do?

I thought I'd kick it off with probably the oddest Passover song & video I've seen in a while. The video is a segment of the TV show "Chic-A-Go-Go - Chicago's Dance Show for Kids of All Ages," a local access favorite produced and aired in Chicago. I can't tune it in but, if you're in Chicago, you can. It's available on cable channel 19 every Tuesday at 8:30 PM CST and Wednesday at 3:30 PM CST.

They describe the segment like this...

An excerpt from the puppet Sedar special CHIC-A-GO-GO PRESENTS PASSOVER IN PUPPETTOWN (1999). Features Bobby Conn's amazing performance "Passover" (alternate version from album) and features The Goblins, Ratso, plaques, Moses, K-Satt, a sock puppet Rabbi named Rabbi Sachman, and puppetry by Miss Pussycat, and Ralph Syverson

This brings us to Bobby Conn. Conn is an off kilter wild man. I've seen his music described as "glam rock," "progressive rock," and "avant-garde" and seen him compared to David Bowie. This performance of his song Passover is completely over the top. Conn in a kimono in front of a silver curtain with two female models air-guitaring poorly while he wails about the angel of death. Coming on the heels of a puppet show seder only makes it more surreal.

Bobby Conn in "Passover in Puppettown" (Chic-A-Go-Go)

Hava Nagila & JumpStart World

So, is Judaism the only religion in the world with a theme song? The occasion doesn't matter, if you want to something to sound Jewish, just add Hava Nagila. Sigh.

I had funny 'Hava Nagila' moment recently that I thought I'd share. I was washing dishes and humming to myself. I'd wanted to put some music on in the kitchen, but was foiled by my 5 year old. Before I could fire up one the 'Ofer Ben-Amots' discs I just got in the mail she asked to play her video game, JumpStart World Kindergarten. (Brief plug, JSW is a pretty slick game, with a great mix of educational and entertainment content. The wiggler loves it.). JSW is pretty noisy and has it's own sound track, so no music for me. Oh well. Back to humming. All of a sudden I realized I was humming Hava Nagila. Huh? Then I realized I was humming along with the little one's game. She was running around her game world with the body of a girl robot and a MIDI instrumental Hava Nagila soundtrack. When we started the game, we'd identified ourselves as "celebrating Chanukah." That got us lot of Jewish stars and menorah's around Chanukah. And now...Hava Nagila.

To quote a friend from college..."now thats a metaphor for something larger"

MyFaceSpace, the musical

And now for something completely different.

Jewish video game commentator "GameJew" teams up with art-pranksters "monochrom" to stage a musical about social networking and personal privacy. Much hilarity, and a spot on BoingBoing TV, ensues.