#NoseJobGate - The Groggers and Plastic Surgery Disasters

Ah, nose jobs. I remember being a teen and having my grandfather promise me that if I ever wanted a nose job he'd pay for it. Huh? I remember thinking. Why on earth would I want that? Now my brother...he's got serious beak.... It's not just my grandfather, though. Our collective self-consciousnesses about our over-sized honkers comes up regularly in both self-deprecating jokes and in trips to the plastic surgeon. Occasionally, it even bubbles over into the mainstream culture. Maybe it's a way to identify (and identify with) the outsider in last spring's episode of Glee, for example, or to make unexpected (and awkward) connections between actress Halle Berry, her Jewish cousin, and the viewing audience of the Tonight show back in 2007.

Mostly the whole idea is about as cliche and tacky as JAP (Jewish American Princess) or circumcision jokes. (Didja hear the one about the.....)

This week's entry into the Nose Job hall of fame is "Jewcan Sam (A Nosejob Love Song)" by The Groggers. The song, which has now been viewed over 120,000 times, is a funny guy-wants-girl power-pop joke-fest. Get your nose circumcised. Pinocchio never got Snow White. Funny stuff from a band known for sharp humor. (See my previous post on The Groggers)

Here's the song.

"Jewcan Sam" (A Nose Job Love Song) - The Groggers [Official Music Video]



And then it hit the press. I saw it first on the ABC News website under the banner "Miami Plastic Surgeon Under Investigation After Commissioning 'Jewcan Sam' Music Video." For real? How did ABC even hear the song. The Groggers are a relatively unknown (though talented) Orthodox Jewish rock band. But then it came clear...the nose job song and video were paid for by an Orthodox Jewish plastic surgeon in Florida. And hence the scandal. This is, the news narrative states, payola for promotion of plastic surgery to teens. And then the scandal deepened. The leader of the Groggers actually got a nose job himself as part of the deal. This has all the makings for a media feeding frenzy.

The Miami Herald, NBC, the Sun-Sentinal, UPI, and the Huffington Post all weighed in. So did the UK's Daily Mail and Jewish outlets The JTA, The Forward, and Shalom Live. Even the industry site OutpatientSurgery.Com commented. (And to get really meta, I'm writing this post about it citing all those other rags).

And then Groggers band leader Doug Staiman did a great radio interview capitalizing on the whole affair on 107.2 FM.

The verdict so far? The plastic surgeon involved may have violated ethics rules in funding the video. The band may have violated good taste and judgement by taking the funding. The song is pretty darn good and pretty darn ambiguous as to its stance on Jewish nose jobs. Which is all just fine with me. The Groggers are notorious for writing funny songs that tweak the Jewish community. Have at it boys.

We sang Misheberach for the cat. It died. An interview with a Debbie Friedman Cover Band

And you shall be a blessing...oh yeah!

Debbie Friedman is a seminal figure in American Jewish music, with a huge influence on Reform liturgy and camp music. She's inspired song books, movies, and now...the cover band Not By Might.

Ok. Not really. The guys in the video, Jason Mesches and Jacob Perlin are actually the musical comedy duo Mesch and Cod. But their mockumentary is brilliant and absolutely spot-on. If you've spent any time around Reform songleaders, you'll be in stitches.

NOT BY MIGHT - Debbie Friedman cover band interview



And because it's Shabbat and because it's been a long week, here's Debbie Freidman performing her classic Misheberach at LimmudLA on Sunday, 17 February 2008.

Debbie Friedman Performs 'Mishebayrach' Live at LimmudLA'08

Tur-Mohel & his Minyan apply to join the Evil League of Evil

I'm a huge fan of Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. Here's the banner.

Isn't it wonderful? Go watch it right now. The show I mean. Here are acts 1, 2 (part 1), 2 (part 2) 3 (part 1), and 3 (part 2).

Anyway, the three videos in the series revolve around the main character, Dr. Horrible, trying to earn his place in the notorious Evil League of Evil. Recently a call for applications went out to all would be bad guys to join the league. By all reports, the best application came from Tur-Mohel & his Minyan.

Tur-Mohel -- Evil League Of Evil Application

You can follow Tur-Mohel on his twitter feed and at his website. Ok, so maybe they're not The Purple Gang, but I'm swooning. Good shtick. I like. (And go watch more Evil League of Evil applications.)

Conan O'Brian (and Jewschool's) response to Senator Hatch's Chanukah Song

One of the biggest bits of internet buzz this Chanukah season was Senator Orin Hatch's Chanukah song. (See my post from last week.) The buzz hit prime time last week when Conan O'Brian and his The Tonight Show gang played a clip and then sang a song that was supposed to celebrate of Church of Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith's birthday, but mostly, humorously, pointed out how little they knew about Mormons. The song, which which mixed melodies of Driedel and Maoz Tzur, was a gift from Max Weinberg, Tonight Show band leader and the show's only Jew.

According to recent a JTA article, the idea for the song actually came from everyone's favorite progressive left Jewish blog, JewSchool. "Larry Yudelson posted a query to his fellow Jewschool.com contributors wondering if “there are any special Mormon holidays for which we can return the favor?” In response, Jewschool managing editor Alana Suskin mused, “Wouldn’t it be off the charts funny to do a [Jewschool] holiday song for Mormons?" They knocked around some lyrics online and then "occasional Jewschool contributor and full-time “Tonight Show” writer Rob Kutner recognized a funny idea when he saw one."

Their song is funny and terrible (both on purpose) , unlike Sen. Hatch's which is mostly funny and terrible by accident.

2010 Winter Olympics, Matisyahu, and Geoff Berner

Matisyahu, everyone's favorite Hasidic reggae / hip hop superstar just got a major publicity boost. His song "One Day" has been featured in a NBC commercial for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. There's speculation that it will be used as the official theme song of the games. "One Day" is from Matisyahu's new album, Light. Go buy it. Now.

NBC Winter Olympics Spot featuring Matisyahu's "One Day"

It should be noted that Matisyahu's song was NOT written for the game. Canadian Jewish singer-songwriter Geoff Berner, on the other hand, took on the project of a 2010 Winter Games theme song in his own inimitable style. Here's Berner and the Squeezebox Circle Accordion Orchestra playing "The Dead Children Were Worth It."

Geoff Berner & the Squeezebox Circle Accordion Orchestra

Hat tip to YouTube user azisman for posting Berner's video.

The Circumcision Drinking Song

The "On The Main Line" blog just posted a rather singular song called called The Newly-Dubb'd Jew in a 1790's book called Hilaria. The song is a funny and racy redo of the older English folk tune, "Derry Down," chronicling a conversation between a prospective convert and his soon-to-be-clipped penis. The song includes lots of political references of events of the day and is generally more amused by the process than abusive of Jews, which makes it good fun to read today. I'd love to hear someone try to sing it. Send me a video and I'll happily post it on Teruah. Any takers? To get the melody, listen to this recording of American folk musician Pete Seeger singing a very different Derry Down lyric.

The book, attributed to a "Captain Charles Morris and William Hewerdine" is dedicated to drinking and drinking songs, opening with this comment (I've corrected the spelling to modern standards) ...

"....the gentlemen of Britain, whose fondness for pure, unadulterated, wine, cannot be doubted, will continue the old custom of drinking a bumper of wine with the first toast after dinner to the first thing that was ever was created for the enjoyment of their sex.

Solomon..., says "give flow strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy hearts." "Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."

With that thought in mind...here's "The Newly Dubbed Jew"










Hat tip to the "On the Main Line" blog for posting the song and to my buddy Daniel for emailing me about it.

Frannie Sheridan - The Jewish Blonde Song

Frannie Sheridan's got quite a story. She's the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors who escaped Europe before converting to Catholocism to avoid anti-semitism in Canada. She did stand-up comedy before taking on her families story in a highly regarded show called "The Waltonsteins / Dancing on Hitler's Grave" Her show caused an uproar in her family but eventually led to reconciliation and her father's re-acknowledgment of his Jewish identify.

And on top of all that...she's blonde.

The Jewish Blonde Song...ode to the overlooked victim:)

Check out her website for the full story and a couple of interviews.

Just pop it in and you're on hold!

Have you ever been on the telephone waiting to speak to a customer service representative or sitting in a doctors office waiting to be seen and said, you know, the problem with this boring, pacifying, ridiculous piped-in music is that it isn't Jewish enough?

JewishSoftware.com thinks that's the problem and is ready with the solution, "Jewish 'Hold Button' Music. Now you too can have a disc of 15 classic "Ambient Professional Office Jewish Music" tracks "played on Xylophone." The CD, we're told, "plays on standard CD player or computer. Just Pop it in and You're On Hold!"

Whew. Crisis averted.

I'd suggest you don't press play on clip below, only you know you have to. Sort of like picking a scab.

"Eliahu Haneviv" On Hold

I'd be curious to know if anyone has actually heard this CD in the wild. At your favorite Judaica shop? At a dentist office in Crown Heights? The events line for your local JCC?

By the way, I just checked the official Muzak website to see if the kings of elevator music have also gone Yid. Maybe this CD is just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe there's 100's of hours or Jewish xylophone music running loose? Unfortunately, no such luck. While Muzak offers watered-down ethnic mixes including "Little Italy," "Quebecois" and "Viva Mariachi," not to mention "Roadhouse" "Breathe" and "Varsity" (Varsity?), sadly there is no Jewish themed mix.

As a unicorn chaser go listen to Y-Love and Describe's new "Make It" video.

Miriam & Shoshana in Love

I was grumping a while back about Erran Baron Cohen's poor attempt at Jewish themed kitsch. I'm not against kitsch or parody, but I've got pretty high standards for it. You'd better understand what your poking fun at or don't waste my time. Here's a much much better humorous take on Orthodox Jewish life offered up by film director Oren Kaplan and staring Kara Luiz and Deena Adar. Is it accurate and fair? Of course not. But it's convincing and really funny.

Miriam & Shoshana


If you enjoyed this, Kaplan, Luiz, and Adar have done a couple others together including "Miriam and Shoshana do Channukah" and the Miriam and Shoshana Gansta video. Also, check out this very earnest, very negative, response from Vaad HaInternet, some serious orthodox Jews.

Yiddishe Cup at the Ann Arbor Ark

Last night my wife and I had a nice treat. The wigglers were being happily baby-sat and we were on the town, Ann Arbor, Michigan to be specific. Yiddishe Cup*, the clown princes of klezmer, were back for their annual circus, and that is not something to miss. Yiddishe Cup is a delight to see live. Their stage show chronicles and fractures the history of Jewish music in America, mixing pre-war European klezmer melodies with postware Yinglish Borcht Belt show tunes, 1950's Jewish Latin-craze Mambo's, and 1980's world-beat fusions, all in an off-kilter, good natured, get-the-back-row dancing melange that Mickey Katz would have loved. Have you ever seen a group of hora dancers break into an Irish jig? A straight up klezmer tune with a Hawaiian lap guitar solo or a Tuvan throat singing intro? I saw all that an more last night. Definately a show to remember.

And Yiddishe Cup is generous with their stage. Band leader Bert Stratton not only had his son Jack playing drums, a regular occurance as I understand it, but gave Jack stage time for his own band, hastily named "The Boychicks" just before show time. The Boychicks had time for two fine pieces, the first was well played but a bit stiff, focusing on the interplay between Jack's drums and clarinetist Jeff Simon's melodic runs. The second song loosened up and lept out, giving the foursome (which included Justin Douglas on guitar and Chris Hagar on bass) a lot more room to stretch and explore. I talked to the Boys during the break and am hoping to get a recording of that piece into my next podcast. Loved it. In addition to the Boychicks, Yiddishe Cup invited the excellent lap steel guitarist (and Ann Arborite) Gerald Ross to join them for the Hawaiian numbers and invited commedian Seymour Posner for a bit of Catskills Jewish humor. Posner, in particular, stole the show and left us in stiches.

I do have a few minor complaints about the show, but these fall into the 'your milage may vary' category. While I enjoyed the performance thoroughly, I also felt that it never quite came together. I'm not sure if it was the audience being too polite and concert-hallish (though there was some great dancing going on) or the guys taking a while to loosen up or the particular configuration of the band last night (the trombonist doubled on violin, often leaving the band a bit thinly supported by a rhythm section of just drums and keyboards). Whatever it was, I left the show wanting more in both the sense of wanting the show to go on another hour and in the sense of wanting it just a bit tighter. Like I said, though, your milage may vary. There were an awful lot of happy faces on the way out of Ark last night and a lot folks (including me) who were already looking forward to next years show.

You can find out more about Yiddishe Cup, including their tour schedule, their available CD's, and booking information at the Yiddishe Cup website, CD Baby, and iTunes. There are also a couple of funny videos chronicling Yiddishe Cup playing at a Jewish weddings at YouTube (Video 1, Video 2). Check 'em out.

* I got into a discussion with a couple of people about the origin of the term Yiddishe Cup. While I don't know the story of how the band adopted the term, here's an explanation of the term itself from Postitive Anymore, a blog on American dialects and Yiddish:

"yidisher kop," (it varies slightly in different dialects, and "yidish kop" is one such dialectal alternative) which literally means "Jewish head," and figuratively means "innate intelligence." There is a related expression, "goyisher kop," (gentile head) that means, not surprisingly, "innate stupidity." ... Don't be too shocked by the overt bigotry of these phrases; every culture on Earth has at some point decided that it is superior to all others; why should Jews be an exception? You don't have to like bigotry, nor, of course, should you, but our outrage at the presence of bigoted sentiments in the traditional stock phrases of a given language should be minimal."

Judy Alive - "I adopted a 30 year old Chinese Woman! "

And now for something completely different...

"Meet Judy Shapiro,a lonely New York City woman who adopts a Chinese baby girl. When the baby arrives from China, however, it's a 30-year-old Chinese woman who was kidnapped in Beijing and sold on the black market to an American adoption agency. Judy is so anxious to be a mother, though, that she convinces herself she really does have an infant on her hands."

Judy Alive was a short run, four episode, "web sitcom" that went up on YouTube last year. I just ran across it this morning while looking for something else. Story of my life. It's pretty funny and would have fit great on a sketch TV show like Mad TV. You can catch all four episodes on the JudyAlive YouTube. Here's episode 4...

"Chinese Woman learns Jewish Songs."
After attending a music class for parents and children, Judy has her daughter Faigela (Baozhai) demonstrate what she has learned."

John Belushi & Romania, Romania

Ok, this bit is priceless if you're old enough to have watched Saturday Night Live in the 70's and early 80's. It's mostly about John Belushi teasing his fellow SNL actors, but wait for the punchline....

Don't Look Back in Anger

Watch more Saturday Night Live videos on AOL Video

You watched the video already, right? Ok. The song at the end is the classic Yiddish show tune, "Romania, Romania" which has been recorded by just about everyone. The song was written by Aaron Lebedeff and was first recorded in 1925. I'm not sure who's version is used in the video (any guesses anyone?), but you can hear Aaron Lebedeff sing it at Amazon.

Update: Richard Kamins, of the N'Shoma radio show in Connecticut, thinks the recording is Aaron Lebedeff's version with the Shalom Secunda Orchestra from the 1991 compilation titled "Shalom-Music of the Jewish People", released on Fanfare/Pro Arte Digital. Thanks Richard!

Hat tip to Susan for point me to this one. Thanks!

The "You Shall Know Us By The Trail Of Our Vinyl" Book & Bernie Knee's "Orthodox, Conservative, or Reformed"

I'm was delighted to find that the Hippo and Campus at Reboot Stereophonic hadn't given up on the "You shall know us by the trail of our vinyl" blog like I thought they had. They'd just moved to a happy shiny new home to promote their book "And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We Have Loved and Lost". Now this is the kind of coffee table book that I can get behind. (Hint, my darling wife, hint!) The authors, also known as Roger Benett and Josh Kun, share my love for all the odd corners of Jewish music and are champion dumpster divers. Their blog and book showcase a lot of odd (and sometimes wonderful) moments in Jewish music and, though them, moments in Jewish cultural life. And their book will be out in two weeks, just in time for Hanukkah. I haven't seen it yet, but if it's as good as their blog I'm sure it will be fabulous.




As an example of their ouvere, here's singer Bernie Knee performing the Tobias Henry song "Orthodox, Conservative, or Reformed" from Knee's album "Jewish American Songs for THE JET SET." I love this song for not only name checking three of the major Jewish movements in America but for contextualizing the movements as impediments for wooing women. Knee was a singer and actor active in the late 1970's and 80's. This album was recorded by Tikva Records, a production house that put out a variety of Jewish and Israeli albums and then disappeared without a trace. So much so that there is an active group of collectors trying to track down any available information on Tikva. I hit GEMM and EBAY to see if any copies of JET SET were floating around, but no luck. Even eMusic and iTunes came up dry. If you act quick, though, EBAY can set you up with 45RPM singles of Knee performing Irving Fields "Let's Go Skiing" and "Melody of the Gypsies."

Bernie Knee- Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform

Be Afraid of the Kvetching Ghosts (and the Kosher Pumpkins, Rothstein Werewolves, Specter Schmucks, Meshuggina Monsters...)

I've mentioned before my theory about Google, right? It's not actually a search engine. Somehow, through some Twilight Zone, it takes in our queries and alters the world to have some interesting results for us. Thoughtful of it.

Take the Kvetching Ghosts for example. You can, right now, go to Amazon and order a CD-R copy of the Kvetching Ghosts album "Haunted Jewish Halloween." I found this out when I punched "Jewish Halloween Music" into Google. Now, by any reasonable standards, there shouldn't be any Jewish Halloween Music. Halloween is not a Jewish holiday, and while many American Jews (including yours truly) carve pumpkins and send our kids out for bags of candy, there is no connection between Judaism, Jewish music, and Halloween. But Google created one (or found one) for me.

I didn't know what to expect from The Kvetching Ghosts. Some Yiddishkeit dybbuk stories set to creepy minor key post-klezmer Danny Elfman chamber music? Not even close. It turns out that the Kvetching Ghosts take recordings of standard Jewish repetoir pieces and overlaying them with a modest array of sound effects album monster growls, screams, and gusts of wind. Hmm. Would Hatikva go better with a Ghoul Laugh, a Woman Scream, or a Wolf Howl? How about all three? And the Kvetching Ghosts aren't alone. There are about a dozen other albums with similar band names and titles including the Kosher Pumpkins, Rothstein Werewolves, Specter Schmucks, Meshuggina Monsters, Oy Veys, and the Chosen Band. All of them available on CD-R for $9.99 and MP3 download for $8.99.

So, what's going on here? These albums seem to have been produced by SBR Music "Music for all your occasions." I sent an email to the folks at SBR but haven't gotten any response. A pity. I'd love to know what they were thinking. SBR offers a wide range of holiday and special theme music collections. All of the covers have the same low budget look of the Kvetching Ghosts. Ripoff? Earnest and artless? A big prank? Can't tell. My first reaction to all of this was "Hysterically funny album covers, terrible contents, probably a ripoff." For exhibit A, check out "The Kosher Pumpkins - Frightening Shabat Shalom"



C'mon. What a terrible and pointless thing to do to Shabbat Shalom.

But after listening to a bunch of these tracks I decided I needed to lighten up a bit. While all the varied collections are pretty much tiring repeats of each other with different names, there is a kind of odd charm to the whole endeavor. I've grown particularly fond of the "Kvetching Ghosts - Horrifying Bashanah"



It has a wonderful Disney Haunted Mansion feel about it. If I ever wanted to create a Jewish Haunted House or DJ a Goth Bar Mitzvah party, this would be the sound track. So, check out the Kvetching Ghosts, or one of the other almost identical recordings. Google was kind and provided Jewish Halloween Music, how can we not admire it? And speaking of admiring things, here are a couple more of the album covers. Priceless.

Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys: Obscure, Naughty, and Lovely Music

I've always had a thing for traditional jazz and ragtime. While not lacking in artistry, it lacks a lot of artistic pretension. It conjures, to me at least, a saloon with sawdust covered floors and piano keeping things lively. There's more than nostalgia to it. There's a certain sense of humor and joy to it that is missing in a lot of contemporary music. (I love klezmer for that reason, as well). I'm clearly not the only one. There are no shortage of traditional jazz and ragtime festivals and a small but steady stream of nutty cross-over bands (The Squirrel Nut Zippers and the What Cheer? Brigade come to mind), not to mention wild Balkan brass band's such as the Boban Markovic Orkestar (you haven't heard Hava Nagila until you hear Markovic's version.)

Janet Klein clearly loves traditional jazz, reveling in the off-color stories as much as the blue notes. And her take on Jewish vaudeville songs is spot on. Klein, in a 2006 interview by Jazz Not Jazz explains it like this...

"...I was fairly disconnected and discontented with contemporary culture and retreated to my dad’s painting studio where he had a great record collection and a nice bohemian atmosphere. I was more comfortable around my parents, grandparents and great aunts than with other kids my own age. They told me great stories about New York in the 1930s-50s and about their experiences in the “Old Country”, i.e. Poland."

Here are two of Klein's Jewish pieces. Fabulous.

Janet Klein and Her Parlor Boys - Yiddish Hula Boy


Janet Klein sings, "Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars"

For more info and to pick up one of her six albums, check Klein's website.

Hat tip to the Klezmershack mailing list for pointing me to Klein.

I gotta' love you Rosh Hashana

Ok, Rosh Hashanah is almost here and while it's a serious holiday I can't resist offering up this little confection from singer Michelle Citrin, writer / artist William Levin (of Jewish Robot fame) and Taglit-Birthright Israel. This the second video I've posted from the Citrin Levin team for Taglit. The first as Passover goof 20 Things to Do with Matzoh.

I Gotta' Love You Rosh Hashanah


This video was released last year so some of have probably seen it already but some how I missed it. I actually ran across it looking for some Rosh Hashanah themed songs for a Rosh Hashanah party I'm going to on Sunday. My primary contribution to the party will be home made candy apples. I'm all for the traditional apples and honey, but ever since I was a kid fall meant country fairs and country fairs meant candy apples. As an adult, the Days of Awe have a lot more meaning, but candy apples still capture the season. They're also a lot of fun to make. This year I hope to only give myself one serious burn. That'd be nice.

Jewish Air Guitar

Digression number 1. I find Google a reassuring place. I always have this moment of self-doubt when I enter a new query and hit go. Am I ridiculous for asking this question? And then, 0.38 seconds later (precisely. Google is emphatic about it's timing) I find that an answer is out there. I may be inquisitive, a dilettante with the momentary interest, but somewhere out there is someone with a passion waiting to be admired. Even for "Jewish Air Guitar." Really.

Digression number 2. I will now admit, in public, a dark secret that I've kept to myself for years. I'd say that even my wife doesn't know, other than a) she claims she knows all my secrets and b) nothing I could tell her at this point would surprise her enough to disavow a). It's true. I used to air guitar myself. More accurately, I lip-synched. During high school (a long long time ago) I would take to the talent-show stage pretending to be Tom Lehrer, Weird Al Yankovic, or Dan Aykroyd (a la Elwood Blues of the Blues Brothers). And I was good. Really good.

The Struggle of a Jewish Air Guitarist. Which all brings me to today's post. Earlier this week, as I'm sure you've gathered by now, I punched the phrase "Jewish Air Guitar" into Google and was rewarded with links to the blog of Jewish Air Guitarist Michael "Crobar" Croland. Crobar has played at regional competitions affiliated with the U.S. Air Guitar Championships, been mentioned in the book "To Air is Human," was interviewed for the film Air Guitar Nation (though his clip wasn't included in the released film). And he's Jewish, has air guitared to Jewish music (Yidcore's cover of "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav") and has written some great posts in his own blog about the struggles of being a Jewish air guitarist.

Why is it such a struggle to be a Jewish air guitarist? My hero, To Air Is Human author Dan "Bjorn Turoque" Crane, is a Jewish air guitarist. 2006's Los Angeles air guitar champion is a Schwartz, so he's probably a member of the tribe. But have Crane or Schwartz ever had this identity struggle?

I thought about wearing a yarmulke and performing to Jewdriver's "Manischewitz" last night, but I doubt that would have gone over well with the crowd. When I paraded around like Santa Claus at an air guitar contest in May and paused before telling a Jewess that I was Jewish, clearly my Jewish and air guitarist identities were in conflict. I also felt conflicted when I heard the Holocaust-glorifying lyrics of the song picked for that competition's air-off. Why do I have to pick and choose between Jewish events and air guitar competitions? If I plan a big vacation in the not-too-distant future, should I visit Finland (the homeland of air guitar) or Israel (the homeland of the Jewish people)? And why was the Oyhoo Festival (aka the New York Jewish Music & Heritage Festival and Sidney Krum Conference) so adamant about not letting me ("one of the world's leading Jewish air guitarists") perform? These are tough questions that are perhaps best suited for rabbis.

In a personal correspondence, Michael reinforced that "Judaism plays a major role in my life. That might not be obvious when I'm air guitaring, but Judaism is always part of the picture somehow, at least in my mind." Personally, I'm thrilled to see it. As more and more musical groups are integrating their Jewish identity into their performance identity, it's only right that this attitude should make it's way to the air guitar community as well. So Oyhoo, consider this a protest vote. Crobar in 2009! Have a whole Jewish Air Guitar contest as part of the fest. Maybe I'll even dust of my air microphone and join in. Tom Lehrer's "Who's Next" anyone?

"So Israel's getting tense,
Wants one in self defense.
"The Lord's our shepherd," says the psalm,
But just in case, we better get a bomb!
Who's next?"

David Fagin interviewed by The Jewish Television Network

It's one in the morning and I've worked late every night for the past week. Two research grant proposals out the door and the presentation for tomorrow's funders review all done (well, done enough to go to bed.) sigh. Anyway, I've got just enough energy for a quick cut & past post.

From the YouTube video notes:
"David Fagin founded the NYC pop quartet, The Rosenbergs. That wasn't enough so he joined Rob Tannenbaum to produce music that was "Good for the Jews". Still not satisfied he just completed work on his first solo effort, "For Promotional Use Only."

The Rosenbergs' David Fagin One-on-One


Attentive readers may remember my excitement over the "Good for the Jews" video "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat." If you haven't heard it, do it now. Then learn it by heard and sing it at your next Passover seder, bris, or simcha of choice. You can find Fagin at his website and his myspace page.

Hat tip to the Jewish Television Network for posting this video.

Shavuot To Go -

I'm a sucker for viral videos. I forcibly restrain myself from emailing them around, but I figure y'all are fair game.

Here's a good one on the topic of Shavuot. I give it a B in viralness (or should that be viralocity?). It's a shameless plug for Yeshiva University's Torah Online program, which has lots of shuir (lectures) on Shavuot and other topics.

Shavuot To Go

They should have, and didn't, given credit to the artists. I'll see if I can track down the info.

UPDATE: Someone left a note in the comments section that the artist is: shlomo katz http://www.shlomokatz.com

Hat tip to YouTube user silbermintz for posting the video.

Benny Bell - "Shaving Cream"

Trolling around a bit more on the "Free Albums Galore" blog, I found a nice post about Jewish comedian and musician Benny Bell. According to the Jewish Sound Archive's Benny Bell page, Bell was

"[o]ne of the first to create comedy albums in Yiddish, ... [h]is popular “Pincus the Peddler” character was created in 1946 and featured American songs with a Yiddish flavor, a combination which proved to be a big hit in immigrant neighborhoods.... As the first half of the 20th century passed, so did the interest in Yiddish comedy. The 1950s were difficult .... [b]ut when a syndicated LA disc jockey began using Benny Bell’s song “Shaving Cream” as his theme song in the 1970’s, it renewed interest in his earlier recordings from the 1930s. “Shaving Cream” was eventually reissued, selling almost a million copies."

Here are the lyrics (from wikipedia)

ARTISTS: Benny Bell with Paul Wynn TITLE: Shaving Cream Lyrics by Benny Bell

I have a sad story to tell you It may hurt your feelings a bit Last night when I walked into my bathroom I stepped in a big pile of

{Refrain}

Shaving cream, be nice and clean Shave everyday and you'll always look keen

I think I'll break off with my girlfriend Her antics are queer I'll admit Each time I say, "Darling, I love you" She tells me that I'm full of

{Refrain}

Our baby fell out of the window You'd think that her head would be split But good luck was with her that morning She fell in a barrel of

{Refrain}

It goes on from there, but you get the idea. Anyway, Marvin from Free Albums Galore noted that the Internet Archive has "The Collected Works of Benny Bell" available for online listening or free download.



If this isn't enough for you, the Judaica Sound Archives has a shaving cream load of Bell. They've got 17 albums, including the wonderful "Pincus The Peddler"