Dan Epstein is the Forward’s contributing music critic. His books include Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76.
Dan EpsteinContributing Music Critic
By Dan Epstein
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Culture How the Son of German and Polish Jews Became the ‘Starchild’ of KISS
● Face The Music: A Life Exposed By Paul Stanley HarperOne, 480 pages, $28.99 I’ll admit that I was a little late to the KISS party. In the mid-1970s, while most of my elementary school friends were cranking “Destroyer” and ooh-ing and ah-ing over the photo booklets from “Alive!” and “Alive II,” I was gravitating…
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Culture Sandy Koufax’s 10 Greatest Jewish Baseball Moments
1) September 9, 1965: Koufax pitches a perfect game (no hits, walks or errors) against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium, and sets a record for the most Ks in a perfecto by striking out 14 batters. The victory gives Koufax four career no-hitters, the most by any major league pitcher at the time. 2)…
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Culture 11 Greatest Jewish Moments in Baseball History (Not Including Sandy Koufax)
Few things warm the heart at the end of a miserable winter quite like the knowledge that baseball season is about to return. While waiting impatiently for opening day, I’d been distracting myself by compiling a list of the 10 greatest Jewish baseball moments of all time; however, I quickly realized that the legendary Sandy…
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Culture Harold Ramis Was All of Us
Ask any fan of the 1981 comedy “Stripes” about their favorite scenes from the film, and a sizeable percentage will recall the one where Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, seeking to escape their respective dead-end existences, visit a local Army recruiting office. Murray gets most of the laughs in the scene, but Ramis gets off…
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Culture The Top 10 (Jewish) Valentine’s Songs
Begun over 1500 years ago as a Roman liturgical commemoration of Christian martyrs, Valentine’s Day has gradually expanded in scope over time to become an all-inclusive celebration of romantic love. (Though martyrdom can of course still be involved, should you fail to live up to the expectations of your significant other on February 14.) With…
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Culture Why a Jewish Manager Might Win World Series For First Time Since 1948
In November of last year, when Brad Ausmus was hired to be the new manager of the Detroit Tigers, a major milestone in Jewish baseball history was achieved. In addition to becoming the first Jewish skipper in the 119-year saga of one of baseball’s oldest and most respected franchises, Ausmus is also only the sixth…
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Culture Mami, Oh Manischewitz, What an Album!
In the early months of 1954, with their debut single “Gee” still climbing the national pop and rhythm and blues charts, doo-wop quartet The Crows entered a Manhattan studio to record a Latin-flavored dance number called “Mambo Shevitz (Man, Oh Man).” Featuring upbeat backing from an Afro-Cuban-style ensemble billed as Melino and His Orchestra, the…
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Culture 8 Best Songs To Ring in Thanksgivukkah
Talk about your freak occurrences: For the first time since 1888 — and the last time, according to certain quantum physicists, for at least another 7,000 centuries — the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars have synched up so that this year, Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah will fall on the same day. This rare…
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