Michael Kaminer
By Michael Kaminer
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The Schmooze Coming Soon: Adam Yauch NYC Park?
You’ve got to fight for your right — to rename a New York City park for the late Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch. That’s the message from a fast-growing movement of fans who are urging legislators to rechristen Brooklyn’s State Street Basketball Courts — and possibly State Street Park — after the fallen Jewish rapper,…
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The Schmooze Q&A: Philip Kaufman on Martin Buber and His Cat
Nearly a half-century after making his first film — the Hasidic-inspired “Goldstein” — director Philip Kaufman is having a moment. MoMA recently hosted a weeklong retrospective of his work, from brainy pop (“The Right Stuff”) to high art (“The Unbearable Lightness of Being”). Film scholar Annette Insdorf just published “Philip Kaufman” (University of Illinois Press),…
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The Schmooze Q&A: Taylor Mac on Fabulous Tenement Songs
Since moving to Manhattan to launch his performing career 17 years ago, composer, playwright and actor Taylor Mac has graced stages from Sydney to Spoleto to San Francisco. But the Obie Award-winning artist has never been invited to perform uptown — until now. On May 24, at The JCC in Manhattan, Mac will premiere “Sleep…
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The Schmooze Q&A: Daniel Okrent on ‘Old Jews Telling Jokes’
Daniel Okrent has a punch line ready when he’s asked how he discovered “Old Jews Telling Jokes,” the Web-video-series-turned-book that became a viral sensation in 2009. “I became an old Jew,” said the esteemed historian, inventor of the fantasy game Rotisserie League Baseball and first public editor of The New York Times. Now, Okrent can…
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Food New York Court Rules on Kosher Law
“Kosher,” it turns out, is kosher – at least in New York. That’s the ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court, which has dismissed a lawsuit implying that labeling requirements of New York’s 2004 Kosher Law Protection Act interfered with religious freedom. The plaintiff was a Long Island deli and butcher shop called — irony…
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The Schmooze Friday Film: Annette Insdorf on Philip Kaufman
By choosing Philip Kaufman (“Quills,” “Henry and June”) as the subject of her latest book, Columbia University Film School professor Annette Insdorf hasn’t just given his films an extreme close-up. With “Philip Kaufman” (University of Illinois Press), the first book-length study of the impossible-to-categorize director, Insdorf has also nominated Kaufman to the pantheon of cinema…
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The Schmooze Remembering ‘Price Is Right’ Creator Bob Stewart
I was so obsessed with game shows like “The Price Is Right” as a 1970s kid that I would fake illness, skip school, and play along at home. Until today, I had no idea that the show’s creator, Bob Stewart, was born Isidore Steinberg to Russian immigrants. But I should have figured that a show…
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The Schmooze Kunis and Kutcher: Could It Be?
Have you been starved for news about Jewish starlet Mila Kunis since her hammy evil-ballerina turn in 2010’s Black Swan? People.com has come to the rescue with a report today that the Ukraine-born Kunis “enjoyed some serious alone time together” last week with Ashton Kutcher, the dashing “Two and a Half Men” star and former…
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