PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture RIP MAD Magazine, Which Taught Generations To Laugh And Question
MAD magazine, the sophomoric, manic and generationally vital publication that shaped the sensibility of countless youths has died just shy of its 67th birthday. The news that MAD would cease production, save for back issues and one-off annual editions with new content, broke on July 4. It was a fitting date, as MAD’s impertinent humor…
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Culture This Independence, Day Read Up On Irving Berlin, Hotdogs And The Impeachment Clause
On Thursday July 4, our plucky republic marks 243 years of independence. For those celebrating, the holiday offers a day of introspection in which to consider our country’s path through history — and also fireworks and hotdogs. If you’re looking to fill your day with some compelling reading material with a Jewish bent, the Forward…
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Culture Woody Allen Directs His First Opera At La Scala
Woody Allen had a night at the opera on July 2, premiering his production of Giacomo Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” at Milan’s famed La Scala opera house. “I didn’t know if I had any ability to do this sort of thing,” Allen told the Associated Press of his first go at directing opera. “I had done…
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Culture 7 Arrested After Anish Kapoor’s ‘Cloud Gate’ Found Vandalized
Seven people were arrested early Tuesday morning after graffiti was discovered on Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate” sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Police responding to a trespassing call arrived at the park shortly after midnight and found that the sculpture, known colloquially as “The Bean,” had been tagged with white spray paint CBS Chicago reported. The…
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Culture Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Sandman’ Gets Netflix Series Order
The miniseries adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s “Good Omens” made amusing headlines in June when a group of concerned Christians petitioned Netflix to cancel the show for portraying its main characters — an angel and a devil — as friends and depicting the Antichrist as a “normal kid.” There was only one problem:…
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Culture ‘The Seinfeld Chronicles’ Turns 30 — But Maybe We Should Wait To Celebrate
My mother recorded every episode of “Seinfeld” on VHS; she thought the show would never last and wanted to document its brief existence. 30 years ago, in July of 1989, her estimation appeared to be correct. Based on the performance of “The Seinfeld Chronicles,” the tepidly-received pilot of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s show about…
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Culture In ‘The Other Story’ Faith And Family Collide
When children leave the insular world of the Ultra-Orthodox, many parents sit shiva for them. Some choose to not even speak the child’s name once they’ve left the fold. When children leave the secular sphere of their parents, the shock to the system is often no less pronounced and may be more punctuated with denial…
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Culture Happy 93rd Birthday, Mel Brooks!
At 93, Mel Brooks is a lot of things: A Kennedy Center award recipient, a titan of both stage and screen even a vampire grandfather in t “Hotel Transylvania 3,” but for all these distinctions he reduces himself to one thing. “I’m just a Jew comic,” he told David Denby in a profile published in…
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