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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Film & TV Will Kushner And Spielberg ‘West Side Story’ Cause Rumble With Sondheim?
Stephen Sondheim, the lyricist for “West Side Story,” dislikes the movie version of the seminal musical for sticking too closely to the source material. “I don’t think ‘West Side Story’ [is] a good movie at all because it’s not a movie. It’s a photograph of a stage,” the Tony-winning composer said in a 2016 interview…
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Culture The Forgotten Jewish Composer Who Was McCarthy’s First Victim
The composer Hanns Eisler was once called “the Karl Marx of Communism in the musical field” by House of Un-American Activities chief investigator Robert Stripling. That description might be an overstatement, but not by much. Eisler scored some of the most pivotal moments of the first part of the 20th century. His populist anthems were…
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Culture 60 Years Ago Pasternak Won The Nobel Prize — And The Soviet Union Went After Him
60 years ago today, the Swedish Academy got Boris Pasternak in a whole lot of trouble. In awarding the 68-year-old Russian poet and novelist a Nobel Prize for Literature, the Nobel Committee elevated Pasternak, and his epic novel, “Doctor Zhivago” to a conspicuous place on the world stage. The Soviet Union did not look kindly…
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Film & TV ‘The Big Lebowski’ Cast Reunite To Talk All Things ‘Dude’
It looks like “The Big Lebowski” can count its three stars among its legion of fans. In a Today Show interview conducted by self-identified Lebowski “cultist” Harry Smith, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi reunited to wax nostalgic over their time shooting the 1998 Coen Brothers’ classic. 20 years later, they’re still delighting in…
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Culture Sharks Defending Britain From Nazis? How ‘Fake News’ Helped Foil Hitler
Could Fake News ever be a good thing? While there are fair objections to the state of partisan journalism today, and some lament the warmongering yellow journalism of the past, a new book suggests that a misinformation campaign launched by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was a pivotal part of British Intelligence’s plan to thwart the…
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Music The Beastie Boys Rap On The Making Of ‘Paul’s Boutique’
After the release of “Licensed to Ill” the Beastie Boys’ 1986 debut studio album, the New York-bred hip hoppers had the world at their feet. But with expectations for a follow-up dizzyingly high, the sophomore record, “Paul’s Boutique” was a flop when it came out in 1989. Its reputation has been restored in the years…
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Culture Everything Jewish In Slate’s New American Songbook
On October 18, 2018 Slate revealed their “New American Songbook,” drawn from the insights of critics and musicians including Chuck Klosterman, Carl Wilson and The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay. As is typical, Jews over-performed, even beating out those famous Swedish masters of Pop Max Martin and Dr. Luke. Of the 30 tracks to be…
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Culture Switzerland’s Oldest Shtetls Are Working To Keep The Culture Alive
18 Miles northwest of Zurich are two shtetls whose homes, synagogues and cemetery survived World War II. And yet, they’re Jewish ghost towns. Only a vanishingly small number of the villages’ once thriving Jewish population remain in the area and the culture they supported is on life support. But a few Jews are hoping to…
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