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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Music What do Bible characters have on their Spotify Wrapped list?
From Abraham to Yael, here's what your faves were listening to this year
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Culture Kenny G thinks he’ll win an Oscar. First he has to find his soul.
Like the tides, romance or dentists’ waiting rooms, Kenny G has always seemed to exist. But have you ever wondered what he’s like? It is the saxophonist’s particular curse to take up the most mental real estate in his biggest detractors — critics and purists who dismiss his mass appeal brand of virtuosic musical Novocaine…
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Culture In ‘Licorice Pizza,’ P.T. Anderson shows us what makes Jews — and Haim — unique
Thanks to Paul Thomas Anderson, we can now glimpse the Haim family’s Shabbat dinners
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Culture Mel Brooks delivers 500 pages on his favorite subject – himself
All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business By Mel Brooks Ballantine Books, 480 pages, $25 Mel Brooks’ memoir begins with a promise. In a preface, the 95-year-old actor-writer-director vows to make an intimate confession to his reader — one not to be shared with anyone. Then, he thinks a bit more about the…
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Culture On Rodney Dangerfield’s 100th birthday, remembering his legendary sandwich
Rodney Dangerfield has my respect — and continues to inspire my sandwiches. The comedian, who would have turned 100 today, and made a career playing a lovable schlub in films like “Caddyshack” (and once an animated dog version of himself) is not always my cup of tea. His signature jokes about his wife — a…
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Culture From Lamb Chop to Lou Reed, 7 shows and movies to watch for Thanksgivukkah
As Nicole Kidman regularly informs me on my visits to AMC theaters, the movies are back. That is, if you’re vaccinated and feel comfortable in a dark room with strangers during an ongoing pandemic. Your mileage may vary. But, with Thanksgiving and Hanukkah soon to be upon us, we’ll need to fill the idle hours…
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Culture He drew Leonard Cohen’s life, death and underwear
What did Leonard Cohen see at the moment of his death? No one can say for sure. But it’s possible he was thinking about the time he found his childhood dog dead beneath a neighbor’s porch. Or his cameo on “Miami Vice.” Or his final recording session with his son, Adam. There was a lot…
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Culture What does the Talmud say about Larry David spilling coffee on a Klansman’s robe?
The fact that Judaism has its own vast corpus of legal arguments is of little interest to Larry David — he’s a law unto himself. But every so often his actions give way to a question of Talmudic precedent. When, for instance, Larry accidentally spilled coffee on a Klansman’s robe on Sunday’s episode and then…
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