The Schmooze lies at the intersection of high and low culture. Here, the latest developments and trends in Jewish art, books, dance, film, music, media, television and theater are all assimilated into one handy pop culture blog.
The Schmooze
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Drake’s Blingy Toronto Restaurant, Pick 6ix, Shut Down
First, Drake got booed off the stageat a Los Angeles festival by concertgoers who apparently expected Frank Ocean to perform instead. Now comes word that Drizzy’s blingy Toronto restaurant, Pick 6ix, was shut down this week for nonpayment of rent. “Millionaire rapper forgets how to write rent check,” blared an Eater headline. “Technically speaking, Drake…
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Hanukkah Now Gets Its Own Hip Holiday Music, With ‘Hannukah+’
Challenging Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah hegemony and showing that Jews too can participate in the time-honored American tradition of cashing in on holiday cheer — record label Verve Forecast just dropped its release of Hanukkah+, a star-studded album of candle-lighting melodies. Released on November 22, presumably to acclaim from the makers of mall playlists everywhere, Hanukkah+…
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In Amazon’s ‘Hunters’, Al Pacino Finds His Yiddishkeit
“This is not murder,” croons a be-whiskered, be-Yiddish-accented Al Pacino, glaring ominously at a cork-board tacked with photographs of men in totalitarian-chic uniforms. “This is mitzvah.” It’s official: in Amazon Prime’s upcoming drama “Hunters”, Pacino will play the Nazi-killing Jewish grandfather you never knew you needed. Slated for release in 2020, “Hunters” seems like a…
The Latest
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How Jewish Teens Are Using TikTok, The Viral Short Video Platform
It took me just five minutes of TikTok streaming to come upon a video of a teenager dressed as “Harry Potter” spinoff character Newt Scamander doing American Sign Language over a recording of comedian John Mulaney riffing on Jewish women. Further down the page — an eye-rolling girl gave a tour of her parents’ mezuza…
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It’s Not Your Bubbe’s Drag Show
It’s after midnight — long past the bedtime hour for most bubbes — when Josephine steps onstage with her guitar. Her slightly disheveled red jumpsuit looks like it once belonged to an Elvis impersonator. But the feathered curls she sports are reminiscent of a woman of a certain age, the kind who never misses Shabbos…
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You’re Invited To ‘Butt Mitzvah,’ A Queer Jewish Joy Disco
To life, to health, to great friends, and to butts: l’chaim. Fat-bottomed girls, Miss New Booty, and all the honky tonk badonkadonks of the tri-state area will be joyfully grinding to the nusach of the Thong Song this Saturday in Williamsburg at Butt Mitzvah, a queer Jewish nightclub event. A “cumming of age ceremony” (their…
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A Documentary Film On Female Pleasure Misses The Spot
In an advertisement for Italian fashion house Dolce and Gabbana’s summer 2007 collection, a well-oiled model sprawls across the screen, her face evincing well-lipsticked resignation as a group of equally well-oiled men pin her skeletal, stilettoed body to the ground. If the designers had set out to create an illustration for a thought piece on…
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On The Jewish Brilliance Of Jenny Slate’s Netflix Special ‘Stage Fright’
When Jenny Slate, the beautiful, turtle-like comedian, did a parody of a Hanukkah song on her new Netflix special, I laughed so much that I ever-so-slightly wet myself. “Dressed for death,” and, by her own admission, an adult doppelgänger for Anne Frank, the 37-year-old sang a brief, made up Hanukkah song that may just unseat…
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What Happened At The Comedy Show Harvey Weinstein Attended?
“In a place where there are no humans,” 1st century Jewish sage Hillel said, “Strive to be human.” At a comedy showcase attended by Harvey Weinstein on Wednesday night in New York City, three people confronted the movie producer, who has been accused of sexual assault by over 80 women. Weinstein, who is currently out…
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg Says She Kept Planking Through Cancer Treatment
Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg continued to do planks and push-ups throughout her recent treatment for pancreatic cancer, she told a crowd at Berkeley Law School on Monday, CNN reports. The 86-year-old endured radiation treatment for cancer over the summer. She has previously survived colon and lung cancer; she also underwent surgery for…
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Jake Gyllenhaal Jumped Into Traffic To Save A Stranger’s Dog
In what was almost certainly a real-life occurrence and not a highly produced marketing stunt by a perfume company, actor Jake Gyllenhaal rescued a dog from oncoming traffic in Manhattan last week. Onlookers told Page Six that Gyllenhaal, who’s in New York for a Broadway run of the play “Sea Wall/A Life,” stepped into the…
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