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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Latin Rhythms for Tired Feet
On Friday afternoon I walked from my home in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn to 34th Street in Manhattan. From there I caught a train uptown to Symphony Space to see Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, with assorted guests, blend Latin rhythms with Jewish melodies. My feet ached when I got to…
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Cher and Kathy Griffin take on Romney
In election-related news: A new video put out by The Jewish Council for Education and Research starring Cher and Kathy Griffin on Mitt Romney’s efforts to “Turn Back Time” has gone viral. Looks like it will get at least half a million hits before Tuesday. For obvious reasons, we are big fans of the shiny…
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‘Lost’ Creator J.J. Abrams Wins Award
J.J. Abrams, co-creator of the hit television series “Lost” and one of Hollywood’s top producer-directors of supernatural films and TV shows, will receive the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television, the Producers Guild of America said on Monday. Abrams, whose current credits include TV shows “Fringe,” “Revolution” and “Person of Interest,” and the 2009 film…
The Latest
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Books Author Blog: Super Tuesday
Haim Watzman is a Jerusalem-based writer, journalist, and translator. He is the author of “Company C: An American’s Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel” and “A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel’s Rift Valley,” which will be available as ebooks this week. Haim was a 2008 finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for…
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Amy Heckerling on ‘Vamps’
Amy Heckerling is the auteur behind two iconic movies: “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Clueless.” She was also the director of “National Lampoon’s European Vacation” and the writer and director of “Look Who’s Talking,” among other successes. Heckerling’s latest, “Vamps,” starring veteran Heckerlingers Alicia Silverstone and Wallace Shawn, is a smart comedy, not an…
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Amanda Bynes Sues Over Nude Report
Amanda Bynes has said she will sue over an In Touch report that she was caught walking around in nothing but a pair of goggles at a New York tanning salon. The troubled young actress says there is no truth to the story, and that she is simply a 26-year-old retired multi-millionaire whose privacy should…
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Aaron Sorkin is All Atwitter
We know he’s good at walking and talking. But how about walking and tweeting? We shall soon find out now that Aaron Sorkin has finally joined the Twitterverse. Hurricane or no hurricane, Halloween arrived last week. Sacha Baron Cohen dressed as bizarre hybrid cow and monkey sock doll. Debra Messing went in Marie Antoinette guise….
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The Return of Morton Feldman
Looking at Morton Feldman, one hardly would have guessed that this irrepressible, self-described “New York Jew” created some of the most mystical and subtle music ever composed. Yet since his death, in 1987, it has become ever more apparent that his late works are among the most individual, distinctive and influential of the second half…
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Master of the Jewish Renaissance
The notion of a European “renaissance” in the 14th through 17th centuries has grown more problematic in recent decades, challenged by historians of many stripes. They include those who emphasize cultural continuities, as well as those who draw attention to stagnation in science and mathematics during that period of supposed reawakening. Still, nowhere is it…
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Books Author Blog: For the Sake of Unification
Earlier this week, Lisa Alcalay Klug wrote about a surprising discovery in Nachlaot and about how her work is informed by her father’s experiences during the Holocaust. Her blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the series,…
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Tales From The Schmatta Trade
Fashion mavens treasure the memory of a 2006 Yeshiva University Museum exhibit, “A Perfect Fit: The Garment Industry and American Jewry, 1860-1960,” which inspired a slim catalogue. Earlier this year, Texas Tech University Press published an augmented new book featuring high drama, as in a chapter by economist Bernard Smith about the growth of the…
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