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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Books
Author Blog: Facing Paris’s Black Marble Plaques
Kati Marton’s most recent book, “Paris: A Love Story,” is now available. 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, please visit: Now that I live part-time in Paris, I explore the city’s complex and…
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Bloomberg Declares Aug. 28 Richard Tucker Day
The late Richard Tucker, who went from being a celebrated cantor to the even more celebrated lead tenor of the Metropolitan Opera, would have turned 99 years old this month. In his honor, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has proclaimed August 28 “Richard Tucker Day” in New York City. WQXR 105.9 FM, New York’s…
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Choosing The Chosen: Katherine Williams’s Shiksappeal
At one point in “SHIKSAPPEAL: Getting the Chosen to Choose Me,” a one-woman show that recently appeared at the New York Fringe Festival, Catholic comedienne Katherine Williams is confronted by a Jewish friend over her identity as self-appointed shiksa: “You do know that’s derogatory, right?” Williams shrugs it off without missing a beat. “It just…
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Toni Braxton’s Jewish Grandma
Could Braxton Family Values include observing Shabbos? R & B hitmaker Toni Braxton, whose family stars in its eponymous WEtv series, has revealed she has Jewish roots. In an interview with The New York Times, the Grammy winner said she’s “still surprised by the revelation that her grandmother was Jewish.” “I didn’t understand it as…
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Books Author Blog: An Intentional Detour
In his last post, Daniel Gordis wrote about how ideas and the books in which they are expressed change history. His 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, please visit: In my last few blogs,…
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The Magnificent Sheva
While Israel has been producing ever more, and ever-more-competent, jazz musicians since a handful of pioneers burst onto the scene in the early 1990s, a new crop of aspirants has appeared, encompassing those who have the kind of style and savvy that at once recalls that past and suggests a future. Here are some to…
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Cursing the GOP in Yiddish
May your son the doctor introduce you to his fiancée, Bristol Palin. May your child give his bar mitzvah speech on the genius of Ayn Rand. May your insurance company decide constipation is a pre-existing condition. It’s not clear who’s behind these Yiddish Curses for Republican Jews. But in just three days, the online phenomenon…
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Date Night: Kunis and Kutcher at the Ballpark
Here’s more evidence to fuel speculations that Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher are a couple (if there is indeed anything left to speculate about): The two were spotted together at Wednesday’s L.A. Dodgers game. Actually, “spotted” makes the whole thing sound more mysterious than it was: The pair made it into the game’s television broadcast,…
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The Girl With the Sondheim Tattoo
My first tattoo, summer of 2010: Woodstock (not the festival, the little yellow bird from the Peanuts) sitting on a unicorn, both characters wishing on a star. It reflects the childlike innocence I hope to maintain. After I got it, I began to understand why people always say they “crave” ink: By the middle of…
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From China, With Love
Linda Goldstein Knowlton is in New York City promoting her new documentary, “Somewhere Between,” and Skyping with her daughter, Ruby, who is in California, when a telephone call interrupts. She asks the caller to hang on; sending Ruby off to school is clearly more important than promoting her film — especially since Ruby was, in…
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Mr. Tropper’s Novels
Here’s a brief cheat sheet on Jonathan Tropper’s literary oeuvre. Plan B St. Martin’s Press (2000) Four New York City former college friends try to kidnap a drug-addicted friend and get his life back on track. The Book of Joe Delacorte Press (2004) A thinly veiled novel by a first-time author (based on a Connecticut…
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