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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Adam Yauch’s Will Bans Use of His Music in Ads
If you’d hoped to hear “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” in a coffee commercial, you’re out of luck. Rolling Stone reports this week that a will left by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch , who died in May of cancer at age 47, prohibits the use of his music in ads. The will was filed Tuesday in…
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Books Author Blog: Self-Surveillance
In this week’s installment of the Visiting Scribe, Joshua Cohen and Justin Taylor exchanged ideas around book promotion, materials of writing, and the devolution of the author. Read Part I here and Part II here.Their blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog…
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David Rakoff and the Voice of God
I can think of three popular ideas about what God actually looks like: the bearded man wearing a white robe who sits on a cloud deciding when to make earthquakes and who sometimes shows up in a burning bush; George Burns in “Oh God!” and, long before he actually played God in “Bruce Almighty,” many…
The Latest
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Herzl Documentary Is No Dream
“It Is No Dream” is a biographical documentary about the life of Theodor Herzl. The good news is it isn’t a nightmare, either. Filmmaker Richard Trank does a better-than-decent job telling the story of the father of Zionism. He integrates contemporary footage of places where Herzl lived and visited with archival footage in an interesting…
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Jews of Tanglewood
• Aaron Copland owed much of his career to Serge Koussevitzky. • Leonard Bernstein was in Tanglewood’s first class and became a Koussevitzky protégé and a worldwide symbol of Tanglewood. • Paul Fromm was insired by Koussevitsky to create the Fromm Music Foundation to support new music. • Erich Leinsdorf inaugurated Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary…
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MTV Wants ‘True Life’ Mama’s Boy
MTV is searching for a Jewish mama’s boy for an episode of “True Life.” The show is looking for someone aged 16 to 28 who consistenly chooses his mother over his girlfriend. The episode will be called “True Life: I’m Dating a Mama’s Boy.” “We really hope we can find a Jewish mama’s boy to…
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Those Scandalous Mendelssohn Siblings
1920s Berlin was a wild place, and two of its wildest celebrities were descendants of the German Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn. The biography, “‘Is There Anything More Beautiful Than Desire?’: The Siblings Eleonora and Francesco von Mendelssohn,” is a diverting look at two arts madcaps. Its author, Thomas Blubacher, explains how Eleonora, an actress, dissipated…
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Mulder and Scully Together at Last?
“X-Files” nerds, get your Kleenex out. Rumors have surfaced that former “X-Files” co-stars David Duchovny (Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully) are not only dating… but have moved in together. According to CelebrityDirtyLaundry.com, Anderson and her two kids have moved into Duchovny’s abode. Sounds like some type of Cali-fornication to us! For all those uninitiated…
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The Literature Professor Who Was Duped by An Anti-Semite
Born in the Bronx to a Jewish family, Milton Hindus (1916-1998) became professor of literature at Brandeis University. Although Hindus published on subjects from poet Charles Reznikoff to the Lower East Side, he is mostly remembered for more sinister fare. In the 1930s, Hindus became a fan of the ferociously anti-Semitic French author Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s…
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Joan Rivers ‘Occupies’ Costco
In yet another Occupy iteration, this week Joan Rivers staged a protest at a Burbank Costco, complete with a megaphone and an entourage of assistants. “Costco, who sells condoms by the pallet,” she shouted, “who sells Paula Deen books and — which is not good for their customers’ health — they decided to ban my…
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Another Helping of ‘Fried Chicken and Latkes’
She’s back for more: Singer, actress and comedian Rain Pryor, whom we met back in 2009,, is currently performing her one-woman show, “Fried Chicken and Latkes,” at New York’s Actors Temple Theater. It’s no secret that Pryor is the daughter of outspoken comedian Richard Pryor and Jewish dancer Shirley Bonus, and her dual black-Jewish identity…
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