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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Captain America: Ironic Nostalgia or American Interventionism?
America Alone: Chris Evans as Captain America, surrounded by extra-evil Hydra soldiers. Image courtesy of Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios. “Don’t win the war without me,” the scrawny Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) pleads to his pal, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan), in the first sepia-toned reel of Joe Johnston’s excellent “Captain America: The First…
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The Arty Semite Guide to the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Part One
It’s the rare Jewish community that doesn’t have its own Jewish film festival these days, and major events happen each year in cities like New York, Boston and Atlanta. But the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, founded in 1980, is the granddaddy of them all. Starting today and continuing over the next two-and-a-half weeks, the…
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Who Was the Third Ari at the ‘Entourage’ Premiere?
Guys named Ari were everywhere (relatively speaking) at Tuesday night’s premiere party for the new season of “Entourage,” which took place at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. Jeremy Piven, who plays hard-driving Hollywood agent Ari Gold, was in attendance. So was Ari Emanuel, the real-life Tinseltown dealmaker on whom the character is…
The Latest
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News of the World’s Rebekah Brooks: NOT a Jew (Phew!)
Good news for the Jews: Unlike Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Bernie Madoff before them, the most recent scandal-plagued bold-faced names are not members of the tribe. You may have heard something of a little scandal involving phone hacking on the part of the defunct British tabloid News of the World. Well, the bright side to it…
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Three Kangaroo Poems From Judith Baumel
Motherhood and growing up in the Bronx are the two main threads running through Judith Baumel’s recent poetry collection “The Kangaroo Girl” (GenPop Books, 2011). Gaining force with each new poem, these themes grow into personal mythologies that lend themselves to mirth, nostalgia and philosophy. The collection, of course, is not limited to these two…
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Too Young for the Army? Israeli Soldier Deserts, Develops Anorexia
One of the many challenges that faces the Israel Defense Forces is the fact that its conscripts are essentially kids. A few weeks before getting their uniforms they are sitting in classrooms and being told by their moms not to stay out too late. The army finds itself in loco parentis. A heartbreaking example of…
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Hipsters and History on the Lower East Side
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Traipsing around the Lower East Side on a beastly hot summer day, I had lots of company. The streets were filled with tourists, shoppers and the cool cats who now call that downtown neighborhood their home. Most visitors, I suspect, were in search of the fabled hipster haven that…
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Etgar Keret and the World’s Skinniest House
“Narrow-minded” isn’t how Etgar Keret normally comes across. But his new project in Warsaw actually has the Israeli author and filmmaker limiting his boundaries. According to the Toronto Star, Keret will become the occupant of the “world’s skinniest house”—a four-story, five-foot-wide modernist structure to be completed by winter. Located in an alleyway between a 1960s…
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Books Sayed Kashua and Omri Herzog Win Bernstein Literary Prize
Crossposted from Haaretz Author Sayed Kashua and literary critic Dr. Omri Herzog are the winners of the Bernstein Prize for 2011. Kashua received the NIS 50,000 prize for an original novel in Hebrew for “Second Person Singular” (Keter Books). He writes a weekly column in Haaretz Magazine. Herzog was awarded the NIS 15,000 prize for…
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Amy Winehouse’s Dad Releases Album of Inoffensive Jazz Hits
Don’t expect any onstage meltdowns or messy arrests from this Winehouse. Amy’s father Mitch, a former sales consultant who became a London cabbie late in life, is releasing an album of “lovely but forgotten jazz and swing hits,” according to the New York Times. Winehouse pére tells the Times he “taught Amy to sing when…
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Out and About: Jewish Superheroes; Are Israeli Books Too Cheap?
Paris art dealer and racehorse breeder Guy Wildenstein faces up to seven years in prison for harboring missing artworks. Should the Israeli government intervene in the country’s bookselling business? Nahma Sandrow and Arthur S. Leonard weigh in on Joseph Dorman’s documentary, “Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness.” Jacob Silverman, Leil Leibovitz and Mike Reddy wonder…
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Most Popular
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Opinion Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians
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Culture I ranked the NYC mayoral candidates exclusively based on their bagel orders
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News How Jewish can you be in a Boca country club? Wrapping tefillin got a family suspended, lawsuit says
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Opinion Mike Huckabee’s stunning, terrifying new gift to the Israeli right
In Case You Missed It
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News The 3 ways American Jews are responding to Israel’s attacks on Iran
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Culture What was Albert Einstein thinking as he gazed down on Trump’s military parade?
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Culture Fifth graders write — Why is Abraham Cahan, founder of the Forward, worth celebrating?
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News This Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
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