Zal forwards a link to this article about an Australian woman who pleaded guilty fatally stabbing her boyfriend because he objected to her listening to Bruce Springsteen.
PT forwards a link to a profile of Naomi Less and "Jewish Chicks Rock" over at Present Tense. Here's a taste;
For starters, Less plans to develop a unique blend of Torah values and punky girl-power pop that will equip Jewish teens with the tools they need to build their own identities and hone their individual voices to express what is hitting them right now. This new music will be well-produced pop music—“like Pink meets Avril Lavigne”—but the messages will be “very now, powerful, and Jewish-values laden,” Less says. Case in point: the first song Less has written for the endeavor, an upbeat stomper titled “Responsibility,” details the inner struggle of an uncomfortable adolescent watching from the sidelines as two bullies pick on another girl.Ezra Glinter writes:
Yet while her own music is a crucial component of Jewish Chicks Rock, Less outlines an even more intriguing second phase: a traveling tour with a killer backup band and a few different Jewish rocker chick frontwomen. “They will share how they got to where they are, what their struggles were, what they’re proud of, whatever they’re good at that embodies the `them’ that they are right now: scars, skeletons and all.” Less explains. “I’m not proud of everything I’ve done, but it made me who I am.” Eventually, she hopes, “there will be little pockets of girls around that will want to begin this in their own communities, that will want to express themselves creatively and through their Jewish identities.”
I just wrote an article for the Forward about Pro Musica Hebraica, a Washington D.C. organization that may be of interest to you. You can check it out online here:
"Post Columnist Starts Jewish Music Project "
