Sunday, September 23, 2012

Can't Believe I Missed This One When It Was Released!

This is a bizarre clip! Chassidic singer Dov Shurin pays tribute to John Lennon. (Female backup singers!)



Hat tip, A.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Call Your Zeyde - Shana Tova

E. emails a link to Temple Judea's Rosh Hashana video...

Teaching Tolerance

Here's an interesting trend... promoting tolerance for other Jew not of your immediate community... yesh tikvah... despite the leadership in those communities...

 Lipa Schmeltzer:


Yaakov Shwekey:

Friday, September 14, 2012

K'ayal Ta'arog - Halev V'hama'ayan

A beautiful arrangement of this Lubavitch melody w/ guest vocalist Yonatan Razel.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Shiviti

Abe Finkelstein emails about a new single he composed/collaborated with Shauli on. YOu can hear it here.

It's cool to see more complex text-based lyrics. The arrangement/production is tasteful. Nice work!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Amanda Palmer - Schnorrer

Amanda Palmer needs horn and string players to play her shows for free beer and hugs. There are a lot of annoyed musicians commenting on her scheme. She raised enough on Kickstarter to pay them. No class!

Matisyahu Show Meh!

Rabbi in the Middle of America has a nice writeup of an AKA Pella event. He also reports on reviews of Matisyahu's recent shows. Matches the clips I've seen, and other reviews I've read about Matisyahu's recent performances.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Monday, September 10, 2012

Carlebach Circus Selichos?

Here's some video footage of the Carlebach Shul's Selichos this past Motzoei Shabbos.

 A couple of thoughts/comments.

1) It's Carlebach, not Carelbach. You'd think people in the music business would get it right.

2) Shlomo didn't do Selichos this way. (See here: http://youtu.be/6jamYFJkkfA)

3) This is clearly a huge fundraiser for the Carlebach Shul. I hope they took in a lot of $$$. The community at large should support the Carlebach Shul's work year-round. Since they don't, a few big events are needed to raise funds.

4) It's obvious, both from watching the video and speaking to people who have been, that there are a very large number of people who do not connect with traditional Selichos. My question is, is it better to create Selichos entertainment for them, as this is, or would it be better if they were to find something else to do Selichos night?

5) Looking at the video (and knowing some of the people there), one can see that there are some who are sincerely attempting to connect using this medium. Equally clearly, one can see that there are many more people simply there to party. Is that necessarily a bad thing? To the extent that the party atmosphere does not distract (or even enhances) those sincere seekers who connect this way, I'd say it might even be a good thing. On the plus side, it largely keeps some of them --the ones who wouldn't be comfortable just skipping the whole ritual -- out of other shuls, where they would no doubt be talking or otherwise disturbing anyway.

6) Personally, if one wants to hear inspirational musical Selichos and/or pre-Selichos, there are numerous options available in the NY area that I'd recommend over this event. YMMV.

Saturday, September 01, 2012