Music

It’s Friday.

Normally we present Friday Footwear, Friday Fotos or Friday Flickers. But we’ve been holding this You Tube video for a few days and we’re anxious to share it with our readers.

H/T Stroker

Two fine companion pieces to this song are Daniel Greenfield’s essay: The Immorality of the Moral High Ground, and Lee Smith’s Hollow Men: Why Israel’s Enemies Will Always be the Darlings of Western Intellectuals.

Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and harmonious Shabbat.

I need a break.

This week Karen and I gagged as President Barack Obama degraded the office by appearing on the Jay Leno Show.

The MSM called the appearance “historic.”

We see it as further evidence that President Obama has not a clue as to the gravity of his job.

This week we saw Congress—a den of hypocrites—illegally taxing American citizens. The lynch mob led by non other than President Barack Obama. Hey, we’re getting to be like one of those banana republics! Even Jay Leno—not exactly Bill O’Reilly— called Obama on this outrage and Obama, after a station break, didn’t even have the decency to answer the question. He just did his hope n’ change ramble. Disgraceful.

This week Barack Obama made further moves to transform America into a socialist state.

This week Barak Obama further legitimized the Holocaust-denying, Holocaust-yearning Iranian regime with a dopey and condescending home video. Naturally, the Mullahs immediately recognized the abject dhimmitude in Obama’s fuzzy-wuzzy message and told him to get stuffed.

This week, Bibi Netanyahu, acutely aware of Obama’s, er, naivete in matters Islamic, appointed a new defense minister: Moshe “Boogie” Ya’alon, 58, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Note: Ya’alon, sanely hawkish, has been warning about the Persian bomb for a long time. Almost certainly within the next year or so, Israel will tell Obama to interface with his beloved teleprompter while the adults take care of the Iranian problem.

So yeah, we need a break.

How about a blast from the past?

It is 1963, and Ricky Nelson is singing “I Will Follow You.”

I was thirteen years old when this song was released and I remember thinking: I will follow Karen.

And I did.

Enjoy.

And now, to keep you occupied for the rest of the day, What War Zone presents: Haveil Havalim #209 Ahhhhh……Spring!

Two weeks ago I bought a new computer—a Mac, natch. A sleek, black number with a “13 inch screen, 2 GB of memory and a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core Duo.

I’m a happy puppy.

Happier still because I got a free i-Pod touch with my computer, and let me tell you, this little baby is like Star Trek fun.

I’m all: “Beam me up, Scotty.”

Anyhoo.

Let’s go to Israeli singer Yael Naim for some familiar tra-la-la.

But no dancing. It’s the Nine Days

FBI Warning: If you are extremely frum the following video might be disturbing as it contains kol isha. Do not hit the play button if such sounds and images agitate your hashkafah.

Okay, Seraphic Secret needs to take a break from politics. The bad news has been coming so fast and furiously that my head is spinning. I’m talking migraine city.

Here’s a nice musical antidote for what ails a striking screenwriter.

Interpolation:
How come people in shul walk up to me and say: “Hey, Robert, does the strike affect you?”
Hellooo. I’m a real-live screenwriter. I can’t sell anything. Can’t go to meetings. Can’t rake in the big bucks. Do people think I’m like some ersatz screenwriter who really makes his living as an editor for Art Scroll on the Jerusalem Talmud?

Totally baffled.

A few months ago, a few Ner Yisroel boys stepped jauntily into Casa Avrech, looked at the Emmy for my script for The Devil’s Arithmetic over the fireplace and said: “Cool, did you get that on e-Bay?”
End Interpolation:

K’Shoshanah: Aaron Razel, Chaim David & Shlomo Katz performing never-recorder songs by Reb Shlomo Carlebach.

From the liner notes: “As a rose [K’Shoshanah] among the thorns, so is my beloved among the maidens.”

—Shir Hashirim, Song of Songs 2:2

I’m a fan of simple and direct, well, everything.

Hate, absolutely hate the wretched over-dubbed wall of sound engineering by Phil Spector. Worst thing that ever happened to rock and roll.

Give me Bill Haley and the Comets any day.

This CD is impeccably produced. The music is right there on the surface, it reaches out, grabs your heart and soul, and doesn’t let go. It’s not the oy, yoy, yoy, over-produced, over-dubbed, over-computerized, over-choreographed stuff that’s flooding the Jewish world. Homogenized junk.

Each niggun, tune, has a direct and lovely quality, as if the musicians just discovered the melody and lyrics at the core of their soul and simply willed them into existence.

It’s a remarkable accomplishment.

I was once on the set of a movie I’d written and the lead actress was delivering my lines. But the thing was, the dialog sounded completely fresh, unrehearsed, as if the actress had just pulled them from the depths of her soul.

I was knocked out.

She made me look good.

After the director called cut, I sat down with the actress to go over her next scene and rewrite some lines. I complimented the actress, told her what a great job she did. I asked her how she pulled it off?

She looked at me and blinked: “Huh?”
“How’d you make it look so fresh, so easy?”
“It’s what I do, sweetheart.”

As I listened to K’Shoshanah, and I have listened to this lovely CD a dozen times, I flashed on The Band, that great Canadian-America group who were discovered and mentored by Bob Dylan. K’Shoshanah has an urgent and raw, a propulsive quality that made The Band so very popular.

Of course K’shoshanah has a Jewish/mystical center that transcends all else and I have to single out producer Azriel Ganz AKA MoChassid, for his impeccable taste and production values. He resists the impulse that all producers must feel to, um, produce, to show his big footprint. No, Ganz lets the musicians work; he creates the space and form for their best music to flourish. I wish Ganz worked in the film business.

K’Shoshanah, the perfect Chanukah gift.

Oh, and here’s another album produced by Azriel Ganz, U’shmuel B’korei Sh’mo, also superb.

It’s what they do.

Having trouble with the comments section here. You’re not the only one. Please place comments for this entry in the Power of Chanukah entry right above. Thanks so much.

—The Management

This is my relationship to music, honest to G-d:

1. I consider almost all music to be potential scores to the real thing—movies. Hence, when Amadeus was produced, I heaved a sigh a relief that Mozart’s music was finally being put to some good use. Please, no hate mail. I confess, I’m a cultural Philistine.

2. I know screenwriters who listen to music as they write. Not me. I just write, or stare at the wall. Mostly stare at the wall.

3. Do I ever stick a disc into the player, sit back, chill, and just listen to music?

4. I do not chill.

5. I feel like I should be doing something else. Something, useful.

6. Like watching a movie that already has a great score. Some of my favorite movie scores are: Seven Samurau, Psycho, Zulu, Rebecca,Red River, and Barry Lyndon.

But: I do like to walk. However, I get bored walking. Hence I clamp on the ol’ i-Pod and listen to music. Jewish music.

For the past few days, Moshe Skier’s album Rock of Sages, has been my constant companion.

Some of you might know Skier as the fine blogger Psychotoddler.

Rock of Sages is a total joy. Every track just keeps me bouncing along. There’s a user-friendly quality to Skier’s voice and delivery. He’s the guy next door who has a lovely voice that doesn’t over-power but just slides into your soul and soothes you.

The arrangements are gloriously simple and rock-sold, like early 50’s rock. Short, to-the-point, and sort of perfect. I kid you not, listening to Skier’s CD I was constantly flashing on Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley & The Comets, Chuck Berry, and of course Elvis. There are no long, flashy tiresome guitar or drum solos, just good, old-fashioned melody. As I was listening to the CD, I kept thinking to myself: Moshe is sort of like early Beatles, innocent, lovely, totally unpretentious. It’s music that makes you smile, music that makes you want to hold someone’s hand, and best of all it’s Jewish music with none of the soul-crushing ay-yay-yay that is endemic to so many Jewish CD’s.

In real life, Moshe Skier is a physician. His music has a healing quality that is hard to miss.

I love every single cut on this CD, and you know what, I might even sit down and play it when the strike is over and I start working on my next screenplay.

You can order Rock of Sages here. Highly recommended.