Dusty Wright's Culture Catch - Smart Pop Culture, Video & Audio podcasts, Written Reviews in the Arts & Entertainment http://culturecatch.com/node/feed en Beautiful Sounds Surrounded by Plastic Candles http://culturecatch.com/node/4417 <span>Beautiful Sounds Surrounded by Plastic Candles</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/users/c-jefferson-thom" lang="" about="/users/c-jefferson-thom" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">C. Jefferson Thom</a></span> <span>February 10, 2025 - 21:20</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/music" hreflang="en">Music Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/837" hreflang="en">classical</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><article class="embedded-entity"><img src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-02/Candlelight_Star-Theatre.jpeg?itok=NowTSlQG" width="1200" height="800" alt="Thumbnail" title="Candlelight_Star-Theatre.jpeg" typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" /></article><p data-testid="plan-name"><em><strong>Candlelight: The Best of The Beatles</strong></em></p> <p data-testid="plan-name"><strong>Sparkman Cellars, Seattle</strong></p> <p>Upon entering Sparkman Cellars and seeing the plastic candles lining the stage, I immediately had flashbacks of Orange County clubhouse events from my youth. It was not the best introduction, but it was nothing that wasn’t quickly overcome with a little wine and some beautiful music.</p> <p>I’ve seen advertisements for these <i>Candlelight</i> events for some time now and had been meaning to check them out, so an evening dedicated to the songs of <i>The Beatles</i> was a natural nudge to follow through. The formula for these events, presented by Fever, is simple enough: select music, pick a classy venue, hire the musicians, surround the stage with electric candles, provide alcohol, and you have a show. It’s a simple concept, but it works, and at the event I saw, it was the passion of the string quartet on the stage that really made the evening.</p> <p>Adapting classic rock to the confines of the quartet worked well, as did the curtsey of the Seattle String Quartet. Eli Weinberger made up the rhythm section, playing pizzicato on the cello with passionate precision, offering up visceral feelings while keeping the beat. First violin, Vanessa Moss, also shows her skill, flying through some of the busier licks and runs. The arrangements for the evening were made by the in-house Music Curation team and adapted by the performing musicians themselves. Some songs make the transition better than others, but the selections that really work help bring out unique qualities in the songs. For example, in the polyphonic conclusion of "All You Need Is Love," the four string players divide up the referenced pieces and overlap them nicely, providing a crisp perspective on the brilliance of this ending. Then you have "Eleanor Rigby," which was recorded with a string quartet, giving us the opportunity to hear this beautiful piece as it was originally intended.</p> <p>The whole experience was a very relaxed and enjoyable evening. It lasted roughly 60 minutes, a perfect amount of time to sip wine, revel in the music, hold hands with your partner, or share a table with some friends. I would happily do it again.</p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4417&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="gd74tfsig__T4oEbMIQgmaz_YpVWNpHHnNIfRQTUwKc"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Tue, 11 Feb 2025 02:20:03 +0000 C. Jefferson Thom 4417 at http://culturecatch.com http://culturecatch.com/node/4417#comments She Feels As If She’s In A Play http://culturecatch.com/node/4416 <span>She Feels As If She’s In A Play</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/user/7306" lang="" about="/user/7306" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Chet Kozlowski</a></span> <span>February 10, 2025 - 16:58</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/film" hreflang="en">Film Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/797" hreflang="en">drama</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><article class="embedded-entity"><img src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-02/something_is_about_to_happen.jpg?itok=k2myIYGn" width="1200" height="675" alt="Thumbnail" title="something_is_about_to_happen.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" /></article><p>The new Spanish film <i>Something is About to Happen</i> focuses on Lucia, an ordinary woman leading an ordinary life until she’s fired from her 20-year IT job. Her father is dying, neighbors argue through the cheap walls of her apartment, a big black bird haunts her. Luci yearns for a richer life. She gets it in the form of a neighbor, a handsome actor named Calaf who lives above her and plays a recording of Puccini's opera <i>Turandot.</i> She takes a chance, knocks on his door, and is swept up into his world. Then, the next time she visits, another person is there. Calaf's left the apartment without a word.</p> <p>Rather than being crushed, Lucia is optimistic. She buys a taxi and drives the city (Madrid). She dresses as the Chinese heroine of Puccini's opera. She's convinced that one day Calaf will enter her cab and they will be reunited.</p> <p><i>Something is About to Happen</i> is engrossing but perplexing. Director Antonio Méndez Esparza is known for the features <i>Here and There</i> (2012), <i>Life and nothing more</i> (2017), and the documentary <i>Courtroom 3H</i> (2020). Having written the screenplay with Clara Roquet he shows subtle control and maintains suspense. Mr. Esparza is served well by Zeltia Montes' propulsive string score, which propels the action by keeping us on edge.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uVX4w6qgQog?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>But the best reason to see <i>Something is About to Happen</i> is to watch Malena Alterio as Lucia. Ms. Alterio offers an open-faced performance, confronting the world armed with a smile. Nothing phases her. She has a wonderful profile and a bubbly view of life: gray skies are gonna clear up. Lucia is reminiscent of Sally Hawkins in Mike Leigh's <i>Happy Go Lucky</i>: she is almost infuriatingly upbeat. But she is not naive. She flirts with and even occasionally beds her taxi riders, sometimes as an act of mercy, as with a man freshly diagnosed with cancer, sometimes to scratch a carnal itch. Eventually, a theater producer (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) comes into her cab, and then a scriptwriter (José Luis Torrijo), both of whom might know Calaf the actor (Rodrigo Poisón). The coincidences pile up, the narrative noose tightens, and Lucia begins to suspect their presence is not so much serendipitous as, well…scripted.</p> <p>As watchable as it is,<i> Something is About to Happen</i> is both sophisticated and facile. The scenario is rife with symbols: the cab equals freedom, connection and caprice; the big black bird means death, the sequence of deaths lead to rebirth. The film is meant as a parable. But of what? What human behavior is it calling out? It's based on a book titled <i>Let No One Sleep (Que Nadie Duerma),</i> which points us in a whole other thematic direction, giving extra meaning to the nocturnal route of Lucia's taxi.</p> <p><i>Something is About to Happen'</i>s resolution gives off a whiff of <i>deus ex machina </i>as if Mr.<i> </i>Esparza didn't know how to end it. Lucia turns mean. And, the parable turns from one of loss and love into one of betrayal and retribution. And, in place of smiles, there is blood.</p> <p>____________________________</p> <p>Something is About to Happen<i>. Directed by </i><i>Antonio Méndez Esparza. </i><i>2023. Spanish language with English subtitles. From Film Movement. 122 minutes.</i></p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4416&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="icgKD4r4HFjz0ofNlPwdWwy0Wa7vhWNmewu-_Z30zrw"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Mon, 10 Feb 2025 21:58:13 +0000 Chet Kozlowski 4416 at http://culturecatch.com Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening http://culturecatch.com/node/4415 <span>Dedicated To You But You Weren&#039;t Listening</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/user/8103" lang="" about="/user/8103" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Mark Plakias</a></span> <span>February 8, 2025 - 17:41</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/music" hreflang="en">Music Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/553" hreflang="en">celebrity obit</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CKDuevCr90Q?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>Michael Ratledge was very tall. I was first introduced to Mike by a mutual friend, Susan DePalma, in the afternoon of one of our annual 12-hour New Year's Day parties in the West Village. Susan had a Cheshire Cat grin when she got my attention by saying, "There's someone I think you will be very interested to meet." When I turned, I had to look up, and at the same time, I heard the words "Mike Ratledge"— I went weak in the knees and almost fell backward; such was the power of the man's presence. This was probably 1995.  Mike eventually left after a few hours, but then much later returned, saying this was the best party around, and proceeded to lose at Backgammon versus my 12-year-old daughter (the more sober player at that point). Thanks to Susan we kept in touch and got to talk about our respective endeavors. In one such moment in a typical Ratledge <i>bon-mots,</i> he said of my persona as a consultant, "So you really don't <i>undertake</i> anything; you’re just the <i>undertaker.</i>"</p> <p>The last time I saw Mike in person was at his club in London, a properly wood-paneled dark warren of well-worn Chesterfield sofas and clouds of cigarette smoke. It was probably the second bottle of wine when I realized that the man was a technical genius who just happened to also be rendering his own translation of Francois Villon's love poetry. Back then, metadata was not as commonplace as now, but he was annotating interactive CDs with fine-grained metadata covering session players and recording dates. To say he was a virtuoso conversationalist is like saying Bucky Fuller was laconic.</p> <p>The bottom line was that I was fortunate enough to be an acquaintance of the post-Softs Ratledge, and astute enough to heed the man who had contributed so mightily to the canon of a music that today is generalized as the Canterbury Scene.</p> <p>The first time I heard Soft Machine (many fans refer to as The Softs) was in my friend Jeff Ryan's basement, during our weed-infused after-school listening sessions surrounded by Jeff's walls of vinyl. <i>Volume One</i> was at the time unique, and remains so to this day.  Emerging at the moment when LPs with continuous sides were starting to become a thing, it was the product of the original and short-lived lineup of Kevin Ayers (whose <a href="https://youtu.be/5MGLQCceVCI?si=LiHJV7KUPMMpVV-T"><i>Joy of a Toy</i></a><i> </i>stands as one of the greatest electric bass solos of the era), guitarist Daevid Allen (who would go on to form the anarchic assemblage under the name Gong), and the combination of Ratledge and Robert Wyatt on drums and vocals that gave voice to Ratledge's brilliantly scored compositions. Exemplary in all aspects, including volatility, this original line-up lasted long enough to blow people’s minds, and importantly for me, earn a spot as the opener for the Jimi Hendrix Experience North American tour of 1968.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UXK_wnVA_WY?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>This was the one and only live performance of Soft Machine I was privileged to attend. Yes, Jimi set fire to his Strat. The Foxboro Arena is just that, so the nuances of the Softs’ music was lost but what boomed out in its place was <a href="https://youtu.be/UobaL1aCdUM?si=YyvaLF-pG275ZG4A">Mike Ratledge's Hammond B3 on drugs</a>—fuzz and wah-wah underneath industrial grade percussion (an organ setting pioneered by Jimmy Smith and Larry Young).  So who else could make an organ trio fit in perfectly with Jimi Hendrix? The answer is Mike Ratledge.</p> <p>The tour was followed by a reconstituted band with the great Hugh Hopper on bass that was convened to fulfill a contract, resulting in <i>Volume Two. </i>The same joyous vocals, the breakneck changes and edits, and the seductive melodies propelling highly literate lyrics (if anyone else knows songs about Alfred Jarry's Pataphysics please let me know) remain singular sonic monuments. That came out in 1969, post-Hendrix—there is a line in <i>Have You Ever Bean Green</i> that starts: "Thank you Noel and Mitch…." And ends with the sound of what is reported to be Jimi's motorcycle.</p> <p>Depending on what demographic you talk to, kaleidoscopic 1969 can be characterized many ways.  In the celebration of Mike Ratledge's achievements, it can be described as an invisible but massive hinge that opens up into another way to imagine and play music, especially from a keyboard player's perspective. Consider the releases that feature distorted organ: Larry Young, organist in the supergroup Lifetime led by drummer Tony Williams and featuring a blistering John McLaughlin on the debut album <i>Emergency</i>. Or, speaking of McLaughlin, Miles Davis' bombshell double-LP set <i>Bitches Brew</i> featuring Chick Corea, Larry Young, and Joe Zawinul. Pedals for keyboards come into wide use about this time, several years after Mike had been using them in early performances.</p> <p>When I asked Mike about the sound he got from the B3 he obliquely referred to was-was pedals and (this may be a reference to the banshee sounds in <i>Third)</i> scraping tone-wheels inside the Hammond.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t49ey1t-7ec?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>That's the context for the next transition of Soft Machine. No more "Volume" in the title, just the number. Soft Machine <i>Third</i>, a double-LP set, dropped in 1970. The inside photo is a living-room shot of the band relaxing with some port and, well, reportedly tripping. <i> Third </i>is to Soft Machine what <i>Bitches</i> is to Miles, an arrival from beyond the solar system. Key to the transformation is the influx of trained jazz players bringing colors that diffuse an ethereal yet at times acid mood using a mix of violin, trombone, bass clarinet, flute—not your average instrumentation in 1969 unless your Brian Wilson. <i>Third</i> is also notable for the arrival of Elton Dean on alto and saxello (a kind of bent soprano). What followed were two more albums (you can guess the titles by now). This is seen as the "jazz" period of the Softs, with a floating pool of musicians all playing their asses off in the company of Ratledge and Hopper. It is rarely heard on the air.</p> <p>Collectively, these five albums constitute the canon of Mike Ratledge in his incarnation as Soft Machine, at least for me. They also remain in a class alone as the greatest rock music that most people have not heard. Twelve sides propelled by the genius of a creative giant who left it all out there for us, who can only marvel.</p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4415&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="WalDaWANu188zJDup2qik7CYg52gxaWNq6nTghcp6lU"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Sat, 08 Feb 2025 22:41:26 +0000 Mark Plakias 4415 at http://culturecatch.com What Is It to Be a Jew? A Bushel and a Peck of Answers http://culturecatch.com/node/4414 <span>What Is It to Be a Jew? A Bushel and a Peck of Answers</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/users/brandon-judell" lang="" about="/users/brandon-judell" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Brandon Judell</a></span> <span>February 7, 2025 - 17:36</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/film" hreflang="en">Film Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/813" hreflang="en">jewish film festival</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><figure role="group" class="embedded-entity"><article><img alt="Thumbnail" class="img-responsive" height="986" src="/sites/default/files/2025/2025-02/eli_wiesel_a_soul_on_fire.png" title="eli_wiesel_a_soul_on_fire.png" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1857" /></article><figcaption>A Soul On Fire</figcaption></figure><p>"It's hard being a Jew nowadays," began my 2023 coverage of this annual fest. Well, it's still not a breeze, but not just for the Jews. Ask the Angelenos, the Ukrainians, the Yemenis, and the Palestinians whose plight is so shatteringly captured in the documentary <i>No Other Land, </i>screened at last year's New York Film Festival.</p> <p>At the critics' screenings that September afternoon, an odd juxtaposition occurred. <i>No Other Land </i>was immediately followed by Jesse Eisenberg's nigh-perfect comedic drama, <i>A Real Pain</i>, which captures the lingering effect of the Holocaust on present-day Jews, a memory expiring far too swiftly. From the Middle East to Auschwitz within four hours, that's a handful.</p> <p>Which got me thinking, can you compare pain? Or the memory of pain? The posthumously declared anti-Semite Joseph Campbell sidestepped the issue and advised: "Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." Does that work against prejudice in the long run? Against genocide? </p> <p>Maybe.</p> <p>I do have a black-and-white snapshot of my stepmother smiling while sitting on a park bench in 1930s Berlin, a bench bearing a sign: "For Jews Only." She shortly escaped to the States but not before aborting what would have been her second child. Gerda Eisner Baum, as she was known then, refused to submit another soul to such a precarious future.</p> <p>Our current future seems to be again approaching that sense of precariousness, and the 34<sup>th</sup> edition of the annual New York Jewish Film Festival perfectly captures that trembling-in-the-balance uneasiness through works of humor, nostalgia and tears. Works disclosing anti-Semitism past and present, interfaith coupling, and sectarian conflicts. [No wonder the author of <i>Night,</i> Elie Wiesel, once asked, "I'm a Jew, but I don't really know what it means to be Jewish."</p> <p>Maybe the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who was knighted by the Queen in 2005, best captures the gist of this year's NYJFF: "Jews have survived catastrophe after catastrophe in a way unparalleled by any other culture. In each case, they did more than survive. Every tragedy in Jewish history was followed by a new wave of creativity." Here, the creativity is on view.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CzDYxAwoUWk?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>Starting the Festival on a highly cheery note is Joe Stephenson's wry biopic of the man who discovered the Beatles, <em>Midas Man</em>, transforming them from a scraggly quartet playing in a Liverpudlian club for naught into the world’s most consequential band. Yes, Brian Epstein. He rose like a firework into the heavens for five years and then took permanent residence up there at age 32.  Why?</p> <p>John Lennon might have been recalling Brian when he put forth: "The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?"</p> <p>Well, Brian was both a Jew and a homosexual in a country that rewarded both with an outsider status. Queerdom could also get you arrested, beaten, and blackmailed, but for some, the double whammy might also spur you on to succeed at any cost, as it did with the gent who gave us <i>Help </i>(1965).</p> <p><i>Midas Man </i>commences with<i> </i>the future entrepreneur working out of his father’s furniture store where he created within several square yards the hippest, most successful record store in Liverpool.</p> <p>One day several customers requested "My Bonnie," a recording from a small German company by an unknown band. "What's this?" Brian wondered.  Discovering the group was a local one, he sought out the lads, became their manager, replaced their drummer with Ringo, and after being rejected by Decca and a gaggle of other record companies, he got the Beatles a record deal. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became their first number one hit, and the rest is part of <i>our</i> history.</p> <p>Yes, those executives who laughed when Brian insisted, "My boys will be bigger than Elvis," laughed no more. Without this tortured Jewish homosexual, there might not have been a British Invasion, and we’d still be listening to Perry Como.</p> <p>With a vivid recreation of all this hoopla, the superb Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Brian, Emily Watson as Mom, Jay Leno as Ed Sullivan, and four lookalike, often sardonic Beatles, <i>Midas Man</i> is a never-less-than-engaging look at not totally surviving the sixties, a perfect Brit counterpart to <i>A Complete Unknown.</i></p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qnHI1ahMBpU?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>Moving on to the more disquieting, writer/director Oren Rudavsky's devastating, necessary documentary, <i>Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire, </i>concerns being a witness to history and then disseminating the horrors that the world means to forget or maybe worse . . . distort and make light of.</p> <p>"I'm sure that many people went to their death not even believing afterward that they were dead," Wiesel wrote of the Holocaust.</p> <p>Utilizing archival footage, interviews both new and old, salvaged photographs, and the blistering animation of Joel Orloff, <i>Soul on Fire</i> is a biography of a teen survivor of the concentration camps who when freed refused to weep: "We didn’t cry maybe because people were afraid. If they were to start crying, they would never end."</p> <p>Wiesel, who died in 2016, was a winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize for his defense of human rights and his crusade to prevent the Holocaust from being forgotten through his plays, 57 books, and teachings. Describing himself as "a storyteller, a teller of tales," not unlike the Ancient Mariner, his journey's end is still far in the future, as this documentary proves again and again.</p> <p>Phinehas Veuillet's <i>Neither Day Nor Night </i>focuses on the Gabais, a French family of Sephardic heritage, who have resettled in Israel within an ultra-orthodox Ashkenazi community. For the uninitiated, this could be a cause of some tsuris.</p> <p>Ahuva (Maayan Amrani), the mom, has gone whole hog with the religiosity. The only remnants of her wild, bare-midriff youth are snapshots hidden in a cardboard box under her bed. Her once flowing locks are now concealed in a tightly wrapped headscarf. Her smiles are now fleeting and forced.</p> <p>Shmuel (Eli Manashe), the dad, spends his days renovating apartments, apparently an unorthodox vocation. He also embraces his Judaism, but his dress, prayers, and temperament avoid the severe restrictions that his wife embraces. Spin-off: trouble on the mattress leading to sleepless nights.</p> <p>The center of this story, however, is the bar-mitzvah boy, Rafael (Adam Hatuka Peled), the couple's oldest son. The lad is a brilliant scholar, the best in his Talmud Torah class, which should easily earn him a spot in the best Yeshiva in town, but it's not to be so.</p> <p>The headmaster, Rabbi Shimon, who teaches that true scholarship brings its just rewards, will betray his own precepts. There is only one opening at Rafael’s preferred Yeshiva for a Sephardic student, and the good rabbi allows a dull-witted youth with a rich dad to weasel his way in.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NJZlQAoK8iQ?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>So where will all this unkosher hypocrisy lead? Well, what you expect from life? A little tragedy, some shopping, a rethinking of past joys, a lot of prayer, some geschrei-ing, and an unanticipated finale. With fine thesping throughout, especially from Peled, a bubbe’s dream with his sorrowful eyes and pinchable cheeks, <i>Neither Day Nor Night</i>, described by an Australian festival as a “crime-thriller,” is a pleasing tale of overcoming adversity in an unsuitable manner.</p> <p>Moving back in time once again, Annette Insdorf, in her classic <em>Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust</em>, wrote: "Filmmakers and film critics confronting the Holocaust face a basic task—finding an appropriate language for that which is mute or defies visualization. How do we lead a camera or pen to penetrate history and create art, as opposed to merely recording events? What are the formal as well as moral responsibilities if we are to understand and communicate the complexities of the Holocaust through its filmic representations?"</p> <p>Writer/director Yoav Potash seems to have the answers with his 13-minute short "A Great Big Secret." The film opens in October of 2023 with Anita Magnus Frank standing by a screen, clicker in hand, addressing a group of attentive San Franciscans: "I am a Holocaust survivor. I survived the war as a child in hiding. I lived under a false name."</p> <p>Born in 1936 to an Orthodox Jewish family in the Netherlands, Ms. Frank had an ideal childhood, and the photographs prove it: "My father adored me, and by his description, I was a bright, delightful child. I was also a tough little girl."</p> <p>But then Hitler invaded her wonderland on May 10, 1940.  At this point, this teller of tales morphs into an animated white-line drawing on a black background, the only color being the yellow Jewish star she must wear. Worse, at the same time, her Jewish classmates began disappearing one by one.</p> <p>Finally, one morning, her family was forewarned that unless they wanted to wind up in a concentration camp, that night was their last chance to escape the fate of their Jewish neighbors. "I remember my mother saying to my brother and me, Anita and Norman . . . you're going to go and live with a family that you don't know. . . You never will tell anyone you're Jewish, or you will die."</p> <p>"I lived in constant fear, and I learned to hide my Jewishness," Ms. Frank admits. Then, from that first shelter, she was moved to a farm where a group of boys sexually violated her multiple times. She submitted out of fear of being exposed. Weeks passed, and she was reunited with her mother; the Americans showed up, and the war ended only to expose that post-war anti-Semitism had flourished among the gentile Dutch populace.</p> <p>Still forced to hide their Judaism, the family moved to the States, and Frieda, at age 16, got a job taking care of a director's brood on the West Coast, gained 50 pounds, went to Harvard, got a job with the Rand Corporation, married, became a mother, and now within her final decades, shares a story again and again. Why become a memory for others?</p> <p>Mr. Wiesel once noted, "Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future."</p> <p>What survives longer than a memory? Buildings, of course. Just ask Ada Karmi-Melamede, the subject of her daughter’s unflinching documentary, <i>Ada: My Mother the Architect</i>. As a voiceover notes: "She is the Madonna of Israeli architecture."</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r6igKalF6sg?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>Ms. Ada, who's designed Jerusalem’s Supreme Court building, Ben Gurion Airport, and the Open University of Israel, is, at times, a slightly prickly soul who, after not receiving tenure from Columbia University, packed her bags and moved back to Israel, taking everything she needed with her except her three children and spouse. As she herself notes, "Maybe I'm really not that much of a Jewish mother. I have never really worried about you."</p> <p>Catch the look on her daughter's face when Ms. Ada shares that. It’s priceless.</p> <p>Well, she wanted a career and not to be stifled, and she succeeded. Now in her 80s, she is considered "one of a group of architects who built Israel from the ground up." Some of her mottos for designing: "The feet look for the shortest dimension. The eyes look for the longest." "Today, there are buildings with no art." "Architecture is not necessarily about harmony."</p> <p>Talking about harmony, Ms. Ada is a bit distressed with the leadership of her country's leadership, which she calls "a bad dream now." That aside, for anyone with an affinity for a career involving light, glass, stone, and chutzpah, this is essential viewing.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kQ-fiNGsLdo?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>As essential as Joan Micklin Silver's 1975-Oscar-nominated <i>Hester Street.</i> Yes, it's been 50 years since Carol Kane taught herself Yiddish to play Gitl, a young woman with a child who travels to New York City to join her very Americanized, now philandering, husband Jake (Steven Keats).</p> <p>Can the head-scarfed Gitl win him back when she speaks not a word of English? Plus, her attire and stance are totally Eastern European. It's not sexy for this man who once loved her and is now ashamed of the same.</p> <p>And what about her boy Yossele, whom Jake's renamed Joey? Will he soon distance himself from his "Momala"? Well, Dad snips off his <i>payes</i> while Momma puts salt into his pockets to ward off the evil eye whenever he leaves the apartment.</p> <p>So you're asking, "What chance do centuries-old traditions have in the New World?" Who am I to tell you?</p> <p>Discovering who wins is the delight of this beautifully textured recreation of a time when being an immigrant had its challenges, although winding up in Guantanamo was not one of them.</p> <p>As for you TV bingers, don't feel left out.  There are six award-winning episodes screened of German TV's answer to <i>Dallas</i>, <i>The Zweiflers</i>. Imagine that the Ewings were uncommonly Jewish, lived in the Düsseldorf of today, and instead of owning an oil company, they dealt with pastrami and potato salad.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dETCvpKpgD8?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>Yes, there are four generations of Zweiflers, from concentration camp survivors to deli entrepreneurs to chronic kibitzers, each embracing their Judaism in a distinctive but overlapping manner. One might use ketamine and paint surrealistic group family portraits that are a bit graphic. Another might fall in love with a lovely Caribbean chef who's anti-circumcision." A third might insist: "Only money can free you from the ugliness of the world . . . . A defenseless Jew is a dead Jew."</p> <p>And how's this for a marital chat?</p> <p>Husband to his kvetching wife: "Isaac Beshiva Singer once said, 'Life is God's novel. Let him write it."</p> <p>Kvetching wife: "You're trusting in God? When did he last help us?"</p> <p>She later brags to her hubby, who suddenly wants an open marriage: "I never had an uncut penis in my life."</p> <p>With a first-rate cast, a stunning male lead, an often-hilarious sendup of Jewish stereotypes, blackmail, a mohel, plus platters upon platters of delicious edibles, the Zweiflers<i> </i>never forget for long that even in the Germany of today, especially in the Germany of today, they are seen always as Jews.</p> <p>Without a doubt, this festival is a tribute to Primo Levi's words: "The injury cannot be healed. It extends through time."</p> <p>(Presented by the Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center, the films for the 2025 New York Jewish Film Festival (January 19-29) were astutely selected by Rachel Chanoff, Founding Director, THE OFFICE performing arts + film; Lisa Collins, director, writer, special correspondent, programmer, and events/film producer; and Aviva Weintraub, director, New York Jewish Film Festival, the Jewish Museum; with assistance from Cara Colasanti, film festival coordinator, the Jewish Museum.)</p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4414&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="Aj_wqocZNbgUVpJRhAqgxDD5yDGIyRfMSeAbfo0cRCU"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Fri, 07 Feb 2025 22:36:00 +0000 Brandon Judell 4414 at http://culturecatch.com Honey, I Became One with the Universe http://culturecatch.com/node/4413 <span>Honey, I Became One with the Universe</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/user/7306" lang="" about="/user/7306" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Chet Kozlowski</a></span> <span>February 5, 2025 - 12:53</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/film" hreflang="en">Film Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/761" hreflang="en">science fiction</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><article class="embedded-entity"><img src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-02/my_husband_the_cyborg_.png?itok=tkj6w61F" width="1200" height="624" alt="Thumbnail" title="my_husband_the_cyborg_.png" typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" /></article><p>Scott Cohen is a high-powered music executive with an interest in future technology. He is a proponent of "The Singularity," the theory that the rate of technological change will become so rapid that man will meld with machines. About six years ago he took his first steps to become a cyborg. He had a titanium station surgically implanted into his chest which makes him sensitive to the poles, turning him into a human compass.</p> <p>His wife Susanna Cappellaro began documenting Scott's quest right away, primarily on her smartphone, and her film <i>My Husband the Cyborg</i> is the result.  The title might suggest a sci-fi opus, but it’s an intimate and poignant look at love, devotion, and what makes us human. Scott and Susanna see the world differently. As one friend tells her, "Scott is made up almost entirely of straight lines, and you’re made up of messed up lines." Scott calculates, Susanna feels. And what starts out as a bizarre challenge turns into a probing examination of their marriage.</p> <p>Ms. Cappellaro shot footage over three years, charting Scott's changes, listening as he explained how differently he saw the world. They argue—he can't understand why she can't see his acts as normal—, come together, and take on mutual risk. Scott is imposing, shorn and shaved bald, a cross between Buddha and, say, the <em>Watchmen</em>'s Dr. Manhattan. Susanna is French, pretty, and winsome. She's afraid of what they lose in contact, the device blocking the path of a simple embrace. Her husband assures her that eventually "we can recreate physical touch." Susanna goes along because Scott is used to getting what he wants (the most intriguing conflict comes with his dread over telling his parents).</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oBbottVITng?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>Scott is not alone. There are others. Susanna attends a convention of body-modifiers, like-minded to Scott, to show solidarity. Their course grows out of the piercing/tattoo paradigm, contrary to conventional health care. For Susanna and Scott, love talk becomes ultimatums, even as she herself submits to procedures in order to keep them together.</p> <p>Ms. Cappellaro shot a wealth of footage over three years, <i>verité</i> style, from the hip. This is her first film, and her storytelling is kept simple. She and Maya Maffioli, her editor, trim scenes crisply and even with humor: Scott's elaborate explanation of joining his metabolism to the world around him cuts abruptly to a shot of a salad spinner. The film's sections are punctuated by kaleidoscopic AI-generated markers. One brief shot of Scott on a terrace, observing an oncoming electric storm, visually sums him up, symbolic of man's role in nature.</p> <p><i>My Husband the Cyborg</i> is appropriately being released on Valentine's Day. Ms. Cappellaro's documentary is a bright surprise, not a harbinger of oncoming doom. We root for her and for them. At one point, she insists to a frustrated Scott that her documentary about him is proof of love. He replies, "You're making a film about <i>you." </i>And he's half right.</p> <p>_____________________________</p> <p>My Husband the Cyborg. <i>Directed by Susanna Cappellaro. 2025. On digital platforms. 93 minutes.</i></p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4413&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="iQPHYVEBDKoO2NuXia9ocwt4cbFgAqJEtzQu3KFQ_HA"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Wed, 05 Feb 2025 17:53:29 +0000 Chet Kozlowski 4413 at http://culturecatch.com On Sense http://culturecatch.com/node/4412 <span>On Sense</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/users/millree-hughes" lang="" about="/users/millree-hughes" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Millree Hughes</a></span> <span>February 2, 2025 - 21:05</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/art" hreflang="en">Art Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/203" hreflang="en">painter</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><article class="embedded-entity"><img src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-02/david-humphrey-2.jpeg?itok=lRMmB2oW" width="1200" height="900" alt="Thumbnail" title="david-humphrey-2.jpeg" typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" /></article><p>David Humphrey: <em>PorTraits</em></p> <p>Fredericks &amp; Freise, NYC</p> <p>Dec. 12 through Feb. 8</p> <p>Social media and the engines that power its algorithms engage us in a race to the bottom. The stupider depths have worse music, more ill-informed news, and bad ideas.</p> <p>David Humphrey's wild melange of painting styles was an argument for pluralism. He and other New York artists like Amy Silman and Michael St. John imagined painting as a manifestation of '90s tolerant liberalism. All kinds of things can coexist on the canvas because relationships matter.</p> <p>In a big, messy, diverse country like America, this all makes sense, but nowadays, I believe that breaking rigid habits of thinking is more important.</p> <p>In the main room, David's large paintings are made of carefully arranged parts. They seem to be worked out in advance rather than "found," as there is very little reworking going on. The paintings are much less oily than they used to be, and the colors are keyed up. I think a lot of artists are thinking about how their work will be read on the phone, as this is how a lot of painting is experienced now.</p> <figure role="group" class="embedded-entity"><article><img alt="Thumbnail" class="img-responsive" height="1022" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-02/david-humphrey-1.jpeg?itok=codKtRUH" title="david-humphrey-1.jpeg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="1200" /></article><figcaption>Plant Thoughts, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72 inches</figcaption></figure><p><meta charset="UTF-8" /></p> <p>Is it a good example? The parts are laid out for consideration, and there is plenty of space between them. The conflict of black squiggles to the right on the blue and orange ground has a calligraphic quality. It contrasts with a more Instagram-like selfie head to the left.</p> <p>Figures are often going through something. Stretched, smooshed, and, in this case, "censored." This one is pixelated, which relates to denying the viewer the ability to read it accurately. She has a plant growing out of her head, which reappears in other watercolors.</p> <p>I'm reminded of the late Richard Foreman. Watching his plays, I often felt as if I was at the center of a vortex. There was an activity on stage that I couldn't follow. It was occasionally abated by a direct-to-audience speech that didn't really go anywhere in narrative terms.</p> <p>With Foreman, as with David Lynch's movies, I find it best to adopt a relaxed, alert, but accepting state, just as I would do if I were meditating.</p> <p>These artists all work within glittering structures made to contain their ideas. Seductive formal qualities make the work more available. Lynch's movies happen in gloriously lit vistas. Foreman's plays are like exquisite clock mechanical ballets, and Humphrey's paintings appear in gorgeous colors. They ask us to be free, despite the obstacles, to be open, even if we are afraid.</p> <p>Above the pixelated head is a flourish of orange paint. It seems to act as a shadow to the head/mass of black strokes.</p> <p>This play of like and unlike in unusual constructions is crucial to his work. It's poetry.</p> <p>The back room of the gallery is like the inside of David's head. There are sculptures on shelves, watercolors, and a video curated by his wife, the artist Jennifer Coates. It's where experiments happen.</p> <p>Looking at the back room, I saw connections from the sculpture to the sketches and into the video. Humphrey reminds me to perceive associations outside of narrative or familiar perceptual connections. For example, a thing may cast a "shadow," even if unformed. A ceramic cat with a broken face took me back to the first show of his that I ever saw at Deven Golden's gallery in the '90s. It was a show of piles of found broken ceramics formed into new sculptural totems.</p> <p>A conjunction of yellow balls on a pedestal reminded me of a Cezanne fruit bowl in some kind of flux. The watercolor behind it is an ectopic portrait. An image of the artist sleeping on a sofa seems to be a focal point. Reality reassembles itself in his dreams.</p> <p>The absurd is a way to open the mind to new possibilities. In the world we live in now, we are constantly being forced to make normal decisions and have normal responses. As I write, AutoCorrect is changing my <em>wurds</em>! Nonsense is a powerful antidote.</p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4412&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="S0tDpVj4hWGEwk5dye6YrvBPZDv1kH1E4iIJVviXdL4"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Mon, 03 Feb 2025 02:05:05 +0000 Millree Hughes 4412 at http://culturecatch.com In Memoriam Elliot Ingber (8/24/1941 - 1/21/2025) http://culturecatch.com/node/4411 <span>In Memoriam Elliot Ingber (8/24/1941 - 1/21/2025)</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/user/7162" lang="" about="/user/7162" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Gary Lucas</a></span> <span>January 31, 2025 - 18:14</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/music" hreflang="en">Music Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/553" hreflang="en">celebrity obit</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p><meta charset="UTF-8" /></p> <figure role="group" class="embedded-entity align-center"><article><img alt="Thumbnail" class="img-responsive" height="652" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-01/mean_e_2.jpeg?itok=4nKQ2ax_" title="mean_e_2.jpeg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="480" /></article><figcaption>‘MEAN E” drawing of Elliot Ingber by Don Van Vliet*</figcaption></figure><p>"The Winged Eel slithers on the heels of today's children." - Don Van Vliet, "Beatle Bones' n' Smokin' Stones"<meta charset="UTF-8" /></p> <p>Elliot Ingber (or Winged Eel Fingerling as he was known during his time with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band) has the distinction of being one of the only of celebrated guitarists who passed through the ranks of The Magic Band to enjoy total freedom—free reign, as it were—to improvise extended psychedelic guitar solos by Don Van Vliet, a band leader notorious for insisting that his musicians pretty much stick to the notes and forms laid down in their marathon rehearsals. </p> <p>Elliot is probably best known on wax for his slithering, snaky psychedelic guitar lines on 11972's The<i> Spotlight Kid </i>album—especially on "I'm Gonna Booglarize You, Baby" and the instrumental "Alice in Blunderland." I had the unenviable task during my tenure in the first touring iteration of The Magic Band circa 2002-2003 of attempting to replicate—if not all of the notes (which would have been impossible, as Elliot was capable of producing a veritable geyser of bluesy note splatter at any given moment)—but at the least, the FEEL of this titan of blues guitar on our live shows. </p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ucA3q5VCQW0?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>I think I pretty much lived up to the challenge at hand, especially on the latter number, in my own style. To have tried to reproduce these solos exactly and in Elliot's own peculiar phrasing would have been sheer folly.  </p> <p>Elliot also has the distinction—along with Denny Walley—of being one of the only guitarists in the Magic Band to also play with Frank Zappa, and he can be heard all over Zappa's <em>Freak Out</em> album, where Frank affectionately describes him in his liner notes:</p> <blockquote> <p>"Elliot digs the blues. He has a big dimple in his chin. We made him grow a beard to cover it up. He just got out of the Army. Lucky for the Army."</p> </blockquote> <p>In fact, Elliot goes way back to the early rock 'n' roll recording days in LA. He was part of Phil Spector's inner circle at Fairfax High School in the mid-'50s—a group of far-reaching and far-ranging musicians and record people that included in their august ranks producer Lou Adler, drummer Sandy Nelson, Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, Canned Heat's bassist Larry Taylor, and The Wrecking Crew's saxophonist Steve Douglas.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J1joLe0KpYc?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>Elliot was in the first band to have a song title about LSD back in 1961—the B-side of The Gamblers' first single, "Moon Dawg!"—their classic proto-surf instrumental, "LSD-25<i>."</i></p> <p>Elliot earlier was also a member of Kip Tyler and the Flips, a rocking teen combo that struck it big in Los Angeles in 1957 with the visionary single: "She's My Witch."</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pQ3yEuPbUI8?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>And he can be heard on the twangy guitar behind Phil Spector's own smooth Barney Kessel-inspired playing of Phil's instrumental single (released under the name Phil Harvey) 1959's classic, "Bumbershoot," which Elliot performed  live at various sock hops and roller rink events with Spector: </p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fQ9KOnZNK_M?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>Perhaps my favorite iteration of Elliot Ingber is with his own band, the trippy and adventurous beat combo The Fraternity of Man, for whom he penned, with lead singer Lawrence "Stash" Wagner, the immortal Floyd Cramer-ish song, "Don't Bogart That Joint," as famously heard on the soundtrack of <i>Easy Rider.</i></p> <p>Elliot is all over their first album for ABC-Dunhill, produced by Tom Wilson. My favorite track is "In the Morning," with its incendiary feedback rave-up double-time guitar break:</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JGJpxVAMyko?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>(Special mention goes to their second guitarist, Warren Klein; no slouch on guitar either).</p> <p>I first saw him with Beefheart and the boys on Jan. 26th, 1971, on Night One of Don's historic three-night stand at Ungano's, a little club on Central Park West.</p> <p>Elliot came out after the opening bass solo and absolutely ripped into "Alice in Blunderland," while the rest of the band came out and joined in one by one. </p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H_UOPME-c3o?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>He wasn't in that lineup long, jumping ship shortly after this show on the grounds that he couldn't maintain his patented healthy food regimen while on tour.</p> <p>A year later, on January 21st, 1972, I was lucky enough to speak with Elliot backstage at Captain Beefheart's concert at Yale University's Woolsey Hall. </p> <p>Elliot was sitting by himself in the dressing room apart from the rest of the band, keeping still and peering into the cosmos with his patented spacy Thousand Yard Stare. </p> <p>I began by complimenting him on his playing on <i>The Spotlight Kid</i> album and then asked him what he thought of Jeff Beck—then as now, probably my favorite guitarist.</p> <p>Elliot looked up with his hawk-like profile, stared at me with his intense gaze… and then said in a low, measured voice:</p> <p>"He released an album called <i>Truth</i>.</p> <p><em>(long pause)</em></p> <p>It was THE TRUTH."</p> <p>Elliot then went out there with Don and the Magic Band (on that tour consisting of Bill Harkleroad, Mark Boston, and Artie Tripp)—and proceeded to KICK ASS on his Les Paul Junior when given his solo spots. He was particularly on fire on their closing number, "Alice in Blunderland," stretching out with a lengthy and incendiary guitar solo.</p> <p>Elliot was even better a few weeks later at the Academy of Music on 14th Street in Manhattan, when Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band appeared sandwiched between an unknown solo Billy Joel (who we heckled—sorry!) and the headlining J. Geils Band. </p> <p>That was the last I saw of Elliot live.</p> <p>I heard he quit music and became a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Ingber">postman</a> in LA. He lived a mainly solitary life in a small apartment in downtown Hollywood filled with stacks and stacks of old magazines and newspapers.</p> <p>Don told me that Elliot called him once in his post-Magic Band phase and told him: "I've learned and can play every note of <i>Trout Mask Replica</i>, Don!"</p> <p>But he never played with Don again, sad to say.</p> <p>R.I.P. ELLIOT INGBER—YOU WERE ONE OF THE IMMORTALS!</p> <p>-----------------------------------</p> <p>*Don Van Vliet's (Captain Beefheart) poem under his sketch of Winged Eel Fingerling on the back cover of the 1972 Beefheart album, <em>The Spotlight Kid</em>:</p> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4">No B.O. for this boy…</font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4">it’s like a winged eel fingerling </font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4">crawling thru lime jello…</font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4">it’s like a chrome black eyebrow</font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4"> rolled out real long… </font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4">a paper brow magnifying glass</font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4"> fried brown, edge scorched, </font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4">yoked like a squeak from a speaker </font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="background-color:#ffffff"><font color="#666666"><font face="Droid Sans, sans-serif"><font size="4">being forehead of the time, </font></font></font></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="font-size:large"><span style="color:#666666"><span style="font-family:&quot;Droid Sans&quot;, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:#ffffff">licorice schtick </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align:start; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-variant-caps:normal"><span style="font-weight:400"><span style="letter-spacing:normal"><span style="orphans:auto"><span style="text-transform:none"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="widows:auto"><span style="word-spacing:0px"><span style="text-decoration:none"><span style="caret-color:#000000"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="font-size:large"><span style="color:#666666"><span style="font-family:&quot;Droid Sans&quot;, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:#ffffff">open tube of valuable JuJuBees</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4411&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="MQ_I_Rre0iFuHd8yafOoqYpl2OgKw2DlODFAoTT5zEw"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Fri, 31 Jan 2025 23:14:36 +0000 Gary Lucas 4411 at http://culturecatch.com Live From New York http://culturecatch.com/node/4410 <span>Live From New York</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/user/7162" lang="" about="/user/7162" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Gary Lucas</a></span> <span>January 29, 2025 - 21:28</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/music" hreflang="en">Music Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/75" hreflang="en">Captain Beefheart</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p><meta charset="UTF-8" /></p> <figure role="group" class="embedded-entity"><article><img alt="Thumbnail" class="img-responsive" height="481" src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-01/drawing7.jpeg?itok=xJOkCZsn" title="drawing7.jpeg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="602" /></article><figcaption>DON VAN VLIET (CAPTAIN BEEFHEART) "ABSTRACT COMPOSITION” 1979 AS FEATURED IN ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE’S "RANDOM NOTES” COLLECTION</figcaption></figure><p>LIVE FROM NEW YORK: This <a href="https://consequence.net/2025/01/snl-music-documentary-biggest-revelations/">article</a> about Questlove's <em>Saturday Night Live</em> music documentary claims no one clapped for Captain Beefheart's performance on the show. Simply not true. Ling and I booked his appearance on the show with our friend Hal Willner, and we were there at the taping. Someone in the audience did audibly shout "Shit!" at the end of the group’s second number "Ashtray Heart"—and later apologized to us outside NBC while we were standing there waiting for the limo to ferry us to the Gramercy Park Hotel for the after-party. "I never heard music like that before," he said apologetically, which we took as a compliment.</p> <p>75 million people tuned in that night. The guest host was actor Malcolm McDowell (<em>Clockwork Orange</em>), who came backstage to the dressing room before the group went on to tell us how much he loved the band. </p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xf26h8pD8e4?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>The next night, we played in Albany, anticipating a sell-out show, as, after all, we had just played before 75 million people. Only about 20 people turned up (I kid you not). And as we were loading the cars and the van with the gear after the show, the promoter and his club manager appeared in the parking lot glaring at us in a menacing way, like: "Give us our money back!"  </p> <p>Don calmly remarked, "Gary, get ready to grab a guitar case. Guitars make excellent battering rams!" </p> <p>We didn't have to fight our way out of the parking lot, though—the pair just turned in disgust after clocking us and walked back into the club.</p> <p>The next day, we drove back to NYC from our dinky Albany motel to prepare for our upcoming gig at the Beacon Theatre—which was a triumph.  The sun was shining on Manhattan as we headed into the city, and Little Feat's line from "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" was ringing in my ears:</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rpxZZFJKKYU?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>"Don't the sunrise look so pretty / Never such a sight <br />  Like rollin' into New York City / with the skyline in the morning light<br />  Roll right through the night."</p> <p> Indeed.</p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4410&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="-tl8SSneVAJUuuZgv0U_4GjAG5Uac-GGY5jy_lo3YL0"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Thu, 30 Jan 2025 02:28:26 +0000 Gary Lucas 4410 at http://culturecatch.com Provoking, Undoing, Starting Over http://culturecatch.com/node/4409 <span>Provoking, Undoing, Starting Over</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/user/7306" lang="" about="/user/7306" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Chet Kozlowski</a></span> <span>January 28, 2025 - 14:49</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/film" hreflang="en">Film Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/399" hreflang="en">documentary</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><article class="embedded-entity"><img src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-01/life_as_a_b_movie.jpeg?itok=UJGoKIG1" width="1200" height="699" alt="Thumbnail" title="life_as_a_b_movie.jpeg" typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" /></article><p>For sheer cinematic exuberance, you can't do better than<em> Life as a B Movie</em>. From the start, the viewer is bombarded with vintage images of skydivers, gyrating teenagers, and nudes cavorting in a sea of feathers, interspersed between the title credits. A tribute to pulp impresario Piero Vivarelli, this documentary is a "secret history" of how post-war Italy reclaimed its place on the world stage.</p> <p>A paratrooper in WWII, Vivarelli routinely plunged earthward on reconnaissance missions, and that disregard for danger informed his life. As one testifier puts it, "He wanted a taste of everything. He was an extremist. It was always a game. Provoking, undoing, starting over." Vivarelli had his finger on the pulse of the new generation as a music publisher, lyricist, screenwriter, film director, and producer. He hosted intellectuals and trendsetters in what his first wife Enza Minervini calls "the Live It Up Club," a.k.a. their Rome apartment, at all hours of the day and night.</p> <p>He exploited trends. In the rush of foreign cinema—during the 1960s-'70s, Italy produced 350 movies a year—he became known for black and white extravaganzas like <em>Howlers of the Dock</em> (1960), <em>I Kiss You Kiss</em> (1961), and <em>Il dio Serpente</em> (1970). Vivarelli's passions are up there on the screen: speed, rock 'n' roll, the high life, and women. He saw the potential in movie musicals or, more precisely, movies about music and stuffed the burgeoning counterculture with new sensations, churning out no-budget flicks. His closest equivalents in the US were Roger Corman (for economy) and Russ Meyer (for the exaltation of the female form).</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u-WdApmAy54?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>His producers, directors, ex-wives, and paramours add spice to the mix. Most of the talking heads are of his generation (and the worse for wear for their excesses). Vivarelli often brushed with greatness: he cast jazz trumpeter Chet Baker in Juke Box Kids (1959) {"he slept all the time") and was a contemporary of Fellini and Antonioni ("he couldn't have made <em>Zabriskie Point</em> without my movies"). He brought Aretha Franklin and the then-new Led Zeppelin to Italy, wielding suitcases crammed with cash.</p> <p>He flirted with fascism and communism and rubbed elbows with Castro in Cuba. His drama <em>East Zone, West Zone</em> (1962) is set at the construction of the Berlin Wall. He was delighted that the power and diversity of the youth culture "scared the Italian political power" and that he was part of it.</p> <p>At other points in the film, Vivarelli spars with Quentin Tarantino at the Venice Film Festival in 2004. Franco Nero chats about the script development of the Spaghetti Western <em>Django</em> (Vivarelli wrote it, and Sergio Carbucci directed it). His interest in Black culture spawned a particular brand of erotic/exotic exploitation in films like <em>The Black Decameron</em> (1972) and the <em>Emmanuelle</em> series starring Laura Gemser.</p> <p><em>Life as a B Movie</em> is a genre film lover's delight, an avalanche of ideas and memories. This feast of sights and sounds culminates in a ballet of folks flying through the air, contending that Vivarelli's joie de vivre can be traced to his paratrooper roots. "Up there in the sky, totally free. He liked the freedom thing," as one testimonial understates.</p> <p>Piero Vivarelli took a big bite out of life. He died in 2020. In his most autobiographical film, <em>Nella Misura in Cui</em> (1979), Vivarelli's surrogate is asked, "Really, no regrets?"</p> <p>"No, none at all. I just made some bad choices."</p> <p>"At least you have the guts to admit it."</p> <p>"Yeah, but guts are all I have left." ____________________________________________</p> <p>Life as a B Movie: Piero Vivarelli.<em> Directed by Niccolò Vivarelli and Fabrizio Laurenti. 2019. From Film Movement. 90 minutes. On digital platforms.</em></p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4409&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="rkHP37l-cVITuvg0PuNYAZLXBCyvlx35dMo5ArFWMgs"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Tue, 28 Jan 2025 19:49:00 +0000 Chet Kozlowski 4409 at http://culturecatch.com Elie Wiesel Never Forgot Suffering http://culturecatch.com/node/4408 <span>Elie Wiesel Never Forgot Suffering</span> <span><a title="View user profile." href="/user/7162" lang="" about="/user/7162" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">Gary Lucas</a></span> <span>January 25, 2025 - 06:59</span> <div class="field field--name-field-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Topics</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/film" hreflang="en">Film Review</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline"> <div class="field--label">Tags</div> <div class="field--items"> <div class="field--item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/399" hreflang="en">documentary</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p><meta charset="UTF-8" /></p> <article class="embedded-entity"><img src="/sites/default/files/styles/width_1200/public/2025/2025-01/elie_wiesel_national_endowment_for_the_humanities.jpeg?itok=aCodoAF3" width="960" height="1249" alt="Thumbnail" title="elie_wiesel_national_endowment_for_the_humanities.jpeg" typeof="foaf:Image" class="img-responsive" /></article><p>Director Oren Rudavsky has done a masterful job in his new documentary <em>Soul On Fire</em>, which played the 2025 New York Jewish Film Festival in capturing the inner and outer man that was the great Elie Wiesel (1928-2016). The Romanian-American writer, Nobel Prize laureate, and political activist became the living embodiment worldwide of the compassionate Jewish conscience and consciousness—bearing witness in his many books and personal appearances to the heinous atrocities perpetrated on the Jewish people during the Holocaust.</p> <p>This new documentary, which is due to be shown as part of PBS's American Masters series, delves deeply into Wiesel's psyche in many interviews and clips of him speaking, as well as filmed conversations with family, friends, and learned commentators on the Holocaust, and strikingly evocative animated footage of the young Wiesel's childhood and student days in a little town in Romania and ultimate removal at the tender age of 16 into the inferno of Auschwitz.</p> <p>What is fascinating to learn here is that Elie Wiesel, besides being a forceful voice on behalf of Jewish suffering during the Second World War, was also a strong advocate for Human Rights across the board. He stood up repeatedly for victims everywhere, including persecuted Russian and Ethiopian Jews, South Africans under the yoke of apartheid, Muslims in Bosnia under siege, the slaughter of Sudanese, Rwandan, and Armenian people, the victimization of the Kurds, the incredible tragedy of Argentina's "Disappeared," the suffering of the Nicaraguan Miskito people, and on and on. He acknowledged Palestinian suffering in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech and repeatedly tried to foster an open dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian leadership.</p> <div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video form-group"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qnHI1ahMBpU?autoplay=0&amp;start=0&amp;rel=0"></iframe> </div> <p>When I was a boy, I read Elie Wisel's searing autobiography <em>Night</em>, a first-hand account of the shocking and brutal acts he had witnessed in the hellscape of Auschwitz before being transferred to Buchenwald, where the American army ultimately liberated him—and for years I've been haunted by his eloquent evocation of these vivid and haunting experiences. I recommend this book as a standard text to be taught in schools across the USA, where a shocking number of young people either have never heard of the Holocaust or are actively denying its existence.</p> <p><em>Soul On Fire</em> is an important and timely documentary that takes a measured and methodical look into the making of Elie Wiesel. It concentrates on the historical forces that shaped him into the single most eloquent spokesman for Jewish people and victims of oppression everywhere.</p> <p>He doesn't come off in the film as a cardboard saint but rather as a very human and extremely personable man in full, who heard the call and stood up to be counted.</p> </div> <section> <h2>Add new comment</h2> <drupal-render-placeholder callback="comment.lazy_builders:renderForm" arguments="0=node&amp;1=4408&amp;2=comment_node_story&amp;3=comment_node_story" token="RmulYLEVN-zI2NGAx7hhxFFcr_bidxdfjfI6HXRc06E"></drupal-render-placeholder> </section> Sat, 25 Jan 2025 11:59:05 +0000 Gary Lucas 4408 at http://culturecatch.com