Results tagged “worldwarii”

Robert Bielski has a good handshake: firm but not vise-like, it's the handshake of a man who has confidence but doesn't feel the need to prove anything. It's a bright, chilly December day, but inside his Manhattan office the heat is almost stifling. "Make yourself comfortable," he says, gesturing toward a black leather sofa. On an end table next to the sofa is a framed family portrait—Bielski's extended family, he proudly says. It's his family that I've come here to talk about, specifically his father Tuvia.

Yesterday's ran a rather long piece called "How Do You Prove You're a Jew?", and while it may seem an unconventional topic for a manners column, I'd like to expound a bit upon it. Have no fear: even if you don't have the time or the inclination to read the original Gershom Gorenberg essay, I'm only using it as a jumping-off point for this column, and I promise not to allude to anything that would only be understood if you did read it.

"Officers from the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement in Philadelphia conducted a special underage drinking detail in the Lincoln Financial Field parking lot" before the Temple-Penn State football game Saturday and arrested 31 underage tailgaters, as well as one more for presenting false identification. City police were trying to break up a dispute between two rival groups of young men in Gray's Ferry Saturday night when the young men opened fire on...

It's not exactly the kind of album that's going to get you up on your feet and dancing, but Force of Light, the most recent release from Barbez (a band led by New York guitarist/composer Dan Kaufman) is definitely an interesting and haunting piece of music, and we wanted to mention it here, since the band will be playing a free event called Diaspora Kristallnacht at the Rotunda this weekend with Philly's own Oscuro Quintet. Diaspora Kristallnacht is part of the Diaspora Series and its purpose is to highlight music written in the prison camps of World War II. Force of Light fits this theme because it's based on the work of the celebrated poet Paul Celan, a Romanian Jew who spent nearly two years in the camps and lost his parents there. The effect of these experiences is always present in Celan's poetry - sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly. Force of Light is a series of lengthy, contemplative, moving orchestral pieces - a few instrumental, but most accompanied by readings of Celan's work by Scottish playwright and poet (and former girlfriend of Kaufman) Fiona Templeton. The music has a strange and intriguing feeling of the fantastic and the dream-like about it. Quite a variety of instruments come into play, including electric, nylon-string, and lap steel guitar; theremin; vibes; marimba; clarinets; bass; drums; cello; and violins. As we said, it's not exactly a fun, upbeat kind of album, but it is an effective and beautiful one.

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment.

We kinda like Michael Penn. There are many reasons, but the first one in our mind is that video for "Try." You know the one - one-take, down the hallway, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The song was on the Boogie Nights soundtrack and we've had a little crush on Penn ever since.