Helpful votes received on reviews:
91% (29 of 32)
Location: USA
In My Own Words:
Groucho said it best, 'I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.' Other options include my passions: 1) Optical art -- Yeah, this is the groovy, psychedelic stuff that gets you legally high. Victor Vasarely rules. 2) Film -- As a film student in the 80s, I discovered gold with each new Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard … Read moreGroucho said it best, 'I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.' Other options include my passions:
1) Optical art -- Yeah, this is the groovy, psychedelic stuff that gets you legally high. Victor Vasarely rules.
2) Film -- As a film student in the 80s, I discovered gold with each new Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard gem I ingested. "Rear Window" is my greatest cinematic experience to date. When Raymond Burr finally jumped out of the celluloid and attacked me with that piercing gaze, the fact that my lingerie remained dry is testament to the strength of my willpower.
3) Rollerblading - I'm no match for the pants-ten-sizes-too-large-so-you-can-see-I-do-own-a-cleavage crowd, but I love to blade FAST.
4) Photography -- A Nikon N90s trips my happy trigger; next is a 1930s Rolleicord. I'm a hands-on girl with an image - I love to roll my own (film); manually set the aperture, shutter, and focus; develop the film; print the image; and finally oil paint the paper print. Photographers I hold in high esteem are Diane Arbus, Edward Weston, Roy Stuart, and David Bailey. I also love playing with colored infrared film.
5) White-water rafting - I'm not ready to open up a new category for the Olympic Games, but battling the elements in water adds a notch on the spine to tackle other wild and unpredictable situations in life.
6) Language - Je parle français et ya gooveru choot-choot parooski. I digest grammar books in my spare time and carry a lethal weapon to attack people who use the word "good" incorrectly as an adverb. Understand? Then you listened real good.
7) Amusement parks -- I'm a roller coaster junkie - "Space Mountain" at Disneyland Paris fills the veins with visual confections. The "Tower of Terror" (not a rollercoaster) at the Disney MGM Studios in Orlando is a must for anyone who delights in the look of terror in innocent people's eyes, but who isn't quite ready to pursue the career path of a dictator.
8) Judaism - I am genuinely elated to be a member of the group voted "most likely to be despised by the rest of humanity." We must be doing something right.
9) Paris - the vote's still out on my views of reincarnation, but if my soul were purchased from a second-hand shop, I'm quite certain it once belonged the mistress of the Baroque composer, François Couperin (1668-1733). Not only did Paris deliver Monsieur Couperin, but it also is home to my beloved Beaubourg. And where else in the world can one find a vegetarian Iranian bistro? When I die, I want to be buried in a vat of mango crème brûlée.
10) Theatre - My eyes learned to shut off their blinking reflex when filled with the ingenious talent of Ralph Fiennes, in the (fabric-ed) flesh. His performances at Hitchcock's old haunt - Gainsborough Studios in the Shoreditch area of London - lent to an electrifying buzz in the atmosphere. Or maybe it was the ale I swallowed before the shows.
11) Travel - With each frequent mile I accumulate, the size of my wallet decreases but the size of my compassion increases. Or, maybe it's just the swelling of my body, due to high altitudes. If I'm not in the air or twirling my toes in new soil, then I'm investigating how to travel like a princess on a pauper's budget.
12) Music - I own up to eclectic tastes, but will kick out of my bed any sounds of gospel, country twang, and rap. Among those who serenade me best: Gary Lucas, Velvet Underground, Eric Mingus, Phil Ochs, Jill Sobule, Billie Holiday, Jeff Buckley, Bobby Bland, Jukka Tiensuu, Serge Gainsbourg, John Zorn, Tarkan, Verve Pipe, Del Amitri, Christine Lavin, Zakarya, Louis Chedid, Tim Buckley, Cat Stevens, Broadway tunes, and of course my 17th century lover, Monsieur Couperin. François owns exclusive rights to tickle my ivories any lifetime he wishes. Oh yeah.
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Reviews
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The immensely talented Skip Heller may not have originally composed these songs, but it doesn't mean he doesn't know how to interpret them. Skip is one of the rare musicians who excels in a variety of musical styles - country, jazz, rockabilly, American classic (in the vein of Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne), to classical Mahler symphonies, but "Fakebook" concentrates on what could loosely be termed jazz - specifically, classics into which Skip and ensemble breathe imaginative and ingenious fresh air. Yet the musical vision on this CD seems to create its own genre which can't be neatly packaged with a single term. The song, "Chinatown" showcases the incredible talent of Robert… Read more
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Phil Ochs experienced a rather tumultuous career, and to the world at large, only after his death has his immense talent been recognized for its rich value. I was completely captivated the very first time I heard this album - all of less than two months ago. The voice wasn't a typically smooth, polished gloss of studio fabrication. There weren't huge orchestrations. But those ingenious words and infectious passion hurled notes from the speakers that insisted on holding my ears hostage. From the biographies that I've read, Phil Ochs was an extremely ardent man, and these songs are the proof in the pudding. "The Power and Glory" should, if it isn't already, be a staple of American folk… Read more
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Orthodoxy and rabbinical scholars almost assuredly will be familiar with most of these terms. The authors freely admit that they compiled the terms from their own upbringings - "modern, American, liberal, matriarchal, and from Conservative and Reform backgrounds." Thus, many of the rituals discussed are from that perspective. For instance, a minyan is a gathering of ten men, the minimum required for a religious service. In this text in this book, the word "people" is substituted for men, but the bottom of the entry explains that traditionally that number only referred to men. For those who grew up without a Jewish background or for those whose knowledge of general Jewish vocabulary… Read more
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