N

Mixed Media

Bangkok Sala
Cafe

THAI CUISINE

•Over 50 menu items
•All lunches served
with soup
•Children's menu
•Thai cookies served
with all dinner entrees

r

II

Buy One Lunch or Dinner
& get a Second for -

50% OFF

One per customer • Expires 7/31/00

II

I.

For years, Amy Borkowsky's Jewish
mother has relentlessly been leaving
advice on her daughter's answering
machine. Wanting to share her mom's
unsolicited — and often dubious —
tips, Borkowsky has put out a CD
called Amy's Answering Machine —
Messages From Mom: Volume I.
It has caught national attention,
including an appearance by Borkowski
on the Today show, where she played
excerpts to Matt Lauer, and an article
in People magazine.
What are some of her mom's classic
tips?
"When you go to Washington,
D.C., and if you happen to take a tour
of the White House, don't let them
leave you alone with the president.
"They are saying the ear piece on a
headphone is a prime breeding ground
for bacteria, so before you walk
around with a Walkman, you may

want to take an antibiotic.
"This week in People magazine,
there is an article on a single Jewish
guy who owns a restaurant in Alaska
and is now living in New York looking
for a wife. My friend Muriel saw the
same article, so you better hurry up
and contact him before Muriel's
daughter does."
Borkowsky hasn't always appreciat-
ed her mother's helpful hints, but it
wasn't until she played them to audi-
ences during her stand-up comedy
routine that she realized she had
something valuable.
The 36-year-old Borkowsky, a New
York City advertising executive, has
been saving her family's answering-
machine messages since the 1980s. "It
was like documenting my family, and
besides, my mother's messages seemed
too precious to throw away," she says.
"[When] I brought them to my come-
dy act and people were really laughing

their heads off, the response gave me
the idea to make a CD out of them."
But Borkowsky's mom, Sue, hasn't
always been thrilled with the notoriety.
"After I began playing my mom's
messages at comedy clubs, I felt I had
to share it with her," says Borkows ky,
whose parents are divorced. "At first
[my mom] became self-conscious and
there were a lot of hang-ups. Then her

Borscht Belter

Al Fresco

Getting Along

Messages From Mom

"If everyone had mothers who loved
them even half as much, the world
would be a better place," writes
Borkowsky on her CD liner notes.

Open 7 days a week

Mon-Sat 11 am - 10 pm
Sunday 4 pm - 9:30 pm

27903 Orchard Lake Rd. (NW corner of 12 Mile)

Farmington Hills

(248) 553-4220

THE
JEWISH NEWS
WILL BE CLOSED
JULY 3 &4

FOR

INDEPENDENCE
DAY

WE WISH OUR
READERS A
HAPPY HOLIDAY!

6/30

2000

76

Israel's first International Opera
The late Mickey Katz was a
Festival in Caesarea, which opened late
Borscht-Belt legend long before the
last month at the open-air Roman
likes of Woody Allen and other come-
Theater
located on Israel's
dians barraged the public with witty
Mediterranean shore, is expected to
Yiddishisms. Katz, known for his
become an annual event in the world-
combination of klezmer music and
wide opera calendar.
biting song parodies,
The festival, under the
influenced many of
aegis of Israel's only opera
today's klezmer bands.
company, the New Israeli
With the resur-
Opera (see this week's A&E
gence of klezmer
cover story on director Asher
music — and "Weird
Fisch), was mounted in
Al" Yankovic popular-
cooperation with the Israel
izing the song parody
Festival, held every year in
— Koch Records
ANAMAMsww,,,,w--
Jerusalem. The outdoor
decided to re-release
amphitheater in Caesarea,
the works of the
built 2,000 years ago, has
"Sultan of Shtick," as
been outfitted with a new acoustical sys-
Katz was known.
tem.
Mickey Katz: Greatest Shticks is a
Puccini's Turandot opened the festi-
16-song collection of 1950s and early
val, followed by Richard Strauss' Elektra,
'60s Capitol recordings featuring such
in its first-ever staging in Israel. The fes-
parodies as "Old Black Smidgick"
rival concluded on June 21 with a con-
("Old Black Magic"), "Knish Doctor"
cert by U.S. opera star Jessye Norman,
("Witch Doctor") and "Duvid
singing "Verdi to Duke Ellington."
Crockett" ("Davey Crockett").
Next year's season, running June 13-
Not to be outdone, son Joel Grey
July
8, 2001, will feature La Forza Del
is
getting
into
the
act.
His
(Cabaret)
Destino and Otello, both by Verdi. For
nightclub show features an homage to
more information, go to the Web site at
"My Yiddisha Poppa," something that
www.israel-opera.co.il .
would have given Katz, who passed
away in 1985, lots of nachas.
— Leslie Zack

Unlike its prototype in Los Angeles, a
planned Museum of Tolerance in
Jerusalem will not deal with the
Holocaust, said Marvin Hier, founder
and dean of L.A.'s Simon Wiesenthal
Center. Instead, the museum's focus will
be on promoting civility and tolerance
among Jews, and between Jews and
non-Jews, including Arabs.
Architect Frank Gehry, responsible
for the acclaimed Guggenheim Museum
in Bilbao, Spain, will design the $120-
million museum and conference center,
_ which will rise on a three-acre site at the
foot of Jerusalem's Mount Scopus, home
to the Hebrew University.
It will take about two years to corn-
plete the designs, to be approved by the
Jerusalem municipality; and another two
to three years to finish construction and
install the exhibits.
As in the Los Angeles prototype,
exhibits in the Jerusalem museum will
be high-tech, interactive and geared to
the Internet generation.
"We are not interested in the state-of-
the-art now, but what will be available
on the market four years from now,"
said Hier. The exhibits will be multilin-
gual, including Hebrew, English and
Arabic.
Gary Winnick, a 51-year-old Los

