Arts & Life

PHOTO CLASSICS

Best Bets

The Jewish composer returns to Ann
Arbor's Kerrytown Concert House 8
p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, for an evening of
song featuring his own works, including
unpublished selections. This concert of
solos, duos and trios — composed with
Gordon's three sisters in mind — also
features soprano Melanie Helton and
mezzo- sopranos
Wendy Bloom and
Deanna Relyea. $10-
$25. Reservations
suggested: (734)

the number of Stitch 'n Bitch groups — chicks
(and a few brave guys) with sticks meeting in liv-
ing rooms, cafes and yarn stores — around the
U.S. have tripled. (Stoler founded the first Stitch
n' Bitch group in a cafe in New York City, where
she is editor of the new-wave feminist magazine

Photography fans of Lift magazine
should head over to West Bloomfield's Art
Leaders Gallery, where an exhibition and
sale, "The Great Life Photographers," a
collection of more than 75 iconic images
BUST)
from the 20th century, is on display
To satisfy the need for fresh, funkier patterns,
through March 15.
Stoller has now written
Art Leaders is one of nine galleries in
Stitch 'N Bitch Nation
GAIL ZIM ERNIAN
the United States chosen to exclusively
(Workman; $23.95 hard-
Arts Editor
exhibit master prints from the new book
cover; $13.95 paperback),
The Great Lift Photographers (Bulfinch
which consists of 50 origi-
Press; $50), a compilation of 698 black and white
769-2999.
nal, fashionable projects
and color photographs by 99 of the world's greatest
developed by Stoller and
photographers, many of them Jewish, including
Stitch 'n Bitch designers
Ralph Morse, Alfred Eisenstadt, Margaret Bourke-
FROM ARIAS
nationwide.
White and Robert and Cornell Capa.
Stoller, who holds a
This weekend, Life photographer John Dominis
To ABBA
doctorate in the psycholo-
visits Art Leaders for champagne receptions and
gy of women from Yale
With vocal prowess in opera,
book signings (the book will be available for sale at
University, visits the Ann
pop, rock and more, Australia's
the gallery) to be held 6-9 p.m. Friday and 1-4 p.m.
Arbor Library, Mallets
the Ten Tenors have toured
Saturday, Feb. 18-19. He will lecture both days.
Creek Branch, 3090 East
around the world to sell-out
The gallery is located at 33030 Northwestern
Eisenhower
Parkway, 7
Patterns
..4..ytt.tc3 Ma 1.45.,:wn a.
crowds and entertained alongside
•
•
Highway. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
p.m.
Wednesday,
Feb. 23.
performers from Andrea Boccelli
Mondays through Saturdays. For more information,
(734)
327-4200.
to Alanis Morisette.
"Stitch N Bitch" author visits Ann Arbor.
call (248) 539-0262.
The group's new CD, Larger
Than Life, was released last fall,
and a concert of the same name,
ART SONGS
BIG APPLE LAUGH
now available on DVD, played on PBS stations in
Ricky Ian Gordon, referred to in the New York Times December.
I headed to New York City last weekend to visit
as "one of the leading younger composers of songs"
The boys from Brisbane make a live appearance
my two young-adult children, and we all heartily
and his music as "caviar for a world gorging on pizza,"
in metro Detroit 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, on the
chuckled during a performance of the Off-
is equally at home writing for the concert hall, opera,
stage of the Royal Oak Music Theatre. $47.50-
Broadway comedy Jewtopia, a spoof of the trials
dance, theater and film.
$77.50. (800) 919-6272 or
and tribulations of finding one's beshert.
His extensive list of credits ranges from Night Flight
www.royaloakmusictheatre.com .
The Jewish guy suffers through a series of J-
to San Francisco, an operatic monologue from Tony
Dates. The gentile — a wannabe Jew — suffers
Kushner's Angels in America written for soprano Renee
through a mind-boggling indoctrination into
Fleming, to Autumn Valentine, a two-character operetta FIT TO KNIT
Jewish rituals. The audience gets a couple of
using the works of Dorothy Parker, to songs featuring
Author Debbie Stoller helped spawn a nation of hours of laughs as familiar stereotypes of Jewish
lyrics by Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay
life receive some good-natured ribbing. Enjoy! ❑
knitters with 2003's national bestseller Stitch 'N
and James Agee.
Bitch: A Knitters Handbook. Since its publication,

Celebrity Jews

NAJ. E BLOOM

Special to the Jewish News

Food Jews

The Food Network must have a disproportionately
Jewish audience — you've heard the funny description
of most Jewish holidays: "They tried to kill us, we
won, let's eat!" — so it's not surprising to find out that
INA GARIEN, the host of the network's Barefoot
Contessa and a best-selling cookbook author, is indeed
a member of the tribe.
Garten's new book, Barefoot in Paris: Easy French
Food You Can Make at Home, prompted a bunch of

Nate Bloom is the editor of wwwjewhoo.com .

interviews in which the chef disclosed that she was a
hopeless cook when she married 35 years ago, but she
did know how to bake challah. The former White
House budget analyst gradually became a great dinner
party host, then a fancy caterer and now the star of a
show that draws a million viewers a week.

"L" Comes Back

Premiering Feb. 20 is the second season of the sexually
frank Showtime series The L Word Two beautiful
Jewish actresses co-star: MIA KIRSHNER (as the
Jewish character "Jenny Schecter") and ERIN
DANIELS (as a pro tenths player). Created by Jewish
writer ILF,NE CHAIICEN, The L Word has been a
smash, including the DVD rentals of the first season.
This year, Flint-born comedienne SANDRA BERN-
HARD ("Roseanne") appears in a recurring role as an
English professor. "They asked if I wanted to do a
role," she says. "I said yes — if it was someone who
didn't kiss anybody and wasn't naked. I didn't want to

be one of the chicks in and out of other chicks' beds. I
thought that would be inappropriate at this point in
my life. But I think it's going to be an outstanding
role, one I knew would stretch my acting ability."

For The Aspiring Star

You want to be a movie star, but you think you won't
be able to keep kosher. Hesitate no more. The L.A.
Jewish Journal reports that "Kosher on Location" can
send one of its four catering trucks to prepare certified
kosher food at your TV or movie shoot.
Yes, some Jews in the film industry do keep kosher.
A few we know about are actor JOSH MALINA ( The
West Wing, director LAWRENCE GUTERMAN (see
this week's JNfeature article on his latest effort, Son of
the Mask) and actor STEVEN HIT T. (the former chief
D.A. on Law and Order).

CELEBRITY JEWS on page 46

FYI: For Arts and Life related events that you wish to have considered for Out & About, please send the item, with a detailed description of the event, times, dates, place, ticket prices and publishable phone number, to:
Gail Zimmerman, JN Out & About, The Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Highway, Suite 110, Southfield, Ml 48034; fax us at (248) 304-8885; or e-mail to gzimmerman@thejewishnews.com Notice must be received
at least three weeks before the scheduled event. Photos are appreciated but cannot be retumed. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.

