(Arts
t's
—
BETS
Gail Zimmerman
Arts Editor
Glass Act
-
On his weekly NPR program This
American Life, Ira Glass has breathed new
life into radio, finding drama, poignancy
and humor in everyday places. He began
working in public radio
when he was 19 and has
worked on nearly every
NPR news show in all
sorts of productionjobs.
This American Life went
on the air in 1995. Writers
and performers are invited
•
to
contribute to the pro-
Ira Glass
gram's weekly theme ; doc-
.
umenting everyday life in •
this country.
When asked about his own American
life compared to the J.D. Salinger fictional
family ofGlass children, the broadcaster
said: "We're Jews, my family, and Jews
break down into two distinct subcultures:
book Jews and money Jews. We were
money JeWs. Growing up in suburban
Baltimore, I didn't know many real book
Jews, not in the New York City Frame)/ and
Zooey sense of it. That's part of what was
so thrilling about the Salinger books, the
idea of people who read stuff, and it means
so much to them."
Glass, 46, brings his observations to a
Michigan audience when he appears in an
evening of recollections 8 p.m. Saturday,
Dec. 10, at the Michigan Theater in Ann
Arbor. Tickets are $20-$37. (248) 645-6666.
Rock Around
Wondering how the rock band Aerosmith
got its name? Credit Jewish band member
a product of a middle-
class home in the Bronx who has said he
had a tough time with the anti-Semitic
bullies in his predominately Italian high
school. Kramer. moved to. Boston in 1969
to study music and soon met up with his
old friend Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and the
other guys in the band.
The 55-year-old drummer joins his band
mates as Aerosmith rocks the Palace of
Auburn Hills in support of its latest CD,
Rockin' the Joint (Live at the Hard Rock Hotel
Las Vegas), 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15.
Opening for Aerosmith is Lenny
Kravitz, whose set will feature his trade-
mark combination of funk and rock 'n' roll
backed by his 10-piece band.
The 41-year-old Kravitz was born
Leonard Albert Kravitz, named after his
Joey Kramer,
uncle who died in
service in Korea. He
is the son of Jewish
Hollywood produc-
er Sy Kravitz and
the late Bahamian
Joey Kramer
American actress
Roxie Roker, who
played neighbor Helen Willis on The
Jeffersons. Kravitz married actress Lisa
Bonet, daughter of a Jewish mother and
African-American father; they are now
divorced. In the last decade, Kravitz seems
to have embraced Christianity; a recent
CD is titled Baptism.
Tickets for the concert are $59.50-$125.
(248) 645-6666.
Also appearing in town this weekend is
1960s folk-rock-pop icon Donovan (born
Phillip Leitch), celebrating 'the 40th
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, MI 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 appreciatecibut cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.
saw
NateBloom
Special to the
Jewish News
`Tis The Time
... For a flood of "holiday season"
movies looking to lure in the holiday
crowds and to be eligible for a 2005
Oscar nomination by opening just
before the year's end.
Still playing in theaters is Ice Harvest,
.directed by Harold Ramis. It's a gritty
tale with some humor about a mob
lawyer (John Cusack) and a strip club
owner (Billy Bob
Thornton) who rob mil-
lions from a Mafia don.
Ramis told an inter-
viewer that there's a
moral undertone to Ice
Harvest. Cusack and
Thotnton's characters,
he said, had 'lawfully'
followed the American
Harold Ramis
materialistic dream —
4:1)
46
December 8 • 2005
qr;
that didn't satisfy their souls
became a top geisha in the
— and now they thought that
early post-war period.
being outlaws would some-
Golden's mother is the
how satisfy. The film implies
sister of Arthur 0.
that a satisfactory life is
Sulzberger Sr., who
found in avenues other than
retired as publisher of the
these.
New York Times in 1992.
Ramis has long been inter-
- (Golden's first cousin, cur-
Jake Gyllenhaal
ested in moral choices, but has
rent Times publisher Arthur
been a secular Jew. However,
0. Sulzberger Jr., was raised
the director says he incorporated into
in his mother's Episcopal faith).
Ice Harvest a new personal interest in
Opening in Detroit on Friday, Dec.
Jewish moral teachings: "This does not
16, is Brokeback Mountain.
mean Kabbalah, and I'm not turning
Jake Gyllenhaal and. Heath Ledger
Orthodox. It's ... an investigation of what co-star in the film as two young cow-
answers or questions Judaism poses as
boyi, circa 1961, who have a gay rela-
an explanation to why we live, how we
tionship. The film follows them over
live and what's the point of all of
the next 20 years as they marry women
and attempt to suppress their love.
Advance reviews are good for what is
Geishas & Gay Cowboys described as a rather conventional love-
story, despite the gay angle. Critics say
Opening in Detroit on Friday, Dec. 23,
Ledger gives a great performance, and
is Memoirs of a Geisha.
Geisha is based on Arthur Golden's he's more likely to get an Oscar nomi-
nation than Gyllenhaal.
huge-selling novel about the life of a
poor Japanese girl who eventually
Going Ape
Director Peter
Jackson (Lord of
the Rings) brings
us the second
remake of King
Kong Opening
Wednesday, Dec. .
14, Kong stars
Oscar-winner
Adrien Brody,
Adrien Brody
Jack Black and
Naomi Watts.
Brody told Jon Stewart that he
agreed to be in Kong because he liked
to mix up his roles and that Kong was a
lot "lighter" than The Pianist. He added
that unlike The Pianist, he didn't have
to starve himself to be in Kong and be
constantly reminded about man's inhu-
manity to man. (Sounds reasonable to
me. Especially since Kong had the big
bonus for Brody of doing love scenes
with Watts.)