Arts & Entertainment

Soul Search

For more than 40 years, Jorma (pro-
nounced Yorma) Kaukonen has brought
his brilliant finger-picked fretwork and
songwriting — a blend of rock, blues, folk
and country influences — to legendary
bands like Jefferson Airplane and its still
active spin-off, Hot Tuna.
The lead guitarist, now in his mid-60s,
spends half his time touring the coun-
try playing his music and the other half
in Ohio at the foot of the Appalachian
Mountains. There, he and his wife operate
the Fur Peace Ranch, a resort for guitar

enthusiasts, where Kaukonen and an all-
star faculty teach guitar in a small-group
setting.
At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, Kaukonen
travels to Michigan to perform at the Ark
in Ann Arbor, where, in an acoustic salute
to his recent album, Blue Country Heart,
he will explore the roots of rock. In this
debut recording for Columbia Records,
Kaukonen turned to rural blues and
country-flavored songs from the 1920s
and 1930s, performing tunes by Jimmie
Rodgers, the Delmore Brothers, Slim
Smith and others. Opening the show will
be Rob McNurlin.

Jorma Kaukonen

ws

*rim

7412

w

I

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Phony News
Jon Stewart and others on Comedy
Central have long done a satirical
take on the news from a mostly lib-
eral perspective. The
conservative- leaning
Fox News Channel has
been a favorite target.
Now, Fox News
Channel strikes back.
It is offering a "phony"
Joel Surnow
news show of its own,
which satirizes news
events and the media from a conser-
vative perspective.
Last Sunday, FNC aired the first
episode of The 1/2 Hour News Hour. It
will repeat this pilot episode 10 p.m.

About
4•10

A recent article in the New Jersey
Jewish Standard explored Kaukonen's
somewhat exotic background. His mother,
Beatrice Love, was Jewish; his father,
Jorma Sr., was a non-Jewish Finn who
worked for the FBI and later the State
Department.
Growing up in the nation's capital, the
future musician spent much of his child-
hood in places like the Philippines and
Pakistan.
His experiences with Judaism, noted the
Standard, included lighting the menorah
at Chanukah and snacking on his favorite
cracker, matzah, but that was where his
Jewish practice, and identity, ended.
Ironically, the Standard reported,
it was Kaukonen's Catholic-born wife,
Vanessa, who launched Jorma's Jewish
journey. The couple met in 1988 and mar-
ried a few months later. Vanessa, a former
civil engineer, began working for the
band; though clean for at least a decade,

Sunday, Feb. 25. The second episode
will air 10 p.m. Sunday, March 4, and
be repeated 10 p.m. Sunday, March
11. Only two episodes have been
filmed; they are a test to see if there
is a market for a "right-wing Daily
Show."
The creator of The 1/2 Hour News
Hour is Detroit-born Joel Surnow,
a Jewish producer most famous for
co-creating and producing 24, the hit
Fox TV action-adventure series.

Spirit Awards

The Independent Spirit Awards,
founded in 1986 to honor films pro-
duced outside the normal Hollywood
studio financing system, are cleverly
held just before the Academy Awards,
which has brought a lot of attention
to them.

Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman,
whose own self-titled series began
on the Comedy Central channel a
few weeks ago, is the host of this
year's awards ceremony. It airs live 5
p.m. Saturday, Feb.
24, on cable's IFC
(Independent Film
Channel). It will be
rebroadcast 10 p.m.
the same night on
AMC, which reaches
a lot more house-
Sarah
holds than IFC.
Silveman
This is Silverman's
second year hosting the Spirit
Awards, and her very acerbic view of
the world works well in the context of
an award ceremony that is trying to
project an avant-garde image (even
though some Spirit nominees, like

like many rock 'n' roll couples, both Jorma
and Vanessa struggled with addiction.
About four years ago, on a spiritual
search, Vanessa began reading books
on Judaism and questioned her Jewish
friends about the faith. Things really
began to change when she connected with
Rabbi Danielle LeShaw, the rabbi at the
Hillel of Ohio University, a nondenomi-
national Hillel house that serves the com-
munity around Athens, Ohio, where the
Kaukonens live.
Vanessa told the Standard that
both she and Jorma had a "reaffirming
moment" after seeing a Klezmer Mountain
Boys' show at B'nai Sholom Congregation
in Huntington, W.Va. When they returned
home to Athens, the couple had Rabbi
LeShaw, a Reconstructionist rabbi, draw
up a conversion plan for Vanessa and a
reaffirmation program for Jorma. Two-
and-a-half years ago, they had their
conversion and reaffirmation ceremonies.
Last year, the couple, adopted a baby girl
from China.
Jorma says he "communicates with God
on a daily basis, be it through prayer or
something less formal. He has also been
very open about his thoughts on Judaism
and life as something of a born-again Jew.
He regularly shares his musings on his
online diary on his Web site, www.jormak-
aukonen.com."

Little Miss Sunshine, are also up for
Oscars).

Over And Out
The O.C., the Fox TV show that once

drew in scads of younger viewers, will
end a four-year run and air its last
episode 9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22.
Adam Brody, 27,
who co-starred as
the geeky-handsome,
half-Jewish Seth
Cohen character, has
a bunch of films in
the can that will be
released to theaters
this
year. However,
Rachel Bilson
Rachel Bilson, 25,
another O.C. star – and Brody's for-
mer real-life girlfriend – seems to
have much less lined up in the way of

SOUTHFIrLD PAVILION ANTIQUES

85+ NATIONAL & REGIONAL MERCHANTS!

FEBRUARY 23, 24 & 25, 2007

11":011t

SOUTHFIELD rAviLION
TIQUES EXPOSITION

Southfield Municipal Complex

Southfield, Michigan • Evergreen Rd at Civic Center Dr
Friday 2 - 9 • Saturday 10 - 6 • Sunday 11 - 4 • Six Dollars

C )kit_11 Lk. 101 411.1c 11.1ftV

...

46

February 22 • 2007

FEATURING AMERICAN, EUROPEAN, AFRICAN, ASIAN, ANTIQUES & ART

SITION

:2'

•

More Info • www.anticinet.com/M&M • 586-465-9441

1216220

JN