Arts & Entertainment
The Z Bros
Curt Schleier
Special to the Jewish News
R
ock musicians and brothers Paul
and David Zablidowsky not only
check in for a telephone interview
on time — they're early. They don't drink,
smoke or do drugs.
One more thing: Very often, the day after
an appearance at Arlene's Grocery or some
other hip downtown New York City club,
they are known to have been seen in slightly
more intimate venues — the homes of
some of the city's wealthy parents, where
they have performed for children's birthday
parties.
In short, the musicians are transformers:
hard rockers at night and like the Wiggles
when the sun shines.
That duality is at the heart of Z Rock, an
extremely funny and bawdy 10-episode
series premiering 11:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug.
24, on the Independent Film Channel.
For the record, Paulie Z (lead singer and
guitarist) and David Z (singer-bassist) are
two-thirds of ZO2 (the rock band) and the
Z Brothers (the Wiggles-a-likes). The third
member of the band is drummer Joey
Cassata.
The series is loosely based on the group's
experiences,
breakout show. We'd
greatly exaggerated .gs
rather be with a hun-
— though not clear
gry network."
just how much. In .J
Adds David: "Here's
the first episode, for
the difference: I
example, the broth-
think when we tell
ers spend the night
people we're on the
with two groupies,
Independent Film
whom they dis-
Channel, it gives the
cover are mommies David Z, Paulie Z and Joey Cassata
show more credibility
attending the party meet Joan Rivers on the premiere
and gives us as a band
where they entertain episode of Z-Rock.
more credibility"
the next day.
The unscripted
"We definitely crossed the line a few
(though heavily outlined) show — on
times," Paulie admits. "But we never sabo-
which Joan Rivers is a recurring guest —
taged ourselves in real life as we do on the
makes no secret that the brothers are Jewish.
show" On the show, the dalliance with the
They regularly refer to it. In one episode,
groupies-turned-moms makes the broth-
Paulie tells Joey: "You're Italian, I'm Jewish.
ers late for a gig playing at the home of an
Italians beat the s--- out of people. I talk the
important record producer.
s--- out of people!'
Clearly, this is not a children's show. In
Paulie, 28, and David, 26, were born and
fact, it has all the ingredients of what would
raised in Boro Park, a heavily Chasidic sec-
have been successful on higher profile net-
tion of Brooklyn. Though their parents were
works such as HBO or Show-time. But the Z
secular (their mom, from Columbia, con-
boys like it fine where they are.
verted when she married), Paulie briefly and
"The reason we like being with IFC is
David even more briefly attended yeshiva.
that we're not into the conglomerate con-
`A lot of that came from our grandfather,"
cept," Paulie says. "Hopefully this becomes
David recalls. "He was the one who came
successful not only for ZO2 as a band, but
over on the High Holidays and would say
it helps IFC as well. They're looking for a
the prayers. I remember him telling us the
stories. Unfortunately, after he died, a lot of
those customs went with him."
He continues: "The one thing we did,
Paulie and me and our younger brother,
Bryan, was we all got bar mitzvahed."
"And while we're not religious, we're very
proud of our heritage,' Paulie says. "And we'll
fast and break out the matzah!'
Times are good enough now that the
band no longer does the kiddie shows. Its
members are spending more time on the
road and have a new record label, a new CD
(Ain't It Beautiful) and an attractive new
Web site, www.Z02.com .
That music is the center of the brothers'
lives is perhaps beshert. Their Grandma and
Grandpa Z were both singers, and their dad
had a band with his brother, called "Z." In a
weird irony, Z also had an Italian drummer
named Joe.
"Do me a favor. I know he'd love this, but
could you mention my dad and where he
works?" says David.
So, here we go: Props to you Marty and
Buzz Electronics of Brooklyn.
Z Rock, premiering Aug. 24,
airs 11:30 p.m. Sundays on the
Independent Film Channel.
42ws
111.1. I Nate Bloom
sorer
Special to the Jewish News
111:1 "R' Is For Romance
Woody Allen's latest, Vicky Cristina
1 110 Barcelona, now in theaters, stars
Rebecca Hall (Vicky) and Scarlett
Johansson (Cristina)
as American friends
ICJ
vacationing in Spain
who become infatu-
ated with the same
lusty artist (Javier
Bardem), who recip-
rocates their interest
but is still involved
Scarlett
with his mentally ill
Johansson
ex-wife (Penelope
Cruz).
This is Johansson's third Allen film
and when asked by Jay Leno why she
works so easily with the writer-direc-
tor, replied, "Surprisingly, we have
a lot in common. We're both New
Yorkers, and we're both Jewish."
Elegy, opening Aug. 22, is a film
version of Philip Roth's short novel
The Dying Animal and shares part
of the cast of Allen's new flick. Cruz
plays a beautiful college student
w
C18
August 21 . 2008
who becomes the object of desire of
David Kapesh, a much older, Jewish
intellectual celebrity and chronic
lothario (Sir Ben Kingsley). Kapesh's
longtime mistress is played by Patricia
Clarkson, who also appears in Vicky,
as Hall's character's family friend and
Barcelona host.
More Movies
In the new comedy
The Rocker, which
opened Aug. 20,
Rainn Wilson (The
Office) stars as a
rock drummer who
Josh Gad
was kicked out of
his band back in
the '80s just when its members were
becoming huge stars. He ekes out a
living until his nephew, played by Josh
Gad, asks him to replace the drummer
in his small-time rock band – and the
band takes off. Jeff Garlin plays Gad's
very square father.
Gad, 27, who was raised in an
Orthodox home, had a supporting role
as a news producer in the short-lived
Fox TV series Back to You.
Opening Aug. 22 is Longshots, a
feel-good flick based
on the true story of
Jasmine Plummer
(Keke Palmer), an
11-year-old African-
American girl who
became the first
female to play in the
Alan
Pop Warner football
Aisenberq
tournament in its
56-year history. Ice
Cube stars as her father, and new-
corner Alan Aisenberg, 15, has a co-
starring comic-relief role as a boy who
first is against Jasmine being on the
team but ends up being her friend.
Aisenberg, who was bar mitzvah,
lives in New Jersey with his parents,
who originally are from Argentina.
Another Rich
The world of direct-to-Internet video
is starting to take-off. A prime exam-
ple is The Line, a comedy about fans
waiting 11 days in line for the pre-
miere of a new science-fiction film.
So far, seven four-minute episodes,
all with cliffhanger endings, have hit
the net and can be seen (for free) on
Crackle.com . The series is directed
and co-written by
Seth Meyers, the
Saturday Night
Live writer-actor
and stars SNL play-
ers Bill Hader and
Jason Sudeikis
among others.
The series is
a testing-ground to determine the
audience for Internet-first video. It
is financed by a major company, has
advertising and was produced by SNL
creator-producer Lorne Michaels.
The series co-writer is Simon Rich,
23, the son of New York Times col-
umnist Frank Rich. The younger Rich
graduated last year from Harvard with
a literature degree and was the editor
of the Harvard Lampoon, the college's
famous humor magazine.
As for comparisons with his father,
Simon says, "We do very different
kinds of writing. My dad writes about
the fate of the free world, and I write
about dogs, video games and bears."
A collection of Simon Rich's humor
pieces, Ant Farm and Other Desperate
Situations, was published last year. E