Arts & Entertainment

About

New Era

Although his first concerts conducting the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra do not take
place until December, the beginning of the
2008-09 season marks the much-antici-
pated launch of Leonard Slatkin's tenure
as DSO music director. "Shaham Plays
Brahms," taking place 8 p.m. Thursday
and Friday and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept.
11-13, will be the first classical concert
series under Slatkin's artistic leadership.
Led by Principal Guest Conductor Peter

Oundjian and featur-
IL" Held at the Museum
ing world-renowned
of Contemporary Art
Israeli-born violinist
Detroit (MoCAD), the
Gil Shaham perform-
performance will take
ing Brahms' Violin
place from noon-mid-
Concerto, the con-
night. Tickets will be
.
certs also will include
available at the door for
Gail Zimmerman
the Act III Prelude
$12 each. A schedule
Arts Editor
from Wagner's
detailing performers
Lohengrin, Rimsky-
and pieces will be dis-
Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol and Strauss' tributed, and listeners are free to come
Der Rosenkavalier Suite.
and go as they please.
In addition to his many orchestral solo
Last year's successful "Strange Beautiful
engagements, Shaham tours regularly in
Music" marathon featured premieres by
recital with pianist Akira Eguchi and col-
such new music icons as Phillip Glass and
laborates with family members including
Steve Reich, as well as works by up-and-
his wife, violinist Adele Anthony; his sister, coming young composers like this year's
pianist Orli Shaham; and his brother-
composer-in-residence Marc Mellits. The
in-law, conductor David Robertson.
Baltimore-bred composer (his mother
The Grammy-winning Shaham plays
headed a Jewish day camp there) provides
the famous 1699 "Countess Polignac"
a unique take on minimalism, offering
Stradivarius violin.
new perspective on the works of Glass and
Tickets for the DSO's opening weekend
Reich.
concerts are $19-$71. (313) 576-5111 or
A host of classical and jazz musicians
www.detroitsymphony.com .
from around the country will perform. For
complete programming information, visit
12 Hours
www.newmusicdetroit.com .

In a more modern take on classical music,
innovation and tradition are brought
together in a new body of repertoire
Saturday, Sept. 6, as New Music Detroit,
a local contemporary music collective,
presents its second annual 12-hour new
music marathon, "Strange Beautiful Music

Reality Check

After their three years of compulsory
military service, the 50,000 Israeli men
and women discharged each year from
the Israel Defense Forces are granted

a discharge bonus. Many of them use
that bonus to fly to India to recover
from their highly charged experi-
ences in the Occupied Territories and
elsewhere. Reportedly, approximately
90 percent will use drugs during their
stay, and each year some 2,000 of them
"flip out," experiencing a psychotic
break with reality and requiring pro-
fessional help.
Shot over a period of two years by
award-winning documentary filmmak-
er Yoav Shamir (Checkpoint, 5 Days),
the documentary Flipping Out offers
a close-up look at these former Israeli
soldiers, most of them under the age
of 25, as they follow this strange post-
military odyssey. From the guest houses
of northern India to the beach resorts
of Goa in the south, the film reveals the
pervasive culture of drugs and hedo-
nism that leaves some of these young
people battling for their sanity. It also
offers a look at the efforts by Israelis to
rescue them.
They include fervently Orthodox
Chabad houses, where some travelers
rediscover their religion; Warm House
drop-in centers sponsored by the Israeli
anti-drug authority; and people like Helik
Magnus, an ex-Mossad agent hired by
families in Israel to bring some of the
most disturbed backpackers home.
Flipping Out airs 9 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8,
on the Sundance Channel.

❑

FYI: For Arts 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 appreciated but cannot be returned. All events and dates listed in the Out & About column are subject to change.

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

TV Premieres
Beverly Hills 90210

has been revived
and debuted Sept. 2
with a new cast and
characters on the
CW network; it airs
8 p.m. Tuesdays.
Jessica Walter
Shannon Doherty
and Jennie Garth,
who starred in the original, will
guest-star in a number of episodes,
but Tori Spelling, daughter of 90210
producer-creator Aaron Spelling,
won't be in the new series.
The Mills family comprises the
core characters of the revived
series. Two Mills kids go to Beverly
Hills High, while their parents fret
about living in "la-la land." The fam-
ily relocated from Kansas so Mr. Mills
could keep an eye on his mother, "a

C8

September 4 • 2008

feisty-but-faded former television
star and a charter member of the
Betty Ford Clinic," played by Jessica
Walter (Arrested Development), 67.
The revival tips its hat to the real
Beverly Hills, a city whose popula-
tion is more than 50 percent Jewish
and includes 8,000 Jews of Iranian
descent among its 35,000 residents.
One character (Daphne Silver) is
half-Jewish, and another young char-
acter is Iranian (but not identified as
Jewish).
Sons of Anarchy, which also
premiered Sept. 2 and airs 10 p.m.
Tuesdays on FX, is
a drama series with
comedic undertones
about a motorcycle
gang that controls
a small, rural
California town.
It finances itself
by selling guns to
Maggie Siff
urban criminals. The

gang keeps the police out of town
and fends off a group of drug-deal-
ing, white supremacist bikers. Ron
Perlman (Hellboy), 57, co-stars as
the stepfather of the leader of the
gang, and Maggie Siff (Mad Men),
34, has a recurring role as a doctor.
J.J. Abrams, the co-creator of
Lost, is the creator of Fringe, a heav-
ily promoted FOX series that debuts
9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9. Like Lost, it
combines elements of science fiction
and reality. The show involves an
FBI agent's efforts to explain what
killed all the passengers and crew of
a commercial flight. Abrams prom-
ises that unlike Lost, viewers will not
have to watch every episode to fol-
low the series.

Toronto Film Fest

The Toronto International Film
Festival, which runs Sept. 4-13,
features more than 300 films from
around the world. Here are just a few

of the many flicks with some Jewish
connection:
Adam Resurrected stars Jeff
Goldblum as a Holocaust survivor
and former circus performer who
becomes the ringleader of a mental
asylum housing other survivors.
Filmed in Israel, it was directed by
Grand Rapids native and Oscar-win-
ner Paul Schrader.
Baghdad Twist is a documentary
about Iraqi Jews who settled in
Canada.
Brothers Bloom is a feature film
about two orphan boys raised to be
con men. Adrien Brody portrays one
of them, and Rachel Weisz plays
their "mark."
Burn After Reading is a new com-
edy from Ethan and Joel Coen.
New York I Love You is a series
of overlapping stories set in New
York; Natalie Portman, Scarlett
Johansson and Brett Ratner are
among its 13 directors. Portman also