Arts & Entertainment
Rothbury Redux
West Michigan music fest's second year
raises the bar in implementation of
green elements into outdoor events.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
eremy Stein, who enjoyed early
camping activities at Michigan's
Lake of the Woods in Decatur,
is in his second year of bringing an enor-
mous outdoor music-camping festival to
grounds just about 100 miles away, north
of Muskegon.
Stein is event pro-
ducer of the Rothbury,
which this season
headlines Jewish enter-
tainers Bob Dylan and
Matisyahu among a
70-act lineup for camp-
ers also invited to green
experiences, circus and
Jeremy Stein
theatrical events, art dis-
plays and diverse food selections.
"So many festivals are built in a flat field,
but Rothbury has lakes and trees to provide
a great summer escape,' says Stein, 37, who
grew up in Illinois and lives in Colorado,
where he heads up Madison House
Presents, an event production company.
"I think that somewhere in everyone's
subconscious, that camp-freedom-child-
hood scenario is something we all seek
every summer in some form, and a lot of
people seek a grownup version at Rothbury'
The festival, running Thursday-Sunday,
July 2-5, and featuring a fireworks celebra-
tion and parade for Independence Day,
sells tickets for the entire span of the event
or for the weekend only.
"We cross a lot of genres with our acts
and try to focus on the music of the highest
integrity within those genres',' says Stein,
who takes time out from administrative
responsibilities to get the participant sense
of the entertainers and setting he oversees.
"This really gives people a chance to
explore a lot of contemporary music, and I
think people really love that kind of explo-
ration:"
The site for the event, the Double JJ
Ranch, came to Stein's attention through
friend Brian Lipsitz, who grew up in the
Metro Detroit area and whose parents
had owned the resort. Although the site is
facing financial difficulties, that will not
affect the festival.
ews
140 I Nate Bloom
V IM
Special to the Jewish News
LIN
idol Watch
le American Idol runner-up Adam
di Lambert, 27, has confirmed that he
7 is, in fact, gay and Jewish in a new
vue
Ai Rolling Stone magazine cover story/
1/111. interview (on the stands by the time
you read this). However, as I write this
item, only select excerpts have been
given to major media outlets.
MTV.com provided
this story excerpt
regarding Lambert's
Jewish background:
"You already knew
Lambert was one of
the most unconven-
tional Idol finalists
Adam Lambert
ever, but in the
wide-ranging story,
the 27-year-old San Diego native
opens up about his childhood — he's
Jewish, but never got a bar mitzvah
and hated Hebrew school because he
got a bloody nose on the first day."
B10
June 18 * 2009
There may be a bit more on his
Jewish background in the Rolling
Stone story. In any event — Hebrew
school graduate or not — Lambert
must have a great ear because he
does a fine job singing the Hebrew
song "Shir Le Shalom" ("Song for
Peace") - at a 2005 tribute concert to
the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin. (The video can be found on
YouTube.com ; enter Lambert and the
song title in the search box.)
More Musicians
Brad Delson, 30, the
guitarist for the popu-
lar rock band Linkin
Park, gave a gradua-
tion speech at UCLA
on June 12. Delson is
a 1999 summa cum
Brad Delson
laude graduate of
UCLA. His many charitable projects
include the Delson Scholarship Fund,
which awards four-year scholarships
to selected incoming UCLA freshman.
The fund is in the name of Brad and his
wife, Elisa, whom he wed in a Jewish
Bob Dylan, left, and Matisyahu are headliners at this year's Rothbury music festival.
Stein looks to Rothbury as a way to
boost Michigan's economy, introducing
thousands of people from other states and
countries to its attractions and bringing
customers to local vendors.
"When we started designing Rothbury,
it was just before the Al Gore movie [An
Inconvenient Truth] came out:' explains
Stein, enthusiastic about the Rothbury
Think Tank offering workshops and pre-
sentations about environmental ventures.
"At the time, green was a unique perspec-
tive we really wanted to focus on.
"Certainly, there has been talk about
implementation of green elements into
outdoor festivals for years, but no one had
put it all together in one place, so that
became a mission of Rothbury. I think we
achieved that in year one, and we're rais-
ing the bar in year two."
Stein, who was raised in a Reform Jewish
household and was always interested in
music, turned to production after deciding
that performance was not for him.
"The art of producing these events has
come so far, but every year there are new
ideas coming forward:' he says. "It's really
interesting to see what becomes popular
at festivals one summer seems to quickly
disseminate out to the larger society'
The Rothbury runs Thursday-Sunday, July 2-5, near Muskegon. Tickets are
available according to four-day and two-day weekend passes. Visit the Web site,
www.rothburyfestival.com , to find package prices for the events and camping
facilities. (888) 512-7469.
ceremony in 2003.
Linkin Park's drummer, Rob Bourdon,
also is Jewish, and his mother is a
childhood friend of Joey Kramer, 58,
the Jewish drummer for the legend-
ary rock band Aerosmith. Rob Bourdon
met Kramer when he was 10 years old.
Kramer gave the young Rob a back-
stage tour and a kick pedal. Kramer's
autobiography, Hit Hard, about his
career and battles with clinical depres-
sion, comes out June 30.
Also in the news are two more
Jewish drummers: Max Weinberg,
58, and his son, Jay Weinberg,18.
Max has followed Conan O'Brien to
Los Angeles as the head of O'Brien's
Tonight Show house band. Max also is
Bruce Springsteen's regular drummer,
but his obligation to O'Brien resulted in
him having to bow out of some summer
Springsteen concerts. Jay has got the
call to replace his dad for a few gigs.
Remarkably, Jay didn't play drums until
he was 14 and is self-taught. He was so
good, almost from the start, that Max
says he just "backed off" and hardly
showed Jay a thing.
Big Screen
Opening Friday,
June 19, is Year One,
a comedy co-star-
ring Jack Black and
Michael Cera as a
couple of lazy hunt-
er-gathers who are
Jack Black
banished from their
village and set off
on an epic journey though the ancient
world. Hank Azaria, 45, has a smallish
role as Abraham, the biblical patri-
arch; and Christopher Mintz-Plasse,
19, plays Abraham's son, Isaac.
In a recent magazine article, Mintz-
Plasse says that although he grew
up in a Jewish family, he has no reli-
gious training and had to look up who
Abraham and Isaac were.
Also in the cast are Paul Rudd as
the biblical Abel and David Cross as
his bad brother, Cain. (Yes, I know
that Abel and Cain were supposed
to have lived way before Abraham.)
The director/screenwriter is Harold
Ramis, 64. II