arts & life

Editor's Picks

Lynne

Konstantin

Arts & Life
Editor

SLIDE THE CITY
Live music, food, fun — and 600 feet
(more than two football fields) of
slick vinyl, cushioned, watery-sliding
fun — comes to Ann Arbor. Slide the
City, like an over-the-top slip-and-

Celebrity Jews

Nate Bloom

Special to the
Jewish News

KARDASHIAN AND ISIS
Most NPR stations carry the comedic
current-events show, Wait Wait ... Don't
Tell Me! In it, a panel of sharp and funny
minor celebs are
quizzed on events of
the week by host Peter
Sagal, and regular
folks can win a small
prize if they can cor-
rectly answer ques-
tions. Sagal, 50, grew
up in New Jersey and
Sagal
his brother, Douglas,
is a rabbi at a New
Jersey synagogue.
Another show segment includes the
quizzing of a celebrity, usually pretty
famous and non-controversial. However,
the presence of Kim Kardashian on the
June 20 show, in the words of NPR's
ombudsman, "sent several hundred lis-

38

luly 2 • 2015

slide, hits the college town noon-5
p.m. Saturday, July 4, at State and
Packard streets. $45. Slidethecity.
com .

CATCH A DOUBLE - HEADER
Reminisce with the "Voice of
Summer" as Mitch Albom's play Ernie
returns to the City Theatre in Detroit
for its fifth season. The two-man play,
dedicated to the late, beloved Hall
of Fame Detroit
Tigers' announcer
Ernie Harwell, was
written by Albom
at Harwell's
request. "Ernie
got too sick so
we couldn't do
it together,"
Albom told the
Jewish News in
2011. That last
promise, along
with our friend-
ship, became the
motivation for the
play." Ernie runs
Fridays-Sundays,
July 9-Aug. 2,
with "double-header" show times that
allow for fans to see the play and
catch a Tigers' game in one outing.
$20-$25. (800) 745-3000; olympi-
aentertainment.com .

teners over the top. By the dozens, they
say they are 'disgusted' and 'disappoint-
ed,' and a handful are sure the show has
'jumped the shark.—
I guess show listeners are much
more used to Sagal's witty commentary
than a Kardashian family member's
comments. For example, in the June 6
broadcast, Sagal proved that even ISIS
can be made fun of. The question was:
"According to the Associated Press,
what media organization is ISIS imitat-
ing in its online media pitch?" Sagal's
response: "They [ISIS] imitate the
smooth, calm style of National Public
Radio as they try to recruit people to
their cause ... so that's another victory
for the caliphate ... and now it's time for
Jazz Jihad Cafe.
"The amazing thing is that they can
imitate NPR's style so perfectly, despite
having a staff with 9,000-percent fewer
Jews. They've even got a weekend
schedule, like NPR, with all-evil shows,
like This Un-American Life and Car Bomb
Talk."

JEWISH AWARDS TIME
On June 19, World Jewish Congress

011

SUMMER NIGHTS
Listen to the DSO and Broadway
sensation Ashley Brown perform clas-
sics by George Gershwin, Leonard
Bernstein, Cole Porter and more
at "Broadway and Beyond," 8 p.m.
Friday, July 10, on the lakeside
grounds of the Edsel and Eleanor
Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores.
Return the following night for "A
Night at the Movies," featuring
Detroit-born soprano Kisma Jordan
joining the DSO to perform classical
symphonies immortalized in famous
films. Both nights finish with fire-
works. $12-$50. (313) 576-5111;
dso.org .

SYMPHONY FOR THE SENSES
Celebrate the "grandmother of herbs"
at the 13th-annual Michigan Lavender
Festival, Friday-Sunday, July 10-12.
More than 100 Michigan artists,
craftspeople and local farmers, work-
shops, demonstrations, essential-oil
education classes, wagon rides — and
a gourmet lunch in the shade with an
ice-cold glass of lavender lemonade
— will be available. Blake's Orchard &
Cider Mill, Armada. $6; free/children
under 12. (810) 523-9853;
michiganlavenderfestival.net .

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President Ronald S. Lauder (the son of
the late Estee Lauder), 71, presented
actress Helen Mirren with the WJC
Recognition Award for playing the late
Maria Altmann in the film Woman in
Gold. Altmann, an Austrian-Jewish
woman, made headlines with her ulti-
mately successful legal battle to get the
Austrian government to return to her
five Gustav Klimt paintings the Nazis
stole from her late uncle. One of the
paintings, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, a portrait
of her late aunt, was known as Woman in
Gold and now hangs at the Neue Gallerie
in New York, where the ceremony took
place.
"Being a part of this film and preserv-
ing Maria Altmann's legacy has been a
truly exceptional experience from the
start," said Mirren. "I am utterly moved
to receive this award from the World
Jewish Congress, an organization that
does such important work all over the
globe in advocating for Jewish rights."
On June 18, Michael Douglas, 70,
took the stage in Jerusalem to receive
the 2015 Genesis Prize, given to Jewish
leaders who promote and uphold
Jewish values. Normally $1 million, the

Douglas and family

award amount was raised to $2 mil-
lion, thanks to an anonymous donor.
Douglas plans to give the money to the
Jewish Funders' Network and to Hillel
International. Douglas, whose mother
isn't Jewish, told the audience he was
long conflicted about his Jewish identity,
realizing that many did not consider him
Jewish. However, he told the award audi-
ence that his sense of self has changed:
"I am a Jew. Those are four words of
pride. My Jewishness is as deep as my
genes."
Jay Leno hosted the event; Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at
the ceremony; and special messages
from celebs, like Barbra Streisand, were
read.

❑