The 92nd Street Y is a not for profit organization and we do not endorse any candidate or position in the election. We offer this program as public education and dialogue.
Last night, the Y hosted a special election event featuring some of the most provocative, popular and often contentious pundits expressing their unbridled opinions on a variety of pressing issues to discover which presidential candidate is the frontrunner for the “Jewish vote.” Community centers from Longboat Key, Florida to Scottsdale, Arizona tuned into the program via satellite which you can now watch in its entirety above.
Participants included: Ed Koch, mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989, whose most recent book is The Koch Papers: My Fight Against Anti-Semitism; Michael Lerner, rabbi of San Francisco’s Beyt Tikkun synagogue, author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Our Country Back from the Religious Right and editor of Tikkun magazine; William Kristol, founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday and columnist for The New York Times; Jane Eisner, editor of The Forward; and Aaron Brown, former CNN anchor and currently the Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism at Arizona State University.
Upcoming Events: ·Election Night ‘08 with with top analysts and experts from the World Policy Journal: David A. Andelman (Moderator), Stephen Schlesinger, Nina Khrushcheva, Jack Devine and Edward Luttwak
·We Have a Winner: The New York Comedy Festival with Lizz Winstead, Baratunde Thurston (The Onion), Robert George (editorial writer for the NY Post), Monica Crowley (a conservative radio and television political commentator), Ted Rall and Roseanne Barr
·Being President Elect: Lincoln’s Lesson for the 44th Presidency with Harold Holzer and Mario Cuomo
Lawrence Lessig, the reigning authority on intellectual property in the Internet age, spotlights copyright laws and the newest culture war affecting users of new technologies. In his latest book, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, Lessig outlines plans for a “read-write culture,” which allows its users to create art as readily as they consume it. Lessig is a professor at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society. He is the author of Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, and a columnist at Wired. He’ll be speaking at the Y on November 17 to share his thoughts on “Art and Ideas in the Internet Age.” Here’s a quick Q&A with him to get the conversation started.
Can you define what a remix is, in the context of your new book, Remix? Is it the multiple-creator model of Wikipedia? GPS on cameras that pinpoint photo locations on Google maps? The jackalope?
All of these are remix, as all of them take as their challenge how to engage with the creativity or innovation of others, and add something useful and new to it. Remix is to culture what web 2.0 is to the Internet: a practice of building upon what others have built, with minimized control over how others interact.
While copyright laws might be hampering creativity and the formation of new technologies, mash-ups and remixes are still abundant, especially online. Why aren’t people frightened about breaking the law?
“People” aren’t frightened because individuals are unlikely targets for prosecution in this environment (such prosecution is limited to filesharers just now). But institutions are fundamentally frightened. How many lawyers advising high schools would permit them to run “creative filmmaking” classes, which encourage kids to remix movies with their own creativity? I know the answer to that: Zero.
Although Disney appropriated works that were in the public domain for its movies, the company, arguably, only achieved massive success by copyrighting these creations. Would global and cultural success like Disney’s be achievable under a more open Creative Commons copyright scheme?
Everyone should be free to copyright the creativity they add. But copyright shouldn’t stop follow-on creators from adding more. For some business models of creativity, that means expressly enabling followon creativity, through licenses such as Creative Commons licenses — science, and education are good examples here. For other business models of creativity, such express freedoms may not be useful initially. But there needs to be limits to the power of the past to control the future.
At Netroots Nation 2008, you said that “every ten years I am going to throw away all of my intellectual capital and work on something new.” Does Change Congress, your movement to end corruption in the U.S. Congress, have a decade expiration date? What would you concentrate on next?
Yes. And stay tuned.
The Bible is a remix of sorts, with people adding and subtracting and changing text, and that’s created quite a bit of confusion. Maybe the leap here is too big, but is that what we’re in for if we adopt a remix culture?
It is, and it is unavoidable. Authoritarian control has never quashed controversy. It has only ever pushed it underground.
The Forward recently profiled David Vyorst who took a running jump shot at researching the Jewish connection to basketball in his new documentary film, The First Basket. Here’s some history on “Jew ball” - an affectionate term to describe the emphasis on teamwork, crisp passing and defense.
This style of play originated earlier in the 20th century, when Jewish players competed on both the amateur and semiprofessional levels. Teams were sponsored by settlement houses that wanted to Americanize immigrants, and by labor unions and Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring branches. Players on the most famous of these teams, the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association, or SPHAs, wore Hebrew letters and Stars of David on their uniforms. What’s more, after many SPHAs games, the court was turned into a dance floor where young Jews could socialize and look for husbands and wives. Some of the figures mentioned in “The First Basket” — Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes and current NBA Commissioner David Stern, both of whom were interviewed in the film — are well known. Others are less familiar to casual fans. Barney Sedran, for instance, was an early 20th-century player who, at 5 feet 4 inches, is believed to be the shortest player in the Basketball Hall of Fame. During his heyday in the 1910s and ’20s, Sedran played in as many as three games a day, often for different teams.
The 92nd Street Y has a long and storied tradition of fostering Jewish sports programs, specifically basketball, going back over 100 years. Naturally, the Y was asked to supply archival material for the documentary and in addition to the photograph above, there are more below that were shared. No surprise, basketball is still very popular at the Y with programs for adults, teens and kids, but the only devotion required is on the court.
Check out the Q&A with Harry Shearer of Spinal Tap and Simpsons fame (not to mention a million other projects) on New York magazine’s Vulture blog.
You’ve merged music and comedy with Spinal Tap as well as your own albums. Is it difficult to keep it rooted so it doesn’t veer off into Dr. Demento “Witchdoctor” comedy territory?
No, my wife polices me strictly. She’s a very talented singer, songwriter, and musician, and she said, with typical British disdain, that it was okay for me to dip into funny music, but it damn well better sound like music.
To quote AC/DC, “Rock ‘n’ roll is just rock ‘n’ roll.” But judging from High Level Detainees’ album Songs of the Bushmen, it appears you think it can be much more. How does your music prove that AC/DC is just plain wrong?
Well, first of all, most of the music on Bushmen isn’t rock and roll, so maybe they’re still right. Also, when you’re that loud, who cares if you’re wrong? I do think music can be an effective form of satire. I was raised on Tom Lehrer and Stan Freberg and memorized most of their stuff, which I didn’t do with the spoken-word comedy I loved at the time. So, just from the standpoint of colonizing brain cells, music seems to be an effective way of making a point.
In the last few months, an oft-bandied-about thesis is that this is the most important presidential election ever. Your feelings are clear, but are you just pulling for your guy or do you agree with that?
I’m not even really pulling for “my guy.” I said at the beginning of this year that my vote was available to the first candidate in either party who said something substantive and cogent about the failure of the federal levees in New Orleans and the need to rebuild the coastal wetlands. That offer still stands. As to the importance of this election, I’d put 1860 up against it.
In a very limited tour supporting Songs of the Bushmen, Shearer will be performing with his band, The High-Value Detainees, at 92YTribeca this Saturday. This is the band’s second CD (their first was nominated for a Grammy), and only the second time they’ll be performing songs from Bushmen live—and the first time in New York City.
We’re honored to be occupying the Highbrow-Brilliant quadrant in this week’s New York magazine Approval Matrix (take that, Shake Shack!) and we hope you’ll find the programming lives up to the billing. To see for yourself, check out our downtown music, film and comedy events, plus talks, classes and more.
What You Missed: “Elegance was paramount” with the Tokyo String Quartet
The Tokyo String Quartet on Saturday at the 92nd Street Y. From left: Martin Beaver, Kikuei Ikeda, Clive Greensmith and Kazuhide Isomura. Photo credit: Richard Termine for The New York Times
The Tokyo performances were more finely polished, but also more risk-averse. If Mr. Ohlsson’s “Pathétique” painted Beethoven as a firebrand, the Tokyo’s two Opus 18 performances showed him warming his feet at Haydn’s hearth. In both works the playing was sumptuous and unified, with carefully graded dynamics. Elegance was paramount here, but that isn’t to say the quartet sacrificed excitement for decorousness: both finales were the picture of nimbleness, and played sizzlingly fast.
In this edition of the 92nd Street Y's Tell Me Why podcast, host Julian Fleisher talks with Chip Kidd, famed graphic designer, bestselling author and comics aficionado. Kidd's most recent book project, Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan, is set for release on October 28. Listen to the interview for a fascinating background on Batman in Japan, comics in general and a peek inside the "fun" world of Chip Kidd. He will be interviewing "comics god" Neil Gaiman at the 92nd Street Y on November 9 for the 20th Anniversary of the Sandman comic series.
Previously: Full video of the talk, Art of the Book, with Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers. Glaser returns to the Y on November 20 with creative director Stephen Doyle and art history lecturer Paul Stirtonfor Dialogues with Design Legends: Graphic Design.
Related: 92YTribeca is proud to announce its first 2D arts exhibition, Goddess, Mouse, and Man, featuring 3 of New York’s finest cartoon artists: Lauren Weinstein, Tom Hart and Matthew Thurber who will be teaching a class on Cartoon Storytelling.
You can also download the MP3. [19 MB]
[Right-click and select "Save Target As:" or equivalent to download.]
Add this podcast feed to your RSS news reader or iTunes and have future Tell Me Why podcasts delivered automatically.
92YTribeca’s opening night was nothing short of amazing. Both John Vanderslice and Michael Showalter christened the stage with performances that set high standards for upcoming musicians and comedians. The reviews are in and Brooklyn Socialite says:
[Vanderslice] put on a great show, visibly elated to be performing at 92Y Tribeca...a great inaugural act! I had a blast. The space was very well orchestrated. There are gallery spaces displaying the exhibit “Goddess, Mouse, and Man” featuring the etchings of Lauren Weinstein, Tom Hart, and Matthew Thurber.
The “nicest man in indie rock” John Vanderslice played an awesome show as part of the opening night of the brand new 92Y Tribeca, an arts, entertainment and cultural center in downtown New York. During which, the analog-obsessed, singer-songwriter did little to dispel his moniker. He enthusiastically gave home-baked cranberry almond cookies to the audience and even went so far as to hug quite literally everybody in the room (yours truly included). He also raffled off gummy vitamins (yes, such a thing exists) to whoever could answer a trivia question about your favorite political pawn/plumber, Joe.
In the video above from earlier this year, renowned architect Peter Eisenman talks about his first-ever chair design (made out of - gasp! - Formica) at FORM: Contemporary Architects at Play in Cincinnati.
One of the most influential architects of our time, Eisenman will sit down with Greg Lynn and Kurt Forster at the Y on October 23 for Dialogues with Design Legends: Architecture. The innovative work of Greg Lynn, which merges sculpture, architecture and science, has placed the architect-theorist at the forefront of architectural discourse. Influential theorist Kurt Forster is the founder of the Getty Research Center and the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal.
92Y Blog readers can take advantage of a special online discount by using code ARCHto purchase $10 tickets.
Bradley Burston and J.J. Goldberg have compiled a list of notable Jews across the political spectrum in this year’s U.S. Presidential campaign for Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. Many have appeared at the Y at one time or another and one name on the list belongs to a man who’s been dead for 153 years. (That’s influence!) Two of the heavyweights will bring their political expertise to the Y on October 30 for the talk, “How Should Jews Vote?”
Ed Koch: The former New York City mayor is still a gold standard for Jews of a certain age. He backed Bush in 2004 and Hillary Clinton during the primaries. Now he’s for Obama.
William Kristol: As editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard magazine, a New York Times columnist and a Fox News commentator, he is an extremely influential neoconservative voice.
Koch and Kristol will be joined by Forward editor Jane Eisner, former CNN anchor Aaron Brown and Rabbi Michael Lerner. 92Y Blog readers can receive a 50% discount by using the code VOTEwhen ordering online.
The video above contains the entire hour and a half star-studded Tribute to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel hosted by the 92nd Street Y. The Forward reports from the evening:
Elie Wiesel’s 80th birthday, September 30, was celebrated October 2 when the 92nd Street Y held an event titled “A Day of Humanity and Peace — A Tribute to Elie Wiesel.” It was a memorable gift to hundreds of Wiesel fans. “Mayn libe Marion un Elie,” began the Y’s executive director, Sol Adler. “No matter where Elie and Marion’s travels take them, when they return here to the 92nd Street Y, we greet them in Yiddish and they know they are home. Elie sits at a desk and becomes our teacher.” Onstage, Wiesel listened, smiled and at times seemed embarrassed by the acclaim heaped upon him. “He did more than Moses Mendelsohn, the father of Jewish enlightenment. A mensch, a scholar, a leader, he universalizes the Jewish experience,” declared Eric Kandel, the Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Barbara Walters, creator and co-host of ABC-TV’S “The View,” lauded Wiesel as “a gentle yet tough teacher,” and said, “Elie kept Marion busy translating his [40] books.” Wiesel demurred: “Barbara, when you speak, in one day you reach more people than all of my books together.” Arthur Gelb, former managing editor of The New York Times, recalled the April 1985 gold medal ceremony at the White House, during which Wiesel was unable to dissuade President Reagan from visiting the cemetery in Bitburg, Germany. “Elie sent him a copy of his speech in advance… pleaded with the president. The next day, the president switched the event from a room holding 300 to a small one.” Gelb recapped Wiesel’s plea not to visit the cemetery where 47 of Hitler’s elite were buried. “‘That place is not your place — your place is with the victims.’ “The president went [to Bitburg], and Elie, your warning was sounded on the front pages of newspapers all over the world.” Wiesel lamented, “Only why didn’t Jewish leaders speak up to FDR? I was told that when you are in the Oval Office, you can’t say ‘No!’ I taught them that you can say ‘No!’”
Elie Wiesel returns to the Y in December to talk about the place of memory within Jewish literature and in his own work in particular. It is always a major event and honor whenever Elie walks onto the Y stage.
In the video above, recorded the week before Doctor Atomic opened at the Metropolitan Opera, composer John Adams reflects on the relationship between words and music in a conversation with Ara Guzelimian, dean of the Juilliard School. The talk was part of the Y’s Words & Music Series. The evening also featured musical illustrations by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Jordan Shanahan and pianist Linda Hall.
Throughout his career, Adams has drawn on literary sources ranging from the Bible to Jack Kerouac; Doctor Atomic incorporates Baudelaire, the Bhagavad Gita and declassified documents from the Manhattan Project. His new memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life, was recently reviewed in the New York Times.
I noticed a lot of Christian bloggers loved your book, even though you’re a secular Jew writing a humorous study of evangelical culture. Were you surprised by the positive reaction from the evangelical community?
Sometimes, sure. Like when a radio host told me that God may actually have used me as a vehicle to give Christians a message they weren’t hearing from inside the church. Needless to say, I’m uncomfortable with being cast in the role of prophet — not least because I worry that the Almighty is going to claim a cut of my royalty checks. But in the course of the year I spent researching Rapture Ready! I met enough Christians who harbored their own skepticism of Christian culture to know that there was at least a potential audience for my book among committed evangelicals. What’s really gratifying to me is that a number of Christians who disagreed with my conclusions at least recognized that I came to them legitimately and expressed them respectfully. And they appreciated that I was willing to acknowledge that Christian pop culture isn’t all bad. I even still listen to some Christian rock. For fun.
What are the best Christian bands?
The ones that don’t get played on either mainstream or Christian radio. Actually, the first Christian rocker, Larry Norman, was pretty incredible. His late 60s and early 70s albums have a visionary artistic integrity that holds up quite well. The problem is that for most people, Christian music is still defined by the era of bland, imitative, corporate crap that came next — the Stryper and Amy Grant and dc Talk years of the 80s and 90s. You still hear that on Christian radio today, but there are also a lot of indie Christian bands that reject the notion that Christian music is supposed to be all about either spreading the gospel or providing a safe alternative for church kids. Artists like mewithoutYou, the Myriad, Over the Rhine, Jonathan Rundman, Pedro the Lion, and Derek Webb, to name just a few, write really compelling and enjoyable music that challenges stereotypes about Christian rock in ways that befuddles non-Christians and freaks out other Christians.
What’s the best joke you heard from a Christian standup comic?
There’s a comedian who goes by the name Nazareth who talks about his infant daughter sleeps all day and cries all night. “I’m pro-life,” he growls, “but not at two in the morning.” Actually when I heard him tell that joke in a church full of Christians, I think I was the only person who laughed.
I noticed that certain branches of evangelical Christian have, in their own way, started to embrace certain aspects of Judaism. Including the blowing shofars. Did you get any insight into what is happening there?
There’s definitely a lot of fascination with the *trappings* of Judaism. I went to a Christian theme park in Arkansas where an actor in priestly vestments blew the shofar to announce that one of the rides was starting. There’s a movement among Christians to explore what they see as their Hebrew heritage, and a few savvy Judaica salesmen have capitalized on this by hawking their wares in Christian retail channels, where they have a bigger market and less competition than their peers who foolishly persist in selling Judaica only to Jews.
If this led to genuine cross-cultural understanding I’d be all for it. Unfortunately most Christians still see Judaism through a Christian filter, rather than trying to understand it on its own terms. The fact that Judaism is a living and evolving culture is sometimes lost on them. They’re enthralled by the ancient Hebrews of the Bible and by the role that Jews will supposedly play in the End of Days. They’re less conscious of the 2,000 years in between.
Have you considered writing a follow up book about Jewish pop culture?
Jews always point out to me that we have our own equivalent of what Christians call “Jesus junk.” Not for nothing is shlock a Jewish word. But as much as it might be fun to write about dreidels that play Elvis music when you spin them (that’s a real thing; I actually have one), I don’t think Jewish pop culture is quite as infused with what it means to be an American Jew as Christian pop culture is with American Christianity. Besides, if there is a book to be written on this subject, it’s only fair that I let an evangelical do it.
My final question is: Sarah Palin. Discuss.
Sarah Palin is “Becky.” That’s the industry term for the typical Christian radio listener —the churchgoing working mom who doesn’t want to think too hard about anything. She wants programming that affirms what she already believes and that’s safe for the kids in the backseat. Nothing makes it on to the airwaves if it’s going to upset or confuse Becky.
Becky likes to say things like, “God has a plan for your life” and “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” Usually I have no problem with anyone who wants to believe that, because if it helps them keep going when they lose their job or get a serious illness, more power to them. My concern about Sarah Palin is that she really thinks God thinks she’s ready to be vice president, otherwise why would he have put that on John McCain’s heart (to use the Christianese). A more contemplative Christian might have prayed about this situation and been forced to admit that she wasn’t really ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. When Becky prays, she almost always hears the response she wanted in the first place.
Earlier this year, 
