“Strange now to think of you, gone without corsets & eyes, while I walk on / the sunny pavement of Greenwich Village. / downtown Manhattan, clear winter noon, and I’ve been up all night, talking, / talking, reading the Kaddish aloud..” So begins Allen Ginsberg’s “Kaddish,” a sprawling lament for his late mother, Naomi Ginsberg. Written in 1959, three year’s after his mother’s death, the poem — often considered Ginsberg’s best — tells the story of Naomi’s tormented life and the impact of her mental breakdowns on her son. On February 23, … Continue Reading ››

Rosi Golan has a very pretty voice. With seeming effortlessness the Israeli singer-songwriter pours out soulful pop ballads, hitting each note perfectly. Her second full-length album, “Lead Balloon,” features 12 songs that affirm her ability to deliver an entirely pleasant record. From “Paper Tiger,” a playful, upbeat number, to the album’s slightly more reserved title track, each piece conveys the ease with which Golan can sing beautifully. Golan, who claims to have wandered into a music career on a lark, released her first album, “The Drifter & the Gypsy,” … Continue Reading ››

Over the past decade world music has made a veritable comeback, trickling into the mainstream and infusing the indie and alternative rock scene with eclectic and unexpected rhythms. From the emergence of bands like Golgol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box to the return of Brazilian psychedelic rockers Os Mutantes, world music has become more popular, with bands borrowing from the traditional music of their own heritages and others, peppering their music with ancient sounds and lively beats. Fusing Ladino, Hebrew and English, the band DeLeon has joined their ranks, successfully establishing itself … Continue Reading ››

As far as cross-cultural collaborations go, Blackfield’s most recent album, “Welcome to My DNA,” is rather unexpected. Not because the album is particularly shocking, but for just the opposite reason — because without reading the liner notes, the album plays like that of any other band. But unlike most bands, which come together by coincidence, Blackfield is the intentional side project of Israeli pop star Aviv Geffen and British singer and producer Steven Wilson. The band was formed in 2000, when Geffen invited Wilson’s British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree to … Continue Reading ››

“Do you think we told a good story?” filmmaker Sharone Lifschitz asks her mother at the end of her video installation “The Line and the Circle.” “Yes, we talked about all sorts of things,” her mother responds. “You will now have to edit it.” The installation, a short film tucked away from the main galleries in New York’s Jewish Museum, where it is showing until August 21, is a small yet sweeping film that beautifully weaves together narratives about what it means to be a child, a daughter, a kibbutznik and … Continue Reading ››