As we prepare for the High Holy Days, we often do not consider one aspect of ourselves, our voice. I’m taking about our actual vocal cords; our means of producing sound.
Real estate developer Sev Aszkenazy recently settled a lawsuit with the city of San Fernando over a liquor permit he was denied for a planned steak house. He said the denial was due, in part, to anti-Semitic bias.
Rob Eshman, whom I admire a lot, and who argued strenuously — even pleaded — for his name not to be mentioned in this (but clearly lost), was nice enough to ask if
I would write something for this special issue of The Journal (which I admire — and read — a lot), and I was very flattered.
My girlfriend \”E\” was the first to declare what others had been observing for a while. \”God sure is having a good laugh,\” she said. \”You write a column called \’A Woman\’s Voice.\’ And yet you have no voice\”. The irony had crossed my mind.
Saturday, February 4
It’s the year of the gay cowboy, so why not the privileged lesbian? Head to the Geffen Playhouse for the Los Angeles premiere of David Mamet’s, “Boston Marriage,” titled after the Victorian euphemism used to describe a long-term, intimate relationship between two unmarried women. The play about two upper-class women involved thusly is also directed by Mamet and stars Rebecca Pidgeon, Alicia Silverstone and Mary Steenburgen.
Through March 12. $35-$69. 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. (310) 208-5454.
Sunday, February 5
Israeli musician Ehud Banai comes to the Avalon Hollywood. Hear songs from the folk/rock/traditional songwriter’s album, “Answer Me,” which won Best Album of the Year at the 2004 Israeli Music Awards, and other favorites tonight only.
9 p.m. $45. 1735 Vine St., Hollywood. (323) 462-8900. www.groovetickets.com.
This section of the page will be a way for you as kids to sound off on an issue. This month\’s kein v\’ lo (yes and no) is about New Year\’s. Should Jews care as much about the regular New Year as we do Rosh Hashanah? Here\’s some info for both sides of the argument.
\”It\’s All True\” (Simon & Schuster, 2004) by David Freeman offers us a portrait of an outsized Hollywood, so unbelievable that it must be dead on. It is, more precisely, a novel, lovingly unfolded about the movie business: How it works and how its players — adults spoiled by too much money and power — act out their lives. \”Oh me-oh, my-oh,\” as Henry Wearie would say.
Wearie is the novel\’s hero. He is actually a fictitious character, a screenwriter trying to hustle a script idea into a movie deal, but in a voice that sounds eerily like that of Freeman, who himself is a screenwriter. In its way, this book serves as a more knowing successor to Freeman\’s earlier work, \”A Hollywood Education,\” published 18 years ago, after the author had moved to Los Angeles from New York.
The first thing one notices about Theodore Bikel is the voice.\n\nAs he settles on a divan in his book-filled West Hollywood apartment, chatting about his upcoming 80th birthday gala, it\’s not so much his strapping frame, white beard or sharp blue eyes that make an impression as his voice.\n\nThis is the resonant baritone that has sung countless folk music concerts, recorded 27 albums in 21 languages and performed in approximately 35 films. This is the actor who has appeared more than 2,000 times as the milkman Tevye in \”Fiddler on the Roof,\” besides playing Captain Von Trapp in Broadway\’s \”The Sound of Music\” and opposite Bogie in the film, \”The African Queen.\”
\”Everyone wanted to clone our mother, which is why we created our Dancing Matzahman, said Davida Lampkin-Tydings. Actually, the singing, swaying doll — voted best new Passover item at the 2003 Kosherfest — looks like a male chef wearing matzah print. But press his foot, and the plush figure raps in the voice of Lampkin-Tydings\’ mother, Pauline S. Lampkin, whose photo is on the tag.
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