Yes its true, despite a spectacular absence of blogging for over two months, Mr Bagel has returned.
Mr Bagel has been 'moving' from a remote country location to a more civilised part of Australia.
Moving has required Mr Bagel to do five seperate trips of over 2,000kms each, despite selling what we thought was almost all of our worldly possesions, we still had to do five trips to move our 'personal belongings'. Which raises one very valid point, how personal can 5 trailers worth of belongings be? Do you think Mr Bagel might just be a horder? mmm?
Anyway after selling all our furniture we have been rushing around buying beds and fridges and lounges and just about everything else required to life a civilised life. Now that Mr Bagel has moved to civilisation he has decided to stop talking to the soccer ball with a wig. (Tom Hanks.)
We've only been in town a week but, living where there are shops, and services is such a refreshing break from living hours away from the most basic shopping. Its taking some adjustment, I generally spoke to about 3 peaople a month where I lived, now I see hundreds a day.
Mr Bagel: Thank you to all the well wishers and the emails I received
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Yonatan Razel has been voted by YNet readers as singer of the year in Jewish music category
After a week long voting the results have come in for the YNet Alternative Jewish Music award;Thousands of Ynet readers voted, entering the site, choosing vocalist of the year and
he is Yonatan Razel who narrowly edged out his own brother Aaron for the top spot. Razel received the award from Ynet at a festive ceremony during the Festival of Jewish Music held during Succot in Beit Shemesh.
Ynet readers vote: Yonatan Razel vocalist of the year
From YNet
Yonatan Razel who finally released ‘All in All’, his first album, after many years of expectations even made history when the song appeared on the prestigious playlist of Army Radio. He attended the award ceremony where he was told that not only was he vocalist of the year but that his song "Zion" (Love will come out of Zion) had been selected as the song of the year. He came to the stage where he performed the winning song to the sound of cheers and applause from the audience.
In the category of songs inspired by Jewish sources, readers chose Od Yeshama by Adi Ran from his collaborative album with Srulik Hirshtik and the Five Voices Band. The Moshav Band took the honors in the genre of non-Hebrew music with their album "Misplaced". The band has recently signed a major contract with Sony Records. The biggest surprise of the night was no doubt the Ynet music award for best band which went to Red Heifer who won despite the fact that they have not had much media exposure.
I am not worthy but thanks anyway
Razel who was clearly excited addressed the audience with a shaking voice. “Bless God. Thanks so much to the audience, I really don’t feel that I am worthy of the honor but if the audience has chosen this then it makes me happier than appearing on the playlist of army radio. Thank you so much. I only hope I can return the love.”
Mishael Dickman of Red Heifer said: “We are very happy to have been chosen and want to thank everyone who has supported and encouraged us over the years. It is our audience that gives us our strength. The band is really excited about this award which gives us a push to do more in the industry.”
Yonatan Razel's Melbourne, Australia appearances:
Yonatan Razel- Ani Ledodi (A.Razel) Live in Melbourne
Yonatan Razel- Ivdu Et HasHem Bsimcha Live in Melbourne 5768
More:
Meir Panim concert with Dudu Fisher and Avram Fried (more)
Yonatan Razel- Bnei Beitcha
kipper tip to Jewish Blogmeister
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From jta
Orthodox Jewish reggae sensation Matisyahu is leaving the Chabad movement.
"I am no longer identified with Chabad," the American singer told Ha'aretz this week during a private visit to Israel. "Today it's more important to me to connect to a universal message."
Born Matthew Miller, Matisyahu embraced Orthodox Judaism while studying in a Chabad yeshiva in New York City His virtuosity in reggae and hip-hop, religious lyrics and uncanny garb and antics on stage launched him to international music stardom.
According to to the Israeli newspaper, Matisyahu experienced a "spiritual shift" while celebrating the High Holy Days in Israel. That drew to him to alternative forms of Chasidut such as Breslav.
"What we do is not at all about Judaism and not about Chabad. It's much bigger than one religion or another," he said. "It relies on something real that can speak to anybody. It's about truth and memory."
While still Orthodox, Matisyahu said he is "searching for freedom from a pronounced identification with one
specific group."
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Brooklyn hip-hop and reggae artist here for the holidays, gives surprise performance at Tel Aviv club
From YNet
Successful hip-hop and reggae artist Matisyahu is spending the Sukkot holidays in Israel. Last week he even gave a surprise performance at a Tel Aviv nightclub as part of a set given by musician and saxophone player Daniel Zamir.
About half an hour into Zamir's performance at the Levontine 7 he announced that a special guest would be joining him and Matisyahu emerged from the crowd wearing a white hat.
Zamir later said that no rehearsals had taken place and that the performance was completely improvised. Longtime friends Zamir and Matisyahu met in New York several years ago, the two have performed together in Israel before. Zamir also joined Matisyahu's US tour twice.
Matisyahu has visited Israel three times in the past two years. During one of his visits the popular artist, who hails from Brooklyn, New York, said he hoped to one day make aliyah.
He has also collaborated with Israeli psychedelic trance duo Infected Mushroom and took the stage with them in Baltimore several months ago.
Mr Bagel: Matisyahu's third Studio album is due for release early in 2008. I'm looking forward to its release.
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Sarit Hadad's Sh'ma Israel
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Ok so this article is as much about Jewish Music as Madonna is about Kabbalah but its news never the less...
Madonna sings at Tel Aviv conference
Clapping and singing, pop music star Madonna joined in a Kabbalah conference on Friday in Tel Aviv to celebrate Rosh Hashana.
Madonna was singing Jewish songs with the crowd of hundreds at the David Intercontinental Hotel where the conference on Jewish mysticism was being held. At one point she pressed another participant, apparently a friend of hers, up to the front where he danced excitedly, making her and the crowd giggle and clap enthusiastically.
The 49-year-old diva was wearing a black jacket with elbow-length sleeves held at the waist with a belt with a large buckle. She also donned a baseball-type hat plaid in red and black with her hair in a ponytail.
Madonna arrived in Israel Wednesday night, on a private visit to the Holy Land. The singer did not speak to the media and the conference was closed to TV cameras.
The actress Demi Moore and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, were also attending the conference in Tel Aviv, and were seen out on the city streets Thursday night.
The celebrity was raised a Roman Catholic, but she has become a follower of Jewish mysticism in recent years, raising the ire of many Orthodox Jews who see the adoption of Kabbalah by non-Jewish pop figures as an abomination.
The singer has taken the Hebrew name Esther, and has been seen wearing a red thread on her wrist to ward off the evil eye. During her visit she plans to visit sites sacred to Kabbalists.
Madonna paid a visit to Israel three years ago, on another Kabbalah-centered trip. Her first visit to Israel came in 1993, when she performed in a concert unrelated to Kabbalah in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon park.
References:JPost:
Madonna sings at Tel Aviv conference
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From The Jerusalem Post
Jewish Music Festival: Notes of the tribe
Given that there can't be anything more natural than a Jewish music festival in Jerusalem, why has it taken all these millennia to hold a full-scale, week-long showcase?
"I don't know," admits Shlomo Yisraeli, artistic director of the inaugural Jewish Music Days festival due to take place between September 3 and 8. "Maybe it was a matter of having the right facilities, or the funding."
Funding is always a salient - or sticking - point, as any organizer of any cultural event can testify.
"There's no support from the municipality for this," Yisraeli continues, "and, to get funding from international bodies you have to first have the festival up and running. Once you've survived the first year - if you survive - you can start to apply all over."
Judging by the program, and the popularity of Jewish music in Jerusalem and the rest of the country, Yisraeli and Effi Benaya, director of Confederation House (which is organizing the event) have nothing to worry about.
The six concerts, which will be held at Confederation House, Beit Shmuel and Beit Avi Chai, do justice both to the cosmopolitan nature of our capital and the varied cultural baggage picked up by the Jews over the centuries.
"In many ways, Israel is the center of the world," Yisraeli declares. "If you look at old maps of the world - not contemporary American ones - you see that. And Jerusalem is central to the three major monotheistic religions. If you put all that together, it's easy to see why the festival is happening here and why the program is so varied."
The latter attribute is something of an understatement, and Yisraeli, an expert on many musical genres who broadcast ethnic music on Kol Yisrael for many years, is the right man in the right place at the right time. He has pieced together a musical agenda that represents a considerable number of our multifaceted ethnicities.
Take, for example, the opening show at Beit Shmuel on Monday (at 9 p.m.), which brings together the well-named local cross-cultural troupe Andralamusia and New York trumpeter Frank London. London has had his nimble fingers in numerous musical pies for many years. A member of the high-energy band Klezmatics, he has recorded and performed with jazz musicians, "new Jewish music" guru John Zorn and Arab music star Maurice El Mediouni, to mention but a few.
"I met Frank a while back in Brazil," explains Yisraeli, "and asked him if he'd be interested in performing with an Israeli band. He was delighted with the idea." The same went for his cohorts in next week's concert. "When I mentioned the idea to [Andralamusia leader] Itai Bin Nun, he said he'd dreamt of playing with Frank for years. So that came together nicely."
The festival program incorporates the kind of traditional material you'd expect - such as The Carpion Trio playing pre-World War II Yiddish and Romanian songs - alongside some far more "out-there" forays. Thursday's "Bayamim Hahem Bazman Hazzeh" ("In Those Days At This Time") program certainly pertains to the latter category. It will showcase musical interpretations of prayers and other liturgical material (piyutim) from the Italian Jewish tradition, sung by Charlette Shulamit Ottolenghi, who also plays soprano sax and will fuse her efforts through a computer, together with Mexican-born Jerusalemite percussionist Abe Doron, best known for his work with Irish music outfits such as Riverdance and Evergreen.
It is an intriguing mix.
"It is a bit provocative," admits Yisraeli, "having a woman sing piyutim and adding saxophone and computer. But, as with the whole festival, I have tried to embrace both tradition and the contemporary."
Yisraeli believes in keeping up with the times. "Without that, music would have died a long time ago."
Other crowd pullers to watch out for include a concert led by Ethiopian-born jazz and ethnic music saxophonist Abate (next Saturday at Beit Avi Hai at 9:30 p.m,) based on a fascinating confluence between the works of famous Spanish poets, such as 11th-century poet-philosopher Ibn Gvirol, and lesser known Ethiopian men of letters of the same period. Pianist Yitzhak Yedid's concert (Wednesday at Confederation House at 9 p.m.) will bring art forms together and include works inspired by painter Marc Chagall. Medieval Sufi and mystical Jewish music will cross paths at Splendor East and West, the Hayona Ensemble show on Tuesday (Beit Aviv Hai, 7 p.m.).
"There is far more to Jewish music than klezmer," says Yisraeli. "I think the average person thinks all Jewish music is Hassidic. I hope the festival will both entertain audiences and broaden their horizons."
For more information about the Jewish Music Days festival, check out http://www.confederationhouse.org/
Bagelblogger: When the world focuses so much negative attention on the State of Israel its good to see events celebrating the positive aspects of Israel. More sponsorship is needed for such cultural events.
References:
JPost: Jewish Music Festival: Notes of the tribe
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