And the city streets will empty....

Summertime in New York is a special time for the lucky folk who enjoy eight long weeks in the sun, relaxing outdoors, while their children frolic in kiddie pools, outside on the concrete. And yes, I am talking about those of us fortunate enough to stay home and sleep in our own mosquito-free bedrooms. That would be me and I can proclaim happily "I love the city in the summertime!" However when June comes around and my friends are fleeing upstate I still get a little pang of curiosity, if you will. Is the country for me now that I have a little family of my own? Wouldn't it be wonderful to play guitar outside in the evening and actually SEE the stars? My daughter knows "Twinkle, twinkle" by heart but I don't think she actually knows what a star IS! Anyhoo, I just came back from a 2 day stint upstate where I sang in Woodridge Bungalow to a dynamite group of mothers and daughters (and mothers helpers of course) and a quick drop-in to camp Emunah where we brought the house DOWN. Btw, if any campers got pics, please email them to me. It was raining way too hard to look for my camara in the trunk of my car.

Sometimes all you can offer is love.

If I had a dollar
For all of the sadness you had
I would open a store,
And put on the shelves
All the wishes and dreams
Any girl could’ve dreamed of and more
I would sell them for cheap
Maybe give them away
In exchange for a smile or two
But all I can offer today is a hug
And tell you how much I love you

I wish I could take away your pain
I wish I could mend your broken heart
I wish all my love would be enough
To make all your worry lines depart

If I had the wisdom
Of Einstein or Freud then I’d
Know what to say when you cried
I could solve all your problems
And figure out how
To restore what was left of your pride
But I’m not that smart
And I don’t understand
Why you suffer the way that you do
So all I can offer today is a hug
And tell you how much I love you

I wish I could take away your pain
I wish I could mend your broken heart
I wish all my love would be enough
To make all your worry lines depart

If I met a genie
Inside of a bottle
I’d ask for my wishes ‘to go’
Wrapped in a box
With a shiny red ribbon
A small card tucked under the bow
So that I could repay
Everything that I owe
For a debt that is long overdue
But all I can offer today is a hug
And tell you how much I love you

I wish I could take away your pain
I wish I could mend your broken heart
I wish all my love would be enough
To make all your worry lines depart

Creating the Crown of Creation

Back in summer '04, my 2nd album The Crown of Creation was completed. Although putting together the music comes easy for me, it's a challenge getting a visual for the cover art and with every album, I kinda let the graphic artist "do their thing". When the cds were finally delivered to the Judaica store, I was horrified to see how dark the artwork colors had come out! Luckily, there had been a major printing mistake and the booklets had to be totally reprinted. I had the GA redo the booklet and match the colors to the cd (that had already been pressed.) Here is the original cover,And here is what it looks like today. Ironically, despite the rush job, it is the best selling album. Which do you prefer?

Don't Comedance?

I sang in the Comedance show this past winter. In Boro Park I wore my curly Sheitel, but for the Lakewood show, they asked me to wear a straight one. I had no idea why, until I came and saw 1000 women wearing exactly the same straight wig.

Lakewood, N.J. -- In a surprising, last-minute move, the Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgiach of Lakewood's Beis Medrash Gavoha, the largest Yeshiva in the world outside of Israel, issued a ban of a women's entertainment event that took place in Lakewood's Beis Yaakov High School Sunday night.

The event, entitled "Comedance", was billed as a show illustrating "the journey of life through comedy and dance", and featured women performers singing and dancing in front of an all-female audience. Although the performance met with no opposition when it took place at Boro Park and other venues in prior weeks, that was not the case in Lakewood.

An automated phone call recording reached thousands of Lakewood homes Sunday evening, notifying all household that the Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgiach, R' Kotler, Neuman, Schustal, Olshin and Salomon, had issued a ruling that the performance should not be attended. Ironically, this followed similar automated calls on behalf of the producers of the show that had been placed just hours before, reminding local women and girls to attend the event, which was advertised as a benefit for Tzedaka R' Meir Ba'al HaNes.[...]

The Roshei Yeshiva did not go into details regarding exactly what the problem with the event was, rather, general priciples such as "the spirit of Tznius" were invoked. In any case, the ban seemed to have little effect. Women who attended the event report that the performers played to a full crowd.

No news today...

Last summer I get a call from asking me if I would be interested in being interviewed by a
reporter for the Daily News. Never one to shirk free publicity (or speak my mind), I agreed to meet with a young (Jewish) girl who was writing the article. The story about meant to go to press on the anniversary of the '91 Crown Heights riot and was about the culture clash between the young blacks and Jews in my neighborhood. They wanted to feature Jewish young people like myself who have a career aside from their religious obligations. The story never ran but here are the pics from the photo shoot.

Next year in Brooklyn

So last year, Chol Hamoed Sukkos I attended the Kineret, Leah Forster concert in Brighten Beach. I actually rarely make it to concerts as I'm always out of town Chol Hamoed Pesach and Sukkos. I put a red circle on my calender so I wouldnt miss it and drove down there myself. There were like 2 tickets left at the box office and I had a seat way back in the hall. I didnt stay for the whole concert but I was so amazed at the turnout. There were like over 1500 women there, girls sitting on laps, on the stairs....Anyways, point is: This year iyh I will be joining Leah and Kineret and I'm spreading the word early enough so all my friends can make arrangements on time! It's gonna be an awesome show...

Bungalow Fun-raiser

Ok so this summer, there are a couple things going on. Some I can talk about, some are still a surprise...

I will be upstate at Highland Park bungalow for a fundraiser for Lev L'achim first week of July iyh. I sang there last summer, and though I wasn't sure what to expect from the crowd, the ladies were adorable, singing aloud, with their arms around each other like they were back in High School! They especially wanted to hear old familiar songs, so I'm gonna have to pull out my old camp songbooks and prepare a whole buncha campfire favorites. Here's a pic from last summer.