One Second Party
A snippet of musical madness from a really great party.
Music Review: Amythyst Kiah’s Wildebeest
Some songs just stop you in your tracks. “Wildebeest” by Amythyst Kiah is one of those songs. The tune begins with a two chord progression usually heard in flamenco music – a simple and raw meditative riff that Kiah lets play for a minute for full hypnotic effect. When the tune shifts into a Delta blues mode, the fine finger-picking starts to have an emotional life, setting the stage for Amythyst Kiah’s original yet traditional blues lyric of spurned love,…
Father – Daughter Bat Mitzvah Dance Video
This “epic” Father – Daughter Bat Mitzvah Dance Video is in the “dancing through the decades” style. One of the most joyous moments of my life…and I think my daughter had fun. 🙂
Was MLK Wrong About Non-Violence?
Fifty years ago, accepting the Nobel Prize for Peace, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a bold statement about non-violence. On that day in Stockholm, he argued that non-violence was not simply a protest tactic to overcome the oppression of his time but a new way for humans to exist together: “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression…
Exodus: Gods and Kings. And Weapons. Lots of Weapons
That should have been the title of my latest article in the Huffington Post.
Free Hannukah Play – A skit for when the lights are lit
Free Hannukah Play? Get your presto-instant Hannukah skit right here: That’s right! A certified organic kosher Hannukah play for kids! 3 characters, five minutes. Just the right little shpiel for your celebration. HANNUKAH PLAY By Rabbi Daniel Brenner www.rabbidanielbrenner.com ON STAGE: DR D, APPLE SAUCE, and LATKE DR D Hi, I’m Dr. Dreidel and I’m here with my friends Latkes and apple sauce to tell you all about the Maccabees.
Address to New York Theological Seminary: Answering the Cry in the Middle East
I begin this post with the above image of Jacob and Esau that I found on the web from the artist David Otto www.davidotto.com. It captures, artistically, one of the questions that the ancient rabbis struggled with in the Midrash – namely, “is the competition between the brothers inherent?” New York Theological Seminary October 29, 2014 Spiritual Lessons from Twins: Jacob and Esau as a Paradigm for Israel and Palestine Seventeen years ago, when…
Alternative Avinu Malkeinu
For 5755 I did a creative spin on the liturgy – an alternative Avinu Malkeinu to get folks into the spirit of the holiday. Enjoy!
The Gaza War: A Poem
The Gaza War First the enemy dug under my heart and filled in my arteries with cement. My mind plays back the aerial footage, night-vision, my international center for compassion bombed into a billion bits of dust. Every day I erect protective edges. When the dust clears there is: A hole. And buried under the hole? Missiles. And buried under the missiles? Holes. My ears have been hit by two thousand missiles. The missile…