Curt Schleier is a freelance writer and author who covers business and the arts for a variety of publications. Follow him on Twitter at @tvsoundoff.
Curt Schleier
By Curt Schleier
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Film & TV Meet Sophie Tucker, the Yiddish Lady Gaga
Sophie Tucker used to open her act by saying her career dated back to the days when the Dead Sea was just sick. That, of course, is a slight exaggeration. But from around 1907 almost until her death in 1966, the ribald Tucker was the Madonna of her time. Today, in an age when fame…
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Life The Tax Lawyer Who is Reinventing Jewish Music as Brazilian Song
“Raizes” is not exactly “My Yiddishe Samaba Mama” — but it is close. “Raizes” — Portuguese for roots — is the newest album from Nicole Borger, a woman whose background is as unique as her music: Jewish songs such as “Abi Gezunt” and “Shlof Mayn Feigele” sung to a Brazilian beat. Borger — she records…
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Film & TV HBO’s Larry Kramer Doc Isn’t Just Good. It’s Important.
It wasn’t so long ago that gay men were vilified by American society at large. Back in the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic surfaced, priests railed against them, claiming the disease was God’s revenge for sinful lifestyle choices. That, of course, has changed — mostly. While there are still regular examples of anti-gay sentiments (and…
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Culture Jason Alexander Talks Broadway, Israel, and Killing Susan
Jason Alexander is the star of stage, screen and Festivus. Of late, too, he has been a major trending topic on the Internet, all because of some poisoned envelopes. Alexander played George Costanza for nine seasons on Seinfeld. In season seven, he was engaged to Susan (Heidi Swedberg), who sadly met the grim reaper while…
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Art The Exhilarating Passions of Marc Chagall
“Chagall-Malevich” is an exhilarating paean to the uplifting power of art. Part docu-drama, part fantasy, the film is largely based on the life of Marc Chagall, widely considered the greatest Jewish artist of the 20th Century. Born Moishe Shagal into a Hasidic community in the Pale of the Settlement, Chagall found and pursued his passion…
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Culture How David Javerbaum Became Ghost Writer for God
David Javerbaum’s list of accomplishments stretches from Earth all the way to heaven. He’s won 11 Emmys and two Peabody awards as writer and producer of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” While there, he helped author “America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction” (winner of the Thurber Prize for Humor) and its…
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Film & TV How Shalom Auslander Learned To Be ‘HAPPYish’
Shalom Auslander is not the most upbeat guy in the world. Ask if he’s happy, and his response tells you all you to need to know: “My wife and my kids. I’m afraid of them dying all the time. I can’t hear a siren go by without thinking my house is on fire and everyone…
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Culture How Ron Rifkin Went From the Fur Business to Carnegie Hall
“I’m just an actor,” exclaims Ron Rifkin, who then adds the most un-actor-y words ever spoke by an actor in the history of theater: “I don’t like to talk about myself.” He mentions his reluctance because our conversation had veered into unexpected territory, at least for him. I’d asked about his approach to some past…
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