The Holiday Spirit and WrestleMania

 Just when you thought you were ready to clean the wax from the menorah and put the artificial tree in the basement, here come the holidays again, this time, Easter and Passover,and again, tis the season to be helpful and give a little time to those less fortunate. This year I'm contributing by helping a few nonprofits recommended by New York Cares, who some of you may know from those tearjerking spots showing Miss Liberty cowering in a blizzard as veteran newscaster Chuck Scarborough reminds us, "New York Needs Coats." I always knew they were there,but when Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul officially kicked off the Partnership for New York City's WE ❤️ NYC campaign, on March 21, which is celebrating New York business ("WE ❤️ that NYC does more before 8 than Boston does all day," declares one of the many ads.),theatre,sports,food (including dollar pizza,for which you need two extra quarters),and especially,volunteers. I went to http://welovenyc.nyc and found some volunteer openings that were in my wheelhouse: serving food to seniors and the needy. This past Monday,I helped out at the Stanley Issacs Center, a housing project in the Yorkville section of Manhattan,and it made HELL'S KITCHEN (Gordon Ramsay's cook-off,not the West Side neighborhood where I'm working next week) and FX's THE BEAR seem like sleepy elevator music,and at the Salvation Army Astoria Corps in Queens,and although the attendance left something to be desired,it was nice showing the guests to their tables as my fellow volunteers (Unfortunately,none of them in those cool unis) handed them their food. Just like the winter holidays, Easter and Passover are more about sharing than matzos,eggs,or bunnies (NOT the girls at the Club!),and volunteering is the perfect way to share your love. Take it from me, you'll ❤️ it!

Not only is this the holiday season, it's also the time of year when World Wrestling Entertainment celebrates it's biggest and baddest grunt-and-groaners. I COULD talk about such fan faves as Alexa Bliss (Lexi Kaufman Cabrera), Charlotte Flair (Ashley Fliehr) and the twins formerly known as Bella (Nicole and Breanna Garcia), but the name I would like to drop is Abraham Josephine Reisman. I know what you're thinking: WHO? ONLY the author of the definitive biography of the Walt Disney/P.T. Barnum of sports entertainment, Vince McMahon," RINGMASTER,Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America",as well as a mutual friend of Rabbi Andy Kahn of Temple Emanu-El. Not only does this page turner trace the rags to riches story of a true American original (Even if he DID, spoiler alert, contribute to the success of a certain indicted pretender to the presidency), but it also examines how the WWE,like it or not,remade the world in its own image.(Case in point,at the aforementioned Emanu-El's 2021 Chanukah Party in Central Park,WWEish pyrotechnics shot up from the dance stage,much to the disgust of some of the other Rabbi's ) On a scale of pick it or kick it, this book is DEFINITELY a pick it! I pre-ordered it from Amazon last June, and I suggest you order it either from them or wherever you get your books, because it's bound to sell out faster than a WWE match at the Garden!

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Hoppy Easter!

Bye Buckaroos?

Steve

A Long-Range(r)ing Post

First of all, congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on winning Super Bowl LVII (Grumble,grumble.) and the Philadelphia Eagles on a job well-done. (Sob!) Also, Happy Presidents Day and,to our neighbours to the north, Happy Family Day,eh?

It's a good time to be a Ranger,and I don't mean at Yellowstone, although that particular show and it's spinoffs ARE going great guns! I refer to the New York Rangers, currently in third place in the NHL Metropolitan Division but very likely to zoom up to the top spot,and another team of good guys in brightly colored uniforms,the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Although they made their official debut in 1975 on Japanese TV as Go Ranger ("The Five Rangers"),they exploded onto the American scene twenty years ago this year,and show no signs of going away anytime soon. Not only are Nickelodeon and it's co-owned free streamer Pluto TV celebrating with such POWERful iterations as Space Patrol Delta, Operation: Overdrive and Dino Thunder, but also introducing the original (subtitled) Japanese series to American audiences. My favorite is Hurricane Rangers,the predecessor of Power Rangers Ninja Storm, with Time Ranger,or as statesiders know it, Power Rangers Time Force,coming in a close second. Some differences between the Japanese and American series may be interesting, (Hurricane Rangers begins with a warning:"Watch TV at a distance in a well-lit room!" When the American version was shown on Jetix,the successor to Fox Kids International,the warning was that the Power Rangers were fictional characters (Really?!?I had no idea!) played by professional actors and impressionable youngsters shouldn't attempt their moves themselves. Whatever keeps the little ankle biters safe!) or disgusting,  (The original Japanese predecessor of Dino Thunder shows a very racist and xenophobic portrayal of a Black baseball player which is acknowledged on this side of the International Date Line.) but the American Rangers series,for the most part,stick to the original Japanese concept while not alienating American and European viewers.

Some Rangers series in both canons have been either Morphinomenally good or powerfully bad,but,thanks to pop culture production house Shout! Factory , you can see the original five little Rangers and how they grew. Anytime is Morphin time for this limited time,and it won't cost you a dime. Just please don't karate chop your boss after the weekend!

LET'S GO  (POWER) RANGERS!

And may the Power protect you!

Steve

We Are Family

For many years, my Fourth Of July vacations took me to uniquely American landmarks such as Walt Disney World,Salem,MA, Williamsburg, VA,or the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. I had planned to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland,OH in 2018, but on October 27,2017, after the joy of Rosh Hashanah and solemnity of Yom Kippur had disappeared,the Tree of Life Synagogue and two other temples that shared the same building were invaded by a lone gunman who hated then-President Trump, but also espoused the Anti-Semitic, Anti-Immigrant,in short, ANTI-AMERICAN philosophy that had driven his supporters. Although I love rooting against Pittsburgh like any good New York sports fan, I have friends there and I admire their sense of community and brotherhood. I doubt that it's any coincidence that a preacher named Fred Rogers chose that particular city to expand his ministry of love to children's television (If Boston is the city where everybody knows your name, then Pittsburgh is the city where every kid and former kid knows the residents of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe, and quite frankly, we can use more Mister Rogerses.) or that city has adopted Philadelphia soul belters Sister Sledge's "We Are Family,' originally played at Pittsburgh Pirates games at the request of star slugger Pops Stargell has become the unofficial city song of the Burgh Town. While reliving the shooting is not an easy prospect, HBO Max's cinema verite documentary "A Tree of Life" (TV-MA for Violence and Language) brings the memory of that tragic chapter in American Jewish history closer than ever. As this movie so beautifully illustrates, this massacre affected everybody, even the Muslim community. (One mustn't-miss highlight is "Healing Tones," an original composition by Hannibal Lokumbe performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and featuring an awesome shofar solo, and i don't just mean that to sound cool. by shooting survivor Audrey Glickman.) We are indeed family, and we need to listen more often to God or our neighborhoods than to give Trump the satisfaction of reelection. Kudos to Shark Mark Cuban and actors Michael Keaton and Billy Porter for getting  this  movie off the ground and even Olivia herself, Mariska Hargitay,who gets a well-deserved, albeit too brief, shout-out in the credits. On a scale of "Skip It" to "Stream It," STREAM IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Oh, by the way, when I visited Tree Of Life's temporary headquarters on Pittsburgh's Fifth Avenue,

I told the cantor, who officiated the Sabbath service, everybody at Temple Emanu-El in New York was thinking of them, instead of a kind "Thank you" or "Shabbat Shalom," I got a gruff "WHO'S YOUR CANTOR?!?" For the record, it was Mo Glazman who,today,shares cantorial duties with Associate Cantor Sara Anderson and Cantor Emerita Lori Corrsin, I was more than a little taken aback  by his apparent Pittsburgh 'tude towards Noo Yawkers. Other than that, and the building security being limited to one freelance security agent and an attack dog, I had a beautiful time that evening.)

Shalom!

Steve                                              

Friends, Readers,Steve Fans, Lend Me Your Ears!

 I came to my last blog to praise Temple Emanu-El, its cantors, their High Holy Days playlist on Spotify, and the late,great 95.5 PLJ, not to bury Christianity. I firmly believe in Freedom of Religion and I respect the right of our brothers and sisters to worship as they choose. (Or, as the Doobie Brothers put it, "Jesus Is Just Alright With Me.") I was just trying to put in a good word for the playlist, which is positive and encouraging in its own way, and vent my continued frustration over the end of a trailblazing station like 'PLJ. Like last time, I apologize if I have stepped on any toes. 

Sorry Steve

Open Letter To K-Love

 To The People Who Unceremoniously Eliminated The Best Songs On The Radio From 95.5 FM In NYC:

Although I'm aware our High Holy Days are about to begin and we're about to ask the Lord for forgiveness, I will neither forgive or forget your parent, the Educational Media Foundation's purchase of New York's legendary 95.5 PLJ and other great radio stations then owned by Cumulus Media, which required the total elimination of all secular pop music and a commitment to what you guys billed as Positive! Encouraging! Christian music (I DO love Amy Grant, Jump 5, and Michael W. Smith, but mostly when they sound more like real, honest-to-Billboard pop music.). If you guys want to get back the PLJ listeners you shooed away on May 31,2019 at 7:00 PM EST, you should take a cue, pun intended, from Temple Emanu-El  Associate Cantor Sara Anderson and Cantor Mo Glazman and their playlist, "We Return: Emanu-El Cantors' HHD 5783 Playlist"

While it DOES include music from contemporary Israeli performers and hymns such as "Aveinu Malkenu (Our Father, Our King)" and "Kol Nidrei", it also includes music that used to be part and parcel of the PLJ playlist (Florence and the Machine, Justins Timberlake and Bieber, One Republic), and even going back to 'PLJ's days as New York's Best Rock. (The Byrds, David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust period, and my close,warm,personal friend, Judy Collins.) In short, pop music doesn't have to be all about Our Boy The Late Great J.C. Of Biblical Fame to be positive or encouraging, or even religious. (I refer to a lot of your current songs which tend to hit those of us who don't accept Hay Zeus as our Lord over the head with their message.) To hear what I mean, I strongly suggest you type "We Return" on the Spotify app (from Google Play, the Apple App Store, or the Microsoft Store, unless you believe such modern technology is against your religion) or visit http://www,emanuelnyc.org and get a link from their High Holy Days portal. Once you click on and listen (THREE HOURS OF COMMERCIAL-FREE MUSIC AND ZERO TALK! Kinda makes you nostalgic for those old 'PLJ days, doesn't it? Hint,hint!), you, and the geniuses at Cumulus, will find out the egregious mistake you made when you got rid of all that great, already positive and encouraging music, and don't we all need some positive encouragement at the start of a New Year?

L' Shanah Tovah!

Steve

P.S.: Also wishing you Peace Love and Joy! (See what I did?)

Oops!

I forgot to add the words "since Queen Victoria" when referring to Queen Elizabeth's reign as a widow. My bad!

The Queen Is Dead, Long LiveThe King

 Elizabeth Alexandra Mary,(21 April 1926-8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms from 6 Feburary 1952 for a total of 75 years and 214 days, the longest reign of any British monarch and the second longest of any monarch of a sovereign country.

Enigmatic to the end, we knew less about Queen Elizabeth II's beliefs and convictions than we did about those of  her son and heir, King Charles III, and her many children-in-law, especially the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, who was embroiled in the child molestation case against Trump supporter Jeffrey Epstein. 

The first British monarch ever to address a joint session of the United States Congress and the first monarch to reign as a widow or widower, Elizabeth II presided over a transitional era which saw Rhodesia declare its independence and change its name to Zimbabwe, Argentina try to reclaim the Falkland Islands (las islas Malvinas, as they were originally called), and Australia grow closer to the USA in political and economic terms (They dropped the pound in favor of the Australian dollar. and citizens have been entertaining the idea of an Australian Republic.)

In the 1960's she made headlines when she awarded the Beatles the MBE, the highest civilian honor in Britain, (Paul McCartney caused a bit of a stir when he sang,"Her Majesty is a pretty nice girl." in a throwaway ditty at the end of the ABBEY ROAD album, but it was nothing compared to his songwriting partner John Lennon's decision to return his MBE as a result of British involvement in Northern Ireland and Biafra and the punk legends the Sex Pistols  raining on the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 with their own version of "God Save The Queen."

Unfortunately, her long and illustrious career was plagued by many illnesses, including COVID 19, which led to either attending state events virtually or skipping them altogether. On September 8,the world came to a halt when it was announced that the Queen's health was declining and the presence of her children at her bedside was required. A few days prior, she seemed her old robust self as she welcomed Britain's new Prime Minister, Liz Truss,but the reign of the monarch who brought the UK into modern times came to a tragic end,as, after 96 years of life, the Queen left historic Balmoral Castle and a grieving world, in a peaceful fashion. We wish King Charles III the best of luck as he steers Britain through its most challenging economic and political period in recent memory, as well as as his sons William and Harry and their wives Kate and Meghan as they train their progeny for whatever the future may bring.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to our British readers and to this author's many British friends.

The Queen is dead, but not the memories.

Long live, and God save, the King.

Steve