Shir Madness was wonderful - and the more than 2000 people who attended the inaugural Sydney Jewish Music Festival were testimony.

Articles and photo highlights from the festival from J-wire,  Australian Stage and the Australian Jewish News are here.

40 bands on 4 stages over 11 hours - all elements of the festival were high class -  the sound quality, the efficient changeovers, the ticketing, the food and other stalls, the filming, and especially the variety of top class musical acts.

There was something for everyone -  Al taam vereach ain lehitvakeach - a Hebrew expression basically meaning - “everyone has their own taste” -

So with some accompanying pre-Shir Madness videos, here are a few personal favourites

Noam Blatt ,  Sketch the Rhyme, Tin Pan Orange,  Ange Takats; and Ido Lederman

Congratulations to Festival Director Gary Holzman, and all who worked so hard to make Shir Madness a sheer success.

The First Sydney Jewish Music Festival is coming to Bondi Pavilion Sunday August 15.  It promises to be a great day/night with 40 bands playing a variety of musical styles  on  4 stages from 11am to 10pm.

The Shir Madness website has all the detail, including the bands here.

Here is a selection of some of the acts, and their music:

Deborah Conway,  Monsieur Camembert, Ido Lederman,  Natan Kuchar, Fourplay, The Mark Ginsburg Band, The Jews Brothers Band, Three Quarters Hazel,  SqueezeBox Boogaloo, Eddie  Bronson, Klezmer Connexion  .. and many more ..

Chamesh Cochavim!! *****  Should be a great time (grab a airline ticket for those reading this from outside Terra Australis.) .. those living closer to Bondi don’t have as far to go… just get a ticket.

There is something sad and dismal about Bony M being asked to not sing the song Rivers of Babylon in their concert in Ramallah, as reported  here. 

It demonstrates how reluctant the Palestinians are to officially admit the legitimacy of Israel and the long Jewish history of attachment to the land. 

Oh well, here is Bon M’s video.

The poseurs who cancelled their concerts in Israel, presumably will have nothing to say about this delusional behaviour on the West Bank.

“Shalom, we are so happy to be back here! Ain’t nothing gonna stop us from coming, baby,” spouted John with a pumped fist in the air. “Musicians spread love and peace, and bring people together. That’s what we do. We don’t cherry-pick our conscience.”

So said Elton John, as he began his concert in Tel Aviv.

Rocket Man, Rocket Man and Remembering Ilan Ramon

Yaakov Shwekey performed in Efrat, Gush Etzion, on Wednesday night before an audience of over 4,000 people of all ages.

According to Arutz Sheva, the highlight of the evening was when Shwekey invited a group of the 100 soldiers present, some from the navy commando unit that boarded the flotilla and all of  whom had been treated to the evening by the local and regional authority, up on stage to join him. They sang “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem” together to Shwekey’s well known melody, swaying along with the audience. Towards the end, one of the soldiers placed his beret on Shwekey’s head and the singer was visibly moved.

Part of the concert is shown here.

And earlier Vehi Sheamda  in Caesaria.

A beautiful and powerful interlude of Sim Shalom from Gil Ladin;   and visit his website for more great jazz and links to other Israeli performers.

On the Mossad / Dubai front, which is looking increasingly like an effort by the Rudd government to deflect attention from unpopular local stances, Greg Sheridan has an excellent update entitled Expelling Israeli diplomat was a confected, self-serving exercise.  Stephen Smith’s performance would do Captain Renault at  Rick’s Cafe proud.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu visits Canada where Prime Minister Harper is impressively supportive of Israel.

Not being a fan of Elvis Costello, the news that he has changed his mind from performing in Israel to not performing in Israel, didn’t strike any particular chord or change my musical listening.

Nor is the underlying reason for Costello’s last minute change in decision of great importance.  Has he been personally threatened, is he afraid that that he would be subsequently criticised by the “correct-thinkers”,  is the “yes I am, no I’m not” gambit a cynical attempt by a has-been performer to garner some publicity, or indeed has his mind be changed by some sudden deep insight of righteousness?  Who knows.

Fortunately, David Horowitz, editor of the Jerusalem Post, has written an excellent riposte to Costello Elvis, you’re singing for the rejectionists. which answers both him and others like him, and exposes their hollowness.

Horowitz’s article includes the following lines “There are heroes and villains on both sides. The heroes are striving, every day, to marginalize the villains. You haven’t helped.   WE EXPECTED more of you. We thought you were a man of integrity and good conscience. At the very least, we believed that you would want to find out for yourself. You say that it would have been “quite impossible to simply look the other way.”  That’s the last thing we would have wanted you to do. You needed to come, and to look – rigorously and thoroughly – not to let others sell you their skewed vision.

You pulled out, you have written, because “there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act…” Indeed so. In the case of playing in Israel, it may be interpreted as having the elementary courage to dig a little deeper, to look a little closer, to allow a little more intellectual honesty.

Having your name deleted from a concert schedule is emphatically a political act as well. In your case, an act of ignorance and cowardice. You have capitulated to those who would deny Israel the capacity to convey its reality. You have joined forces with those who seek, most deliberately, to impose journalistic and academic and artistic boycotts on Israel because they know that routine interaction plays into Israel’s hands. They know that open communication punctures the lies and the distortions. They know that an honest narrative trumps their dishonest misrepresentations. They know that once you had visited, you would not be so easily fooled.”

…  If Costello’s mind is open, I wonder what he’d think about Horowitz’s clear thoughts… or does he really care!

At the risk of mixed religious metaphors, it’s good to wash away the Costello dirt down at the river.  Care for some gopher, Elvis?

Melanie Phillips has written an excellent critique of the recent Obama administration trial balloon suggesting that the U.S. might impose a Middle East settlement,  based on what “everybody knows” 

In her article entitled Everybody Knows Phillips remarks that

“Apparently, everyone knows what such a ‘peace deal’ would look like.  Well if everyone knows, why hasn’t it been achieved?  Apparently it’s much like the agreement that was nearly reached at Camp David in 2000 and in subsequent negotiations. Ah yes, ‘nearly’. Only problem was the Palestinians wouldn’t have it, even though it offered them more than 90 per cent of the disputed territories and half of Jerusalem. Why didn’t they accept it? Because they wanted more. Everyone who has read the history knows what a peace deal would look like because it was offered in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1960s and 2000; only problem is that the Arabs rejected it.  The Palestinians ‘know’ what a peace deal that they would agree to would look like. It would consist of peace without Israel existing at all. They’ve said so many times. For some inexplicable reason, not everyone in the Obama administration ‘knows’ this fact. Indeed, none of them seems to. Or if they do, they’re not telling us.”

Phillips then exposes the hollowness of the contrary view that “everyone knows that the way to stop the Palestinian problem festering – a problem which festers solely because of the refusal of the Palestinians to abjure for ever their existential war against the state of Israel, or even currently to negotiate with Israel – is not to force the Palestinians thus to abjure their belligerency or to negotiate but to force Israel instead to make it easier for them to attack and destroy it.”

This article builds on a prescient one from Phillips one year ago.

In an earlier blog item we noted the topical relevance of the Leonard Cohen line that “There’s a war between the ones who say there’s a war and the ones who say there isn’t’.”  

Everybody knows

With the Jewish film festival happening in Sydney, here is a clip of dueling Klezmer and Gypsy music  and another musical interlude 1 from the 1998 film Train de Vie.

Then a Yemenite tune.