heebnvegan Rock Stars: Live and In Person

The Internet is a funny thing. It has the power to connect likeminded people who live far away and foster discussion via blogs, YouTube videos, e-mails, and Facebook statuses about such topics as Judaism, vegan cooking, and music. But if you live in New York and the other person lives in Georgia, Michigan, or Oregon, it's not too often that you get to meet in person. In the last week, some of heebnvegan's favorite out-of-town people (and most frequent subjects) have come to the Big Apple.


Last Wednesday, CAN!!CAN opened up for Golem on the Lower East Side—the first time in three years that I've seen multiple Jewish punk bands at the same show. CAN!!CAN singer Patrick A. runs the Web site PunkTorah, and when I arrived at the venue, I was starstruck to see that Patrick was filming a video in which Matthue Roth (of MyJewishLearning.com) was giving a devar Torah for Parshat Toldot as Heshy Fried (of FrumSatire.net) looked on. In a video they filmed shortly before I arrived, Patrick A. said, "This is, like, the most epic Punk .... You've got so much blog right here that it's, like, stupid." As Fried wrote on FrumSatire today, "It seemed like everyone was there– well, everyone important, that is — a bunch of minor Jewish celebrity artist types ...."

Jack Zaientz is in the New York area for Thanksgiving, and we met up for coffee on Sunday. Zaientz runs the Jewish music blog Teruah, which talked about my "Jewish air guitar" career last year and has linked to heebnvegan posts about Jewish punk music, Jewish punk films, Di Nigunim, and, yes, even food issues. I continue to be impressed by Zaientz's breadth of knowledge about Jewish music. We talked about Jewish punk, Jewish hip-hop, klezmer, haredi music, and NaNach trance, and his expertise really runs the gamut. Earlier this month, Zaientz gave a talk at Ignite Ann Arbor titled, "The Silver Age of American Jewish Music Is Happening Now! And Why We're Missing It." I'll post a link to the video as soon as it's online.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, the reigning rock star of the vegan food world, was in town last night for the book launch party for Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar along with New York–based co-author Terry Hope Romero. Moskowitz and Romero also co-authored Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Veganomicon, and Moskowitz runs The Post Punk Kitchen Blog. Dozens of guests at the nonleather-shoe store Moo Shoes were treated to many delicious varieties of vegan cookies, in addition to sandwiches from Foodswings. In the photo below, from left to right, you'll see me, Moskowitz, Romero, and holistic health counselor Jackie Topol. This is yet another great they're-in-the-same-place-at-the-same-time snapshot, as Moskowitz and Topol wrote my two all-time favorite heebnvegan guest posts—"Cooking Up a Vegan Passover" and "My Experience as a Farmer and Why I've Decided to Go Vegan," respectively.

I doubt that I'll have time to attend all these sorts of things when I'm both working and going to school next semester, but it's wonderful when out-of-town heebnvegan rock stars appear off the computer screen.