Saturday, as I was driving along Rt. 22, enjoying the sight of freshly-cut fields of hay and rapidly-growing cornstocks, I listened to WCBE - NPR's "This American Life." The program this week was on "My Experimental Phase." It will be available via RealAudio online next week.
Anyway, the segment that caught my interest was on "The Life of an Underground Hasidic Gam Rock Star." Yikes! In this segment, Washington Post music critic David Segal talks with Billy, aka Vic Thrill and "Chaim" (last name kept secret) about Hym's brief foray into rock music as singer "Curly Oxide."
It was fascinating to hear how Billy is the kind of person who greets and knows his neighbors by name; all the neighbors, that is, except those in the closeknit Hasidic community. He's aware of this, so when neighbor Chaim ventures to a bar and for the first time encounters Vic Thrill's music they eventually become friends and a great "Experimental Phase" results.
Segal has Chaim describe how he learned about English and television and how coming to those cultural components "fresh" as it were, laid the groundwork for intriguing lyrics. Billy recalls Chaim's prolific lyric-writing, irritatingly left on Billy's answering machine, because that was the only way Chaim knew to get it down. When faced with the option of sending the irrepresible Chaim (who was spending 6 hours a day at Billy's watching TV) away, Billy agreed to give collaboration a try and the result was Curly Oxide, glam rock star. The snippet of the song "Welcome to the Millenium" sounded great.
Chaim's experimental phase came to an end. He left it up to God as to which would come first, a record contract or an arranged marriage. His mother found him a wife, he was married shortly thereafter and now lives the Hasidic life with his wife and two children. The only place you could hear his performance, Segal reports, was on a jukebox (was it at Joe's Pub in the East Village?) that no longer exists. Thanks NPR and Segal for an interesting show as I drove through the Ohio farmland and was transported to another place, another culture, another phase.
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7 comments:
You're welcome.
David Segal
The Washington Post
This was a great show! I recorded it and played it for my wife on a July 4th weekend car trip. By the way, the place that had Chayim's (Curly Oxide's) song was called the Right Bank, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Thanks to all commenters. I hope Segal sees Marco's message.
And, Daniel, thanks for the correct spelling of Chayim's name!
It sounds like the kids got it right. So long as someone makes the choice, even if that choice seems restrictive or old-fashioned to others, that, in and of itself, is free choice. You've got perceptive kids.
David Segal here, once again.
First, there's a post above this one tagged "anonymous" and purporting to be me. It aint. Although I wouldn't quibble with the sentiments that this faux Segal wrote, it's kind of funny that anyone would take the trouble to impersonate me, even in a squib on the 'Net.
I've heard a ton of feedback about Chaim's story. It's been amazing. (Learning that someone out there considers me "a god" -- even better.)
If I could weigh in on the debate between those kids and their parents -- the kids are right. The beauty of Chaim's story, to me, is that he chose to return to his community. That might not be a choice that a non-Hasid could understand, but he was opting to remain with his family, with his traditions, with his roots. He saw the other side, was tempted by it, but opted back out of it. The thing you have to understand -- and maybe this should have been clearer in the show -- is that Chaim love's his life today. He loves it. He loves being a dad, he loves his wife and he loves the simple beauty of the Sabbath, when you just spend time with your family. He may be bound by certain rules and traditions and mores but don't confuse that with captivity. He's a free man.
D
The responses here, are so well said. There is nothing about Chaim's choices that is "oppressive." There is Everything about his choices that is free and liberating.
He chose to do what he is comfortable with, he chose a lifestyle that gives him great happiness, he chose a lifestyle that withstood the changes of the sands of time.
Maybe is it We, who's culture, mores, and values seem to be contantly in flux, that are the confused ones.
Just maybe...
Tom
First of all, thank you David Segal for the terrific job. Second of all, You have to respect Chaim's choice to remain with his people. He actually tasted the outside "normal" world and still decided to stick with his religion. That's what Ameerica is all about.
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