“OVER EASY”AT THE BIG EGO
The band biz is a fraction of the real estate money, but the time commitment is about the same. And as for the psychic payoff, the band is several times higher than the real estate biz. Nobody is going to give you credit — at least long-lasting credit — for fixing a toilet. Nobody is going to write on your tombstone: “This guy provided heat for many apts.”
The real estate biz — that is humble stuff. The arts — one big ego trip. My dad said that. He was probably right. Where did he come up with the word ego? That wasn’t his style.
Right after I started Yiddishe Cup, in 1988, I told the Cleveland Jewish News, “We’re not in it for fame and fortune.”
That lasted about six months. After our first concert, we began dining regularly at The Big Ego, which is next to The Big Egg, W. 51st Street and Detroit Avenue. Figuratively speaking.
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Tomorrow:
The Yiddishe Cup Fight Song . . . Go Cup Go
1 comment
Am enjoying your posts on Bloglines, where I am one of your many (OK, 3) subscribers…
Here’s something you may know about more than anyone else I know. My bar mitzvah was 45 years ago last Saturday in Brooklyn (the important part, anyway – the reception; the ceremony at the synagogue took place the Saturday morning before — I was astonished to read a few weeks ago in the New York Times real estate section on my old neighborhood that the rabbi then is still the rabbi now).
I posted to both Facebook and my blog the pic of me & my mom dancing with the sheet music to “Mr. Wonderful.”
http://who-will-kiss-the-pig.blogspot.com/2009/05/saturday-night-in-sheepshead-bay-bar.html
I heard from 3 guys who have the exact same pic in their bar mitzvah albums,and all the photographers were in NYC but different photogs. Was this a kind of standard thing elsewhere?
I noticed my next-oldest brother’s b.m. album from Jan. 68 that the kitschy pics in mine are missing. They are also in color. But the guys who have “Mr. Wonderful” were all bar-mitzvahed in NYC between 1963 & 1967. Have you ever heard of this? Do you have this in your album?
On Facebook I’ve got a decent shot of my great-great-uncle Dave Tarras and his clarinet. He’s also in the background of my parents’ wedding pics I also posted last week on Facebook on their 60th anniversary. As my mother’s cousin Suzi said to me on Mother’s Day, Dave Tarras was always so well-known but he insisted on playing at every catered affair the very large extended family had till maybe the 1970s.
Anyway, I’d be interested if you or readers know about this “Mr. Wonderful” business. Or any other bar mitzvah photo kitsch. . .
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