Krakow 2007
Speaking of festivals, this year's Krakow festival provided inspiration to a rather sarcastic (in some ways) article in the forward (Krakow Jewish Fest Features Notable Absence: Jews, by Rukhl Schaechte, Wed. Jul 11, 2007) about what if they gave a Jewish music festival and most of the Jews in the area were the performers? I dunno. I mean, have you ever gone to a blues festival and looked at how little of the audience is black? (But we don't have an official killing program against blacks; we seem to be headed, slowly in that direction given the high percentage of blacks killed in urban violence, not to mention the high percentage of black men who are or have been in prison, but that is merely unjust, inequitable, and evil—it's still many orders of magnitude away from the Holocaust.)
So, where was I? The Krakow Music festival this past summer. As I catch up on my correspondence, I realize that several people wrote very movingly about various aspects of the festival this year. So, this being the KlezmerShack, I have gathered the pieces together. A couple of the articles are here on the KlezmerShack, even:
- Bob Blacksberg: Poland Diary
- Philip Palmer: Christian and Sanne's Klezmer Workshop
- Philip Palmer: SoCalled in Poland (Roots World)
- Mark Rubin: Krakow: Jews, Food, Absinthe, More Food, Madness"
- Video: Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars