We knew that the one and only Leonard Nimoy was a Jewish music buff-- turns out Spock is also a veteran of Yiddish theater and Fiddler on the Roof-- so we decided to test his skills live on stage with a round of Name That Tune featuring artists and songs from the book.

We started with Irving Fields' slow-boiled bongo-peppered take on the Second Avenue chestnut "Belz Mein Shtetele Belz" and then moved to Terry Gibbs' take on "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" (featuring klezmer legend Sam Musiker on clarinet and Alice Coltrane on piano). Nimoy knew both tunes right away but hadn't heard these versions before, which started a good conversation about authenticity and tradition and about just how flexible musical Jewishness has been, which only intensified when he heard "Bei Mir" done by 30s "vout" jazzers Slim and Slam and a surprisingly cantorial sounding Judy Garland. Nimoy could easily differentiate between the voices of Yossele Rosenblatt, Richard Tucker, and Pierre Pinchik, and had no problem with Aaron Lebedeff's 40s version of "Roumania, Roumania," even if he scoffed at Eartha Kitt's rendering of it. There were tall tales ofdown-and-out cantors on his childhood streets of Boston ("Tabatchnik is Coming! Tabatchnik is Coming!") and fond memories of singing the staples of the Yiddish stage. Yet his Fiddler experience had him in disbelief when he heard The Temptations doing "If I Were A Rich Man" and he explained his resistance to the songs of Mickey Katz and Leo Fuchs, which he thought-- at one time-- were poor substitutes for the glory days of pre-WWII Yiddish music (we did our best to convince him otherwise).

More at Josh Kun's blog at And You Shall Know Us By The Trail Of Our Vinyl

June 11, 2008
by Angie Brenner

Booksellers queue in front of the L.A. Convention Center doors on Saturday morning of the 2008 BookExpo America - BEA. At 9:00 am, they push through and quickly disperse among the rows of publisher booths, ready to grab the latest galley copies of new releases and meet the authors. Today, among the many on hand to sign their books are: Arianna Huffington, Ann Rice, Salman Rushdie, Dionne Warwick, Andre Dubus III, Alec Baldwin, Leonard Nimoy, Vincent Bugliosi, William Shatner, Mariel Hemingway, Jamie Lee Curits, and Barbara Walters - whose handlers make sure that no photos will be taken of the interview queen as she signs her just released, tell-all biography, Audition.

Book Expo – Day Three
June 2, 2008 by kjwinston

While I was in the booth fondling the book, the most hilarious thing happened. There are a lot of celebrity authors at the show – this year’s crop included Brooke Shield, John Hodgman, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and one of the “Skinny Bitches.” I could not care less about celebrities, and I walked past booths where several were signing as if I were walking past a fire hydrant. But on day two of the convention, I visited the Interweave Press booth because, as some of you know, I am a rabid knitter. I wasn’t looking for anything there for PW or the blog, but was hoping to satisfy my own lust for yarn and knitting patterns by getting a glimpse of their forthcoming knitting books. I didn’t see any new knitting books because instead, I was stopped dead by the sight of Stephanie Pearl McPhee, the knitting guru/author/blogger/all-around wunderknitter, a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot sitting in the booth in an apparent meeting with Interweave’s reps. (An aside – if you are not knitter, you may be saying, “Who is SPM?” But if you are a knitter, it is as if I just told you I saw Pope John Paul II. Yes, she is that famous and that beloved). I just gaped. I didn’t say anything (what would I say? “I LOOOOOOVE YOU”???). But later that night, having dinner with my religion reporting colleagues Lynn and Marcia Ford, I mentioned that I had seen her and Marcia suddenly came out with, “I LOVE Stephanie Pearl McPhee! ARE YOU A KNITTER? ME, TOO!” and we were off to the races, comparing knitting stories and patterns and the like. Poor Lynn was completely left out.

ANYWAY, on this day, as I was fondling Made From Scratch in Storey’s booth, I glanced to me left – AND THERE WAS STEPHANIE PEARL MCPHEE AGAIN! This time, I was so startled out of my mouth came, “Oh, my God, I just saw you yesterday at Interweave’s booth and here you are again!” (Another aside: when startled I am not especially clever, though I do tend to be verbose and enthusiastic). Without missing a beat, SPM says, “Are you stalking me?” I must have blabbered something and then she said she was stalking William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (see the pictures on her site), and that she had managed to capture Captain Kirk with her camera.

Culver City P.O.
BookExpo America

As wonderful as it was to have Rick Wartzman remember me, it was even more exciting when I discovered that Leonard Nimoy, my favorite classic “Star Trek” character Mr. Spock, was signing his latest book at 1PM. Tim and I zipped over to booth #2110, fifteen minutes early. Nimoy was already hard at work signing and schmoozing with his fans. I rushed to get on line, but the queue of people snaked halfway through the hall. We decided to just snap a photo instead.

Exhausted, with not an ounce of adrenaline left in our bodies, we hobbled to the secret “librarians-only lounge,” organized by “Library Journal,” the oldest and most popular publication in the profession. There we noshed on pastries, chatted with colleagues and generally relaxed until it was time to enter the fray once again. Turns out my other favorite classic Trek hero, William Shatner, was signing his latest book at 3PM.

We dashed over to the St. Martin’s Press booth at 2:30PM. But the line was already twice as long as Nimoy’s had been, so we looked at a few more exhibits and then headed home.