Erran Baron Cohen

This morning on my way to the gym I heard a part of the NPR interview of Erran Baron Cohen. He is Sacha Baron Cohen's brother and a musician. He recently made an album called "Songs in the Key of Hanukkah" and the discussion focused on that. He talked about the need for updated Hanukkah music and of his experience with the New York City rapper Y-love, who recently became an Orthodox Jew and can rap in English, Yiddish, and Aramaic. My favorite part was when he talked about dressing up like Hassidic Jews with his brother and the song about sweating that they would sing as they took off layers of clothing. It was an entertaining story and I was tempted to stay in the car and listen, but I finished it at home, turns out I only missed a few minutes because it's just 10 minutes long.

While I think that the copious amounts of Christmas music there is and of Christmas albums marking the end of dwindling music careers, is a bit ridiculous, I happen to actually like a lot of it. But the idea of a new Hanukkah album really intrigued me and I checked it out. I guess listening to more global music makes me feel more part of the world. In any case, I really liked it and found it worth passing on to my readers.