<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=content-type content=text/html;charset=US-ASCII>
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.100" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=290033721-19032003>Yeah, what he
said!</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=290033721-19032003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=290033721-19032003>And, sorry Bill
and Jim for mixing up your names in my last post. In my own defense, I wrote the
post after midnight after coming home from a 6 hour job entertaining a couple
hundred kids at a Purim party. So I plead temporary insanity--not for my
opinions about Chicago, but for getting the names mixed up.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=290033721-19032003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=290033721-19032003>On the lighter
side (well, if you can see the humor in any of this), today is THE day for
working entertainers in Israel, and my job was managing entertainment for almost
400 children from families who have lost members in terror attacks. You may hear
of the sponsoring organization -- One Family -- in your travels. The adults are
not allowed to listen to music during the first year of mourning. (I don't know
if I could live with that practice, so I'm praying that no one close to me dies
during my lifetime. But I think there is a loophole for people who make a living
with music -- something about you can play it but you can't listen... I'll
have to ask my rabbi sometime.)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=290033721-19032003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=290033721-19032003>So this was not
primarily a music gig. My crew and I did thousands of balloons, and had dozens
of musical instruments of all kinds for people to try out. I played some banjo
accompanying the juggler during his act.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=290033721-19032003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=290033721-19032003>On the eve of
America's war with Iraq, which is likely to become Israel's war too, when our
government had given instructions to prepare our sealed rooms and carry our gas
masks with us, these dear people, along with I'd say much of our unusual little
country, opted to celebrate our most upbeat annual festival. Two whole families
came from the US to celebrate Bar Mitzvahs with this group on this day, to share
their joy with us and to show their support in a tangible way. The speeches of
the bar mitzvah boys were very moving, and I don't think anybody wrote for
them.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=290033721-19032003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=290033721-19032003>Now if you'll
excuse me, I have to go figure out how to play a tuba while wearing my gas mask,
in case of bio-chemical or nuclear attack. I'll let you know if I
succeed.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=290033721-19032003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=290033721-19032003>Elazar</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Jerry Gordon
[mailto:jerrygordon@juno.com]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, 19 March, 2003
06:25<BR><B>To:</B> dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re:
[Dixielandjazz] Re Chicago bashing<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>My wife and I enjoyed the movie very much. Perhaps the music doesn't
meet the standards of some on this list, but we weren't applying that
test. We enjoyed the music, the dancing, the acting, the humor, the clever
sets and the overall entertainment value.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>