The new album "Aviv Geffen III" (Hed Artzi) finds this androgynous, lipstick-wearing 20-year-old singer-songwriter reveling in his role as idol and spokesperson of what he himself has coined Israel's "screwed-up generation." The song titles alone are a catalogue of adolescent angst "Dika'on" (Depression), "Meshugah" (Crazy), "Hitabdut" (Suicide). Lyrics like "My mother, give me your hand/So I won't be lost/My father, take my hand in a strong grip/So we won't be separated/I don't want to kill myself!" are set to art-rock flourishes of the Pink Floyd variety, which inflate them to bombastic proportions.
Yet, there's no denying Geffen's talent. He's a strong vocalist who knows how to craft a song both lyrically and musically. If Geffen can one day outgrow his overblown posturing, and resists the temptation to become Israel's answer to Kurt Cobain, he might yet mature into one of the brighter fixtures on the local pop scene.
If you can get past the marked American accents singing contemporary jazz versions of such standards of Hebrew liturgy as "Oseh Shalom," "Ani Ma'amin" and "Avinu Malkenu," you'll find "Life's a Lesson" (Go Jazz Records), the new CD by keyboard artist and vocalist Ben Sidran, is a treat.
The genesis for this record came 10 years ago, when Sidran, a one-time member of the Steve Miller Band, attended alternative High Holy Day services at Wisconsin's progressive Gates of Heaven synagogue which featured musical accompaniment. Sidran was inspired to join the services in the following years, and this album which also features the Gates of Heaven Children's Choir is the felicitous result. Accompanying Sidran on "Life's a Lesson" are some of the biggest Jewish names in jazz, including Randy Brecker, Lee Konitz and Eddie Daniels, and vocal support is provided by folk-rocker Carole King. There is great emotion and warmth here, and the shofar playing by Miles Goldstein is by itself guaranteed to bring the house down.
For those who are less than passionate about saving the planet, the idea of an entire film festival devoted to environmental subjects may sound like a major yawn. Yet the launch of Israel's first such festival was far from boring. Some 20 countries contributed a variety of movies for a three-day period in early May, starting at Jerusalem's Cinematheque before moving on to Tel Aviv and several other locales.
A combination pep-rally and film screening, the opening began with a tasty buffet spread (vegetarian, of course), enjoyed by a crowd that, for Israel, was relatively smoke-free. A fiery speech by activist Alon Tal, head of the Israel Union For Environmental Defense, one of the event's sponsors, informed all those present that environmentalism "is no longer a spectator sport" and that they should start "going to the police and complaining" about pollution.
Then the films began. First came a surprisingly peppy Israeli movie called "Good Environment, Bad Environment," which counterpointed the work of greenhouse artist Avital Geva and scenes of the ecologically sound northern village of Klil, against showcased images that would be repeated in nearly all the films screened during the evening: billowing smokestacks and large piles of highly unaesthetic trash. The low point of the evening was a gruesome Czech film pushing vegetarianism via repeated, repulsive scenes of chickens being slaughtered.
As a whole, though, the films were competently made, and are worth seeing even for those not yet converted to the environmental cause. Aviv Geffen: Can he resist the temptation to become Israel's answer to Kurt Cobain?