Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

MIRROR IMAGES

by Bert Stratton

Yiddishe Cup occasionally plays mirrored halls.

Take La Vera.  Or Casa di Borally.  Or La Malfa (no mirrors but still heavy Italian).

Our latest mirrored hall gig was Armenian.  Yiddishe Cup knows two Armenian tunes, which gets us through the night. We mix them with klezmer, jazz and pop.

I’m not bad on “Cold Duck Time” by Eddie Harris.  Not good either.

I thought there were 300 people at the La Vera gig, because of the mirrors.  There were about 150 people.

A guest asked if Yiddishe Cup is available July 11, 2011, for his daughter’s wedding at La Malfa.  Yes, La Coppa Yiddishe is available, and call soon.  July 11 is “tomorrow” in the band biz.

***

The premier mirrored hall in Ohio is the Hall of Mirrors at the Hilton Netherland Plaza in Cincinnati.  That mirrored hall, built in 1931, is modeled after the Palace of Versailles.

Yiddishe Cup played a wedding in the Cincy hall for the great-grandchild of Arnold Schoenberg.  A guest even sang a medley of Schoenberg art songs midway through the reception.  That was a bigger party-killer than benching (post-meal prayers).

Yiddishe Cup is playing a Cincy wedding tomorrow night at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. We’ve never played there.   Mirror situation, per favore?

—-

Illustration by Ralph Solonitz.

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4 comments

1 "Kenny G" { 12.08.10 at 10:12 am }

Yes – very beautiful Art Deco hotel! Haven’t been there in, like, 25 years, so I hope it hasn’t been ruined with “improvements.”

I was impressed with another downtown hotel from around 1948 – built as part of big Contemporary complex. I remember it originally had three outstanding works of art in its lobby – all eventually moved to the main art museum. One is a Calder mobile. I could look all this up but can’t spend the time now. Another might be a Dubuffet mural.

2 Alan Douglass { 12.08.10 at 10:18 am }

Love the illustrations! Don’t forget, there’s another hall in that hotel that is high-style art deco. It’s on the register of historic places.

3 MARC { 12.08.10 at 3:10 pm }

I love that line “bigger party-killer than benching.”

4 "Kenny G" { 12.09.10 at 11:42 am }

“La Malfa” name always makes me think of gangsters – like it’s Gangsta Central” for lavish Italian-American parties paid for with “questionable” moneys….
[am I the only one???]

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