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Last year<\/strong><\/span> at The Ark, my klezmer show got bumped for Judy Collins.\u00a0 She took my slot.<\/p>\n Ann Arbor ukulele-master Gerald Ross, who was a sideman, emailed me then: \u201cI saw The Ark schedule. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re playing Feb. 9 [2013], because you\u2019re not Judy Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n I had a lock on that date!\u00a0 I emailed The Ark.\u00a0 The Ark said how about another date?\u00a0 I suggested a couple more Saturday nights.\u00a0 The Ark said how about a Friday night.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t<\/strong><\/span> play Friday nights if I can help it.\u00a0 I like to stay home for Friday nights — shabbat.\u00a0 Sometimes my shabbats are just a couple hours, but they\u2019re always on Friday night!\u00a0 I once heard a Reform rabbi say, \u201cSay a prayer over your pizza if you\u2019re out with your kids on Friday night.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m all for that.\u00a0 I \u201chold\u201d by that.\u00a0 (\u201cHold\u201d means\u00a0 “I follow that custom.”)<\/p>\n I reluctantly took the Friday night slot last year, but didn\u2019t put Friday<\/em> in my publicity.<\/p>\n I got up to Ann Arbor on Friday afternoon and met up with an old college friend, Charlie Burch.\u00a0\u00a0 He had just donated his 1960-70s political buttons to an archive in the Graduate Library.\u00a0 I wondered who still used the library. The answer: Charlie.\u00a0 (His buttons were No Nein Nyet Non Lo; March on Washington; Go Michigan Beat Thailand.)<\/p>\n Charlie pointed<\/strong><\/span> out where various stores don\u2019t exist anymore.\u00a0 Like Centicore Books, Borders Books, Orange Julius and Miller\u2019s Ice Cream.<\/p>\n I like touring Ann Arbor.\u00a0 It\u2019s the only place I\u2019ve lived other than Cleveland.\u00a0 I graduated U-M in 1973.<\/p>\n I said a private shabbat prayer in a Mexican restaurant, Sabor Latino, before my gig.\u00a0 I opened the gig with \u201cShalom Aleykhem\u201d (a well-known Friday night song) and wished the Jews at The Ark \u201cshabbat shalom.\u201d<\/p>\n I had<\/strong><\/span> a good one — a good shabbat.\u00a0 But playing publicly on Friday night is not optimal for me.<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup plays\u00a0 Saturday night this year \u2013- this<\/em> Saturday, Feb. 8 [2014].\u00a0 Praise the Lord! 180-degree turn . . .<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n MILK IS MY ILK My dad loved everything having to do with cows: barns, ice cream, blintzes. He had me pitching balls against the side of our barn, like Bob Feller. My dad thought I could be the next Rapid Robert even though I was a near-midget.<\/p>\n I spent a year in Israel after college, at a kibbutz, milking cows in the refet<\/em> (dairy barn). The kibbutzniks\u00a0 were impressed.<\/p>\n I still like unpasteurized milk, but it\u2019s hard to find these days.<\/p>\n I order milk at bars. Women overhear me and say, \u201cYou’re like James Cagney!\u201d<\/p>\n Got milk?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I hope so. I have zero tolerance for the lactose intolerant. File under Fake Profiles<\/a>.<\/em><\/small>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Judy-collins-bumps-Bert-218x300.jpg\" "\\"Judy")
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\nSIDE B<\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
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\nI shot<\/strong><\/span> a cow once. It was crippled and couldn\u2019t walk. My dad sold the dead cow to the Amish for meat. We couldn\u2019t sell it to anybody else because it wasn\u2019t \u201cchoice\u201d grade.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/jewish-tongue5031-182x300.jpg\" "\\"jewish")
<\/a>I <\/strong><\/span>planned<\/span><\/strong> to go to Ohio State to major in dairy science after high school. But my high school friends — all non-dairy guys — talked me into Michigan, where I majored in diary science (creative writing). A big mistake.<\/p>\n
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\nYiddishe Cup is at The Ark<\/a>\u00a0 this Sat., 8 p.m. Feb. 8. Here’s a vid from our show at The Ark, 2009:<\/span>
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