A lot of would-be partiers stay home for a quiet evening, or they go to the movies. There aren’t that many gigs.\u00a0 The era of the fraternal organization New Year’s Eve dinner dance is long gone.<\/p>\n
Sometimes people eat special New Year’s Eve foods.\u00a0 I know a family that eats lobster.\u00a0 My family eats oatmeal on New Year’s Eve.\u00a0 We learned that habit in Akron, Ohio.<\/p>\n
Yiddishe Cup didn’t play First Night Akron last year.\u00a0 The event coordinator called and said, “We’re reducing our footprint.”<\/p>\n My wife, Alice,<\/strong><\/span> plus a Yiddishe Cup musician and his wife, made a small dinner and then we went to the movies.\u00a0 Not memorable, except for the oatmeal.<\/p>\n Klezmer musicians around the country lamented the downsizing of First Nights. This kvetching<\/em> started a couple years ago on a Jewish-music listserv<\/a>. First Nights had been the rage in the 1990s but had become part of the scenery.\u00a0 (Similar to klezmer music’s popularity arc.)\u00a0 In the 1990s, the director of First Night Akron told me she had just been to a national First Night conference in Boston and the word was “get a klezmer band.”<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup worked up to playing First Night Akron. We played Warren, Ohio, First Night a couple times prior.\u00a0 (A good event.)<\/p>\n Last year I checked out First Night Akron’s program online. I looked to see if another klezmer band was playing. There was a Beatles tribute band, a blues band and a couple generic American acts. \u00a0\u00a0That was gratifying.<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup is back<\/strong><\/span> at First Night Akron this year.\u00a0 “Raisins and Oatmeal.”\u00a0 That will be our opening song. No, it won’t. The tune doesn’t exist. We’ll open with![\"first-night1\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/first-night1.jpg\" "\\"first-night1\\"")
Yiddishe Cup had a gig at First Night Akron<\/a> for 12 years in a row, and occasionally my family stayed overnight at the Quaker Square hotel, which was in a remodeled\u00a0Quaker Oats grain silo.\u00a0 The hotel’s New Year’s Eve dish was oatmeal, served at midnight.<\/p>\n
\n“Shalom Aleichem” — the version made popular by\u00a0 Shmuel Brazil and Regesh<\/a>.<\/p>\n