Bette Midler

The Best of 2006 : Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "And I Am Telling You"

I am DYING to see Dreamgirls; notwithstanding the presence of Beyonce in the movie. She and her pimping-parents have been chaffing me of late. The internets have been attwiter over how her parents have tried to sabotage Jennifer Hudson's moment in the limelight, particularly after every movie critic in this country has sang her praises and Hosannas.

Well, they're being smacked down by real talent.

In the next clip, Matt Lauer quotes Variety and I will so too :

An "American Idol" finalist without prior screen experience, Hudson comes fully-formed to film. It's the kind of galvanizing perf that calls to mind debuts like Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl" or Bette Midler in "The Rose," with a voice like the young Aretha. More fully developed here than onstage, Effie is the fierce, wounded, pulsating heart of the movie. Her big song and second explosive number "I Am Changing" both elicit audience cheers and applause.

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Words to live by

Wars are the clock ticking off the time of Israeli history: World War I; the "riots" of 1929 and 1936; World War II; the War of Independence, 1948; the Sinai Campaign, 1956; the Six Day War, 1967; the War of Attrition, 1969-1971; the Yom Kippur War, 1973; the Labanon War, 1982; the Gulf War, 1991. Not all these conflicts were equally significant in their cultural impact, and surely not in the same way, but together they create a ghastly rhythm in which every calm period is seen in Israel as a pause before future violence.

[Editor's Note: I would say this explains a great deal about Israel...and I would add that a similar statement could be made about Palestine]

— Ariel Hirschfeld, in his chapter in Cultures of the Jews, edited by David Biale