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Love from Alaska
There are certain things you do in the summertime, like BBQ's, picnics and baseball. My extended family just discovered a new one: taking a trip to a Alaska. Shrouded in snow and gloom most of the year, Alaska comes alive from June to September. We enjoyed an 11-day sublime journey along the coast by cruise and car,  covering some of the most spectacular scenery I've ever witnessed. I imagined igloos and Eskimos. I got endless forest, rushing rivers, galloping glaciers, wildlife in the wild and 21 hours of daylight everyday. At one point I turned to my wife and said, "I just figured out why I'm in heaven: I'm with my family, seeing astounding natural beauty and I'm on a ship." That's a trifecta in my book. More pics here .
Re-entry hasn't been easy. I'm grateful to have several recording projects for a diverse collection of clients...but I can't figure out where to start. In my absence, one of my best buddies and best mixdown engineers on the planet, Chuck Sparks, has been mixing my all new CD  Fatherhood. It features songs that I've written for my dad, songs about lifecycles and songs about being a dad. The street date is September '11 and you can pre-order an autographed copy with a special pricing incentive on the website now! It will be a great gift for all the dads you know and please note that a portion of proceeds will benefit diabetes research.
Upcoming dates include Boston, Atlanta and Beverly Hills...please visit the website to check where and when. I'm excited to say that I will be the cantor in residence at Temple Emanuel, Virginia Beach for the upcoming High Holidays. I'll be available in the DC/Baltimore area that whole week for day school shows, teacher enrichment workshops and concerts.
We're booking 2012! Get out those calendars and find a weekend to supercharge your community with unforgettable spirit and uplifting music. Marcia's specialty is helping you fundraise and make the event a smash.
Please take a moment to read a controversial piece about singer Amy Winehouse below, may her memory be for a blessing. I'm interested in your comments. Don't forget the July video section, the Nations of the World CD announcement and the free mp3 of the month from Fatherhood! If indeed we have to fast on Tisha B'av (starts Monday Night, Aug 8th) may it be an easy one.
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The CHAI TOUR 2011/12
Now serving ultimate weekends of Jewish celebration! Get your organization signed up on this special tour while the best dates are still available. Click here for the concert options and click here for the full schedule; dates are added weekly. Ask about midweek discounts!
Coming up:
San Diego, CA
Greensboro, NC
Boston, MA
LA, CA
Marietta, GA
Virginia Beach, VA
Tucson, AZ |
| Just Released!
Nations of the World CD
Nations of the World is a compilation of Sam Glaser's most spiritual and moving songs, chosen to celebrate  mankind's universal vision of peace. This is uplifting music for all peoples...you don't have to be Jewish...just turn up the volume and let your spirit soar! Includes the brand new single Nations of the World and 14 other Sam Glaser favorites. Makes a great gift for Christians and Noahides that might appreciate the power of Torah and the teachings of the People of the Book. A portion of proceeds go to ZAKA humanitarian relief in Israel
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Hallel Songbook is Here!
Sam Glaser's Hallel is a jubilant musical experience that expresses mankind's ultimate joy and deepest gratitude. Incorporating the full text of the Hallel Service, the climax of  the prayers on most Jewish holidays, the Psalms of King David take on a new life within sophisticated new settings. Hallel is one of Sam's most ambitious works to date and the sheet music is now beautifully typeset so that you can sing it and accompany yourself with piano or guitar. Only $9.99 and includes chords, melody line, harmonies, translated lyrics, translations and sources.
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Get Your Free mp3!
 You're on Your Own is the latest mix from Sam's new CD Fatherhood! Written for his 16-year-old Max who just started asking to borrow the car keys... Download it here.
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During the "Three Weeks" our sages advise us to lessen our joy. Note that they do not ask us to be sad...we ALWAYS serve God with joy! In keeping with the times, this has been a tough week in the headlines. The senseless attack in Oslo, bombs in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan, the US on the edge of default. Sharing the front page is the tragic death of a 27-year-old British Jew that captivated the world with her raw vocal talent and five Grammy's in 2008. Reuters reported that out of respect for Jewish tradition her funeral was not delayed. Then they mentioned that she was cremated. This article below offers a different view of the source of Amy Winehouse's eccentricity. It does not necessarily represent my opinion; I include it to invite conversation. May her family and fans worldwide be comforted among the mourners of Zion.
Reprinted it from WorldJewishDaily.com
 The Fallen Woman
What the Death of Amy Winehouse Says About Diaspora Jewish Culture
By Benjamin Kerstein
Media coverage of the sudden though not entirely unexpected death of British R&B singer Amy Winehouse mentioned only in passing that she was Jewish. This says something in and of itself, but the truth is that Winehouse's Jewish identity was always just below the surface of her fame, particularly among her Jewish fans.
Many young Jews, and especially those disposed to care about the cultural image of Jews in the Diaspora, seemed to take a kind of quiet pride in Winehouse and her edgy public persona. Here, at long last, was a female Jewish celebrity who not only refused to pretend to be a gentile but also seemed completely unconcerned with what non-Jews thought of her. She was unabashedly emotional, dysfunctional, sensuous, and outspoken.
In a recent article in Tablet, for example, writer Dvora Meyers declared "never mind nice Jewish girls like Natalie Portman," and denounced "all of this earnest Jewish female goodness." Instead, she singled out Winehouse for praise precisely because she was not the "nice Jewish girl" she was expected to be.
It's this unrepentant behavior that signals Winehouse's place in a very different line of Jewish women-not the "nice" ones who make you chicken soup when you're sick or assure their sons that they're the smartest boys in the world and any woman would be lucky to marry them. Winehouse's ancestors are the biblical vixens: Dina, who slept with Shechem; Deborah, the biblical heroine; or, more recently, Monica Lewinsky, the "portly pepperpot" (as the New York Post dubbed her) who nearly ended Bill Clinton's presidency. These women possessed sexuality so powerful and intoxicating that it influenced national and political outcomes.
In a sense, Winehouse was a Jewish icon for a new generation of Diaspora Jews. This generation has left behind the ancient debates about assimilation and peoplehood. They feel no sense of alienation from the non-Jewish people and cultures around them. They do not care what the goyim think. At least, that is how they like to see themselves.
The truth, of course, is more complicated, as Winehouse's very public collapse demonstrates. Winehouse, everyone asserts, was both gloriously talented and horrendously self-destructive. Like so many before her, she squandered her talent and ultimately her life in favor of a hedonistic lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock n'roll that eventually killed her. Many remarked upon her death that she had joined the "27 club," putting her in the rarified company of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and other who all died - usually of drugs - at the age of 27.
But Winehouse does not quite fit into this company. Winehouse, much more than the others, consciously chose her self-destructive path. Unlike Hendrix, Joplin, and Morrison, Winehouse did not come from a troubled family or a dysfunctional background and appears to have a strong and concerned circle of friends and relatives who did everything they could to bring her back from the edge.
Nonetheless, Winehouse refused to treat her manic depression, married a clearly dysfunctional and self-destructive man with whom she shared a mutually abusive relationship, and refused to involve herself seriously in a rehabilitation program despite numerous opportunities to do so.
Why did she make these choices? The answer, I think, can be found in the now famous change of appearance that occurred when Winehouse first became famous worldwide. Originally appearing as a relatively clean- cut young woman who allowed her talent to speak for itself, Winehouse seemed to change overnight into a tattooed, heavily made up mess with a beehive hairdo and impossibly heavy eyeliner.
There is a reason Winehouse chose this look. It is the classic image of the female R&B singer, and the lifestyle that accompanied it was as well. Winehouse seemed to want to live out the drug-addled lives of Billy Holliday and Janis Joplin. And, unfortunately, she succeeded. Amy Winehouse, in other words, was imitating. And she continued imitating right to the very bitter end.
Why did she do so? Why did a woman of such talents feel the need to become someone else, even when it cost her life? The answer, I think, is that she was conscious, acutely and painfully consciously, of the "nice Jewish girl" she did not want to be and was afraid of becoming. So she did everything possible to make sure she would never be a nice Jewish girl and she did so in the same way that Jews have done so for centuries: By imitating non-Jews.
It is possible, just possible then, that Amy Winehouse is indeed the personification of her Jewish generation, or at least of its dysfunctions. A generation whose pretenses of comfort with their place in the Diaspora and in non-Jewish society are perhaps just that: pretenses. It may be that Winehouse's need to destroy what she once had been, so desperate that it resulted in what was, essentially, a slow-motion suicide, is secretly shared by that same generation of Diaspora Jews who idolized her as an icon of belonging.
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Videos for July! 
 | | Sam Glaser - Beautiful World: One of the tracks from Sam Glaser's new Fatherhood CD in a powerful Aish.com video |
 | | Sam Glaser - One Hand, One Heart: A thought for the Three Weeks. As we approach Tisha B'av we feel the loss of our Holy Temple so potently. May we see peace in our day. |
 | | Hello! Welcome Back Home, Israel by Edward Villa. Ed does great videos to share his love for Israel and the Jewish People. Here's the latest! |
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"...effortlessly performed, spontaneous and inspired, as if the music is flowing out as a perfectly conceived thought. This CD moves me to tears; I hear my own soul in there reaching for God and yearning for home." -Brian Wolf
"I am listening to this CD again and again. Thank you for putting so many of my favorite songs from throughout my life in one place. It's a tremendous amount of music on one recording and a great gift to the Jewish People."
-Jackie Land,Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning
"Listening to SWS2 is like coming home. Sam's rich melodic voice on the songs we know and love feels so comfortable and familiar. From singing in the kitchen, in the car and at school, we love The Songs We Sing!" -Lisa Soble Siegmann, Jewish Family Education Director
"As a Reform Cantor who has lived in Israel, I can hear the bridge built of voices of all Jews together regardless of religious backgrounds, and bonding us with our brethren in Israel. Keep up the great work that you do so well!"
-Cantor Zev Sonnenstein
"If you buy just one Jewish CD this year this is it. Sam has done it again with an amazing recording of so much music of incredible quality. This CD is his one-man mission to get the Jewish world singing. It's sure working for this family."
-Sheldon Bernstein
This 28 song double album squeezed on one CD breathes new life into these classic "common denominator" hit songs that unite the Jewish world. Get it TODAY!
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Sign up for Sam's New Living Inspired Weekly Email!
Need a great uplift from one of today's Torah giants? How about some great fodder for conversation at your Shabbat table? Sam sends out a weekly email with a compilation of his favorite words of Torah based on that week's Torah portion, culled from his favorite writers. Simply send an email and say, "put me on the weekly list!" |
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NewCAJE is this weekend! There's STILL TIME!
July 31- Aug 3 where will you be?? Greensboro, NC will be the place where the action is! Don't miss this amazing week of study, music, dance and celebration of the best in Judaism! NewCAJE lives!
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Jewish Rock Radio is Here!
Jewish Rock Radio will strengthen Jewish identity and connection in Jewish youth and young adults by providing a mass communication channel utilizing the power of music to attract, inspire, entertain, and educate. Rockin' Rick Recht and staff have put together a 24/7 celebration of Jewish music and it's free and easy to get! Hit the link above and get ready to ROCK!
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Thank you!
Thank you for reading, for listening, for your support and friendship.
Glaser MusicWorks
800-972-6694
Outside of the US 310-204-6111
sam@samglaser.com
1941 Livonia Av.
Los Angeles, California 90034
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