Item: Internet Makes Man’s Life Slightly Better

Isn’t the internet occasionally so damned useful, that you just thank the heavens for it? There I was, sitting at my desk, doing research into how to sue God, and listening to an NPR podcast. The DJ, a man who sounds like one of those liberal elite academics that right wing Americans are always complaining about, introduces a track called “Mermaid Avenue???. My ears prick up: Mermaid Avenue was where folk singer Woody Guthrie lived in Brooklyn, and is the title of two great albums by Billy Bragg and Wilco. At Woody’s daughter, Nora’s request, Bragg and Wilco had taken the written lyrics of some of Guthrie’s thousands of unrecorded songs, written new tunes and recorded them. Mein host at NPR tells me that “Wonder Wheel???, a third album of lost Guthrie songs has been made, this time by New York band the Klezmatics. They’re one of the foremost modern outfits playing Jewish Klezmer music, it seems. Then I hear the song. I cannot tell you charmed I was to learn that such an improbable piece of music even existed, nor how thrilled I was that it sounded wonderful. Before the track was even played through, Amazon had received my order for the album. A quick google brought me to a half-hour interview with the band, including tracks performed in-studio. Ever the enthusiast when it comes to musical moments like this, it occurred to me “now I’ll have to start listening to Klezmer music???. A few moments and my Last.fm station was appropriately configured, and suddenly my living room was filled with that sad old atmosphere you get when Lisa and Bart go to the old Jewish Quarter to ask Rabbi Krustofsky for advice on matters Rabbinical. And thus, a few small but previously unknown pleasures are added to my life. Oy! Ain’t this internet just a kholem?