L ifestyle /C ulture
‘Velvet Underground’ Withstands Test of Time
FI L M
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
BEFORE LOU
REED proclaimed, “My God is rock ’n’
roll,” the Velvet Underground
frontman was a Jewish boy who
grew up in Freeport, Long Island,
with Russian refugee grandpar-
ents. He was born Lewis Allan
Reed — though his grandpar-
ents changed their family name
from “Rabinowitz” to “Reed.”
The boy with a love for the
“Murray the K” radio show grew
into an amateur musician who
played — and got arrested —
at gay bars, who became the
leader of the iconic rock ’n’ roll
band the Velvet Underground
with the help of pop artist Andy
Warhol and New York’s finest
anti-establishment creatives.

“The Velvet Underground,”
produced and directed by
Jewish filmmaker Todd Haynes,
unravels the story of Reed and
his eccentric cohort of avant-
garde artists, cementing the
titular band as one that will live
on long after its dissolution and
the deaths of its members. The
documentary will be available
on AppleTV+ on Oct. 15
Haynes’ film — his first
documentary, but not his first
film to draw inspiration from
Reed — is a mosaic of video
clips and photographs: Reed as
a baby, New York in the ’60s, a
precious collection of 2018 inter-
views with Velvet Underground
band members and their peers.

The sheer volume of Haynes’
archive is impressive, yet the
curation of clips and photos
somehow manage to be greater
than the sum of their parts.

Haynes doesn’t shy away
from Reed’s notoriety as abrasive
and petulant, but rather tries to
provide an explanation for it.

Reed was socially anxious
and underwent electroconvul-
sive therapy at the request of his
parents, who suspected him of
having “homosexual urges.” He
began using drugs in high school.

He dropped out of New
York University after one-and-
a-half semesters, transferring
to Syracuse University, where
friends say he developed an
at-times bitter personality.

Early bandmates recall Reed
punching drum sets if they
missed a note or beat; Reed,
who died in 2013, demanded
perfection. Yet time seemed to tame Reed
a bit, as did the synergy between
bandmates Moe Tucker, Sterling
Morrison and John Cale. Their
improvisations pushed the
boundaries of what rock ’n’ roll
— and music — could entail.

The Velvet Underground was
unique, but Reed wanted to be
cemented as a rock star, a feat
which couldn’t have been made
possible without Warhol, the
band’s producer, who, in the
band’s early days, would sit silently
in the studio, session after session.

Warhol recruited German
actress and model Nico, whose
“ghostly” beauty and elegance
foiled the band’s untidy sound
and aesthetic.

Without Warhol’s signa-
ture pop-art banana on the
debut album’s cover, the Velvet
Underground would likely not
have experienced the stardom
they did.

Conversely, when Warhol and
Reed’s relationship soured and
Nico left to pursue an indepen-
dent musical career, the Velvet
Underground’s sound and
synergism faltered, though the
band continued creating music
together for several more years.

Though the
Velvet Underground was revived in the
1990s, the zeitgeist of the 1960s
that helped create the band’s
renown was long gone.

In its prime playing as
part of Warhol’s Plastic
From left: Moe Tucker, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Lou Reed
from archival photography in a split-screen frame
Courtesy of AppleTV+
Exploding Inevitable, the Velvet
Underground would have images
of polka dots and scenes from
Warhol’s reels projected behind it
during performances, prompting
sensory overload for the audience.

Haynes employs a similar
technique to his documentary:
Over the narration of Cale,
Tucker and musician and Velvet
Underground protege Jonathan
Richman, among other artists of
the time, Haynes fills the screen
with swirling geometric shapes
and musical performances and
footage sped up or slowed down.

To some, the indulgent use
of archival footage may seem
excessive, distracting from the
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documentary’s narrative. To
Haynes, it’s emblematic of the
1960s epoch.

“Painters, musicians,
filmmakers — they were not so
much interested in telling narra-
tive stories,” said Jonas Mekas, a
Lithuanian-American avant-garde
filmmaker, in the film. “The poetic
aspect of cinema brought cinema
to the level of the other parts.”
Throughout the film, Haynes
makes his fascination with the
passing of time clear.

The story of Reed and the
Velvet Underground digresses at
one point to explain the evoca-
tive 1963 “Kiss” film by Warhol.

The 50-minute silent film is
broken up into three-and-a-half-
minute segments, each of a pair
of people of various genders and
races kissing each other. The
film is shown at 16 frames per
second, slower than the speed
of the subjects while they were
being filmed.

“The people in those images
are breathing, and their hearts are
beating in a different time frame
than yours is when you watch it,”
film critic Amy Taubin said.

And as if he were a ghost, Reed’s
voice appears and disappears
throughout the documentary,
coloring the black-and-white
footage with his commentary,
bringing archival clips — and the
musician behind them — to life. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
Jewish Radio Show Aims to
Connects Local Singles
DATING JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
IN OUR REMOTE and isolated
world today, “it’s hard to meet
people,” Valori Zaslow said.

“Th ey are on apps, websites,
blind dates,” she continued.

“Th ey are all over the place.”
Except, it seems, in public
spaces with other people.

So, to help singles recon-
nect to the dating scene,
Zaslow and her new friend,
Diana Pivenshteyn, created a
radio show, Jewish Singles, on
WWDB-AM TALK 860.

Th e show airs for an hour
every Wednesday at 7 p.m. It
also goes out as a podcast on
the WWDB website and on
podcast platforms.

Zaslow, 54, of Narberth,
and Pivenshteyn, 45, of
Philadelphia, aired their fi rst
episode in June and started
building a loyal audience. As
divorced women of a certain
age, they get what their
listeners are going through and
are capable of commiserating
and off ering advice.

But they also bring on spiri-
tual leaders, life coaches and
matchmakers, among others.

Some shows have topics, like
how to navigate dating if you
have children. Others feature
one expert and several callers
asking for advice.

At least two couples have
met from appearing on the
show at the same time, though
the hosts do not profess to be
matchmakers. “We just want to help facil-
itate that for people who are
struggling,” Zaslow said.

Zaslow and Pivenshteyn did
not know each other before
the show. Th ey actually had
their own matchmaker: Perry
Milou, a mutual friend and an
artist with a studio in Bristol.

Milou had a feeling that the
women would complement
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM The logo for the Jewish Singles Radio Show
each other.

As the artist explained it,
Zaslow, a candy store owner,
event planner and streaming
television host, has “always got
her mind into something.”
And Pivenshteyn, an event
planner who ran beauty
pageants in the area’s Russian
community for many years, is
“very creative.”
So one day in the spring, the
artist invited both women to
his studio space.

Around the same time,
Zaslow got a call from Barry
Reisman, the host of a Jewish
music show on WWDB-AM.

He knew that, over a year
earlier, she created a Facebook
page called Jewish Singles
Society that got hundreds
of likes before the pandemic
halted its burgeoning event
schedule. He also knew that
Zaslow had media experience.

“Barry asked if I’d be
interested in bringing a show
to [WW]DB in that realm,”
Zaslow said. “Th is is what
came to mind.”
Th at day, Zaslow walked
into Milou’s studio and made
an instant connection with
Pivenshteyn, as expected. Th en,
she popped the question about
Courtesy of Valori Zaslow
co-hosting Jewish Singles.

Pivenshteyn loved the idea.

She used to host a Russian
music show on WWDB.

“Valori brought it up. Diana
had some experience at the
station. And they took it to the
next level,” Milou said.

According to Pivenshteyn,
due to the ongoing pandemic,
neither woman had a lot going
on in the spring. Th ere still
weren’t many big events.

Plus, according to Zaslow,
the Jewish Singles Society
maintained a big Facebook
following, even though it never
really got off the ground. So,
she still wanted to launch it,
and the show would be a way
to do that.

But more than anything,
Pivenshteyn said, the connec-
tive fi ber between the women
was their status as Jewish
singles themselves.

“We’re both single and
divorced,” Pivenshteyn said.

“When two women get together
and have that in common,
that’s like hours of talking.”
WWDB-AM executives tell
their hosts that the station has
10,000 listeners a day at any
given time, but the women aren’t
sure how big their audience is.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Th ey do, however, understand
its makeup based on the conver-
sations that break out.

“Most of our listeners,
because of our age, are in
the same boat,” Pivenshteyn
said. “It’s like a support group
on air.”
Zaslow has a boyfriend.

But Pivenshteyn is just dating.

And since she has two young
kids, two dogs and elderly
parents who need her help, she
doesn’t need a boyfriend, she
says. Pivenshteyn has plenty of
responsibilities and company.

So when she does date, she
has prerequisites: Th e guy must
be Jewish, Russian and a parent
like her, though she’s fl exible
on the Russian part.

Pivenshteyn has ventured
outside her world before and
has no desire to do it again. But
that’s just what works for her.

“My advice to people is stick
with what they really want,”
Pivenshteyn said.

The show has gotten
popular enough to transform
into a community, Zaslow said.

She is talking to local Jewish
organizers about planning
events for singles to meet in
public again.

“It’s been tough in the last 15
months to do that,” she said. ●
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