Happy Hanukkah

The Yeshiva University Maccabeats originally got famous with a video called "Candlelight":


This is actually an arrangement by Mike Tompkins, covering a pop-dance song by Taio Cruz called "Dynamite":



That song neatly articulates a sort of "we're going to go someplace, and the place will be cool because we are there" attitude that I can't say I really understand, but we'll save that for later. Regardless, even a quick glance at his other videos shows that Tompkins is quite a professional.

I find myself really touched by Matisyahu's "Miracle," so I've been listening to more of his stuff on YouTube. This is "King Without A Crown" on Letterman in 2006; it shows both how very talented he is, and why I loathe that guitarist:



Here's the music video for "Miracle," which is just...weird.



Apparently he's a really good ice skater? He wrote the song so kids would have a Hanukkah song that actually talked about the meaning of the holiday, but the narrative of the video is just shy of comprehensible.

And finally, one of the awesome catchy ones, with a pretty start:



One cool thing about Matisyahu is that he's just this normal guy who liked reggae and found his way to Orthodox Judaism. As I was looking him up, I found that just last week he shaved his beard:

At the break of day I look for you at sunrise When the tide comes in I lose my disguiseyfrog.com/mng3ocj yfrog.com/mgj7ezhj

-- Matisyahu (@matisyahu) December 13, 2011

He looks like hell, despite being a few years younger than me. Life as a touring musician is pretty hard, but who knows. He's still Orthodox, and I'm glad he's finding his way.