Wishing everyone a chag kasher vesameach.
2 years ago
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Weird Sign Wednesday XI
Due to next week's Weird Sign Wednesday coming out on Yom Tov, this week I'm giving y'all a double dosage of weirdness . . . Playing on the Yiddish Meme of past weeks, we have two fine examples of NYC government appealing to it's large Chassidic base for either their votes - or participation in government programs. I find these signs amusing - both in terms of their awkward Yivo Yiddish (mostly in the case of the second sign) and the irony that people think Yiddish signs will sway constituents or are needed to get people to be part of census.
In a certain way this sign for Bil Thompson particularly annoys me - it stresses the selfish nature of frum communities to care for no other policies then those that feed into their own pockets. Such shtick gets people like Yvette Clarke in congress, who despite representing several large frum communities, can condmen Israel . . . sigh.
Technorati Tags: Weird Signs, Yiddish, Politics, Brooklyn, New York, Census
In a certain way this sign for Bil Thompson particularly annoys me - it stresses the selfish nature of frum communities to care for no other policies then those that feed into their own pockets. Such shtick gets people like Yvette Clarke in congress, who despite representing several large frum communities, can condmen Israel . . . sigh.
Technorati Tags: Weird Signs, Yiddish, Politics, Brooklyn, New York, Census
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
SXSW part II (End of Austin)
Part Two of the SXSW Post - please check out Part One if you haven't yet!
Monday Day: With all the late nights at SXSW - getting up in the morning for the first panels (there was an interesting one at 9:30 about the future of the GOP online) was way too hard. AT 12:30 I make it to a panel on Slow Twitter - how to make well crafted tweets
that are funny, witty and . . . publishable. With names like @momku @luckyshirt @clapifyoulikeme and @lonelysandwich . . . You know you're dealing with social media types at #sxsw!
One of the panelists calls on everyone who uses to twitter to raise their hands - the entire place becomes a sea of arms. Now everyone who doesn't use twitter. One solitary hand is raised in the air . . . is he for real? Wow!
The panel had several pearls of wisdom:
One of them? What if you spend too much time 'crafting' your tweet, that the joke is no longer funny. Don't worry! Expired jokes are never too late - Go ahaid and make that
Olympics joke even now . . . as we're all into metajokes these days. (uhh . . . what's a metajoke?)
Walking around the trade show I found the Google Android demo booth. Catching the final demonstration, everyone there scored Google Chrome stickers, Google puzzles (more on that in a future post - so ask me about it!), and a few of us got Google shirts. A lady to
my right didn't manage to get a shirt - and was very upset that there
were none left. Seeing that my Google shirt was too small to fit
normally, I offered mine to her. She took it and walked off - not even a thank you! Man these people
take their Schwag seriously! (If anyone can score me some
Foursquare buttons . . . I'd be so psyched by the way).
(First and last picture taken by my Wife - middle pictures by Daniel Sieradski)
Monday Night: A few months before SXSW I mentioned the idea of a kosher
BBQ . . . A week before I was slated to speak everyone woke up and got really pumped about it. "Great idea!" they said. I spoke to HQ and got them to sponsor it (read all about it!), and after schlepping a ton of meat from NYC, we were ready to roast! Almost . . .
Sunday night and Monday day, we began going after the remaining supplies - mustard, buns, soda, beer etc.
(I figured that most people like to drink cheap beer - so breaking character I got a bunch of Lone Star beers, along with a nice selection of Shiner Beers - no one touched the Lone Star . . . the Shiners went down fast!)
In any event, running around town we
managed to grab all the things needed for the BBQ (with some help from Chaviva and Dave Weinberg).
By 6:30 the digeratti, tech fans, Jews, what have you, started to come in. Then the place got really rocking! People I knew IRL - Leah Jones - or had spent time with before (Daniel Sieradski) mingled with new faces, even if linked to well known twitter accounts (Jeff Pulver Yoni Bloch) . . . only to name a few - it was great!
Kosha Dillz and Flex Mathews made it to the party, and did an awesome job of free stylin' for us!
Tuesday Day:
Game day - our panel was on!
The Judaism 2.0 panel was a Core Conversation - meaning that it was more akin to a group conversation then normal panel.
When talking to a group of largely secular Jews, along with several Non-Jews, the question of how to relate to religion came up.
Were we to openly discuss Jewish ideals and the divergence between secular and religious outlooks? An example: Should Jewish organizations tweet on Shabbos? Obviously the Orthodox Jewish and Secular Humanist answers would vary greatly - is there a way to broach the subject, that while true to Halachic mandates, is mutually informative and practical for all parties? I for one would use it as a spring board to address a wider issue: Is technology in general in conflict with our religious and moral beliefs? Can the two be used together in either a mutually beneficial or complementary way - or are they exclusive of each other?
The panel went very well - and after what I found to be a surprisingly dull address by Bruce Sterling (it felt like one long droll rant about every opinion he had on the world people and life . . . in other words - an academic) and the tail end of a panel on QR codes.
and with that SXSWi 2010 ended.
With another day left in Austin, we went to the kosher deli at H E B for a bite. While munching on a very tasty hot pastrami on rye (much better then the one in New Orleans - but more on that when I backtrack to that trip), I noticed a Yiddel sitting with his wife eating deli meats. Asking me to open a bottle of grape juice for him, he smiled and thanked me in thick Yiddish accent. I must confess - I love speaking to Jews from the Old World. Aside for the ability to play geography with them (all that time spent in Eastern Europe has some use), they all have fascinating stories.
I asked my new acquaintance for his name.
"Bar-Adon," he told me . . . For some reason the name didn't click in my head - I thought that he was introducing himself by his fathers name (as if he were being called to the Torah).
"Bar Adon" he said again. "It's a shem ivri (Hebrew name) - do you speak Hebrew?"
Realizing that this Yiddel here was a serious Zionist, I figured asking him which shtetle he was born in wouldn't jive as well as I thought it would . . . So I started making small talk in Hebrew.
"I do indeed speak Hebrew," I said in Hebrew. "But I have an American accent."
"Thats ok," bar-adon told me. "I have a friend who used to speak Hebrew like you too - his name was Abba Eban. The only difference is that his English was an Oxford English."
ouch! A zinger . . .
That evening I noticed that Kosha Dillz tweeted that he and Flex Mathews be opening for the Canadian Klzemer band SoCalled at the YouTube party. Having missed getting into the FourSquare party, I was itching to get in with the VIPs at some web event . . . So Chana and I jumped in the car and made a B-line for the party. Parking was a mess, with the streets crawling with people running from one venue to the next. After several minutes of searching, we found a space, and then headed to the party.
Walking to the front of the line, I nodded to the bouncer and said, "We're with Kosha Dillz." - fully expecting to be ushered in right away.
"Who?" The bouncer said. 'Is your name on the list?'
"We're guests of Kosha Dillz - he's opening for SoCalled."
No go.
So there we stood for several minutes, waiting for Kosha to show and get us in. When at least he did come, and nod the Rabbi and his wife in, we were stopped for ID. By some chance, Chana forgot hers, and despite promise that she was over 21, and wouldn't buy a drink, she couldn't get in.
Now we were in a pickle - Kosha was on in 30 minutes, but despite the short drive back to the hotel, finding parking again would be near impossible. Walking towards the car, we spotted a Pedicab. Negotiating a price, we figured it would be easier to go back and forth on the back of the guy's bike, then find a space. There and back again, we rushed from one venue to the next . . . making it in time for end of SoCalled's gig - thus ending the Austin trip!
Technorati Tags: SXSW interactive, Austn, Texas, Technology, Social Media, Twitter, BBQ, Judaism, Chabad, Video, Music, Travel, Photography, Life
Monday Day: With all the late nights at SXSW - getting up in the morning for the first panels (there was an interesting one at 9:30 about the future of the GOP online) was way too hard. AT 12:30 I make it to a panel on Slow Twitter - how to make well crafted tweets
that are funny, witty and . . . publishable. With names like @momku @luckyshirt @clapifyoulikeme and @lonelysandwich . . . You know you're dealing with social media types at #sxsw!
One of the panelists calls on everyone who uses to twitter to raise their hands - the entire place becomes a sea of arms. Now everyone who doesn't use twitter. One solitary hand is raised in the air . . . is he for real? Wow!
The panel had several pearls of wisdom:
One of them? What if you spend too much time 'crafting' your tweet, that the joke is no longer funny. Don't worry! Expired jokes are never too late - Go ahaid and make that
Olympics joke even now . . . as we're all into metajokes these days. (uhh . . . what's a metajoke?)
Walking around the trade show I found the Google Android demo booth. Catching the final demonstration, everyone there scored Google Chrome stickers, Google puzzles (more on that in a future post - so ask me about it!), and a few of us got Google shirts. A lady to
my right didn't manage to get a shirt - and was very upset that there
were none left. Seeing that my Google shirt was too small to fit
normally, I offered mine to her. She took it and walked off - not even a thank you! Man these people
take their Schwag seriously! (If anyone can score me some
Foursquare buttons . . . I'd be so psyched by the way).
(First and last picture taken by my Wife - middle pictures by Daniel Sieradski)
Monday Night: A few months before SXSW I mentioned the idea of a kosher
BBQ . . . A week before I was slated to speak everyone woke up and got really pumped about it. "Great idea!" they said. I spoke to HQ and got them to sponsor it (read all about it!), and after schlepping a ton of meat from NYC, we were ready to roast! Almost . . . Sunday night and Monday day, we began going after the remaining supplies - mustard, buns, soda, beer etc.
(I figured that most people like to drink cheap beer - so breaking character I got a bunch of Lone Star beers, along with a nice selection of Shiner Beers - no one touched the Lone Star . . . the Shiners went down fast!)
In any event, running around town we
managed to grab all the things needed for the BBQ (with some help from Chaviva and Dave Weinberg).
By 6:30 the digeratti, tech fans, Jews, what have you, started to come in. Then the place got really rocking! People I knew IRL - Leah Jones - or had spent time with before (Daniel Sieradski) mingled with new faces, even if linked to well known twitter accounts (Jeff Pulver Yoni Bloch) . . . only to name a few - it was great!
Kosha Dillz and Flex Mathews made it to the party, and did an awesome job of free stylin' for us!
Tuesday Day:
Game day - our panel was on!
The Judaism 2.0 panel was a Core Conversation - meaning that it was more akin to a group conversation then normal panel.
When talking to a group of largely secular Jews, along with several Non-Jews, the question of how to relate to religion came up.
Were we to openly discuss Jewish ideals and the divergence between secular and religious outlooks? An example: Should Jewish organizations tweet on Shabbos? Obviously the Orthodox Jewish and Secular Humanist answers would vary greatly - is there a way to broach the subject, that while true to Halachic mandates, is mutually informative and practical for all parties? I for one would use it as a spring board to address a wider issue: Is technology in general in conflict with our religious and moral beliefs? Can the two be used together in either a mutually beneficial or complementary way - or are they exclusive of each other?
The panel went very well - and after what I found to be a surprisingly dull address by Bruce Sterling (it felt like one long droll rant about every opinion he had on the world people and life . . . in other words - an academic) and the tail end of a panel on QR codes.
and with that SXSWi 2010 ended.
With another day left in Austin, we went to the kosher deli at H E B for a bite. While munching on a very tasty hot pastrami on rye (much better then the one in New Orleans - but more on that when I backtrack to that trip), I noticed a Yiddel sitting with his wife eating deli meats. Asking me to open a bottle of grape juice for him, he smiled and thanked me in thick Yiddish accent. I must confess - I love speaking to Jews from the Old World. Aside for the ability to play geography with them (all that time spent in Eastern Europe has some use), they all have fascinating stories.
I asked my new acquaintance for his name.
"Bar-Adon," he told me . . . For some reason the name didn't click in my head - I thought that he was introducing himself by his fathers name (as if he were being called to the Torah).
"Bar Adon" he said again. "It's a shem ivri (Hebrew name) - do you speak Hebrew?"
Realizing that this Yiddel here was a serious Zionist, I figured asking him which shtetle he was born in wouldn't jive as well as I thought it would . . . So I started making small talk in Hebrew.
"I do indeed speak Hebrew," I said in Hebrew. "But I have an American accent."
"Thats ok," bar-adon told me. "I have a friend who used to speak Hebrew like you too - his name was Abba Eban. The only difference is that his English was an Oxford English."
ouch! A zinger . . .
That evening I noticed that Kosha Dillz tweeted that he and Flex Mathews be opening for the Canadian Klzemer band SoCalled at the YouTube party. Having missed getting into the FourSquare party, I was itching to get in with the VIPs at some web event . . . So Chana and I jumped in the car and made a B-line for the party. Parking was a mess, with the streets crawling with people running from one venue to the next. After several minutes of searching, we found a space, and then headed to the party.
Walking to the front of the line, I nodded to the bouncer and said, "We're with Kosha Dillz." - fully expecting to be ushered in right away.
"Who?" The bouncer said. 'Is your name on the list?'
"We're guests of Kosha Dillz - he's opening for SoCalled."
No go.
So there we stood for several minutes, waiting for Kosha to show and get us in. When at least he did come, and nod the Rabbi and his wife in, we were stopped for ID. By some chance, Chana forgot hers, and despite promise that she was over 21, and wouldn't buy a drink, she couldn't get in.
Now we were in a pickle - Kosha was on in 30 minutes, but despite the short drive back to the hotel, finding parking again would be near impossible. Walking towards the car, we spotted a Pedicab. Negotiating a price, we figured it would be easier to go back and forth on the back of the guy's bike, then find a space. There and back again, we rushed from one venue to the next . . . making it in time for end of SoCalled's gig - thus ending the Austin trip!
Technorati Tags: SXSW interactive, Austn, Texas, Technology, Social Media, Twitter, BBQ, Judaism, Chabad, Video, Music, Travel, Photography, Life
Monday, March 22, 2010
Weekly Riddle 22
West, South, Southwest - the time confounds.
If you ask who am I? You've seen me travel, I love to fly!
This riddle is worth 20 points.
10 bonus points for anyone who can tell me what's in the hand of the man in the picture and 15 points for anyone who tells me where they're going for Pesach.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
SXSWi Part 1
Picture of the Week - Sunrise: Austin!
For those who may remember I put a link a few months back to vote for the Judaism 2.0 panel at South by Southwest Interactive (known by the abbreviation SXSWi). SXSW - a three part event composed of a film, music and interactive (read technology and social networking) events - has become a major event in the world of Social Media of late - previous years hosted the launching such web phenomena as Twitter and Foursquare.
I was graced by Justin Oberman of Derech Digital to speak on the Judaism 2.0 along with fellow blogger and Web star - Chaviva.
Unfortunately due to flying back and fourth to New York every week (three weeks ago I was in LA for Purim, two weeks ago in New Orleans to speak in a local JCC on Social Media and Jewish Youth, and then this trip to SXSW) many things were left at home in the course of packing and unpacking - my camera's battery among them.
Pictures featured here were either taken on my PRE, or by others.
Shabbos: At Chabad of Austin.Motzei Shabbos: Went to the Buzz Out Loud meet up. As the meetup went from 5-8, Shabbos kept us from coming
until the tail end of the meetup - we didn't get to Malverde until after
it was over . . . but Tom Merrit saved Tshirts for us (after I mentioned it
on twitter).
Hanging out at the meetup place, I was approached by a guy with a Hertzel T-Shirt (one of those hipster friendly styled
images . . . the kofer in me would dig one of the Rebbe like that). We had an awesome time schmoozing . . . People are so psyched to see a Chabad'nik doing the SXSW thing.
Sunday Day:
Made it to the live taping of Buzz Out Load in the Radisson Hotel. After lunch went to Crowd Sourcing for Social Change. "You're all a bunch of Social Media experts," the MC says . . . I am? People here are wacky. Hipster styles are WAY in - thick plastic glasses, beards, ironic t-shirts and funky hats . . . I could almost blend in. One guy walking by has a big beard and long hear - I'm not sure if he's going for Gandalf look - but I'm sold! I really dig that hats are back in-style . . . [ It's a point I like to make to the kolel revisionists (a group of fanatics in kolel that have no interest in fighting for halacha - that I'm all for - but rather making matters of cultural custom (like the color of one's yarmulke, the alcohol one drinks (vodka over single malt or beer) or the type of food one can buy in a restaurant) into a matter of something being "yiddish." I like to point out to them that a Borsalino is a Goyishe hat (not that it isn't part of out levush, but let's not play games), and that if one truly wanted to nor emulate goyishe style - then ditch the hat. But I digress . . .]
I tried to get into the Gmail: Behind The Scenes panel - but it was packed! Five minutes after the panel started, the line stops moving and a lady announces that the panel seating is full - if we want, we can wait and get in as others leave. I guy behind me mutters that "How much do I really want to know about Gmail?"
After a few more minutes I head off to the "Diversity on the Web" panel. Baratunde cracks ups the crowd with "How to be Black." Reasons why he's an expert on Black Folk? He's been one for 32 years and some of his friends are black. Interesting points on bridging the digital divide: "Technology can be used to wage "the war" to escalate knowledge"
A lady speaks about women and tech . . . In the questions afterward, an African American lady complains that the panelist used the term "Women and People of Color" - which implies that all women are white . .. Come now! Must we analyze every nuance of semantics so as not to offend? We all get the point (that we mean everyone except the white guy) - by the way - I'm Jewish, not white.
After meeting up with Dave Weinberg and Chaviva Edwards we went to the Macallan Tasting room in the SoBE Lizard Lounge. Free Macallan 12 and 15 is great . . . loud music that belongs in a club of people drinking Jager Bombers and Coors lights isn't - People Neggunim (or at least something with a little soul) were made for Macallan! Another guy comes over and is pumped that Chabad is here - he's interested in coming to the panel . . . this should really rock!
Sunday Night: The wife and I went shopping for the awesome Kosher SXSW BBQ on Monday Night (tell your friends!) and then went looking to hook up with the other Jews . . . The parties were PACKED - and you know what? Kinda douche! I figured something out: Social Media types by and large (besides the real mentsch'n out there) only like to talk about themselves - to people they already know. If you have a connection you're gold, but everyone else just kind of wandered around trying to bask in the limelight of others.
I got a few free drinks at the I haz Cheezeburgers party though, so can't complain!
To be continued
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Weird Sign Wednesday X - SXSWi edition
In honor of SXSW I'm putting up an oldie but goody - as mentioned on Twitter some time back!
The questions, my friends, is: With all of the revelations in the #Evnote (I'm SO bummed that hashtag didn't take over) - despite the incredibly dull interview - if kosher markets in Crown Heights are making Twitter accounts, then has Twitter jumped the shark?
Technorati Tags: Weird Signs, Social Media, Twitter, Brooklyn, Crown Heights, SXSW
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Running SXSW Live Blog
Friday, March 12, 2010
Picture of the Week 97
New Orleans
All right I'm off to SXSW in Austin now for the Judaism 2.0 Panel!
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Weird Sign Wednesday
Do you guys enjoy these weird signs? I need to get back to the riddles photos and big posts as well!
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Guess Who Likes the Kosher Phone?
The Iranian News likes the idea of the Kosher Phone . . . Go figure.
Video is in Farsi - read more about it (in Hebrew) here
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Weird Sign Wednesday VIII
Besides English we have all the local language for those who never learned the language of the land . . .
Let's see here: Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, I believe that's some Turkish, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese, and . . . wait is that Yiddish?
Only in Brooklyn - go figure.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
When I Thought I Saw a Dead Man
Upon whence I saw a living man:In that hazy time when Purim slowly becomes Shushan Purim - when the farbrengens flow from one to the other and the eyes fight of sleep and drink - I entered the house of the Rosh Yeshivah.
I'd been there the night before for the Megillah reading, but now it seemed different. While the night before it had been a shiva house - let the mind categorize it as it sees fit - now it was something else. The large dinning room table had been removed from the living room to make room for prayers . . . those gathered sat around the small kitchen table - the Rosh, Rabbi Schapiro, a few shluchim . . . it was quiet. Frighteningly quiet.
People took up space in the room, yet it felt . . . so empty. The counters were bare, sinks empty. Everything was there - but something felt missing. The normal signs of an active homemaker's kitchen - a jar of sugar or a teapot, a basket of fruit or a shopping list - those little details of daily life were all gone.
I got the same eerie feeling I had when visiting my childhood bedroom on the day we moved out . . . it was like caterpillar shed of its cocoon - all the parts that had been wrapped so snugly before were there, but now they would no longer fit.
So we sat in the room. Silently. Rabbi Schapiro had been speaking, but his voice rasped thin.
The Rosh took over. His face seemed so long, so tired . . .
"With Haman - when he thought he had it all - he lost it. With the Jewish people it's opposite - when we don't realize that we've been given it all, we loose it."
Words of a living man.
__________________________________________________________________________
Whence I Thought I Saw a Dead Man
Returning to New York on Virgin America the plane was packed. Shuffling back and forth up and down the aisle to find a place for our carry-on backs and our personal items, my hat and our jackets, I made note of the people - hipsters and business men, a half dozen yeshivah students, a Persian family on travel . . . People fascinate me.
Around 4:00 in the morning LA time, perhaps a few dozen minutes after nodding off to sleep, someone started yelling. Confused I began to look around the plane. Across the aisle, the matriarch of the Persian family was yelling.
Was this a senior moment? Had she forgotten where she was and her confusion was freaking out?
She kept yelling and pulling the hand of her middle-aged son. As her cries in Farsi becoming more frequent and agitated, it suddenly occurred to me - she wasn't trying to move her son - she was trying to wake him. He lay motionless in his seat.
Suddenly chaos broke out. His father and sister were shaking him, slapping his face and screaming. His niece, or was it his daughter, cried out between her tears.
"Help! Help! Emergency! Is there a doctor here?"
Two ladies, a doctor of some sort and a nurse practitioner came out of nowhere.
I suddenly felt extremely cold. A sense of Déjà vu came over me in the icy fire . . . I felt similar to when I was told my Grandfather had passed away - was this the feeling of death? Sudden dread in wild bolts of hot and cold?
The flight attendants pressed an oxygen mask to his face, and the doctor unbuttoned his collar to better find a pulse.
The mother was hyperventilating, the other family members wept . . .
The man was placed on the floor. The nurse practitioner had his head cradled in her lap, the doctor had his feet in the air - shoes removed.
"He's going to be ok," She said to the family. "He fainted - he's very hot . . . he must have been overheating."
Was she telling the truth? Was he fine or were these words to meant to calm a frantic family while the futile business of working on the man was carried out. Were we going to land?
Packs of ice were pressed against his body.
"I'm telling you," the doctor said. "He'll be fine! This happened to me on the way in as well!"
What a mazal - I'm not sure for the doctor or the individual who fainted - to have it happen on both legs of the trip.
Suddenly his toes started to wiggle. He was alive - there was hope.
His pants were rolled up further to reveal long underwear, his shirt removed to reveal a sweater underneath - no wonder he overheated!
He sat up, and was given a cup of orange juice . . .
----
In the morning, by baggage claim, I approached the family and asked the father and son if they wanted to put on Tefillin. The father put on right away, the son said he wanted to wait until they got to their first stop - the Ohel
(Photo Credit: Flickr as chosen by ScribeFire)
Technorati Tags: Purim, Life, Mourning, Los Angeles, YOEC, Airplanes, Fear, Death, First Aid, Tefillin, Mivtzoyim, The Ohel
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