Everything happens for a reason. A cultural commentary with a lotta rock-n-roll, semitism, and parenting. See our Etsy Shop! Buy HeadyBands, Hoodies and more at www.wholephamily.etsy.com
Well, Robert, if you want the answer to that, maybe it's as simple as: No means no. Perhaps said "mama" threw the beer in your face because she just didn't want to have anything to do with you. And you didn't listen.
Of course, I'm just postulating.
But it's a good guess. We all know the male species is driven by testosterone.
Let me introduce you to Led Zeppellin IV, if you haven't already been introduced. If you don't know your Zosos from your Ziljans, stick with me, keep it nice and sticky, and I can show you a thing or two.
We all know Chicago is where Obama is from, and we know here at the Whole Phamily it is important to keep a happy home as well as be mindful of mountain men who wander.
If you have seen the light of a reverberating Ziljan cymbal, you will understand why I feel that this song explains the winner of this year's Presidential Election. Question my reasoning, fine, but at least acknowledge I am onto something.
And that is the way it is for 2012.
What shall be in 2016 is the question. If you're experienced like me, you will agree that none of this and yet all of this is truth even unto its innermost parts. Meaning, how can Rachel use a classic rock tune to validate the result of the upcoming election?
I can't explain it, truthfully. Too complicated.
Be prepared, keep everything in their own pockets, have propergear, and stick together with your family, or you can stick with the Whole Phamily and see better, happier days of goodness and love and ultimate redemption.
In the meantime, you can rage with our machine of the Ganse Mishpucha (Whole Phamily).
If you want to talk Grapes of Wrath, dudes, (aka Tom Joad, the Cats, and all that Dust), perhaps you should look for purple glitter rather during this post-9/11 era than dust of the bowl (better to be two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year than a bunch of red dust flying around the air during the Great Depression). Or just watch Henry Ford playing Tom Joad. That's easier. Even if it's just a 4 minute clip. You can handle a brief clip, kids, can't you?
My take away from all of this is to grow my own food.
And that's exactly what we're starting to accomplish this year with our organic garden.
My first grader, aka The Wolfman's Brother, came home last week talking about how the boys in class have a special nickname for each other, but that it's private and he couldn't tell me more. I managed to listen carefully enough to learn that boys are called hot dogs and girls are called hamburgers. When asked the reasoning behind these nicknames, in all the sweet innocence he is, The Wolfman's Brother just said, "I don't know." Awww.
Also last week, my brother, Uncle Goalie, recommended Led Zeppelin's "Hot Dog" from In Through the Out Door as a good idea for spin class. The Goalie is right...Kashmir might not have enough BPMs. Yes, I know what BPMs are*. Do you?
Now that spring is here, it's almost summer, which means hot dog season.
Just don't eat too many.
Nitrates and nitrites are no good for any of us.
Even if it says all natural on the package, just remember they are fooling you.
*of course I didn't until it was pointed out to me! Now that I do, naturally I feel pretty ignorant since I claim to like music.
Everyone from Bob Lefsetz to your brother has lamented how bad the new music is today. It doesn't take a rock star to come to this realization.
Ah, spin class, the trusty go-to for exposure to new music. Spinning today to LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem," which hit #1 on charts last year throughout Europe, the UK, the US, New Zealand and Australia, got me wondering:
What the heck is up this dreck?
The lyrics: empty, offensive and below fraternity house antics.
The electronic beat: catchy but gets annoying.
And the chutzpah to make a Zeppelin reference.
Where, exactly, is the skilled musicianship?
Nary a drum kit to be heard.
Oh, right, that is the definition of electronica.
And, shouldn't everyone in this tune be doing the Hollywood Shuffle instead? Now, that is quality shufflin'.
The part that bothers me is the thought of the millions of kids listening to this as their early exposure to music. Oy.
I don't even want to watch this video.
But for pure illustration purposes, here it is.
Ok, I do like to focus on the positive. I appreciate the club kid influence as evident in some of the outfits in the video and the dude with the big fro's huge white glasses, reminiscent of Laura Biogottis from the 80s. I like the acting in the beginning. And, nice fancy steps at the end of the video. That's about it.
Still, I continue to lobby for real music like Kashmir in spin class.
Robert Plant. Now there's a rock star.
Then I can envision myself as Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and rock it out on the spin bike like it's 1982.
(they cut out at 2:00 when Kashmir comes on the scene.)
This scene is the reason why I bought Led Zeppelin IV on tape, one of my earliest music purchases.
And we all know that Kashmir ain't to be found on that album!
Oh, Cameron Crowe, the film's screenwriter, is a genius culture maker of my generation.
Good thing the Allmans let him tag along as a teenager.
It sounds so cliche to think it was all better when you were a teenager, but I do think that when it comes to music and popular culture, I was better off without the acronym and certainly the band LMFAO.
One reason I go to spin class is to get motivated by a great instructor with great music and who pushes me in a way I can't do on my own. Usually the music is new stuff that I would otherwise never hear. Even if most of it is dreck (unworthy garbage) I appreciate the sentiment, because it keeps me current with popular culture. But for whatever reason, there is a thought that new music is the only music that people want to hear in spin class and can't grind it out to anything else.
Not me!
Spin instructors of the world: bring on the classic rock. Where are Pink Floyd, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin among the your playlists? I'm not talking Stairway to Heaven, which is slow and drawn out, but tunes like Money, Rag Doll, and Kashmir could get my cadence to 130 just as well as any Jay-Z or Rihanna tune (not those artists produce garbage-like music; I actually like their stuff. It's the other dreck that I am talking about).
One instructor told me that jam band tunes are too long, and preferred spin songs are no more than 4 minutes. Check out this very rocking instrumental Frankenstein, originally by the Edgar Winter Group, and covered by my favorite band.
But if you think it is too jammy, just cut it short. No one would mind.
I love spin class, and one day when I grow up and become a spin instructor, I will pump out the jam band tunes (shorter jams, under 7 minutes) because they are the most rockin' out there.
Boy did I ever love that Ferris commercial last night.
You are speaking right to me, Matthew Broderick!
Actually I really love you here, too:
Which leads me to Zeppelin. In Through the Out Door...
Would that fly in spin class?
Me thinks yes.
Oh, yeah, and the password for the back door? Do I really need to spell it out for you?
J-O-S-H-U-A (I loved the intonation of Ally Sheedy's voice as she said it in "War Games")
How many Joshuas do you know?
I can count many. Many, many, many. And I love them all.
Getting back to our roots as at least partially a blog about Jewish names, we are currently interested in the last name Safron.
We have mentioned one Safran who has hit popular culture big time. But we didn't get terribly into its meaning.
We have now come across a Jeremy with the last name Safron, and we venture to think that the names are related and they are simply different spellings.
(side note: How can we really trust what we can grab on the Internet? We need an Onomast. We also should read this article about Jewish names. Dr. Aaron Demsky is the person who could make sense of any of this. Safran and Safron the same thing? Does the Jewish version really lead to the yellow spice (this site states the "Jewish name is mainly ornamental," leading us to believe no connection there for the Jews)? Umm.. can folks with this family name in the Jewish world lay claim to the Safran family crest? Nah...that last part doesn't sound terribly kosher. It's not like we come from Sheffield, Shetland or Stuart stock. Those are all Other S's.)
Our humble guess is that Safran and Safron are connected to the Jewish name root Shapiro, which comes from the word "sofer," meaning scribe (our trustworthy torah, mezuzah and tefillin writers of yesteryear...add in another item writable on parchment and you get the whole megillah).
(side note: No, neither Hanna nor Barbera were Jewish, but Barbera was born on the Lower East Side and presumably grew up around many Jews, having been exposed to the word megillah possibly while frolicking the halls of Erasmus Hall High School . Just our guess....)
Back to Safran-Safron-Sofer connection:
You get variations such as Schapiro (as in the wine), Sapir, Safer (as in Morley), Shufro, Shaefer (as in the beer, but highly unlikely those were Jews), Shaffer (as in Paul)...have you caught on to our groove yet?
Now back to Jeremy Safron.
He's a raw foodist, a pioneer in the raw food world. He is an inventor. He is youthful. He is into video games and martial arts, in a peaceful way, if you can imagine that. He bottles Living Clay (reminds us of Dead Sea mud, no?). He created the most delicious snack food, PowerWraps (he sold his idea), which we are trying to get more New Yorkers to enjoy. Would you believe you can only get them in one spot in NYC? Jeremy lives in one of the most beautiful places in our country on the island of Maui. Like all good hippies, we were there in 2002. We have visited the town of Paia, picked up necessities for our week, saw the road to Haiku up on the right before the infamous Road to Hana begins, spent time at the Tradewinds Cottages, hiked into the Bamboo Forest, and even ate a fresh meat coconut cut by Mike with a machete (for $5...we were ok with that). How can we forget the vintage bubble letter name mugs produced by Carmel-by-the-Sea that were hanging at Grandma's Coffee (they aren't for sale, just for use by locals...good thing we still have our own from 1980)
Perhaps we could have simplified the above-written paragraph into a haiku of our own.
Or not.
Amazing stuff way out there.
And a whole lotta Jews, too.
Further to our point: we are all linked and and if we seek out the goodness on the earth (as you might know, Ram Dass is doing much better than he had and is running his retreats), the earth will be a better place. So glad to learn that, indeed, the former Richard Alpert has met with Reb Zalman.
At long last, we present Jeremy Safron, author of The Raw Truth: The Art of Preparing Living Foods. We believe very much in illumination, however we do believe that Everything truly is connected.
