The Green Bubbie and I Wish You a Happy Thanksgiving

I loved the Green Bubbie's photo wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  She just took a trip out to Utah and became buddies with Smokey.

courtesy of The Green Bubbie (tm)

And now the Whole Phamily wishes you a Happy Turkey Day.

The Wolfman's Brother from 2008; handmade Turkey costume by aunt Reba

Sadly we won't be spending the holiday with Reba, my dear sister, who made these fantastic festive costumes 4 years ago.

Concealed Light, then age 5, with her aunt Reba, the best sister and aunt a girl could ever dream of!

Thankfully though, we have our special spot at the parade.
Praying that it is still accessible.

Stango at least year's parade with the cross-dressing clowns.

And we'll be missing our first cousins who normally join us at the parade.  This year they are heading to a warm spot for Thanksgiving.  As I told my sis-in-law, drink a strawberry daquiri.  Have me in mind.  I'm yotzay.

Goobers and The Wolfman's Brother, then age 4.  And Spiderman.

In case you  missed my Thanksgiving chocolate lollipop post a while back, I'll be so proud of my forward-thinking-ness when I bust these out tomorrow morning.

Gobble gobble!  

And we of course remember our brothers and sisters in Israel who are not having it easy right now.

Had To Cry Today, Yep I Got the Faith!

Looking at that subject heading, you thought I cried today?  Had a g'shrai?

I'm talking Steve Winwood sang the life-changing "Had To Cry Today,"  the other night at The Greek.

It's already written that today will be one to remember
The feeling's the same as being outside of the law
Had to cry today
Well, I saw your sign and I missed you there

-Blind Faith

Many thanks to Mr. Bob Lefsetz who continually informs about the music industry.  He heard Steve belt this one out the other day.  About it, Bob says: 

"it connected in a way regular life never did...so as to believe that everything truly could be right with the world, that someone got it, and if we could just go on the road with the band our lives would be perfect."     -Bob Lefsetz

These are pretty powerful words.  Bob knew the scene back in '60s and, from my layperson's perspective, knows the commercialized music scene today.  Music wasn't just a magic carpet ride to an imaginary place, but the young music fans believed wholeheartedly that the music would transform their existence, their country, their planet.  The messages found in music like Winwood's are still fresh and powerful.  Maybe we're not roadies, but we can still apply these words to our daily lives.  Anyway, I like my flannel sheets from the Company Store.  They don't have those on tour.

Do you see or not see someone's sign and ever "miss you there"?

I wonder if Jason Flom, a music industry executive whose daughter I had the pleasure of teaching in the late '90s, respects Bob's insights.  I mean, I  think they're good.  I think historically Jason has been a successful outside-of-the-box thinker in the music biz.   

But, Jason was there, too, well, at least in the 70s. He gets the spirit of the '60s, for sure.  Just don't have peanuts on your breath if you ever have the chance to meet him because he's got a severe peanut allergy.  You'd know that, too, if you kept up with your New Yorker readings.

Here's an incredible preservation of Blind Faith's only live recording of "Had to Cry Today," and their first gig, to boot!

This is an important video for all peoples to view in its entirety.

 

Note Steve's purple shirt.
If you can groove along to this tune, we have stuff to talk about.

Stand With Israel

What a week for the Jewish people and our brothers and sisters in Israel.  Especially a pregnant woman.  "Must be careful with the information coming out from Hamas," is what Mark Regev states.  How true.  I am amazed by all of the wonderful information I get via my friends' Facebook posts.  This one in particular came highly recommended and is worth a watch.

Shabbat Shalom parshat Toldot.

Elmo, the Count and Sesame Street Connections

Of course, the news of sexual allegations by Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash is disturbing, and I certainly hope and pray that these are, indeed, just allegations.  As you know, lately I have been ruminating about child predators and how to keep my own children safe.  I remind myself of the old dictum "innocent until proven guilty."

Yet, H. Melvin Ming, the president and chief executive of Sesame Workshop assured the New York Times that, as with the passing of Jim Henson and, this year, the Count, the brand will endure after this incident.

Wait...that Count passed away?

That's right, folks, Jerry Nelson, the man who played Count von Count for nearly 40 years, passed away on August 23, 2012, at the age of 78.  That makes me sad, very sad.  And, how exactly did I miss that last summer?

courtesy of HLNTV.com

(no need to worry about the Count, he lives on via the expertise of Muppeteer Matt Vogel)

And, now...the connections.

Mr. Nelson debuted his character on November 27, 1972. Just two days before my birth!
And he passed away just one day before Concealed Light's birthday.

I'm no brain scientist, Torah scholar or musical prodigy but this is the kinda stuff that pretty much blows me away.

And just because this video is 1:27 in length (a number I simply love, see here for more despite that my prediction is null and void and yeah I'm ok with that), I shall share it with you:



If you thought I was gonna share an Elmo video, you gotta be kidding me.

Whole Phamily Takes the Crew on the Road

In case you might have missed our most recent gig Camping with My Kids & a Whole Bunch of Jam Bands  last June, you all have a second chance to join up with the Whole Phamily crew in just a few weeks!

We are so thrilled to be a part of Blues for Challah:  The Second Set, a "weekend-long workshop exploring the spiritual and mystical aspects of the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan," writes Seth Rogovoy on his Rogovoy Report.  Whole Phamily is heading up the programs for children on Friday night and Shabbat morning.

In case you were wondering, my friendly friends, this is a pluralistic event, welcome folks of all persuasions (but a love of the Grateful Dead is sorta the point...). You don't have to be Jewish, but it don't hurt to be, neither. And, in case you were wondering, my frum friend or relative (yep, Heshy, I'm talkin' to you), this is, indeed a shabbaton.  Just different than my 8th grade experience.   I have desired to attend an event at Isabella Freedman and its affiliate Elat Chayyim since the mid '90s, living as a single working woman on Upper West Side.  It is finally, baruch hashem, coming to fruition!  And on the cusp of mine and Stango's 11th wedding anniversary and right after my birthday, no less.  Someone is surely watching over us for the good.

 C'mon Children! Shabbat Fun for Kids

Pipe cleaner creations and a fun food craft are among just the many exciting things we have planned for kids of all ages.  Concealed Light, The Wolfman and the Wolfman's Brother will be there ready to have a whole lot of fun with all the kids.  We'll sing classic tot-shabbat tunes, do puppet shows and read stories.  We will talk about that week's torah portion, Vayishlach, in an interactive way and maybe even make up a skit about it!  Who knows, maybe kids will even get to borrow their very own Pez dispensers as a shabbat treat on Friday night.  Parents, just be chill with the food coloring, ok?  It's 12 tiny pieces of candy!  And if the goats are willing, maybe we'll take a walk over and say 'mehhhhh!  So much more can and will happen.  Anyone under the age of 21 who is shlepped along for this epic shabbaton is a lucky one and for sure should be grateful!

Stango will likely be found during those times in the shul, but off-the-record will be available for any brain-talk-walk therapy and of course discussion of chassidus and Jerry that folks might be interested in.

For more info, read what Seth Rogovoy wrote on his blog regarding the event.
(remember when I reviewed Rogovoy's book on Dylan?)

Or what Josh Fleet wrote in his Huffington Post coverage.

All-inclusive prices, which include farm-to-table food and wine and lodging, begin at $233 for the 2-night event.  EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DISCOUNT EXTENDED UNTIL TODAY NOVEMBER 9, 2012!

For more info check out Blues for Challah:  Second Set.

Have a good Shabbes, have a good show!

Nor'easter this week...Cold, Rain & Snow

My heart goes out to those folks who are still without power due to Hurricane Sandy.  The conditions are unfathomable.

And now we're expecting a nor'easter in Philly?  I'd rather be where those chilly winds don't blow.

Here's a little ditty from 32 years ago, almost to the date...

Baruch Dayan Emet: Larry Bloch

The man who created the club the Wetlands in lower Manhattan, Larry Bloch, passed away on Sunday of pancreatic cancer, the Bratteboro Reformer reports.  The Wetlands was a place that allowed me to get my own feet wet in the jam band scene.  Admittedly, I didn't go nearly as much as I should have, but I knew that it was the place to be and wished I went more.  Still somewhat in-the-box and not having a group of friends to venture with to Tribeca from the Upper West Side, I saw just a handful of shows in my early 20s at The Wetlands.  But these shows provided a foundation from which I was able to build and grow strongly in the appreciation of live music.

Larry Bloch was a trailblazer and built an institution in a neighborhood that, at the time, was so undesirable that who knew Tribeca would become what it is today.  He created a space that allowed people to learn more about two great things in life:  environmental activism and good ole' fashioned rock-n-roll.

May Larry Bloch's, son of Ephraim and Miriam, memory be for a blessing.

I loved flipping to the ad section of The Village Voice and looking at the bands where were playing that week.   Usually it was the Zen Tricksters.  Often it was bands I had never heard of and never went to hear.

Thank you for being an enabler.
Larry enabled folks to hear great music.
Larry enabled folks to care about the earth.

These are two very good things, and for those who are in the know, you know what I mean.

Come Together, Right Now, Judæo-Tat

Y'ave heard of Yiddish.
Y'ave maybe heard of Ladino.
Ya've less likely heard of Judæo-Tat aka Juhuri.

My friend Zita came to this country at the age of 3.  Her family is from Azerbaijan.  This is where Jews of the eastern Caucasus mountains lived.  She grew up speaking Juhuri.  Not Russian, as I mistakenly thought.

Neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardi:  Zita is of Mizrachi descent, from a country that was Arab-ruled.  Her family comes from no place of European origin:  like Indian, Iranian, Syrian and other locales, she comes from a community of the East.

Having studied in Israel during college, I learned of mizrachim years ago, but it is a sad state of my affairs that I have simply forgotten about them.  It has just been too long, and perhaps I have become so America-focused to my detriment.  Plus, the presence of mizrachi Jews is overshadowed in the United States greatly by the prevalent Ashkenazi culture.  Most Americans know about matza balls.  Savvy New Yorkers (who aren't so strict with their kashrut) certainly know of the scrumptious chicken in the pot at 2nd Avenue Deli.  But who knows about tchorba?

Remember when Amit Women used to be called Mizrachi Women's Organization of America?  I wonder and sortof doubt that any of my new friends at the recent Amit Women Saks' event discoursed about this.  Why would they?  Belts and bags are a lot more interesting!

For thousands of years we have been dispersed.  We have so many various cultures and customs.  All this is nice and dandy, but isn't it time we just merge back together so we're just Jewish?

Teach Your Children Well

Thanks, David Crosby, Steven Stills and Graham Nash for that reminder.  My latest and greatest fear?  Child predators.  I can't shake the infamous Diff'rent Strokes molestation episode from my childhood.

Why, then, you might ask would I slap my sweet children all over the Internet with yesterday's post that I might consider posting a video a day of them on Whole Phamily?

Because I'm worried not about the Internet psychos but the folks we already know. We all know by now that kids are often abused from within - the pervy family friend, coach, teacher or uncle.  Or, in this case, the Bicycle Man.

In the past few years, numerous stories have surfaced within the Jewish community, mostly in New York that I have heard, and my thought was:  what are people doing to spread awareness among Philly frum Jews?  By now, we have heard the plights of Chaim Levin, Deborah Feldman (both of whom were distanced from Yiddishkeit and were sexually abused)  and The Agudah's attempts to downplay any mention.   I applaud the work of Rabbi Mark Dratch and Jsafe (Rabbi Dratch was my first teacher of gemara - excellent at that - we learned Baba Mitziah with Cabbage Patch Dolls as the example); indeed there are those who are addressing the issue.  (btw I realize a lot of my info comes from the NYTimes and therefore I have a wacky, warped view of the world especially when it comes to sleazy men who touch innocent children's bodies and covet pictures of them from disgusting, pathetic child porn sites that, baruch hashem, I have never laid eyes on.  Yuck.  Big yucky stuff.  Can't I just get cozy with a bowl of split pea soup and flanken under my flannel sheets?).

Since Philly frum is a traditionally a heavily Agudah-influenced community (I have zero desire for my sons to study at the Talmudical Yeshiva of America, the  "Harvard of yeshivas," as it were.  Considering they are a legacy at the Harvard of Harvards, they have a better chance of getting in the Cambridge, Massachussetts institution anyway), my concerns aren't unfounded.  The Agudah pushes controversial issues like this under the rug, encourages its community to follow the herd and erect higher fences behind which to live as frum.  Now there are more "modern" people here, and you know what happens then:  people have ideas.  Uh-oh, time to get thee to Pier 1 Imports for a larger rug.  (Note:  I know of zero cases and I hope and pray that no kids are getting abused or have gotten abused in the Philadelphia frum world, I'm just saying it is a statistical possibility.  Just sayin'.)

(By the way, I gotta say I love that line that my husband went to the Harvard of Harvards.  I love that I daven for the day my husband will learn at the Yale of yeshivas in Israel, or, chus v'shalom, the Princeton of Yeshivas.  Perhaps the Gush qualifies?  I imagine he will seek out the revered and very learned Rabbi Daniel Sperber, a Talmud chacham in his own right.  Or perhaps Rabbi Weiss-HaLivni.  Or perhaps he will find a chavrusa  in mamaloshen in Meah Shearim, which would really float Stango's boat!   Please god one day we will make it, and it's too bad he'll never get to the Harvard of Yeshivas but they wouldn't want him anyway because his wife is too much of a rabble-rouser.  Anyone reading this drek, anyway?)

Which leads me to a wonderful article which appeared last week by Lenore Skenazy where she recommends her always-level headed approach.  Her central idea is to teach our children to:

Recognize it:  no one can touch you where your bathing suit covers
Resist it:  Scream.  Fight.  Run
Report it (and that we will never be upset if they do)

Leave it to Lenore to put it all in perspective...my kids have a greater risk of (god forbid) dying in a car crash than being sexually abused.  Reminds me of our pediatrician's similiar thought process that kids have greater risk of dying in a car crash than getting chicken pox (we still gave varicella because PA law requires it).

Easier said than done, and I'm still worried, but I will heed CSN's advice and remind myself that as a parent I am my children's most important teacher.  Instead of writing to rabbis and community leaders to be aware of the issue of child predators and what are you doing in your Orthodox environments to protect the kids, (I wasted a whole morning and afternoon collating, formatting and putting together the 10-page contact list of Philadelphia rabbis and shul executive directors), I will worry about my own daled amot and attempt to teach my own children well.

Glad to "whisper words of wisdom" and just let this issue be  (see below).  And if you don't like "Mother Mary" just substitute in your own mind the words "Mother Miriam".  Since this blog is an Internet whisper anyway.  Though I do think my ideas are full of wisdom.  Consider that, talmudic scholars.  That includes you, Rabbi Kaminetsky (no implications, again, however the organizations with which you align repeatedly seem, at least to my innocent bystander eye, to want to not let the cat out of the bag).

Oh, I forgot to mention:

GOOD SHABBES!    Shabbat shalom.  May it be gevaldik, leibidik, the holiest, the most menuchadik, any -dik (just don't tell that to the child molester) sabbath that you have ever experienced.  May it give you a taste of m'ayn olam haba.  Yeah, right, all that jazz.

Perhaps I can learn from this week's parsha Va'era where Abraham our forefather, Avraham Avinu, had the ultimate commitment to and belief in God, when Hashem said jump, Avraham said, "how high?" and was about to sacrifice his own son just because the holy one above said said.  Maybe I should just have more faith that this will all be ok and my children will be protected and safe and good and even if they don't get into their father's alma mater that is ok, too (trust me, the legacy comment earlier was somewhat ridiculous...it's not like we're blue bloods or have a long legacy, and don't they even say now that legacy doesn't really do diddily squat anyway, and yes my oldest is is 4th grade and no I am not a helicopter parent and I disdain all of the homework out there these days and tell my children don't do it all if it's too much).

They could always do what I did, anyway, which is marry in to the ivy league, to which I honestly do believe, what is the BFD?  In all honesty to tell you the truth I prefer what James Altucher believes which is college ain't that great anyway.  Make a buck and be able to pay your bills (those are my words).

I just hope they never get molested.

Whole Phamily Features Her Family!

Original content is always coveted...

till now Whole Phamily has been my original ideas, connections, etc...

maybe that's not working.

How about featuring short videos of my family?  Who the heck is interested in that?  I mean, my children's art teacher *did* recently write how wonderful they all are...




And for those of you who didn't catch the "gum gum" reference...
(note;  poor quality, likely not fer realz on YouTube due to copyright issues...