School's Out and The Wolfman Found the Mother's Day Card he Made Me

It really doesn't matter that this comes to me a month late because it is priceless.   Especially the "Red Velvet Sea."

It may not get him into college, but my 3rd grader has made my day!

Stango and I caught Marco Benevento last night here in Philly.  What a treat:  funky sounds, creative experimental skilled keyboarding, welcoming and small venue. I added lots of great photos to I Love Lot Shirts:  folks there wore some good ones, including Thelonious Monk and Eveready Batteries. 

BDE R' Meir Nissim (Michel) Abehsera: Pioneer of Macrobiotics and Jewish Spirituality

May his memory be a blessing - R' Meir Abehsera passed away this week at the age of 80 after an illness.  I had not until tonight heard of him but have been now reading up on him.  What a special and unique individual.  He was a descendant of a luminous Moroccan mystical family.  He taught healthy living through healthy eating.  He became close with the Lubavitcher Rebbe and followed his teachings, ultimately becoming the Rebbe's whistler.  Yes, he whistled for the rebbe, eventually getting blisters on his lips at times.

He lived in Binghamton , NY among what sounds like a communal Jewish chevre in the late 60s or early 70s.  He sounds like he was a very sweet, kind, soulful person who opened his home to all.  He passed away on Shavuot.  What a holy time to leave this world. He wrote this book on Zen Macrobiotic Cooking.




We don't hear the word macrobiotic so much these days, but eating vegan unprocessed foods and a lot of plants is still what it's about and still good for us.  Healthy living is connected to healthy feeling and sure there are naysayers who say they don't like religion but call it what you will:  connecting to place of peace, tranquility, calm and oneness is satisfying and brings meaning to life.

Fiddy Cent and Portlandia....HOLLA!

As you know I don't like to post bad language here, but today at the gym the familiar spin tune "In Da Club" by the rapper/hip hop artist 50 Cent came on, and it reminded me yet again why going to spin class keeps me checked in with current music.

How timely, since Mr. Curtis Jackson was all over my Instagram feed today.  I'm not gonna research it, but my guess is he has a new album out.  He was on Good Morning America this morning.  No, I didn't watch it.  Yes, I saw some photos on Instagram.

I really love the beat of "In Da Club" and despite the cursing, here is the video which I have no idea what it looks like.  View at your own risk.

Remember when I mentioned my friend's husband Chad, who referred to this blog as hyper liberal?  If I were uber liberal I wouldn't post the lyrics to this tune, which I'm not.  But maybe it is pretty liberal of me to post this video.

So I will state again:  View at your own risk.  Not exactly wholesome stuff.





This week I finally started catching up on this season's episodes of "Portlandia," and while it is all so ridiculous, and I mean that in the best of ways, one of the funniest sketches is when Fred talks about how he missed hip hop.  And then he gets all academic on Carrie and learns all about hip hop.  That's how I feel:  I missed hip hop, too.  All 25 years of it.  I was busy with figuring out how to transcend my Phish newbie status by studying the Helping Phriendly Book.  I think I have graduated.  More so than Fred, at least I knew that it originated in NYC.  More like da Bronx.





Seriously.  So ridiculous.  So funny I want to pish in my pants.

Which leads me to Eminem's new tune, "So Far."  Gotta love how he samples the classic Joe Walsh tune "Life's Been Good" whose riff is so familiar to me, having been reared on classic rock.

Eminem sings (?) about staying true to his roots.  He likes staying in Detroit, eating Hamburger Helper, and just wants to be a normal dude shopping in his local grocery store (Kroeger).  Gotta respect that.  Though it would be healthier for him if he ate more healthful options and shopped at an organic market.  Point being, he isn't all about the shmancy food delivered on silver platters despite his success.

Again, lots of cursing, but he has a good message:  he's got the fame but he wants to just be true to his humble roots.





Here's the original tune it samples, which is along the lines of what I listened to in high school before I got to the better stuff later in life.





Back to Portlandia, I had the good fortune because of Instagram this week to meet (online) the very lovely Kittee Bee Berns.  She is a Portland resident, blogger, vegan, cookbook author, clothing maker, and overall funky hip person.  Her design style, from what I can see of her online photos, is vintage 50s inspired.  She knits (I think?), wears cool glasses, and takes colorful gorgeous photos of her life.  She's the real deal indie-sassy-funky-DIY type (not to label or anything)  and I told her that we decided numerous years ago that a move to Portland wasn't going to happen for us.  She gave me an infusion of creative energy that I simply rarely get to see and experience while living in the suburbs where the focus is on the soccer mom life.

Just when you thought you heard it all and thought I was hyper liberal, check out this lovely LV Damier zip around wallet I found today.  And gosh darnit if I wanna still wear flowers in my hair, I will.

Good Shabbos, homies.  Time to holla about some delish home baked challah.

Spiderman and the Mailman

Look folks, this is America.  The land of Capitalism.  This is the place where dreams are made and anything can happen in this beautiful democracy of ours.  I happen to like that.  Even if I do sometimes like to wear flowers in my hair.

So, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised today when I saw a mail truck that looked like this:

Spiderman and the USPS co-brand, license, blah blah blah.  Everyone makes a buck. photo courtesy of the USPS

I'm all for that.

Big Bucks no whammies.

I'm just glad that my children know the original Spiderman 1960s TV show theme song.  And I have Uncle Goalie to thank for singing it over and over when I was little that it stuck in my head.




Uncle Goalie taped himself on our Panasonic tape recorders with one of our cousins.  I recall the day my dad brought home that amazing black piece of technology.

photo courtesy of Prop Hire

There was something  lasting with those tape recorders.  Oh, kids these days what with all the digital stuff.  The tape recorders had a finite supply of tapes, so inevitably you listed to the same tapes over and over again.  Or you recorded over them.   But not the good stuff.  Not the recording of you and your cousin joking around singing "Spiderman."

Over the weekend, a friend's husband who I don't think has ever viewed my blog called it "hyper liberal."  I was a bit taken aback by that.  I mean, most of you know I don't get into politics.  Sure, I have mentioned Pete Seeger, tofu, and other things someone might associate with a liberal person.   But at the beginning of this blog I'm all about Capitalism.  Aren't the pinko lefties very much *not* into The Man?  Aren't the Hippies *not* into the big bucks?  Truth be told, I'm a mixed bag, Chad (name has been changed).

I'm into the hippy chic and so is the wonderful designer Jonathan Adler

Travelin' Prayer

Some people are travelling this holiday weekend.  How apropros, then, is this video I finally uploaded from a few years ago.  In it, you will clearly see the early childhood educator and seasoned Music Together parent in me that gives my then-3-year-old child instruments of his own to use to play along with while his father plays the tune.

Such a bummer that where I live now doesn't have a Music Together franchise that is convenient.  Now, that is a quality program.




You'd think that I would have known that tune in the 80s since I was supposedly a big Billy Joel fan.  Leave it to Stango to pick the good, lesser played, more gemstone quality tunes from the repetoire.

I didn't own the Piano Man tape where "Travelin' Prayer" was on.  In fact, I didn't have all that many tapes.  My disposable income was limited and so I only had perhaps a box of tapes.  My music education continues even in 2014.

If You Will It It Is No Dream Tour

The Volvo Station Wagon

My freshman year college roommate pulled up in one on the first day.  My first friend had one growing up.  My husband did, too.  Some of my earliest memories are of riding in the back of my childhood friend's rust colored Volvo station wagon with the bench seats facing each other.  It was probably a 1976 model.  Nothing replaces the unique look and feel of a vintage Volvo station wagon.  I'm not the only fan:  check out what these people had to say about it.   If you add on college decals, bumper stickers or, today's incarnation, magnets, you've got yourself one nifty vehicle.

Here's one I spotted around town recently. 

I wonder if I am supposed to blacken out the license plate.  I would but I don't know how to do that.  I don't know whose car this is; just saw it around town.

My personal preference is to see dancing bears or skeletons adorn the bumper of a vintage earlier than this example (which I am guessing is a '92 model.  Someone correct me if I am wrong), but it is still a lovely specimen.

And naturally what type of music sounds best coming out of a Volvo Station wagon?  You got it.  Some good ole Jerry.  For some reason I just don't think hip hop works.

You say MOT, I say Landsman

When I learned the term "landsman" as a colloquialism for a fellow Jew, I really liked it.  For whatever reason, the more widespread term -- Member of the Tribe, or MOT -- didn't resonate as well with me.  Landsman just sounds better.

You can say landsman with a long "a" as in "Land's End" or with an "ah" sounding letter a like when you open your mouth at the doctor:  say ahhhh.

Roz Chast signing her new book

Here is a fellow landsman I met last night.  Roz Chast, illustrator and New Yorker cartoonist, came to Philly to talk about her new book Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant.  I love her work, and oh do we have what in common.  Brooklyn, Connecticut, even November birthdays!  As a landsman, she peppers in a lot of cultural Jewish stuff.  Sortof like Larry David or Woody Allen. Quite culturally Jewish.  And yet she appeals to a wider audience than just Landsmen.

Clearly from a secular background, she talked about how she doesn't believe in hocus pocus yet when she joined her children in a Oujia Board game and asked a question regarding the health of her ailing father, the board spelled out "heaven beckons."  She didn't say she's a believer because of that, but she did express a sense of "not sure how to make sense of that."  Hmm...truly a landsman with a spark inside no doubt.  Thanks Roz and way to go!

I tweeted that I felt like a youngin' among the crowd and that tweet was favorited by WHYY Radio Times.  Wow.  I am famous. 

Ribbit Robot on Goldeleh's Birthday

Here was us yesterday morning.

It was rainy.

Blueberries were involved.

Here is what 1st grade looks like.

Wow...Goldie is 1 year old!  Happy Birthday Goldeleh!

And while we're at it, my favorite Stevie Happy Birthday.  

What is a post without the good tunes?

Shabbat Shalom folks.  Parshat Bahar.  Shmita and it's a shmita kinda year coming up.  Speaking of which, check out my friends at The Shmita Project.  All good there.  For those of you unfamiliar with Shmita, you may save your expletives or jokes on that word.

Hey Mama, What's the Matter Here...Why You Treat Me Mean?

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.

Even in 1972 when you recorded that tune, no meant no.  But maybe there wasn't a lot of awareness about it back then.  Contrary to today when accountability of universities regarding campus sexual assault is a timely news topic.

Still, I enjoyed "Black Country Woman" on the elliptical machine today.




 I do hope, though, that my boys won't have this attitude when the time comes.

Back when I had two boys.  Summer 2010.

Long Time Gone for a Baby To Nap

As my poor sweet baby cries away in his crib because he is so tired and can't continue sleeping without his mama by his side, I am grateful for this video I took just yesterday of him playing so peacefully.  He is engaged, interested, and curious.  He is human and healthy!  So grateful.  So not grateful for the sleep-deprived state we are both in at the moment.




Never saw CSN in concert.
Always wanted to.




That video is from the famous Woodstock concert you might have heard about.  It's the one my parents couldn't make due to my mother being pregnant with my brother.  At least that's the joke we always say.  No way my dad would have hung out with all those hippies.  My mom was busy singing along with Peter, Paul, and Mary and my guess is that if she was hanging out with other people at the time, she might have gone.  Reba's mother-in-law went.  So, that counts, right?  She still carries her ticket around in her wallet!

You know what they say, Man plans, Gd laughs.  The irony the irony.  They say things skip a generation?

Which reminds me there is a fun-sounding family and kids gathering this Sunday in Philly called Kidstock at Liberty Lands.  Just in case you had any pre-conceived notions that I might be a (cough, cough) hippy, no real earth mama would let her baby cry this long during the day to get down for a nap.

Since you asked, no that isn't a Moby Wrap, but good guess.  It is a NeoBulle and it is from Switzerland.  There are many, many wraps out there and the babywearers of the world are grateful for the Moby and its popularity!  Full disclosure:  I am not even terribly a huge wrapping geek, and only own 2 wraps!  The serious mamas out there are fully stashified and I am far from that.  But, I *am* in the market for a nice dressy slate or gray wrap for shul, so be on the lookout next time you see me at your friendly neighborhood synagogue.

BH.  Sleeping baby.

The Key to Good Hollie

Hollie is what my Grandpa Al called the traditional Sabbath bread also known as challah.  You know, that gutteral "ch."  Hollie to me is actually Holly, who is a new friend of mine.  (Hi, Holly!)

This week is the first Shabbat after Passover and an old but only recently popularized custom is that of the "shlissel challah" or , key challah.  The idea is that you bake a challah in the shape of a key, or, alternately, bake a key directly into the challah.  One of the explanations given is that the key will open up the gates of heaven for the next 7 weeks until the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. 

Early this morning I remembered the shlissel challah, whipped up some dough, and even got the big kids to shape some loaves.  Glad they fit it in before the bus. 

I wonder if Grandpa Al knew of this custom or learned about it during his youth at Chaim Berlin Yeshiva.  For some reason, I doubt it.  But I know he would have chuckled at the joke my dear husband Stango offered up this morning as I pulled out the last loaves from the oven.  Something that I should do more often.  Shlissel while you work. 

no keys in here, but these are the loaves shaped by the 3 children shown above.  Nistar's is the top.  Ezra's is the bottom left, with help from his big sis.  Eli's is the bottom right.

Kinderlach's challahs baked and finished product

will be needing this spare house key!

for those who care about sepsis, indeed we wrap the key

I do the traditional three strand braid

wow, I had a manicure last week!

peekaboo, I see you, key!

I braid from the center.  See the key?

moving right along...

almost there

I flipped it over after braiding

I also shaped one in the shape of a key.  I brushed the loaves with an egg-oil-chopped onion-salt mixture.  Yummy onion taste, thanks again to dear Leah Shemtov for that tip

Whelp, that's all folks.  Thinking of Grandpa Al, and Grandma Martha, all of blessed memories, since I mentioned Grandpa Al above.  Hope they enjoyed my handiwork!  Good Shabbes to everyone on the planet and in the past in the future and all the energy bodies everywhere.

Here are my Grandma Martha and Grandpa Al, at my bat mitzvah, sitting in center.  Other dear family members include, from left to right, by couple:  Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Murray , Aunt Henny and later husband Dave, aforementioned Grandma Martha and Al , and Grandma Mayme and Grandpa Archie .  May all their memories be for a blessing.  Miss all these good people.  What a nice representation of families.

TBT: That's Throwback Thursday for the Techno-Challenged

If you don't know what TBT means, and you're interested, or at least want to brush up on your iPad, iPhone, Facebook, Internet, Ebay, Etsy (you never heard of that, huh?) skills then I suggest you contact your

Friendly Neighborhood Tech Coach.

Main Line Tech Coaches.  Alas, that's for another day.

For now, it's Thursday, and my TBT is my dear Stango and I on our honeymoon in Hawaii.  It was March, 2002, just a few months after our wedding.   This photo is from our 7 hour boat ride out into the Pacific along the Na Pali Coast.  From a distance, we viewed the forbidden, private island of Niihau.

May I take inspiration from this photo that we go as soon as possible to another resort vacation filled with exploration and adventure.  And that we have clean, fresh, new clothing to wear at it.  And that we can get back into the shape we were in here.  It's 2014...plenty of Gen Xers are fit, in shape, and healthy.  Forget Gen Xers, what about all the Baby Boomers and Between the War Babies.  So many people are taking good care of their physical health, whether it's walking, swimming, yoga, pilates, Zumba, spinning, barre method, elliptical machine, whatever!  No excuses!  Now that we relived our freedom at the seder(s) as Passover just passed over, and some of us have been renewed (those who celebrate Easter and other spring festivals), and we enter into warmer weather, let us all take a pledge to ourselves to be more active physically.  We have it in us.  I know the food is so delish but we could put down that 2nd portion of food and say we're full and now it's time for physical activity.

At long last.  A photo from the Stango Loony Affair.

Stango and Loony, March 2002, Na Pali Coast, Hawaii

Happy Passover

There are two videos I would like to share with you.
And one illustration, shown at the end of this blog post.

The first is a Happy Passover message from me and Levi.  He is enjoying his egg matzah tam tams already.  Wishing you and yours a happy holiday!  May it be sweet.  Considering I need a quick food to give him, and have no cooked food yet like roasted carrots, sweet potato or zucchini, the tam tams are good.  Soft enough like Joe's O's (Cheerio's).

The 2nd is the most appropriate message from Mr. Marley.  It is the time of our Exodus. I actually posted this video in the past.  But that link no longer works.  Movement of Jah people. We are all moving towards our freedom.  Jews and all people alike.  Let's speak nicely, be kind, and help each other out every day.  Let's share ideas and listen to one another.  Let's follow the good word and love the earth we inhabit. Let's respect all creatures.  Let's be positive and walk away from evil, bad words, and negativity.  Let's rise up against our oppressors.  Speaking of which, and I thank my friend Leah for reminding us to think of this today on the eve of Passover, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims of Overland Park, Kansas. 

Finally, here is a drawing I am sharing that was sent to the Nunever.  It was done by an anonymous fan of his drumming.  Talk about it all coming together on one wacked out frazzled Candy man (look at the dude's tie). It's a lot of band music references -- as if the illustrator is thinking that these are *the most* important music influences out there -- but I can see that the illustrator is trying to take it to another level.  All things together and connected I agree.  Gotta wonder what his very official-looking notes are on the right.  Very Wall Street, I would say.  Who knows, this person could be a Kellogg or Wharton graduate.  My interpretation is that this is what happens when the candy man at shul forgets his kippah and has too much candy.  Remember often times the candy man and kiddush club guy is one and the same.  So, just remember whatever you do, take care of your shoes.  And wear something on your head to shul, dude!

From an Anonymous fan of Noah Lehrman

Chillin at Home...In the Year to Come

Who needs Passover cleaning when you have your own in-house entertainment to distract you?

This is most of us, yesterday, with a friend visiting from out of town.  Got to love the 8 year old boy handling the baby, and the punching and silly moves he makes the baby do.




Yep, you caught Stango playing that classic tune "Bashana HaBa'ah" ...just makes you wanna kick back to earlier days on the kibbutz, at Camp Ramah, or when you could only see 2 tv channels in Israel.  Nowadays I wonder even if Israeli kids know this tune.


Thanks to all the Israeli soldiers for defending our country.

from npr.org

Xanadu For Getting Your Spirits Up

My old colleague James Altucher is to thank for reminding me today about how much I loved the movie "Xanadu."  He posted eloquently about a topic I thought about lately:  heroin.

I guess it's out there more than ever because of Philip Seymour Hoffman's recent tragic death.  Or because of the article in the NY Times last month entitled "Prescription Painkillers Seen as Gateway to Heroin."  Could also be due to my conversation with a doctor friend who specializes in addiction, who has seen time and again the quick slippery slope people fall down into heroin addiction once their doctor prescribes them painkillers.

James' thoughts are how to produce a natural high similar to that created by heroin.  He has a lot of good points:  stress-out for short periods of time, working out, socializing, eating at least a modified paleo diet, hot spicy foods, fewer grains, sex, laughter.  Sounds about right.

Painkiller addiction scares me.  Opiates scare me.  I tried to avoid the Percosets after Levi, but I figured they couldn't hurt if I took them for just a couple of days.  That was 2 days too many and the after-effects lasted more than a week.  No thank you.  Let's not get into too many details, shall we?

Nancy Reagan was effective with her brain-on-drugs campaign, by keeping kids like me far away from street drugs in high school.  But 1980s Reaganomics also made the drug companies stronger.   Today we hear stories of problems with on-the-spectrum kids taking Ritalin and Adderall these days (remember last year's national story about a kid who committed suicide in conjunction with his Adderall addiction?) and adults taking OxyContins.  People don't take these drugs seriously enough, and yet off-label drug use is rampant.  Are pharm parties real or made up?  I like to think high schoolers are smarter than that, but it is pretty easy to access stuff which is powerfully addictive due to our nation's licensed doctors who write prescriptions.  And then they freak out over issues of marijuana legalization.  I don't get it.  It's all about money in the end. We live in a Capitalist society, I guess is what people argue.

Back to happiness and Xanadu.  I loved dance and rollerskating, so as a child of the 80s, I naturally loved this movie that flopped at the box office.  Of course I was already in love with Olivia Newton  John because of Grease.  My cousin bought me the record for this movie because she knew how much I loved it.  Back then I didn't appreciate the architecture used in the film, but the Pan Pacific Auditorium was a Los Angeles architectural icon that was destroyed in a fire in the 1980s.

Like James, I listen to the theme song from Xanadu (and watch the awesome choreography) and feel totally pumped.  I hope you do too!

Xanadu was filmed here.  source:  Wikipedia

People Are Strange When You're a Stranger

Happy Monday, everyone.

I decided to be low-key and not offer advice to people, etc.  But I just did it again, and I wished I held back.  But if I don't want to be a stranger.  And I think I have good info to share.  Who knows where things will lead.

So, I am going to still hold back a lot but offer up advice in a kind, happy, good way.  And know when to shut up.


Why I had a poster of Jim Morrison hanging in my college dorm room is beyond me.
It should have been Jerry Garcia.
At least this photo is a bit more modest than the famous bare-chested one of him.

   

Rashi Mincowicz, Of Blessed Memory and SITM

"Unimaginable heartache" is what my friend Rachel just told me when I mentioned the sudden passing last week of Rashi Mincowicz. z'l.  She was 37.  Married and a mother of 8 children.  It was a huge shock.  She was named for her grandmother who also passed away at the age of 37.  She ran a Chabad house.  I can't even get into what that means, but it's all good.  Clearly she had beautiful taste - look at this photo of her and her beautiful family.

But the style is just the surface.  She wrote a beautiful email to her family last year when her aunt passed away regarding how to deal with loss of a family member that has been shared with the public.  And it is very deep.  Way deeper than the beauty you see on the surface in the picture above.

Rashi lived in/near the town of Alpharetta, which is where Phish played numerous times.  So I recognized that right away.

Her children have no mama.
Such sadness.
Look at that sweet little baby next to her.

Do what you can and support them to help with household help.

Music isn't the thing we do when someone passes away in the Jewish tradition, but I am posting this anyway.   A lot of special people go to see Phish.  And they were all right near Rashi at the time in Alpharetta.  They play Silent in the Morning (SITM).  I don't know what the words mean exactly but it's a pretty tune.  So, I dedicate this to Rashi Mincowicz whose neshama (soul) should have an aliya in shamayim (have an honor in heaven) and continue to glow, sparkle, and offer "resounding echoes" of bracha (blessing) to her family.

Rainbow Hamentaschen? Go for it!

If you're a Jewish mama like me, you've seen these rainbow hamentaschen trending on Facebook these past few weeks.

From Kitchen Tested

What can I say?

Kids...there is NO.WAY.I.AM.GONNA.MAKE.THESE

The recipe itself as well as my friends who have ventured into this den of self-inflicted pain echo the same warning signs. They take time.  They aren't easy.  And that's all I need to conclude that they are not for me.  No ounce of Jewish mothering guilt will get me there.

I love to bake, but I dread the annual hamentaschen baking.  My mom didn't make them growing up, so I decided it would be a good thing to share with my kids.  But, yet again, I learn that my mother was a very smart person back then (she's still very smart).  Every year when the hamentaschen either open, ooze out their jam, make a sticky mess, or any combination thereof, I utter the same thing:

You Nasty Expletive  *@A#  %*^ three-cornered Eastern European Purim cookies.
You jerky Haman's pockets.
May there be an ugly curse on you, Haman's Ears.

So, while these rainbow hamentaschen look stunning, this year I will enjoy the hamentaschen that everyone else made from the shalach manos packages we receive.  And I will eat them with a smile.

Rock N Roll Resort Contest for a FREE VIP Weekend

This music festival coming up this April 4-6th in "The Mountains" (if you are Jewish and reading this and from the east coast  you know what mountains I am talking about.  To my Santa Monica SparklingSister, sorry to be so New Yorky!) called Rock N Roll Resort is having A CONTEST FOR A FREE VIP WEEKEND

Here is the Link

https://facebook.antavo.com/DOW/F/?oid=tI

Click on that to enter to win a free weekend for two.

And to all you Yidden, yes of course you recognize that town name of Kerhonkson!  You can betchyer bottom dollar that there's only one thing there that you would know of.  And that some smart person renamed the former Granit Hotel (didn't people just say "The Granit?"  Didn't Aunt Sherine used to go there?) as the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa hotel..  I never went there, but it was one of "those places in the mountains."

Actually it looks like you can go there for Pesach this year!

So, Nu, the real question is...for the winner of the Rock N Roll Resort, will you find a minyan and can they get me kosher food?!?  (I am sortof joking.  Sortof not.  Maybe so or maybe not. Was this the life I sought?)

)

Oh yeah, if I win, (Cuz , yeah you bet I entered this even though The Wolfman has his kung fu testing that Sunday and we really can't miss it but I would love to win this!) I will figure out the (kosher) food thing, the shul thing, and the convince the husband thing cuz it's something we won and you know how much live music makes me happy and it's something we love to enjoy together, and good thing the baby loves his mama and he will come along with us no worries there and by the way mom and dad if we win can the kids come to you for Shabbes that weekend?)

I hope I didn't just jinx our chances.

Relationship Building in the Age of Social Media...Simple Smiles and Good Times

Who else is fed up with Facebook friends?  People who you haven't seen in years, people you have never met, people who you danced with at a show once?  All those photos of dinners in Wine Country, at Disneyworld, on the ski slopes.  You weren't there.  These aren't real relationships.  They are virtual and fun, but these friends aren't calling you to find out if you got over the stomach flu.  Who makes phone calls anymore, anyway?  The voyeurism of Facebook, Twitter and other social media may be fun, but it's not a real deal live relationship.

Just the other day, Stango and I were chatting about the idea that it's time to cultivate REAL relationships.

Time to have real tea.

Time to stop texting, because you can't text an intonation.

Time to learn from the Green Bubbie!



Here's an oldie but a goodie about relationships.  Not very solid relationships, but they probably were solid at one point.  Such a classic newbie tune.  Reminds me of when I began to fall in love with my favorite band.  Good times.

Stuck in the Middle With Fill in the Blank

Thanks Bob Lefsetz for referencing this tune today.




Been wondering where I've been, eh?  (That's the Canadian eh)

Been trying to not really care about the little stuff.

There's a lot of little stuff out there.

At least the baby's clean, the boys are in the shower and Nistar is on her way home from gymnastics.  That's what matters in my tiny corner of the earth.  You don't need to care about any of that, but I do, and I'm glad.  The question is why in the world would I write this all on a blog?

No clue.

Baby Levi.  My Nova Scotian roots ain't too far away.

If Not Now, When?

It is lovely to see Pete Seeger quoting Rabbi Hillel's famous words.  There have been so many posts all week about Pete.  He was a giant.  I was grateful to have said to him directly:  "Thank you."


 

Thanks Pete Seeger.  We'll be seein' ya.

Pete Seeger at the Strawberry Festival in Beacon, NY June 2010  Photo by yours truly

I Must inquire, Mr. Salinger, can you still have fun?

Today is the 4th anniversary of J.D Salinger's death.  Us Jews call it a yahrtzeit.  Even though he wasn't Jewish, Salinger's father was.  Close enough.

You should watch the documentary about him.   You really should. I liked it.  Then again, I am no film critic.  I told a friend that I watched it; she said she heard it got bad reviews.  I don't care.  I liked seeing all the interviews.   I liked envisioning eating popcorn made with brewer's yeast with Jerry, which is what he did with one of his young girlfriends.  That would've been fun.  But then again that never would've happened cuz I wasn't a good writer.  As such, Salinger wouldn't have been terribly interested in me. 

Here is my own sweetness at the library last week.  I hope he and all of my kinderlach will love Salinger's many works.  And that they will read more than just Salinger (which is what I basically did in high school.  That and Cliff's Notes for the rest of the stuff).  And that they will be better writers than me.  

And why the blog title, you ask?  Cuz I was listening to Wilson from 12/31/91 today, a show I should have been at in Worcester when I was a college sophomore, just after the prime of my wannabe Salingeresque youth, but wasn't.  And boy is that Wilson so much fun.  The blog title comes from Wilson.  A lot of modern-day Holdens have enjoyed that one.  Please me have no regrets that one comes straight from my baby Levi's mouth.

Which leads me to the whole Wilson-Seattle football team thing that Trey got going.  I love these guys.

Here's a look at Wilson from last summer.  The very day when Levi, the sweetness above, was born.  Not like Trey knew that.  But hey, it's all connected.

Salinger's 4th Yahrtzeit Approaching

On January 27th to be exact.

Which is 1/27.

For those of you who have followed my antics here, you might recall my fondness for the number 127.

Here's one time I mention it.

Here's another, earlier, time I mention it.

It's a lucky number for my mother.
Her first name is Sarah.
127 is the age when our biblical matriarch Sarah passed away.
It's the number when you add up its digits gets to 10.
And who doesn't love a perfect 10.

So, why is it that I missed that Salinger passed away on 1/27?
Read about my fascination with Salinger books.

J.D. Salinger drawing that appeared on the cover of Time Magazine

I just finished watching the Salinger documentary from last year
All Americans should see this.
We all loved and love Catcher in the Rye.
You may think I am biased, since my college advisor and favorite professor, Stephen J. Whitfield, appears as a commentator in the film.
But I loved this movie even before I saw him in it.
No, I didn't know he was in it.

I do believe strongly that the sporadic release of Salinger's remaining works from 2015-2020, as noted by the film, will play a strong role in creating positive energy in the world.

It is a good thing!

There is no doubt in my mind that larger questions of religion and God existed for Salinger.  His Glass family practices a religion, after all.  Seymour commits suicide.  Salinger's father was Jewish and he helped to liberate the camps.  He served as a counterintelligence officer soon after the war.  He tried catching Nazis.  He married a former Nazi and soon divorced her.  I wish I could have had Jerry Salinger over for a shabbes dinner at our house.  I think he would have liked my challah.  I hope he would have had fun.  I just had some popcorn with brewer's yeast on it.  Good stuff.  But what about warm chocolate babka?  That would be good, too.

Forget about the music I love affecting so many Americans for the good.  (for the moment, at least!)

J.D. Salinger's books affected so many Americans for the good.

And, disturbingly, as noted in the film, they affected not just one but 3 Americans for the bad in their assassinations or attempted assassinations of famous people.   That concerns me but as Salinger said to his fans, he isn't a therapist.  He did good for the world by writing what he wrote.  And it will be so exciting to read the rest of his goods in the next decade.  The Glass and Caulfield families will finally rise to their fullest potentials in American literature.

I imagine little Suzy Greenberg, a girl who said she wants to be a sociologist but it was suggested she should get checked by a neurologist, must've read Catcher and related to Holden just as much as the next girl.


I loved reading about the Glass children (was it Franny or Zooey?) when we lived in New Haven, envisioning myself on the very platform I used to ascend when I commuted to Manhattan from there in 2003.

Thanks, Mr. Salinger.
This blog post comes from a good place and the best of intentions.
I only claim to be an ideas person who wants good in the world.

Bar Mitzvah Standard Stuff and Jam Cruise 13

Next year, Jam Cruise will celebrate 13 years.  They just came back from their 12th voyage, and I am looking at all the fun photos from this music festival on a boat.  I doubt I will be able to make it to next year's voyage, but I am calling it here and now that "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang, which was the go - to Bar Mitzvah song of the 80s when I was attending those parties, should be played.

I just read about some dude in the New Yorker who runs some really successful marketing company and he just had a Bar Mitzvah party for his company.  So it's not like I'm the only one who thinks up these good ideas.  Difference is that guy is a gazillionairre with marketing finesse and I'm not.

The happy memories of dancing away to Celebration are making me smile...and that's what important!

Nursing my Baby is a Real Privilege

Not only have all of my babies nursed successfully, but I love to nurse.  I am really fortunate in this regard.

I missed it during the 6 year break between Ezra and Levi, but time allows you to forget and the memory got hazier with each passing year.  

So it was like seeing a really good old friend again when I had Levi.  All the warm fuzzy feelings came rushing back with nursing baby #4.  Going back to La Leche League meetings is so enjoyable!  Chatting with my sister Reba about how much we love nursing our babies is a real happy thing.  

And now Levi is nearly 6 months.  Gd willing I will have many more months to nurse my baby.  I like nursing this size baby.  A newborn is more challenging.  Time is flying and I hope I can ride this wave for as long as possible.  

The skin that you think you might see and think is my naked body is definitely not a breast.  And even if it were, what you see in a typical fashion magazine is a lot more risque.  But still, if you know me you know I strive for modesty and that doesn't look like breast to me.

School Notes Purge: Both Sides Now...It's Life's Illusions I Recall

"Moons and dunes and ferris wheels." - Joni Mitchell

Here's a bunch of stuff I recently purged from my elementary school files.

From my first summer at camp, summer 1981.  I loved this stationary so much!

This stationary is still blank.  Nistar will use it this summer.  

This was from a friend who had a boyfriend in 5th grade.  I stopped getting letters from her after a while.  Years later I found out my mother had intercepted.  She saw that this might have been a bad influence.  

More boyfriend talk but my mom didn't intercept Lauren's letters.  I wonder why. 

And from the school year around this time. 

Looking back I know I was sheltered, innocent, and good-natured.  I was scared of anything too sketchy and trouble-making.  When I heard of public high school and that it was like a "jungle" where people forced you to do drugs, I was pretty scared.  I am glad I was the way I was.  I did ok in school and I had nice friends.  I'm pretty happy about that.

I saved so many notes and papers from my childhood.  Over the years I have been whittling them down.  I keep thinking I should save them for my children and grandchildren. Um... Seriously, Rach?

Now that I have memorialized these items in perpetuity (or, for as long as Blogger exists) I feel sortof ok with trashing my stuff. 

And even if these pages are deleted, I really don't think I benefited from saving all they stuff.

As is often the case when I purge of stuff I have zero use for, I feel lighter and  freer.  New energy can flow in.  Speaking of which it is time to get to the gym and do some sun salutations.  Namaste to the recycling guys for picking up all my extra paper this week!