Merry Christmas from BillyBlog and Steve

Cool Stuff People Send Me: Christmas Eve Edition

This comes courtesy of my sister Lehua in Hawai'i:








Happy Holidays everyone!

Happy Holidays, Hawaiian-Style

Click here for a Hawaiian holiday greeting card, referred to me by my Mom, who was sent the link by a friend of hers who works for the Company that designed it. In the words of my mother: "A little non-Jewish, but the photos are great--and there's a gecko!".

Happy Halloween from BillyBlog

Damn! I Missed National Mullet Day. Again!

Last Tuesday, July 2, was apparently National Mullet Day. I'm way beyond celebrating that, but will pay homage to the mullet in what I called, at the time, a "Vanderpool":



This was taken in May, 1988, the day I decided that the "Vanderpool" wasn't as successful a babe magnet as I had imagined, and de-mulleted myself:
Mullet-less, my love life soon improved. In fact, I wonder, had I been still mulleted four months later, in September, what would the future Mrs. Billyblog have thought? Not much, methinks, not much.

However, if you like mullets, check out the Mullet of the Week, here.

Weekend Update: Eliasof-Karasik Wedding

I don't know how interesting this will be to the random stumbler upon BillyBlog, but part of the mission statement of this endeavor is to serve as journal and chronicle of the personal. Nonetheless, I'll try and keep it short and sweet.

It is a matter of public record that Stefanie Eliasof and Gregg Karasik were married this past weekend in Tarrytown. Although their nuptials were not reported in the New York Times' "Vows" column, I'm sure that somewhere their marriage will be reported as news.

Ms. Eliasof is cousin to my dear wife, Melanie, thus making me the bride's cousin-in-law. We were invited to the rehearsal dinner on Friday night at Blu blū Riverfront Bar and Bistro, in the town of Hastings-on-Hudson. Here was a view of the sunset while we mingled prior to the meal:


One of what I considered the highlights of the evening, as we hung out with the cousins et al., was Melanie's collaboration with her kin on re-constructing a family tree, of sorts:


I strongly recommend this as a useful exercise at any large family function.

I enjoyed the Wild Mushroom Raviolis with sage cream sauce & white truffle oil as an appetizer, with the orecchiette pasta, sweet Italian sausage, broccoli rabe & roasted tomatoes as the entree. For dessert I had the chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and chocolate & caramel sauces.

The following day was full of excitement, even before we left for the wedding. Our eldest, Jolee, received her acceptance letter into I.S. 187, which many consider the best junior high school in Brooklyn. If you are going by the highest percentage of students that pass the state exams, it's certainly at the top of the heap (read a review here). Here are the citywide averages:

I.S. 187, which is grades 6-8, have percentages of 98% (grade 6), 99% (grade 7), and 96% (grade 8). BillyBlog often celebrates the younger athlete in the family, but is just as proud of the older spawn as well.

So after dropping the kids off at their cousins, we headed off to the wedding locale, Tarrytown House in, you guessed it, Tarrytown, NY.

It was a lovely wedding and the weather was delightful. Here are some pictures:

The three fl

The table centerpieces were magnificent, towering over the guests:


It may be difficult to see, but the following morning, one of the trees was wearing several wayward kippot:

After brunch on Sunday, Shayna headed off with Grandpa Barry to see the Yankees continue to unravel in the Bronx.

Meanwhile, Jolee, Melanie and I wandered around the Westchester Mall, which had numerous leather couches on which to doze while the ladies shopped and caught a movie at the City Center 15, Cinema De Lux:


The movie was enjoyed by all, although it was my least favorite of the Shreks.

After Shayna and Grandpa returned from the game, we joined Jolee's godmother Brenda for dinner at P.F. Chang's China Bistro.

Then we drove back to Brooklyn to begin to recover from the weekend. Barry grabbed us some cheesecake from our favorite baker, Paneantico.

But wait! There was still more weekend! On Memorial Day, the girls and I went early to the park with Grandpa to hit the ball around.

Then we caught the Kings County Memorial Day Parade in Bay Ridge. In its 140th year, this is the longest-running Memorial Day Parade in the United States.

Happy Memorial Day!

I have been tied up all weekend at a family event. Stay tuned for an update. Have a safe, healthy holiday! Ten years ago this weekend, I severely twisted my ankle playing around with a basketball in San Diego. My uncle, Ron Brenner, pronounced the death of my youth, as the big 3-0 loomed less than five weeks away. "You're getting old, Billy!" he proclaimed. And time marches on......

Poems of Jewishness

Late last night/early this morning, I facilitated/participated in a discussion of Jewish poems with a small group of co-congregants at the Bay Ridge Jewish Center. I should qualify that I facilitated in so much as I selected the poems that we read, as part of a Shavuot study session. It was a fully enjoyable experience, and certainly intellectually stimulating. Much thanks to Rabbi Micah Kelber for inviting me to participate.

Anyway, I thought I would reprint the poems here, for your perusal.

We started with, and spent the most time discussing, Muriel Rukeyser's "To Be a Jew in the Twentieth Century":

"To Be a Jew in the Twentieth Century"

To be a Jew in the twentieth century
Is to be offered a gift. If you refuse,
Wishing to be invisible, you choose
Death of the spirit, the stone insanity.
Accepting, take full life. Full agonies:
Your evening deep in labyrinthine blood
Of those who resist, fail, and resist: and God
Reduced to a hostage among hostages.

The gift is torment. Not alone the still
Torture, isolation; or torture of the flesh.
That may come also. But the accepting wish,
The whole and fertile spirit as guarantee
For every human freedom, suffering to be free,
Daring to live for the impossible.

Read an analysis and discussion of this poem here.

Next, we read Paul Celan's poem "Tenebrae":

Tenebrae

Near are we, Lord,
near and graspable.

Grasped already, Lord,
clawed into each other, as if
each of our bodies were
your body, Lord.

Pray, Lord,
pray to us,
we are near.

Wind-skewed we went there,
went there to bend
over pit and crater.

Went to the water-trough, Lord.

It was blood, it was
what you shed, Lord.

It shined.

It cast your image into our eyes, Lord.
Eyes and mouth stand so open and void, Lord.
We have drunk, Lord.
The blood and the image that was in the blood, Lord.

Pray, Lord.
We are near.

This poem went over very well with the group, who generally seemed impressed by the powerful imagery presented in its language.

Next, we read Yehuda Amichai's "A Jewish Cemetery in Germany":

A Jewish Cemetery in Germany

On a little hill amid fertile fields lies a small cemetery,
a Jewish cemetery behind a rusty gate, hidden by shrubs,
abandoned and forgotten. Neither the sound of prayer
nor the voice of lamentation is heard there
for the dead praise not the Lord.
Only the voices of our children ring out, seeking graves
and cheering
each time they find one—like mushrooms in the forest, like
wild strawberries.
Here's another grave! There's the name of my mother's
mothers, and a name from the last century. And here's a name,
and there! And as I was about to brush the moss from the name—
Look! an open hand engraved on the tombstone, the grave
of a kohen,
his fingers splayed in a spasm of holiness and blessing,
and here's a grave concealed by a thicket of berries
that has to be brushed aside like a shock of hair
from the face of a beautiful beloved woman.

— translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld


This poem received mixed reviews. I thought that the established opinions about Amichai's poetry influenced the receptivity toward the poem. I saw it more as a snapshot, whereas others saw condemnation and a dark cynicism.

I brought a copy of Joseph Brodsky's "A Song," but we didn't read it:

I wish you were here, dear,
I wish you were here.
I wish you sat on the sofa
and I sat near.
The handkerchief could be yours,
the tear could be mine, chin bound.
Though it could be, of course,
the other way around.

I wish you were here, dear,
I wish you were here.
I wish we were in my car,
and you'd shift the gear.
We'd find ourselves elsewhere,
on an unknown shore.
Or else we'd repair
to where we've been before.

I wish you were here, dear,
I wish you were here.
I wish I knew no astronomy
when stars appear,
when the moon skims the water
that sighs and shifts in its slumber.
I wish it were still a quarter
to dial your number.

I wish you were here, dear,
in this hemisphere,
as I sit on the porch
sipping a beer.
It's evening; the sun is setting;
boys shout and gulls are crying.
What's the point of forgetting
if it's followed by dying?

We ended with a poem by Kenneth Koch, entitled "To Jewishness". The lines are short, but the poem is long. I won't post it here, but will link it here. Please check it out, it's quite funny. Koch's poem came from his book New Addresses, in which he writes odes to ideas, as opposed to concrete things.

This just skims the surface. Wikipedia lists dozens of Jewish poets, whether they be Jewish American, Yiddish Language, Hebrew Language, or Israeli poets.

Monday Links

As National Poetry Month approaches, PBS' Online Newshour has a great feature on Israeli and Palestinian poetry here.



Pearl Jam fans who have enjoyed the cover of Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary". May find the original version, as heard in this video, interesting. "Crazy Mary" opened the first Pearl Jam concert I attended on July 9, 2003. It's often interesting to hear a favorite cover in its earliest form, even if personal tastes lend themselves to favoring the newer version.

Here's Pearl Jam's version, in concert, on July 8, 2003, at Madison Square Garden. Look for the great solo at the end by "Boom" Gaspar on the Hammond B3 organ:



Happy Prince Kuhio Day!



An interesting article on high-end book dealer/collector Glenn Horowitz here.
(New York Times registration may be required)

Holy Sheep! Check out this trailer for Black Sheep, a New Zealand film:



If you think it's a joke, visit this site.

I discovered that The Complete New Yorker is on sale at the magazine's website for only $29.95 (compared to $63.00 at Amazon). I was fishing my credit card out of my wallet when I realized, I'm behind on my 2006 issues, why add another 80 volumes of pressure?

More Catching Up

So, what's going on?

A lot to talk about in reference to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame
ceremonies earlier this week in New York, but I did manage to post about
that earlier this week. Scroll down for that update.

Tuesday I took a sick day, my first in almost two years, so my whole
balance of reality was off, I guess.

Speaking of work, the I.T. gurus flagged YouTube as a "problem site," and
it is unviewable from my work computer. Not that I spent time trolling
YouTube for blogfodder, but it locks up the system whenever a page embedded
with YouTube clips (read: BillyBlog) loads.

The NCAA basketball tournament started this week, inflicting a large number
of co-workers with March Madness. Growing up in Hawai'i, with my Tar Heel
father on the mainland, and matriculating at a Division III school, I have
found myself immune to the aforementioned mental disorder, and prefer a
different distraction: www.bandmadness.net

You may remember them from last year. This season they have a re-tooled
site and you can still vote whether you think ABBA is better than Tool,
etc. etc.

News came Thursday of a new blog in the sphere o' blogdom. Loyal reader
Leon aka Dear Old Dad aka The Ancient One, Blessed Be He, is now a Blogger
and can be visited via the link on the sidebar. Check him out, give him
feedback, and welcome him to the Nation of Blogspot.

So, that's that. We did get the news that we will be seeing Fishbone again,
on May 3, this time on a boat cruise in New York Harbor and the Hudson
River (more details to follow).

By this time next week, I will be in post-Radio City Lucinda Williams
bliss. And, I might even be hitting a poetry reading soon, with National
Poetry Month just around the corner.

Meanwhile, happy St. Patrick's Day. We are trying to dig out from the mess
from yesterday's precipitation dump of frozen mush.

Cheers.