Comments on: A Day in the Life.

By: Esther Kustanowitz

Esther Kustanowitz — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 18:19:32 +0000

I just wanted to say again how brilliant this is. One of my favorites, always.

By: evanstonjew

evanstonjew — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 04:00:04 +0000

I rarely read anything that I find hilarious and interesting. Had I only known of your post before I wrote about what I see is called the Indie scene. Brilliant.

By: Jewlicious » No need for Black Maria, goodbye to the East End sun!

Jewlicious » No need for Black Maria, goodbye to the East End sun! — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 01:30:43 +0000

[...] You may remember our chums from Jewdas – that’s cute London slang for “Heeb Magazine” – from our little spat with them sometime around last Purim. If you’re not familiar with Jewdas’ oeuvre, read my last post about New York Jewish radical hipsters, substituting “London” for “New York” and throwing in the word “bollocks” as you see fit, and we’ll be about on the same page. [...]

By: 4jkb4ia

4jkb4ia — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:31:22 +0000

I don’t attend this shul anymore because I would have had to drive.

By: 4jkb4ia

4jkb4ia — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:30:32 +0000

“Dodecachitza” also LOL.
Have no experience with indie minyans other than a shul which had no movement affiliation, but always had a rabbi, and moved into Jewish Renewal organization when asked. I cheer for this shul because the rabbi tries to keep a balance between inner spiritual work and the social justice work his wife is interested in. This social justice work includes the beginnings of the successful volunteer organization in the St. Louis Public Schools, Mentor St. Louis, and a collaborative organization between the synagogue and churches in the area.

By: Becca

Becca — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 05:34:20 +0000

BZ, you’re bighearted. I’m not so much an indie-minyan girl (the lay-led minyanim I frequent are–believe it or not–actually *gasp* part of a shul!), and I’ve spent all of maybe one Shabbat on the UWS (many more chillin’ down south at T&V)…but the more strident Michael’s satire got, the less I was a-laughin’. But hey, that’s humor for you: what tickles one person’s funnybone & seems spot-on leaves someone else cold or puts his/her nose out of joint…

By: BZ

BZ — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:20:17 +0000

When I moved to New York 4 years ago, the public image of the Upper West Side Jewish community was the OZ / Key West / Bangitout / Dougie’s nexus. The plates were just starting to shift. How things have changed in such a short time! I’m so proud to see that my progressive Jewish comrades have quickly risen to such prominence that they are now considered worthy objects of mockery and derision. Only in America!

Shanah tovah to the whole world, and to all the ladies, peace and humptiness forever.

By: rabbi ybocher

rabbi ybocher — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 04:54:50 +0000

Oh! Michael you have scared me!! I really thought you have abandoned the J-town and now the religious destinations are the only reason to go there for. But it was just a bad dream!!!

By: ramon marcos

ramon marcos — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:48:04 +0000

Well deduced Jon! Unfortunately succumbed to the cold meds well before the sermon. Interesting title… “Israel”. How’d it turn out?

By: Jon C.

Jon C. — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 06:35:48 +0000

Ramon, we go to the same shul buddy, see you on dupont ave tomorrow.

By: rel

rel — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 05:46:05 +0000

You are evil. You should call me.

By: Ariel Beery

Ariel Beery — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:17:53 +0000

Dude, you rock.

By: LirotTov

LirotTov — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:19:15 +0000

Thanks Ramon, and you are right on!

To everyone a very sweet year!!! “Sweet” like honey, “sweet” a la Napoleon Dynamite… take your pick! take both!

(& take a look at that beautiful sunrise shot!)

By: ramon marcos

ramon marcos — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 05:20:59 +0000

LirotTov – Well put and I even got the Foucault reference. It seems you’re even more Lake Wobegon than me. And “self-appointed” is a great adjective.

As far as equating hip-hop poseur-ism with Black culture – I’m not gonna go there. I could regale you my story of being Ice Cube’s driver for a night in the mid-90s… but that’s a true story and I still get nightmares about it.

By: LirotTov

LirotTov — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 03:15:48 +0000

I didn’t think Ramon sounded nearly so biting as the original post. Brilliant, to be sure, but I’m torn between envy (around here, usual Friday+Saturday attendance at all two shuls w/in 2 hrs driving might be over 100 people, but maybe not) and moderate unease. I guess I hope that the layers of satire include the equating of hip-hop poser-ism with Black culture (one of those things is a bit broader than the other…).

The “dodecachitza” did get me to laugh out loud. I guess (prob’ly unlike others here) I know as many Cambodians as I do Israelis, so the coffee line was too gross for wimpy me.

Since I went to a left-wing college, I’m well aware how tiring the self-appointed folks bringing us to a post-neo-Fouceaultian future can be, but even so, you’ve got me curious to know what that UWS experience is like.

By: ramon marcos

ramon marcos — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:33:44 +0000

Michael and Barbara – my apologies. I think you misread the tone of my observation. I’m not in the least angry at anyone. It was an attempt at… what is that called… irony. In fact I have nothing but love and pride for my midwestern Jewish community. I was just observing the way my people roll here in the crazy prairie, as opposed to more… populated Jewish communites. Sorry if you mistook my tone of what were honestly affectionate and self-directed barbs. We’re self-deprecating people, our sense of humor informed by the way Garrison Keillor exposes our absurdities with love and humor. Our rabbi is a lesbian and that fact alone, in this area, is (or was) controversial. Something I imagine would be surprising to younger, hipper Jews from bigger communities. And we do only have one kosher deli. And we do love Peter Himmelman.

I’m not pissed off. I mean, I’ll tell you when I’m pissed off. Actually, being a midwesterner I probably wouldn’t tell you. I’d just pout.

By: Jewish Mother

Jewish Mother — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:48:16 +0000

Hee hee! Michael can really write. This should be a book.

By: Jewlicious » Jerusalem Gets Lost in Translation

Jewlicious » Jerusalem Gets Lost in Translation — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:40:21 +0000

[...] You might have said “Jerusalem: There is no city like it.” (Or if you’re Michael, who is the grammatical bomb diggity, you’d point out that the actual phrase was “Ayn od ir kazo.”) Certainly it was this translation that was intended by the Jerusalem municipality when it produced thousands of flyers that opted for a different translation: “Jerusalem: There is no such city.” [...]

By: esther

esther — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:26:18 +0000

The best thing is that you totally nailed the scene here without being in the scene here. More proof that Michael may be the messiah…of an intellectual level, at least.

My first reaction to this, however, was simple: Must send piece to EV. EV will want to bear Michael’s babies. Which would earn him his own section in the aforedescribed indie minyan.

By: sarah

sarah — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:25:14 +0000

if you had any idea how hard it is to run a indie minyan, how many hours it takes away from your life and how almost completely thankless it is, you’d understand why i don’t give a shit where people want to sit, or what kind of politics they pursue on sunday, or where they went to rabbinical school. i am just happy i have somewhere to daven in my apparently g-dforsaken little town.

have fun eating each other alive in new york.