Category Archive

hey. how’s it going? come here. that was a good hug, I swear! wrong? nothing’s wrong. why would anything be wrong? it’s true, urban eskimos, i’ve neglected you. i got busy. i go distracted. from the things that matter. not things, just thing. youre the only thing. for me. that matters. yes. this is real. no, there isn’t anyone else. i promise. nope, not even blogger. i haven’t spoken to her in over a year. NO ONE. there is no one but you. yeah. yeah i know. it got weird. didn’t it. im sorry it happened too. i wish we could just stop time and continue things like they used to be but i can’t so. why are you - are you about to cry? because then thats gonna make me cry.oh. same old. working. in quite a weird spot. but making a little bit of dough. yeah. its ok. i bought a whole bunch of furniture. a lot. its nice. you should come by and check it out. my asthma is flaring up. i think its because my roommate smokes. or maybe its just LA. it has that effect on one’s lungs. im comfortable in my living spot. sorry. SPACE. its a space, its not a spot anymore. spot was so senior year of college. spots become spaces at some point thereafter. quite difficult to get out and build up a community. the westside has gained that type of reputation. sometimes i pretend that i just moved here, but then when my original location turns out to be encino, in the san fernando valley, my new friends get turned off (or so i think) so i’ll lie and say that i’m from israel, in hopes that that gets me more attention and interaction.it doesn’t work that well.im not jewish anymore. thinking about it, thinking about how to get myself back into that world, whether i want to, i think i want to, but sick of the same old same old. dinners at my house, with people, shabbat, we could OM…that would make my fridays. who needs anything else? i’d make all the guys wear ties. we’d have clip ons at the door. and there’d be candles everywhere.i’m so…self absorbed lately. it’s wierd. in the desert, i was always surrounded by others. it offered solitude, peaceful solitude when you wanted it, but moving to a new town, with friends either across the city or out of the country - this is loneliness. cooking for myself on some nights, cleaning my room, watching weapon races and Top ten fighter jets on the Military Channel. It is not easy. something to be relished, seized, an opportunity to learn and grow of course, but affection is what i crave. not necessarily sexual, but that doesn’t sound bad either.  and when is that supposed to happen? before or after i find some solid friends who live close enough to walk or bike over?i should get out more to you, santa monica. you are, after all, my city.  

5 months and 29 days later. Never fly Israir.

this is pretty interesting and current.

remember that Israeli air strike against northern syria  a few weeks ago? according to an arutz sheva article, israeli officials overheard syrian officials call israel an aggressor, mentioning the country’s attack on a “nuclear facility.” is this substantial confirmation that what really happened there was osirak II? what’s even more compelling is that israel says they bombed the weapons cache when learning that nuclear material was smuggled in from north korea, our weird friend in the asian states.  if true, this would be in direct violation of bush’s non proliferation doctrine he launched years back, when he said that he’ll hold the country responsible for spreading material.

so. spreading nukes bad. syria gets nukes. they admit it. but from who? israel claims it was n. korea. if they were right about the content of the weapons, it doesn’t seem that israel’s theory on the materials’ origins holds no water.  so what did the us president do? today at a white house press conference about the impotence of the dem. controlled congress, he evaded both questions designed to elicit any sort of response.  i’m not advocating any pressures to be made (well, that’s not completely true) but what’s happening right now is completely hypocritical, and if bush wasn’t such a pussy, he’d deal more effectively with the current situation. politically, he sets himself up and shows no follow through on any threats. who the hell listens to that?

I few months ago I posted a short, hostile but honest piece instructing the world never to fly with Israir. Thankfully, that has received considerable hits from Google news and other sources. Occasionally I check up on the most hated airline in the Middle East, and possibly, Middle Earth, and came across one story, and another blog entirely dedicated to Israir. the title is pretty self explanatory.

http://israirsucks.blogspot.com/

And the following story…Scary and unbelievable..the story of how 2 planes almost collide at Ben Gurion. Can you guess which airlines?

In an update to my own case, my dad has emailed their office yet again, requesting a compensation of $250 of the actual $660. He’s threatened to file suit seeking full damages on top of aggravated damages if they don’t send a check within 7 days. Let’s see what happens! I’ll let you guys follow the story along. And no, it’s not about the money. Wel,, it kinda is, but there are a few principals in there. Somewhere.

something to get you through the day. sounds like the end of the world, aye?

life is crazy right now.  i am vaseline: spread over the city of angels yet still not lubricated enough, ripping apart on 5 hours of sleep (damn the electric clock!) the headshakes from lcd monitor systems pulling my eyeballs out of their sockets and pinning them to the back of my skull.

kenneth burns’ wwII doc, ‘the war’, is on pbs. check your local listings. 

i sat in my first class today in 2 years. it was fun. you appreciate learning more when you’re older, i think. and single out the annoying girl who sits in the front row and asks too many questions.

my newest favorite site!! fwa. artists and developers only.

i finally learned how to convert psds into html. havent done it yet, but i think i figured it out. yay. its time.

i miss being jewish. happy sukkot.

The Pentagon is investigating how a B52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads last week and allowed to fly 1,500 miles across America before anyone noticed the weapons were missing.

A squadron commander in charge of the warheads, each of which has up to ten times the destructive power of the Hiroshima atom bomb, has been relieved of his duties while crews responsible for the error have been banned from handling munitions.

Although officials insisted yesterday that there was never any danger of the warheads detonating, the disclosure will shake confidence in the security of America’s vast nuclear arsenal.

Washington has often voiced concerns about sloppy controls over nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, but this incident could not have been closer to home.

It was only then that crews discovered the six Advanced Cruise Missiles mounted on the bombers’ wings were armed with W80-1 warheads, which have yields of between 5 and 150 kilotons.

“Standards are very exacting when it comes to munitions.”

—I was planning on going to Austin this weekend, flying back on Sept.11, but curse the GMAT practice test! One never knows what’s in the air these days…You don’t ever hear of a b-52 bomber loaded with a hundred million tons of Snickers or super hot chicks. Why not? Sexy beings not f-16s!

Is anyone going to shul for high holidays anymore?

a few things i should mention

- i have whiplash. i really messed up my neck grabbing the rim playing basketball. im dizzy, i cant turn my head, i have headaches, my head hurts, its inflamed. i am in pain. thus i want painkillers. if you have any, please send them to herzliya.

-my aunts house got broken into last night. the thieves didnt take anything but some cash, and oh yeah, my 3 month old macbook laptop. a pretty penny. i had tons of pictures and videos, music…gone. it hasnt really sunk in yet due to the neck stress, which has begun to affect my concentration.

-i also have diareahh. i like spelling diareahh, d-i-a-r-e-a-h-h.

the israeli lifestyle, the arrogant threads of culture,  the harsh tones of everyday life have (stolen computer aside) have somehow dropped anchor in my head this week. i’ve always been fascinated with israel, conjured up this fantasy world of fun and action and art and aggresiveness and culture. its taken me about 8 weeks to come full circle and take off those naive lenses i brought along with me.

its rare, VERY rare, for me to find someone living in this country who is genuinely happy.  life here, and this might follow or go against many preconceptions (depending on whether you have family here or at the other end of the spectrum, donate heavily to your local jewish federation) is insanely difficult. everything here is a struggle, a sippur, a balagan - from ordering falafel to fake ice cream at mcdonalds to fighting for your place in line to dealing with traffic jams. america is a dream. its easy to understand why most israelis here say to me, “you left california for here? go back?” maybe los angeles does lack in action and synergy, but id rather take a mellow, easier going atmosphere over anything.

its exhausting. it really is. my neck hurts. even more now.  this miconception, preconception i had of this country, the people, the lifestyle, and how quickly it has shattered and beginning to crumble…its also very tough to deal with, and not assuaging my feelings of homesickness to a great extent. i dont necessarily miss home, or ameneties, or certain types of food. i just miss how easy everything is. that might sound spoiled, so ill have to rephrase that, even at the risk of sounding grotesquely ethno-centric : i miss how NORMAL and logical everything is.. watching people yell at eachother on the street or fight for who gets salad first is a novelty at first, but over time, it just doesnt make sense to me. why not be patient? be courteous? be friendly? doesnt that yield a better result? what the hell is going on here?

luckily im heading down to the desert, where life promises to be slower. my type of israel. my type of party.

hope you’re all feeling good. thanks for reading this blog.

I count 7 one thousands. If my 6th grade science class doesn’t fail me, that means the storm is 7 miles away. I wonder if the Israelites count storm distances in miles or kilometers. Something to look up later.

It’s very pretty here..My aunts backyard of kumquat trees (maybe she steals those from the neighbors), astroturf floor, and wooden outdoor furniture set (perfect for my mom’s endless afternoon jasmine tea) is getting pounded by the rain. And just when my Israelite cousins adamantly reassure my brother and I: That’s it! winter ees ovehr! another flash flood hits central Israel. Rain is rain, water is just water. We spent a good 3 hours at CafeNeto, my brother’s favorite (and only) coffeeshop a few blocks away from my cousin’s house, where he made friends with Yael, an english speaking waitress.  We sketched eachother sketching eachother, and played with Maayan, our almost 5 year old cousin who would fare well in some sort of Baby Einstein contest. She’s hilarious, independent, likes making cat noises, and won’t let guys, inluding these 2 familial idols, come close to her unless she permits. She never hugs without reason. It’s frustrating when you want to eat her but she decides to draw abstract kites and cakes full of candies that taste like olives and marshmallows.

It’s farm time on Monday. “I need some extra clothes that’ll proabably get destroyed,” I told my aunt. My uncle gave up 2 sweaters and his old army sweatshirt, that’s superwarm and allegedly unwearable in the United States. Who cares? Is Border Control really EVER going to dig through someone’s luggage and confiscate a sweater?  Plus 2 are the pants from the shuk in Tel-Aviv.

Craziness, madness.  First of all, the market, in certain areas, smell. It’s a mixture of first-rain asphalt, crushed bananas, dusty antiques and piss. Second, everyone shouts in the shuk. You might think that the watermelon and fake designer shirt vendors are shouting composed, meaningful sentences in the shuk but the truth is very different.  Here are some conversations I’ve picked up, and the real message.

“My brother! You son of a bitch! What are you eating for Shabbat?” (I’m bored here, I haven’t sold a scarf yet, how are you?

“Grapes! Three shekels for a kilo! They’re good for the digestive system and diarreah (I need to get rid of this stuff. It’s late in the day and my feet hurt. Oh also, I need to check my email)

“Everything is half off! Girls, girls get in! The good watches are in the back!” (More Americans from birthright. I can finally get rid of the stuff I bought on wholesale)

The farm, the farm, the farm.  Sometimes I feel like Indiana Jones in temple of doom, when asked by his friend during the middle of a plan what happens next, responds “I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go along.”

I’m asking myself now: Does everything need a purpose? Sometimes it’s just instinct and gut that takes us there. We should try to listen to them more often. They know what they’re talking about. No concrete goals for this part yet, just that I’m excited to meditate and be alone, working, planting, building with mud. We’re bombarded with messages all day. I’m excited to turn them off.

And now the mantra I need to live life by!

Slow. Down.

Here’s a video of some pals, ariel and lindsay and I lighting the menorah on the last night of Chanuka. A buddy of mine, Dave from jewlicious makes these in his free time. he’s got a hardcore insane work ethic and besides for the nighttime orchestra, would make a great roommate.

you always need to live with one real, genuine nerd, someone who knows how to set up wireless, make an abusive webpage about the roommate who steals your stuff, set up speakers and pay bills. Word to your mothers. I’m tired and in New Jersey. It’s kinda like the Tarzana of New York. Chain restaurants, movie theatres, housing complexes, and people who waver back to and fro the city. the last sentence i wrote simply to use the word fro in a context other than a massive, thick helmet of hair. i cut mine off weeks ago.