That's why they call it New York City

The gents in Union Square.

Jillian and Violet Jean

Bruno at Moutarde (5th and Carroll in Park Slope)

Troy, Seb and Coco doing what they do best

Violet Jean

Jeremy and Diana looking Brooklyn fresh at Moutarde


Blue-eyed Jews strike a pose Stateside

The world's favorite Lisa Whiteman

The world's only Erik Garcia (in my book) cruises to Staten Island- for free

WanderingStu, cute and pouty

Good Muffin

Walking in Park Slope with Troy, Jillian and Violet Jean this morning, stopped at a place called Blue Sky Bakery on 5th Avenue up near Flatbush for muffins and coffee. Troy's favorite muffins, in fact. We had Pumpkin/Apple/Cranberry, Blueberry/Banana Bran, and Cranberry/Blueberry Bran. Violet smeared cranberry all over her pajamas. The weather was perfect. Morning in Brooklyn.

We cut over towards 4th Avenue to walk Troy to the Atlantic subway stop. On the way, Troy, pleased with his experience, wished "Good muffin" to several random people passing by. At one point I looked up and saw a beautiful, long-haired blonde woman with enormous sunglasses walking towards us, pushing a stroller (as most people in Park Slope do). I was about to elbow Troy to check out this lovely lady, when I noticed something interesting about her. Before I could communicate this something, we passed her, and Troy said, in his pleasant Saskatchewan way, "Good muffin."

She walked by, and Jillian and I simultaneously noted: "Troy, you just wished Cate Blanchett 'Good muffin.'"

And indeed he had.

In the meantime

I am about to leave for the Berkshires for a week. Let's imagine, shall we friends, that this one week in the Berkshires will shatter many of wanderingstu's foolish illusions about himself and his place in the world and will propel him into a life of (this is a great word-) livingness and sharing and joy. Take a moment to imagine that. Then pray for it.

I mean, look at the return on investment--- one answered prayer from you for the saving of my battered soul will result in redemption for the entire universe--- not bad, eh?

In the meantime, see what Eliezer has to say. He's solid man, and a redhead, and a very elegant gentleman.

By the way, I will not be in Florida at all this trip. Esta is coming to Atlanta.

You want some deep thought??

I Just came upstairs from calling Jason Rogers on the doorman's phone-- Craig and Keren's phone loses juice if not on the cradle constantly, and I drained it unawares-- now I am listening to Shlomo Arzi and blogging in my underwear. I don't know anything about Israeli music-- I usually avoid it, and assume it's too easily emotional and structurally dull. But the people love it. So I am trying.

Deep thought?

Occasionally Jason has, over the past 4 years or so, done part-time work for some VH-1 or MTV executive. Years ago he was paid like $15 an hour to alphabetize this guy's enormous CD collection. Now, during a lull in his work doing photo shoots, Jason is back at MTV, making even more money this time around, not SORTING CDs, but RIPPING them onto the exec's iTunes. And watching New Jack City while he works.

The exec let Jason know that he enjoys using his massive digitized music collection to "lure 18-year old girls to his apartment and seduce them."

What Would Jesus Do -- At Yeshivat Bat Ayin??

Deep thought?

The computer eats us up. We used to have to buy a CD at the record store call the airline send a letter write a check meet at a bar go to the grocery story remember people's phone numbers use a pen remember people's birthdays use the library have questions unanswered get newspaper ink on our hands sneak into dad's room to look at playboy buy a hallmark card use the fotomat not know everything care enough to send the very best lick the stamp lick the stamp lick the stamp

I had a reason for saying this-- ah yes.. Something about the experience of going to the record store to purchase a discrete unit of recorded and produced music. "Hey Bill, I just got the new album by Tom Waits," as opposed to, "Yeah, I think I downloaded a few of his songs on my iTunes."

Nothing is discrete anymore, just a big mush of files, reminders, emails, requests, jpegs, supplications--- I do all my davvening online. My tefillin are digitized. I fell in love with an IM avatar. Soon we will be married. Log on at 8:30 to join us.

Something is lost in this lack of individuation of tasks and objects. When was the last time you SAW the COVER ART on an album you love??? I use the same pinky on the RETURN key to pay my credit card bill, do my part to help tsunami victims, tell mom I love her, check the weather, find a date, steal music, and write this rant.

That pinky is getting a little megalomaniacal.

I bet that my pal Dave Raphael still buys his rock n' roll on record. So does Tommy T, I betcha. keeping it discrete.

And while we're at it, let's keep it discreet too. I spent 12 hours on the plane yesterday watching CSI espisodes. I never saw so many severed limbs, blood splatters and dead women's cleavages in my life. And they complain that South Park is grotesque. Or being gay. Christ almighty....

Sha'arei R'fuah- The Gates of Healing

Huh. With such a nice post title like that, you, oh reader, must be expecting some sort of wise insight on health and holiness, with kernels of truth from the Rambam (Maimonides), the Book of Proverbs and perhaps the Psalms.

Nice try.

All I am here to say is that, after 12 hours coughing and groaning on a cold airplane with not enough proper food and no real orange juice (at least 50% natural ingredients!), I have arrived in New York with a cold. I always seem to have a cold. Esta wants me to get shot up with antibiotics so I no longer ever have a cold again ever. I don't think it works like that.

Anyway, I have been lame at blogging and you have been lame at responding, and Troy hasn't even called me back even though I posted a picture of his bloody kid on the blog.

So it's Stu again, back in America, congested, worn out, and bitching.

Halleluyah

tired crazy and soo to be strunk

uh, that was supposed to say "soon to be drunk." Purim begins in about 18 hours or so, and we have been working all night on the Purim Spiel, a wacky variety show of comedy, mostly written by me. I spent a lot of time moody and frustrated today, which often happens when i work hard on something... excited, then tired, then enthusiastic, then moody, then frustrated, then resigned........

but after hours of rehearsals tonite, i see we have a great bunch of skits, some scathing satire, and that's that...

i hop a plane in about 50 hours.

sorry the blog has been slack lately-- in the past week i've been working on Purim, moving permanently from Jerusalem and planning this trip to the states, among other things................................

goodnight...

In which our man in Israel attempts to express paradox and simplicity in a coherent manner

So one of the main inyanim (focuses / central ideas) at Bat Ayin is Avodah- literally "work" or "service:" the word from which we get our English word "services," as in "Friday Night Services." In a broader sense, Avodah is all the struggle, striving and working we do to draw closer to God, community and our souls. In Yeshiva have a daily Avodat haNefesh (soul-work) group, we talk about personal Avodah, we try to develop frameworks and structures of deep spiritual growth, both as individuals, and as a community.

The basic idea: life is hard work, all the more so if one decides (or finds oneself compelled) to try to live a truly righteous and conscious life. And here I don't mean specifically a religious life; there are plenty of unrighteous religionists, and plenty of righteous athiests. It takes a whole lifetime to do the work that one lifetime demands. We will always be engaged in the battle against bad habits, and harmful thought patterns (anger, victimization, lust, arrogance, bad jokes).

On the other hand, last night Rav Natan asserted that life-changing transformation could happen at any moment, and in the span of just one moment. Suddenly, our eyes are opened, our hearts shake free of their bonds and we exist in the world in a whole new way. Ideally, to paraphrase an excellent series of teachings by Rav Daniel, we discover that we are beings OF the world, not merely IN the world. That which separates us from each other, from all of Creation, is as tiny as the empty space in the electron cloud of a single atom. Of course, most of Creation is empty space when you use a strong enough microscope, so the truth is that there is nothing separating us at all. We are each other, we are the tree, the mountain, the Tupperware. All is One. Sh'ma Yisrael.

Over here at wanderingstu.com, all that is just theory-- time keeps proving to be a grueling and unforgetting taskmaster, hoarding every moment of the past in order to taunt, threaten, oppress, dissuade and ensnare your most humble author here.

But that's hardly the point. At any moment-- a dip in the Mikveh, a phone call, a Shabbat davvening (praying), the turning of a corner, a deep breath-- at any moment, change can come. The trick is to be able to truly truly believe this, and yet not abandon the Avodah for the sake of sitting and waiting for it. It's the idle waiting that brings disappointment. The phone rings, but it might be a wrong number. Nonetheless, we keep striving. Striving for openness, striving for strength, striving for connection and love.

We hope for a split second of absolute revelatory transformation, but in the meantime, we keep our chin up and our nose to the grindstone (how's that for a paradoxical posture?)

That's the theory at least: don't let anyone fool you into thinking it's easy. Or even sensical. {well, it is in fact sensical, but my presentation here might be unsensical. Insensical. Asensical.}

Then again, perhaps it is the easiest thing out there, and I just have yet to accept that.

Look up at the sky and appreciate its vastness arching over us. Hug someone for real. For at least 30 seconds. Right now is a moment in time. Is it the moment?

Shabbat Shalom

Dang there are some cute people in my world

This heartbreakingly delicious morsel is Violet Jean Steadman-Young, who is more Brooklynfantastic than any of you. I first met her when she was about an hour old, and I used to hold her in my lap and watch Da Ali G Show. I bet she loves Lego.


This hunk-a liberal, Torah-lovin' Rebbe-to-be is Josh Rose. Photo taken in Tzfat, at the Ruth Rimonim Inn.


This adorable Southern Hebrew Queen is Jen Webster, soon-to-be Berkowitz. Photo taken, uh, in front of a mall somewhere in Georgia.

I am going to see ALL THREE of these cutie-pies during my trip, which begins in less than two weeks, and I'm gonna kiss them all.