rock

That's me and Avner, the Yellow Submarine cat, before last night's show (which took place at Jerusalem hot spot Yellow Submarine). The show came off purty darn well. We had around 100 people, and, in the end, probably raised about $1000 for civilian relief. The costs of the show were about $800 or so. Damn costs.


This is Saz- a rapper from Ramle. He is an Israeli citizen, and raps in Arabic and Hebrew and English, and does this excellent bit where he busts out all these wacky sound effects like the guy from Police Academy, but way smoother. Very cool guy. If you are in New York, look for a show called the HIP HOP SULHA, a Palestinian & Israeli collaboration, Sept 13 at SOB's. He will be performing, along with Sagol 59, who also played our show.

This is Shmuel Nelson. We were in Yeshiva together here in Bat Ayin 7 years ago. I sang Prince;s song 7 with his band at the wedding of my friends Avraham Eliezer and Shoshana. One of band members described the act, called, Eden Mi Qedem (The Primordial Eden..) as "U2 with a Middle Eastern flair." Check out their site. Truly gorgeous, amazing stuff.

That's all I'm posting now. It's late late late. More concert pics soon.

aw fer cryin' out loud

more later, but just a little whine--- i am EXHAUSTED, and my stomach has revolted against me again. Spend much of Shabbat in BED, and what wasn't in bed was at the BEACH (yay), or playing with ETHIOPIAN CHILDREN or flirting with this foxy ETHIOPIAN GAL.

NOW I AM USING CAPITAL LETTERS AND LISTENING TO BEN FOLD'S AT DAN'S HOUSE,
AND AM 13 minutes from passing out

Yeshiva starts tomorrow,
and YOU are neglecting me.
so kiss my tuchas.

love.

Frustrated? Frustrated.

• MP3 player: lost
• Concert co-organizers: exhausted, frazzled, periodically sad
• Weather: hot
• Me: exhausted, frazzled, periodically sad
• Donations from America: ceased
• Comments from many Jews on this concert: hateful, mean, one-sided
• Press response to the concert: mediocre
  
• Communications with family: sparse and unfulfilling
• Personal spiritual development: nil
• Personal physcial fitness: nil
• Personal creative expression: yer lookin' at it
• People in the streets: rude, uninterested, cold, untrusting

I mean, when you see a guy who looks like a hippie, with linen harem pants and a big floppy hat and lots of colors on and longish hair and a beard, how would you think he might react when you approach him with a flier and say in Hebrew, "concert to raise money for those in need"?????? Don't hippies love music and helping and talking to new people? That fraud hippie wouldn't even LOOK at me, let alone take a flier, let alone say hello.

This one girl asked me 20 questions before indicating her refusal to take a flier by glaring at me. Why would some little twit prefer to sneer and interrogate me about what the flier says, rather than just read the damn thing herself? Why wouldn't you stop for a minute and check out what kinda concert this guy in the bright green shirt is promoting?

I'm wearing a damn BRIGHT GREEN SHIRT!!!!!!!!!!! With a little prismatic heart pinned to my breast. Isn't that reason enough to see what I'm going on about? Punkass fake hippie. I bet he talks all this love and brotherhood crap to bed chicks, when the fact is that he's a hateful, anti-social weenie.

Weenie. Little Israel twit. I hope her nails break. YEAH, I'm spiteful. And I'm raising funds to help the enemy.

Now I understand why i like the religious community. Even if some folks might be a little too tripped-out or pious or racialist or smelly or if they use "it's all good man, it's all from Hashem," as a mode to evade personal responsibility, at least they're frickin' NICE. If you walked up to a "hippie" Yid with a flier for a concert, he'd definitely check it out. And invite you for Shabbes. And comment on your great shirt.
_______
By the way, I need a replacement for "hippie" to describe the community. We sure ain't all hippies. I was never a hippie. I mean, I guess like 75% of the commnunity likes the Grateful Dead, or did at some time, but i feel like "hippie" disenfranchises someone like me, who might be better labelled "Well-Travelled Suburban Funk." Because I'm not a hippie.
_______
I hit a moment today at the print shop where I couldn't speak English or Hebrew. Total brain freeze. I want a burrito. And a day on the beach. I haven't been to the beach all summer.
_______
Oh yeah. It took about 11 tries to get that photo. In the first seven I was smirking horribly. Bad actor. No gold statue.

even i have the right to be bugged

Some T-shirts take rude cracks at the person reading the shirt. Some indulge in self-deprecation of the wearer. Well this morning, as I walked back from the printer after making emergency changes in the Hebrew spelling of humanitarian on our concert poster, I saw a shirt that did both:

Just because I'm nobody doesn't mean you're not irritating

What a great shirt. On the one hand, the guy is accepting his smallness, his uselessness in life. And yet, like the Mouse Man desperately bellowing from his little nest, demanding his voice be heard, he asserts the right to be substantial enough to critique the unsavory behavior of his fellow.

"Don't think," he squeaks, that just because I am hardly a speck in this cold universe, that I don't feel, that I don't react to your ill-informed overtures, flawed attempts at interaction and dreadful personal style. I may be nothing, but I'm something enough to see what YOU are."

Then I looked online (curse that Internet!) to see if I could find the shirt. I did:

Just because I'm moody doesn't mean you're not irritating

Whoops. Not a bad shirt at all. Funny, cynical, and quite relevant in times of war, where a pointed finger is often used to deflect any calls for self-reflection or mutual admission of guilt. I may be a jerk, but you ain't so hot yourself. Also good for use against those folks who like to grab onto your moodiness and make a case out of it: Oh wow, you sure are in a mood, i'll stay out of your way, heh heh, who peed in your cornflakes, i'll keep my distance from you this morning, hey man, there's no need to get angry man, just let it flow..

But you know me, friends, it's the Dosoevskian battle of the one man with his place in society that captures my imagination. Not that Dostoevsky would be against pitting a righteous grouch against an annoying populace. In any event, maybe I'll get the "nobody" slogan on a T-shirt one day, all for me. Although, in the final analysis, moody might be a better description of me than nobody...

some day...

It's for REAL (and for Israel)

We got our first press coverage!!
Israel's Arutz Sheva, a right-wing, settler-oriented news organization, just put this up on their site.
CLICK HERE!!

cool.

Hit the Street!

Hey-- if you are in Israel right now, we need your help for our street team to promote our benefit concert, K'vod haBriot, which is taking place next Monday, 8/28, at Yellow Submarine.

See the previous 2 posts for more info.

Right now we have booked Eden Mi Qedem (Shmuel Nelson), hip hop artists Sagol59 and Saz, and hopefully Coolooloosh (or at least their frontman Rebel Son), Marsh Dondurma and Lenses.

We are confirming acts and hitting the Israeli press in the next 2 days, and then doing poster and flier blitzing and pre-sale of tickets the rest of this week.

ANY FORM OF HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED

If you are around at all this week, please call me-- 054-221-5100 and let me know when you can help. the more help we get, the more of an impact this event can have. if you know friends that might want to help, put them in touch with me as well.

and, as always, feel free to donate-- go back 2 posts for donation info.

thanks!! i love youse

my own little pinko, jew-hating left hippie idea, in print....

Actually, not "my own," but "me and Amy and Dan's own..."
Amy's mom rocks the world and sent us this editorial from The Forward (Deh Foiwahds)"

It’s a safe bet that donations will pour in from around the world for the victims in Lebanon. It’s equally likely that Israel will be left to rely on its own resources, coupled with whatever help it can get from world Jewry and perhaps the American Congress. Even after the killing has ended, the humanitarian reconstruction efforts could easily become one more part of the inexorable drift toward polarization and, eventually, new conflict.

Or people of good will could choose another path. Friends of Israel could begin planning now to direct a portion of its fundraising proceeds to Lebanese relief, in the hope that other international relief agencies will reciprocate and direct a portion of their Middle East aid to rebuilding northern Israel.

See that? An acknowledgment of Israeli's unfortunate position in the international community, directly followed by a call for us to HELP THE OTHER TEAM. What? Even though WE WE WE are suffering and need help, and even though THEY THEY THEY are gonna get help from all those other nations-- we still can stand up and reach out. We can try to operate from a new paradigm, one not based on bitterness and finger-pointing, one that might ultimately prove foolish in the end, but one that is based on hope, and a quiet confidence that, even rejected, our sense of love and justice demands expression, and sees beyond today's conflict into the chance for a more unified tomorrow.

Hashem Echad-- remember that one?

it's all hopeless, there's nothing i can do...

...that's how i usually feel about most things these days, especially when people write me and demand that i single-handedly end the violence in Lebanon.

Well, inspired by a bit of rebuke I recently received regarding my living-dead approach to life, I have joined with my friends Amy and Mobius, the Orthodox Anarchist, to arrange a benefit concert for refugees of the war. The best part is that we decided to split all proceeds evenly between an organization that helps refugees in Israel's North, and an organization that helps refugees in Lebanon. We are booking Jewish and Arab acts, ethnic music, Middle Eastern-inspired rock, and hip-hop, and planning for a big ol' dance-a-rama.

So now there's something you can do.

Either come to Israel soon so you can dance with us, or SEND MONEY!! Even if you got limited funds, you can afford to send $10 to help folks who have been driven out of their homes or, worse, had their homes destroyed. Think of the children, the cute little Jewish and Lebanese children, who lay in strange beds every night, or are hiding in some bomb shelter, never knowing if they will ever see their beloved SpongeBob plush doll again (not to mention their Patrick and Squidward toys).

So get out your checkbooks, and help us demonstrate that, no matter what your politics, no matter what your take on the war, there is ALWAYS room to have compassion for any citizens who are affected by war.

Some of the donations (hopefully a very small amount) are needed to secure the theater for the show. That's why I am appealing to you today, ahead of the event. If we can gather pledges from friends in the States, and see that we have garnered ample support, we can make the event even bigger, and attract more donations and press attention.

If you are reading this on the blog, please send a comment pledging a generous amount-- ($10 would be nice; $100 would be amazing). If you are receiving this as an email, please respond to me directly.

Thank you so much for helping me help take some positive action here in this crazy time, from the side of love and universal compassion.

Peace upon all of us,
and soon.

-Shimshon Stu

You can send US donations to Mobius' organziation, Matzat:
Matzat
472 Henley Avenue
New Milford, NJ 07646

or PayPal to -- info@matzat.org.il

just be sure to make obvious notation that the money is for the REFUGEE FUND, or
Mobius will pocket the cash for his own sinister intentions. Matzat is in the process of getting non-profit status, so Tax Deduction info can be sent to you retroactively.

if you are in Israel, we are right now only equipped to handle cash donations. so yer gonna have to trust me.

truths from the bottom of the treasure chest

the honest truth is that, since day one (or at least day 11), wanderingstu has dreamed of being a radical, subversive, groundbreaking, pioneering, wild and wooly, sexy and sophisticated, international, cosmopolitan, inter-disciplinary fancy artist-interlectshual-literati type, having long and convoluted conversations about deep deep stuff mingled with clever meaningless fluff in exotic locales with other brilliant, convoluted, radical subversive artsy-brainy types.

perhaps he even wanted that before it became cool to want that.
he still wants it, in that "wanting it" kinda way.

but... but... but...

i am the walrus

Oy. War, politicals, the eternal "question" of the Jews.
Some points to ponder.

• The Israeli government is not the Israeli citizenry.
• The Israeli government is not the Jewish people.
• The Israeli miltary is not reading the Torah as its strategy manual.
• Hamas, Hizbollah and that little Iranian man are not the Arab people.
• Nor are they Islam.
• The death in Lebanon is not the Zionist dream.
• The current State of Israel is not utopia, or perfection, or the utter fulfilment of the Zionist dream.
• The Zionist dream is not necessarily the same as the eternal dream of the Jewish people to come home.
• The actions, biases, misdeeds and possible gross offenses of the Zionists of 50, 70, 100 years ago are not the core identity of every Israeli citizen, Jewish person or modern-day Zionist.
• Leaders are biased, have agendas, are swayed by self-interest and ideology.
• Politicians use the people's money (Bush, Arafat, Sharon..... all of them)
  

The mistakes of the past are ours to not repeat.
They are ours to rectify, God-willing with compassion, wisdom and subjugation of our egos.

• A modern-day American is not an Indian killer.
• I did not evcuate Arab villages in the 40s.
• German teens living in Berlin today did not slaughter Jews in WWII.

I am not South Florida, I am not Boston University, I am not the State of Israel, I am not the war in Iraq. I might be Tiger Woods, or a coffee achiever, and I am definitely going overboard here. This post has gone beyond the tight little bullet-list I intended.

You gotta gotta sort these things out before judging.

Oh yeah, one more, the universal truth of untruth-

Your news source is biased. Period. Period. The news is not a record of an event, neither is a video or a photograph. It is an interpretation. And reporting the news is someone's JOB. They get PAID for it.

Unless you read The Onion. That's truth unfettered.
____

Postscript- Tom Meade is the future of human consciousness.

wand'rin stu unfurls his little flag

whoops.
i got all political for a second here (Rav Yehoshua will be proud).
This guy (click the pretty words) is a friend of a friend. After reading this post (or click here) on his blog, I wrote this retort:
____________________
i reckon that the funky, Diet Sprite-drinkin' Beiruit literati with whom you are so down to bust some Mos Def rhymes ain't within a hundred shades of lavender to the radical Muslims who are closing their eyes as they randomly pop hundreds of rockets into the Israeli North. You paint a picture of the entire Lebanese people rising up against the sudden, unprovoked incursion of the brutal Israeli entity that is hell-bent on stealing their turf.

Are the Purple Rain of Katushya rockets, the thousands upon thousands of Israelis who have fled their homes or have spent their summer in a bomb shelter, the kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers (6 years after Israel withdrew all troops from Lebanon)---> are those imaginary???

Your "Fuck Hizbollah" comes across as a pleasant bit of canned rage just in case you get accused of being a lefty terror sympathizer. But your image of a microphone-rockin', manic panic-dyein, IPA-swillin' team of Beret-wearing victims of Jewish brutality is a little far from the mark. Those Hizbollah guys would put your sympathy on a stake and shove it up your Western Arse just as quickly as they would eat my Jew liver (without onions, as they throw back a cool Sammy).

Be real and be fair, not just over-spicy and misinformed.

Kisses.

Alexander M. Siegel, 1944-2003

Tonite is my Daddy's Yahrzeit. He died on August 13, three years ago. On the Hebrew calendar, he died on the 15th of the month of Av. That's last night and today. The 15th of Av is also called Tu b'Av, because the number 15 is written with the letters Tet-Vav, which spell Tu. Tu b'Av has become like Valentine's Day for mainstream Israelis. Religiously, it is a semi-festival, supposedly a good time for boys to meet girls. There are many themes relating to marriage, expecially inter-tribal marriage, that are ascribed to Tu b'Av in the Talmud. Some say it is like a Jewish Sadie Hawkins Day, when girls have the right to grab a husband, rather than vice versa. So Alex, whose life was 78% about looking at girls, is now eternally merged with a day all about girls, love, and gettin' together.

In honor of Alex's Yahrzeit (Avraham ben Shaul haLevi, z"l), I led prayers at the shul last night, lit a big candle, and took myself out for a quiet, delicious dinner and writing session at Gavna, the restaurant in the woods here in Bat Ayin. If YOU are ever lucky enough to have a date with me, I will take you Gavna (on the second date, not the first). I ate eggplant stuffed with red lentils and red onions and cheese in a salsa rosa with dollops of cream. Yum.

Some notes about Alex:

He was a fan of Wolfman Jack, "America's Favorite DJ," who, like Alex, made a lot of noise and died young.

He loved the work of adult star Ginger Lynn (who doesn't?)...


.....and he also loved Stevie Nicks. He used to say that she was his girlfriend. I believed him, sorta. But it wasn't true. Someone else was.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Alex liked to put on a cowboy hat and a drawl and pretend he was a redneck, and hang out with folks listening to country music. He had some pretty awesome snakeskin cowboy boots too, and, way back, when he smoked, he smoked Marlboro (before my pleading and complaining led him to quit- heh)








He liked pigs and big belt buckles.


















He also liked black people, and liked to pretend he was black too. I never saw him with a black redneck, which would have certainly pushed his affected accent abilities.

Funny though, because for all the acting like someone he wasn't, and dressing up funny and porn-lovin' and hanging out in the shady part of town, I reckon that Alex was a real man of the people, helping out those who others wouldn't, respecting and associating with the down-and-out, the underpriveleged, the prostitutes, drug dealers, the scramblers for a place in the world as much (if not more) as with the upper-middle-class Jewish professionals of whose social class he was ostensibly a part.

A good example is that case back in the late 80s when this girl was raped outside of a Denny's, and the jury decided against her because she was dressed naughty, and was therefore "asking for it." After the trial, her lawyer ditched her, and Alex took over to help her deal with the press storm (not to say he didn't enjoy the chance to be on Oprah and Larry King). Yeah, she was a crazy cokehead who hung out with transsexuals, but she was also the victim of a personal crime and of a grotesque miscarriage of justice, and Alex was there by her side to make sure no one else took advantage of her.

I have no digital pics of Alex. If you do, send them please.

His funeral, as I have mentioned before, was like the funeral scene at the end of Big Fish: a motley crew of ex-cons, shifty operators, weeping women, an Orthodox Rabbi, a black nightclub owner-turned preacher (my Uncle Tommy), and your assorted well-groomed middle-class Jews. And me. His bewildered, saddened, abandoned, but somehow inspired son.

Here's to ya, Alex, wherever the hell you are now, you sure made a big noise on this earth, and lots of people mourned you when you left.

the crisp snap of words between the teeth

like a delicate biscuit at teatime.
i just discovered this cat's blog. His name is Dash Riprock, and you can buy underwear with his face on it.
check out his double-post dealing with a crisis in bad undershirts.
his linguistic flair is a good reminder that it was their language first.

so read this (you can skip the first paragraph. it's just about war. boring), then this

i also found this fun tidbit from Dash Riprock. What's missing here, BBC??
________________________________
After a lovely little toss of frisbee instigated by Eliezer Israel, I was invigorated and motivated enough to take a shower, belt a healthy gulp of fine Scotch, pack away my depressive funk and risk all my neuroses about musicians, religious hippies, festivals and cute girls in order to check out the music festival that was going on in the forest right here in town.

Thank God I did.... we bought a few bottles of homemade Arak (it's like Sambouca and Ouzo), got a little drink going, marvelled at the majestic beauty of B'not Yisrael (that's the ladies), and did a bit of dancing, a bit of praying, a bit of laughing, a lot of living.

Thanks, Eliezer for the Frisbee of Redemption, and thanks for sticking it in my head that dancing was a form of healing. And welcome back to Bat Ayin (he's renovating hisself one of these nice trailers). And it's good to see your blog back up: wildernesscity.blogspot.com

'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy

postscript to an email from a gal i sorta know in canada:
_________
P.S. [non sequitur: when i was a kid i thought that kiss rock and roll-ed all night and PART OF every day. i was really impressed that they displayed such moderation and good judgement. seriously.]

post-shabbat complaints and ponderings from an over-sensitized cloud of incense smoke

1. It's after Shabbes. I'm burning incense. May it be so for all my days (and not just with incense-- I did some situps and Sun Salutations this morning as well).

2. If you are the person who called me from overseas 6 times in the past 30 hours, including at 1:36am my time-- leave a message!!! I miss you. If you AREN"T the person who called me from overseas, consider the fact that you might suck a little. (972)054-221-5100

3. Comments have been a bit lame on the the blog lately. Not "lame" as in poor quality, but "lame" as in few and far between. You guys want more pics of that HOT Stu Siegel, don't you.

4. Ever listen to Radiohead? Ever listen to music that is sad and highly emotional and makes you feel so-- so-- real? Sometimes I fear that listening to music is detrimental. It's like making love with someone who you've broken up with. It feels so great-- but it's a dead end. It provides nothing for your life that must continue, for your soul that must go on. It-just-feels-good.........

5. Grammar. I believe that the grammatically proper way to write the troublesome sentence in #4 is: It's like making love with someone with whom up you've broken.

Prepositions.

6. Still in a cruddy way. Aimless. Confused.

7. No danger here-- the fighting's in the North and in Gaza, although Gaza is hardly in the news. There are allegations that the Qana massacre was actually a hoax put together by Hizbollah. The funny thing is that folks who normally love conspiracy theories will claim that this one is ridiculous, because it would make those poor Hizbollans look naughty.

Heaven Scent

The core of the problem of wanderingstu:

I love burning incense. I just lit some. The smell of incense in the room inspires, enriches. I love it. I haven't done it in like four months.