It's Gonna Be A Happy New Year

So it is now time for the biggest party of the year in New York. The police have already started putting up barriers in Times Square, which makes it even harder to navigate than usual.

I've always been sort of non-plussed by the hubbub surrounding New Years' and I think I finally figured out why. Besides the fact that all the fuss is made over a second and it's over as quickly as it began...New Years' is about a new beginning and taking stock of what you want to do differently in the new year. Or at least, theorectially it is. It may actually be about drinking as much as possible, spending $50 on a cover fee at a bar that usually doesn't have one and finding someone to kiss when the clock strkes 12. I digress. Anyway. I feel like I've already taken stock and done the soul searching that New Years' resolutions are supposed to prompt back in October when it was Rosh Hashannah. I always felt like Rosh Hashannah was supposed to make you a better person and a better Jew, when New Years'...just doesn't. I know not everyone celebrates Rosh Hashannah(duh) but if New Years' was more about a new beginning than drinking and spending money, I could get more behind it.

There's like insane pressure to do something, anything, to make the night special. The thing that I value most about New Years' is getting together with my friends and spending time with them, becuase since we left SU, we don't get to do that very often. The ideal New Years' for me would be to have Seth, Nina, Amy, Laura, Dan, Alise, Matt, Jodie and Jon in the same room for the evening. That's it.

Anyway, Happy New Year :o)

Proper Holiday Greeting

In all the tumult that was last week, I didn't get a chance to make a proper holiday greeting. So here I am on Boxing Day and the second night of Chanukkah doing what I wanted to do earlier.

When the holidays come around, I sometimes feel like the Grinch because it is different for Jews during "Christmas season" than others. However, I have found out that I am not alone in this matter and some people have found this situation so funny that they came up with comedy shows about them. My sister and I attended on on Friday called "What I Like About Jew" (www.whatilikeaboutjew.com). These two guys, Sean and Rob, have made feeling like an outsider during holiday season into a hillarious show, during which I laughed so hard I almost cried.

Something I do almost every holiday season is pull out episodes of my faovrite shows that are holiday themed epsiodes...NOT 'Very Special' episodes mind you as those are usually only a prelude to the shark but the good ones. In case you care, here are some:

So-Called Angels, My So-Called Life: In which Rickie is kicked out of his house and Angela tries to find him and bring him home.

In Excelsis Deo, The West Wing: In which Toby arranges a military funeral for a homeless man found in a coat Toby gave to the goodwill.

Noel, The West Wing: In which Josh overcomes his post-traumatic stress syndrom following the shooting at Roslyn.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Six Feet Under: In which the Fisher clan remembers their last moments with Nathaniel Sr and hosts a biker funeral.

Those are my personal favorites and I;m sure there's more. But that's good enough for now.

Happy Holidays everyone. Oh, and Frank Rich says there was no war on Christmas. Everybody wins.

What Do I Want for Chanukkah?

The transit strike to be over. Period. End of story. And since I KNOW you know where to get info on this, I'm not even going to include a link. I have to say, I never thought a commute from NJ would be shorter than a commute from Brookly. But I was proved wrong yesterday morning. It took over two hours to get in yesterday so i said screw it, I'm going to my parents' place.

Trad unions are something I am for. I think it is wrong to exploit workers and someone needs to be around to make sure that doesn't happen. I am not, however, for what this particular trade union is up to...especially since they don't have to support of their parent union. Oy. This is such a mess and it is bad for the city. At the height of holiday season (yes, holiday...see previous post if you have a problem), it just is ridiculous to not be able to ride the buses and subways.

Also, one of the issues the union and MTA are fighting ove is health benefits and the rising costs of such. They don't seem to realize that this is an issue for Washington because if we had universal healthcare (what kind of world is it when Canada is more progressive than the US???, ;o)), this would be a non-issue. ANYWAY, I will put the soapbox away for now and leave the stumping to Matt Santos.

We'll Miss You, Leo.

John Spencer died yesterday and that made me and many other television fans sad.

http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3133909&st=420 <--This is a message board dedicated to Mr. Spencer and the work he did on The West Wing. Leo was the backbone of Jed Barlet's White House and the rock that the staff and the President leaned on. The show, which was once great and now only flashes of that greatness remain, showcased Mr. Spencer wonderfully and his presence will be greatly missed.

War on Christmas? Focus on the War on Terrorism.

Ok, so apparently if a store wishes people happy holidays, then they are anti-Christmas. If you doubt my sources, please read this article, which has links to several websites such as the American Family Association: http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/14/opinion/14talkingpoints.main.html?pagewanted=all

Needless to say, this pisses me off. First of all, when did it become mandatory to celebrate Christmas? I am Jewish and Judiasm doesn't observe Christmas as Christs birth was not the defining point in Jewish history. All of my life, I have been bombarded with Christams images during December and when I was younger, I wanted to join in the fun.

Jews make their own fun, always have. We even originated the gift giving through Chanukkah gelt (you can look that one up on your own)...and now with different things. Chanukkah is not supposed to be a big holiday; it's more along the lines of Purim in it's importance...But it is a good time and I always love lighting the menorah with my family.

What the people who blieve there is a war on Christmas need to understand is that not everyone is Christian. I thought that was what America was supposed to be about: celebrating the differences between people. Apparently not. And, some of these attacks have become blatantly anti-Semetic (again, see aforementioned article in the Times).

Do people really believe that the Jews are behind the 'war on Christmas?' Apparently. But these people also are for prayer in schools and parading their Christain-ness for everyone to see so much that they are offended that stores that they are not even shopping in say 'Happy Holidays' instead of "Merry Christmas" (And where did the 'Merry' come from anyway? The British have it right, saying 'Happy Christmas'. Why should Christmas be so different that it should have a completely different modifier? What if people started saying 'Merry Fourth of July?' Ok, I'm done)

I am not against Christmas. I think Christians should celebrate their son of Gd. I just think it should not be forced on the minority of us in this country who don't, in fact,actually observe the holiday.

Annoying

I'm breaking up with internet dating. With Jdate in particluar. Seriously. So done. I've now met over the internet several guys who exist only as IM names and nothing more. No developed personalities. Nothing. Unfortunately, the one guy who actually wanted to take me out was just that. An undeveloped personality. He asked me out. Spoke to me almost everyday and then after our date, nothing. Well, at least now I know why he doesn't have a girlfriend. Stanford of Sex and the City said it best when he told Carrie, "I've been rejected by someone I wasn't interested in. I hate that."

Then, I talk to someone else and he lays it on me that he doesn't want to date for dating's sake; he only wants to meet someone for a serious relationship. I was like, uh sure, dude. Does he really think he can go into something with an outlook like that? Things have to evolve. You can't have those expectations going in or you'll always be disappointed.

Another guy wanted to take me out, called me the night before to cancel...then I didn't hear from him until he tried IMing me again. And I was like 'Oh, no. You've had your chance.'

Then, I IM this guy tonight and the only thing he asks me was my profile name. He looks at it. Then says 'Sorry, not interested.' You've got be kidding. Half of me was like, ok well it's better that he told me but the other half was like, well how do you know you're not interested? Reading someone's profile is like reading their resume. It tells you carefully selected snippets about them, snippets that are meant to be appealing. How can you know you're not interested if you refuse to even speak to someone since you, in all fairness, know nothing about them.

Seriously. So breaking up.

Kissing Quiz

Your Kissing Purity Score: 46% Pure

You're not one to kiss and tell... But word is, you kiss pretty well.

Kissing Purity Test

What's the Time?

So my watch stopped on like Sunday night because when I went to put it on on Monday morning, it read 10:00. And I was like 'the hell? It's definitely not 10:00. It is at most 8:15 AM.' So at this point, I took off my watch and put it in an obscure pocket in my purse. However, once I did so, my wrist felt naked. Also, a couple hours later, I found myself glancing at said wrist in confusion as my watch no longer adorned it.

I've been trying to figure out why that is and the only answer I can come up with now is that I'm so conditioned to looking at my wrist to see the time that no being able to do so throws things off. It's not like I can't find out what time it is. I sit at a computer all day with the time in the lower right-hand corner. I have a cell phone on which the time is usually more accurate than my watch anyway. At home, the cable box and the VCR have clocks (yes, I know how to set the clock on the VCR. No, I can't do yours.)I have a clock radio. Then why do I feel compelled to look at my wrist to see what time it is? I'm not the only one who does it; I know a lot of people who are watch-glancers. It's more subtle than pulling out your cell and more comforting than looking at your computer.

That reminds me, do you have the time?

New Music

Seriously, it's so totally beyond me that people like Rockapella have to stand by and watch people like Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears sell out huge houses when they each have more musical talent in their little fingers than Justin or Britney will have, EVER.

And it's not just the guys who are in Rockapella now. Tonight, I saw Elliott Kerman and his jazz group (www.elliottkerman.com) and Sean Altman and the Groovebarbers (www.seanaltman.com). Both of these guys were in Rockapella in their 'Carmen Sandiego' incarnation and have since moved on to other endeavors.

Admittedly, I've been trying to get to see Sean Altman for a while and now that I saw him, I'm glad I did. I have seen Rockapella a couple times, but recently...long after Sean had moved on. However, I have to say, though his group was not quite polished in the same way as Rockapella is now, they had an energy which I think at this point elludes Rockapella. And I think this is because of Sean's presence. He was the goofy one on 'Carmen Sandiego' and he still is goofy. He stands a head taller than the reast of the group members, but his facial expressions and his overall joy at being onstage draws the eye above the others heads to Sean's smiling face. At the end of the show, he called up the Rocakapella members who had shown up and they did a rendition of a song that Sean wrote, Zombie Jamboree...which is a fixture at Rockapella concerts but it was immediatly different hearing Barry, the former bassist do his thing...The last time I heard Rockapella do this song, it was no where near as rich as it was with these people singing it. Though, there were at least two people on each part and they almost overpowered the soloist, but it was ok. The sound was great.

I enjoyed Elliott's set, but I always found him a little bland and I felt his songs were somewhat repetitive: verse-chorus-verse-music break-coda(repeat verse 2)...but he clearly was enjoying being up there and it was good musically.

These guys work so hard and are so good that they deserve more acclaim than they get. But the best thing about them is that they know what their image is and they stick with it. They definitely don't try to be something they're not.