Velvel

It's A Boy!

2006-01-17T17:05:00.000-06:00

I have resigned to a hiatus from this blog primarily to get my act together and take care of the more important things in my life. This is the prime reason.I'm very thankful to G-d and my entire family, and extremely proud to announce the birth of my son. He was born yesterday, on the 16th day of Tevet (January 16th) at 2:16pm in Evanston. I pray to G-d that my amazing wife and I can raise him

The Temple Still Burns

2005-08-16T09:30:00.000-05:00

Every generation in which the Holy Temple isn't rebuilt is equivalent to the generation that saw it destroyed. Coming off of Tisha B'Av, I can't help but cry. We've been defeated and destroyed before. But how much more painful is it when it's done by Jews? Watch as G-d uses the secular Israeli government to hand over our homes to our enemy.Read Eichah, and follow along here:Israel Insider's

PSA about this blog

2005-08-01T20:10:00.000-05:00

I appreciate my audience's concern. This blog may experience a slight period of inactivity, as it's owner experiences a proportional period of productivity.I'm sure I'll have a ton more to say soon. I just happen to be extremely busy.Ironically, I just wasted a huge amount of time on this post.

Blog

2005-07-07T01:05:00.000-05:00

Blog, blog, bloggeroo, blog, blog, blogblogblogblogblogblogbloggity blahgger.Blog.Blogging is dumb.

I will not tolerate infestation!

2005-07-01T10:15:00.000-05:00

After work yesterday, I found no less than five species of insects with an active interest in my garden. It's quite the wild kingdom on my balcony; many species are fighting for survival. I will describe them only briefly, as I don't want to creep out my wife. I have not seen a single twiddlebug.Leptomastix dactylopiiThese guys are nice. They've been around for a couple weeks, pollinating the

Hack to fix Blogger bug

2005-06-27T11:12:00.000-05:00

Blogger is still broken, with no word, yet, from any humans. There is no reference to this wide ranging issue on either Blogger Status or Known Issues.I've been working on a couple different web pages, and I've been building my CSS skills recently. I did a search for the CSS clear property, and turned up with the answer. The hack is pretty easy. This is a temporary solution, making your code

Blogger is screwed (scroll down)

2005-06-26T02:29:00.000-05:00

There are errant tags in every one of my blog pages that weren't there on Thursday. The errant tags are,

. I don't want them. It makes people think my blog is closed, or worse--"under construction."I went to the Blogger website to look for help. I did some searches. I saw this on the bottom of the page:Ask SupportCan't find what you're looking for in Blogger

Treyfe? Or Just a Little Phishy?

2005-06-21T14:24:00.000-05:00

I love Matisyahu. His music is great and well produced. He works hard. He's a humble guy. He lives Torah and spreads Torah. He inspires people. His popularity grows by leaps and bounds. And that's only my opinion as a fan.As a musician, I'm very appreciative. His popularity only increases the possible market for my music. As he does better, I do better. He's not the first, nor the best (

(not) Cheap Jewish CDs, part II

2005-06-16T14:30:00.000-05:00

I'm also shopping for the newest Moshav Band CD, Malachim. I'm disappointed to say that I'm not pleased with their distribution.Here is the results of my Google search.Israel-MusicCD cost: $20.00Shipping: $4.00Total: $24.00AllThingsJewish.com, "Judaica and Jewish Gifts for All Occasions"CD cost: $15.00Shipping: $6.99Total: $21.99That's it. Two places to get it. The first link is from an

Cheap Jewish CDs?

2005-06-16T09:01:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know the cheapest possible place to get the newest Blue Fringe CD?Here is my preliminary findings on the interwebs, based on a single Google search. Also, for the sites that require registration to find the total cost, I filled out a bogus address in my zip code, and a temporary e-mail address I got from my Bloglines, velvel.12103782@bloglines.com (feel free to e-mail me anything you

Journey

2005-06-10T18:10:00.000-05:00

Short story:While driving home from work with my wife today, the Journey song, "Any Way You Want It" came on the radio (the preferred station had a commercial). I began singing along in a half-mocking/half-real "rocking out" way. We had this conversation in which Becky made a great observation.Becky: Who sings this?Velvel: Journey.Becky: You make fun of people for listening to this, don't you?

Deafening Silence

2005-06-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

When I started Farbrengiton, I noticed significant interest, especially in the tiny echo-chamber of the JM blogosphere. Every time I had any update with the band, I would see it mentioned on other blogs.If I still have any readers, you will have noticed that I'm plugging a new CD, "The Hebrew Vibrations Achdus Project." It's a fund raiser to save Gush Katif. The CD was released on Sunday, and I

Support Gush Katif

2005-06-07T14:06:00.000-05:00

For those interested in a small act that they can actually do to help Gush Katif, feel free to print up this poster to publicize the aforementioned fund raiser CD, The Hebrew Vibration Achdus Project. It's a great CD for a great cause (at a great price).PDF (104 KB) / GIF (165 KB)

The Hebrew Vibration Achdus Project

2005-06-06T13:17:00.000-05:00

Farbrengiton recently was asked to participate in a compilation, one of a political nature. I'm overwhelmed by the big names, on this CD, as Farbrengiton is an unknown, especially in comparison. I'm very happy it's for a cause that touches me down to my soul.The Hebrew Vibration Achdus ProjectPlease purchase this CD to support your fellow Jews who would like to keep their homes, communities,

Chutzpa

2005-05-20T12:36:00.000-05:00

Does anyone remember Joseph's Tomb?Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity?Hamas protests [fictional] Koran desecration (AP)Wow. What balls.

My Victory Garden

2005-05-16T15:41:00.000-05:00

or "How I Came to Love Dirt."I've dreamed of growing my own vegetables for a while, and now that I have a condo with a porch that gets lots of sun, I can. I just planted my own little victory garden.You can take a tour of what I have so far, but it's not much in the dark, when I finally finished planting the basics. Since my horizontal space on my 4.5' x 13' (approx.) concrete balcony is scarce

Let's talk about toes

2005-05-04T09:10:00.000-05:00

Within the last few years, it has come to my attention that flip-flops are worn as shoes. I've come to accept this, mostly without complaining. I'm at least 15% hippie myself and I don't care if someone wants to walk around barefoot. And if they manage to make it acceptable even in business situations--even better!There is a new shoe-substitute that has infiltrated us. I like to call it the "

Omer RSS feed

2005-04-27T15:42:00.000-05:00

Sign up for my Omer feed! It's experimental still. It will remind you to count the Omer from your Bloglines or whatever feed-reader you use. The interface is new to me, but I also believe you can use this to add the dates directly to your PDA or calendar program. The RSS is automatically fed daily.Omer RSS feedAdd the Omer feed directly to your BloglinesI find that when I have a daily reminder

Holiday Flash Links

2005-04-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

Here are four holiday cartoons which have been going around. Trying to jump onto the viral advertising bandwagon, this horrible cartoon, with a super-lame parody of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" has been passed around as entertainment in order to sell a book. If this is an example of the humor I can expect, I couldn't be further from buying the book. This is very cool. The 60 Second Seder. This

I got Boing-Boinged

2005-04-25T21:28:00.000-05:00

I'd like to welcome all the visitors from Boing Boing (a great website for the latest wacky links and geeky-web issues). Recently they have been posting various wacky voice-mails. I submitted my own, and *POW*:

Shoe is on the wrong foot

2005-04-19T01:44:00.000-05:00

I was pointed towards an article in which one of my bands is mentioned. I like the author of the article. I think he's a great guy. I know him from around. I also think a lot of his reviews have a light touch. He's very kind to many bands that in my opinion don't really deserve 100% of his praise. But part of me believes that he really digs all these Jewish bands that much. So I'll let him

HaDag Nachash - great show

2005-04-18T08:47:00.000-05:00

Photo by BeckyHaDag Nachash is a great live band. I saw them last night at House of Blues. Fantastic venue. Fantastic show. I didn't know what kind of show it would be, only that they were kind of a party sounding hip-hop band. They performed much better than I expected. A more than welcome reward for a full day of Pesach cleaning.They have a really tight band. DJ, keyboards, sax, trombone,

Why, God, why?

2005-04-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

Geek Dream Moment

2005-04-11T09:16:00.000-05:00

As someone who lives with Attention Deficit Something, I like corn Disorder, I'm constantly battling for my attention. TV is a major attention span killer, with all the flashing pictures, bikinis and people trying to persuade you to buy things. My peripheral vision is too good most of the time. I'm always aware when there's a TV on and have problems focusing on my conversations.I bought a gadget

Can't find your guitar player?

2005-04-08T18:26:00.000-05:00

"In this day and age, nothing is more important than protecting your most valuable assets. But that's not always easy. Especially when your most valuable asset is a dumbass."(link courtesy of Ruby Harris)

Purim, part 4: Hard Rockin Hamentashen

2005-04-07T08:35:00.000-05:00

Purim Meshulash (Saturday Night, March 26):The spirit of Purim and Shabbat was carried through to a great party. Kfar put together a great concert called Hard Rockin' Hamentashen. I was planning to attend anyway, because I needed to take advantage of this opportunity to hear the headliner, The Moshe Skier Band, in a bar, where his rock was meant to be heard. I also had been intending for some

Purim, the aftermath: Part 2

2005-04-06T23:02:00.000-05:00

Farbrengiton became aware of an open call for a JDub compilation in the works, only a couple weeks before Purim. In the midst of our preparation for our gigs, we scrounged our time and resources together to record a Demo song. Time will tell if they are hip to our message.Here is "I am a Jew," as performed by Farbrengiton, recorded by Mark Sugar.

Purim, the aftermath: Part 1

2005-04-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

I regret to inform the Farbrengiton audience, that lead vocalist, Shneur Nathan has amicably split from the group. Apparently, law school takes up a lot of time. We wish him the best.Which leads us to the question...Anybody know a Jewish male who can belt 'em out and commit to going veitur with Farbrengiton?See our current Craigs List ad.

Purim, part 3: Shabbat

2005-04-06T22:03:00.000-05:00

Shushan Purim (Friday-Saturday, March 25-6):What day is it?Oh yeah. Shabbat was restful and full of ruach. A bunch of friends came in from out of town and we had the Friday night and Shabbat day meals with approximately 30 people in attendance of each.

Purim, part 2: Veitur Bus tour

2005-04-06T22:02:00.000-05:00

Purim (Thursday-Friday, March 24-25):Farbrengiton also did a mini-tour of the neighborhood house parties on the "Veitur Bus" on Thursday night after the set and on Friday around noon. This was very successful as we raised a lot of money for Kfar, and we sold a lot of shotglasses. I mean, if you can't sell shotglasses on Purim, I'm not sure you should be in the shotglass-selling business. It's

Purim, part 1: Chabad House Party

2005-04-06T22:01:00.000-05:00

I don't have time to put all the best details down. Maybe they'll come out at another time. Being two weeks after the action, everything I can write quickly is either loshon hora or boring.Purim Night (Thursday, March 24):The crowd was pretty thin due to the timing of Spring Break at Northwestern, the second month of Adar and Purim falling out on Friday. The crowd eventually got ripe, but it took

I'm preparing...

2005-03-22T15:14:00.000-06:00

...are you?

My very own Matis bootleg

2005-03-17T14:45:00.000-06:00

Finally, after finishing the tedious processing of my audio files, my own crappy Matisyahu bootleg from 1-27-2005 is available to the public.http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=23288My impressions of the show.The official bootleg text file.Caveats: The sound is a little boomy. It was recorded on MD, which uses lossy data compression. Then I converted it to WAV over an analog

Unlistenable Bootleg, part 2

2005-03-13T04:44:00.000-06:00

I'm took samples from the show so you can see what it is. It turns out the guy who's yelling the entire show is the taper himself. I know this because on track 14, the introduction to "Tzama Lcho Nafshi," the freak gets called up on stage and introduces himself by the same name that's attributed to the taper. Advice for tapers: don't be the loudest person in the room.Don't let anyone tell you

Great show, unlistenable bootleg

2005-03-09T15:26:00.000-06:00

I think the bootlegging thing is relatively new to some Jewish fans of Matisyahu. I just downloaded the worst bootleg ever. The recording is pretty decent, and the energy sounded really amazing. However...He recorded it with a tape recorder with a built-in mic. Though the sound is decent, it's entirely useless to keep a low-fidelity show in a lossless format as opposed to something smaller

My Purim season music schedule

2005-03-08T16:43:00.000-06:00

I've been asked by a few people what's happening on Purim and when am I playing. Thank God I've got plenty to do. Here's the schedule. More details may follow.Monday, March 14th, 5:00pmEvën Sh'siyah plays University of Wisconsin in Madison.Thursday, March 24th, Purim, 7:30pmAnnual Purim masquerade party at the Tannenbaum Chabad House in Evanston (2014 Orrington). Show up early so you can catch my

Is SBC is blocking your outgoing mail?

2005-03-07T11:30:00.000-06:00

This post will only be of interest if you have SBC providing your home internet, and use an outside SMTP/POP3 for mail.For the last 2-3 weeks, I've had a puzzling error. I could receive e-mail, but mysteriously, all my outgoing mail would produce an error. I'm a tinkerer, so I assumed it was something I did. I installed, uninstalled and reinstalled programs. I searched online. I changed every

Mazal Tov!

2005-03-04T08:34:00.000-06:00

Mazal tov to my dear friends the "Wops'!" They made a little Wopsie! She's 6.5 pounds (or something like that. Girls pay attention to that stuff). Thank God, everybody is healthy and doing well.

Problems with Jewish Rock

2005-02-09T13:10:00.000-06:00

"Jeffrey Goldberg, Washington correspondent for the New Yorker, said, "Speaking as a layman, I don't think they own rock and roll and I don't think they own the phrase 'Hall of Fame' and I know for sure they don't own the Jews." (c/o Yada and Josh Yuter) Maybe the Football Hall of Fame should sue the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Or maybe the Planet Earth should sue a pebble. http://

The Review are in

2005-02-08T15:07:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I mentioned Knishmas and I just wanted to let everybody know that it was AWESOME. Despite the massive snowfall and the lack of proper street-cleaning, it was a capacity crowd, oversold as the night went on. The crowd was very nice and everybody wanted to have a good time. I got tons of positive feedback on both of my bands. And I'm happy to say that Farbrengiton lived up

Uhhh...yeaaaaaah

2005-02-02T14:12:00.000-06:00

It's fun to complain about corporate BS. My wife works for a large corporation that involves both the thrill of insurance and non-stop excitement of law. She got herself on a committee to design the new database software for her company, because she's sick of using the terrible design that was in place before her arrival. Committees have teleconferences. My wife just got off an hour-and-a-half

Bootleg hosting

2005-02-01T13:03:00.000-06:00

Would anyone be able to provide free ftp hosting for some Jewish mp3 bootlegs?

Arguing to a Resolution

2005-02-01T09:05:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I'll disagree with someone and our disagreement can escalate into a full-scale flame war over e-mail. Sometimes I'm really upset and I think tough language might be appropriate. If I'm ever really interested in a peaceful resolution, I thought of using the following strategy. I'm trying to use this more, although, I have to admit that most of the time I don't. Read the offensive

Matisyahu: The concert

2005-01-28T10:15:00.000-06:00

Sklaro's impressions Psycho Toddler's impressions Cara's impressions I think around 15 people made it on our venture from Chicago to Milwaukee to see Matisyahu. Turner Hall is a beautiful venue. It's an old building that has been around for about a hundred years and survived a couple fires. The sound blows. It's a crime to hold a rock show there (reggae - whatever). The sound in most of the

Thanks for a great weekend

2005-01-27T11:15:00.000-06:00

I want to give hakarat hatov (positive acknowledgment) to all my close friends and family who helped my household have such an awesome Shabbat which eventually lead into a awesome Farbrengiton and Ra'ashan concert on Saturday night. I'm still running high off the vibes from Shabbat. I hope to move forward with strength. Thank you.

Matisyahu tonight

2005-01-27T09:31:00.000-06:00

While visiting the internet's place for discussing Jewish music in a civil manner, I came across a nice frum Yid who once said this of his performance at the HASC benefit concert:Matisyahu is Jewish? PLEEASE..... Matisyahu should have been dragged off stage for his stupidity. Are we suppsoed to be impressed that he sings like a goy? It would have been funny if Matisyahu sang one song,

Happy New Year (trees, only)

2005-01-25T09:17:00.000-06:00

What does this ad say about a shul?

2005-01-24T14:40:00.000-06:00

This ad, found in a bulletin of my former shul, makes me question its commitment to Orthodoxy.[...] Event: "My God" with Jennifer Bleyer, editor of Heeb Magazine [...date and time...] "You may prefer sushi to kugel, and hip hop to klezmer, and a nice Friday night movie to a nice Friday night Shabbos (sometimes.) Never fear, you are not alone! Come hear Jennifer Bleyer, the founder of Heeb

Goodbye Animus and thanks for the music

2005-01-16T13:27:00.000-06:00

Animus, we will miss you. You've provided Chicago with some excellent metal for several years. Here is a picture of some blurry mosh-pitting taken at the last Animus show, last Sunday night: Animus saying their goodbyes as a band (left to right):Brian Hertel, Mark Sugar, Jon Sharwarko, Aryeh Goldsmith.

The Mural

2005-01-05T13:04:00.000-06:00

I'm very lucky because my wife let me paint a picture on the wall in our kitchen. For some reason, painting pictures on walls is so much better than painting on paper. Killing two birds with one stone, this image will also be featured prominently on the packaging of the newest evën sh'siyah album, going through the final stages of the mastering process at this time. I know what you're saying

Oh, shoot!

2004-12-28T20:56:00.000-06:00

This photo was taken in the parking lot across the street from Tel Aviv Pizza in Chicago. I think two advertisers need to get their money back.

A Cappella?

2004-12-27T22:05:00.000-06:00

Can someone tell me why you wouldn't just add an instrument to an a cappella group? Any a cappella song I've ever heard would sound better with an instrument somewhere. There may be spans up to two minutes in a regular song that may be cool for a cappella. An entire (short) song if it's clever enough. But certainly not as a rule to base a band around. I understand there are some people that

Knishmas

2004-12-23T13:17:00.000-06:00

Saturday night is the big show--Knishmas. It'll be our biggest show, yet. Just like our last show, but bigger... Please visit Kfar's website to get info and pre-order tickets. The show is mentioned a couple times in the Reader, so it's possible that the place will be swamped.It's an especially big show for me, because I'm in two of the bands.It's at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo in Chicago. (If you are

Our big write-up

2004-12-23T11:06:00.000-06:00

Farbrengiton just got a big write-up in the Chicago Reader. Apparently they find us interesting. Unfortunately, it's not interesting enough to put in the online paper. Fortunately, I have a scanner. If you live in the Chicago area, pick up a Reader and check it out on page 31 of Section 1. I would like to thank Ted McClelland, the guy who wrote it, and Marty Perez, the guy who took the

A Mash-up that I like

2004-12-23T10:51:00.000-06:00

I usually don't care for mash-ups, but this mashup is blowing my mind pretty good... The Beastles Download it before it goes away.

e-Bay goldmine?

2004-12-21T13:51:00.000-06:00

Do you think this could be worth something on e-Bay? It's foam from my coffee that formed the shape of the US. Absolutely no touching up was done to either the foam or the picture. UPDATE (12/23): It appears that some people don't respect the permanence of my mug foam. Here is another picture, next to the Reader with today's date, showing the foam to be unmoved after two days.

Ok, I'll bite...

2004-12-15T22:57:00.000-06:00

Dear Reader-of-the-Hasidic-Musician (shiny-shoe musician and proponent), I'm not in Pey Daled, but I am in a crappy, Carlebachy, jam-band. It's clear that your judgment on these crappy, Carlebachy, jam-bands is biased from the start, so I can easily dismiss most of what you have to say against the genre. There is nothing wrong with the genre. There are good and bad bands that play every kind of

Failed Interrogation

2004-12-13T09:00:00.000-06:00

A staff-writer for the Chicago Reader just interviewed Farbrengiton last night after the show. He e-mailed me the other week after he saw our flier in a kosher bakery and thought we would make an interesting story. As you can probably tell from my blog, I have a big mouth. At least with the blog, I can rely on flashes of common sense to hit me before I hit the "publish" key. Last night during

The Disorganized Shul

2004-12-10T13:20:00.000-06:00

A couple band-mates had a conversation with a Rabbi of a shul, and they decided that a concert at/for the shul would be cool. We all love the members of the shul and they have been our best fan base so far. A few weeks later, someone from the shul office contacted our band to know what to put on the flier. I replied that we needed more information about the planned event and that we couldn't

Thank God for Shabbat

2004-12-10T13:13:00.000-06:00

I thank God, I'm very busy these days. Between work and music, I've had very little time to sit. I've been extremely sleep-deprived the last week, and according to some, that's a good thing. I can't wait for Shabbat, when I don't have to do a thing other than show up to eat and pray. No to-do lists. No e-mail, phone calls or calendars. Twenty-five hours of peace. Shabbat Shalom.

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday

2004-12-08T13:05:00.000-06:00

YUTopia has a great, detailed analysis of the Protocols phenomenon. As for my opinion, it was an amazing concept and it was carried out very well. The j-blogosphere would not exist as we know it, without Protocols. From my point of view, Protocols jumped the shark (became irrelevant) when SIW got hired at the Forward and all but abandoned his project. The blog descended into anarchy as a

People who buy cat-toys are idiots

2004-12-06T01:55:00.000-06:00

Don't buy cat-toys for your cat. It's a "holiday-season" trick the establishment uses on its customers, while they're shopping for pet-food. I guarantee your cat won't care. These are some great cat-toys:shoelacea large paper bagtwist-tiesbottle-capsa cork tied to the end of a stringanything shinya piece of fuzz/linta dead bugA toy that's good to buy for both you and your cat is a tiny

Blog slacker

2004-12-06T01:40:00.000-06:00

In case you're wondering, I wrote the last post to let my friends and readers know that I still remember the username and password to my blog. I wrote this post to tell you that I wasn't turning this into an outlet for advertising my bands and writing cutesy posts about cats. I'm working on a few projects that are taking up most of my on-line complaining time. I wanted to post something, and I

FBIO update

2004-11-20T19:35:00.000-06:00

As Farbrengiton's co-founder, Yosef Nathan, moves to associate-member status, the band would like to welcome our newest member, local guitar-master, Aryeh Goldsmith. If you are metal-as-all-hell, go see his other band, Animus. (see the flyer - Warning! Not safe for decent folk) They're playing November 28th in Downers Grove, 1211 Butterfield Rd. at the North Beach Club. (Animus is not Jewish

New job

2004-11-20T18:51:00.000-06:00

I have a new job, at a small, informal company that is involved in wholesale buying and selling of shoes and other apparel. I'm in charge of IT on our small network and also in charge of whatever graphics and imaging work they need for the web and for print. I have friends here and it seems like a very nice place to work.

On the verge

2004-11-16T10:24:00.000-06:00

I'm at the doorstep of a new job and a new version of the band. I pray that I'm following the right direction in both areas.

Open talent call

2004-11-11T22:50:00.000-06:00

Jewish neo-folk rock band in the Chicago area, looking for lead instrumentalist/vocalist. Contact me for audition information or if you know somebody who knows somebody. We have two gigs booked and we are primarily looking for a permanent addition. If that doesn't happen, a temporary player for either/both of these gigs will do. Farbrengiton is still on for these two booked gigs, and we will

My New Favorite CD

2004-11-11T16:12:00.000-06:00

Get Shabbos Holy Shabbos, the debut CD of White Shabbos. It straddles many musical styles - stays folky but rocks, has punk energy with professional musicianship, and the lyrics are playful while extremely poignant. Yashar kochachem (continued strength), you guys made a fantastic album. And a bargain (especially for a Jewish CD) at $12.25, including shipping. This is not a commercial, this is

Crisi-tunity*

2004-11-10T10:35:00.000-06:00

Feh. It's much worse than "meh." I have no job. The co-founder of my pride and joy, Farbrengiton, is moving to Washington D.C. in a week or two. I'm feeling a little lost, here. Anyone have any ideas? I'm drawing a blank. UPDATE (11/11): I'm feeling better today. I'm a little less lost and I have lots more hope and plans. *"Crisi-tunity" - Homer Simpson, epsiode 2F08.

Mazal Freakin' Tov!

2004-11-07T18:22:00.000-06:00

Barry and Nechama (Denise)! How you doin'? Rock'n'roll Coochie Coo!

Big Evën Sh'siyah Concert

2004-11-03T20:56:00.000-06:00

This Saturday night, November 6, Evën Sh'siyah will be recording a live concert in an attempt to record tracks for our live, fourth album. (The third album, recorded in the studio, is completely recorded and almost completely mixed.) Please join us at the Young Israel of West Rogers Park Melave Malka on November 6th at 8:00 PM (this Saturday night) for a great concert. We've been practicing

My first NY gig

2004-10-28T09:37:00.000-05:00

I'll be playing in Lawrence, NY on Saturday night with Yaniv. We are opening for Chaim Dovid.Aish Kodesh invites you to a special evening of music with Chaim Dovid on Motsai Shabbos, October 30th at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst, Spuce Street and Broadway in Lawrence. The evening will also feature Nochie Krohn as well as the New York debut of a great new group from Chicago, “Chiddush”

They put the 'Jew' in Jewel

2004-10-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

Jewel, a large grocery chain in Chicago, owned by Albertsons, has already been a major stop on the route of most Chicago Jewish grocery shoppers. A large Kosher section has been in the planning for a while but was discouraged by the local Kashrut agency in order to protect the smaller, local, Jewish-owned competition. The protection has now expired because the large, national Kashrut organization

Milestones

2004-10-19T16:56:00.000-05:00

The blog has over 10,000 hits. I'm 30 years old today (yesterday, according to the real calendar). I can't officially excuse my behavior on the innocence of youth anymore. More reflections and truths to come.

Blue Fringe in Chicago

2004-10-17T19:48:00.000-05:00

The Blue Fringe concert today was sold-out. Contrary to the opinions of a Jewish institution of Chicago, the sponsor of the event, the show would have sold-out with an audience completely under 21. In turn, a downtown club gig on the previous evening wouldn't have interfered. They wouldn't have lost a dime. Because of an unbendable exclusivity clause, Chicago lost an opportunity to hear a

RadioVeitur

2004-10-12T19:18:00.000-05:00

Try out the RadioVeitur link on the menu to the side. I'm testing it right now with some evën sh'siyah tunes.

Tollbooth Update

2004-10-11T15:11:00.000-05:00

Succah: Notoriety

2004-10-06T14:40:00.000-05:00

My wife and I were having discussions about our succah battles. Initially, we were hesitant about fighting to build a succah. We didn't want to rock the boat when we just moved into the building. But we were encouraged and aided by close friends and with God's and their help, managed to accomplish this breakthrough in Chicago Jewish-condo-living. We were worried about standing out and

New hooka supply source

2004-10-05T15:17:00.000-05:00

SklarO, expert hookist, has set up a hookah supply shop in his home for his friends. He found a supplier, someone who has been providing him with supplies for over a year, who will give him significant discounts as he orders in bulk. Both SklarO and the supplier are aware of Nakhla problems, and SklarO has assured all that he will weigh the packs as they come in. E-mail SklarO if you want in.

Friday night in the succah

2004-10-05T14:07:00.000-05:00

We had a big Friday night dinner in the succah for the first evening of Chol Hamoed. The plan was to have a bunch of people over who can drink, sing, and give words of Torah. That's what helps make my Shabbat/holiday meals special. The expectant weather that evening was thunderstorms. As Shabbos came in, the weather felt threatening and we had brief periods of drizzle. Last year, one of my

Sukkah: Things could be worse

2004-09-29T10:05:00.000-05:00

After seeing this, I know that we have very nice and tolerant neighbors. Things could be much worse. (via Eagle-Eyed Zalman)

Sukkah: complete

2004-09-29T08:42:00.000-05:00

As of 2:00 AM on September 29, 2004, there is a sukkah standing in parking spot #27 in the condo building that overlooks a menorah.

Trivia Question

2004-09-28T18:49:00.000-05:00

Who knows the significance of 9/16"?

Succah: Yes, but no. Maybe.

2004-09-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

The hobby condo complainers caused no problems last night. I was able to address all their concerns to satisfaction. The well-meaning but bureaucratic-to-a-fault condo board is another story. First, I will give you a very short version of some third-hand condo history. There are about eighty units in the building. The building was predominantly older people. Now there is a stream of young,

Rare political link

2004-09-28T08:55:00.000-05:00

Jewish and still voting Democrat? This isn't 1944 and Kerry is no FDR. Please take a look at this very eloquent Jeff Jacoby column.

Wish me luck

2004-09-27T16:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I'm going to attend a condo-board meeting and attempt to argue my case for having a Sukkah in my parking spot. The board (no longer evil) will vote on this at the end of the meeting. Their decision will be based on the reaction of the condo-meeting attendees. I'm hoping for a friendly crowd. Although the purpose of these open-issue meetings can be great venues for those who enjoy

New word

2004-09-23T15:41:00.000-05:00

I like inventing words, band-names, and awful plays-on-words and puns. Just minutes ago, my wife and I exchanged e-mails at the same time. This is the second time this happened. We each wanted to make sure the other was on the list. The word for this kind of occurrence is...synchronerdity. syn·chro·nerd·i·ty n. pl. syn·chro·nerd·i·ties The state or fact of being simultaneous and nerdy.

New Evën Sh'siyah Song

2004-09-23T14:24:00.000-05:00

Evën Sh'siyah just released a new song for next album. This is the first song to come out of our new basement studio. We have plenty more, but they are still in the works.

Zichron Yaakov Minyan

2004-09-15T11:35:00.000-05:00

My favorite minyan is only held 6 times a year. It's more of a supplemental minyan, temporarily attracting members of many local synagogues with limited attention spans, limited tolerance for dreying cantors and a limited tolerance for general high-holiday nonsense of the big shuls. It's the fastest minyan in town, yet the services are very spiritual. A lot of the piyutim that are usually said

Have a sweet, new...

2004-09-15T10:07:00.000-05:00

International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Visit the Talk Like a Pirate blog: Aaaaaaargh!

JRants.com

2004-09-12T22:45:00.000-05:00

This is going to get really big, really fast. Cool.

My Wife and I Are Huge Nerds

2004-09-10T14:54:00.000-05:00

The Jews of the hip neighborhood, being statistically younger, are more open to technology than other Jewish communities I've seen. When I moved there, I was immediately able to join the shul's active e-mail list which includes a weekly status message for the eruv. Moving back to my old neighborhood, the shtetl, I was missing the e-mail updates. I did some online research and found an

Condo B.S. #1: Garbage

2004-09-07T14:53:00.000-05:00

I love our new condo so far. The condo has many rules about garbage, some of which make sense. You take regular garbage to a garbage room, located on each floor. If you have anything else, you have to take it out to the dumpster yourself. They don't want to take it. Inside the garbage room, there are two small garbage cans, and two smaller tubs. The regular garbage is supposed to be in closed

Raging Success at the YIWRPMMM

2004-09-07T14:52:00.000-05:00

It was SN's great idea to have a good ol' band farbrengen (a get-together for Torah and song) on the Shabbat preceding the show. Obviously, it didn't get crazy like the days of old, but we certainly elevated ourselves to the proper heights that insured solid inspiration that carried through motzei-Shabbat. The purpose was also to show some members the true inspiration for our band. On Friday

Concert Reminder

2004-09-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

Farbrengiton: Motzei Shabbat at 9:30 pm Young Israel of West Rogers Park 2706 W. Touhy Avenue opening for Ruby Harris. It will be our fourth gig. It will be our second gig with the current line-up. It will be the first gig with the current line-up after we've practiced more than once. This is sure to be our best show, yet (with G-d's help).

Yushkie vs. Dylan

2004-08-31T13:59:00.000-05:00

Here is an old comic book from a May 1974 National Lampoon that was revealed to me today. It wavers somewhere between mildly offensive and hysterical. Son-O'-God Meets Zimmerman

Showtunes are Jewish

2004-08-31T10:54:00.000-05:00

I'm on the verge of getting kicked off the Jewish Music Yahoo Group. I took offense at someone's description of two concerts, in which he claimed that Blue Fringe and Yidcore were decidedly not Jewish music."a heavy metal Jewish punk rock band (there's an oxymoron)" "It wasn';t very Jewish and I have no idea how they wound up at the cocnert." "...sometimes you need to laugh at psychos such as

Funny Narc

2004-08-26T09:13:00.000-05:00

We had Farbrengiton practice last night. SN was giving me a ride and on our way, his brother, YN, called to let him know that through some kind of paperwork mix-up/misunderstanding with his car registration and a license which may or may not be suspended, he was arrested and in the custody of the Evanston police. We went to go bail him out. It wasn't too far out of our way, and a similar thing

Matisyahu on Kimmel

2004-08-25T11:57:00.000-05:00

I stayed up to watch the famous Hasidic, reggae superstar on Kimmel last night. He certainly rocked the house. He put on a great performance and the crowd loved it. I couldn't understand a word, but I'm hoping to purchase the CD and look at the liner notes. Matisyahu did very well on the couch. Kevin Nealon, another guest from last night, started hassling Matisyahu like an ignorant, gentile

Al Dvorin, z"l

2004-08-24T09:59:00.000-05:00

Baruch Dayan Emet. Al Dvorin, z"l, just got killed in a car wreck in California on Sunday. He was a rock'n'roll Jew. He was 81 years old. Al Dvorin, z"l, is most famous for coining the phrase, "Elvis has left the building" in 1954. He was a road manager, band leader and talent agent to various degrees for Elvis until his final tour in 1977. I've never met the man, but I know his family. The