Sunday, February 26, 2006

Musical Perspectives

I'm a music junky. Our music collection now totals at least 1,500 compact discs, some of which were Lesley's before we met, some of which I would like to disown, like Michael Bolton and Bette Midler. Since we got iPods around two months ago, I have been continuously importing our collection onto our computer. We therefore have a few boxes of discs sitting on our den floor.

This afternoon, Shlomo, our thirteen year old neighbor came to play with our dogs. He is a great kid who has shown tremendous responsibility in dog sitting for us when we travel, which some would say is often. When Shlomo has his bar mitzvah last year and received an MP3 player as a gift, he started listening to his parents' music collection, which I can attest is a solid one. While Shlomo was playing with the dogs this afternoon, he saw the open boxes and asked if he could browse and borrow a few. Always being glad to share my tastes as well my discs if the recipient is responsible in returning them, I said sure. He asked about a few of the discs that he encountered, some of which were from my alltime favorites, including Derek and the Dominoes' "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" and the Jayhawks' "Tomorrow the Green Grass". I was jealous of Shlomo in a way because he was just beginning to discover so much great music.

In the course of selecting music, Shlomo asked me about Aerosmith. I told him it's good stuff but that he better run it by his parents first. They're pretty open minded about what they let their kids hear and I like to think that I will be too, but I don't think that I would let my kids (no, we have nothing to announce) listen to a bunch of discs in our collection. As far as I can recall, we only have two that carry the parental warning label, Kid Rock's "Devil Without A Cause" and Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP". But there are so many other albums and songs that don't automatically spring to people's minds, like (warning-links lead to offensive lyrics) Billy Joel's "Captain Jack" and Prince's "Darling Nikki".

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Another Saturday Night And I Ain't Got Nobody

Lesley just left for the airport to catch a flight to Orlando, where she will be until Wednesday night for a trade show selling her chocolate. You must be asking yourselves, "What kind of wild bachelor things will he be doing the next few nights?" For starters, I'll do the dishes and then watch "Black Hawk Down", which I bought on eBay for around $5 a few months ago. I guess not getting married until I was almost 33 years old and having sown whatever few wild oats I may have had explains it.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Brokeback Movies

It seems like the "gay cowboy" movie has started a trend. Classics from my youth are now coming back with sequels in the Brokeback Mountain mold. Check out these previews for more open minded sequels to Back to the Future, Star Wars and Top Gun .

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Road to St. Joseph

I had court this morning in St. Joseph, which to those not familiar with Michigan geography, is in the southwest corner of the state on Lake Michigan. I had been there once before and remembered why it is one of the nicest towns in the state. Besides all the water surrounding it, St. Joseph's downtown has clean streets with cobblestone sidewalks and cool shops. The last time I was there, in the summer of 2002, there was a Gus Macker tournament throughout the downtown streets. Today there were ice sculptures up and down the main street. The only drawback to going to St. Joseph is having to drive through Benton Harbor.

Almost 22 years after its release, I still think it's cool that Prince's classic "When Doves Cry" is the only number one single to not have any bass playing.

Pretentiousness is a late model Lexus with a bumper sticker that reads, "I would rather be driving my Bentley."

If the amount of road kill I saw today is any indication, Michigan has some pretty slow animals.

I reached Climax today, twice. That's Climax the city at exit 88 on I-94. Get your minds out of the gutter.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Parent of the Month

This morning while driving to court, I was behind a mini van at a stop sign on eastbound Ten Mile Road right before Coolidge. The stop sign's purpose is to give priority to traffic flying up the off ramp from I-696. The mini van didn't move long after any traffic passed. I honked the horn once quickly and the mini van proceeded and moved into the next lane. As I passed, I noticed that the driver and passenger looked like a mother and her son who seemed to be around twelve years old or so. I also noticed that they were both giving me the bird.

I don't offend easily and this incident didn't come anywhere near that threshold. At the same time, I found it sad that a parent would teach or at least condone the kid's actions. Growing up, I would never imagine my parents encouraging or even allowing me to curse or gesture at someone like that. I'm sure that my parents weren't naive enough to think that I never heard or used any of the words that I would not dare use in their presence, but they certainly would not encourage me to use them either.

Monday, February 13, 2006

He Shot A Man In Corpus Christi Just To Watch Him Die

This afternoon I went home for lunch to eat some great leftovers from our big Friday night dinner this past weekend. Being the political junkie that I am, I had the television on White House spokesman Scott McClellan's daily press briefing. McClellan opened with some prepared statements about the economy. He then opened the floor to questions.

For the next twenty minutes, the only questions he got were about Vice President Cheney's accidental shooting of an old friend during a hunting trip this past Saturday. Everyone agrees that the shooting was accidental, most likely the result of the friend standing where he shouldn't have. Everyone agrees that there was no crime. Lastly, and most importantly, the friend is doing well. Despite all that, the media peppered McClellan with questions about the incident, mostly about when the White House knew about it and why they didn't inform the press of it until the next afternoon.

This is such a tempest in a teapot. I make no secret that I voted for Bush in both 2000 and 2004, neither of which vote I regret today. At the same time, I'll admit that there are credible arguments one could make against the administration. I, for one, think that Bush has been irresponsible in not vetoing some of the reckless Congressional spending and that he has not been nearly tough enough on immigration. Those are certainly not my only complaints and I'm sure that some of my liberal friends who may be reading this are just chomping at the bit thinking of all their complaints.

Just today, the media could have asked McClellan about more pressing issues, like the latest "news" on Hurricane Katrina (yawn) or the president's reaction to former Vice President Al Gore bashing America over its treatment of Muslims in a speech in one of the most intolerant countries in the world, Saudi Arabia. They instead were upset that the administration didn't go public about the incident sooner.

I'm not sure why the media was making this into such a big deal. I'm thinking that they are constantly in a post-Watergate "gotcha" mode and wanted to expose a coverup where none actually existed. The other scenario is that the press sees itself as being so important that it must know everything all the time and that nothing happens unless the mainstream media reports it. This reminds me of a few years ago when a major sports reporter told his viewers that a particular pro athlete had filed his retirement papers earlier that morning. The reporter than said that the athlete would make it official in a press conference a few hours later. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the retirement became official when the athlete filed his official papers, not when he told the press about it. That was obviously a different case, but it's quite indicative of the media's collective sense of self-importance.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

The Holy Thief

I just finished reading "The Holy Thief" by Rabbi Mark Borovitz. His is a fascinating story. I had heard his story before reading the book yet still found it compelling. Nevertheless, feel free to skip the next two paragraphs if you hate any type of spoiler.

Rabbi Borovitz grew up with a relatively traditional Jewish upbringing. He attended a large conservative synagogue and was active in his USY chapter. In his teens though, his life took a wrong turn. He became a con man working every angle he could. He started by selling stolen goods for a local gangster and kept moving to bigger scams until he wound up in prison. Immediately upon his release, he returned to a life of crime, all the while maintaining his alcohol addiction.

While sitting in the back of a police car upon an arrest that would send him to prison for another two years, he had an epiphany that changed his life. He looked at his hands and knew that they had caused him much trouble but could do much good. From that moment, even knowing that he would spend at least another two years in prison, he moved his life forward, immersing himself in learning Torah and helping not just himself but his fellow Jews conquer their demons. After leaving prison, he went to work for Beit T'Shuvah, a residential rehabilitation program for Jews. His first position was running the decrepit thrift shop but moved up the ranks to become an ordained rabbi who still works feverishly helping his fellow Jews.

The only issue I take with Rabbi Borovitz's theology or outlook is this passage about his Torah learning: "I would always come back to Jacob. I identified with him so deeply. Jacob was a con man and a thief and a hustler. And he changed. He struggled to find the balance in his life. Finally, he did. He became respected, a leader. I believed that if a reformed lowlife like Jacob could turn out so well, there was hope for me."

On the one hand, I recognize that Rabbi Borovitz was trying to provide himself with a benchmark in his pursuit of spiritual redemption. At the same time, I think that Rabbi Borovitz engages in unnecessary hyperbole. Jacob obviously fought hard to make sure that he emerged first from his mother's womb. He obviously also used trickery to get the firstborn right. Maybe I'm forgetting some other cases, but I think those are the only charges you could arguably bring against Jacob. Even in that case, that's assuming that you don't adopt the view that I have always learned, that Jacob's actions were for the sake of God and not just some scam to enrich himself. Calling him a con man, thief, hustler and lowlife who needed to struggle to find balance and reform himself seems just a tad over the top.

Having said all that, the book is a fascinating yet easy read. Friends who have heard him tell me that his lectures are equally entertaining and compelling. If you would like to hear Rabbi Borovitz speak, he will be here in the Detroit area on February 28th. For more details or to RSVP to go, click here.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Super Greedy?

Both ESPN and MSNBC are reporting that Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw skipped the showcase of the past Super Bowl MVP's because they wanted more than just the per diem the NFL gave. I hope it's not true.

As an aside, did anybody but Dolphins fans notice that Jake Scott wasn't there?

Where Are The Cartoons?

Mark Levin hits it right on the head.
Also, check out this site. It's good to see some Muslims trying, in their own little way, to take back their hijacked religion. I hope they won't have to join Salman Rushdie in hiding.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Super Weekend Off To A Super Start

Lesley and I had a great shabbos. Last week was my father's 70th birthday. I'm still coming to grips with my father being 70. Of course, when we, God willing, have children, even the oldest will be older than my current 35 years of age when I make 70, God willing.

Siblings, nieces, nephew, aunts, uncles and cousins came from Cleveland and New Jersey to celebrate. We had a family dinner of thirty or so on Friday night. Lunch had the same crowd plus a few of my parents' close friends. My mother put together a scrapbook of pictures and memories that the guests submitted. We've always known my father makes friends of amazing variety, both in personality and geography. Yet, it's amazing to see how some of my father's friends go so far back with him. Of his three friends who were his groomsmen at my parents' wedding over 41 years ago, two are still close friends while the other passed away around four years ago.

Besides sharing all of our memories, it was nice to spend time with both sides of our family, which doesn't happen too often. That will change soon as the oldest of my seven nieces and nephews will have her bat mitzvah in a month. It was too bad none of the Schreiber cousins could make it.

To top it all off, I played chess for the first time in at least ten or fifteen years. I even won two of three. I should mention that my opponents were my seven and nine year old nephews.

The only downer of the weekend was attending the funeral of a friend's father. His father was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor twenty months ago. The passing came as no surprise but it was still sad.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Is He Serious?!?

Former President Jimmy Carter has appealed to the international community to still support "Palestine," the "country" that just elected as its governing body a party whose official platform calls for the destruction of Israel. His suggestion is to funnel the money through a body that has the trust to administer money so as to make sure it gets to the right people. Carter nominates the United Nations for the role. That makes sense. They did such a good job handling the Oil for Food money in Iraq.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Great False Advertising

A few months ago, there was a contest (I don't recall who ran it) to see who could put together the best trailer for an old movie. The rules were simple: the contestants had to use the actual movie footage while at the same time making the movie's plot and theme seem as different from the actual movie as possible. You can see the first winner, for "The Shining," here:
http://video.download.com/3802-11164_53-6017.html

There is now a new one for "Sleepless In Seattle" here:
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2691611

It obviously helps if you have actually seen the movies but knowing about them will suffice.