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What I’ve Been Up To Lately
- mazel tov to @bluenatic and @grandstreet on the birth of their baby girl 2 weeks ago
- RT @JTownCrier: Tropper? Kolko? Margulies? Balkany? Dwek? Rubashkin? NO. Moetzes Gedolei Torah condemn AVI WEISS as more offensive. 2 weeks ago
- Rorschach from Watchmen is the new Freddy Krueger http://bit.ly/7s61Cj 2 weeks ago
- More updates...
08/15/07
Welp, there goes my street cred
“Leading Blogger Joins Jewish Mainstream”?
Oy.
Fuck it. I deserve that and worse: I actually tucked my shirt in today.
See also: “JTA taps top talent to help lead global news agency”
[Update] I’m in today’s Jewish Exponent talking about Jew It Yourself and Shulshopper.
[Update 8/21] Got a nod in Editor & Publisher today!
This is going to sound really obvious but it’s the truth: It’s not what clothes you wear. That matters about as much as whether you drink ale or lager. It isn’t important. It’s what is inside. That fire that burns and smolders and flares up. It’s about maintaining your self dignity, your moral perspective and your sense of self and your place in the world and what you want to do to solicit change for the better.
It’s about deeds, not words or affectations. The harsh reality is rather simple: we live in a world where the economic choices about where and how we will make a living (if we are in media) are rapidly dwindling to a handful of companies and world views. And, in order to succeed in that world you have to wear shoes that cost more than 30 dollars. And, a shirt that looks like all the other shirts. (Or at least tucked in.) These are limits that have always been with us when we aim to function in large groups but most especially if we aim to succeed in the corporatized world. Those groups expect everyone to behave the same outwardly. Individuality is frowned upon because it reflects a sense of chaos and thus unexpected outcomes.
Yet, there are ways to make ones mark within these structures, as confining and unnatural as they may seem.
I can’t think of anyone more suited to make a nice shiny dent in the armor that is our institutionalized society than you.
And, if you have to tuck your shirt in to do it, who gives a shit?
Dan, I stumbled across a picture of you on some website about two years ago. You bear a striking resemblance to my (Brooklyn-based) boyfriend, so I was amused and, having time on my hands, I started reading up on you. Suffice it to say, I was highly impressed by your intellect, your verbosity and your drive to really make a change. At the same time I felt sorry for you as I’m aware you were putting lots of energy into projects that probably didn’t pay too well if at all, so I’m really happy for you that you’ve been given this opportunity at JTA and I’m confident that you’ll remain the same person at heart.
I vaguely remember one of Yaakov Sack’s accusations that most bothered you, was that you were eager to play the alternative within the mainstream. To be the guy at the big mainstream foundation money things being cheered for saying counter-mainstream things, but ultimately re-inforcing their structure.
If good comes from it, resources used for genuinely better things, great. even if it costs your soul, even if it doesn’t, right? But that might be the question– will something better come out of it?
I am concerned about a Jewschool without you– and it’s amazing to me how entitled I feel to expect a Jewschool to exist, and have existed, as if it were no accomplishment, only a responsibility fufilled, as if! But how long will a Jewschool without you survive? Longer than a Jakeneck? Due credit to everyone who works on it, it has gotten really lame generally when you haven’t written on it for a few days.
So much appreciation, like the appreciation for a lover who one knows is getting off as much as oneself– appreciation, but not awe. What else was going to make life meaningful?
Money money money money money or something. Be blessed with the confidence to do that which really feels rightest, and the humility not to feel too proud about it. Professional bastard!
I wonder still, what really matters to you, to me. If not the freedom to be honest and the venue to be heard— yeah, thanks again, BTW. The last Jewschool post you wrote was the best one ever! see ya in Brooklyn.
“Their concern gives me an incentive to be more cautious; I have been needing moderation,”
WTF?
. “I have not had anybody limiting my speech . It will give me a reason to think twice before opening my mouth.”
“These blogs may ultimately be better than Jewschool,” Sieradski told the Forward. “It’s a content that may reach a more mainstream Jewish audience.”
You know, in the old Tzanz Shaloshudises, there was a point called the Alter Shtiller, where, between songs, the rebbe would be quiet, and the whole place would be so quiet, listening to what he was going to say. And then he wouldn’t say anything, and it would be so high.
Though some Polish neo-Kotskish Chassidim said about this, it teaches us: As long as people know that you’re not going to say anything, they listen real close. But if they thought you might actually say something…!
when the jew it yourself beis midrash rolls out, jewschool will look like a minor contribution
I gotta say, I’m laughing inside a bit at the comments so far on the JTA article. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but all comments on JTA articles are anonymous and INSANE.
Coming to think of your shirt, would you like a tie for Chanuka?
You haven’t lost your street cred just yet. When you start to tell us to vote for Giuliani cause he’s good for Israel, that’s when you’ll have lost your street cred.
You’re going down a new path and there’s no saying that it’s not where you’re going to spend the rest of your life, but it’s ok to hang out there for a little bit and see how much you can accomplish there. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but it’s worth trying and seeing.
I just want to let you know how nice it’s been reading you and hearing someone else express how I feel in a manner much more eloquently than I am usually able to do when I’m sitting at the shabbos dinner table arguing with my family or staring at the wall while my sister tells me that people want to blow up her babies, so what’s my problem with it. So thanks for that.
P.S. Is it ok to tell you I think you look really hot in that picture on the JTA site. Like really, really hot.
Mob,
Regarding your next date, please refer to comment #8 above…
“Is it ok to tell you I think you look really hot in that picture on the JTA site. Like really, really hot.”
depends… a/s/l?
but, wait, the one on the JTA site? that shot was horrible…
I pleasured myself to the JTA photo.
For what it’s worth.
Who’s Dr. Anarchy?
This is for you http://www.how-to-tie-a-tie.org/ .
Yeah the picture on the JTA site.
27/F/Bk. Now is it totally ok to tell you I thought you were hot.
looking very serious there M.
[...] he’s sporting a bushy beard and peyos? Meanwhile, Mobius, fresh to his new gig with JTA, has tucked in his shirt for the first time in years. I meanwhile type this post in my [...]
totally, yes
and sarah, dr. anarchy: http://anarchyalive.com/
Thanks, looks interesting so far.
(Where’s Ray? I’ve put some Jewish history stuff up on my blog for him..)
http://www.iawareables.com/home.htm has some nice ties, always good for the witty line at weddings when someone says ‘nice tie’ (oh thank you, it’s syphilis/bubonic plague/anthrax/etc).
Sarah, 1st you call me a dear cookie capitalist (after being admonished by david for use of emoticons), now you post things on your blog for me?
Ah, Ray, I only just called you my dear cookie capitalist because you’d offered David to sell him your cookies after I’d offered to share my cookies with him (thinking about it, I’ll also upload a picture of cookies on my blog); you do sound nice and interested in a lot of things, so I thought that snippet from European Jewish history might be interesting for you as well.
Ties. Ugh. http://www.realknots.com/knots/noose.htm