Jack Black Will Do Anything To Get Into Hebrew School - CONAN on TBS

 i just watched this and i could not stop laughing. what i really like is that jack black is not apologetic about being jewish. he isn't all that observant but he is also matter of fact about it instead of self hating like the woody allen generation of hollywood jews. we've come along way baby.

weight watching

i spent this shabbos catching up on my magazine reading. i know, i know, didn't i do that already this week during the two days of shavuos? WELL.... that would have to be no. i was all booked with shavuos meal plans and i was so wiped from the heat outside that when i got home from the meals i napped instead of read.
soo... today i read that ginnifer goodwin as well as jennifer hudson are weight watchers. its nice to know that celebrities are getting thinner in  a healthful manner. according to ginnifer goodwin she was chubby as a child so her parents enrolled her in weight watchers and she stuck with it. i applaud her for letting everyone in on her secret. so many actresses say that they just eat everything they want and that boom they are thin. no one is thin by chance. some people naturally aren't eaters, so it seems they are thin by chance but this is bogus.
even katie couric admits to being on weight watchers .
what is so cool is that weight watchers unlike a celebrity personal trainer and chef are available to the general public at a reasonable price and yet  people who rely on their figure for their high profile professions are relying on it and admitting to it .
well, i gotta go now and track my points!!

Jackie Masons talk show bit, 1961

i know that i have been on the lazy side lately and have been posting a lot from you tube, but i just could not resist this one of jackie mason as a young man. seeing jackie mason in this video is like seeing your grandparents in an old super eight home movie . you always knew that they were young once but until you see the hard evidence you don't believe it.

Jake Gyllenhaal : Afikomen

i'd like to invite him to my seder. have a great pesach everyone!

free???? book events

it finally happened like i knew it would. the death of the free celebrity book reading. i went to barnes and noble's in union square tonight intending to see katie couric speak about her new book and there was a barricade in front of the book event space. the guard said that there was priority seating for those who bought books and those who didn't buy  books could wait in the stand by  line to be seated later. this is a first . i don't know it if was just because it was katie couric's book event, or if this is the new policy. either way it sucks. i admit that i don't always buy the book when i attend a book event, but there are many times when i do end up buying the book  after hearing snippets of the book during the book event . i thought that this was one of the ideas of a book event.
lots of people attend book events and do not buy the book so i understand why they want to have priority seating for book buyers at these events. however, if i have to wait in a stand by line before a book event i won't bother attending the  event unless i know for sure before hand that i wanted to buy the book. the store will be missing out on me buying a book only because i attended the book event because if i can't get a seat unless i buy the book, im not going to bother attending at all. this is why i said that these book events are no longer free. if i must buy the book to get a  seat the book event  is no longer free.
i have the feeling that the priority seating will only be for big name book events because few will want to buy a book buy an author they are unfamiliar with before attending their book event.
if i would stand in a stand by line to get a seat at a book event i would on principle not buy the book.
im so glad i have taken advantage of attending all the book events i could possibly attend in the past ten years because now the party is over  .

chaim charlie irwin estevez sheen(berg)

charlie sheen is unhinged . i used to watch the show two and a half men and think that his character was an amped up version of the real charlie sheen. apparently his tv character is a toned down character  of the real charlie sheen. too bad. the man has been drugged up involved with prostitutes and physically abusing women for quite awhile now. most recently he decides to "out " the real name of his show's producer charles lorre. apparently lorre's real name is charles michael levine. charlie sheen called him chaim levine and managed to say the chet in chaim quite well. we all know charlie sheen's name really is carlos irwin estevez so one would think that it wouldn't make much difference what chuck lorre's name is or isn't. and of course all of hollywood changes their names. name changing in general is no crime.
of course all of the chaim calling is just because charlie sheen's reckless conduct prior to the name calling has created a situation where the show had to get rid of him. two and a half men is one of the most popular network comedies . i don't think that they would get rid of charlie sheen if they didn't see any other choice. money is money.  people are greedy.
so now charlie sheen resorted to name calling. his ex wives don't want him to see his kids , his dad wanted the show to shut down months ago so his son could get help. charlie sheen goes on a media frenzy. he looks crazier than tom cruise bouncing off the walls when he was being interviewed with matt lauer. the only pity i have for charlie sheen is that he doesn't realize the depths of his insanity.
if charlie sheen knew anything about judaism he would know  emor  me'at veaseh harbeh - say little and do much.
silence is golden. the less you say the better you appear.

living in a plastic surgery world

if you ever bother to read women's magazines like allure or glamour you will see lots of articles on cosmetic surgery. from the sound  of these articles it would seem that everyone and there aunt its having plastic surgery. i suppose that this is because it is more affordable these days. the more i read about cosmetic surgery the more it enforces the fact that i do not desire it. i understand if someone is disfigured that they want to have it, but if its purely cosmetic, im not sure why someone willingly goes under the knife.
when i was a kid i had elderly relatives who looked their ages. they could not have had cosmetic surgery even if they wanted it because they couldn't afford it. my grandmother who was shot in the nose in a pogrom when she was a child did have a bit of plastic surgery, but plastic surgery is not what it is now so she still looked somewhat disfigured from it. and you know what? even though i noticed it and i thought her nose looked like a hamantashen, it didn't make me love her less. there had even been a time when she was younger that she could have had more cosmetic surgery to fix it but she didn't. she was married by then and my grandfather told her that he loved her and thought she was beautiful just the way she was. okay , maybe they would have had a hard time affording the cosmetic surgery at the time, but i do believe this is what my grandfather had felt at the time. they had met and married years after she had been shot in the face in that pogrom.
beauty is in  the eye of the beholder. its important to make one's self  as presentable as possible, but even those who do plastic surgery are not always happy. happiness comes from the inside. with all of joan rivers' plastic surgeries, she is always having more. when does it end?

good hair

i recently watched chris rock's documentary good hair which is about the quest for black women to have good hair. as a curly haired white jewish woman i thought that i could relate. well i could, but not as much as i thought.

no matter how many perms straight haired women get, straight hair is still the optimal hair type for all people. i remember watching those hair commercials on tv where i would watch those straight haired women bounce their shiny straight hair and i would be so envious. you never see a curly haired woman in a shampoo commercial . curly hair doesn't bounce and its not shiny unless you have used waaayyy too much gel.

it is no secret that a lot of curly haired jewish women have blow outs, use a hair iron or do japanese hair straightening. some adhere so strictly to these regiments that they never wash their own hair and they are afraid of what will happen when their future husbands figure out that they really have curly hair. sometimes no one finds out until that curly haired baby is born!

black women of course hold the prize for hair straightening. as a kid i never realized that straight haired black women had straighted their hair. i thought they were all just wearing wigs.

black women straighten their hair to look more like white people . black women straighten there hair as well as get hair weaves. i think that hair weave straight hair looks more natural.

hair weaves like sheitles are often made of indian hair. chris rock went to india to investigate the hair industry in india. he showed the "religious " ceremony they have where they shave off all of their hair so they can make lots of money off of their hair.

i learned that this documentary is less about hair and more about what lengths a black woman will go to to look more white. though i may have "bad hair " i am white which means it does not matter that i have "bad hair". i also learned that even with all of the lengths these women go through to make themselves look more white they still look very black to me. they should really save their money and be at peace with their hair and their skin color.they will certainly save a lot of money that way. it is so important to be at peace with who one is.

blossom russo is frumming out

a few weeks ago in the jewish week there was an article that outed mayim bialik of the early 90's blossom fame . it stated that mayim bialik is a shomer shabbos jew. after much googling i also found that she only wears skirts and has made stipulations that she prefers skirts and dresses and does not wear sleeveless in acting roles. very interesting. if i would ever have pegged any actress as being likely to be frum later in life it would have been mayim bialik. but maybe it was her tv character that i thought would one day be frum. blossom was such an independent thinker.

i found mayim bialik's facebook fan page so i know that the the frum thing isnt a hoax.

many jews feel a connection to celebrities who are even just jewish. i never thought that there would be a day when there would be an orthodox jewish celebrity . i guess mashiach really is on the way.

book: the women who raised me

i just finished reading a most excellent book called the women who raised me by victoria rowell.

victoria rowell is an actress on the soap opera the young and the restless .

please don't stop reading folks. this post is not about about a book about the frivolous life of a soap actress. this post is about the fact that its not what your background that defines you, its what you do with your life.

victoria rowell is the biological child of a mentally unstable white woman and an unknown black father. she grew up as a foster child and a ward of the state of maine . this woman did not let this stop her from reaching for her dreams . it also did not stop her for being grateful to the people who were present for her in her childhood as well as the rest of her life.

whenever i think of foster children i conjure up an unstable child. many children who go through the foster care system get quite messed up. partly due to their upbringing , partly up to their unwise choices.

as a young child one of her foster mothers helped her cultivate her innate talent for dance by finding a dance program for foster and disadvantaged children in boston .the rest is history.

victoria rowell went on to dance with twyla tharp, become an actress as well as found her own charities for foster children.

victoria rowell proves that it pays to be a foster parent or a mentor in general. her biggest achievement is not her career , but the fact that she has such hakaras hatov- such appreciation- for those who helped her along the way to shape who she is today .

reading this book can be quite tough. its so sad to see how alone a foster child can be even in the best of cases. what makes it worthwhile is the ending where this child ward of the state has such determination to evolve into such a grounded,positive , accomplished individual.

notes on the hannukah song

december 3,1994 adam sandler debuted the original hannukah song on saturday night live. i watched in it in awe and part disbelief. it was hysterically funny and unmistakably jewish. while i was watching it i had no idea it would become such a cult classic and the only hannukah song played on the radio amidst of all of the x-mas carols every december.
the hannukah song is really a very silly song. it lists all the jewish celebrities who may or may not actually celebrate hannukah so all of us lonley jewish kids dont feel like we are all alone lighting a menorah each december. it also is sung by adam sandler in one of his childishly annoying voices. no matter. somehow this silly song caught on.
its too bad a song more like al hanisim or even the dreidel song do not reach the public air waves each december. but they do not. so im glad that the hannukah song does. at least it reminds the unaffiliated that there is a hannukah and that some hip celebrity wrote a song that they might be able to relate to.
i dont think that adam sandler had any idea he was creating a cult phenomenon when he was cooking up his hannukah song. he probably was just trying to write some kooky hannukah song for a saturday night live skit. dumb luck turned it into a holiday classic. and yes i do think that this is ultimately good for the jews.

vanity of the eyelash

the latest mishigas is long eyelashes. brooke sheilds has them! how did she get them? with latisse. latisse is made out of the glaucoma drop lumagen and repackaged as a lash enhancing drop. when will the vanity end? long eyelashes are an unexpected perk for those who chas v'shalom have glaucoma, but to use a glaucoma drop when one doesnt have glaucoma to achieve long lashes? is this really a necessity? what are the long term effects on someone using latisse if they dont have glaucoma? will it accelerate ones chances of actually getting glaucoma? lumagen can cause green eyes to go brown. is this a possible side effect of latisse? how much does someone want long lashes for someone to take this risk?
my mom unfortunately has glaucoma. she uses lumagen and has blue-gray eyes that b"h are still blue-gray. though she has amazing eyelashes , she would trade them for not having glaucoma. lush as mom's lashes are, she still wears mascara when she goes out.
these days there are alot of good volumizing mascaras out there. lashblast by covergirl, colossal volume by maybelliene and 2000 calorie by max factor are all fabulous . they are also all drugstore brands. latisse is $120 dollars a month. do the math. why use a medication for something that can be achieved merely with makeup?

seven things i love

ive been tagged by the jewish side of the babysitter in a meme seven things i love . at the end i will tag seven other bloggers.

1. i love fall weather
2. i love book readings and especially love celebrity book readings
3. i love photography
4. i love meeting new people
5. i love blogging
   
6. i love when i have friends who really know and understand who i am and i know and understand who they are.
7. i love walking through central park in the spring and summer.

im now tagging seven people: mike, katrina, mak,quack, levadi, brainexposed, dys

priscilla's former son-in-law

2 weeks after lisa marie presley's ex-husband has passed away i have come to a conclusion. even though my first reaction to his death was "big deal?" , surprisingly i have come to another conclusion. la toya's brother's music reminds me of my teenage years. his music populated playlists and mixed tapes of several decades of teenagers. when i first listened to the youngest member of the jackson five singing thriller and off the wall he hadnt yet been accused of being a child molester and he still looked masculine. when i hear these songs i think of a more innocent time in my life as well as in the life of the singer of these songs. to me this is what is sad. a star had risen and has fallen oh so hard. unfortunately that rising star from my childhood shot up in to the wrong galaxy. he became a shining example of what not to be . for this i mourn.

the goldbergs

in the early 1950's there was a television show called the goldbergs that was about a jewish family that lived in the bronx. the funny thing is id never heard of it until i happened to be at the jewish museum in manhattan with my sister and an episode was playing in the media room. this was before they created the fancy media room that they have there now. they used to have a bunch of televisions playing different videos and you could just come by and watch. it was great because you were introduced to shows you would have never been exposed to otherwise. when i watched the goldbergs episode that happened to be playing i had no idea what i was watching. once i found out i went back to the jewish museum to watch more. i also watched several episodes at the museum of television and radio.
the episodes that i viewed also included molly goldberg (gertrude berg) hawking sanka coffe which i found hysterically funny.
who knew this gem even existed? after i found it at the jewish museum i asked my parents if they had heard of the goldbergs. well of course they had. the show was a part of jewish american folklore. they had watched the show as children.
there is a documentary about gertrude berg that has recently been released called yoohoo mrs. goldberg. i cant wait to see it. me and the senior citizens. im not sure when i will see it especially since it is the three weeks, but its still good to know about. often jewish documentaries are re-released so if you miss them the first time around you can see them elsewhere . the jcc in manhattan often shows jewish films that have been previously released. i often go there to catch films id really wanted to see but unfortunately had missed. sometimes they can even pop up again at the quad or lincoln plaza .

her sister's keeper

i saw the movie her sister's keeper this afternoon. i was totally expecting a run of the mill disease of the week movie but was pleasantly surprised.
this movie is about a family whose two year old daughter is diagnosed with leukemia so the family has another child who would be a genetic match to their sick daughter in order to be able to save her. when the younger daughter (abigail breslin) is 11 years old she sues her parents to be medically emanicipated . she does not want to have to donate a kidney to her dying sister.
cameron diaz plays the mother. cameron diaz is a such a lightweight actress that she makes the role of the crusading mother of a sick child appear unsympathetic. perhaps this was intended. ill have to read the book by jodi picoult to find out.
jason patric plays the father. he is amazing . i havent seen him in anything in awhile. aside from being smoldering and sexy, he is a great actor.
joan cusack plays the judge . she is playing a career changing part if you ask me. usually joan cusack plays an oddball character. this time she plays as serious as you can get. i almost didnt recognize her.
watching this movie one asks oneself the unaskable. if one chas v'shalom has a sick child and one knows by having another child there might be a genetic match to ones sick child would one have another child? of course this second child will have to undergo many medical tests to help save the first child. many painful procedures. would one still try to have that second child? did one want another child ? or did one just have another to save the first? is this fair to the second child? i dont think there are any clear answers, just alot of think questions.

optimism vs pessimism

this past thursday night i saw the tail end of michael j fox's special on optimism. he did this special to kick off his new book always looking up: adventures of an incurable optimist . i wish i had seen more than the last 15 minutes. for an actor in the rocket of his career to be stricken with parkinsons and still be optimistic is astounding. not only is he spouting dogma he has internalized it. when i hear people singing mitzvah gedolah lihiyot b'simcha it seems its their favorite song and not an adage they uphold. michael j. fox is living it.

when i first sat down to watch the special i was struck by the sadness of it all. the michael j. fox of family ties, back to the future and spin city is a parkinsons patient. what also struck me is how great an actor he really is. he is beloved for such roles, but they werent really who he is . he certainly is not the conservative republican alex p. keaton or marty mcfly of back to the future. he's someone much finer. though he can no longer walk a straight line or sit still, he is a positive shining light in the face of adversity. he is hopeful for a cure for parkinsons and he is grateful for what he does have in life.

forget life changing diseases for a moment. some people are terminal optimists, others eternal pessimists. everything and nothing can be occurring and this is who they will be. an optimist can live in a tiny roach motel apartment and be so happy to be living the dream of making it in the big city while another could have a penthouse on park avenue but not be able to enjoy it because they have freckles. so many people are too busy chasing rainbows to appreciate what they have.

tracey pollan, michael j. fox's wife, is a pessimist. according to the psychologist on the special, pessimism isnt necessarily a bad thing. a pessimist needs to assess the worst case scenario so they can move on. it makes them feel better. being more pessimist that optimist myself i can attest to this truth. its nice to know that a little realism can be positive. it seems too naive to be completely pollyanna.

when i meet a guy i always see his faults blaring in my face. but to me this isnt necessarily a bad thing. i get the bad part out of the way first. worst case scenario. then i see if i can also find the good . does the good outshine the bad? i dont purposely do this. its just how im wired. others only see good. then the s@$##t hits the fan and they see all of the negative. i do it the other way.

the lesson to be learned from the show was whether optimistic or pessimistic by nature one can still be sameach b'chelko its just that there are different methods of reaching that endpoint.

i love you man

i saw the funniest movie i love you man featuring two of my favorite actors - paul rudd and jason segal.

the premise of the movie is that men tend not to have alot of male friends, especially if they are in relationships with women. paul rudd's character is engaged and is trying to make some same gendered friends. this movie is silly, but it is also REALLY funny.
rashida jones who is the daughter of jewish peggy lipton and black quincey jones plays paul rudd's wife. she is a brunette version of christine taylor of marcia brady fame. its nice to see another movie where the shiksa goddess doesnt get to play the wife of a cute jewish actor.
anyway, paul rudd's character meets many guys before he finds jason segal . their rapport is great as well as completely hetero.
i do admit that alot of why i enjoyed this movie was because i relish gazing into paul rudd's blue eyes , but seriously, if you need a mindless pick-me -up , this is the movie to see.

the new york jewish film festival

today was the first day of the 18th annual jewish film festival. i saw the movie emotional arithmetic, starring susan sarandon, gabriel byrne and max von sydow . this movie is about 3 holocaust survivors who spent time in the same transit camp in france who meet years later. its not so much about their time spent at drancey , but about how they move on with their lives. how they deal with the trauma of what they went through when others in their life have no idea what they had experienced.

emotional arithmetic would make a good tv movie. though powerful, it wasnt flashy enough for the big screen. on the small screen this would not be an issue.

the best part of seeing this movie today was susan sarandon's appearance for the q&a after the movie. she looks incredible for her age. it was nice to hear about how the movie was filmed in a month, how the director was a french jew and how the wife of matt cohen, the author of the book the movie is based on , was so pleased the book was turned in to a movie.

emotional arithmetic is available on dvd, but im not sure of how its obtained. apparently susan sarandon's sister who lives in chappaqua , new york bought the dvd and this is how susan sarandon knows its available on dvd.

the reader

tonight i saw the movie the reader , based on the novel by bernard schlink. i had attempted to read the book years ago, but it was rather slow moving. i couldnt get through it. the movie is quite riveting.

i saw the movie today upon the strong recommendation of a co-worker . fortunately i only vaguely knew the storyline before seeing the movie. i knew that it was the story of a much older woman having an affair with a much younger man (or shall i say boy, he was only 15 ) in postwar berlin. kate winslet is the older woman. david kross is the younger man. i got so caught up in their love affair, that the progression of the movie caught me by surprise. which im sure was the point.

i dont want to give anything away, but the movie deals with right and wrong and various levels of right and wrong.

ralph fiennes and lena olin shine as the supporting cast. kate winslet is chilling as a woman with a past. david kross' blue eyes alone speak words.

the movie is excellent.it is also quite disturbing. see it anyway. i dont want to give anything away,because i want you to be as swept away by the story as i was.