Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sneeze Porn? Really !!!???

This song got me thinking about sneeze porn and other fetishes. There's the one where people get turned on by watching food get crushed between someone's toes. Also by fat women crushing small animals with their feet. The height of depravity - we have nothing on the Roman empire.

This girl is pretty funny. Yale graduate. Sings naked while playing guitar. I have to say, having played guitar shirtless, I can't imagine that it is comfortable for someone with pendulous, unrestrained breasts. I'd think they would get in the way, or stick to the varnished finish of the guitar.

She is kinda pretty in that Jewish sort of way. There is definitely something about the skin of a young woman - very elastic.

The blush on her cheeks is a little strange, just because it is so contrasted against the paleness of her body. In the old days, that used to be a sign of consumption...

Monday, October 26, 2009

Security

The Great Wall of China, The Maginot Line... It's a tough problem. On the one hand you get harassed by the TSA people at the airport for carrying a camera. On the other hand, a plane flies past its landing site for an hour and they forget to scramble the fighter jets!

Wake Up Music Monday - Arcade Fire

This band got a big break from being in the "Where the Wild Things Are" movie. This song has an interesting sound - the first part has a "Wall of Sound" feel, as well as sort of a primal sound with the "Aaaah" type vocals and the heavy drums. The second half of the song is totally different - kind of a british sixties pop sound...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Smokey

All this shidduch crisis talk...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tipper Gore, Judas Priest and Maurice Sendak

Remember when folks were blaming heavy metal music for teen suicides, satan worshippers, and other sundry sins? Found this in a review of the new "Where the Wild Things Are" movie on CNN:

"She and her friend seemed to enjoy the film, but when she returned home, she threw her own tantrum, bit her mother very hard (something she does not do), and told her she was going to run away from home and go to where the wild things are,"

Parents, do not under any circumstances let your children listen to Maurice Sendak!

Monday, October 19, 2009

The 7 days of Creation

Funny exchange between me and some commenters on the XGH blog:

XGH put up a post titled "The Six Days of Creation"
Anonymous commented: "correction: 7 days of creation."
I replied: "Except nothing was created on day 7?"
bankman said: "Shabbos was created on day 7"
I parried: "If Shabbos was created on day 7, then day 7 was not Shabbos."

We'll see how long we can keep it going....

BTW, no Music Monday today - I am taking requests for next week, though...

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The revised Zombie Food Pyramid.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Spooky Panentheist Physicists

Remember when the Large Hadron Collider melted down last year? Well, there is an article in the NYT about a group of physicists who theorize that this is not a coincidence. That
"the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather."


Before you dismiss it as a bunch of crazy people, read the whole article...

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Simchu Na, Simchu Na...



Simchat Torah was... blah. It is depressing to watch people trying to force themselves to be happy. I don't know if it is a function of the fact that most of my fellow shulgoers are professionals, doctors, lawyers, accountants, who feel awkward letting go? And why did they ban liquor in our shul?

And then there are the obligatory kids from the YU Torah Tours who try to get the crowd wound up - but it is hopeless. Some guy says that the reason why these YU guys get so hyper is that this is basically a big mating dance for them - they are showing the girls who came along with them how well they can daven and yell and scream and be spiritual...

The amount of candy being given out is obscene. I am probably the most permissive parent out there, but this is getting out of control.

The only bright spot is the sephardim - they know how to bring out their joy. Thank God we have a lot of sephardim in our shul. Usually, they are a crazy lot, superstitious conspiracy theorists, but we need them on Simchat Torah.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Ministry Music Monday - Radar Love

Nice cover of the Golden Earring classic - by Chicago's own Al and the boys...

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Facts and Values

I tried to add my $.02 to the discussion on XGH, but it's like shouting into a hurricane. And then someone confirmed what I'd been trying to say with a pithy academic reference...

I'm coming late to this thread, but there's a significant amount of modern philosophy concerning the fact/value dichotomy. For example, consider reading Hilary Putnam's "The Collapse of the Fact/Value Dichotomy" which I enjoyed. Putnam talks about fact/value entanglement, the idea that in order to state a lot of obvious "factual" statements you need to make use of "value-laden" language.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Edith Piaf Music Monday - Milord