Chutzpah 27/01/2008
Posted by dlatman in Graffiti, Jewish, feminism, music, ny, u.s., women.1 comment so far
Graffiti on East 13th St., NYC
Chutzpah is Yiddish for guts, balls, gall. The word traditionally has negative connotations, as in, “That person had some chutzpah to cut in front of me in line.” But nowadays, chutzpah has both positive and negative associations. An example of the positive usage is, “It took chutzpah for that girl to ride her bike cross-country,” stated with admiration.
Yesterday I witnessed an act which can only be described as chutzpah in the traditionally negative sense. My friends and I went to a rock show at a small local venue. The male performer, an established figure in the punk/indie communities who shall remain nameless, was grunting and yelling into the microphone. There were no lyrics or real words, no instruments or melodies. Audience members actually fell for it, hooting along and joining in with his “performance.” Unfortunately, local media had egged him on, allotting him a half-page interview in the latest issue, and giving last night’s performance a recommended review.
I started to feel angry. Not just because of the hard-earned money I’d spent for the cover charge, or the precious moments of my life which were draining away, never to be recovered, but because of the outrageous chutzpah this guy was exhibiting. He believed his indie cred would interest people enough to purchase seven-inch records of his masturbatory expression, and unfortunately, he was correct.
I was getting angry, thinking about all the smart girls I know who cautiously refrain from putting their art or ideas into the world for lack of chutzpah. I was thinking about how guys are often taught to act extraordinarily confident, while girls frequently doubt themselves and their instincts. It’s not only a gender issue, but let’s be honest, the male ego is a wondrous thing.
Since the Chinese New Year of the Mouse will commence in a few short weeks, I would encourage all mousy-type shy people to exhibit a little more chutzpah, the good kind, this coming year. I mean, what we do can’t be worse than Mr. Rock Star. In the immortal words of Bikini Kill, “Girls Must Rule All Towns.”
Happy Tu B’shevat! 22/01/2008
Posted by dlatman in "middle east", Jewish, nature, spirituality, u.s..1 comment so far
UPDATE 7/2/08: An Arab-Israeli man drove a Caterpillar bulldozer into a busy Jerusalem street today, killing 3 people and wounding 40, until he himself was fatally shot by Israeli police. Apparently he stole the bulldozer from a nearby construction site. I am curious whether the use of Caterpillar machinery was a symbolic gesture or purely practical.
UPDATE 1/24/08: Read about yesterday’s Gazan exodus into Egypt after Hamas tore the border wall down. Times Online blogger Ruth Gledhill notes that the group used Caterpillar bulldozers to tear down the wall; ironically the same machines that Israel uses to illegally demolish Palestinian homes, wells and trees.
Trees in my backyard, outside Chapel Hill, NC
Hey Heebs, it’s time to crack open the wine and praise the trees, ’cause today is Tu B’Shevat! This is one of my favorite holidays, because I absolutely adore trees. They give us oxygen and shade, not to mention fruits, nuts and maple syrup (yum). They are fun to climb and live in. Trees shelter animals, insects, mosses and lichens. The root system helps prevent erosion. And some old growth trees are among the oldest living things on earth!
Judaism honors trees during Tu B’Shevat, when we are encouraged to eat different fruits and drink four cups of wine (one for each season/direction). The Jewish tradition also includes environmentally conscious Halakhic laws that require the land to lay fallow every seven years (including this one), and forbid the destruction of trees, even during wartime.
Unfortunately, the modern Israeli government, army and settlers continue to uproot Palestinian olive groves in defiance of thousands of years of spiritual and religious tradition.
More locally, the U.S. Forest Service currently plans to cut down more than 200 acres of old-growth forest, including trees that are up to three hundred years old, in the Pisgah National Forest of western North Carolina.
Of course, everyone suffers when we have less air to breathe, fruit to eat and places to play. So when we get crunk on Manischewitz tonight, let’s remember to respect our elders.
The Sarajevo Haggadah 13/01/2008
Posted by dlatman in Jewish, Spain, books, europe, literature, women.7 comments
UPDATE 1/16/08: If you want to hear music from the Jewish Balkans, check out songs by Flory Jagoda on Nextbook.com. She tells the story about growing up in Bosnia before WWII, and sings traditional songs in Ladino, the Sephardic language.
Map by Laura Hartman Maestro, from inside front cover of People of the Book
I was lucky to hear Geraldine Brooks read at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC today. Brooks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer whose new novel, People of the Book, follows the journey of a Haggadah (book recounting the Passover story and is traditionally read during the Passover seder) from its’ creation during the 14th-century convivencia in Spain to modern-day Bosnia. Amazingly, the novel is based on a true story.
Some friends were excitedly discussing Brooks’ essay on the Sarajevo Hagaddah, published in the Dec. 3, 2007 issue of The New Yorker, at a party last month [yes, my friends are nerds 
]. Brooks begins her essay by stating that during WWII, the Nazis planned to create a “Museum of an Extinct Race” after completing the Jewish genocide, filled with looted Judaica. My friends continued to explain that, to prevent the special Haggadah from being stolen, a Muslim librarian named Dervis Korkut in Sarajevo hid the book in a local mosque until the end of the war.
DiFara is da-best 09/01/2008
Posted by dlatman in food, fun, ny, u.s..add a comment
Domenico DeMarco cutting into our mushroom pie, daughter Margaret on left
One more post on Brooklyn before I return south… My family and I got pizza at DiFara in nearby Midwood last week, just after the New Year. (One guy joked, while watching owner Domenico DeMarco pour olive oil onto a pie from his metal canister, “There goes my New Year’s resolution.”)
DeMarco has worked six to seven days a week for forty years to make the most delicious pies this side of the Brooklyn Bridge (and beyond). Sure, ya gotta wait about half an hour before bellying up to the counter to place your order, but in the meantime you can watch DeMarco, his daughter Margaret or son methodically pull the dough into circles, ladle sauce, grate mozzarella cheeses, and move pies into and out of the ovens in a slow ballet. Sure, the place could use a paint job and an extra set of hands to take out the overflowing garbage. Sure, they’ve been closed down several times by the Department of Health. (In related news, this upcoming Chinese New Year rings in the Year of the Rat. DiFara was closed last summer in part for mouse droppings found near the food preparation area. Coincidence? I see this as an auspicious sign for the pizzeria.) But who cares? It tastes great.
Time Out New York recently listed DiFara’s artichoke pie as the best eat in the city; so it’s no surprise that they were all out of artichokes when we drove out on a freezing night last week. My family ordered a mushroom pie and chicken parmigiana hero, and both were absolutely delicious. DeMarco gave us a plate of hand-grated parmesan cheese to top the pizza, which melted into the buffalo and regular mozzarella blend. Puddles of oil mixed with sauce to leave a greasy, delicious mess on the silver plate.
To see more pictures of our food frenzy, click here.
