bwilder

Friday November 20, 2009

Join us for services and a dairy/vegetarian Shabbat dinner followed by a meditation class. Dinner and the class are free, but * * you must register by Nov. 13! * * RSVP to registrar@thehav.org or 617-623-3376. We regularly provide dairy-free and gluten-free options at dinner. But if you have specific food needs, let us know asap.

Lovingkindness meditation serves many purposes.  It relaxes the mind, is an antidote for fear, and promotes self-awareness.  Though this meditation has been taught for thousands of years as a Buddhist practice, it has many overlaps with Judaism and works beautifully in helping individuals focus on their most important goals.  Its premise is that in order to develop compassion towards others, one must first develop a path toward practicing it with oneself.
 
Rebecca Lavine is a licensed social worker and has been meditating for nearly fifteen years. She runs the Little Buddhas group at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center.

Services: 6:30 p.m.
Dinner: 7:30 p.m.
Class: c. 8:00 p.m.

Havurat Shalom
113 College Ave
Somerville MA 02144

for more info
call: 617-623-3376 (voice)
go to: http://www.thehav.org/
or email: info@thehav.org

The 1st floor of Havurat Shalom is wheelchair accessible, including the prayer room, dining room, living room, and bathroom. For the health of those with allergies and chemical sensitivities, we request that you not wear perfume, aftershave, or cologne to Havurat Shalom.

So, one of these days is going to be the first day of the third trimester (sometime this week). Anyway, three months to go! I'm already really huge. :P

Tangerine NaNo: 10, 646
Tangerine Total: 60, 693
What I’m Reading Now: Last Night In Twisted River, by John Irving

It’s so hard to talk about rock and roll. It’s so much about how it makes you feel, how it fires what you already have inside you. The best rock – the best music – takes all your emotions and amplifies them, makes them more important, overlays a sense of urgency and intensity on top of your inner life. Happiness evolves into bliss; bliss becomes transcendence. Even in sad songs, if you recognize yourself inside them, it’s a comfort, even a joy to discover someone knows exactly how you’re feeling. When you’re at a concert, it’s like a compact with thousands of other people, folks eager for that sense of connection with the singer, with the band, with each other, with themselves. If you give yourself over, and I mean really give yourself, all of yourself, then everything quiet gets loud, everything muted gets acknowledged, and everything you need and want and desire is suddenly right there, out there, ( shouting out loud. )

Does anyone know if Savas Shoe Repair on Elm Street does shoe stretching? I have two pairs of boots, one needs the vamp (instep) stretched and the other needs the caft stretched. Neither are fully leather but canvas should also stretch with a stretcher..

If Savas doesn't do this, does anyone know any place that does? I looked into buying my own stretchers, but that would be around 300 dollars for both.

Thanks!

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Tuesday the 10th) is our next DS meetup at the Burren. As always, we begin at 7pm and meet in the back room. I'll try to grab the table in the back left hand corner of the room (if you are facing the stage).

At 8pm is open mic night and I'd love some people from our group to perform. We do have one person from our group that will be taking the stage and I'm pretty excited about it. Our very own ron_newman has agreed to do an interpretative dance giving the history of Somerville. For this performance, I'll be providing musical accompaniment on the bongo. Anybody else want to sign up to perform?

EDIT: Hey, I just found out Tuesday evening is also going to be a fundraiser for the non-profit key foundation. All tips to the bartender will go to the cause and there will be some great raffle prizes later that evening. Raffle prizes include celtics tickets as well as whisky collection worth over $300!

Paper or Plastic
Short of a few phone calls with friends, I had no conversations on Saturday that weren't transactional. Spending $7 on a takeout dinner doesn't count as "human contact" in my book, any more than letting someone board the bus in front of you counts as "making a friend." You're pointing to a menu, handing over a few slips of paper, and waiting until your number gets called. A sophisticated machine could replace one or both of the partners in that dance.

I find that solitude - the ability to immerse myself in a city full of people without having to engage them - refreshing, so long as I take it in small doses. I was out late drinking with coworkers, then dancing at the Middlesex, on Friday night. On Sunday I went to see Lynne D's one-woman show at ImprovBoston, then had a few beers with friends. Last weekend was busy (Halloween) and the coming weekends look to fill up my diary as well. So the break doesn't hurt.

But there are thousands of people in this city, and every other, who go like that for a week at a time or more. Get up, get on the bus, punch a clock, take your break, punch out, bus home, watch TV, drink, sleep, repeat. The city does not discourage this lifestyle. Dozens of institutions exist to make such a life of populated solitude possible - even easy.

The Wasted Chance That I've Been Given
Pop music has not lacked for shitty covers ever, so if I wanted to bitch about that I'd have my choice of targets. But lately I've heard enough covers that defy sense, aesthetics or any prediction of What The Market Demands.

Exhibit A: "Careless Whisper" by Seether

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7imqO-OBVk]

That's what George Michael's slow-jazz throwback from twenty-five years ago needed - a groan-rock cover with extra shredding. In the original, the sublimely ridiculous line "guilty feet have got no rhythm" makes some sense - the tidal wave of horns and congo drums suggest a nightclub in the 40s, slow dancing with your best friend's girl, etc. It calls to mind the silver screen. But no one would dream of dancing to a song by a band named Seether, unless standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and headbanging counts as "dancing." It's fun, but it doesn't.

Exhibit B: "More Than Words" by Owen

At least Seether's cover of a George Michael standard justifies itself by changing the song's genre. Translating Wham! to screamo is a poor choice, sure, but it's evidence of thought. But Mike Kinsella's cover of "More Than Words" adds nothing. It's one guy with an acoustic guitar, as opposed to the original, which had two guys - Gary Cherone singing, Nuno Bettancourt playing and harmonizing. It has the artistic integrity of a webcam video posted to YouTube, except the fact that I'm asked to spend $0.99 on Kinsella's version makes it comical.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRARmrorGU]

Original post

It only occurs to me now after reading Jeremy Clarkson's latest rant and a review of P. J. O'Rourke's latest car book that it's a bit of a shame the two of them never got to do a car program together before P. J.'s cancer took so much out of him.

I'm still on track with nano - just on track. It seems like every time I pull ahead, the next day I slide back to the bare minimum, which will have me scrambling the last few days, as I can't do the writing on the road thing. But, I'm at 13.4k. And it's no longer like pulling teeth, I just don't always get around to putting in the time.

It's just, you know, there's more that I want to do with my life than write. Like, set the loom up for cardweaving (which is partially done, cards are threaded, I just need to tie it on). I suppose I'll never work at it hard enough to be a published author, but I feel I chose long ago, and I think I chose knitting, but I like doing, well, everything?

So, yeah. There's always tomorrow!

But instead of talking about that, I owe laeticiav a meme:

Five questions. Reply with "RESISTANCE IS USELESS!" if you'd like some to repost in your own journal.

( la, la, la... )

Honor local Veterans at the VFW George Dilboy Post 529 at 371 Summer St. in Davis Square, 10 am, Wednesday, November 11th.

I'm looking for a winter CSA in the area. Are there any that do drop-offs in Somerville? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Could anyone recommend a financial planner (for lack of a better term) in the area? I have some financial decisions to make regarding student loan deferment during recent layoff and/or enrollment in grad school in the fall. There are several different loans, so the situation quickly becomes complicated. I don't have a ton of money to throw around, but making the wrong decisions now would probably cost me more than paying for a bit of someone's time. Thanks.

i've got this old-ish true RMS analog A/C voltmeter (9.5" x 7.5" x 5") that's seeking better accommodations.  i'm guessing it wants roommates who'll interact with it once in a while, since it's never bitched about us leaving our crap lying around the living room or the dishes in the sink.  last time we gave it the time of day, it was a pretty nice, accurate unit. 

( photo )

anyway, drop me a line if you're intersted.

A full, FULL post when I return. BUT! Last night at the Springsteen show, something truly amazing happened that kind of rocked me. I had a bunch of celebrity sightings - Robin Quivers, Mel Gibson, and some guy people were calling "Pat the Rat" were there - but nothing struck me as much as seeing celebrity chef Tom Collichio and celebrity dirtbag Artie Lange in the "pit" area of the stage. My dual initial assumptions - that Artie was going to be a drunk pig and that Tom would be far to classy to get in with the proles - were dead wrong. Never was this point more clear when Springsteen launched into "Rosalita" and both of them were absolutely into it, singing along with every word.

Bruce Springsteen crosses all boundaries, all class lines. These two people have nothing else in common*, but they got together for the love of The Boss. I had such an amazing time, garnered a new appreciation for "New York City Serenade," met some awesome people up at the barrier between us and the pit. But this right here was one of my favorite things to see.



*Except for that they're both incongruously Bear icons. YUM.

There's a good variety of films, including two different ones named "Promises" and a musical about autism. You can see (and listen to) films in Russian, Farsi, Korean, Hebrew, French, Arabic, Bengali, Japanese and several other languages. Get out and learn (or be entertained).

* Boston Muslim Film Festival:
+ Virgin Diaries - Northeastern, 7 pm, Today

* Tufts Global Lens Film Series:
+ Song from the Southern Seas (Kazakhstan) - 2 pm, Today

* Tufts Film Series shows "The Hurt Locker” at 2 pm today. Next weekend, they will screen "Children of Men" & "District 9".
* MIT LSC will have a special free screening of "Stop Making Sense" tonight.
* The BPL Robert Altman film series continues Monday with "A Prairie Home Companion".
* Brandeis will screen the documentary "Horse Boy" on Tuesday with the director in attendance.
* BU Japanese Series will shop "Princess Mononoke" on Wednesday.
* The Center for Independent Documentary will screen a work-in-progress on Wednesday.
* Harvard Law's Japanese Law Film Series shows "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On" Wednesday.
* Tufts will screen "Chutney Popcorn" on Wednesday.
* On Friday, Harvard will screen two documentaries on women and voting in Iran, with the director in attendance.
* Chicks Make Flicks will show "Straightlaced: How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up" on Friday at MIT.
* MIT LSC will have free screenings of "High Fidelity" on Friday and Sunday.
* Real Colegio Complutense continues its Friday night Spanish movie series with "Rec".
* The Brattle Theater hosts their monthly Elements of Cinema series on Saturday with "Pickpocket".
* Boston Cares sponsors the origami film "Between the Folds" Saturday at the BPL.
* There are several other films at Harvard, Tufts, MIT, BC and BU, libraries and nonprofits around the area.

NOW ON TWITTER @ http://twitter.com/BostonFreeFilms

( Coming attractions... )

1) There were clementines in the store today! I love clementine season. The batch I got are a little sour, but I'm just happy they're in stores.

2) Speaking of fruit, did you know that pears are delicious? After over 2 years of being unable to eat apples or pears, this is quite the revelation.

3) NPR informs me that it is Joni Mitchell's 66th birthday today. In celebration I have put on Blue, Ladies of the Canyon and Hits.

Is there an internet service provider serving Somerville that will allow me to have 2 cable modems without charging extra (or at a nominal extra charge)?    I prefer to plug directly into the cable modem rather than rely on the slower and less reliable wireless signal.  I believe Comcast wanted 25/month or something.  I don't understand why I can have a TV in every room that plugs into cable but not internet in every room

I guess I could try to fish cat ethernet wires, but I've found that to be difficult if your walls aren't already open. 

I rec'd this notice of an official neighborhood meeting on the upcoming maxpak site demolition.    Though it is labelled as a neighborhood meeting in large font, I'm not sure if it is a meeting that involves watching a committee talk or if it is actually an informational meeting/presentation with Q&A.  Maybe a bit of both.

( Text of notice )

Take a good long look at this motherfuckin BUS! (I've made this joke twice today, and I still think it's hilarious.)

You GUYS! I'm CURRENTLY on a Bolt Bus. WHAT? As advertised, the Bolt Bus has free Wi-Fi (unlike AirTran, which makes you THINK it does, and then says you have to pay.) Bolt Bus, however, is made of lies and deceit, as it does NOT feature a funny, naive anthropomorphic dog voiced by John Travolta. FAIL, Bolt Bus, FAIL.

However! In the interest in having friends wherever I go, I randomly ran into my buddy Evan on the train over here. This is how our conversation went as we ran into each other:

Evan: "Yeah, so I'm on the 12:30 bus and I'm visiting friends in New York, and..."

Kev: "Okay, but I have to WORK when I'm on the bus! Just so you know! I can't talk and just hang out the whole time. I have to WRITE!"

Evan: "Um."

Kev: "You're really nice, though! You want to help me support corporate coffee?"

I stayed up late last night and ran out of social skills.

But! In a few hours, I will be hanging with my friends Marty and Barry on a whirlwind tour of NYC, and then tonight: BROOOOOOOOOOOOCE. Life is zesty!


I only have hot friends.