MY URBAN KVETCH

Celebrate Jews Who Inspire You: "Jews That Do" contest

[cross-post from ROICommunity, which, along with Jewlicious, is a cosponsor of this competition]

Do you know someone who is an overachiever, achieves incredible feats, inspires you with their imagination and creativity, sets your soul aflame with the power of their dedication and ideals? These people, they leave awe in the wake of their awesomeness, they make the world a better place, they make you want to be a better person.

ROI Community and Leadel.net have teamed up to celebrate these amazing people who do amazing things, in a video contest called "Jews That Do." In return, they'll share your "Jew Do-er" with the world and give you the opportunity to win some fantastic prizes (winner gets a 13" MacBook Pro: runners-up - an iPod Touch or 8G iPod Nano).

Video Entry / Application Period: November 8 - December 31, 2009

Just create and send a video pitch 00:30-3 min long that best spotlights your "Jewish Do-er". Seeking passion and inspiration, not technical wizardry. Homemade videos are perfectly acceptable and no entry requires professional experience.

After the application period has ended, contestants will be notified via email - then it's time to share your video with your friends and colleagues and ask them to vote. The votes will be tallied and submitted to our Leadel.NET and ROI judges' panel, and will be notified in the new year.

Read the terms and conditions here and start thinking about your entry: who inspires you?

Jewlicious Festival Concert Presents...the Newest in Jewish Music

What are you doing two weeks from tonight?

If you've never been to the Jewlicious Festival in Long Beach, this is your year. (Tickets for the show, and the weekend, are still available...)

Not only is it an outstandingly diverse concert celebrating the variety of today's Jewish music, but it packs your concert with performers you're sure to hear more about in the future.

Buy tickets here, and read on for all the 411. And yes, I'll be there too... - EDK

Debut bands this year include Jewdysee all the way from Germany, and Israeli grassroots sensation Aharit Hayamim. Aharit blend the many cultural influences of Israel into one jamming sound. Jewdysee is one of the most exciting acts in all of Europe. Last year Moshav brought down the roof - so we brought them back, as well as internationally acclaimed hip-hop rapper Y-Love.

Additional stars of this year's line-up include, Blue Fringe founder, Dov Rosenblatt, Shempseed creator Erez Safar, aka Diwon and Nosson Zand, who recently toured with Matisyahu. We'll dance into the night with DJ Eric Rosen & The Twelve Tribes.

Also enjoy the amazing and intense music of these fine performers- Adam Weinberg, J. Kleinberg, Inbar Bakal, David Finlay Quartet, Kosha Dillz, and a surprise guest or two. We are thrilled to announce that the Concert Series will be musically MC'd by Jewlicious fan favorite Rav Shmuel, back by popular demand.

Advance Sat. Night Concert Ticket: $ 20
Door Sat. Night Concert Ticket: $ 25
Weekend Pass-see 14+ acts: $48 and up
Sunday Pass Only: $36
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!

25 Things: The Facebook Meme Goes Blog

Oy. Another meme. This one found me on Facebook, and could have emerged as just another annoying game of internet "tag" among friends who would rather post a moment of introspection and navel-gazing than ask their friends real questions, face-to-face or at least person-to-person. If I hadn't found everyone else's responses to this one so interesting, I wouldn't have even considered it. Back in 2005, I rejected the invitation to do a "100 things about me" post on my blog (read all the "whys" here). But 25 is doable. I'll reveal what I want, and know it's not the totality of me, but things that I find relevant (or utterly irrelevant!) to the person I've become. It might even serve as an outline for that book I keep threatening to finish. Here are the official directions...

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. [Or because I thought you'd enjoy this piece...but if I didn't tag you, feel free to do it anyway.]

1. I had (and ok, maybe still have) a possibly unhealthy relationship with John Hughes movies.
2. Our high school had a secret, underground, yeshiva prom.
3. I fell for a boy in sixth grade and liked him through high school - during that time, he talked to me a total of three times, but I was still convinced he'd ask me to our secret, underground, yeshiva prom. (For which I blame #1. And, a little bit, #2)
4. Watching "the Breakfast Club" in high school, I was convinced that the characters were getting high off of regular nicotine cigarettes.
5. I never wanted to live outside of New Jersey. New York? That was dangerous!
6. My first NY apartment was on the corner of 84th and Amsterdam. I only lived there until 1998, but my name is still on the buzzer (or was at the end of September 2008).
7. I know lyrics to the never-produced Christmas version of the "ToysRUs kid" song because I sang them on a demo, and also sang on the demo that sold the song and made the composer a lot of money. I made $18.
8. In an echo of #1, I think "When Harry Met Sally" was responsible for at least six years of warped relationship expectations.
9. I've been to Israel 14 times and haven't paid for a single trip.
10. I've pretty much never been anywhere else with the only exceptions being one trip to Club Med (Turks), another to San Juan, Puerto Rico and a family trip to Mexico when I was in fifth grade. I also "came out of Egypt" in time for Passover during the semester I spent in Israel, which thrilled my parents.
11. We have a family newsletter. Some of you may be familiar with it. And the rest of you will not be surprised by this. I fully expect my nephews and niece will assume editorial positions before they realize that not all families do this.
12. At current count, I have 3285 unread Gmail messages. Good thing I get unlimited space in my inbox, if not unlimited time in my life.
13. This blog, my first blog, http://myurbankvetch.com celebrates its 5th anniversary on Monday, February 2. JDatersAnonymous turns 5 on April 28. Blogging has transformed my life, enabling me to visit other cities in the US, meet great people, and set the stage for my recent relocation.
14. I have worked at two Jewish organizations that were severely affected by the Madoff situation. No, I am not the link.
15. I once worked at Yeshiva University and MTV in the same week.
16. I really do love working with the ROI Community, because I meet amazing people from many countries, and get a real introduction to Jewish innovation worldwide. For more, see http://roi120.com or come to my Jewish innovation session at LimmudLA (register: http://LimmudLA.org)
17. The ocean sometimes makes me cry.
18. In another life, I was definitely a comedy writer. And perhaps, also, in this one. And Entertainment Weekly missed the boat on me in terms of my devotion to pop culture (their loss: Beliefnet's Idol Chatter's gain). EW editors looking to make amends/reach out should skip directly to #25.
19. My great-great-grandfather, Yehoshua Stampfer was a founder of the Israeli city Petach Tikva.
20. I put a lot of my life online, but nowhere near all of it. That should give you an idea what goes on in my brain every day. It's like the audio equivalent of those "Magic Eye" pictures: you know there's an image in there, but you just have to filter out the other colors competing for your attention.
21. In the 1975 film, the part of drunk, pot-smoking night aide Turkle was played by Scatman Crothers. In [year deleted], the role was played by never-been-drunk, thinking-cigarettes-and-marijuana-are-the-same-thing Esther Kustanowitz (swilling flat cream soda out of a whiskey flask).
22. I have never tried cocaine or Ecstasy. Coffee? That's another story.
23. I moved to Los Angeles in October with two suitcases of my stuff. The rest is either at my parents' house in NJ (sorry about that, guys), or has been donated back to the universe.
24. I go through moments of extreme faith and conviction that there's a larger purpose, and others believing that life is random, fleeting, and only about personal meaning.
25. I am available for writing, editing, blogging about bizarre celebrity behavior, obsessing over popular culture, creative and elementary technology consulting, speaking engagements, blog and social media tutoring, hosting karaoke events, leading improv clinics, joining writing groups, and of course, weddings and bar mitzvahs.

As usual, 25 things seems like too short a list, and I've spent way more time on this than I should have today. If you want more, there's lots online every day at various websites. So check them out, people. Those blogs aren't going to read themselves. Thanks for your support.
Http://myurbankvetch.com
http://jdatersanonymous.com
http://estherk.com
http://blog.beliefnet.com
http://roi120.com
http://jewlicious.com

Mazal Tov, Blogson

I would have posted this on Jewlicious, but they're down temporarily. So here it is...

Mazal tov to Tomer Altman, of Oy-Bay.org and the Jewish New Media Network, on his engagement to Joanna Samuels.

Tomer is Jewlicious's first known (as far as I know) blogson - a follower of Jewlicious, he followed the blog all the way to the second Jewlicious conference in Long Beach, and returned the following year with a blog of his own (Oy-Bay, devoted to young Jewish life in the Bay Area), a bus of Bay Area Jewliciousers, and an ambitious idea to transform the future of Jewish journalism, which he took to ROI for the last two years, too.

Mazal tov to the bride and groom. Now get back to your blogs, kids!

In Honor of a Majorly Cool Jew

My friend Lisa Alcalay Klug, she of the indefatigable enthusiasm and energy who has become the darling of Jewlicious Festival and many other "cool Jew" ventures, published her book, "Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe" last week. Jewish TV Network did an interview with her about the book--see her in action in the clip below, buy the book at Amazon.com, BN.com or directly from the publisher; and check out her extensive list of book tour related events, coming to a venue near you...

And Now, a Jewlicious Festivals Announcement

This is a Jewlicious Festivals announcement from Grand Pooh-Bah Rabbi Yonah Bookstein:

Local Jews always wait til the last minute to buy tickets to the Jewlicious Festival. Its so close, they put it off and off and off, and then show up last minute and want to get in...

Well....This year that is a bad idea. You could miss out entirely. PLEASE tell your friends to buy tickets tonight. I mean it. Tonight, before the weekend.

We are going to sell out and I mean sell out.
Bouncers will keep out people without tickets.
We have to limit the numbers to 500 at a time because of codes.
Tickets for students are still only $48. Community at large: $72

Matisyahu and tons of other amazing speakers, musicians, and programs. A live comedy show with famous comedians. Food. And fun. Check it out today: http://jewliciousfestivals.com
If there are any tickets left they will cost more at the door.

BUY TICKETS NOW and get your FRIENDS TO BUY TICKETS TODAY TOO. We will be sad if they miss it, and so will you!

The Week in Clips

Because I'm going to be busy most of Wednesday, I wanted to take this chance to post links to some other places where I've been writing these days--enjoy, and leave comments!

Looking for the Perfect...Shul (Jewish Week--new column!)

The Moment It Dawned On Me That Being Jewish Is Important (The Jewish Journal, L.A.)

Battle of the Beneficent Beverages (Jewlicious)

Amy Winehouse's Mom's Plea to Daughter (Beliefnet)

Your Season's Greetings: Too Generic? Or Too Personal? (Beliefnet)

You're An Old One, Mr. Grinch (Beliefnet)

Italian Priest Bans Red Bull Commercial (Beliefnet)

Could "Vacation" Be a Best Foreign Oscar Contender? (Beliefnet)

Follow the Brick Road to Central City: "TinMan" Revisits the Classic (Beliefnet)

New Jewlicious Festival Video Online: Plus, Highlights!

Now that Jewlicious has been named to Slingshot's list (see related post), it seems like the time is ripe for a walk down Jewlicious Festival Memory Lane. Because I'm constantly on Facebook, I noticed that one of my friends from Jewlicious Festival 3.0 had posted a video on the wall of another friend from all three JFs (1, 2.0 and 3.0). One click later, and I'm watching a 36 minute recap of what those three days were like in Long Beach.

So if you're interested in seeing a clip that illustrates the breadth of what's done at the festival--and that's even without all the programming, socializing and eating that goes on on Shabbat, when no filming was done--click the below. Or, if you want, my handy-dandy, minute-and-second-coded breakdown of some highlights (mostly the ones with my friends in them) appears after the jump.

Ethical Kashrut: Welcome to the Next Level

People who think that buying kosher meat is more ethical than buying non-kosher meat...well, welcome to the next level.

The Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement (the professional association of Conservative and Masorti rabbis, which represents 1600 rabbis worldwide) is embracing a brand-new ethical/kosher "Good Housekeeping Seal" of sorts-- called Hechsher Tzedek, which means Justice (Kosher) Certification.

Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, MN is taking the lead in promoting use of the new hechsher. "We need to be certain that the food we are obligated to eat is produced in a way that demonstrates concern for those who produce it," he states on his blog-in-progress.

According to the press release:

While the effort began with establishing standards for the ethical treatment of workers at the Agri-Processors facility in Postville, Iowa, the Rabbinical Assembly is going well beyond the area of meat processing to encompass the entire food industury. Currently, Rabbi Allen is researching the social responsibility statements of other companies in order to design the guidelines for Hechsher Tzedek.

At its annual convention, held in Cambridge, MA, this past spring, the Rabbinical Assembly passed a resolution supporting Hechsher Tzedek.

Sun, Fun and Blogging

Well, when it comes to weather, LA certainly has NYC beat. I almost burned my coat in celebration of this kinder, gentler, warmer, sunnier clime, but then decided it was better to save it for the return trip. So it's sitting in the trunk of my car. Oh yeah, I have a car out here. That's the way LA people roll. You try to take the bus or the Metro or people look at you funny. And I don't need any more of that.

I've been trying to keep up with my freelance work, and am working on a few things that have the potential to provide me with more exciting travel plans to various places over the next few months. And of course, taking time to spend with friends enjoying the weather and the wonder of LA, which has so far included two live installments of "Celebrities Are Just Like Us!!" (Drea DeMatteo eats pasta! Donal Logue orders breakfast!) and enjoying Venice's beach and canals (since I'm clearly never getting to Venice, Italy, to see their canals).

And in other news, inspired by the recent AP ban on "news" regarding Paris Hilton, I posted the following question over at the JTA earlier this week. Which Jewish story would you ban from news/media coverage? Your comments are always welcome.

And tomorrow, we festival.