MY URBAN KVETCH

Drunken Brainstorming

The details on origin are sketchy. But it became a night to remember, which turned out to be remarkably productive.

A group of about twenty people gathered in someone's apartment for a night of "drunken brainstorming" of ideas for the next issue of PresenTense Magazine. It started off slow, with people trickling in, and not really so much taking advantage of the "drunken" part. When the brainstorming began, people switched on, and started generating ideas of their own and adding on to the ideas of others (while consuming a few beers or vodka drinks). After some small-group brainstorming, we pooled the index cards/ideas and read them out loud; then people suggested ways we could refine or expand the ideas in print, which we scribbled down on post-it notes (see photo at left) and posted on an impromptu whiteboard/door.

No one was really drunk. But a drink or two (or even the option of drinking) certainly freed us all up creatively, made us less inhibited about expressing our opinions and our interests and made the whole process a more collaborative one that flowed rather amazingly...

Stay tuned for more, and if you want to become involved in PresenTense, we're always happy to have the help; from editing to advertising, from subscriptions to content creation, from PR to website/blog management, many opportunities are available, so just let us know what you'd like to achieve and we'll help!

Putting the "Me" in Media

Earlier this week, the Times announced they were canceling their "TimesSelect" service, which had previously meant that people unwilling to pay for premium content and archives would just have to go without or (GASP!!) buy a print copy of the publication. (Or, for New Yorkers, wait till after rush hour and then run through the subway cars to pick up discarded copies...)

But now Times content is ours again, including access to most of the archives, excepting 1923-1986, (presumably in a Yankees-originated plan to restrict public information about Mets World Series wins). This is more good news for those of us who are tuned to the news and link to fresh or interesting stories on a daily basis, whether we're blogmasters-general, emergent media magnates or civilians who forward links to their friends. Finally, media is working for all the "me's" out there. Should we call it "wedia"? Power to the people. Citizen journalism. Yada yada yada.

But BuzzMachine (a media blog by Jeff Jarvis) is really what inspired me to blog this story. His comment, while brief, was also laden with modern truth*:

[W]hen I stopped reading them [the Times' opinion pages] — because, what was the point, I couldn’t link to them — I quickly found that I didn’t miss them. Newspapers are, in great measure, habit and once broken, it’s hard to reestablish that behavior. So bye-bye, guys.

And so, it's the old tree falling in a forest with no one around situation with a lesson for today's media: if a story cannot be linked to, it does not exist.

And on that note, I'm pleased to announce that much of the new issue of PresenTense (Issue Three, if you're counting) is now available online, and therefore does exist.

*...which would be a good thing to have from some of our rabbis this holiday season...

Send Seth Rogen on birthright

I have a lot of goofball ideas, but I think this one's got something.

I don't know if it's just me, but Seth Rogen seems insanely familiar, and I mean that in a way pertaining to his sense of humor and the projects he's been lucky enough to have hooked into. But I also mean in a Jewish way. I feel like he looks like eight people I know and possibly went to camp with. He grew up in Canada and is a few years younger than I am, so it's not likely. But that doesn't stop it from seeming true.

And there was that "Munich" scene within "Knocked Up," that I wrote about before (more than once, actually), which landed a discussion of Jewish identity and pride in Israel's reaction to terrorists in the middle of a movie about a one-night stand. And now there's this throwaway line in a New York Times interview with Rogen and co-writer of Superbad Evan Goldberg:

"They say going to Israel is crazy because everyone has a machine gun. It’s really not that different from here when every security guard has a large weapon in the parking lot of the grocery store."

Seth Rogen is 25. That means there's one more year for him to go on birthright israel. Come on...the guy is totally begging for it. Maybe it's time for a young Hollywood trip to the Holy Land. Most of them can already afford to pay their way, but might not be inclined to plan the trip. That's where birthright comes in...

Can you imagine? Everyone from that "Munich" scene should be on that tour bus, going to meet with former Mossad members, visiting the Knesset, climbing Masada, and putting notes in the Kotel.

Sure, Zach Braff is way too old. (Sorry, Zach...me too.) Natalie Portman was born there and is likely ineligible (if not because of her experiences there then because she's almost too old), but I've got a solution. Natalie can be a madrichah (counselor). And Zach can go along as designated videographer--he'll direct "Hollywood birthright: the Movie", and be the musical supervisor for the soundtrack.

Tell me this is not the best idea ever.

What? You want me to go along, so I can blog the whole thing? Oh man, if I have to...

The Faces of New Jewish Media

We're small-time now. But if you come see us at the Y, you can say you knew us when. Join us before we get too big-time famous to acknowledge the people who got us here. Sunday night, 8pm. Free. Details here.

Summer Media Blitz 2007

Buckle up, kids--it's been a busy day.

This morning, I saw "Extra, Extra! Read All About It!" the article in the Jewish Standard in which I (and other young and not-so-young Jewish journalists talk about the future of Jewish journalism.

This afternoon, I learned that "Information Nation," the article I'd submitted to the CAJE Jewish Education News journal was available online; Ariel Beery and I co-authored the piece, which talks about how people our age access information and education.

And just a few minutes ago, I finalized plans to be interviewed on Sunday July 29, at 9:30am to AM1370 in Baltimore or online at www.v1370.com on Shalom USA, Baltimore's Jewish radio program; I'll be talking about the Creative Zionism institute (creativezionism.com)--what makes creative Zionism different from classical Zionism, etc. Should be about 15 minutes long--join me, unless you're totally sick of the media blitz by now, and I wouldn't blame you if you were.

Thank you all for your various roles in catapulting me straight into the middle of blogger fame. Maybe someday I'll even be involved with something that doesn't have the word "Jewish" in it.

Shabbat shalom!

CAJE Embraces New Media

When I used to think about CAJE, the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, I used to think "establishment." At a December CAJE-sponsored event, Ariel Beery and I sat there in the audience, impressed with the caliber of the educators and leaders in the room, but kind of unimpressed with the content. The event led us to question what tomorrow's "Big Ideas" really were (especially since no one was jumping to fund my JSingleSpace NYC idea).

During our time there, we broke into smaller groups, in which we discovered that when CAJE was founded, the A used to stand for "alternatives," and that the founders of the group were viewed in their day as counterculturalists. One of the men in our group bemoaned the loss of that radical spirit and approach to transforming Jewish education. And some of the women in attendance asked, in a discussion of the Jewish future, where were the young voices? (Read my recap posts here and here.) Was CAJE prepared to recapture the spirit of its youth and become a little radical?

Media Conspiracy Meeting: Special Waltham Unit

Where do you go after three weeks in the Holy Land? A week at the holy university of the Jewish people and various others: Brandeis, in verdant Waltham, MA.

Some people assume I'm here to teach, or learn, or pick up younger men. (Thanks, guys.) But I'm really here for a week-long fellowship (read about it here) about Jewish journalism, with instructors and participants from Jewish publications across the US. It's a great networking opportunity and a chance to learn more about how the profession differs community to community. So hopefully I'll have some interesting insights to share as the week stretches on. But right now I've been busy posting over at ROI120.com, so if you couldn't be there with us this summer, come on over and check it out.

A: Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Nobel, Pulitzer

As Karnak might have put it, the answer is: Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Nobel and Pulitzer.

And the question is: Name five awards not received by Esther Kustanowitz this year.

Too bad. I thought I had a shot at the Pulitzer with my article about the Jews on the Upper West Side.

So much for the Jewish media conspiracy.

Heeb's Love Issue and a Special Friend Without Benefits

So there I was, at the Heeb party  with Lindsay celebrating the release of their new "Love" issue. (Following the "Food" issue and the "Money" issue before that, with the "Sex" issue somewhere in the middle, there's clearly a progression here somewhere.) For a change, the party was not in a dirty downtown bar off the F-train and so overpacked with people that you can't tell which Ross or Rachel or girl from the copy place you're talking to. It was in the fancy Tribeca Grand hotel, where your soles don't stick to the floor and your drinks cost in the double digits. But what's important was that I was there with some of my friends, and they were there for me too.

Because the theme was Love, there were little callouts to that theme all over: little conversation hearts in a big dish on some of the low tables, gum samples individually wrapped so that everyone would have minty-fresh breath in case...and a kissing booth. Sort of.

Apparently, there was another Heeb "Love Issue" Launch party going on on the West Coast, in San Francisco, to be exact. And editor Josh Neumann (see left) had the idea of having Chloe O'Brien creating a video uplink (or linkup, not sure) so that someone at Heeb Launch Party NYC could put their chin in the provided chin holder at the same time as someone else did at Heeb Launch Party SanFran, and then the two could virtually smooch. Because I owed it to you, intrepid readers, I tried this new machine. And while the idea was cute, the experience was not unlike what shomer negiah daters must experience. So close, and yet, so far. Plus there's that whole awkward moment when your chin's in the holder (like when you get your vision checked), and you're bent over the machine with your lips pursed, waiting for someone to come along and kiss you. Then someone comes over, puts his (or her) chin in the SF equivalent and sees you, and then gets up and leaves. I guess it happens...maybe the guy was just on a break.

And there was a late and brief celebrity appearance. I was too chill to ask for a photo with him. But here's a stolen photo of his profile (snapped unintentionally in the background of another picture, and you tell me when you recognize him.

And by the way, there are clues to his identity in the above post.

And THAT, my friend, is what you call "closure."

When You're in Publishing, The Whole World is Jewish

Everyone wants in on being Jewish. (Don't make me mention Madonna and Britney. Dang.)

Now, it's the women editors of teen magazines who want in on the tribe.

Two examples are ex-Seventeen editor Atoosa Rubenstein, as quoted in last week's BusinessWeek: ("What I want to do is gather my tribe, the ones reading Seventeen, and the ones who were, and grew out of it") and Redbook's Stacy Morrison at mediabistro.com's "Editors on Truth Serum" panel Monday ("I don't edit a brand: I'm the head of a tribe. Magazines, at their base, are about identity. With the Web, the question I ask is: Can we keep getting our fingers into the tribe fast enough?")

I suppose it's possible that when they say "tribe," maybe they don't mean Jews, specifically. Maybe they just mean a committed core of educated readers, maybe in a middle-to-high income bracket, or who are at least wealthy enough to merit the attention of various advertisers that will fund the magazine. (Come to think of it, maybe they do mean Jews. Or maybe, since they are beauty-focused magazines, perhaps they mean Barbie as a metaphor for Jews trying to find their places in society.)

The point is, we're all looking for something to belong to, whether it's family or society or a readership, and these women magazine editors, when faced with the prospect of calling their audiences a "readership" or "demographic," opt for the more familial, more altruistic, less financially-centered word of "tribe." Who couldn't understand that kind of a choice?