MY URBAN KVETCH

Madoff Made Off With Bacon's Bacon

[This is the same post as earlier, just with a more brilliant headline.] Six degrees of Bernie Madoff...that's what the world's become - with each news day that passes, we learn more and more of the boldface names that were taken in by investment non-manager Bernie Madoff, and today, that six degrees reached the KING of Six Degrees, Kevin Bacon and wife Kyra Sedgwick.

Bacon and Sedgwick have been acting for a long time, and their talent has evolved over the years, enabling them to be one of those New York actor couples who accept solid roles in interesting films and series, and who are so accessible to everyone that they're just part of the scenery when you're living in NY. ("I saw Kevin Bacon walking his dog today," my roommate used to come home saying at least once a month, and she can't identify any celebrities on the street.)

Their success gave rise to the popularity of the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game that became so popular at parties (For instance, as an extra in "Keeping the Faith," I have a Bacon number of 3 -- any of the three leads had a Bacon number of 2, so I'm one step removed from that.) And that game launched the online charity site SixDegrees.org, providing everyone a chance to connect with charities and raise money for their favorite causes. (I wrote about that back in the day on Jewlicious.)

The reason I bring this up is because instead of just celebrities losing their money, this news story also means it's another good-doing operation that falls victim to Madoff's madness. Communities across the country can't stop talking about this scandal, and one rabbi thinks Madoff should be kicked out of the Jewish people.

Where will it end? According to the Fundermentalist, JTA's philanthropy blog, Wednesday is the deadline for Madoff's people (can you believe the man still has people?) to provide a list of all his clients/victims.

This is a start, but I say Bacon should just head down there, perhaps with everyone with a Bacon number of 2 or lower, and start kicking ass in a way that Ren, straight from the streets of Chicago, would be proud of. (Check minute 1:03-1:05 below for the particular move I'm suggesting. And then again at 1:39.)

Hanukkah, Days 6-8: Hanukkah Videos as Suggested By...TiVo

I made it through 5 days of consecutive video posts and then slacked off, so sorry about that. But now, since it's day 8, I thought I'd make it up to you by posting this video, created by the TiVo people and the apparent TiVo DiVa, to celebrate Hanukkah with a top ten list of movies to see on Hanukkah. How'd they find 10 Hanukkah themed movies? Hints: They didn't, really, and Adam Sandler gets two slots. Hope your last day of Hanukkah was filled with the light of the season, and that your letter carrier did a better job of delivering your checks than mine did.

Welcome to Hollywood...What's Your Dream?

For someone who's been involved in pop culture as long and passionately as I have been (and who used to dream of a career in performance), meeting celebrities is always cool. But as someone who's primarily a writer -- by practice, profession and passion -- somehow, meeting the people who give the actors their framework, the characters and the lines that transform them into something worth celebritizing, is especially exciting.

Tonight I attended Richard Belzer's Special Victims Tour. The name alone made me laugh, as Special Victims is my favorite Law & Order (I mean, as much as you can say a show about violence against women and children is your favorite anything). And these were the people in my neighborhood: I saw Chris Meloni hanging with his kids at Starbucks on the Upper West Side, used to regularly run into Dann Florek in the supermarket, and famously encountered Belzer at a Commerce ATM (leading me to think the universe was trying to tell me something).

Thanks to my friend Debbie Jhoon and her comedy connections (see photo at right), I was able to take a visiting friend with me to the venue, Vanguard in Hollywood. But we were late, and were told the main room was full and we were directed toward a side room where we could view the show on monitors. (Uh-oh.) Luckily, I knew some people in the front row, and there were seats with them. (Yippee!) But the seats were front and center, prime space for audience/comic confrontation. (Uh-oh.) Three seconds after Belzer took the stage, he points at me and says, "Where are you from?" And I froze.

My inner rabbi took over a seemingly simple question. Did "from" mean originally, primarily, or currently? Locationally or spiritually? New York, where I'd been living (and where our mutual ATM was)? New Jersey, where I grew up? California, now that I've been here two months? He only gave me a second to respond, so by the time I was done processing the question, he'd moved on. Just as well - this wasn't the Esther Kustanowitz Show, anyway. (Although that show would totally rock once people learned how to spell it.)

Hanukkah, Day 5: The Four Corners Project Goes to Ukraine

Happy Hanukkah from the Four Corners Project! from Four Corners Project on Vimeo. For more information, visit fourcornersproject.org.

Hanukkah, Day 4/Merry Christmas - "A Holiday Wish"

Hanukkah, Day 4:
Funny videos

Hanukkah Video, Day 3: Jewish Holidays Rhyme With U.S. Cities

Hanukkah, Day 3:

I wonder if I can really keep this up all through Hanukkah. It's gotta be easier than grating potatoes for latkes, so here's to simplicity.

This one comes to you courtesy of the Kustanowitz Pater Familias, thinking of me in my new location this holiday season.

Hanukkah, Day 2: Signing "Pass the Candle"

Hanukkah, Day 2:

You've seen PasstheCandle, and had the song stuck in your head for days. That is, unless you're hearing-impaired. But thanks to David Bartzur, even the hearing impaired can now experience the lyrics and the rhythm of William Levin and Michelle Citrin's breakaway Hanukkah hit.  Check out the signed version of this song here:

And the Winner is....

We have a winner in the "Nice Jewish Guys" calendar contest, sponsored by PopJudaica! Congratulations and happy Hanukkah to Lindsay, whose winning entry is below.

Lindsay can be reached on Twitter at LindsayT and also blogs at Second Thoughts.

Lindsay, please contact the MyUrbanKvetch management (myurbankvetch at gmail), and we'll get that calendar in the mail to you. You've earned the right to ogle these Nice Jewish Guys whenever you want!

Lindsay's response to the question posed by blog management:

I think the best pitch for the calendar would be a viral video similar to Jimmy Kimmel's response (F**king Ben Affleck) to Sarah Silverman's (F**king Matt Damon); a celebrity montage of sorts. Maybe Silverman could do something hilarious, but lets go with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannsen, as the hot Jewish girls looking for their dreidl in the haystack. They stumble upon the calendar and go on to talk about all the characteristics they love about jewish men (emphasizing the hilarious cliches, of course!) Their examples draw on the different Jewish male celebrities they've worked with on various shows and movies. After going on for a bit, they realize that some of these costars have been listening in the whole time. The celebrities (Seth Rogen would be hilarious!) grab the calendar, begin reading the bios and realize they have nothing on the guys in the calendar. They emphasize that the everyday Jewish guy is really the catch and that the calendar is proof of that. They end by saying "these are the guys you should be pining for". The End.

How to Make Doughnuts: Easy, But Dangerous

Hanukkah, Day 1 Here, the challenge isn't making the donuts, it's making sure that no one gets killed making the donuts. And also, the three-day waiting period for the special donut-making tool. Happy Hanukkah!

And So It Begins: Resistance to SuperJews is Both Futile and Unmenschy

The microactivism has begun.

The members of each SuperJews team will get an alert on each day of Chanukah with a mission for that day.

Missions will be online acts of good for the Jewish world; none will take more than a few minutes to complete, and sponsoring organization United Jewish Communities hopes that we'll find them interesting and fun.

The more people on your team who complete each day’s mission, the higher your team’s score will be.

Scores will be updated daily, and at the end of the eight-day Color War, Gold, Silver or Bronze medals will be awarded to all participants for their Facebook profiles.

If you're reading this, in a way, you're already a SuperJew. Only SuperJews (or SuperJewWannabes or FriendsofSuperJews) read my kvetching and kvelling about entertainment, pop culture, Jewish innovation, creativity and the like. So why not make it official, by banding together with other Jews in the SuperJews Social Hall of Justice?

It's fun to see who joins what team, too: for instance, RED boasts such luminaries as JOI's Paul Golin, Mrs. Ryestar, the former Matzah and Marinara, the "cartoony-woony" Chari Pere, a Jewish Robot, and some dumb oleh with a new Hanukkah video. GREEN features Jewish stars like Martin Kaminer (of Bikkurim and myriad other initiatives), the tech-savvy and happily affianced susqhb, and Bangitout's Isaac Galena. BLUE's no slouch either, with Andrea the Gastronaut, SavvyAuntie, JFL Media's Amir Cohen, and Canfei Nesharim's Evonne Marzouk. 

To learn more, visit SuperJews.org. Or become a fan of the SuperJews Color War on Facebook. You may want to join my team (Red, led by Queen Kabbalah and Mega Mensch, who you know have to read this blog), or join Green or Blue to compete against me...

So just do it. Join us. You know you want to.

[cross-posted to Jewlicious.com]