Time For Some New Shoes

Another year has passed, and with it, comes another teacher appreciation day. The idea and the effort of this event at the Hebrew school is extremely generous, and I do truly appreciate the efforts of the students who write the speeches and who present the gifts to the members of the faculty.

This year, the senior class presented me with a large gift certificate for the sports store Champs (last year I received a Neverflat basketball), with the idea in mind, that I use it to replace my current basketball shoes that have a major tear. Some of the students know that I have been wearing these atrocious shoes out of pure animosity, and that I have been determined not to let the shoe companies take me for any addtional money because the tear began only a mere month or two after I had purchased them.

But now with this generous gift from the senior class, I have no excuse left not to get a new pair, and to appreciate them. I only wish that I could do more for the students than I currently do. Every year, they always come up with a way to surprise me when I am least expecting it.



Now playing Blood Diamond by James Newton Howard

Meeting Walter Isaacson

Yesterday I met Walter Isaacson, the author of the new book, Einstein. He walked into my store because he wanted to autograph his book. On the announcement that he was there, I ran up the stairs to see him because I was in awe of his recent and previous book accomplishments.

So there I was with him, handing him his books to sign, and asking him about his process of writing. He answered everything very politely, and engaged me in conversation outside of his own accomplishments. We talked a little of Israel, of Cokie Roberts, of radio programs, and of basketball. As he was leaving, he invited me to attend a tv interview that night that he was doing a the JCCSF, and that he would put a ticket aside for me in my name so I wouldn't have to pay for it. Even more amazing, he told me just to come whenever I was done playing basketball so I wouldn't have to skip my regular game on Thursdays.

And I did. About 8:45pm, I arrived and I saw the last 30 minutes of his interview. When he was done with that, I met him again as he was signing books for the audience, and he seemed generally enthusiatic that I showed up, even as he was being completely swarmed by the eager fans surrounding him.

Before I met Isaacson, the only thing I knew about him was that he wrote two well received biographies on Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. If I had known that he was a Harvard graduate, a former managing editor of Time magazine, and the CEO of CNN, then I'm not sure I would have approached him with any of the enthusiasm and non-chalance that I did. I guess sometimes ignorance is a good thing.

Now playing On the Record (Disney musical)

Sabbath in America

Keeping Shabbat. I was able to do it while I was in Israel, but it was much easier there. I was living with a religious family, and I had no real responsibility within the country. At home, back in the USA, it is much more difficult for me to maintain the Sabbath. How do I not do any of the usual things on a Friday night and on a Saturday that I usually do. That is the one day that I am free to catch up on many of the smaller dealings that I may have missed throughout the week: laundry, market,......maybe a movie. Also, my Saturday mornings have been routinely committed to racquetball in Golden Gate Park. And even though the game itself is not really that important to me, I could easily skip it and not lose too much on sleep, the event itself is a large benefit to my friend who normally doesn't exercise much.

Why do I bring my reservation? It is because I have been invited over for the length of a Shabbat next week to the home of a nice Israeli couple, and as much as I like the idea of resting for the day, and getting in some reading, I just don't feel that my time will be very well spent since it is the only time that I have entirely free. I need that time to recuperate and to do some of the things that I may deem necessary to my mental health, even if it is sleeping in front of the tv (and tv, is a no-no on Shabbat).

I don't like turning people down. Most of the time, I want to go and to enjoy whatever it is that they want me to experience, but some of these things are harder to do than others, and presently, keeping an orthodoxy Sabbath is right up there for me.

Not That Funny Money

I watched Funny Money tonight, a straight to DVD movie starring Chevy Chase, Penelope Ann Miller, Armand Assante, Christopher McDonald, and Robert Loggia. The movie was lableled as a screwball comedy, but it wasn't very funny. The whole production looked as if it was filmed for a Sunday night tv special, which was disappointing because I really like Chevy Chase, and I always want every one of his films to be the next comedy classic.

There were a couple of positives in the film, and that was mainly from Loggia's performance as Chevy's playboy type boss. In one scene, he tells the joke, "What do you call a woman who is paralyzed from the waist down?

Married.


Now Playing Munich by John Williams

A Welcome Back to School

It was my first day back at the Hebrew school today, and the people there were very receptive to me. Throughout the day, the students were approaching me enthusiastically and asking me of my Monday absence, or of my heard about travels. I must admit, however, that the attention was quite endearing. So much so, that I decided that I wasn't going to hand out any detentions for the day.

On a side note, the jet lag, or loss of sleep, is really getting to me, and unfortunately, I do not see an immediate end to it.


Now Playing the Golden State Warriors vs. the Portland Trailblazers in Portland. Season Finale

Back to the Grind

After being back for only 6 hours from Israel, I went back to work. It is not an ideal schedule, nor a very smart one, but sometimes one has to fight the fight, and I believe that I have need to keep on doing it, at least for a little while longer.

What was nice about going to work today, was to pick-up all of the soundtracks that I had been eagerly anticipating. I got the Karate Kid compilation albums, plus the two Grindhouse soundtracks which were released two weeks ago. I hope these are good and worth all of the anticpation that were built around them.


Now Playing the Karate Kid 3 by Bill Conti

Passion and Ignorance

Ignorance in the NBA is never lacking. My recent disgust with the Warriors (I live in the Bay Area, so I am much more exposed to their media) is their recent love affair with the volatile Stephen Jackson, a person who has neither the ability nor the intelligence to control his temper.

In Friday’s sporting green in the Chronicle, as a preview for their game that night against the Washington Wizards, Jackson’s teammates were coming to his defense for the way he ‘asserted’ himself at a previous game. “I’ve been with Jack long enough to know when he’s going to explode, and he was fine. It’s just that everybody stood up and made it look worse than it was…..nobody has to go hold his hand and bring him to the bench, none of that. Let him go through what he’s going through, and he’ll come over there and sit down,” says Al Harrington, a teammate of his while he was in Indiana. I am not sure if Harrington was with Jackson when Jackson went into the stands to fight the fans in Detroit, but in either case, it doesn’t seem responsible to allow ‘Jack’ to stand up and argue with anyone in a public forum after the infamous brawl that he was a large part of .

Baron Davis credited Jackson for his remarkable enthusiasm for the game, “He’s a guy who’s going to get technicals. That’s just his passion for the game. I’d much rather have everybody on our team like that, than somebody who never shows…emotion and doesn’t play with a passion or love for the game.”

Passion? Technicals cost a team points and the possession of the ball. The very nature of a technical is a designed punishment onto to a team due to the excessive nature of a player and/or coach. What the hell is Davis talking about? Can someone please help me understand this twisted logic of the NBA?

As for Jackson’s passionate play Friday night against the Wizards, he played a total of 7 minutes of the game before he got thrown out by the officials. According to the Chronicle on Saturday, “Jackson immediately took out his mouth guard and threw it to the ground as the Warriors tried to steer him away (probably led by Harrington) from the officials. Warriors apologist Center Andris Beidrins said, quite seriously, “ I think it was a misunderstanding.”


Now Playing Beyond Borders by James Horner