-->
Hey guys. It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this. But
I’d say a good rule of thumb is that the more you update your blog, the less
fun you’re actually having and the less stuff you’re actually doing. And let me
tell you…I’ve been having a lot of fun and doing a lot of stuff.
Like here’s the stuff I’m doing write now: listening to Ben
Folds at full volume on my terrible laptop speakers. But it really doesn’t
matter that the speakers are so horrible, because—as I’m sure my housemate
Menachem can attest to—I am belting out the lyrics and overpowering Ben’s
teenage-ily pure yet angsty voice. The stuff that middle school dreams are made
of.
This all started because today is Hanukah. I was
invited—through Rick—to the Israeli Ambassador’s Hanukah party. Ain’t no party
like the Israeli Embassy’s Hanukah party…or a Biggy Shorty party. (For those of
you who don’t understand that last reference, stop wasting your time on this
blog and go watch Pootie Tang immediately.
I’m not kidding when I say that it’s life changing).
It was a pretty swell party. It was cool to sing the usual
festive prayers/songs with other Jews and a few mostly diplomatic guests. And it
was a nice break from awful Ethiopian wine. (Though I should note that while Ethiopian
wine is awful, tej, Ethiopian honey
wine, is actually quite delicious.) But most importantly, the food was amazing.
While I’m a fan of the standard Ethiopian fare, I nearly died when I saw the
spread of Jewish/Israeli food: Latkes (my mom’s are better, though), tabouleh,
hummus, chicken, lasagna (OK, I know, but it was still good), other salads, and
sufganiyot (jelly donuts). I just
gorged myself—probably the first time that happened since I’ve been here. My initial
plan was to eat five sufganiyot, but after I was through with my first three
plates of actual food, I could only stomach two.
Driving home I was just totally bloated. All I wanted was a
couch and a glass of water. So I lied down on my bed and decided to put on some
early Beatles. Probably because their stuff is close to the top of my iTunes…I
guess I was too lazy to scroll further down. I was digging “Can’t Buy Me Love”
and “Any Time At All,” but I decided that afterwards I’d play the album “Let It
Be”—because it’s from the era when The Beatles made actually interesting music. Letting my mind wonder, I thought about the time in my life when I obsessively listened to The
Beatles, and I remembered that I was quite into Ben Folds then, too. Since Ben
Folds is awesome, I decided to play “Rockin’ the Suburbs.” AND here I am…lying
on my bed, slowly recovering from a food overdose, belting out the slightly
contentious—but not really contentious at all—lyrics of “Rockin’ the Suburbs.”
Haha…you probably thought you were getting into some
“Ethiopian” blog post or something. But there is like one “Ethiopian” paragraph
in this whole thing! Instead you’re just reading the ramblings of some
22-year-old dude who might as well be food-binging and getting all musically
nostalgic in America! But America’s not interesting and/or exotic! Who wants to
read about America! BORING. Only people under the age of 30 who are doing brief
volunteer stints in foreign countries should be able to write about their
superficial impressions of deeply rooted countries and cultures. THAT WAS A
MOUTHFUL. But I don’t imagine people are reading my blog aloud, right? It would
be dope if that happened, though.
Yeah, but really the only worthwhile blogs are those with
the requisite photos of colorful spices/foods and people who clearly didn’t
want to be photographed. And then meaningful explanations of all this “newness”
(sometimes the blogs themselves verge on “weirdness”)—phenomena that aren’t
adequately explained by anthropologists and other people who actually know
something. But who needs ethnographers now? Every college-grad living abroad
for a month with a digital camera and blog is an ethnographer! Academia is
overrated—not to mention hard and rigorous.
So to continue, Ben Folds is now easing my fullness. I
remember when I saw Ben Folds live at Princeton University. I was in 9th
grade. I had heard his name before but didn’t know his music…I was too cool for
pop. I don’t think the free concert was advertised—probably because they didn’t
want losers like my friends and I attending—so I like to think I snuck in…though
that was very much not the case. This terrible band called Filomath opened.
They were terrible, but they had this bass player that was just such a bass
player, you know…doing the whole bass player thing. Then Ben Folds came on
stage and people immediately started yelling “play ‘Brick,’ play ‘Army.’” I
found it obnoxious—though it was certainly a precursor to drunken idiots
yelling “Free Bird” at many of my own gigs. He sounded good, but I was struck by his
attempted rebellness…jumping on top of the piano to conduct the audience
through the horn section of “Army,” yelling naughty words loudly during
“Rockin’ The Suburbs,” or covering a Dr. Dre tune. I mean, now I realize that’s
his music is not a quarter as cool/good/meaningful/interesting as anything Jim
Black’s ever done ever, for example, but sometimes you just gotta belt out some
Ben Folds while trying to digest. It helps.
And now the food has moved on past my stomach, so I will be
on my way. Keep reading. Maybe next time I’ll write about Ethiopia.
Happy x-nukah…
No comments:
Post a Comment