Magic Jewball

I don’t really have anything to say today, except I’m continuing the birthday countdown. In anticipation, KP (whose birthday was last week) and I chowed down on New York’s finest cupcakes while flies and homeless people surrounded us. Yes, we were at the Cupcake Cafe which is now operating out of Casa Cupcake or something like that. I don’t know. All I know is that it was in a delightful section of Hell’s Kitchen just under an overpass and right next door to a soup kitchen, making those of us eating flowery cupcakes feel just a little over entitled.

But no matter, once we got seated next to the bathroom and the flies entered the picture, we forgot all about the homeless people and their cupcake-free lives. Soon after we were ensconced with our sticks of butter cupcakes, the door to the place, which was being fixed as we entered, malfunctioned and we were all trapped inside. But who could complain? I had KP, cupcakes, and a bathroom. Isn’t that what life’s all about?

Here’s a little something for the ladies and the gentlemen.

Deftones – Change (In the House of Flies)

To make up for last week’s song, which was great, but didn’t have a lot of explanation, here’s one that has a lot of meaning to me, especially right now. Frankly, I think most of the song is nonsense but the part that I get, I really get. And the nonsense part is full of cool couplets where every three words rhyme and they twist your tongue to say.

This is actually the first song I ever bought on iTunes and here’s why. To me, it’s kind of about how you wish for things, but are you really prepared for your wishes to come true? I always think of these lyrics:

Suppose the waters and wishes appear?
Will the price be no object?
I wish for dreams of light
I live for wishing well surprise

And then my answer is always, yes, bring it on. Because I also live for wishing well surprise.

Bob Mould – Wishing Well

Hey, it’s almost Yom Kippur, every Jew’s favorite holiday! Well, no, not really, but it is mine. Seriously. It’s not that I enjoy sitting in synagogue all day and fasting for 24 hours any more than your average person with brain function, it’s just that I appreciate the second chance. Which brings me to my favorite analogy, How Yom Kippur Is Like Tennis.

How Yom Kippur Is Like Tennis
It’s not just the fact that wearing white is traditional (you can thank Brother2 for that joke, he shouted it out while I was making this analogy in front of 30 relatives). You see, I always wonder when I’m watching a match where the first set is 6-0 and the second one is 7-6, WTF? It seems to happen all the time and I mean, did you just forget how to play tennis and it suddenly came back to you when the second set started? But I realized it was just the structure of a tennis match which, although cumulative in its scoring, separates things into games and sets. So when each set is over, you get to start the new one unencumbered by what happened before. Sure you’re at a disadvantage if you tank the first set, but you get the next one to start over and hopefully turn the match around.

This is kind of like Yom Kippur. Your life is separated into years. No, you can’t change what came before, but you get this fantastic chance to put it all behind you and start off at 0-0 on Yom Kippur. So I try to make the most of that and get myself all clean, spiritually speaking. Then I can proceed to tank the next set all year long. Occasionally, I’ll even smash my racket.

In other Yom Kippur related ephemera, I saw one of my favorite movies again this week, Run Lola Run. Besides all the arty interestingness to it (and Franka Potente’s hair), the other thing I find fascinating is the way they show that the smallest thing that happens in life can change events forever. But unlike the movies, we can’t really go back and see how the same situation would unfold if it was done just a shade differently. We can only go forward. So, by all means look back, but instead of just wishing* you did it differently, look forward and change what can be changed now. Don’t worry if that all happens without a pulsing techno soundtrack

I also have to admit, one of the reasons I’m so into Yom Kippur is that I feel a connection from birth. On the Hebrew calendar, I was born just a few days before and part of my name (the part you don’t know unless you’re one of maybe eight or ten readers) is tied to the holiday. I always felt that the new year was my new year because my birthday falls around the same time. Yes, it’s this week on the secular calendar and should you wish to send me a gift, just keep reading the J-Ball, that’s gift enough. Well, no, it isn’t really, it’s just that I’d be nuts to put my address on the Internets.

 

*for more on wishing, please see the iPod song of the week < /end shameless plug>

 

Depeche Mode – Clean