Velvel

It's A Boy!

2006-01-17T17:05:00.000-06:00

I have resigned to a hiatus from this blog primarily to get my act together and take care of the more important things in my life. This is the prime reason. I'm very thankful to G-d and my entire family, and extremely proud to announce the birth of my son. He was born yesterday, on the 16th day of Tevet (January 16th) at 2:16pm in Evanston. I pray to G-d that my amazing wife and I can raise

The Temple Still Burns

2005-08-16T09:30:00.000-05:00

Every generation in which the Holy Temple isn't rebuilt is equivalent to the generation that saw it destroyed. Coming off of Tisha B'Av, I can't help but cry. We've been defeated and destroyed before. But how much more painful is it when it's done by Jews? Watch as G-d uses the secular Israeli government to hand over our homes to our enemy.Read Eichah, and follow along here:Israel Insider's

PSA about this blog

2005-08-01T20:10:00.000-05:00

I appreciate my audience's concern. This blog may experience a slight period of inactivity, as it's owner experiences a proportional period of productivity. I'm sure I'll have a ton more to say soon. I just happen to be extremely busy. Ironically, I just wasted a huge amount of time on this post.

Blog

2005-07-07T01:05:00.000-05:00

Blog, blog, bloggeroo, blog, blog, blogblogblogblogblogblogbloggity blahgger. Blog. Blogging is dumb.

I will not tolerate infestation!

2005-07-01T10:15:00.000-05:00

After work yesterday, I found no less than five species of insects with an active interest in my garden. It's quite the wild kingdom on my balcony; many species are fighting for survival. I will describe them only briefly, as I don't want to creep out my wife. I have not seen a single twiddlebug. Leptomastix dactylopii These guys are nice. They've been around for a couple weeks, pollinating

Hack to fix Blogger bug

2005-06-27T11:12:00.000-05:00

Blogger is still broken, with no word, yet, from any humans. There is no reference to this wide ranging issue on either Blogger Status or Known Issues. I've been working on a couple different web pages, and I've been building my CSS skills recently. I did a search for the CSS clear property, and turned up with the answer. The hack is pretty easy. This is a temporary solution, making your

Blogger is screwed (scroll down)

2005-06-26T02:29:00.000-05:00

There are errant tags in every one of my blog pages that weren't there on Thursday. The errant tags are,

. I don't want them. It makes people think my blog is closed, or worse--"under construction." I went to the Blogger website to look for help. I did some searches. I saw this on the bottom of the page:Ask Support Can't find what you're looking for in Blogger

Treyfe? Or Just a Little Phishy?

2005-06-21T14:24:00.000-05:00

I love Matisyahu. His music is great and well produced. He works hard. He's a humble guy. He lives Torah and spreads Torah. He inspires people. His popularity grows by leaps and bounds. And that's only my opinion as a fan. As a musician, I'm very appreciative. His popularity only increases the possible market for my music. As he does better, I do better. He's not the first, nor the

(not) Cheap Jewish CDs, part II

2005-06-16T14:30:00.000-05:00

I'm also shopping for the newest Moshav Band CD, Malachim. I'm disappointed to say that I'm not pleased with their distribution. Here is the results of my Google search.Israel-Music CD cost: $20.00 Shipping: $4.00 Total: $24.00 AllThingsJewish.com, "Judaica and Jewish Gifts for All Occasions" CD cost: $15.00 Shipping: $6.99 Total: $21.99 That's it. Two places to get it. The first link is

Cheap Jewish CDs?

2005-06-16T09:01:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know the cheapest possible place to get the newest Blue Fringe CD? Here is my preliminary findings on the interwebs, based on a single Google search. Also, for the sites that require registration to find the total cost, I filled out a bogus address in my zip code, and a temporary e-mail address I got from my Bloglines, velvel.12103782@bloglines.com (feel free to e-mail me anything

Journey

2005-06-10T18:10:00.000-05:00

Short story: While driving home from work with my wife today, the Journey song, "Any Way You Want It" came on the radio (the preferred station had a commercial). I began singing along in a half-mocking/half-real "rocking out" way. We had this conversation in which Becky made a great observation. Becky: Who sings this? Velvel: Journey. Becky: You make fun of people for listening to this, don't

Deafening Silence

2005-06-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

When I started Farbrengiton, I noticed significant interest, especially in the tiny echo-chamber of the JM blogosphere. Every time I had any update with the band, I would see it mentioned on other blogs. If I still have any readers, you will have noticed that I'm plugging a new CD, "The Hebrew Vibrations Achdus Project." It's a fund raiser to save Gush Katif. The CD was released on Sunday, and I

Support Gush Katif

2005-06-07T14:06:00.000-05:00

For those interested in a small act that they can actually do to help Gush Katif, feel free to print up this poster to publicize the aforementioned fund raiser CD, The Hebrew Vibration Achdus Project. It's a great CD for a great cause (at a great price). PDF (104 KB) / GIF (165 KB)

The Hebrew Vibration Achdus Project

2005-06-06T13:17:00.000-05:00

Farbrengiton recently was asked to participate in a compilation, one of a political nature. I'm overwhelmed by the big names, on this CD, as Farbrengiton is an unknown, especially in comparison. I'm very happy it's for a cause that touches me down to my soul. The Hebrew Vibration Achdus Project Please purchase this CD to support your fellow Jews who would like to keep their homes, communities,

Chutzpa

2005-05-20T12:36:00.000-05:00

Does anyone remember Joseph's Tomb? Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity? Hamas protests [fictional] Koran desecration (AP) Wow. What balls.

My Victory Garden

2005-05-16T15:41:00.000-05:00

or "How I Came to Love Dirt." I've dreamed of growing my own vegetables for a while, and now that I have a condo with a porch that gets lots of sun, I can. I just planted my own little victory garden. You can take a tour of what I have so far, but it's not much in the dark, when I finally finished planting the basics. Since my horizontal space on my 4.5' x 13' (approx.) concrete balcony is

Let's talk about toes

2005-05-04T09:10:00.000-05:00

Within the last few years, it has come to my attention that flip-flops are worn as shoes. I've come to accept this, mostly without complaining. I'm at least 15% hippie myself and I don't care if someone wants to walk around barefoot. And if they manage to make it acceptable even in business situations--even better! There is a new shoe-substitute that has infiltrated us. I like to call it the "

Omer RSS feed

2005-04-27T15:42:00.000-05:00

Sign up for my Omer feed! It's experimental still. It will remind you to count the Omer from your Bloglines or whatever feed-reader you use. The interface is new to me, but I also believe you can use this to add the dates directly to your PDA or calendar program. The RSS is automatically fed daily.Omer RSS feed Add the Omer feed directly to your BloglinesI find that when I have a daily reminder

Holiday Flash Links

2005-04-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

Here are four holiday cartoons which have been going around. Trying to jump onto the viral advertising bandwagon, this horrible cartoon, with a super-lame parody of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" has been passed around as entertainment in order to sell a book. If this is an example of the humor I can expect, I couldn't be further from buying the book. This is very cool. The 60 Second Seder.

I got Boing-Boinged

2005-04-25T21:28:00.000-05:00

I'd like to welcome all the visitors from Boing Boing (a great website for the latest wacky links and geeky-web issues). Recently they have been posting various wacky voice-mails. I submitted my own, and *POW*:

Shoe is on the wrong foot

2005-04-19T01:44:00.000-05:00

I was pointed towards an article in which one of my bands is mentioned. I like the author of the article. I think he's a great guy. I know him from around. I also think a lot of his reviews have a light touch. He's very kind to many bands that in my opinion don't really deserve 100% of his praise. But part of me believes that he really digs all these Jewish bands that much. So I'll let him

HaDag Nachash - great show

2005-04-18T08:47:00.000-05:00

Photo by Becky HaDag Nachash is a great live band. I saw them last night at House of Blues. Fantastic venue. Fantastic show. I didn't know what kind of show it would be, only that they were kind of a party sounding hip-hop band. They performed much better than I expected. A more than welcome reward for a full day of Pesach cleaning. They have a really tight band. DJ, keyboards, sax,

Why, God, why?

2005-04-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

Geek Dream Moment

2005-04-11T09:16:00.000-05:00

As someone who lives with Attention Deficit Something, I like corn Disorder, I'm constantly battling for my attention. TV is a major attention span killer, with all the flashing pictures, bikinis and people trying to persuade you to buy things. My peripheral vision is too good most of the time. I'm always aware when there's a TV on and have problems focusing on my conversations. I bought a

Can't find your guitar player?

2005-04-08T18:26:00.000-05:00

"In this day and age, nothing is more important than protecting your most valuable assets. But that's not always easy. Especially when your most valuable asset is a dumbass." (link courtesy of Ruby Harris)