He just wants a cookie

It’s that time of year again: time for finals! I’m organizing thought vomit on a paper for my visual anthropology class, working through my remaining blog posts for my Media in the Middle East class and will soon be editing a final project for my Global Soccer, Global Politics class.

I checked my email to look for the next topic for my academic blog that I sent to myself and I found this short animation from a former teacher. It made me laugh out loud more than once. I hope that you enjoy the rewards of my procrastination as much as I (sometimes) do.

60 Days of Occupy Wall Street

There is some crazy sh*t going on here. Occupy Wall Street has gone more than viral. It’s now an international movement. Two months ago I remember sitting in my university’s café when I first heard a student say to his friend, “I’m going down to Wall Street. We’re going to protest those big bank a**holes – in a non-violent protest. We’ll just be out on the street. Want to help me make a sign?” I was slightly intrigued and I remember thinking How would that even be effective? Who would listen? It’s not intimidating to sit out on the street.

Clearly I was wrong. Now it’s a huge movement that’s been going on for two months, birthing mirrored movements across the nation and now across the globe. Non-violent protests did wonders for the Civil Rights movement back in the day and the approach is a serious change-making catalyst.  

Sign Language

Today marks the Day of Action. If you’re not aware of what’s going on, here are a few interesting activities* that have been happening downtown  this morning:

•10:53 am: police profiling protesters; checking IDs to access Broadway checkpoints around Wall St. Livestream shows police selectively allowing some people to pass without ID based on appearance, while blocking other people who “look like protesters” from passing even with ID

•10:44 am: thousands occupying Liberty Square

•10:30 am: protesters chanting “her cuffs are too tight” in solidarity with 60 y/o woman who can’t feel her arms after being arrested

•10:16 am: via people’s mic: protestors converging in victory march to Liberty Square to celebrate 15 minute delay of NYSE opening bell.

•9:52 am: widespread reports of police violence

•9:58 am: about 20 protestors locked arms, blocking access to TD Bank

•9:55 am: at least half dozen reporters violently shoved by NYPD

•9:19 am: police brutality at 60 Wall

•9:16 am: retired Philly police Captain Ray Lewis reported arrested.

•9:09 am: traders blocked from entering stock exchange

•9:07 am: NYPD refusing to give badge numbers

•9:04 am: police arrest woman in wheelchair

•9:02 am: reports of 30+ arrested, zip-tied

•9:00 am: NYPD confused, overwhelmed

•8:58 am: Wall Street workers massing with protestors, unable to enter Wall Street

•8:55 am: sitters at Nassau being dragged away, Beaver and New requesting help, police using batons

•8:53 am: protestors taking police barricades, barricading Police vehicle

•8:29 am: 2 and 3 subways at 60 Wall now reported closed

•8:22 am: 2 and 3 subways at 60 Wall reported open.

•8:14 am: march continues to grow, “people pouring into street”

•7:57 am: marchers taking both sides of streets amidst heavy police and media presence.

•7:51 am: march estimated in thousands

It’s an ongoing battle… For live coverage, and to keep up with the movement, visit www.occupywallst.org .

*activities pulled from OWS site.

Short Film: Home Again

This summer was a busy one. As I mentioned before, I managed to take a summer school course in the middle of work and other social events. It was the most fun, most interesting class that I’ve taken in my academic career so far.

The course was Short Documentary Film Making and we (my colleagues and I) were tasked with creating and producing a five to seven minute film about something that is important to us. They all turned out really well and I learned so much about the production process. I did every aspect of the production except get in front of the camera - and I had a really great time doing it! As I learn more about composition, b-roll (action shots), editing, sound, etc., I want to try more creative approaches with assignments (hopefully by doing more film projects too).   

I chose to do my documentary film on homelessness in New York City. My friend, Leonard, was gracious enough to share his story on camera. Leonard is a teacher, husband, uncle, friend and he lives in the South Bronx with his wife. He used to be one of the many homeless people in New York City. This is his story.

 

Study Break with Beyoncé

Midterms are quickly approaching and I’ve had to create task lists to stay on track because I tend to procrastinate. I think I did a pretty good job of meeting some expectations but I still have a lot left to do. While taking a brief study break today, I found this awesome video by Beyoncé:

Yes, I’ve played it more than once. I can’t help it - she makes me want to dance. 

Back to work now…

Blueberries

Wow. I can’t believe my last post was more than three months ago. So I didn’t do so well writing this summer (oops) but I did other things well. I transitioned into a new job, took a short documentary film-making class, celebrated my five-year wedding anniversary, moved to a new apartment across town and embraced the New York summer season.

Along with summer comes many people spending time out in the warm weather. One particular encounter this summer took the lead for most random interaction yet.

“‘Excuse me..? Do you mind helping me out with a rather random favor?” said a tall, thin, Yamaka-wearing British man on the corner of Park Avenue and the upper 80′s. Hubby and I were on our way to Central Park with our dogs in an effort to tire them out before we attended our dog interview. (We had to introduce our prospective landlord to our dogs as a final step to getting that nice, new apartment that I referred to earlier.)

“Well, you see, I’m Jewish. And today is the Sabbath. And my refrigerator light is on by accident. Would you mind unscrewing it for me? I know it’s strange but my wife and I can’t eat lunch if it remains lit.”

“Uh…” We were trying to decide if the man intended to lure us into his apartment as prey. It’s New York, right?

“You can all come up. Bring the dogs if you like.”

In that case – “Ok, sure. No problem.” He couldn’t be that bad if he invited the dogs too. (For those of you who don’t know how big my dogs are – I’m not exaggerating.)

We walked into a large, dark apartment with a woman sitting at a table waiting on her husband’s efforts. She didn’t think that he would find someone to help out with the random task but there we were. They were both very nice people who just wanted to be able to eat lunch and not work on their day of rest. They were so nice that they offered us fresh blueberries from the market as a way to say thank you. I wasn’t feeling the taking food from strangers at that moment but I appreciated the gesture. Hubby just doesn’t like blueberries.

So we went about our separate days – that couple happily ate their blueberries in the dark and this couple met with the next strange encounter (our new landlord). Random acts of kindness, regardless of the “strange” level, always warm my heart.

How many Gentiles does it take to unscrew a light bulb? Hehe.

Happy Rosh Hashana to all celebrating the New Year!

*photo by iStockphoto

I’m part of One for One

TOMS Shoes have been a little obsession of mine for the last couple of months now. I learned about them a while ago but I’ve just recently started to see them everywhere. Maybe it’s because I wanted them so badly that my brain has been working hard to show me that I should get a pair.

Luckily, my birthday was last week and hubby bought me the red classics.

I love 'em.

TOMS red classics

Also, this is the best part:

"With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One."

I’m now a proud advocate of the One for One movement. These are actually really comfortable and I’m really happy that a kid somewhere got a pair too!

What’s up, Summer?

I can’t believe it’s June. I realize it has been well over a month since the last time I posted anything. During the month of May, I was ridiculously busy and wanted to post but time just continued to escape me. Now we’re a week into June.

During the busy month of May, a couple of big things happened: I finished my second semester of graduate school and I finally switched jobs. My professional life went from “eh…” to “sweet!” and my academic life was harder than ever but getting more exciting. I felt more enlightened toward the end of the semester – mainly during the part when all of the assignments collided together in one big homework weekend.

My head is finally above water and I am now able read for leisure, try new recipes and even exercise regularly. Also, I have a vacation coming up in July. If you remember from my Decisions,Decisions post, hubby and I couldn’t decide where to go for our five-year wedding anniversary (time flies!). Well, we decided to keep it domestic and we’re headed to sunny southern California for a week. We’re flying into Los Angeles and then going home from San Diego. And it will be the first time that we will travel sans family since our honeymoon.  I. Can’t. Wait.

As per usual, the summer time is the best time of the year. Even though June has a great track record for supplying a really good time (my birthday lands in the middle of it), July is actually predicted to be a serious social month and possibly the winning month of 2011. It starts with a holiday, then a vacation, then hubby’s birthday, then my family comes in for a long weekend, then brother-in-law comes to hang out and then friends make a pit stop in New York for a few days. Hooray for summer!

What's up, Summer? I'm so glad you're back.

School is not completely out of sight though. I am taking a short summer course (twice a week) but now I get to dive into my electives. First up: Short Documentary Film Making. It should be good. Imagery and video have always fascinated me and I think films are a great tool for teaching and learning. By the end of the semester, I’m supposed to learn how to shoot, edit, produce/upload a three to seven minute documentary film about something that interests me. I haven’t thought that far yet. Class started yesterday.

So that’s the quick and dirty for what went down during my blogging absence and for what’s to come. I will do my best to post more frequently. In any case, I hope that you too have an exciting summer.

Encounter with Miss Jackson

I met Janet Jackson two weeks ago and it was quite a crazy experience.

Let me rewind for a minute. I have a dear friend who has been a Janet Jackson fanatic since before the beginning of our friendship. Miss Jackson has been a true source of inspiration and comfort for my friend and it sparked her high concert attendance along with the participation in all things Janet. I have never been a devoted fan to anything like Jennifer has been to Janet Jackson.

The opportunity for a close proximity encounter arose when Janet announced that she would be doing a book signing in between her concerts in New York City. On Saturday, March 19th at 3 p.m. to be exact. Jennifer was ready to book a plane ticket from her current Midwest location out to the big city but she was missing one thing: a camp out partner. I knew how much this could mean to her and I couldn’t possibly deny her the opportunity, so… yes, I camped out to meet Janet Jackson. It was crazy but when you know that it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity you kinda just do it.

My ambitious friend arrived at Fifth Avenue’s Barnes & Noble at 10 a.m. on the Friday before the event – first in line. I showed up at 7 p.m. and Jennifer was able to negotiate my way into being the second person in line. So there we were, 20 hours before the big signing. Oh man. What the heck did I get myself into?

The overnight stay on the streets was… interesting. There was no tent involved (it did cross our minds) and we made it work with oversized lawn chairs. I suck at cold weather and the temperature dropped to the low 40s. I wore five shirts, one sweatshirt and a leather jacket and I was still cold. As far as “sleeping” went, I got about three broken hours of it. I’m pretty sure my organs shut down for the night and I hibernated briefly as a means to endure the cold. I used to make fun of the people who did that sort of thing but I can’t anymore. I did it for the first and last time. As my dad says often, “You can only do that sh*t when you’re young.”

So the morning finally came and we got wrist bands, purchased a copy of Janet’s book True You and Jennifer cleaned up to meet her favorite person. I didn’t think about bringing something for the next day because I was so focused on the overnight survival. (My husband stopped by to say hi and informed me that the post-camping loss of color wasn’t a good look for me.) We were shuffled upstairs to defrost and, when we spoke with the event manager, we were informed that the two of us were going to get pulled in to a faux, for-the-press VIP signing with an actual extended moment with Janet Jackson. Say whaaaat?! 

Her eyelashes looked like butterflies. She's so pretty.

Janet was little and smiley and so nice. She was beautiful. Jennifer finally got to share what she had always wanted to share with the star and, while it took some time to get through some tears, the conversation ended with a Janet-induced embrace. Even the press was moved. Even I was moved. I have a deeper respect for Janet Jackson now because she genuinely cares about her fans.

Check out this BET video of the festivities (oh yeah, we spoke with BET, Access Hollywood and Janet’s crew) and notice the curly-haired brunette that is thankful to meet her long time icon – it’s Jennifer!

BET – Janet Jackson NYC True You Book Signing

While I wouldn’t camp out to meet anyone on my own accord, I’m happy that I got to experience such a big moment with my great friend.

Prost!

A couple of weekends ago, hubby and I teleported to Germany.  Second Avenue is home to several restaurants and bars but if you stop into Yorkville’s Heidelberg Restaurant, you’ll walk into a very German world. Along with a variety of beer sizes (including a boot!), Heidelberg Restaurant has every classic German dish that you can think of. We tried the Wiener Schnitzel, spaetzle, potato pancakes, bratwurst and (of course) beer.  

The beer goes with everything there.

The wait staff wears lederhosen and traditional dresses and the vibe is oh so German. My father is originally from Deutschland and I’m always on the lookout for authentic places to take him when he and my mom come up for a visit.

The beer is tasty (try the Hofbräu Lager) and the veal is amazing.  It was the closest thing to being in Germany since my actual visit in 1999.

Prost!

Stop, Drop and Sit

When is the last time you sat still? I can’t remember the last time I just sat in silence and relaxed or reflected. I’m going at mach speeds most of the time and my “relaxing” period is when I slow down enough to do laundry and homework.

Recently I’ve been reading about how to be still. Really it’s been “to be still and know that God is in control.”  I have been feeling an internal tug to slow down - to stop, drop and sit for a minute (or 30). No distractions allowed.  

Regardless of your faith specification, meditation is good for the soul. Try it.