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Helmed "The Subject Was Roses" on B'way, onscreen

Belgian-born Ulu Grosbard, who drew a Tony nomination for his direction of Frank Gilroy’s “The Subject Was Roses” in 1965 and then launched a feature helming career by directing an acclaimed 1968 adaptation of the play that starred Jack Albertson, Patricia Neal and Martin Sheen, died in Manhattan. He was 83.

Grosbard died late Sunday or early Monday at NYU Langone Medical Center, according to the New York Times.

The film version of “The Subject Was Roses” won an Oscar for Albertson and a nomination for Neal. Grosbard later directed Barbara Harris and Mare Winningham to Oscar-nominated performances as well.

Filmbug.com characterized the director’s work this way: “Ulu Grosbard is known for his complex and daring portrayals of people called upon to resolve the irresolvable, who must deal with life’s contradictions, subtle and grand, in the ambivalence of close relationships.”

Grosbard worked as a diamond cutter in his native Antwerp before the family emigrated first to Cuba during WWII and then to the U.S. in 1948. He earned degrees from the U. of Chicago and studied at the Yale School of Drama before a stint in the U.S. Army.

He directed a 1957 production of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” at the Gateway Playhouse on Long Island and then helmed and produced an Off Broadway production of the play that won him an Obie for best direction in 1965. He first gained notice with a 1962 Off Broadway production of William Snyder’s “The Days and Nights of Beebee Fenstermaker,” whose cast included Robert Duvall and Rose Gregorio, whom he would marry in 1965.

“The Subject Was Roses” was his first Broadway effort, in 1964. The play concerns a soldier returning from WWII who must confront his parents’ turbulent relationship. He returned to Miller’s work with a 1968 production of “The Price” that won the Tony for best play.

In the meantime Grosbard had begun to do feature work as an assistant director. Grosbard was credited on 1961’s “Mad Dog Coll”; he went uncredited on “The Hustler,” “Splendor in the Grass” and “The Miracle Worker” but profited from working with directors Robert Rossen, Elia Kazan and Arthur Penn, respectively. He was also credited as a production manager on Sidney Lumet’s “The Pawnbroker” in 1964.

He followed up his feature helming debut on “The Subject Was Roses” with the 1971 film “Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?,” based on the play by Herb Gardner and starring Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Harris. Harris picked up an Oscar nom.

In 1977 Grosbard directed David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” drawing another Tony nom. He reunited with Mamet in 1979, directing the playwright’s “The Woods” Off Broadway.

He helmed his first film in seven years with 1978’s “Straight Time,” starring Hoffman and Theresa Russell. Hoffman began directing the film before handing it off to Grosbard, who elicited some fine performances.

Next up for the director was 1981 neo-noir “True Confessions,” starring Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall as a priest and a cop who are brothers in 1940s Los Angeles. The film was flawed — Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne adapted his novel, and the complex story didn’t hold up — but there were fine moments from the actors, with De Niro and Duvall drawing best actor nods at the Venice Film Festival.

The same year, Grosbard directed Woody Allen’s “The Floating Light Bulb” on Broadway. The play’s run was brief, but Jack Weston won the Tony for best actor.

In 1982 Grosbard helmed David Blomquist’s “Weekends Like Other People” Off Broadway. The play starred Kenneth McMillan, whom Grosbard directed to an Obie, and Grosbard’s wife Rose Gregorio. Later that year he directed Beth Henley’s “The Wake of Jamey Foster” in a brief run on Broadway.

Grosbard did not impress critics with his next film, “Falling in Love.” Vincent Canby of the New York Times asked: “What are talented people like Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Ulu Grosbard, their director, doing in a sudsy movie like this?”

In 1989, in Grosbard’s last Broadway effort, he directed a revival of Paddy Chayefsky play “The Tenth Man.”

In his film “Georgia” (1995), about two sisters, one a hugely talented and successful country singer and the other a struggling, bitter punk rocker, Grosbard drew powerhouse performances from both Mare Winningham and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Winningham drew an Oscar nom and won an Indie Spirit award, and both Leigh and Grosbard picked up Indie Spirit noms.

The director’s 1999 film “The Deep End of the Ocean,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams, was another effectively wrenching family drama, but of a different sort, with the disappearance of a young son at its center. (Gregorio had a supporting role, as she had in earlier Grosbard films “Who Is Harry Kellerman” and “True Confessions.”)

In 2000, he directed Henley’s play “Family Week” (revived in 2010), with Gregorio in a starring role.

Grosbard is survived by Gregorio.

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Warner plows $186 mil into U.K. facility

LONDON — Warner Bros.’ Leavesden Studios, the lensing home of the “Harry Potter” franchise, formally opened for business on Monday.

The major plowed £120 million ($186 million) into the facility, which is situated just outside of London in Watford, Hertfordshire, and offers a variety of soundstages, which range in size from 10,000 to 36,000 square feet.

The new studio is spread across a secure 200-acre site and is, Warner Bros. said, “the first of its kind to be built in the U.K. in 70 years,” and aims to “secure the future of over a third of the dedicated major feature film production stage space in the U.K.”

Leavesden studios will be open for biz to all kinds of productions, not just Warner Bros. projects, including commercials, music videos, TV shows and feature pics.

The major has shot all eight “Harry Potter” pics at the site in addition to “Sherlock Holmes.”

In addition to some of the largest sound stages in Blighty, the new studio houses one of the largest heated underwater filming tanks in Europe and a 100-acre back-lot.

“Alongside a growing U.K. film, TV and games production slate, the opening of Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden clearly demonstrates the company’s commitment to the U.K. and underlines our belief in the world-class talent that resides on these shores,” said Josh Berger, president and m.d. of Warner Bros. U.K., Ireland and Spain.

“As well as helping to generate inward investment and create new jobs both locally and nationally, this significant infrastructure outlay — probably the single biggest the U.K. film industry has witnessed in decades — will further amplify the U.K.’s reputation as the go-to place for film and TV production.”

In March, Warner Bros. unveiled “The Making of Harry Potter,” a walking tour which takes guests behind the scenes of the franchise, to the public, which is based on the same site.

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Exit raises questions over Euro industry hub's future

Javier Martin Dominguez has quit as artistic director of Spain’s Seville European Film Festival, raising a question about the future of an event he had built into a valuable European industry hub.

Martin Dominguez’s resignation comes after the Seville Town Hall slashed SEFF’s budget from €1.7 million ($2.2 million) in 2010 to $1.4 million last year. Further 30% plus cuts are anticipated for 2012.

Over a four-year tenure, Martin Dominguez built Seville into a vibrant meeting point for producers, distributors and institutions — such as the European Film Academy and Eurimages, both of which received showcases — as well as a launch-pad for European films in Spain and Andalusian producers in Europe.

The fest also hosted the nominations announcement for the European Film Awards.

But last year Seville had to halve its guest and press invitations, Martin Dominguez told Variety. “I’m not interested in directing a low-profile, limited event,” he said.

Martin Dominguez, who was the correspondent in New York and Tokyo for Spanish pubcaster RTVE, and later served as its secretary general, used his contacts to bring many industry figures to Seville.

The key question is whether Seville will now have the critical mass, or a director with Martin Dominguez’s connections, to continue as a meaningful international event.

As regional governments slash expenditure, many other Spanish fests now fear for their 2012 budgets. A rare exception, the San Sebastian Festival increased its budget by $500,000 to $9.2 million in 2011, hiking sponsorship deals while institutional support held.

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Turbo Movie

The DreamWorks Animation chief attributes poor performance to larger crop of animated titles and 'a bad date'

DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is pretty frank on why “Turbo” hasn’t performed well in domestic theaters since its release July 17: “It was a bad date.”

“The film’s soft opening was a clear result of an oversaturated marketplace and difficult release date,” he said during a conference call with analysts and Wall Street to discuss the company’s strong second quarter results, thanks mostly to the success of “The Croods.”

Katzenberg called this summer an unprecedented one with a larger-than-usual number of animated titles competing for attention from kids and families — including Disney’s “Monsters University” and “Planes,” Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 2,” Sony’s “The Smurfs 2” and Fox’s “Epic” — around 50% more than last year during the same frame. It had considered an earlier release, but the subject matter of “Turbo” — about a racing snail — would have gone up against “Fast & Furious 6,” which the toon’s marketing materials reference.

“We had an unprecedented jam up of animation releases,” Katzenberg told Variety. “We’ve never had anything remotely like this before. We don’t see this again for several years, if we see it at all.”

SEE ALSO: ‘The Croods’ Rocks DreamWorks Animation’s Second Quarter Results

Still DreamWorks believes “Turbo” “will be a profitable film for us,” Katzenberg said. “It’s a hit everywhere in the world, except for one territory (the U.S.).”

Despite its snail-paced opening Stateside, the $127 million-budgeted “Turbo” “is off to an excellent start overseas,” earning more than $42 million so far, with major territories still set to open. The film, released by 20th Century Fox, has earned just $60 million from domestic theaters.

DreamWorks Animation also is looking at other revenue sources that will prop up “Turbo.”

Toys tied to the film have “outperformed expectations,” according to Ann Daly, DreamWorks’ chief operating officer. The film will also get spun off into an animated TV series for Netflix, which should “develop continued interest in the property which can drive sales,” Daly said.

During the call with analysts, Katzenberg defended “Turbo,” saying that the film’s been considered a disappointment because its pics typically earn within the $150 million to $250 million range. “In the real world, a movie that’s in the vicinity of $100 million is still considered a hit,” he said. “The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”

Toon studio spent 20% less on “Turbo” than another recent disappointment, “Rise of the Guardians,” the company said.

“It’s been tough because ‘Turbo’ was loved and beloved,” Katzenberg said, generating a rare A+ CinemaScore with kids. “This is a movie that played great for its audience but we were never able to get the attention and traction of (that) audience coming so quickly after two blockbuster sequel animated titles (‘Monsters University’ and ‘Despicable Me 2’).”

Moving forward, DreamWorks said it has a clearer focus of what 2014 and 2015 look like, and that its “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” “How to Train Your Dragon” sequel, “Home,” “The Penguins of Madagascar,” “B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations” and “Kung Fu Panda 3” are “well-positioned.”

There still is a possibility that DreamWorks Animation could face another perfect storm of releases in summer 2015 — when a growing line up of high-profile sequels are expected to blitz megaplexes.

DreamWorks Animation has skedded “B.O.O.” for June 5th, 2015, but Katzenberg believes the film will serve as counterprogramming to live action tentpoles like Marvel’s “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” out in May, and Fox’s “Assassin’s Creed,” after “B.O.O.’s” release. Pixar’s “Inside Out” also bows in June.

“We think we’ve programmed something that is counter to all of those movies,” Katzenberg said. “It’s a big fun ghost comedy with Melissa McCarthy and Seth Rogen. We are very conscious of what’s coming and in the face of that, we feel we have a very good release date.”

Still Katzenberg cautions that the company will “have to keep our eyes” on how that summer’s release schedule. “It’s going to be a massively competitive summer.”

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Bookmark this site

Issue Date: Vol. 53, No. 5, May 2013, Posted On: 5/6/2013

Herr Foods Taps Packaged Food Veteran Bob Clark As Marketing VP

Emily Jed
TAGS: Herr Foods Inc., Herr Foods, snacks, vending snacks, vending machine, Bob Clark

SEARCH TERM NOTTINGHAM, PA -- Herr Foods Inc. has named food and beverage marketing veteran Bob Clark vice-president of marketing.

Clark joins the snack food manufacturer with three decades of experience, including top marketing posts at Sara Lee and Kellogg Co. He most recently ran a marketing consulting business. He also is an adjunct marketing professor at Drexel University.

Daryl Thomas, Herr Foods senior vice-president of sales and marketing, said Clark's packaged goods experience will benefit the company as it continues to build its "expansion strategies in snacking."

Topic: Names in the News

  • Fresh Healthy Vending Appoints JoAnna Abrams To New Advisory Committee
  • U-Vend Names Mark Chapman U.S. President
  • Coca-Cola Names James Quincey President, COO
  • David Nute Joins PayRange As Finance, Operations VP
  • Hershey Names Peter Horst Chief Marketing Officer

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Looking to make their display ads more appealing to advertisers and agencies, Yahoo today announced on its blog that it has plans to buy Dapper, a mashup technology to bring the advantages of search-based advertising into the world of display ads.

Dapper’s technology lets users easily set up their display ad preferences online, such as total amount to spend on a campaign, and put the most updated and accurate website information into display ads. For example, an e-commerce website selling electronics would be able to showcase its most recent sales items in its display ads in real-time.

The company launched back in 2008 when companies like Yahoo ironically were saying their display ads were declining and rumors had it that companies like Yahoo and Google were working on their own similar technology.

Competitor LucidMedia, a similar platform for optimizing display ads, was used by Yahoo Right Media in 2008 to ensure that advertisers’ creative display advertisements appear alongside relevant content on publishers’ sites.

When the company launched, results were promising but not well documented due to the early stages. Today, Dapper appears to showcase some impressive statistics, including results of 2 1/2 and 8 times higher engagement from consumers.

Dapper’s vice product of product marketing, Amit Kumar previously led Yahoo’s SearchMonkey platform before joining the startup in September and could have been a strong connection in the acquisition.

The San Francisco-based company previously raised $3 million from Accel Partners, Mitch Kapor and others.

VB's research team is studying web-personalization... Chime in here, and we’ll share the results.


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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Back, for a Change
A long-overdue ramble by Simon

illustration by Fred Zinn

Let’s say a writer reappears after a long absence. A voice that wraps itself around you, a style you missed not just in a warm and affectionate way but maybe just a little bit in a peevish, WTF kinda way – like, what else that scribbler got to do but scribble? And how long’s it been? LONG, is how long, and him with a “blog,” which used to mean “weblog,” which once upon a time meant regular, even daily, updates, right? Maybe even some kinda PACT with the readership, uh-huh? Why, pray tell, should I now pay attention to his prosy meanderings? And hasn’t his irreligious ass got some nerve, scuttling back to the surface on the Jewish New Year like he’s begging for a fresh start? L’shana to-vomit!

I have no excuse, my sorely missed mishpuchah. But here I am, blithering blithely as though nothing has happened. Actually, I lied just now – excuses I’ve got, and plenty; I’m a major-league rationalizer, as many of you are well aware. So I might as well count off a few reasons for the absence of your MIA and, one hopes, not estranged VHJ.

  1. Clickity-clacking away at paid gigs in hopes of keeping lights on. Elbows hurt. Wrists hurt. Ice and ibuprofen. Ice and ibuprofen.

  2. Kept coming up with ideas for posts but feeling too exhausted (see #1) to reach for them as they drifted across the outer atmosphere of my weary mind like evanescent balloons.

  3. Who wants bloggy bloviations clogging up their in-box these days? Are we not all inundated by message pollution 24/7, all those maniacs vaulting over your transom with their doomsday petitions and creepy robo-calls and revolutionary new weight-loss erection pills and e-flyers for soporific singer-songwriters? Why slay a forest of virtual trees to sling one’s blogorrhea atop that festering pile?

  4. Lazy? That’s a bit judgmental. More, what, mellowing like fine old booze. Or in it.

… and what have you. But then a writer returned to me and for the first time in a long time my nose is buried in a book, rather than print-outs of client notes or Entertainment Weekly or, heaven help me, the Facebook, which is not a book at all. His style wrapped itself around me and I stopped sulking about all things I’d been missing and just let the stylus of this po-mo mystery noir passion play run across my grooves until my heart was bouncing like an old soul record. And suddenly it seemed natural as a four-sided leaf to roll up some words and pass the reeking bundle over to you.

So, yeah. Happy “New Year,” which I never intended as a new beginning but here we are: I want to tell you hello and let you know I’ve been thinking about you.

I thought about you at the party where Sera and Julia and I all had weird plastic letters stuck to our foreheads like day-glo golems (it was all Matt’s fault; long story), where Julia came over to give me a kiss and there was some dreamy Sinatra standard misting out of the iPod speakers and it was a moment of perfect and all-encompassing love and revelation and then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and remembered I was wearing a goatee made of fluorescent green Play-Doh (same long story), and it was even more perfect. Because she loves me, putty beard and all.

And my mind went to you as news cycle after news cycle was hijacked by scores of mentally ill, frightened, gloomy, racially heebie-jeebied whitefolk, whose cult-like jabbering resembled a sheet of Republican talking points after it’s been eaten and pooped out by a Rottweiler.

I thought about you also when the gnarly rot of mortality grew in my thoughts like a poison mushroom and I envisioned all that I was and all that I loved withering away – not gracefully as in a fairy tale but all at once and messily, in the fashion of Poe’s M. Valdemar.

My ruminations turned to your kind selves when I saw a Spanish music website announcing a gig by the renowned Russian jazz pianist Simon Glickman, and there was a picture of me, and I momentarily considered the possibility that my life leading up to that moment had been a dream or some absinthe-fueled hallucination, and now I was coming back to myself and must simply wait until I could remember the Cyrillic alphabet and modal scales, when I could stride onto the boards amid the Andalucian hush and dive, fingers first, into some Bill Evans etude.

And you were in my to-do pile during my 45th birthday party, as I looked around at the beautiful faces of some people who mean a lot to me, and vowed to hold onto that dazzling feeling even as I knew it would be eclipsed by the next pile of bills or implacable deadline.

So, I was, like, mind-blogging, is one way of looking at it. Telepaths: back me up!

But, oh yeah – I turned 45. So I’m “middle-aged,” if that means I’m going to live to 90, which would be incredible, but it was certainly the VHJ version of a come-to-Jesus moment, because if you’re living and working in the airless youth arcade that is pop culture, ringed as it is with botox snipers, that’s a big fuggin’ number. So I’ve been giving myself those little talks: Now’s the time. Go for it. Make your move. Now or never. No guts, no glory. Stop using so many clichés in these little talks.

Change, baby! It’s what we worked for, and ostensibly achieved last November. And though we were constantly being shown a vision of change as visionary policy frictionlessly carried out for a shinier world, sung by multicultural choirs and spelled out in elegant, iPhone-friendly fonts, that isn’t really the essence of change, is it?

Change is generally painful, disorienting, even bloody and traumatic, like war or childbirth. Sometimes it’s hella weird, like what happens to Jeff Goldblum in “The Fly.” And the change we want is often accompanied by changes we don’t expect. We can have a change of the guard, but we too will change when the guard is us.

And our expectations of what society is supposed to be? Those change too: Joe Wilson? Kanye? Tourette’s-like interruptions are the new press release if you want to rule the Twitterwaves, bubby.

Our bodies change, and the climate’s changing, and what lies ahead will most likely not be utopia OR doomsday, just a lot of tumult, confusion, absurdity, silliness, poorly staged sociopolitical theater, occasional spasms of mind-blowing heroism, surprisingly good cable TV shows, really sucky weather, touchingly idealistic young people, ragingly incoherent talk-radio hosts, excellent wine, disappointing health-care legislation, starvation, charity, military “interventions,” and – in the middle of it all – Jews, who see days of awe in every year, regardless of how predictable that year’s events might be.

Yep, shit’s changing – that’s the only thing we can count on to stay the same, except that however we change, we’re still gonna be us.

Sera’s day job, I need hardly tell our regular readers, is dreaming up the apocalypse (for entertainment purposes only). Days of awe, indeed – particularly if you’re a TV exec.

And I’m as faithful a viewer as you are, but in general I’m kinda thinking the End Times are about ready to jump the shark. Maybe it’s the spirit of this holiday I don’t believe in and this pending ritual of atonement I don’t subscribe to, but contemplation, renewal, rededication in the face of change? I guess I’m going there. In other words, not to put too fine a point on the pencil: The world ain’t comin’ to an end, my friend,/the world is comin’ to a start./I feel it in my heart. (Tell me where those words come from and you’ll win our grand prize, which is a big ol’ kiss. Sorry, but our prize budget got hacked to bits this quarter.)

To recap: I missed you and I’m really going to try to be a better correspondent; I grow old, do I dare to eat a peach, etc.; I’m still Jewish; a book can still rock my world, and nobody’s more surprised than I am; I still don’t believe in an omniscient Spacegod but see some lingering value in traditions constellating around same; shit’s changing, so hang onto your hat and, if possible, values; and let’s see if we can’t put all the end-of-the-world scenarios on hold for a minute and dream up a few beginnings.

In other words: Happy New … something.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Hi, Guys!

I know, Simon and I don't call home enough. You have every right to feel like my neglected Jewish mother.

It's not that we don't write any more. We write all the time. Just, usually stuff we already cashed the check for that's, like, due. Sorry, Hotties. Food, shelter and premium cable don't pay for themselves. Sadly for the Collective We, our foignant ruminations on all that is tangentially Jewy tends to get scrawled on a post-it for "when we have time to blog." Which, apparently? Not so often, these days. Though who knows what the future holds. Perhaps... posts! Weirder shit has happened! But, um... probably not this month. Just being honest.

Anyhoodle. I did want to pop in to let you know that if you miss me, or if you're bored of the inferior gothic erotica you've managed to scrounge up without my guidance, or-- best possible combo-- both: I have a story in the just-published Susie Bright anthology Bitten.

You can buy it here.

Hope your Jewiness is going swimingly! We think of you often. Especially when we're drunk.

xoxo till we blog again,

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Just in Time for Pesach.
a long-overdue missive from Simon

Yeah, we know. We know! It took us until April to get a 2009 post on the board. Do we feel guilty about it? Ordinarily I'd say yes, but ya gotta wonder: How much more online crap do you need to look at? I mean, the freakin' ocean of status updates and e-mail circulars and IMs and whateverelsethefuck that keeps overtopping your digital levees must keep you plenty busy.

And why update a blog just to update it? Do you need to see daily or weekly or even monthly updates from your scribblin' Hebrew pals if we're just bitching about how busy we are or how much we're diggin' on the Ethiopian coffee my mom's friend brought all the way from Addis Ababa or how way-shocked we were by what happened with Kutner on House?

Probably best if we just wait until we have a longform screed like this one to unleash, even if it's once a year, right? Come to think of it, an annual online publication would be kinda unique, whereas any twit with two thumbs can tweet every two seconds.

So here's the thing: It's Passover once again, and Jules and I will take refuge in the generous familial bosom, pore over the photocopied anarchist-atheist haggadah my Dad cobbles together, hear the four questions as warbled, more charmingly than ever, by the youngest of the tribe. We'll stuff our faces with all the accustomed treats and wash it all down with some concord grape. We'll wish each other well and tell stories and watch the nephews play "Extreme Horseradish Challenge." And if that's the extent of it, it'll still be a nourishing hang.

But this year I'm thinking a bit more about the angel of death.

You know the guy: Flies over the village and kills the firstborn in every unprotected household. But these days it's increasingly unclear how to mark one's doorpost.

This is the first post I've written since my guy got elected President. And it truly feels like he's my guy most of the time, and I've been kleibing naches, fo' shiz. But of course there are a lot of folks out there -- many of them with TV and radio outlets -- who aren't so happy, and they've been saying stuff like it's time for an uprising and arm yourselves and it's socialism and you'll all be sent to re-education camps and it's the end of the world and they are coming for your guns.

And weirdly enough, when these words go out into the world and march, ant-colony-like, into the ears of credulous, frightened, isolated, wound-too-tight heartland bunker-dwellers, you get eruptions of crazy violence. Where, like, whole families are slaughtered and cops are mowed down because of the "Zionist" threat and churches full of "liberals" are massacred.

The radio and TV hosts, after scoffing at the very notion that their dire warnings have any causal relationship to the actions of batshit crazy people who happen to be armed to the teeth and listen all day to aforementioned radio and TV shows, continue issuing their dire warnings. Gosh, what'll happen next?

Then there's Israel. Have you noticed how little we've talked about Israel in this ostensibly Jewy blog? There's a reason: I don't want to deal with pain-in-the-ass jingoistic members of my tribe (especially that one schmuck who always comments on Jewcy) who won't tolerate the slightest criticism of Israeli policy, and tar every Jew who breathes a word of protest as a self-loathing enemy of the state. Which makes no more sense there than it does here; remember how if you disagreed with Dubya you couldn't possibly be patriotic?

But you know what? Avigdor Lieberman, the new foreign minister, is a war-mongering shitbag. And the new ruling coalition might not even support a Palestinian state, which is beyond nuts. So let me be super-clear: I love and support my Israeli mishpuchah, but to hell with the Israeli government, straight up. A pox on them and on Hamas. Unless somebody works up some diplomatic miracles , the angel of death is gonna be busier than ever over there.

It's all the more galling when you see grown-ups representing the U.S. around the world and get an inkling of how much more harmoniously things could work.

Combine aforementioned cuckoobananas militiamen, trigger-happy, Arab-bashing Israeli powercreeps, the resurgent fuckwads of the Taliban, clammy-sickmaking economic-spiral news, and melting ice shelves; set blender to puree, and voila! A state-of-the-art, state-of-the-world anxiety smoothie. Only not so smooth. In fact: Ew.

So much for my hope that in 2009, with my guy in the White House, I could take a breather. So when does the perspective truck pull up with a sixer of solace? Just about ... now.

The world is not ending. It is changing, in ways both tumultuous and gradual. But there's every reason to be hopeful. Know why? Well, two reasons.

One is that hiding behind that grim wall of violent douchebags and monetary chaos is all the stuff that makes life worth living, like your hilarious kids, your dear friends, spring flowers, lamb chops, beer, romantic caper movies and rock and roll.

photo: Mollie Johnson

The other is that you have no fuckin' choice. You can live on the side of the wall where you're hoarding ammo and weeping bitter tears of despair as the paranoia ants march two by two into your auricular cavity, or you can live on the side with the stuff you love. It may not feel like you have a choice, but it's kinda like diet or exercise: Limit your exposure to the toxic and increase your indulgence in the beatific.

The latter, by the way, can come from anywhere. How often have I snorted derisively when someone e-mailed me a YouTube video I just had to see? But yesterday my buddy Jim included me in the routing list for this (with the subject line "worth watching," for crying out loud), and it was what finally got me off my ass, after lo these many months, to write to y'all.

If you've seen it, pardon me for being Mr. Two Years Ago. If you don't feel like clicking the link, I'll summarize. The clip starts with some shlubby dude dancing awkwardly in various foreign locales. It's amusing enough, but about 28 seconds in I was about ready to return to my regularly scheduled microdiet of tweets and blurts and e-yawps. Slowly, however, more and more people begin to join him. Soon he's doing his clunky white-boy moves amid throngs of raffish Parisians, frenetic Madagascar schoolkids, London famililes, Papuan tribesmen, Tokyo girls, Texas college students, Jordanian moppets, Mexico City cosmopolites ... all hoofing with the same full-steam-ahead joy. Holy shit, I thought as the video neared its end, this guy is uniting the entire world in a moment of sublime, full-body silliness.

And since, on Passover, we celebrate freedom, this is the kind of freedom I choose to think about. Not just reclining at the table, and not just keeping "my people" safe from the angel of death. But joining the world in defiant, ridiculous joy.

It's the only ammo we can count on.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Year-End Blah-Blah, Part 2
Please scroll down and read Sera's year-end Part 1 first. No cheating!

Are you in the mood for another litany of excuses for this blog's recent inertia? Do you wanna hear about all the stuff I had to write? You do not. But like Sera (only without the studios and producers and hyperventilating webgeek fans and actors with chiseled cheekbones), I, too, have been scribbling away pert-near nonstop -- to the detriment of our Semitic sounding board. Regrets? I've had a few, Jew.

But now that 2008 has almost coughed out its last rattles, I'm finally going to crank out a post -- and, with any luck, set free some thought-bats that have been flapping around my belfry.

In some ways this last year felt like a test. Yeah, some really fucking horrible shit happened -- and keeps happening -- but by now that feels de rigueur for the Bush era (only about 20 more days, beloveds, but please keep your seatbelts fastened until we come to a complete stop). I'm talking about implosion of structures that I imagined would never buckle. I'm talking about financial shockwaves and devastation, some of them perpetrated by a Jewish investor whose name we will not invoke without spitting twice upon the ravaged ground. The icecaps kept melting. The bombs kept going off at schools and restaurants and checkpoints in countries where "American interests" required protection.

There were other, more personal losses in my circle. A family friend who'd known me since I was a fetus and who saw me get married twice and whose insight and wicked sense of humor were a bulwark against life's most heinous storms ended her days in a hospital, stricken insensate.

I'd borrowed Sera's copy of The Year of Magical Thinking and had been thinking about what happens to the mind in the face of such absolute subtraction. I had vowed to give up magical thinking myself, in all ways, and 2008 put that to the test. So, for the first time: no desperate praying, no "don't say anything, you'll jinx it," no clinging to the idea that my thoughts would affect the outcome. Giving up magical thinking has been like quitting some dependable opiate - fewer floaty moments, perhaps, but also fewer crashes of the system.

But when we went to the Day of the Dead celebration at Hollywood Forever cemetery, where costumed revelers twirled tirelessly to an endless loop of drunken mariachi music and headstones were bedecked with lace and lights, I approached one white, spartan shrine, where the dead were memorialized on scraps of paper, and scrawled my friend's name. It served no rational purpose, and I doubt that anyone who knew her saw it. But she was a writer who lived and breathed the multiplicitous rituals and turns and bends of the city. So, in this still, veiled cubicle of light in the middle of a rollicking graveyard party, I penned a message to her through the ether. Some vestige of magical thinking abides.

But all this death and bad juju aside, I remain grateful.

For my Julia and our little hilltop life with gardens and computers and plans and lists of things to do and blankets and dinners in front of the TV.

For my family, carrying on in the storm and inviting strangers to the table.

For my brilliant nephews, growing into fine young men before my eyes.

For my dear friend Sera, achieving the greatness and recognition I've known she would reach since first we met.

For my other extraordinary, talented, kind-hearted friends, who don't hear often enough about how I cherish their minds and hearts.

For my little boat of a business, still upright and affording me a chance to live by my wits, like I always said I wanted to.

For the chance to sing.

For a new government, which will have a full plate cleaning up after the old one.

For a new year, full of new possibilities. For the acknowledgement that we're beholden to one another, the intertwining of destinies. Did you notice how much more this holiday season has been about giving charitably than about getting stuff?

And for all of you, friends and strangers, who stop what you're doing to read our words when we actually get our tuchuses in gear and write them. Now that's magical.

Happy New Year. We love you and we promise to be better correspondents in 2009.

Friday, December 26, 2008

No, seriously, I’ve never been busier.
(a year-end howdy from the female half of us)

I know I’ve said it before but this time I mean it. October hit and I suddenly had drafts due for three different projects at the same time. (Including a movie, which I found out is supposed to be kind of long.) If I'm bragging, it's mostly about how stupid my scheduling was.

When have I ever written this much? Funny you should ask. The last time I was this prolific was longhand in my diary, the month my boyfriend cheated on me, summer after the 11th grade. I had a lot of angry poetry to get out of my system. This is different, though. Because, you know, paycheck. And spellcheck. And nothing rhymes, praise be to Allah. And I am to being single as naughty little shoplifting fat kids are to candy stores with sleepy cashiers: relishing the timing and smirking at my luck.

But I totally way frickin' digress. Hi. It's me, Sera. I didn’t want to let 2008 go without at least saying sayonara to my UberHot Brethren. Sistren. Whatevren.

Also, I wanted to warn you about that movie The Reader. I’ve been living in a spiderhole, so I had no idea what it was about, and I wish to God someone had told me before I settled in with a pal and a plate of sushi to watch a screener DVD.

SPOILER ALERT! After an act that’s AWESOME, ‘cause it’s all about a chick in her thirties fucking an uncomfortably hot ostensibly fifteen-ish year old boy, Kate Winslet turns out to be a FULL ON NAZI. It squicked me to the max, so, public service: SS officer. I had to wash my whole self, twice. Ew. Yeah, I know, that's a problem but I apparently have no problem whatsoever with women fucking boys half their age. In my defense, I’ve been told by more than one man to whom this happened that a) it rocked and b) it was like sex college. (Also, um... Kate's not much older than me. So let's not be too hasty with the whole "old" nomenclature.) Okay, enough of that. The movie was good. Kate Winslet is a genius. Who else would make you feel sorta kinda ambivalent (or at least less than outright murderous) about a NAZI PRISON GUARD who let two hundred people burn to death in a locked barn? Give the woman a fucking Oscar already, for the love of all that's decent. Onward.

Alrighty then: 2008, ending. On a note of exhaustion. I told you at the beginning of the year we were gonna be Dancing It Out. Remember that? All that time ago? Not to get all... Shania Twain, is it? No, LeAnne Womack, sorry... on you, but I Hope You Danced, too. Did you? If so, wasn't it great? Told you.

As for the Theme For 2009… I dunno yet. Got any suggestions? I've been tossing around a few ideas. Tempting to wrap some form of Obama reference in, but look, it's my belief that you and I, the Spicy Hot and Jewy (or Not) shouldn't depend on a politician for hope, inspiration, and general joie de vivre in the new year. No, we should depend on Singing At The Top Of Our Lungs Like The Whole Damn World Is Our Shower. Or, Bringing Back The Mixtape. Year Of The Roadtrip -- even if we only get from Santa Monica to Van Nuys? Year Of The Dog, where we all start acting more like Mojo, since he clearly has it all figured out and may well be our greatest teacher? Year Of Talking Less? (Doubtful.) Hmmm. I’ll ruminate, you ruminate, let’s meet back here to make it official.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

From 8 to Love

Hi, Mishpuchah. Sorry it's take so long to shake off the weird combination of euphoria and horror (euphorror?) that followed the election and cobble together a post.

On the one hand, welcome to the Obama era, right? Lots of good stuff is going to happen! Yay!

On the other, what the fuck's up with passing Prop 8, Cali? (For our readers in Bahrain and Dublin who've been out of the loop, California narrowly passed a ballot initiative that changed our consititution to ban gay marriage.) That's some bullshit. And though the writing is on the wall, historically speaking, and 8 will be invalidated either by a court or by another popular vote (possible slogan for the counter-initiative: This time it's even more personal), we'd be lying if we said we weren't stung by this loss, this disgusting slap in the face to our friends.

So, let's review just a bit of recent history. Gay people turn their queer eye on your crappy fashion and make you prettier so you can get laid and advise you on turning your dump of a living room into a suburban palace and pepper your lame-ass sitcom with witty dialogue and produce your awards shows and write your speeches and take your temperature and administer your company and engineer your buildings and you're all, like, what have you done for me lately? Let's face it: If the gays ever go on strike, the straight world will end up curled up in a fetal position on the floor in about 14 hours. But their pursuit of happiness? Talk to the fuckin' hand.

But ranting gets us nowhere, and there's enough of it going on.

This whole struggle is about love. Those of us who argued against 8 - and we get it, we could've been louder, clearer and more effective - were motivated by the heart.

So we're going to shine our Jew-light on love. We're going to start telling love stories - gay, straight, whatevs. Relationships and valentines and ooey-gooey tales of romance. Bring it on. Because no matter what anybody says, love is love.

Tell us your love stories.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Dear Very Hot Readers,

I just got up at five in the morning to pop a bunch of Wellness Formula, bundle up against the drizzle and walk to the polls. It was pretty awesome. I ended up standing in line with this middle-aged Black electrician from Chicago who told me he woulda preferred Hillary on account of she has more experience, stood by her man, and has a great ass. All in all, a great Tuesday morning.

Okay, this is for all you Cali wafflers out there. Or, Cali commiseraters. Or, Mormons who wanna go rogue. It's a little story I like to call "Why Prop 8 Makes Me (And The Baby Jesus) Cry."

On my last day of college (back in the *cough* 90s) I hopped in the back of somebody's crowded sedan to drive to a graduation afterparty. A tall, slender young man was sitting in the front passenger seat. He turned to me and said, "Hi, Sera."

And I said, "Oh my God, hi! It's been a while!"

And he smiled and said, "I know we haven't seen each other much, but you know-- I've been keeping a little eye on you all these years."

The reason this didn't come off as creepy was: a) he looks like a supermodel, with big melty eyes, and b) he just meant that though we hadn't hung out much since our class together Freshman year, he'd kept track of my progress through our little theater boot camp. His name was-- is-- Michael, and we'd been ships in the night for some time, but our appreciation of one another was mutual. He just had this vibe. You know how you can tell some people are totally devoid of bullshit? They're exactly what you see, from their glasses to their Vans? That's Michael.

So, I grinned and he grinned, and we wondered why the fuck we'd seen so little of each other. He just shrugged, the way a wise fortune teller might, and said, "I wouldn't worry about it. I have a feeling we'll be in each other's lives for a long time." And then he flipped on the radio, and the subject turned to the acquisition of tacos at Baja Fresh.

So, cut to... now. Years and years later. Look, I'm a nice Jewish girl, but I wouldn't take a bullet for just anybody. Michael, though? A firing squad. Of bullets dipped in death juice and cayenne pepper. Seriously. He's my dearest.

It would take way too long to explain what's happened between Michael and me in this blog post. There's been a lot of theater, good food and beverages and, okay, that one time we took that stuff and went to see The Big Lebowski. Text messages and homemade CDs and joyrides in his convertible. Also holding each other's hands through break-ups of epic gnarl, the breech births of our unorthodox careers, and the deaths of both our dads. Michael is not just my friend, he is my family. And yes, for your information, my sexy, nosy little pals, the reason he and I never fell into bed to consummate our otherwise perfect-in-every-way relationship in inevitable romantic comedy fashion is that we both prefer dudes. I guess it's lucky for him; I'm not exactly famous for keeping boyfriends around very long.

Michael, however, has been with his Sig Other for going on nine years.

I know. Who the fuck stays with one guy for nine years? In Los Angeles? They're a shining beacon of hope to us all.

You see where I'm going with this. Michael may or may not decide to pop the question. (If I were his bf, I'd be getting pre-tty antsy, but that's another post.) As of the writing of this missive, they can go ahead and do the crazy deed here in California, if they so please. Just like the rest of us. If you go to the polls and vote NO ON 8, it is my hope that the misguided souls attempting to add discrimination against my family to our state Constitution will fail.

Sime asked you to do this the other day. This is me asking you one more time, from the bottom of my heart. Regardless of your personal squicks on the matter-- look, I'm not deaf, I do hear people talking at gas stations. I get that there are plenty of earnest, hardworking people out there who cannot quite put their finger on why gay marriage makes them uncomfy. Seriously, it's cool by me if you feel weird about it. I understand, we all go to therapy for something. It's okay. Be ambivalent, but be a mensch. Vote NO because while there is a lot of emotion surrounding it, the core issue is not an emotional one: it's about curtailing rights. Evolved people are ixnay on that. Period.

In the end, it doesn't make a diff if it's separate water fountains or yellow stars. Yes, I said it. No, I'm not comparing Prop 8 to the Holocaust, relax. I'm just saying, Jews especially need to nut up when we see the persecution of minorities.

Write me in the comments that you No-ed on 8! You'll make my stressed, freaked, praying-for-Barack-and-the-queers day.

Seriously. I'll even post more, as soon as I finish my screenplay. I promise. I mean, posting at all would be posting more, but you know what I mean. I'm here to make a deal. This is important to me. Take advantage of me while you can.

Love you like a gay brother,

Monday, October 27, 2008

Sticking It to Hitler: Election Pony Edition

A Plea for Tolerance and Mr. Sparkles, by Simon

Must I begin every post with an abject apology? What's the point of not atoning at Yom Kippur time if I have to whip up a fresh batch o' sorry every time I crawl out from under the teetering pile of whatever that is my work week to blog at y'all? Zut alors, if you'll pardon my French.

But it was clearly time to say hey, because I peeked at the previous word-ball Sera and I had chucked up at this bitch and it was from, like, the Harding administration. And besides, it's election time and I've got something all-consumingly important to say.

I wants a pony. And you can help.

Y'see, the gay community (and its heterosexual minions, who slavishly advance The Gay Agenda) approached me to help do some outreach for the No on 8 campaign. And while I was sympathetic to the cause, I also felt I should have some compensation. Was that so wrong? It was not; the gays understood. So: Terms were discussed. Offers and counter-offers were tendered. And after many tense hours of negotiation, the requisite item was agreed upon.

Pony! PonyPonyPonyPooooooonnnyyyy!

Now, to be fair, it wasn't totally unanimous. Some of the gays on the gay board of directors, like JohnO., were a tough sell:

Every boy has to have a dream... but imagine if we gave Simon his pony. What's next? Botox for Billy? Disney for Danny? Italy for Ian? And none of them are even dying of cancer! There simply must be limits. If Prop 8 is voted down he'll be receiving a box of condoms and the phone number of a good divorce attorney like everyone else.
But I turned on the waterworks and he finally came around:
Alright! Alright! Don't cry. You can have the friggin' pony. Jesus. You all know what a soft touch "we gays" are when a grown man starts to cry. Especially when it does not involve a Judy Garland song, the film "An Imitation of Life" or the news that we've missed a season end sale at Barneys. Oh, to be a social stereotype.
Victory! So anyway, GayCo didn't say exactly how much I'd have to raise to be united with my fetlocked friend, but that I'd have to make "a solid effort."

I set up a fundraising page at ActBlue called Stand Up for Love. You can go there and contribute to the No on 8 campaign to stop the evil religious fuckwits from writing discrimination into the California constitution.

You can put in a few bucks to say that we really ought not to interfere with the right of same-sex couples to solemnize their relationships.

You can drop a few bills in the kitty to affirm that your gay friends deserve to pursue happiness, and the people who would try to prevent that are morally bankrupt shitheads (who, as it happens, only take the Bible "literally" when it suits them and have no scruples about resorting to blackmail).

You can deposit some dough because defeating the curdled and desperate and mean-spirited and cruel initiative known as Prop 8, for fuck's sake, is another way of sticking it to Hitler.

Or you can just contribute because every dollar brings me closer to Mr. Sparkles. I promise I'll feed him and brush him and walk him around and oh please please please please please.

OK, enough yammer. Click the thing and make with the giving. It's pony time.

Oh yeah, and don't forget to vote against Prop 8, and also for that one guy.

Update: Here's a killer new ad against 8, narrated by Sam Jackson.

Monday, September 29, 2008

The Larger Family
a holiday missive from Simon

In a few hours I'll be heading over to my parents' place for our traditionally non-religious celebration of Rosh Hashanah. My brilliant nephews (including recently Bar Mitzvah'd Jonah) will recapitulate the meaning of the holiday. There will be much talk of the election (in my house, the day's political news may as well be on an ancient scroll). Apples will be dipped in honey as we wish each other sweetness at the beginning of a calendar we don't observe. That's how we secular types roll, so L'shana tovah, whatever that means.

But just because I'm not versed in Hebrew and have no metaphysical beliefs doesn't mean I'm not aware of and reflecting on the tradition.

Julia and I were cruising home from the gym yesterday afternoon and listening to Speaking of Faith on NPR; I heard a familiar voice talking about the Days of Awe and realized it was Reboot regular, IKAR luminary and Very Hot Rabbi Sharon Brous. She spoke interestingly about the scriptural legacy of dysfunctional families and about the Jews and Muslims, descendants of Abraham by different mothers.

And then I came home to a story about someone spraying a "chemical irritant" through the window of a mosque in Dayton, Ohio. As the congregation was offering Ramadan prayers. As children slept in another room. They all began coughing and flooded outside while the authorities arrived to investigate.

The incident may have been spurred, in part, by a propaganda DVD called Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, which was circulated in swing-state newspapers by a right-wing organization. And it just goes to show you how easily even folks in heartland, family-values America can get whipped up into a child-gassing frenzy for fear of the demonized Other.

No one was hurt, I'm happy to report, but make no mistake: This was both a hate crime and a domestic terror attack.

A director of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, quoted in a local paper, expressed fear that members of their flock wouldn't feel safe enough to return. I want you to think about that. I want you to imagine if such a thing had happened at your temple or church.

On a recent episode of the Showtime series Weeds (created by our brilliant, VHJ pal Jenji), protagonist Nancy's Jewish father-in-law, played by Albert Brooks, is trying to explain to his grandson the necessity of preventing another holocaust. "It must never happen again," he declares piously. His grandson is incredulous. Never happen again? What about Darfur? Rwanda? Bosnia? "No, I mean, it must never happen again to us," the grandfather huffs. I was glad to see the show puncture such insular Jewish piety. It's our responsibility to treat all the genocides in the world - as well as smaller acts of violence and intimidation - as assaults on our own family.

If these Days of Awe, which culminate in our asking forgiveness for our transgressions, have any meaning, the children of Sarah need to let the children of Hagar know this will not stand. So here's a message from the Very Hot Jews to the Muslims of Dayton and every other Islamic congregation in America: An attack on your community is an attack on ours. And the despicable hatemongers behind this heinous act deserve the same condemnation from us as if they'd perpetrated it against IKAR or the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

To say otherwise would be a grievous sin of omission.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Great Schlep: Jew Power for Obama
an early high-holiday card from Simon

Sera's in the Holy Land; I'm sure neither she nor it will ever be the same. But I've got a Wailing Wall of my own, and it's called this blog. And I'm-a use it.

Thanks to some killer PR and the hard work of folks like Mik Moore at the Jewish Council for Education & Research, among many others, The Great Schlep goes down on Columbus Day weekend. It's a mass pilgrimage of young Jews to Florida and other swing states, where they will endeavor to convince their older, often "low-information" relatives to vote for Obama.

I attended a beautiful fundraiser for said initiative the other night. It was held at the mansion-like home of some very generous entertainment-industry peeps, and I met a couple of mega-hot Jewish celebrities there who nearly made my knees buckle. The food, provided by the reliably brilliant Provisions (aka very haute Jew Lisa Feinstein and crew), was a gourmandish series of twists on classic bubbie nosh: brisket on toast, borscht shots (with crème fraîche and orange zest), mini-kugels, paté (chopped liver), succulent smoked salmon. The wine flowed freely. Handsomely attired Hebrews strolled the lush environs.

And yet, from the cocktail-hour chatter, you'd think we were all about to be herded onto trains to Dachau. Everyone was so worried. So terribly concerned. Worried about racist voters. Concerned about easily misled voters. Worried that Sarah Palin would become President in ten minutes and life would turn into The Handmaid's Tale. Concerned about what Bill Clinton said on TV. Worried about what their neighbors said in the driveway. Anecdotal blips on the radar screen were described like incoming ballistic missiles. For sheer doom-and-gloom certainty, I'd put any random bunch of Jews, even a well-heeled, high-information batch of Hollywood activist types such as these, up against the most rabid evangelicals in full apocalypse mode.

Fortunately, the presentation — by Mik and various other folks from JCER, and other cool outfits (including friend of this blog and mightily pregnant genius Jill Soloway) soothed some of these fears by describing the Schlep and making a charming appeal for support before screening this inspired, typically raunchy promotional video by Sarah Silverman.

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Before I go on, I'd like to say a couple of quick things about this video. First: Our Sarah will kick their Sarah's ass. Next: I don't wanna hear about how you found this video offensive or untoward or how it made you uncomfortable. It isn't for you. It's for the kids who are going to journey to the heart of their grandparents' couches to close the deal for Obama, and they fully get and love her spiel. So shut your homentaschen hole.

Now I'd like to speak to the kids.

We often hear that children are the future, and ordinarily I don't agree. I just don't see the proof. But in this case, yes, children — specifically motivated and liberal teenage and twentysomething children and grandchildren of poorly informed, slightly confused elderly voters in swing states – emphatically are the future.

So you know your job, right, kinder? It's up to you to convince Bubbie and Zayde (and great aunt Rivke and cousin Manny and all their friends at the Senior Center) to cast their vote for our guy. This may not be as simple as it sounds. All kinds of ridiculous lies about Obama being a Muslim or not supporting Israel or whatever have been circulating like swamp gas among Jewish retirees, fueled by the Karl Rove innuendo factory. Then there's plain old ingrained racism, about which we'd like to think Jews would be more enlightened, but there you go. You will encounter resistance.

You must crush that resistance with everything you've got.

If you think I mean "Ply nana with an extra pot of Russian tea and tell her about Barack's thoughtful foreign-policy stances," you need to get real. I'm talking about tough love. I'm talking about winning this thing. Like Sarah S. suggests, I'm talking about emotional blackmail.

Nana has to understand that if she doesn't vote for Obama she's endangering her relationship with you.

This may seem harsh, but let's face it: If McCain wins this thing, we're mega-fucked. So it's time to put all our chips on the table, including our willingness to stay in touch with low-info relatives in swing states.

Look, I just want to help. I don't have any relatives in Boca, and my peeps are all voting for Obama anyway. But I thought I'd just sketch out a couple of talking points for you.

Of course, you do want to blow away the nonsense: No, he's not a Muslim, and a prominent Chicago rabbi wrote an editorial about how spreading this smear is lashon ha-ra. Barack's been endorsed by 900 rabbis. The Israelis like and respect him. You'll also want to make it clear that McCain's campaign is full of classic Jew-haters, and that Sarah Palin is a dangerous fanatic who scares the crap out of Israel. She believes Jews must be converted, she quoted racist Westbrook Pegler in her acceptance speech, and her church hosted a witch-hunting wacko who made some classically anti-Semitic inferences that can be found here. You might imply casually that she writes erotic fiction about the Third Reich under a nom de plume; can anyone prove she doesn't?
And given the age of your audience, it wouldn't hurt to remind them that McCain, not Obama, wants to bet their Social Security check on the same stock market that just fell apart.

Still, we both know that voting often comes down to abstract, emotional issues. For whatever reason, many older Jews have inhaled enough miasmic right-wing spew to feel an ingrained distrust of our candidate. That's where the tough love comes in. So let me offer you a few constructive dramatizations.

"Nana, you're going to vote for Obama. He's a wonderful candidate and the only one who can save our country. A vote for him is a vote for my future. So if you love me and want me to have a future, you will vote for him."

Let's say she looks down at the plate of kichel, heaves a weary sigh and says, "I'm sorry; I just can't vote for him." What are you gonna do, pack up your stuff and head for the bus station? I think not. You're gonna double down.

"Bubbie, let's be clear: You will vote for Obama. If you don't, you are dead to me. Because you will have chosen your wretched fears over my fondest hopes and flushed my dreams down the crapper because some idiot alteh cocker down the hall told you the shvartzeh won't stand up for Israel. And I don't care if you call him by that vile word as you pull the lever for him, even though every time you old Jews say it the little children who died in the camps and are now in heaven cry tears of blood that stain the fluffy clouds beneath their angel feet. You will vote for Obama because you if you don't, I'm going to come back here and we're going to get a knife from the kitchen and you can stab me right in the heart, just as Abraham was prepared to do with Isaac before the Lord stayed his hand. Is that what you want to do?"

I'm thinking by this time she's going to start to come around.

Sure, it's a risky gambit to fire these emotional cannons at our frail old family members. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Plus, when Obama wins in November and you come back to show them a bunch of family videos and have a nice picnic at the wrought-iron tables in the condo courtyard, they'll be delighted beyond belief. And so will you.

If, like me, you can't personally go on the Great Schlep, why not make a contribution? Even if you're broke, you can honor the classic grandparent tradition and slip a fiver into a card like this.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Jews in Blume, Political Kvetching and Other Notes

After all that spiritual light and sound, it's harsh to have to crash y'all back down to earth. But somebody's gotta do it.

But before we do, one more note about Darshan, about which Sera has written so eloquently. There's a song in the brilliant rock musical Passing Strange that culminates with this joyous, gospel-tinged refrain: "Music is the freight train on which God travels."

K, peeps: The meeting will come to order with some new business.

First off, if you're in L.A., c'mon down to Blumesday on Fri. night, 9/19, at M Bar. It's a fantabulous tribute to author Judy Blume (née Sussman) featuring selections from Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, Forever and other perennials read by such delightful local talents as Jill Soloway, Melanie Hutsell, Maggie Rowe and our own Joanna Rubiner (among others), with music by the sly and saucy Candypants. The night will be hosted by the inimitable Ronna and Bev; it was organized by scrumptiously sexy Oregonian Jewess Joanna Miller and is sponsored by Jill's cool feminist org, Object. And if you look carefully, you just might see your beloved VHJ blogerati in attendance.

Now, on to politics. First: some Jews in New York are having a rally to express concern about Iran and invited Sarah Palin to speak.

Bad Jews. Bad.

Maybe the fact that she quoted renowned anti-Semite and avowed racist Westbrook Pegler (who cheerfully advocated the assassination of RFK) in her acceptance speech should tip off any self-respecting Hebrew that associating with Palin is a shandeh. Then there's her general religious fanaticism, her opposition to abortion even in the case of rape and incest, her sickening abuses of power, her promotion of the brutal slaughter of majestic Alaskan wildlife via helicopter.

I know, right?

Unfortunately, the organizers of this event subscribe to the misbegotten view that anyone who supports Israel (even if it's for Armageddon reasons) is also a pal of the Jews. They deserve to be kicked in the shins, but at the very least you can e-mail them and tell them what a fucking embarrassing mistake it is to make Palin their spokesmodel. Go here to find out how.

And in the meantime, we're just going to go ahead and say it out loud: Sarah Palin and her wingnut ilk are a bigger threat to the Jews than Ahmadinejad. How you like us now?

FANTASTIC BREAKING-NEWS UPDATE: The excellent activist org JStreet reports that Palin has been disinvited, thanks to lots of angry messages. Good work, Jews!

Yeah, the VHJs are ready to endorse a candidate. It's Barack Obama. Shocker. And we want you to help Obama win. Jews have a special role to play: Convincing the Floridian mispuchah – you know, bubbie and zayde and Aunt Rose and Uncle Max – that all the bullshit they've heard about our candidate is just that. This is being accomplished with something called The Great Schlep. It's sponsored by The Jewish Council for Education and Research (JCER), and you can find out more (and donate) here.

Simon went to go phone bank for Obama in the neighborhood, and guess what? He hated it! Calling two pages of swing-state voters felt like having nard surgery. Bugging strangers at home is not his thing at all. So he went to the organizers and they put him to work doing data entry. The clickity-clack? Much more comfy. Point is: We can all make ourselves useful.

And maybe this little post will do some good in this sorry old world.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Darshan, Part Deux.

Read Part One First, won't you?

So: Darshan. The Light. Spiritual It-ness. Direct transmission. It took having the high holy bajeebers freaked outta me by an actual High Holy to realize I've had my own lil' tap in the Divine Keg it all along. I got this megaswig, right? And once it settled in, I found it tasted oddly... familiar.

Here's my disclaimer: you ain't hearing this from on high, so you might find it a little... simplistic. It's all very layperson-y and basic. I may be a lot of things, but nobody ever called me an avatar. I enjoy a nice meet-and-greet with those masters -- like Mother Meera, about whom I rapped in Part One -- who traverse lofty realms. But, perhaps not coincidentally, I live at sea level. And write really violent shit, like, eight hours a day. So, nutshell: I'm not exactly Floaty Guru material. That's okay - jumping face-first into the dark side of human nature's a necessary job too. Also, fun. The swag is terrific. Free glass eyeballs! But I digress.

Anywho. Here's when I realized I actually had understood Darshan all along. I was turning left into Gate Seven at Warner Bros. The moment was profoundly rote. Swim around in purse for wallet; swim around in wallet for ID card. Meantime, hit button to roll down window, whilst hitting other buttons to turn up music to compensate for the traffic noise. And I accidentally turned the music up a little too loud, and I idly thought, as the sound swept over me, "That's what angels sound like."

No, really. I'm, first of all, not fucking kidding. And also, I am going to embed a youtube video so you can check it out.

So I park my car, and I sit there and hit "repeat" and listen again. And I think: yup, angel. That's what they sound like. I'm pretty sure.

I know - subjective. One woman's Celestial Voice Of Revelation is another chick's Whatever. But I turned this over and over in my head. Thinking that the quasi-religious overtone of it couldn't be an accident. I mean - do I believe there are little Jewy toga-clad harpists flying around singing at God? Um, nyet. But there's a reason the feeling this sound evokes in my body gets instinctively named "angelic" by the lightning-quick name-factory in my brain. Because something in me... opens up. It's a physical feeling. In my chest. Like a book flipping wide, and in the center is my heart. Things start to tingle. I wake the fuck up. I am being visited by something fierce and I know it. Suddenly, where I was crunched up... there's space. Even if I'm resisting, good music finds a way in.

Which: Darshan. Right?

And then I flashed on this night many years ago. The deets are a little too personal for this blog - I'm saving the really dramatic shit for my book deal, I'm sure you understand - but long story circumcised, I was miserable, driving way too fast down Pacific Coast Highway at night with the windows down. Rage was my co-pilot. I was contemplating all manner of bad ideas. So what I did was just... not get out of the car. I drove all the way past Malibu. The thing that kept me tethered to the Here - and, most important, to some shred of common sense (if not the speed limit) - was the song blasting out of the speakers. It was a pop song. U2. Nothing too intellectual. It said what it meant, and then Bono wailed for a bit, and then there were guitars. I drove like a maniac, and the cold wind slapped my hair against my cheeks, and I guess there were no cops on the PCH that night, and eventually the music found its way into me and I calmed down. If Bono'd decided to go all Thom Yorke and make a concept album, it totally would not have worked. If that song had tried to be clever instead of passionate, I would have been doomed.

Fonder memory: a futon on a floor, facing a window, sometime after 4 a.m. College. Me and this guy I liked, lying there in perfect stillness. (We were sober, if caffeinated.) Watching the sun come up while that old Peter Gabriel live double-album played. I think of those couple of hours as the center of the frantic whirlpool of those years. Every baby butterfly in my belly - remember being 17? Remember the constant inner-monologue about how every single everything was wrong with you? - miraculously lulled to sleep.

Like most members of the human race, I've pulled a couplea stunts in my day. Dived into some dangerous/unwise/illegal acts. Generally because I was looking for a way to get at the locked-up stuff inside. And having tried a lot of methods, I can tell you that the most reliable way to get there is music. I dunno, maybe Steve Jobs really is some kind of diety, because I realize now that when I let the Light in, it's often through my iPod.

The song I listen to driving up the coast that magnifies its deliciousness.

The mix Sukha made for my birthday last year, to bring me new love. That worked in 48 hours flat.

The six songs I've heard five zillion times each by now that I put on shuffle when I'm working on my movie script.

The scratchy ancient Chopin recording that is the music equivalent of having buckets and buckets of flowers poured all over you.

The CD I bought in China the week my goddaughter was adopted. The song that haunted me for months, a symptom of a problem I didn't know yet that I had. The CD that got me through the worst month of my life, a prickly, sticky rope in the fog. The songs that are blankets I wrap around myself when I'm lonely. That They Might Be Giants ditty my friend in junior high serenaded me with that sometimes comes on the radio, a time capsule breaking open and spilling out mirth. That song I heard at that Starbucks that one time that stunned me - so I forgot to ask what it was, and I am still fucking looking for it six years later, and it eludes and eludes and eludes me. The song I played driving to the most important meeting of my career. The song my friend recorded when she was still with that other man, that makes me shiver knowing that the worst situations make the most beautiful melodies.

Darshan; n: a glimpse of the divine. And here I was thinking I was secular-Jewly, while I'm pulling the Light lever on a near-daily basis. Taking it like vitamins. Or Ativan, frankly; people always ask me how I can stand commuting to the Valley, and I always just say, "That's why God invented iTunes."

I shared my lil epiphany with some friends. They tried to add to it: "Isn't it even better when you dance around, too?" "How bout those amazing singers in Baptist churches - isn't music better when it's, like, about Jesus?" "What about when you yourself are singing, when the music's coming out of you?"

Nah. Details. Give me a floor and a couplea cheap earbuds and I'm good.

I kinda can't believed I just typed that, it's so damn simple. But it's true. That's the entire deal: music brings in the light. I thought maybe there was a difference between the feeling of "this is right and things will be okay and I am part of something larger" that you get when listening to, say, Bill Withers singing "Use Me" (not emolicious enough? Um, Death Cab for Cutie singing "I Will Follow You Into The Dark"?)... and the feeling you get from the Real Holy Deal bathing your crown chakra with pure two-hundred-proof Darshan Juice straight from India. Can you blame me? Everyone always looks so swoony in the movies when they get whammied by the Light of the Divine.

But I just got whammied last week, so I can tell you: there is no difference. They're the same. I mean, maybe music isn't the thing that does it for you. Whatever that thing is - as long as you're not molesting anybody, obvs - go with it. 'Cause the thing you are waiting for is already here. Dive in, my Highly Attractive friend. Quit waiting for the lighting bolt. It's a marketing ploy. The good shit is exactly what you always knew it was. So eat it up, scrape the sides of the container with your spoon, get in there with your fingers. Don't hold back, and don't hold out for the next thing. There ain't one. I am here to tell you: the tools we were already given are, as far as I can tell, the only tools there are.

This isn't bad news - it's my very favorite kind: practical news. There is no next party: we are at the party: therefore, let us party! Apparently, if there is a God, he's got a sense of humor. He doesn't just zap folk in schul. He zaps them through baseball and the roar of V12 engines and the distant, holy sound of Kanye West.

And if you're like me (and I have this instinct you are - at the very least, you're Very Hot), you've got this amazing Darshan spigot at your disposal. Actually, spigot is far too crude a metaphor for the vast selection. It's like a massive Darshan Microbrew Bar, with a long row of Light on tap. Pick your flavor. Chug.

I mean, think about that. A tiny slice of what I think of as God (that's right, I said it) can be purchased for 99 cents and downloaded to your mp3 player. We live in miraculous motherfucking times, my friends.

Friday, September 05, 2008

(a little illumination by Sera)

Last weekend, my lithe, blonde, dancerlicious friend Sukha rang me, breathless with excitement.

Sukha: Do you want to come with me to UCLA to get Darshan from Mother Meera?

Me: Um... yes!

Sukha: I'll be at your house in ten minutes.

Me: Great! Let me find some pants!

Are you wondering what Darshan is? So was I. She may as well have been speaking Sanskrit. Actually, she was. But she sounded really, really stoked, so who was I to turn down the chance to go get... whatever the fuck it was were were going to go get?

From the gods of Wiki:

Darśana (Darshan, Sanskrit: दर्शन) is a Sanskrit term meaning "sight" (in the sense of an instance of seeing or beholding; from a root dṛś "to see"), vision, apparition, or glimpse. It is most commonly used for "visions of the divine," i.e. of a god or a very holy person or artifact. One could "receive darshana" of the deity in the temple, or from a great saintly person, such as a great guru.

We pulled up the sparkling UCLA curb late-late, which didn't bother me at all because I had no idea what was going on anyway. Sukha, however, seemed keen on getting in and feared we would be turned away. So we took off our shoes and ran through the unexpectedly muddy grass, up the hill to the Bradley center. We showed up to the thang a lil' dirty, a lil' sweaty, but no one seemed to judge.

They let us in to what turned out to be a large, carpeted room filled with chairs. At the front of the room, a little stage. On the stage, a big green chair. On the chair, a lady in a lovely sari. Mother Meera. She is Indian, obvs, and extremely holy - an actual avatar, apparently - and UCLA is a stop on her ongoing world tour. (I learned these pertinent deets after the adventure; for some reason I can't entirely explain, I didn't really want to ask S what exactly was going on. I was enjoying just... going with it.)

The gist: you sat your ass down, got quiet, did a little inner whatever-ing, praying or thinkifying or blanking pleasurably, and eventually (we waited about 2 1/2 hours) your turn came and you got in front of Mother Meera.

The big moment: you kneel. Touch her feet. She touches your temples. When she lets go'a your temples, you look into her eyes. You hold each other's gaze until she looks down again.

That's the whole cannoli. It takes like 20 seconds, max.

So, I did it. I had no expectation that anything much would happen. People all around me, though, were quietly, meditationally squeeing. This lady is a big deal. Whatever she's tapped into, it allows her help others by a method that includes staring down hundreds of people a day without ever losing her zen; she's serious business.

Anyway, I got up there, I knelt in front of her, she touched me. I was a little nervous all of a sudden. It felt like... fingertips. So: not magic. Not that I was trying to be skeptical. I'm just reporting. It was nice. In a brief, gentle, fingertippy kind of way.

Then I got the cue. So I lifted my head, and I looked in her eyes.

Hello, fierce. She kind of freaked me out. Perhaps I expected mushy and lovey? Like a Jewish grandma? But she was casual as a heart attack. Time stretched out, and she just looked at me, and we were very much the same, and we were very foreign to each other, and she was very much wiser than me, and she knew a lot that I may never know, and had something to give to me and was giving it to me right then; and I had this sense of her telling me I'm willing to do this for as long as it takes and it made me wonder just what it was she was doing because it must be more than just looking, and then, loud and clear, something inside me was going, what the fuck are you doing trying to crack me open like that, no no no! And then it was over.

I got up and walked back to my chair. I felt pretty good. Calm, because I'd been meditating on and off for the two and a half hours leading up to the twenty seconds. Amused with myself, because it's not too surprising that I'd balk at the intimacy of that amount of searing eye contact from so advanced and over themselves a person. ( Or, possibly, if you subscribe to that particular magazine, from the person-ish incarnation of a goddess.) So... I went and sat down and thought for a little while about how I am an eminently freak-out-able person. Whereas the lady in the green chair is the photo negative of shakeable.

I wasn't bummed, because it wasn't like I'd spent weeks anticipating the moment I received the whatdoyoucallit, and then I got up there and screwed it up by getting kind of scared of the goddess lady. Quite the contrary! I pulled on my inner lab coat and started making notes on my inner clip board. The subject is highly open to new experiences. But quickly detaches from the mood of the crowd. Also, in the face of being peered into at an alleged soul-deep level, subject went all doe-in-headlights. She is so not as chill as she thinks she is.

Sukha, to contrast, looked all dreamy and silken, like she'd been whacked upside the head by a basket of soft furry kittens. But then, unlike this Very Hot Bloggeress, she meditates daily; her every chakra was squeaky clean and ready to receive the divine news flash.

Sukha's aura.

In the car on the drive home, Sukha repeatedly assured me that the light of Darshan gets in despite one's resistance. If it couldn't, who the hell could it reach? Humans are by and large ridonkulously resisty buggers.

Sukha and I went out for tomato soup and nori rolls and talked about men, of course, and I was in a great mood; it's not every day I get to gatecrash an event like that.

Sukha: Do you feel it?

Me: Feel what? Like,

Sukha: Yes, it.

Me: Honestly, no, not really, but I feel great so no worries. This soup is really good.

But Sukha disagreed with my notion that nothing specific had been wrought within my being. At one point I said something wry and eyebrowy that involved looking her in the eye. And she squealed with joy, "You got the light! You're all full of the light! You have so much light you're just going to have to give it to people!"

Well, good news, my loin-wrenchingly attractive readers. I'm giving it to you.

Because I figured it out this morning, guys. I figured out how the light - excuse me, Light - gets passed around. I figured out what the Light is, in my world. How it works, how it's transmitted, the whole friggin' enchilada. I figured it out as I was turning left into the Warner Bros. lot and fishing for my ID card with my free hand. It just - BAM. Hit me.

I think this may just be time-release Mother Meera groove in action.

I'm gonna lay it on you in Part Two of this post.

(Don't worry, there's really gonna be a part two. It's mostly written already. I just split them up so this wouldn't be miles long. I ran into this writer at Hugo's on Riverside the other day. We were both getting breakfast in lieu of writing scripts for our respective TV shows. Anyway, he said, "I used to read your blog, but it's always so long and cryptic." So, though Josh won't be reading these words: tune in for more next week.)

Monday, September 01, 2008

Things I Love.
An off-the-top-of-my-head list by Sera.

1. Supplements you drip into your Fiji water that turn it crazy colors which freak out the people sitting near you in the park. Like: dark green? That’s not a color you want to see in someone’s water bottle. But I’m chloro-loading, baby.

2. The fact that every now and then, something wildly popular is actually worth the hype.

3. Bulldogs: when they roll upside down? Gravity makes them smile.

4. In the cheese section at the grocery store … so very many cheeses. Yes, I am lactarded. I don’t care. I’m willing to suffer.

5. The paradox of laser-clear-eyed brilliance and total-fucking-batshititide that is being a visionary. Well, more to the point, the people who document true visionaries, so my friends and I can watch movies about what they did. And go weepy bananas in the theater.

5. Watching Simon sing his fool ass off.

So, it took me a minute to get to bloggin’, but I must mention that we had a Classic Rock Singalong the other day, on the occasion of Simon’s twenty-somethingth birthday.

It was pretty awesome. For instance, VHJ inner-circlite Mollie wore this super-skintight red zip-up Dickie Girl cover-all situation that made her look like a poster girl for the war effort, or an ad for motor oil, or a zipper fetishist’s wet dream. She led us in a rousing rendition of “Hotel California.” It was a sort of post-postmodern "Happy Birthday Mr. President" moment.

What Molly looked like: a faithful recreation.

What else? Simon rocked out. That’s the major headline. I drank beer with his ravishing Jewess bride and her striking sister, and as the evening wore on and our inhibitions wore off, the singing got louder and louder. I keep telling you, these Singalongs have a cleansing effect. They’re like primal scream therapy, but hipper.

That’s the news from the Very Hot front. We’ve been singing, having birthdays, imbibing, sucking the marrow out of summer. There’s no soul-rattling politico-religious wrap-up to this entry. It was really just an excuse to post a couple pix and shout-out our dear, sweet, panty-snappingly hot Sime. More soon. Ish.

Monday, August 18, 2008

We Got a Live One!

Here's the thing: We don't invade countries and "educate" the "savages" through the use of bribes and sharp objects. We don't even dress our young in short-sleeved button down shirts and send 'em out on missions, equipped only with bicycle helmets and backpacks fulla Bibles. If you want to be a Jew, you pretty much figure it out on your own. Then, you come to us.

Which, apparently, is what Lindsay Lohan is doing.

You’re skeptical? Relax those doubt muscles – we read about it on The news might as well have been carved on stone tablets. Here’s a fair-use tidbit to make Edward R. Murrow proud:

“She's exploring right now," [her father] says. "She's explored the Church of Scientology, she tried Kabbalah, and now this. I think it's just another phase. But either way, she's involving God in her life, and I'm happy about that.”
A phase? Hasn’t Michael Lohan ever heard the expression "There’s no such thing as a semi-Semite?" OK, neither have we. Interestingly, the story may overshadow another recently tabloided facet of the star's life: her hot-girl-on-girl mature relationship with Samantha Ronson, who – in addition to being a smokin'-hot British dyke with ultra-hip sartorial instincts – is also a DJ. How wicked rad is that? (Peep her disc of Theo Bikel remixes sometime. Challah!) And Samantha, clearly the mad-coolest person in the life of Linds, is apparently the one ushering teen-culture's erstwhile it-girl in her newly Chosen direction.

But clearly we need to say something about this. We need to welcome Lindsay in some way. Like, we need to tell her about how we're going to make her life better through Judaism.

We wish we could say we had the cure for stuff – we may have read someplace that young Miss Lohan has had some form of struggle with substance addiction – but that's more Scientology's bag. Lord only knows we wish we magically whipped parents into shape, but we don't think we can help you if they have preexisting reality TV contracts. But, never fear, Lindsay! Simon and Sera, as the Chosen Two ambassadors of all that is Jewish and Hot, can obviously celebrate your hotness.

In fact, this task is so easy a monkey could so it. After all, there was a dogged rumor that you are in fact so hot, especially around the breast area, that Disney had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to digitally de-hotify you enough to garner a kid-friendly rating for the hilariously monikered Herbie:Fully Loaded. Linds, if we may be so bold, you - or your boobs, at the very least - are primed and ready to join the tribe. And now that sumptuous rack can be freshly apprehended in the context of your strong, zesty, life-affirming Jewish womanhood.

Still, your public may wonder what manner of antioxidant, exfoliating or otherwise rejuvenating properties the Semitic Spa can bring to bear upon the dermis of your soul, even if you spring for the deluxe package.

Well, here’s the thing: Jewish thought (proffering as it does not only Orthodox, Conservative and Reform flavors but also agnostic, atheist, mystical, quasi-mystical, absurdist, Dadaist, slapstick, pork-loving and other variants) is largely about arguing, pondering, adjusting, reconsidering and deciding for yourself.

And when your young career generates bazillions of buckaroos for a phalanx of entertainment-conglomerate executives and their minions, not to mention your handlers, relatives, friends and hangers-on, all of whom expect you to be an empty chalice in which they will helpfully pour their “advice,” perhaps a rigorous path of intellectual and spiritual self-discovery predicated on slow, careful reading is a good way to tell your entire posse to shut the fuck up. In a nice way. Plus, it’ll be way helpful in contract negotiations.

One thing’s for certain: We’ll be rooting for you extra hard now that you're a Jew. It's true that we here at Very Hot Headquarters sometimes wish ... well, not anything too evil, more like just a mild pox upon the more annoying and superfluous aspirants now thrusting themselves bodily upon fame as though it were the very genitals of Johnny Depp. But there are also those tabloid regulars whom, though they seem at least as spastically cokeheaded as the rest (see Winehouse, Amy), we still love and want to see pull through with panache. And upon whom we also wish to foist a large tureen of nourishing chicken soup.

We’ll admit it: We're a little biased in favor of Jewish crackheads. And Jewish drunks. We can’t help it; it’s a family thing. Though ordinarily snobby to the core (Sime went to Oxford, for Faulkner's sake!), we'll even cut you a break if your last single/movie/graphic novel sucked ass. We do draw the line at raping and killing. We think. But anyway, you get credit with us for being a card-carrying Tribesperson. So, Linds, if this unlikely story is true, Mazel Tov. We can't help but think this will be good for your career. At least as it's reflected within the confines of this blog.


text:
Regenerative medicine and other emerging chronic pain management (Proceedings)

Regenerative medicine and other emerging chronic pain management (Proceedings)

Nov 01, 2010

Accurate measurement of pain perception in individual non-human patients is impossible. However, management of pain requires objective measures of effectiveness of the applied treatment. This paradox of pain management underlies much of the frustration associated with clinical management of pain and creates the opportunity for ineffective treatments to be supported by "scientific" studies. As a veterinary care provider treating patients likely experiencing differing intensities of pain, it is important to understand the pros and cons of pain assessment methods and utilize a critical anthropomorphic evaluation and treatment of postoperative pain.

Critical anthropomorphic evaluation of pain
Animal behaviour differs between species, between individuals of the same species, and even within the same individual over time and with different environmental influences. Creating a rapid and simple method for evaluation of pain perception is unlikely. However many clinicians advocate the use of pain scoring to measure treatment effectiveness to prevent the unnecessary suffering of feline patients. The most useful approach to clinical treatment incorporates some of our own human experiences and feelings (anthropomorphic) but modifying those expected feelings based on knowledge of feline behaviour and physiology. While not scientifically rigorous, this critical anthropomorphic approach incorporates our knowledge of pain in humans with our understanding of how we expect animals to react to noxious stimulation to clinically guide our treatment of pain.

Pain Physiology
An important conceptual breakthrough in understanding pain physiology is the recognition that pain following most types of noxious stimulation is usually protective and quite distinct from pain resulting from overt damage to tissues or nerves. It plays an integral adaptive role as part of the body's normal defense mechanisms, warning of contact with potentially damaging environmental insults and initiating behavioral and reflex avoidance strategies. It is also often referred to as nociceptive pain because it is only elicited when intense noxious stimuli threaten to injure tissue. It is characterized by a high stimulus threshold, is well localized and transient, and demonstrates a stimulus-response relationship similar to the other somatosensations. This protective mechanism is facilitated by a highly specialized network of nociceptors and primary sensory neurons which encode the intensity, duration and quality of noxious stimuli and, by virtue of their topographically organized projections to the spinal cord, its location.

The physiologic component of pain is termed nociception, which is comprised of the processes of transduction, transmission and modulation of neural signals generated in response to an external noxious stimulus. It is a physiologic process that, when carried to completion, results in the conscious perception of pain. In its simplest form the pain pathway can be considered as a three neuron chain, with the first order neuron originating in the periphery and projecting to the spinal cord, the second order neuron ascending the spinal cord, and the third order neuron projecting to the cerebral cortex. On a more complex level, the pathway involves a network of branches and communications with other sensory neurons and descending inhibitory neurons from the midbrain that modulate afferent transmission of painful stimuli.

Modulation of pain
The descending modulatory system has been described as having four tiers. The final, and perhaps most important, site involved in the descending modulation of nociceptive information is at the level of the spinal cord. Just as dorsal horn processing is vital to the integration of ascending noxious input, its role in anti-nociception is equally crucial. Dense concentrations of GABA, glycine, serotonin, norepinephrine and the endogenous opioid peptides (enkephalins, endorphins and dynorphins) have been identified in dorsal horn neurons, and all produce inhibitory effects on nociceptive transmission. Specifically, the spinal opioid system fine-tunes descending control mechanisms by acting both presynaptically, as well as postsynaptically. Communication among dorsal horn neurons involves complex interactions, and it is now apparent that a single neuron may be influenced by many neurotransmitters, that each neurotransmitter may have numerous actions in a given region, and that multiple neurotransmitters may exist within a single neuron. Simply stated on a more global level, nociceptive processing is a three-neuron chain with dual input at each level. Discriminative and affective aspects of pain are transmitted in related, and yet distinct ascending pathways, with modifications made by both segmental and descending modulatory systems.

Enhancement of nociceptive signals is of major concern in patients with chronic or neuropathic pain. Just as with inhibition, when signals are enhanced there are many points in the nociceptive pathways that can participate and are potential targets for intervention. It is important to remember that chronic pain is often multifaceted and involves several different mechanisms. Successful treatment may be extremely difficult in some cases. Resolution of the underlying disease is often the best strategy for curing chronic pain; however, in many situations chronic pain management is palliative and quality of life is a major consideration when treating these patients.