Anti-Tsunami

Ketchup and Palestinians

As you all know, I hate ketchup.

A friend posed the question, "if you could choose to co-exist with ketchup or for it not to exist, which would you choose?" I would clearly choose for it not to exist. He then asked, “how is that different than how Jews feel about Palestinians (and vice-versa) in the Mideast?” Initially, this stumped me. After marinating, I think it’s different when the thing you hate has a soul. I like that we all exist, even people I hate. People I hate grant me passion and conviction. People are also more layered and malleable than ketchup, well perhaps not literally…

Pluralism
Then, I started thinking a lot about why I choose to live in this country (and why I also love SA). I often think – why am I not in our "neighbor to the North". I think it’s the forced pluralism that keeps me here; that I can walk to the BART and can’t help but be confronted with dozens of cultures within a 10 block radius. And, I can get great hummus for lunch, and a legit satay for dinner. Admittedly, that’s not everybody’s experience. And, relevantly I think I’d rather live in an all-white suburb of Maastricht than an all-white suburb in Connecticut. Though, it is here where I contradict myself where I defend Zionism at any level. But, what I defend about Zionism is it’s uniqueness in its geographical context.

My Perfect World
Then, I started thinking about why I liked the patchwork, and it’s because Israeli culture shares many of the same values with regard to gender and sexuality equality, and social welfare especially when compared to its neighbors. This conflicts with my intellectual instinct to be a cultural relativist. But, the cool part is that they are not imposing their policies on anyone else; that they embody what I believe in their social policy (not military policy). And, while I respect cultures that disagree with me from an anthropological perspective, I readily admit that I have some specific visions of what my ideal society looks like, and for the first time I am OK with that. And it would have no ketchup.

Vegetarian Questions

And, lately I have been musing about vegetarianism. Today at lunch I learned about the Paleo diet where people eat only unprocessed foods like the cave people did. And she said eating meat is natural because we’re attracted to meat and we always have been; the same way that dogs are attracted to eat meat, and not soap. But, then she doesn’t eat veal – or dog – and I have a hard time squaring that.

Then, I was thinking is it OK for a vegetarian to bite their nails? I asked a vegetarian that and she said she spits her nails out. But, then I was thinking I could be a vegetarian (with an eating disorder) if I took a bite of chicken and spit it out.     And, then I was thinking what about kosher people that bite their nails and then eat milk products, or what about babies.

Impressions

I ran a very successful event on Saturday drawing about 180 participants. It kept me working about 100 hours the week I returned, but it was my best yet and I’m wicked proud of it. Sure a lot of the lawyers kvetched about the temperatures in the classrooms, and the fact that we don’t do it in Oaktown, but that was to be expected. The most interesting part was the people’s perceptions of me prior to the event, and the fact that people felt comfortable enough to clarify their expectations of what I would look like. Like someone said “you are much trimmer and handsomer than your picture”. Another said, “I assumed you would be 42, fat, with a white goatee.” I always thought I sounded kind of young actually. I was talking to a college president about it and she agreed that it’s kind of weird that people who you don’t know spend their time forming an impression about you AND feel comfortable sharing it with you.

Bumped

While I was looking for hotels for an event last week, I bumped into Alex, my friend Anita’s (from law school) brother, whom I hadn’t seen in almost 2 years. I was thinking about him earlier that day. Ironically, he was working the desk at the Harbor Court Hotel, where Anita and I stayed at when we decided to move to CA. He was so friendly, and seemed to have grown up a lot — really responsible, working hard for the money, going to school full-time. It was a really nice. It’s so weird that he’s been right around the corner all this time. Made SF feel like my town again.

Connecticut

Went to a UConn Happy Hour for graduates of the University as a whole at the Connecticut Yankee in Portrero Hill. It was pretty pedestrian. We met this 30-year old corporate guy who has been here for 5 months and has virtually no friends. He was very eager beaver about hanging out with us and asked what we were up to after the Happy Hour. I felt bad for him, but after he drove a contingent of us to another bar and had nothing really to add to the conversation, we didn’t exchange contact info. The “goodbye” was sort of awkward, but better than being a hypocrite, eh? There are too many options. The problem is what if I were that guy? That would feel pretty bad.

Thought experiment

So the other night I left my bag at Martunis, so I had to truck out to Upper Market to pick it up and decided on a whim to have an Une Liaison Pornographique-inspired dinner party. I told people not to RSVP and just to show up to Home for their 5-6 Prix Fixe. Two people showed up, and it was very enjoyable.

SUNDAY, bloody, Sunday

Sunday was a wicked fun day.

Somebody gave me an aloe plant as a Hannukah present.

I had brunch with a friend and potential future colleague.

I visited and lost in gin rummy to an 86 year old man with Alzheimers (Sue me, I have a penchant for the old and infirmed).

I went hiking in the redwoods, attended a dinner party at a palatial co-op type place where I played mafia and watched Grey’s Anatomy, and

I pumped and passengered a car run on vegetable oil (and alluded to in the Utne Reader).

Voice class

My voice class is much bigger than usual and there are lots of strong guys. I have some great songs that I am featured in mostly from Bells Are Ringing, a show I had never before heard of. My big show is on March 9 at ACT. Bay Areans should mark that in their calendars.

Random Medley

(1) Another friend had this interesting observation that people don’t actually like things like wine, olives, and pickles, but eat them because they’re cool to eat. Got me thinking about acquired tastes. I *think* I actually enjoy wine. Do I?

(2) The same night we also talked about memory pills, and whether we would consume one to erase a discrete bad memory from our mental hard drives. Is there a memory so bad that you would erase it, even if the strength and perspective you gained from it would be removed too?

(3) Increasingly, it’s hard to introduce males to females (and vice-versa) without them thinking you have an ulterior motive. Note: I don’t. I sometimes think men and women can be friends.

(4) Been hanging out in the East Bay more often. There’s a different kind of off-beat quirk over there. It’s a little less pretentious, a little more Buddy Holly.

(5) Apparently all these people from the trip are gossiping about my last blog, and unsurprisingly spreading misinformation. I was even "told off" by someone who didn’t read it. Interesting. For me, that trip was constructively 10 years ago. Onward and upward.

(6) I am headed to Seattle in early March for a Conference. Then, Tahoe a little later in the month. Then, I plan to have a Springtime convergence at Delia’s place in Tex.  April 7-10. Let me know if you’re interested. Chuy’s Hula Hut is definitely on the agenda. I keep on reading Forbes articles about how I made a good investment decision.

(7) Last night I went to a party at Neiman Marcus, the place that originally inspired my move to San Francisco. At the party, my friend’s mom asked me if I was in the military. I love random questions. Anyway, everybody looked like they could be a contestant on the Bachelor. Tonight I have a Yelp elite event at International Orange in the Fillmore where we get free wine, waxing and massaging. Pretty clutch.                                                                       

(8) My friend classified my fashion style as "John Lennon-esque." Although this comment seems random, I accept it as a compliment.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.