Fascinated With Crustypunks

So I found this website - http://crustypunks.blogspot.com/ - online last night and I've spent hours reading it since then. It is a site started by an East Village photographer (I think) named Steven Hirsch to document the stories of the wandering groups of what have been labeled 'crustypunks' or gutter punks' by people around the country. These kids show up every summer in tomkins sq. Park in the east Village and set up there to panhandle in the days and 'party' at nights.

Most of their stories are quite similar. These kids basically run away from home in the teens after getting thrown out of their houses when their parents find them with hard drugs after years of fighting, or they come from really broken, messed up homes to begin with, where there is physical and/or sexual abuse. Some grew up in foster homes and never knew their parents or had any real family to speak of. They join these wandering bands of hobos, hop freight trains up north in summer and down south in winter and live a nomadic existence free of the cares that most of us with families and mortgages, jobs and deadlines.

They live really hard lives. Many are heroin addicts. The ones that don't do heroin are usually alcoholics. They get in lots of street fights - both with each-other and with locals. They get in trouble with the local police - tickets, arrests, constantly being hassled. They have few friends and many seem to be teetering on the edge of mental stability.

I love the fact that these sorts of subcultures seemingly spring up overnight in America. I love even more that amateur anthropologists like Steven Hirsch will see something interesting and new going on around them, camera in hand, and take it upon themselves to document it in a public fashion (damn I love the interwebs). It's a really well done site, because Hirsch captures the original voice of his subjects giving the reader a real sense of how a conversation (or rambling monologue) might go, while telling their life story, or recounting specific life events that have happened to these characters. And they are really are characters: each and every one could probably have a novel written about them or a movie made about them. The pictures the author takes are really good too - individual portraits that at a glance give you a real sense of who these kids are. As my friend Rena just put it, he does a very good job at presenting the good/idealistic vs. bad/realistic sides of these lives, and in a very short space.

I just remembered, when I was at my first Bonnaroo music festival in 2002 in the middle of tennessee, there was a crustypunk there who we saw wandering and we were making a huge bbq one afternoon and invited him over to dine with us. His name was Spider (they all have these sorts of street names given to them by fellow travelers) and he told us about his life. He wandered the country on freight trains - usually alone, occasionally with others. Everything he owned was in a single backpack and it wasn't even full. He spoke of the freedom he had from the materialism of America but also of being hungry a lot and never knowing where his next meal was coming from. Somethings basic things you can't break 'free' from I guess.

And here's an interview I just found with Steven Hirsch - Smart guy!

Anyway, fascinating stuff.

Greatest Band Ever?

I'm talking about Phish of course! We had a rockin time as always Sunday night in Bethel Woods - site of the original Woodstock festival. A killer bbq (my sister Sara is a whiz at setting up complicated things like grill devices on the spot) and some delicious brews (thanks Bron!) set us on the right path. Our crew was augmented by Vinick, who finally popped his phish cherry in time for his 30th B-day (which he shares with Bob Dylan, who just turned 70 - we're seeing him in Tel Aviv in under 3 weeks!), Bron's awesome wife (Michal) and in our car, a cute-as-can-be 7-month pregnant Simone who was grooving hard with our unborn child, baby bump in tow, my brother (and the most serious musician in our crew) Mo, and my good, good friend Noam, who as usual showed up with no ticket and got into the show for $40 even (face was $45 for the lawn - no idea how he always pulls it off!). We also ran into tons on people we knew there, including Bars - been ages since we chilled at Phish together - and Howie F.! Also ran into Raffi G. - they were right near us on the lawn.

The show was a great time as always with perfect weather, a great setlist and some sweet ass jams. So what's with the title of this post?

I just downloaded the entire show free on Phish's live download site - all I needed was the bar code on my ticket stub. And the just dropped prices on lawn tickets to $45 - and that includes a free high quality download of the show from the band! How many bands would do that for their fans?! Thanks again for the sweet memories - we'll see you next summer no doubt!

Here's a nice moment from Sunday night's show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGaHr3tVhLI

YMCA: Another Amazing Purim!

As I said on Monday night as it all wound down and I was having one last beer with Mike Berezin, this is the worst week of the year, because it's the furthest you can get from next Purim. Oh well - another amazing Purim is in the books. Party on people!

Physical Violence Therapy

We live in a world of laziness. Very few people I know even come close to reaching their full potential. Why is this?

Well, there's the usual litany of reasons. Various social and psychological disorders, substance abuse problems (generally alcohol or pot), chronic pain, lack of motivation.

Usually, people try half-baked methods to overcome their deficiencies - therapy, prescription drugs, God obsessions.

Well, I'm here to tell you of a new method I've come up with to reach your full potential. There's very little that motivates people like the threat of a good old fashioned ass whooping - or worse. You've heard of physical therapy, art therapy, music therapy... now there's Physical Violence Therapy.

Having trouble holding down a job simply because you just can't seem to find anything that truly fulfills you? My goons will threaten to break your legs beyond repair if you don't find a job... and keep it. It doesn't matter what at is - as long as your family no longer has to live beyond their means simply because you're too fucking lazy to hold a job for more than a week.

Can't seem to stop drinking or smoking pot when you should be helping around the house? What if one of our licensed therapists threaten to beat you senseless with a bag of brass doornobs? Will that help motivate you to not be such a lazy bastard?

Watch TV for hours when you should be at the gym trying to lose some weight? We've got brass knuckles and a beaker of skin melting acid with your name on them that say you'll be on your way to the gym in 60 seconds flat - or else...

You ever notice the way people spring into gear and do things they'd never do under normal circumstances like hand over their wallet and fancy jewelry to a perfect stranger when there's a gun being pointed at their head? Now you can use the powerful threat of Physical Violence Therapy to get your life back in order, maybe even overachieve for a change.

Physical Violence Therapy - because nothing motivates like a good ass whooping.

Playoff Football and Phish New Years

So, it's been awhile but I wanted to get back to writing a bit. Jason Rousman and I are tied for first place after the first week of the playoffs in our pick-em pool having erroneously picked NO to beat Seattle but getting the other three games right. After a far from good fantasy season, I hope we can at least take this title down. Here are our picks for this week's games:

BALT - 3 point underdogs? Best road team in NFL history? Even if they lose, they're covering
ATL - Everyone wants GB but not us. Atlanta had a great season, Matt Ryan is the most underrated QB in the NFL, and they were 7-1 at home this year. GB was 3-5 on the road and 1-2 indoors. ATL gets our respect and our pick
CHI - I know we got burned on Seattle last week but the bottom line is, they're really not that good. I expect Hassleback to come back down to earth this week resulting in a Chicago romp
NYJ - NE will win by a TD or less in a game that's close throughout

I'm especially psyched for the two AFC games - two bitter division rivals, they should both be tight and hard-fought.

In other news, check out this Phish Ghost from New Years: best jam I've heard in a long, long time. It's as transcendent as live improvisational music gets and I'm glad the boys can still throw down this well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Sf8lOdGRw

Also, the Meatstick meets It's a Small World dance number from New Years Eve is really cool - well done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H1sht6IDmQ&feature=related

Fast forward to the 4:30 mark to get to the good part.

Desperately Need a Cleaning Person

So last Wednesday our cleaning person no-showed. attempts to call her went straight to machine. We called two friends of hers - they all live in an apartment near the shuk for Sri Lankans trying to eke by some basic financial support for their families back home. Everyone's phone went straight to machine. Our only possible conclusion is that they were all deported by our government because their work visas were no longer valid.

We've spent the last week trying to find new cleaning people but to no avail. No one has time. There is a massive shortage of people willing to clean houses in this country (I imagine it's similar to the morons on the right in the u.s. that want all the illegals deported there as if any native American is willing to bus table or pick fruits and vegetables). And the government has taken it upon itself to deport a labor force that provides a valuable service, improves the country's GDP by freeing up individuals to focus on work as opposed to the menial task of cleaning their house. It brings to mind the old phrase: That government which governs best governs least. Bitching won't get our house clean. So please if you know one, send them our way. We're getting desperate here!

Jerusalem - Now a Real City!

So I just got back from spending my morning at the National Wine and Alcohol Discount Center on Haoman Street in Talpiot and it was awesome (no, i'm not being paid a dime to write this ;-)! I dropped around 1,000 shek on 3 cases of wine, booze and beer. With 600 square meters of wall to wall booze, this place is like nothing I've ever seen in Israel - and very little I've seen out of Israel (advertising does work - I saw the ad in the JPost this weekend and decided I had to get there and soon).

In addition to the usual wine deals (which in many cases are on par with the best deals in the shuk but not better), I scored some serious deals on liquor and beer. A bottle of Baccardi was only 80 shek (it's routinely 110 in other places). I got a bottle of 12 year old single malt for just over 200 shek - also a great deal for Israel. But the beer prices were far and away the best. Leffes are only 7 1/2 shek. I got a six pack of Grolsch for 32 shek - that's cheaper than Goldstar. And I got a 4 pack of San Miguel for just 24 shek. The one beer I didn't see there was Taybeh (from Palestine) - it's an excellent beer and usually well priced. I mentioned this to the storekeeper and he told me that since they opened less than a month ago, they're stilling filling out their stock.

I also snagged a bottle of New Zealand's Goose Bay Chardonay (included in wine lists in the WSJ and NY Times) for 89 shek - a bottle I have yet to find anywhere else in Israel. Also got some Baron Herzog from Cali for 33 shek - definitely a good price considering it's an import).

All in all, a morning well spent. Israel, you've come a long way - you should only go from strength to strength.