For those who were trying to access the site yesterday evening, you might have noticed that it was, well, a blank white page. My apologies for this. I was attempting to upgrade my Wordpress software to the new version 3.0, but my custom theme didn’t take it too well. Luckily I was able to restore a backup and return to 2.9.2 safely with no data lost.
Such a sudden crash made me re-think the current site design and made me want to change it. It’s been a year under the current design and perhaps a change is appropriate. I’m going to make it my summer project and will work on it gradually. The current version (2.0, as I refer to it) took me about 2 months to put together, but I’m assuming things will go a bit more quickly this time seeing as how I’m more experienced with the software.
More updates to follow.
Update: So Wordpress 3.0 is causing more trouble than I first imagined. I won’t be able to work with the new theme I want to until developers (inevitably) get up to speed. Looks like site makeover won’t happen until the Fall.
Jun 21
Just when you thought Israel had buried the idea of an inquiry into the flotilla incident…
From the Associated Press
JERUSALEM—Israel has proposed an inquiry commission into its bloody attack on a Gaza-bound flotilla two weeks ago, to be headed by a retired Israeli judge and to include two high-ranking foreign observers.
A government statement said the “independent public commission” proposal would be brought before Israel’s Cabinet on Monday for approval.
Chairing the commission would be Yaakov Turkel, a retired Israeli Supreme Court justice, the statement said. The two foreign observers would be Lord William David Trimble of Ireland, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and retired Brig. Gen. Ken Watkin, the former chief military prosecutor in Canada.
Now of course it will be headed by an Israeli so probably will not be free of bias; however, what’s interesting is that a Canadian was selected as one of only two foreign participants in the investigation.
Last week the Economist ran a very illuminating piece about Israel’s blossoming relationship with Canada. Some even say the latter is currently Israel’s most loyal ally. Perhaps Israel thinks it’s increasing the odds of a favourable outcome if a foreign national from an unlikely champion is also on board. And given Israel’s recent tension with America, its allies are few and far between these days.
Jun 13
James Besser’s recent piece in the Jewish Week publication takes a good look at the evolving relationship between the United States and Israel as strategic partners. He says:
But the notion of a strategic alliance has become more complicated. Many analysts here — from the mainstream Cordesman to the more extreme Walt and Mearsheimer faction of the foreign policy establishment — argue that U.S. foreign policy goals are often impeded by Israeli policies and missteps.
And some argue that the whole idea of the alliance has become skewed, with Jerusalem demanding unwavering U.S. support for all its policy decisions without a corresponding willingness to factor U.S. priorities into Israeli policymaking.
More and more “there is this unrealistic view that we always have the same interests, and that the United States must always support Israel’s view of what those ‘shared interests’ are,” said Hadar Susskind, director of policy and strategy at J Street, the pro-peace process lobby group. “There’s this idea that you don’t support the U.S.-Israel relationship if you acknowledge differences of opinion.”
Over the years, the sense that there is an imbalance in the alliance has focused on U.S. concerns about settlement building and quality-of-life issues for West Bank Palestinians, and what is seen in Washington as Israeli indifference to those concerns.
Today, it is being refocused on the issue of the Gaza blockade as Washington faces huge international pressure to push Israel to loosening or ending it, and with Israeli leaders and their friends here arguing that any concessions to that pressure will represent a violation of the U.S.-Israel alliance.
“The people who are responding to the flotilla tragedy by circling the wagons, and arguing that Israel was 100 percent right are perpetuating this absolutist myth of a relationship that can’t possibly be met in real life,” Susskind said.
Most important, however, is the larger determination of what the meaning of an alliance really is. Does an alliance between two people, two groups or two nations imply that each has to accept the actions of the other on faith? Is the greater connection that initially drew them together ultimately more important and more powerful than the sum of the trials and tribulations that follow? And simply put, can one not disagree with the other without breaking the alliance?
These kinds of questions as they pertain to the American-Israeli relationship easily extend to the Jewish diaspora at large. The parallels are in plain site: Should a Jewish person blindly favour all of Israel’s decisions because of faith; because of how they were raised; because of loyalty to their parents, or any other reason?
No. And those who do are sorely misguided. Whether they realize it or not, they are unwilling to put the well-being of all of humanity before that of their own.
Jun 12
I’ve spent the past week debating the issue of the Flotilla and Israel with some reasonable Jewish compatriots and others, well, not.
Initially I figured I should comment on it. However, I quickly realized that while the world is busy arguing over what the Israeli government should or should not have done, it’s all just futile beating around the bush. For any Israel-Palestine incident is always about the core issues of war and peace, and rights. This, I would be happy to discuss with anyone.
But meanwhile, I continue to hear the classic declarations: “If this were any other country the world wouldn’t care,” and “The media was waiting for an opportunity like this,” and “How else should Israel protect its citizens?”
Some of that is true; most of it isn’t. But honestly, it’s all so played and I’m just tired. So, here are some commentaries I compiled with the help of some friends and I invite you to draw your own conclusions.
http://www.tnr.com/article/world/75397/sos
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304287.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/suffocating-gaza-israeli-blockades-effects-palestinians-2010-06-01
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/failure-american-jewish-establishment/?pagination=false
Jun 10
In the Fall of 2004, I wandered down to the common room of my college residence and found a few neighbours watching a show about a plane crash. There was a pretty girl on the run from a cop in what appeared to be a flashback heavy show, not dissimilar from Prison Break. I always figured shows like that were unsustainable because the circumstances of the show (eg. a plane crash or a prison break) forced the climax to come too soon (eg. escaping the island or prison). After all, how much can you write for characters stuck in one space for so long?
Of course I dismissed the show and thought it was no good. I then proceeded to forget about it entirely for the next 3 years, save for a brief moment where I caught a glimpse of an episode where two characters were underground looking at television sets. I thought, “What in the world has this show come to?” In the winter of 2008, a co-worker proclaimed it the best show on television. Still, however, I remained unconvinced based on my initial impression.
Another year passed and when the show’s fifth season was on, I finally decided to give it a chance. I downloaded the first 10 episodes and uploaded them to my iphone. Without considering the morbidity of it, I watched the first episode on a plane to Florida. Even on the tiny screen, I was utterly captivated. The opening sequence of Jack rescuing people from the plane wreckage was more intense than anything I’d ever seen on television.
The rest is history, really.
I quickly made my way through all of the first 5 seasons (my record was watching 12 episodes in a day) and caught up to where the show was airing live with 3 episodes left to go in the fifth season.
This year I watched the show’s sixth and final season along with everyone else and became somewhat of a superfan. Like much of the internet fan base, I partook in extensive theorizing about the show’s many mysteries. It made it more fun, trying to piece the puzzle together. Along the way there were times where I got heated about some of the decisions made by the writers, especially when it came to revealing (or not revealing) all of the island’s mythology, but mostly I was very enamoured by all the twists and turns.
Last night, the show ended. It was a glorious two and a half hours where I felt like I was saying a heart-wrenching goodbye to all my best friends. The final ten minutes sealed it all for me and erased any qualms that I had about unsolved mysteries and the decision to spend 50% of the final season on an alternate reality. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t yet seen it (other than with the image above), but it was so incredibly moving. The music, the acting, it was all just so stunning.
Now I’m not quite sure what to do with myself…
May 24
Sometimes I think all the world’s a mess and we are merely custodians.
When it comes to Iran, I continue to be flabbergasted by the lack of understanding or complete amnesia with respect to history’s causes and effects.
Throughout much of the last century, Iran was pestered and often outright dominated by foreign powers interested in exploiting it. First the British and Russians, then the United States, then Iraq (with American assistance). Whether it was oil, gaining a geostrategic advantage in the Middle East, or ideological disagreement, there always seemed to be a selfish reason—under the auspices of the collective good—to mess with Iran.
It’s not difficult to link Iran’s revolution in 1979 directly to American and British actions during the preceding 34 years. After all, when you rip off a country’s biggest resource (oil) and subject its people to the brutal leadership of a dictator (the Shah) beholden to your every command, well, you’re likely to piss some people off. Especially those with such a long and proud heritage and culture.
After the revolution, the United States tried to turn back the clock by subverting the Iranian government, hoping to overthrow it yet again (efforts that undoubtedly continue to this day) and re-install a friendly one. In fact its very likely that America’s presence in Iraq and Afghanistan was in part guided by a desire to surround Iran.
And the world wonders why a country in that situation, with that history, might want a nuclear bomb.
Meanwhile, Iran began fighting back in the only way it could: through unconventional means and via proxies like Hamas and Hizbollah, which it continues to use against America’s proxy, Israel.
As a result of Iran’s support for Hamas and Hizbollah, and because of its delusional and big-talking President Ahmadinejad, Israel is convinced that Iran intends to wipe it off the map, literally.
But where Israel errs is when it comes to understanding the motivations behind this antagonism. It’s not just about hating Jews. I won’t sit here and say that there are no Iranians who do, but then again there are people who hate for no reason everywhere (Rand Paul, for example).
Like is usually the case, it’s more about politics and the undeniable reality that Iran may feel like it needs a nuclear bomb (even though America’s 2007 National Intelligence Estimate said it stopped trying) to counteract America’s well-funded proxy Israel, who, by the way, already has around 300 nuclear weapons of its own and won’t admit it. But as the right wing and Israel, itself, would have you believe, Israel is more capable of handling that responsibility than Iran so it should have nuclear weapons and Iran should not.
From the Washington Post:
“We are frustrated with the fact that Iran does not feel the pressure of the world, does not care about the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N., because we feel that time is running out,” Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said in an interview.
An Israeli security official recently complained of a muddled discourse on sanctions that has made the ultimate objective unclear: whether the Obama administration is trying to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb or only to roll back its growing capabilities. Israeli officials have been seeking clarity from their American counterparts on what the U.S. plan is for preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear device if sanctions fail.
What I continue to find most outrageous are Israel’s demands that Iran comply with the IAEA and the UN when Israel, itself, has never allowed IAEA inspectors to examine its nuclear facilities and still is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Personally, I think the policy of ambiguity makes them look like assholes at worst and idiots at best. And as I always remind people, I don’t take any of this lightly, being Jewish and all.
Either way, the games will go on and we’ll all continue to forget how we got here.
May 22
Aside from incoherent twitter updates, I haven’t had the chance to sit down and tell what happened this week.
Monday, May 3 was a difficult afternoon for me. Full of meetings and work to do, I could hardly make it through with the kind of cold I was developing. I knew the next day I’d be home sick. Problem was: I was also sick just three weeks prior so to justify missing more work I would have to go to the doctor.
Tuesday morning I felt even worse. My head felt like a brick and I was coughing heavily 3, 4, sometimes 5 times a go. I made an appointment for later that afternoon.
I got on the subway and went downtown. Once I met with the doctor, I shared my symptoms focusing mostly on my sickness, but I also shared one seemingly unrelated thing: I had been short of breath since returning from vacation in late March.
On my last night in the Bahamas in March, I had severe back pain. I had no idea from what, my best guess being that it was from diving in shallow water at the beach earlier that day whilst playing football. In any case, it was excruciating and limited my sleep. The next day, I flew home and, on each of the 3 planes, I was beside myself, having a great deal of difficulty breathing. The passengers next to me on each plane must have wondered, “What is wrong with this kid?” I wasn’t sure what was going on, but anxious to get home, I just wanted to get through it and figure it out later.
For the next month and a half, I felt short of breath. Walking down the street made me huff and puff and I seemed unable to sing properly, with my breath running out faster than previously. Unfortunately, the very thing that some believe makes our health system work prevented me from doing anything about it.
I’d be interested to know how many people who have serious illnesses stay home and do nothing to avoid the perils of hospitals and health care such as waiting and bills. If anyone finds a study on this, I’d be curious to know. Either way, I’m fairly convinced that if all of these people actually went to the hospital, it would severely bog down an already bogged down system. Of course the flip side is that you’d probably get a ton of hypochondriacs who actually freak out over nothing. Ultimately it’s a fine line I suppose.
The other issue is that I had grown skeptical about what could be done about “minor” illnesses. For example, a couple of years ago, I discovered that I had a small case of post-nasal drip and it was affecting my singing. I went to an ear, nose and throat doctor who put a camera up my nose but determined that he would do nothing. Surgery would be too invasive and there was no prescription that could eliminate it. Thus I was stuck between having a problem big enough that it was affecting my way of life and having too minor an illness to do anything about it.
Was I going to do something about this one? The answer is yes, just not right away. I just didn’t think it was life-threatening and thought it might go away in time.
After informing the doctor of my breathing issue, he seemed to take it seriously, which was nice because I wanted to be able to sing again (my first thought, of course). He did the old stethoscope thing—something I never thought resulted in anything. However, a minute later he said he couldn’t hear anything on my left side and that I might have a collapsed lung. An x-ray would be needed to prove it, though.
I was sent across the street to an x-ray place and after having them taken, the radiologist pulled me aside and said in a very concerned tone, “You have a fully collapsed lung and need to go to the hospital.”
“Yeah?” I said.
“Yes . . . you’re Jonah, right?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, well you look fine, but you still have to go.”
What did it? My best guess is when I jumped into the pit of cave water in Bahamas from 15 feet up because it was the only high impact thing I did.
I was definitely concerned, but I realized quickly that I’d been living like this for over a month. I had been exercising at the gym like normal; I had been trying to sing (unsuccessfully); I had been going to work; I had been driving; the list goes on. So while the radiologist and the office staff were frantically gathering my x-rays and reports to take to the hospital, I had to tell them to calm down. Once I received the materials, I left, got in a cab and went to the hospital.
The next 3 days were a bit surreal. Most hospital visits are, but I just never thought it would come to that. I was admitted a little over an hour later and underwent a procedure that involved a small tube being inserted into my chest so that air that had entered my chest cavity and was pressing my lung down could be sucked out. The result was that the lung was allowed to re-expand on its own.
While I was able to be in the company of friends and family during the days, staying overnight in a hospital alone is always an interesting experience. I hadn’t done it since I was 12. Although there are other patients in the room and nurses on call 24 hours a day, you’re really, really alone. It’s then when you really have to fight to get better.
The time allowed me to re-acquaint myself once again with Sigur Ros and the ( ) album, but more importantly left me wondering how fragile we are. Here I was, a seemingly healthy person in the best shape of their life, completely at the mercy of chance. I guess sometimes things just go wrong inside.
I remained in the hospital for two nights and left on Thursday, May 6. Now at home, I’m recovering but also paranoid that I might relapse. After all, I have little control over what goes on in there. It makes me understand exactly how post-heart attack victims feel. The anxiety is very real.
I have always tried to avoid living in fear. I try not to be fooled by media scams, the swine flus of the world, overly insuring myself and my property, and I really try to give every stranger I meet the benefit of the doubt. Simply put, I don’t ever want to prevent myself from doing something out of fear.
Times change, however, and it becomes more difficult to do so as the clock ticks on.
May 8
I’m on a big music fix right now as I’m nearly finished building my new recording studio. I’m really ansy to just get in there and start laying it all out there.
For the last two weeks I have been furiously listening to only one record: Year of the Black Rainbow.
Unlike most Coheed and Cambria records, this one has taken the longest to grow on me. Truth be told, I thought the singles were the only thing saving it at first and it was really disappointing. For the last two records hit me like a freight train on crack. Sometimes, though, you have to take a step back from something and not expect it to rock your world in 5 seconds. Chalk it up to our collective ADD perhaps.
My two favourites continue to be the singles, the Broken and Here We Are, Juggernaut, a song that is quickly becoming my favourite Coheed song (I’ll regret that statement, I’m sure). Yet songs like Guns of Summer, Far, Made Out of Nothing and Pearl of the Stars have become really fun to listen to as they’re completely different from anything the band has put out before.
Guns of Summer is, simply put, a beautiful mess. But that’s what makes you start to move as soon as the chorus hits and everything cleans up in a hurry.
Far was one I liked right away, and I’m glad that its only continuing to grow on me. The synth-heavy tracks liken it to the Prize Fighter Inferno record, but the vocals are just like traditional Coheed.
Made Out of Nothing has a killer opening and verse riff, especially when the lead part kicks in under the prechorus. Then the chorus is perfect pop.
Pearl of the Stars is interesting because, like Far, it’s unlike any other Coheed song. For the first time in the band’s history, Claudio really shows off his lower register while delivering the lyrics with his classic high level of emotion.
I’ve also been reading the novel that accompanied my preordered version of the album. It chronicles the origin story of the sci-fi opera that accompanies all of the albums. It’s been fun diving into the fiction in earnest for the first time since knowing the band. Before starting the novel I searched online for all I needed to know beforehand. Now all the names and places have great significance, making it all more of a special experience looking back.
I woke up this morning, flipped on YouTube, and stumbled upon the documentary that was filmed last year for the Neverender series of concerts, where the band performed each of its albums in their entirety on 4 consecutive nights. Really made me understand why this band has become such a big part of my life.
And still I wonder: How?
Considering where I came from musically, it’s quite a shock, really. To throw this band up there with the likes of Matthew Good and Jimmy Eat World without reservation as my undeniable top three greatest heroes and influences is remarkable, considering how different they are. Their story documented in the film only confirmed that.
The movie reminded me of why I’ve spent thousands of dollars and thrown so much into this studio I’m building. The prospect of producing music that just makes me move like Coheed’s is more exciting than ever. This time it won’t be to satisfy anyone but myself and won’t be steeped in trying to anticipate what others want to hear. I’m not saying I’m going to re-invent the wheel, per say, but I do feel the pieces are coming into place for a new chapter in my own music.
May 1
