The Jewish Experience?

In honor of Blogger now being available in Hebrew, I offer up the following two trailers I noticed on Timo's Movie Trailers via Miro yesterday. I can't really say they're deserving of comparison - but they made for a surreal pair, one following the other on my player. I have to say I wish Emmanuelle Chriqui would have chosen a better project. I hope it wasn't her Moroccan Jewish heritage that drew her to Zohan. I'm more impressed with her IFC project with Baron Davis (just the intro clip) which involved him doing a 70's style roller skater/boom box routine on an urban basketball court.

Tailer 1, Beaufort - "Winner for Best Director at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival, BEAUFORT chronicles the final days of an Israeli army unit’s tense, painful withdrawal from a strategic 12th century fortress near the Lebanese border in 2000, marking the end of nearly two decades of controversial occupation. Based on a true story, director Joseph Cedar confronts the difficult questions raised by Israel’s military strategy in Lebanon but also, more broadly, the sacrifices of young soldiers and the futility of war."

Tailer 2, You Don't Mess With The Zohan. The only synopsis I can find states, "Sandler stars as Zohan, an Israeli commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream: becoming a hairstylist in New York." So I've appended the first few lines from the trailer below.

He is the greatest Israeli soldier the world has ever known. His training is lethal. And his skills are legendary.

Father(?): "You are like Rembrandt with a grenade."

But it was time for a change.

Zohan: "I wanted to leave the army. I love my country, but the fighting, when does it end?"

Mother: "We've been fighting for 2000 years. It can't be much longer. What will you do?"

Zohan:"I want to...cut...and style...hair."

Year in Review Meme - 2008

Pilfered from She Says. I always do her memes.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Tried to eat a 30” pizza (with help). Had a disagreeable surgery. Biked a historic trail in the West Virginia/Maryland/D.C. area (and the accompanying vacation with my family, and cross country beer delivery to She Says). Viking Brewery tour with Kyle and Adam.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions except to promise myself sometime around New Year’s (two months before or after) what ride I’m going to aim for that year so I know how much I should train. My big goal was to ride the C&O Trail, so I guess I succeeded.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Physically, mentally, familial or spiritually? No…I think all the kids are at least 1 year old now.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No one extremely close to me. But I was sad that George Carlin died.

5. What countries did you visit?
None! We did an in-country vacation. I did travel to Rochester, NY. One could pretend it was a different country if one were to squint a lot.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A more concrete sense of direction. I never feel quite as organized as I’d like to be.

7. What dates will you remember from 2008?
November 14^th, my 40^th birthday.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Became a manager. Finished the MS 150. Did a ton of bicycle riding. Any year I do a lot of riding I count as an achievement.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Failures suck. I generally just decide something in them is a success. Seriously – I’m very anti-failure. My middle of the road attitude keeps me happy, but it’s also the reason for #6.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I suffered surgery. Not exactly illness or injury – but the follow up infection was probably illness and recovery has lasted about a month so far. Today was the first day I’ve climbed on my bike since the day before I visited the doctor. Leaning forward in the bars is fine. Sitting straight up in the seat to rest isn’t so restful.

11. What was the best thing you bought/received?
Super cool bike posters from many of my relatives/inlaws for my 40^th birthday.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My wife’s. She’s been much more cheerful most of 2008 despite lots of visits to the pain doctor and some nasty injections.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The general behavior of everyone I meet in public. I like people, but in general I despise their behavior toward other human beings.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Health care. School tuition for Eryn. The ethereal plane (at least the money that was in my 401(k)s and stock plan).

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Bicycling with Ming and Kyle throughout the summer and bicycling in D.C. Bicycling makes me excited. And when it falls through, it’s one of the few things that depresses me.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2008?
Katy Perry: I Kissed a Girl. Finger Eleven: Paralyzer.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: fatter or thinner?
Thinner.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Bicycling. Seriously. Hmm….I have another answer as well. I reserve that one for my own amusement.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Reading bad books. Watching television (that I watched while not on my bike trainer).

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas eve with my side of the family at my brother’s house north of the cities. Christmas day with Pooteewheet’s side of the family at her parents’ house north of the cities.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Like with a dream? With an ideal? With a commitment to excellence? No… Although Eryn had a little paper fortune teller that told me I would. When I mentioned I’d have to divorce her mother first, she was very irritated with me. I pointed out that whoever I fell in love with, presumably a British woman of some sort, and a doctor according to Eryn’s fortune telling device, would be her new mother, so it wasn’t that bad. But she wasn’t having any of it.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
I like The Office. 30 Rock. Fringe. Dexter. Heroes.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I’m not a hater. I’m a lover. Or maybe I’m a loser baby… But no. I reserve my hate for institutions and political entities.

25. What was the best book you read?
I covered this in my book list. The top of the crop included The Fifth Elephant (Discworld XXIII), Absurdistan, The Android's Dream, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Welcome to Tranquility, The Practice of Management, Confederates In the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. If I had to pick one, then The Practice of Management with Confederates in the Attic a close second.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Probably Rock Band at Klund’s house. We now own Rock Band II, which we bought Pooteewheet for Christmas/Anniversary (our 15^th)/Birthday. Right now I can hear clack-clack-clack as she beats the drums.

27. What did you want and get?
A management job. To ride the C&O Trail in D.C. To meet She Says.

28. What did you want and not get?
Someone else to fix the rental properties. Pooteewheet to be pain free by the end of the year.

29. What were your favorite films of this year?
I had a list for this too. Woman in the Dunes. In Bruges. Batman.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Pretty low key, but we did eat out. I turned 40 this year.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
See #28. More bicycling. More by myself. More with my bike group. More with Ming and Kyle. More with Eryn.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Managerial. At least after about March. I’m no longer a jeans guy.

33. What kept you sane?
Eryn. She’s a good egg and keeps Pooteewheet and I cheerful even when we don’t want to be. Also, bicycling keeps me sane. I can truly pedal away my problems.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I’ve always fancied Minnie Driver. But that’s not really a 2008 thing. Sarah Silverman was sort of my thing the last few years. But that’s not really 2008 either. Maybe Emmanuelle Chriqui. I’ve always thought she was cute, although that whole You Don’t Mess With the Zohan thing was really too bad. Wait. I recant and revise. Definitely Brad Pitt. I watched him pimp his eco friendly housing for hurricane victims project and talk about how much he loves his family. He seems like he’d be fun, and inspiring, to know, although I wouldn’t want to be in his Fight Club.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Getting the current administration out of office. What a clusterfuck.

36. Who did you miss?
Friends when I’m on a ride without them. My old work group. I really had fun with a few of them. Particularly Bruce and Jody.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
I met She Says and her husband (to be). I met my new boss and new group and all the people associated with my department that I didn’t know well before. I met some great programmers from the UK. I met a bunch of coworkers on the MS150 ride I didn’t know very well. I met all the Facebook friends that I’d lost touch with. I met a strange group of people at a campground in Chetek who thought I was there as some sort of a gay karaoke ménage.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Same lesson I have always embraced. (Despite my fascination with dystopias and the inevitability of the world to try to make life miserable for everyone) Things always get better.