moocowinthecity

one cow. many pastures.

moocowinthecity

open pasture

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Friday, September 18, 2009
Long Island, Erev Rosh HaShanah

Happy New Year!

…it’s about time.

Dinner at Shulamit & Eytan Schwartz’s House

Saturday, September 19, 2009
Long Island, Rosh HaShanah\

Happy New Year!

Sunday, September 20, 2009
Long Island, Rosh HaShanah

Happy New Year!

Uncle Reed & Aunt Nancy

Coffee With Cheryl (Time: TBD)

Monday, September 21, 2009
Buffalo, New York

jetBlue Flight 4: 09:35-11:00

East Amherst Youth Hostel

Kaymar Crew

Lovable and Squishy Pagans

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Buffalo, New York

East Amherst Youth Hostel

Kaymar Crew

Lovable and Squishy Pagans

SPoT Coffee

Strange Brew

Fun and Adorable Pagan Potluck

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Buffalo, New York

East Amherst Youth Hostel

Kaymar Crew

Lovable and Squishy Pagans

Hillel

Rev. Linda (?)

Department of Linguistics

Dinner With Christine Babin

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Buffalo, New York

East Amherst Youth Hostel

Kaymar Crew

Lovable and Squishy Pagans

Dinner with Lisa Ely (?)

Gay Clubs/Bars

Friday, September 25, 2009
Depart for Long Island

jetBlue Flight 1: 08:20-09:41

AirTrain to Jamaiaca

Jamaica to Hicksville

Kol Nidrei services

Shabbat services

Saturday, September 26, 2009
Long Island

Saturday morning services

Sunday, September 27, 2009
Long Island, Erev Yom Kippur

Repenting like whoa

Monday, September 28, 2009
Long Island, Yom Kippur

Repenting like whoa

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
New York City

364 more days to fuck up until next year

Picking up things people have asked for!

Heading to the City (Early!)

Breakfast with Matt Rossi (10:00)

Lunch W/ (?)

Coffee W/ (?)

Coffee W/ (?)

Dinner with Rachel & Uncle Ray (Italian)

8pm – Henry Miller Theater – Seeing John Stamos in Bye Bye Birdie with Rachel!!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Long Island

Family & Friends Day

Jeruen is staying over (Late Night)

Thursday, October 1, 2009
Long Island

Family & Friends Day

Friday, October 2, 2009
Long Island

Family & Friends Day

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Long Island

Family & Friends Day

Sunday, October 4, 2009
Depart for Tel Aviv (Late Night)

Family & Friends Day

El Al Flight LY 8: 23:50 (11:50PM EST) –

Monday, October 5, 2009
Land

Back to work on October 6, 2009

open pasture

Kol Nidrei

moocowinthecity No Comments

Kol Nidrei, for those of you who don’t know, is the service where we pray for those who cannot pray for themselves. We pray for those, who if they admitted who they were, would face certain death. Judaism does not ask us to become martyrs…Judaism demands that we live so that others may live, so that our collective memory lives on…and so if you have to lie to save your life, you are obligated to do so. Under Jewish law, life comes above almost all else, and if it will save a life, you are required to violate a commandment.

Kol Nidrei is my favorite service of the year. It comes before Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is the day of judgment, where we admit our transgressions in public, where we beat them upon our chests with our fists to admit that we have sinned, that we have transgressed, that we have fallen short. Yom Kippur is the day when even the hosts of heaven are judged, and the angels tremble in awe.

I have sinned this year, I have transgressed, I have fallen short: this has been an incredibly tough year for me. I could have done much better. Part of that is for not being in my community…for not doing enough, for not volunteering, for letting my responsibility fall on the shoulders of others instead of carrying my fair share, for not making enough of an effort.

I have heard, often this year for whatever reason, that the Gay Community (and for that matter the LGBT community as a whole) doesn’t have heroes…that we don’t have role models. I’m 25, according to my other, older, queer friends I’m a kid…kids need role models, and I have to say, from my perspective, from my personal narrative, nothing could be father from the truth: I have never been without heroes.

Leonardo da Vinci (widely thought to be gay), Walt Whitman who is the American Poet and my personal ‘patron saint’ as I read his Leaves of Grass outside and in every season, Alan Turing the code breaker in World War II who broke the code of the German Enigma machine and was then later chemically castrated because of who he loved, Oscar Wilde who should need no introduction…these are but the tip of the iceberg for my gay heroes.

America the Beautiful was written by a lesbian, Katherine Lee Bates and Abraham Lincoln was known for sharing his bed with other men who would sleepover from time to time. Speaking of Lincoln, in the book The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War the author, Thomas P. Lowry, goes through Army and historical documents and, among other things, shows that there were gay soldiers…and that those gay soldiers had someone who loved them. We have been around since the start of history, and though it isn’t always recorded, we have been at every battle, we have been at the rise and fall of civilizations, we have been lovers kept in secret, we have been in the background and the foreground, we have been in villages and in castles, in farms and cities and in tribes.

 

(Frank C. Moore)

However, and perhaps more importantly than the names and stories of the heroes that we know are the names and the stories of the heroes that we don’t.

There are a lot of other heroes who will never see a memorial that has their name…the gay men who lived through the 80s, not knowing why their friends were getting sick…having to wonder if it would be them next…not knowing what they could do to avoid being infected with HIV/AIDS. The gay men who wiped, changed the diapers of, and took care of their sick friends because they were thrown out of their homes and only had the gay community to call their family. The gay men who were fired from their jobs, the gay men who were beaten and attacked, the gay men who were spit on in the streets for ‘shoving their sex life down other people’s throats’ by doing nothing more than merely holding hands walking back from the movies on a Friday night.

Everyone at the Stonewall Rebellion which on a summer night in New York City, June 1969 changed world history. Every campy drag queen and every twink who are our front line foot soldiers and also take a shit ton of flack from our own community. Every gay man from the dawn of time to present day who has had to hear a heterosexual, white male (a member of the least oppressed group on the planet) tell them what our community does or doesn’t have and what they should or shouldn’t do. Every brave forerunner who has made my path that much easier. Everyone who had to take a hit so when I was at university I could stand on a stage in heels and a dress. Every gay man who had to make his way in the world to show me that, if God forbid my parents didn’t accept me when I came out, I could do it on my own if I had to. Every gay man who served in the IDF before me so that eventually, by the time that I enlisted, it would be totally legal for me to serve “out loud and proud.”

Every fag hag, fruit fly, and flame dame – and make no mistake either, our straight guy friends get far too little credit – who has been a member of our community, who has been a shoulder to cry on, who has been support and muscle when we needed it most. Everyone who has ever held a placard at a demonstration, rally or march who didn’t have too, but came out to show their support for the LGBT community because it was the right thing to do.

…all of these people are heroes.

“A hero is made when you make a choice.” – Superchick

So I have plenty of heroes, I have historical heroes, I have unsung, unnamed heroes, I have my friends who are LGBTQ who paved the way for me and formed my second family, I have my friends who are straight and who are straight allies of the gay community and who have stood up for me, and I have my family who has accepted me. But since there are countless martyrs, and because some of our heroes and martyrs go unsung, let it never be said that we don’t have them.

So on this Kol Nidrei, when we pray for those that can’t pray for themselves, when we pray for those that don’t have the freedom to be who they are, may we pray that it will be the last Kol Nidrei that we will have to pray. This Kol Nidrei may all closet doors be blown off, may we find or rekindle our inner strengths, may we all be a light unto the nations, and may 5770 be a year of loud, awesome, voices.

From my family to yours, L’Shana Tova (Happy New Year)!

open pasture

Kol Nidrei

moocowinthecity No Comments

Kol Nidrei, for those of you who don’t know, is the service where we pray for those who cannot pray for themselves. We pray for those, who if they admitted who they were, would face certain death. Judaism does not ask us to become martyrs…Judaism demands that we live so that others may live, so that our collective memory lives on…and so if you have to lie to save your life, you are obligated to do so. Under Jewish law, life comes above almost all else, and if it will save a life, you are required to violate a commandment.

Kol Nidrei is my favorite service of the year. It comes before Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is the day of judgment, where we admit our transgressions in public, where we beat them upon our chests with our fists to admit that we have sinned, that we have transgressed, that we have fallen short. Yom Kippur is the day when even the hosts of heaven are judged, and the angels tremble in awe.

I have sinned this year, I have transgressed, I have fallen short: this has been an incredibly tough year for me. I could have done much better. Part of that is for not being in my community…for not doing enough, for not volunteering, for letting my responsibility fall on the shoulders of others instead of carrying my fair share, for not making enough of an effort.

I have heard, often this year for whatever reason, that the Gay Community (and for that matter the LGBT community as a whole) doesn’t have heroes…that we don’t have role models. I’m 25, according to my other, older, queer friends I’m a kid…kids need role models, and I have to say, from my perspective, from my personal narrative, nothing could be father from the truth: I have never been without heroes.

Leonardo da Vinci (widely thought to be gay), Walt Whitman who is the American Poet and my personal ‘patron saint’ as I read his Leaves of Grass outside and in every season, Alan Turing the code breaker in World War II who broke the code of the German Enigma machine and was then later chemically castrated because of who he loved, Oscar Wilde who should need no introduction…these are but the tip of the iceberg for my gay heroes.

America the Beautiful was written by a lesbian, Katherine Lee Bates and Abraham Lincoln was known for sharing his bed with other men who would sleepover from time to time. Speaking of Lincoln, in the book The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War the author, Thomas P. Lowry, goes through Army and historical documents and, among other things, shows that there were gay soldiers…and that those gay soldiers had someone who loved them. We have been around since the start of history, and though it isn’t always recorded, we have been at every battle, we have been at the rise and fall of civilizations, we have been lovers kept in secret, we have been in the background and the foreground, we have been in villages and in castles, in farms and cities and in tribes.

(Frank C. Moore)

However, and perhaps more importantly than the names and stories of the heroes that we know are the names and the stories of the heroes that we don’t.

There are a lot of other heroes who will never see a memorial that has their name…the gay men who lived through the 80s, not knowing why their friends were getting sick…having to wonder if it would be them next…not knowing what they could do to avoid being infected with HIV/AIDS. The gay men who wiped, changed the diapers of, and took care of their sick friends because they were thrown out of their homes and only had the gay community to call their family. The gay men who were fired from their jobs, the gay men who were beaten and attacked, the gay men who were spit on in the streets for ‘shoving their sex life down other people’s throats’ by doing nothing more than merely holding hands walking back from the movies on a Friday night.

Everyone at the Stonewall Rebellion which on a summer night in New York City, June 1969 changed world history. Every campy drag queen and every twink who are our front line foot soldiers and also take a shit ton of flack from our own community. Every gay man from the dawn of time to present day who has had to hear a heterosexual, white male (a member of the least oppressed group on the planet) tell them what our community does or doesn’t have and what they should or shouldn’t do. Every brave forerunner who has made my path that much easier. Everyone who had to take a hit so when I was at university I could stand on a stage in heels and a dress. Every gay man who had to make his way in the world to show me that, if God forbid my parents didn’t accept me when I came out, I could do it on my own if I had to. Every gay man who served in the IDF before me so that eventually, by the time that I enlisted, it would be totally legal for me to serve “out loud and proud.”

Every fag hag, fruit fly, and flame dame – and make no mistake either, our straight guy friends get far too little credit – who has been a member of our community, who has been a shoulder to cry on, who has been support and muscle when we needed it most. Everyone who has ever held a placard at a demonstration, rally or march who didn’t have too, but came out to show their support for the LGBT community because it was the right thing to do.

…all of these people are heroes.

“A hero is made when you make a choice.” – Superchick

So I have plenty of heroes, I have historical heroes, I have unsung, unnamed heroes, I have my friends who are LGBTQ who paved the way for me and formed my second family, I have my friends who are straight and who are straight allies of the gay community and who have stood up for me, and I have my family who has accepted me. But since there are countless martyrs, and because some of our heroes and martyrs go unsung, let it never be said that we don’t have them.

So on this Kol Nidrei, when we pray for those that can’t pray for themselves, when we pray for those that don’t have the freedom to be who they are, may we pray that it will be the last Kol Nidrei that we will have to pray. This Kol Nidrei may all closet doors be blown off, may we find or rekindle our inner strengths, may we all be a light unto the nations, and may 5770 be a year of loud, awesome, voices.

From my family to yours, L’Shana Tova (Happy New Year)!

open pasture

“It’s so big…I could swim in it!”

moocowinthecity No Comments

“It’s so big…I could swim in it!”Grandma…on why she only likes to drink from cups that are small

I could write about this trip to Florida…but it’d be like shooting fish in a barrel…and besides…it’ll be a chapter in one of my eventual books (this one is being put into my “Killing Kittens and Shooting for the Sky, a Story About Sex and Life” folder).

I’m really looking forward to the High Holy Days this year. There’s a lot of changes that I’m looking forward to in the coming year…and I’m thankful that it’s coming soon. We are still in West Palm Beach (where we’ve been for the past few days with my Grandmother) though we’re heading back to New York tomorrow in the late afternoon, which is good because I have a ton of work that needs to get done.

I’m almost done with my speech for Rosh HaShanah and I’m looking forward to catching up on E-mails Monday morning…when I will be fully caught up with them (it’s about friggin time and is one more thing off of the to do list that I’ve written for myself) before having lunch with my Rabbi.

Outside of that, things are going swimmingly…lots of stuff on the horizon…but for now, just Florida, cocktails, family and friends.

open pasture

“It’s so big…I could swim in it!”

moocowinthecity No Comments

“It’s so big…I could swim in it!”Grandma…on why she only likes to drink from cups that are small

I could write about this trip to Florida…but it’d be like shooting fish in a barrel…and besides…it’ll be a chapter in one of my eventual books (this one is being put into my “Killing Kittens and Shooting for the Sky, a Story About Sex and Life” folder).

I’m really looking forward to the High Holy Days this year. There’s a lot of changes that I’m looking forward to in the coming year…and I’m thankful that it’s coming soon. We are still in West Palm Beach (where we’ve been for the past few days with my Grandmother) though we’re heading back to New York tomorrow in the late afternoon, which is good because I have a ton of work that needs to get done.

I’m almost done with my speech for Rosh HaShanah and I’m looking forward to catching up on E-mails Monday morning…when I will be fully caught up with them (it’s about friggin time and is one more thing off of the to do list that I’ve written for myself) before having lunch with my Rabbi.

Outside of that, things are going swimmingly…lots of stuff on the horizon…but for now, just Florida, cocktails, family and friends.

open pasture

Updated Schedule

moocowinthecity No Comments

! Subject to Change – Work in Progress !

Note: There’s still a ton of people I have to contact, places I’m still trying to get to, etc. If you don’t see your name here, it’s not because I’ve forgotten you…I’m just trying to program the improbability drive of my spaceship to bend time and space and make it happen…and I happen to have a very depressed robot, named Marvin, slumping around instead of making himself useful

Sunday, September 13, 2009
Leave for Long Island

 

    • Vodka on the plane…still better than those pesky snakes…

 

    • Recovery night – Chinese food
      • Vegetarian General Tso’s

 

Monday, September 14, 2009
Long Island

 

    • Lunch With Rabbi Harvey

 

    • Matt & Dave’s Sort of Late 25th Birthday Party (18:00-23:00)
      • Everyone’s Invited!

 

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Desert to Garden Tour (Evening)

 

    • Feast of San Gennaro With Mom, Dad & Dave (Morning/Afternoon), NYC

 

    • Dinner with the QCPRG Crew (19:00), Flushing

 

    • Sleeping over at Christine’s

 

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The Desert to Garden Tour

 

    • Movies & drinks at Christine’s

 

    • Sleeping over at Christine’s

 

Thursday, September 17, 2009
The Desert to Garden Tour

 

    • Movies & drinks at Christine’s

 

    • Hiking (?)

 

    • Sleeping over at Christine’s

 

Friday, September 18, 2009
Long Island, Erev Rosh HaShanah

 

    • Happy New Year!
      • …it’s about time.

 

    • Dinner at Shulamit & Eytan Schwartz’s House

 

Saturday, September 19, 2009
Long Island, Rosh HaShanah

 

    • Happy New Year!

 

Sunday, September 20, 2009
Long Island, Rosh HaShanah

 

    • Happy New Year!

 

    • Uncle Reed & Aunt Nancy

 

    • Coffee With Cheryl (Time: TBD)

 

Monday, September 21, 2009
Buffalo, New York

 

    • jetBlue Flight 4: 09:35-11:00

 

    • East Amherst Youth Hostel

 

    • Kaymar Crew

 

    • Lovable and Squishy Pagans

 

 

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Buffalo, New York

 

    • East Amherst Youth Hostel

 

    • Kaymar Crew

 

    • Lovable and Squishy Pagans

 

    • SPoT Coffee

 

    • Strange Brew

 

 

    • Fun and Adorable Pagan Potluck

 

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Buffalo, New York

 

    • East Amherst Youth Hostel

 

    • Kaymar Crew

 

    • Lovable and Squishy Pagans

 

    • Hillel

 

    • Rev. Linda (?)

 

    • Department of Linguistics

 

    • The Buffalo, NY Store

 

    • Elmwood Avenue

 

    • Dinner With Christine Babin

 

 

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Buffalo, New York

 

    • East Amherst Youth Hostel

 

    • Kaymar Crew

 

    • Lovable and Squishy Pagans

 

    • Dinner with Lisa Ely (?)

 

    • Gay Clubs/Bars

 

 

Friday, September 25, 2009
Depart for Long Island

 

    • jetBlue Flight 1: 08:20-09:41

 

    • AirTrain to Jamaiaca

 

    • Jamaica to Hicksville

 

    • Kol Nidrei services

 

    • Shabbat services

 

Saturday, September 26, 2009
Long Island

 

    • Saturday morning services

 

Sunday, September 27, 2009
Long Island, Erev Yom Kippur

 

    • Repenting like whoa

 

Monday, September 28, 2009
Long Island, Yom Kippur

 

    • Repenting like whoa

 

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
New York City

 

    • 364 more days to fuck up until next year

 

    • Picking up things people have asked for!

 

    • Heading to the City (Early!)
    • Breakfast with Matt Rossi (10:00)

 

    • Lunch W/ (?)

 

    • Coffee W/ (?)

 

    • Coffee W/ (?)

 

    • 8pm – Henry Miller Theater – Seeing John Stamos in Bye Bye Birdie with Rachel!!

 

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Long Island/New York City

 

 

    • Hanging out with Kat (after 6p), NYC

 

Thursday, October 1, 2009
New York City

 

    • Krebs!

 

    • Other New Yorkers!

 

Friday, October 2, 2009
Long Island

 

    • Family & Friends Day

 

    • Coffee/Dinner with dadmirald (19:00), Brookyln

 

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Long Island

 

    • Mom, Ben & Me: Every Apple Store in Lower New York in a Day!

 

Sunday, October 4, 2009
Depart for Tel Aviv (Late Night)

 

    • Family & Friends Day

 

    • El Al Flight LY 8: 23:50 –

 

Monday, October 5, 2009
Land

 

    • Back to work on October 6, 2009

 

 

! Subject to Change – Work in Progress !

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