November 29th, 2007
Cool site about NY JAZZ
Posted by mrjoshherman at 10:39 AM on November 29, 2007.
www.radicalzebra.com
This is the website I've been waiting for. It was a really big pain in the ass before when I had to track down each good show by checking ten different websites every night. The best New York Jazz should be in one place, and this is radical:
www.radicalzebra.com
March 6th, 2007
yes
Posted by mrjoshherman at 12:36 PM on March 6, 2007.
the revolution will not be silenced by social pressure from the cosmopolitan masses.
March 5th, 2007
march 6, 2007
Posted by mrjoshherman at 12:11 AM on March 5, 2007.
Did laundry at my brother's house today. Allie is next door, singing and playing acoustic guitar. I'm hungry, and I don't understand why sunday night is a dead night on campus. The practice rooms close in an hour and a half, so I'd better get going before I run out of time. I can't believe I'm the same person who celebrated breast appreciation week on his blog. I hear that radiohead is recording their next albumn, but they haven't signed to a label yet. I hope they don't sell out to the latest fad.
April 3rd, 2006
I still exist.
Posted by mrjoshherman at 09:59 AM on April 3, 2006.
... I think. Is sitting in a chair, typing into a machine, what we call existence? When G-d pushed man out of Eden, he put a burning "Why?" in front of Eden, to keep us from coming back. That is our curse: why. That irresistable urge to feel like there is some kind of reason for everything, something to take the agony of self-determination from our shoulders. The establishment of our being is nullified by that everlasting "why," like the clockwork equations which determine the value of y. Why am I here? Why do I type? More importantly, why would someone get gigantic, fake boobs? You're obviously not fooling anyone, and you'll probably get silicon poisoning. Mediocre-sized implants make a lot more sense. For one thing, they aren't nearly as intimidating. I mean, what am I going to do with a DD breast? I'd get sucked into its gravity field and have my head imploded just from getting too close. No, I'd rather have something more manageable. Something that fits firmly and snugly within the palm of the hand. In addition, people are less likely to be suspicious. I mean, who gets moderate sized implants? I'd rather do a million pushups, myself, and save the money.
In other news, I'm listening to Puccini, and I just lost 2 chess games in a row due to careless blundering. I have a life, but it defies description in the english language. It must be expressed in ancient Urdu. But I don't speak that language, so sorry, you're shit out of luck.
In closing, I'd like to thank Jennie Schiffman for inspiring my quasi-journalistic career. This blog is the precursor to something iconoclastic and entirely devoid of circumlocution. 2pac lives. Humans and dinosaurs lived together at the same time, which is how homosexuality made the dinosaurs extinct. Lox rocks!
TLC,
Josh
December 6th, 2005
This is about Jesse Markowitz
Posted by mrjoshherman at 05:00 PM on December 6, 2005.
For the sake of my posterity, or perhaps merely for the sake of helping me remember my experience in Europe when I’m an old fart like my parents, who can hardly remember anything cool about the time they spent in europe, I am recording a travel log of my sojourns.
I. London
I arrived here on September 15th. The following are my first impressions:
Day One
Jet lag was something that only happened to other people who were too spoiled to appreciate the magnificence of their lengthy travels. In a sense, I didnt take my being in London for granted, but in another sense, I couldn't stop myself from feeling drowsy and cynical. Too much happened in one day. A trans-atlantic flight would be enough for me to chew on for days, but it was quickly followed by my submersion into the thick of London. I guess I was just overstimulated, or over loaded. I walked around campus a little todau in search of free internet, which would have been more than easy to find at Tufts. But I was denied the ability to hide in academia, as I am not even a full UCL student yet. Or maybe it was the internet that I wanted to hide myself in. London presents several challenges that I have never faced before. It would be helpful for me to list these challenges:
1) It is really expensive to live here. Only the most essential purchases can be made. I am getting ripped off on everything I buy, so I'd better get the most for my money.
2) I am not really friends with anyone here. The people I meet will be dispersed after 4 days, so they are just temporary friends. You don't need them. These 4 days aren't about making friends. They are about becoming comfortable with my new surroundings and routines.
3) I don't know where anything is. I must find:
a) Astor College
b) The closest grocery store to A Col. This means a real grocery store, not the quickie mart.
c) A source of free internet. Try the British Library, which is just down the block.
d) Go out and make listing of cheapest places to eat.
As of November 29, 2005, here is my appraisal of these concerns:
It can be very expensive. London is a city where people who have more money than they know what to do with can find many eager merchants willing to assist them in the disposal of said excess pounds. I guess it’s a lot like new york in that regard. The myth that there isn’t any good food in London is mostly true in regard to meagerly priced items; however, there is amazing food if you’re willing to pay for it. I’ve settled into a routine in London in which I do not spend more than about 3 pounds per day. I shop at Tesco pretty much every day. I will usually get something cheap for dinner, but if I want to eat something more expensive, then I will go with a friend and we will split the cost of ingredients, which makes it a lot cheaper. Minced beef is probably the cheapest item, so a hamburger is always good in a pinch. Another popular item is tortellini, which tesco spells, “tortelloni.” They have a deal where you can get two packages for 2.50, and one package is enough to fill you up. Unfortunately, due to my increasing laziness, I find myself taking the time to prepare fresh vegetables far less frequently. I should work on healthier eating. Another thing that I like to make is paella, which I had for the first time in new york this summer at a restaurant on 2nd avenue, near 40th street, I believe. Anyway, that’s the deal with dinner. I actually do enjoy cooking when I have the time to do it right and when things are running smoothly enough. Lunch usually consists of a grilled cheese sandwich, made on the George Foreman grill, which I have found to be a formidable machine. It’s a great way of making Tesco Value hamburgers edible, ie., no longer 28% fat. But to be honest, I’ve been staying up so late in London that I usually just eat brunch, then dinner, and then a midnight snack, where the midnight snack is the grilled cheese. Sometimes there is no midnight snack, because I usually make more food than I should eat for dinner. Since I don’t have any plastic containers or space in my mini fridge, I can’t just save something for later if I can’t finish it. Anyway, breakfast usually takes the form of toast and some of those Muller fruit corners. Oh man, these things are good. It comes in a square container, and a small corner has a little bit of fruit preserves (which actually taste exactly like fresh fruit), and the rest of the container is this very creamy yogurt. It’s delicious. I buy it in 6 packs.
Anyway, so cooking for myself is fairly cheap. Occasionally, I will buy a premade sandwich, or pick up an ICCO pizza, or grab some chips from the local chippy, which is the Fish and Kebab Bar on Whitfield St. My other expenses are that I occasionally put 5 or 10 pounds on my pay-as-you-go cell phone plan (5p/min to call the US, 7p to call France), and the occasional ticket to some event going on in London. Oh yeah, and I buy alcohol fairly regularly, too, though I like to think that I don’t spend a lot on it.
But where my money REALLY goes is towards traveling. Travelling can be fairly cheap, but when you get around as much as I do, it starts to add up. First of all, I go to Paris a lot to visit Nina. Thus far, I’ve been there 3 times. I take the Eurostar train to get there, and if I book far enough in advance, then I can usually find a fare for only 29 pounds each way, so each trip is about 60-79 pounds. The first time I went to Paris was with Dan, and it was still in September; I think the last week in September. I remember it was pretty cool, though it was raining off and on all weekend. We went to Perre Lachais, where a bunch of famous people are buried, but it was raining, and we were really tired since it was our last day there, so we didn’t end up seeing anyone. I remember that Nina and I went to the Eiffel tower, where we sat on a bench and drank 3.50 Euro 2002 Bordeaux wine, ate fresh fruit, and had two different cheeses and finished a whole large baguette. I remember we had to go into a restaurant and ask the bartender if he’d open our bottle of wine because we didn’t have a corkscrew. He was nice about it; he even gave us some plastic cups to bring with us. Also during this trip, me and Dan went to Notre Dame while Nina and Becca were in class. That place blows me away. Probably the most beautiful building I’ve ever been in. Although the cathedral at the top of Montmartre gives it a run for its money. I think its called Le Sacre Chouer or something like that. That’s a different trip, though. Also, we went to the Middle Ages museum, which was booooooring, and afterwards we had to wait around to meet up with a bunch of people who never had any intention of showing up, and finally we said screw it, and got Gyros in what I believe is the Latin Quarter. They were killin’ gyros. The place is very close to some famous fountain. Also during this trip, we walked along some canal and laughed cheerily at the passersby. I took up French as a side hobby so that I knew some basic words. By now, I’ve gotten so that I some verbs and some nounds and the basic gist of how to put them together. I didn’t pay for any metro tickets while I was there; I just slid in behind Nina when she used her travel card to get through the turnstiles. This maneuver made me nervous, cuz apparently there’s a 50 euro fine if I get caught. Also, during the trip, me and Nina ate at this supposedly fancy French restaurant. The food was godawful. Nina got rotini covered in fat, cream, fat, fois gras, and then more fat. It was disgusting. I did not fare any better. I got some gigantic shrimp, they were more like crawfish, and they were grilled so that they were all dried out, and they had no flavor. There were three of them, and they sucked. I also had some weird rice thing served with it that tasted like crap. It is a shame that places like that exist. I think it’s called The Free Leaves or something. It’s in Neiully sur Seine. Anyway, so there’s the first trip to Paris.
I returned the next weekend, actually, because circumstances had arranged themselves in such a way that it would have otherwise been what we both considered an intolerable length of time without seeing each other. I got there at night, and we immediately went to Montmartre from the Gare du Nord. Montmartre is a giant hill, and at the top of the hill is an amazingly breathtakingly beautiful white cathedral. The inside has incredible stained glass. There are giant circular stained glass windows on the four corners of the church. We ate dinner after checking out the church at a somewhat touristy place nearby which was nonetheless fairly competent at cooking. I had rabbit (for the first time, I think) and it was delicious. Absolutely delicious. It tasted a lot like chicken, only richer. We went home after dinner. The next day was a somewhat frustrating day at first. We were going to go to the Picasso Museum and check out the Mairie district, but we spent almost the entire day wandering around the Mairie trying to find Nina’s friend and then trying to find a particular place that sells falafel. So by the time we found the falafel, the Picasso museum was going to close and there was a huge line to get into it. So I haven’t been to the Picasso museum yet. We also got lost many times throughout this process. After this debacle, we went into some expensive tea café, where Nina ordered some ice cream that she didn’t like, so I ended up eating it for her. We also drank tea, which had a calming effect on us. We went home after this and hung out for a little while before we ate dinner with Nina’s host-family. They only speak French, and I can’t understand them, but sometimes I can get the gist of what they’re saying and formulate the beginning of a stupid reply before I get exasperated and get Nina to translate something witty and intelligent, which I’m pretty sure gets lost in translation. I’m not sure I remember what happened the next day. I know I had a paper due the next day in my tutorial class, so was probably working on it. I remember what we did for dinner, though. We went to a sushi restaurant, where they gave us free wine and free sake with the big sushi boat that we ordered. It was a great place; I gotta remember to go back there someday. The next day was a disaster. An utter disaster. Probably my worst day here. I got on my train to go back, and I think someone was hit by a train on the track we were supposed to use, so my train got delayed by 2 and a half hours, which was just enough time for me to miss both of my classes, including the tutorial class where I was supposed to give a presentation of the paper that I had hastily written while on the train. This tutorial class is set up so that there are three students and one professor, and we meet every week to critique each other’s essays and discuss that week’s reading. So I was freaked out that I was going to fail that class and that everyone would hate me, since it was going to be my first paper to be critiqued. If that wasn’t enough to piss me off, I tried to buy a lot of beer with which to drown my troubles, because I still had some money. But I found out that before leaving for Paris, I had been scammed by some stranger at the bus station who asked me if I could give him change for his 50 pound bill, and I did, and he had given me a counterfeit bill. It was a bad counterfeit, too. So not only had I missed an important class, but I had also lost 50 pounds ($90).
Those were desperate times. The story has a happy ending though, because I got by with a little help from my friends. Dan bought me some beer, the next day I got an advance on my food allowance from Jaki Leverson, my tutorial professor wrote me back telling me not to worry about it and that there was no harm done, and 3 weeks later, Nathaly, who lives down the hall, told me that her dad was willing to get change for my counterfeit bill, and he did, so I got my 50 pounds back! I guess the moral to the story is to never give change to strangers, always leave yourself enough time to get back on your train even if its delayed by 3 hours, and when things aren’t going your way, don’t get too upset, because good friends will always be there for you when you need it. I gotta remember to buy Nathaly a drink the next time we go out.
I spent the next couple of weeks in London. The weekend of Halloween, Nina and Becca came to London to visit. That was nice, though it proved to be too expensive for me. We went to the Portobello Rd. Market, then we went to Harrod’s, then we went to the Capital Hotel, where we had afternoon tea, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, I think I’ll have some afternoon tea when I get back to London in 15 minutes from now. We also went to the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, and National Portrait Gallery the next day, and in the evening, we ate at a delicious Thai restaurant and saw an improv comedy show. One of the guys in the troupe was the dude from Austin Powers who is giving Austin his “personal effects” after he’s been dethawed. You know, the scene with the Swedish-made penis enlarger? The show wasn’t that funny, though; probably due to our extremely sober state and the fact that we literally had the worst seats in the entire house. So we bounced shortly after intermission, and went to some seedy part of town that had a large asian community. It probably had good food there, but we were too late to find that out. We were absolutely exhausted when we got back. The next day, I was broke, so Nina had pay for everything. I made Paella with shrimp, muscles, and clams one night. And we saw a play: Agatha Christie’s, “And Then There Were None.” It was actually pretty good, I thought, though it had its flaws. It probably wont make it.
My next trip was a big one. The following Tuesday, me, dan, and a bunch of tufts people went to Amsterdam. The plan was to spend 2 days in Amsterdam, and then meet up with becca and nina and two of their friends in Copenhagen, where we’d stay until Sunday, and then go home. Man, Amsterdam was a crazy time. I definitely enjoyed myself, and I can’t wait until I get to go back. While in Amsterdam, I got blazed, drunk, played at two jam sessions, went to the van gogh museum, went on a Heineken museum/brewery tour, checked out the red light district (they had twins!), and saw the Anne Frank house. The hostel I stayed at was very cool. It was called Hostel Cosmo, and the guy there was the man. Anyway, I was sad to leave.
But Copenhagen was amazing. Well, I wouldn’t use the word amazing. It was more fascinating in the way that an influential, well-written, and life-changing book is fascinating. It is a dreary-looking place. Everything is gray and dismal, the clouds are low, it is cold and windy, and there isn’t as much touristy stuff “to do.” Also, the exchange rate sucks, because it is such a socialist state there that they charge a lot more for things, since they have to pay a lot more taxes. Or rather, they slap on a large sales tax to everything. Nevertheless, Copenhagen is one of the most “comfortable” places I’ve been to, once you get inside somewhere. They are masters of interior design. They have embraced the dreariness of their milieu, and so their rooms all have soft lighting, their couches are abundant, sturdy, and very well crafted, and it just feels like you’re supposed to spend at least 2 hours chilling out wherever you sit down. Their pastries are fantastic, as well, and the people are probably the coolest, nicest people I’ve ever met. The Dutch are pretty nice, too. We went to an anarchist colony called Christiania, which was pretty cool. Christiania is a brightly painted and eerily quiet community of hippies and drug dealers with political ambitions towards sovereignty. I was impressed by the uplifting spirit of the people there, who wrote inspiring messages all over their walls while living in what appeared to be a primitive and impoverished state. I was impressed that these people practiced what they preached, as opposed to a lot of poser-hippies I went to high school with. We also went to a castle at Elsinore. It is the castle that Shakespeare set Hamlet in. I thought it was a beautiful castle, though the tour was lame, with the exception of the dungeon. Elsinore was a surprisingly bustling town that struck me as fairly touristy. An old man stuck his head out of the window and told us that if we really wanted to see something cool, then we should go to Budapest. I hope I make it out there before I leave here. We ate lunch at some random place, where I had a giant tuna fish sandwich that was difficult to eat. Anyway, we got back, and walked around Copenhagen til my feet hurt too much. We went into a bar, and I bought our host dave an alcoholic milkshake. It was a cool bar. Very cozy. Oh man, I wish I could have some more of those amazing pastries. Oh yeah, after Christiania, me and Nina went to this café, where we shared a banana split that was to die for. Man, it was so gooood. Then I had a hot chocolate that was delicious. It was the only time, however, that we had to talk to someone who didn’t speak English. Disaster struck again that day. I thought that my flight left at 8 with dan, but it turned out that I had been booked on the earlier flight, so I missed my flight, and I had to buy a really expensive flight the next day. That was a real downer. The Copenhagen/Amsterdam trip was very expensive for me. I managed to go through about 270 pounds merely in expenses. I guess that plane ticket really made things expensive.
Since Copenhagen, I spent two and a half weeks in London before returning to Paris. That would be last weekend. While in Paris, I went to the Pompidou museum, which had a really good collection, though it was humongous. I also went to the Shakespeare book store, I ate a killin’ gyro, I visited Jim Morrison’s grave, and I picked up some incredible cheese. I think it was “brebis” cheese. Absolutely incredible. I had dinner again with nina’s host family, which was nice. They served muscles and chicken. I think I’m getting better at French. I try to speak French to nina. Its frustrating when you have an idea in your head, but you don’t know how to communicate that idea.
Now I’m en route to Paris, and I’ve just arrived.
October 20th, 2005
Cheers!
Posted by mrjoshherman at 09:21 PM on October 20, 2005.
London is a fine city. I like their beer, style, grocery stores, free museums, tall buses, and friendly citizens.
While here, I've seen alot. Too much for me to chronicle here, yet. But perhaps someday I will. I want to be a writer, so I figure it would be good practice to keep a regular journal of my writings. We'll see what comes out.
June 25th, 2005
a post about toast
Posted by mrjoshherman at 12:30 AM on June 25, 2005.
My mom made a loaf of whole wheat bread (using white whole wheat flour, so it's not too whole wheaty) that I've been feeding off for the past 2 days. I've been utilizing several options when the toaster oven makes the obnoxious quintuple beep indicating that the bread is done toasting. My favorite used to be schmearing cream cheese on the toast and eating it like an open sandwich. Unfortunately, I thought it would be smart to get Philadelphia regular cream cheese instead of the 1/3 less fat stuff that my mom usually gets. I am a skinny fellow, so I thought I could stand to eat the extra fat. But when I got home, I saw that it said on the container "Contains 25% less saturated fat than butter!" That's not enough less saturated fat. Since I saw that, I've been feeling like I'm eating gobs of butter every time I have cream cheese on my toast. So that's losing popularity, at least until I can get some neufatchel. Another option is jelly. We've had raspberry and apricot jelly around lately, and it's ok, but I don't really like the messiness. If it were rye bread, I would try to melt some cheddar or havarti cheese on the toast, but that just doesn't work with the whole wheat. Out of curiosity, I tried cottage cheese, but i've always liked the idea of cottage cheese alot more than it's actual taste. I dunno, something about its consistency just wigs me out a little. I have to remember for next time that cinnamon, sugar, and butter is delicious. For some reason, that never occurs to me except at a time when a piece of toast is impractical.
I guess it's been a while since I've posted on here. Quick update: doing dumb work for dad's sukkah business, trying to read philosophy over summer, going to try to go to law school, still with nina though she's in france until friday, when I'll meet her in new york, saxophone has been waning, but I'm sure that's only a phase.
I feel... confident.
April 26th, 2005
happy birthday to...
Posted by mrjoshherman at 01:01 AM on April 26, 2005.
me.
20 years old. Where does the time fly?
April 10th, 2005
Joshua Herman, Ltd.
Posted by mrjoshherman at 11:48 AM on April 10, 2005.
This summer, I am going to design and manufacture my own clothing. I had this realization after seeing a pair of jeans going for $100 at Armani yesterday. Why $100? I figure I could make jeans that are just as good, as well as tailor-fit, for a fraction of that cost. I am going to hand stitch the denim. It might take me all summer, but it will be so worth it. I'm going to take out some books on how to make jeans from the library today. When I'm a rich and famous designer, I will be the one laughing.
April 1st, 2005
an entry
Posted by mrjoshherman at 10:08 AM on April 1, 2005.
I was accepted into the Tufts in London program two days ago, so I am going to be in London next year, for sure. I also was named the Tufts University in London Philosophy Exchange Program (TULPEP) Scholar, so the philosophy department here is going to give me £50 when I get there.
My classes are too hard, and I'm struggling a little to keep up. But I'm making a concerted effort this weekend to catch up and do all of my work well. I even started a paper last night that isn't due until monday. It made me feel... empowered. The paper is on whether or not Plato was a feminist.
Today I am meeting Kriti at the MFA, and we're gonna hang. That will be cool, cuz I've been neglecting her a little due to nina, and I miss her.
I got film for my camera yesterday, so I've been taking a lot of dumb pictures. I never realized how much fun it is to take pictures of things. I think I might get another roll of film after I use this one up.
