This weekend was my Limmud conference. That's the Jewish conference thing I was volunteering with. It's basically this volunteer conference, all planned and run by volunteers, and with volunteer speakers. You have to pay to go, though, since there are conference rooms and meals and stuff that need to be paid for. Anyway, it started Friday night but I didn't go until Saturday. My friend Joyce was in town from London for the weekend so I went out to see her Friday night. And we went to my friend Jenny's Sichuan pop-up, which is always a priority if she's doing one. I thought it was gonna be a quiet dinner with Joyce and a couple other friends, enjoying delicious food from Jenny, and instead it was like 20 people I haven't seen in weeks or more that all ended up in the same place at the same time and we were there until midnight just talking and drinking. It was fantastic! Great start to the weekend.
Then from Saturday it was Limmud all day. Like literally all day. I was there from 8am to 1am. There were speeches and stuff I went to, but I was also busy helping out to run things and make sure stuff stayed on time and everyone was registered and in the right place at the right time. And then after the evening activities (for which my only volunteer participation was as a voluntary wine taster) I just stayed at the hotel with 3 people talking about political theory until 1 am. Again, fantastic! And more of the same Sunday, except with less volunteering and more just going to speeches.
There were some really interesting speeches. I went to one about the Jews of Gibraltar, which was nice since I'm probably gonna go there with my parents during Chinese New Year. And there was an awesome Chinese consumer trends panel. I also went to speeches on Ethiopian Jewry, Jewish Architecture and the idea of creating holy spaces, Hungarian Jewish humor, Jews in pop music, modern dance and much more. Actually, the modern dance one may have been one of my favorites. I wasn't planning to go to it, but the woman needed help with the computer so I got sucked in. She started out by going into a bit of history, which was interesting, and talking about some of the prominent Jewish figures who helped shape modern dance. But what I really liked was one comment she made about how modern dance is a moving painting in space. My sister has danced all her life and I just don't get it. I've never been able to watch a dance performance and really be inspired or moved or anything. I'm just like "whatever" most of the time. But the way that this woman talked about dance gave me a way to think about what I was seeing differently, which could really change the way I perceive and enjoy dance. I hope so, anyway. So for that reason it was maybe my favorite.
All in all a good conference (despite some organizational issues which became a pain in my ass). And what's the first thing to do after a big Jewish conference? Go to a Christmas Market of course. So I did on Sunday afternoon, at Paulaner. Traditional German Christmas market. Always a good time, especially with a ton of mulled wine.
Really great weekend of course calls for really great music. And today it will be Alek Fin. Alek Fin is the stage name of Alek Finkel from Calabasas. Given that information, he must be a Jew, so also fitting for this post. I first heard his newest EP, Strannik, which he produced over the internet as a collaboration with a Russian producer named Galun, and it is terrific. Case in point, Ionosphere.
So with a start like that, I had to go back and listen to his last two EPs, Mull and Án Mynda. Both fantastic. For track number 2, we're gonna go all the way back to his 2012 EP Mull, and listen to Rocks in Paper.
Then from Saturday it was Limmud all day. Like literally all day. I was there from 8am to 1am. There were speeches and stuff I went to, but I was also busy helping out to run things and make sure stuff stayed on time and everyone was registered and in the right place at the right time. And then after the evening activities (for which my only volunteer participation was as a voluntary wine taster) I just stayed at the hotel with 3 people talking about political theory until 1 am. Again, fantastic! And more of the same Sunday, except with less volunteering and more just going to speeches.
There were some really interesting speeches. I went to one about the Jews of Gibraltar, which was nice since I'm probably gonna go there with my parents during Chinese New Year. And there was an awesome Chinese consumer trends panel. I also went to speeches on Ethiopian Jewry, Jewish Architecture and the idea of creating holy spaces, Hungarian Jewish humor, Jews in pop music, modern dance and much more. Actually, the modern dance one may have been one of my favorites. I wasn't planning to go to it, but the woman needed help with the computer so I got sucked in. She started out by going into a bit of history, which was interesting, and talking about some of the prominent Jewish figures who helped shape modern dance. But what I really liked was one comment she made about how modern dance is a moving painting in space. My sister has danced all her life and I just don't get it. I've never been able to watch a dance performance and really be inspired or moved or anything. I'm just like "whatever" most of the time. But the way that this woman talked about dance gave me a way to think about what I was seeing differently, which could really change the way I perceive and enjoy dance. I hope so, anyway. So for that reason it was maybe my favorite.
All in all a good conference (despite some organizational issues which became a pain in my ass). And what's the first thing to do after a big Jewish conference? Go to a Christmas Market of course. So I did on Sunday afternoon, at Paulaner. Traditional German Christmas market. Always a good time, especially with a ton of mulled wine.
Really great weekend of course calls for really great music. And today it will be Alek Fin. Alek Fin is the stage name of Alek Finkel from Calabasas. Given that information, he must be a Jew, so also fitting for this post. I first heard his newest EP, Strannik, which he produced over the internet as a collaboration with a Russian producer named Galun, and it is terrific. Case in point, Ionosphere.
So with a start like that, I had to go back and listen to his last two EPs, Mull and Án Mynda. Both fantastic. For track number 2, we're gonna go all the way back to his 2012 EP Mull, and listen to Rocks in Paper.
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