Tel Aviv

Back From The Holy Land

Here are some pictures I took in Israel. I got back to LA two days ago but haven't slept well yet, jet lag is a strange thing. I caught hell in the airport leaving Tel Aviv from a security agent. Among more relevant questions, she asked if I was Jewish, if I had a Bar-mitzvah, the name of my congregation, how observant i was... I've never felt so guilty for not believing in god in my life. Going through security/ border crossings is always nerve-racking, this was terrifying. Multiple agents and 30 minutes of questioning later, I was free to go through 3 more security check points. Serious stuff. I'll post more pictures soon.

New York City

The Scottish Lou Reed Makes Videos and Smokes Weed

So that totally rhymed.  Anyway, this guy's name is Rambling Will.  He's old, makes rants on youtube, and plays guitar. His music kind of reminds me of lou reed and he's got a hypnotic stare.



He's got alot of videos on his youtube chanel. Some of them are sort of music videos like the one above, and some of them are rants like this one in this link below. (I normally would have embedded this video, but Rambling Will has disabled the embed function on some of his rants. I figure its probably because he doesn't want people to post them on blogs) So here it is.

This one below is like a combination rant/music video. Its pretty good and emotional.

El Tigre

El Tigre, thats spanish for "The Tiger." That is the name of the town in Argentina where me and my friend Federico took these photos.

Peace from the Middle East

Hello everyone, Peace from the Middle East. I'm in Jerusalem, The Promise Land, the holy city. Life here is good. With the exception of being surrounded by valiant and determined enemies, Israelis have their little slice of heaven cut out for them. Of course they've also got the "international-criticism-for-human-rights-violations" monkey on their back, but it doesn't seem to bother them. Fuck it, right? Being from the US of A, I can empathize with worldwide disapproval. It can weigh down on you yeah know? But after awhile you throw up your hands and say 'fine, I'm fucked by association,' throw back a tall boy, and enjoy the bounty of imperialism. They got pretty girls, hummus up the ying yang, beaches, socialized health care and jewish national holidays. 2000 some odd years getting our asses kicked around the world was an investment well made appearently. Mazltov.

More middle east analysis and pictures from the feild to come. In the mean time, enjoy Russ' posts from the heart.

Shalom!

A new internet Personae

So as Im sure most of yall know, Andrew is away on a pilgrimage to the promise land. As such, Ive taken over blog responsibilities until he gets back. Its been fun. We've had some laughs, right? But I wanted to get a little bit personal today. You see lately Ive been worried about my internet personae. That is, the way I as a single, young, attractive, intelligent man present myself on the web.

The other night I was at a friend's house having dinner. My friend Paula says to me, "You know Russ, Ive got a friend who I think you would really like. Do you want to see some pictures of her?" And of course I did. So we proceed to browse her Facebook profile. We are looking at the pictures, and she is a pretty girl, and in some of the photos she looks prettier than she does in others, and in some of the photos she looks like a drunken sorority girl, and in some of the photos she looks like the type of woman you want fireman-carry through the threshold of a french villa and give foot-rubs to. And so based on what I saw of this girl's facebook profile, I built a first impression of her as a potential candidate for sex or dating.

And thats all fine and well until I realized that the same thing must be going on in reverse. It must happen that girls have sat around and browsed my internet personae, judging me for candidacy for dating or sex. It concerned me a great deal. I have always been a champion of the free-spirited posting of funny and even incriminating photos. Here are some pictures of me that have been previously posted on Myspace or Facebook.

Im sure the girls weren't lining up to meet the guy that did that man-gina in front of a burnt-out truck.  Or asking their friends to please introduce them to that sexy man with a turtle in his mouth.  How bout that stud in a laundry-hamper being fed beer by some blonde girl. and its so hot how in that next photo he is giving that girl a fish-hook.  God, Ive just got to meet him!  Unfortunately I don't think they are saying these things.

So I have begun to de-tag myself from these types of photos.  Does it make me a sell-out? Maybe.  Will I keep posting these types of pictures on this blog? Yes.  And Ill tell you why.  Girls don't read blogs.  I mean, some do but lets face it, the blog reading woman is going to understand the artistic genius in the man-gina photo.  Or in this hand stand photo that I am so proud of. (am I wrong Liz and Megan?)

But maybe what I need to do is just give my internet self a bit more balance. Keep those naked pictures of me with clown make-up (see earlier posts on this blog) on the web because they rule, but try to also put up some decent pictures where I look handsome. Now is that such a revolutionary idea? Its funny its taken me years to figure this out. So if you've got em people, start uploading pictures of me where I look attractive to facebook or myspace. Here's one for reference:

Now that is one handsome guy!

Peru

These videos come from Peru.

Finkelstein Family Cuts Dem Off!

So a few months ago we posted this.

Hundreds of people posted videos of themselves dancing to the song on youtube, including my family which posted this.

I miss my friends

PLANET PEOPLE SUMMER MIX '08

Download: PLANET PEOPLE SUMMER MIX '08

Over Night In Ensenada

To celebrate the coming of Summer, and our friend Phil's LA visit from New York, it was only appropriate to take it south. We drove down the port town of Ensenada, two hours south of the border. Felipe is still very relaxed, David fell in love with "Paraguay" and Phil is considering a move to LA. As for me, I'm leaving for Israel tomorrow and cherished the opportunity to bid farewell in style. Perhaps the best part of living in Southern California is it's close proximity to Mexico. I say 'drug war, shmug war'. The land of untouched coastline, margaritas, spanish and endless possibilities is only 2 hours away, no LA Times article can take that away.

*P.S. PLANET PEOPLE SUMMER MIX up tonight*

How to do a Hand Job

First of all let me just get off my chest that I love hand jobs. Phew, it felt good to get that out there. Now lets get on with business. A few months ago I went with some friends to see the Takashi Murakami exhibit at the MOCA in LA. It was fucking great. Apparently what was at steak to most who visited the exhibit was the juxtaposition of art and commerce. I mean the guy set up a Louis Vuitton boutique that sold $10,000 handbags in the middle of a publicly funded art museum; which in my opinion is a pretty admirable middle finger to both the art and consumer worlds. Good for him.

But more than anything it made me horny. There were statues of naked japanese anime figurines squirting milk out of there caricatured fake titties. There was also an anime inspired sculpture of a cumshot, which needless to say made my day. The presentation of the cute post WWII japan and its imperial-american take on perversion really got my libido going. So much so in fact that I was forced to masturbate in the public bathroom in the lobby of the museum. And that is true ladies and gents. I hope that that stands as a testament to the power of the art on display and not as a look into the warped mind of a sexual deviant, but let the chips fall where they may. Thing is, this video here reminded me of that moment, both in its anime characterization of Japanese-ness and in its inappropriately childish sexual context. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.


Notice those big blue-green eyes on that hand job queen? Seems to me that Rock n' Roll and Baseball weren't the only things left behind from the US occupation of Japan. I don't know about yall, but imperialism gives me a boner.

Download Time (The Classics): Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body

Wednesday is a day of classics.


This is Marshall Jefferson's (AKA Virgo) "Move Your Body" released on Chicago based Trax Records. Jefferson was apart of the original Chicago scene that influenced House and Acid House around the world.

Read about Marshall Jefferson

Download: Move Your Body.mp3

Obama Wins Democratic Primary

Holy mother of god, Obama is the Democratic Nominee! Crack a friggin dutch, pop a cork or whatever it is you get down with, celebration time is here. I'm not trying to hate on Hillary, but she was seriously starting to harsh my mellow for a second there. Gimme a god damn break, yeah know? Anyway, all the news outlets online have extensive coverage of Obama's victory and the Barack Obama website has all sorts of info. Hell, donate $25 dollars if you are so inclined. Bottles up to the United Stated for once in our damn lives (or at least in the last 8 years) for not acting like a drunken parody of ourselves, and sabotaging our image on the world stage. BOOYA!

REGISTER TO VOTE

R. Kelly On Trial

As we all might remember, about 6 years ago a video flooded the internet and news outlets of R. Kelly performing sexual acts (pissing, screwing etc.) with a 14 year old girl. It was a little disturbing and completely enthralling for about a month or so, then it went away. The only thing that seemed to change was R. Kelly's balancing act between Disney-friendly household anthems like "I Believe I can Fly," and his more explicit street persona. No jail time? No lengthy trial? No sobbing testimonies from attention hungry young victims? He just got dirtier? More lewd, more incendiary! It makes sense i guess, considering after the video debacle even the most oblivious parents wouldn't dare buy their kid an R. Kelly CD. Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards? Out of the picture. But after a public embarrassment of that magnitude, not to mention the legal implications, I guess you'd just expect someone to clean up their act, attempt to repair their tarnished public image. But not R. Kelly, no-sir-ree-bob. It's as if the scandal gave voice to an R. Kelly stifled by inimitable expectation. A man freed from the bondage of censorship. Kelly stood up in the face of mass ridicule, to the very enforcers of a puritanical status quo and said "no sir, I won't." And its for this perhaps why we love him most.

But the saga doesn't stop there. R. Kelly is on trial after 6 years of postponement, and with a defense no stronger than "It's not me!" The prosecution will attempt to prove that it was in fact R. Kelly who is the man in the video, and that the girl was in fact under the legal age of consent. If convicted, R. Kelly will face up to 15 years behind bars, and god knows what fines and penalties will follow. All is not well in the R. Kelly camp, but we salute him. Not necessarily for his questionable sexual morals, but for his tenacity. There is an R. Kelly in us all, and we can only hope to exhibit his brand of conviction when the shit hits the fan. Or, in this case, the piss.

Download Time: Nancy Agram (نانسي نبيل عجرم)

Nancy Nabil Ajram or Nancy Agram is a Lebanese pop singer. She's sold over 40 million records in the Arab World, which is some Michael Jackson shit. This song is a smash.


Download: Ah Wa Nuss.mp3

Saturday BBQ

Our friend John had a BBQ/ show at is house. The Muslims played and another band who's name I don't know (sorry band.) Summer fun has begun.

Community Shorts Aftermath

The LA Community Shorts went off without a hitch. It was well attended and the mood was merry. After the screening, we danced in Rickey's space, went to gold room where Russ bought 30 something 'dollar tequila shots', went back to Rickey's space and danced etc. My little brother was there and charmed the pants off the young ladies and Felipe is very relaxed today. 
Brian Miller


Felipe here, laying down some moves Elaine Bennis style





Russ Finkelstein after unsuccessfully hitting on Ashley Fenton, an age-old classic.