"what's up with this guy?"
anyone visiting this page must think i'm some kind of weird religious fundamentalist or somesuch nonesense.
so here's context: i spent my formative years smoking blunts in dirty jersey but went to rocky horror, bbs'd, and tinkered with cb radios in my youth (in addition to having jaunts through every subcultural experience there is to be had, from rainbow family gatherings to stomping fascholes with sharpie skins) but i also have really religious family. and that in ways has always connected me back to judaism which i look at as something more like a zen or magick practice than some kooky bible thumping cult. right now i live in israel and study jewish texts and mystical practices much in the way you might take vipassana or yoga seriously, or i dunno, crowleyan sexmagick. hasidic judaism, which is sorta my deal now, is like the equivalent of sufism or the laughing buddha method. all these red string wearing hollywood freaks treat kabbalah with yoga mat pretention, but i mean, it's really something when you get to the heart of it with the right intentionality.
but really, that's hardly the bulk of it. in addition to my study and practice, i am dot dot dot a dj on a jointly operated israeli-palestinian radio station called all for peace. i have a show one night a week on fm radio where i play an hour long set of whatever the fuck i feel like. i've got 18 shows archived here if you're interested in checking out the setlists or giving it a listen.
i also coordinate hip hop cultural events in jerusalem under the banner of promoting peace and tolerance between the divergent ethnic and religious communities here. so we have, for example, a monthly freestyle cipher where israelis, palestinians, americans, russian immigrants, religious and secular jews, christians and muslims alike, all come together and throw down rhymes and beatbox rhythms in their native tongues. you can peep video from the events here.
beyond that, i also do freelance website design. some of my clients, who i'm also fortunate enough to call my friends, are genesis p-orridge (of throbbing gristle and psychic tv), douglas rushkoff (a media theorist with a couple of frontline docs under his belt), and r.u. sirius (founding editor of mondo 2000 magazine). i do a lot of work for musicians, including roir recording artist dufus and the hasidic reggae superstar himself, matisyahu. i am also, incidentally, the inadvertent creator of hipster rock megalith bling kong.
i have a very popular jewishly themed blog, jewschool, which has roughly 40,000 visitors monthly and contributors from heeb and other jewish hipster institutions. the blogging thing landed me a number of writing gigs. for the last year i was a contributing editor to jewsweek magazine, and i've recently done music journalism for the jerusalem post. i'm currently authoring a book on the relationship between jews and drugs throughout history, from the shamanic rites of the ancient israelites, through the israeli trance scene (which has thus far entailed a number of extrodinary interviews and experiences, including learning to synthesize ayahuasca from plants growing locally in israel).
i'm also deeply involved in political activism. i used to co-organize a weekly anti-bush demonstration in nyc called "the thursday night bush bash" which was featured in shout magazine and was a time out new york pick for what to do on a thursday night. during the buildup to the war in iraq i became very involved with anti-war and anti-globalization activism. i had a fairly well known website in nyc called jakeneck (which was only recently disbanded), and i did a lot of work with the rncnotwelcome coalition, including designing the now infamous metrocard parody design. i was a member of an affinity group there, involved in direction action, but after one too many run-ins with the law decided to chill on it for a bit.
here in israel i've been working with a number of anti-occupation activist groups, but more in the realm of p.r. than in direct action. who knows what the future will bring, however.
all of this comes from the fact that i've been cranking out underground newspapers and the like since childhood. for some reason it's always been my passion, so long as i can remember. everything else has ultimately been an extension of that.
i also do art and make a little of my own music. my portfolio is here and my audio samples here. you can read about me in the press here.
anyone visiting this page must think i'm some kind of weird religious fundamentalist or somesuch nonesense.
so here's context: i spent my formative years smoking blunts in dirty jersey but went to rocky horror, bbs'd, and tinkered with cb radios in my youth (in addition to having jaunts through every subcultural experience there is to be had, from rainbow family gatherings to stomping fascholes with sharpie skins) but i also have really religious family. and that in ways has always connected me back to judaism which i look at as something more like a zen or magick practice than some kooky bible thumping cult. right now i live in israel and study jewish texts and mystical practices much in the way you might take vipassana or yoga seriously, or i dunno, crowleyan sexmagick. hasidic judaism, which is sorta my deal now, is like the equivalent of sufism or the laughing buddha method. all these red string wearing hollywood freaks treat kabbalah with yoga mat pretention, but i mean, it's really something when you get to the heart of it with the right intentionality.
but really, that's hardly the bulk of it. in addition to my study and practice, i am dot dot dot a dj on a jointly operated israeli-palestinian radio station called all for peace. i have a show one night a week on fm radio where i play an hour long set of whatever the fuck i feel like. i've got 18 shows archived here if you're interested in checking out the setlists or giving it a listen.
i also coordinate hip hop cultural events in jerusalem under the banner of promoting peace and tolerance between the divergent ethnic and religious communities here. so we have, for example, a monthly freestyle cipher where israelis, palestinians, americans, russian immigrants, religious and secular jews, christians and muslims alike, all come together and throw down rhymes and beatbox rhythms in their native tongues. you can peep video from the events here.
beyond that, i also do freelance website design. some of my clients, who i'm also fortunate enough to call my friends, are genesis p-orridge (of throbbing gristle and psychic tv), douglas rushkoff (a media theorist with a couple of frontline docs under his belt), and r.u. sirius (founding editor of mondo 2000 magazine). i do a lot of work for musicians, including roir recording artist dufus and the hasidic reggae superstar himself, matisyahu. i am also, incidentally, the inadvertent creator of hipster rock megalith bling kong.
i have a very popular jewishly themed blog, jewschool, which has roughly 40,000 visitors monthly and contributors from heeb and other jewish hipster institutions. the blogging thing landed me a number of writing gigs. for the last year i was a contributing editor to jewsweek magazine, and i've recently done music journalism for the jerusalem post. i'm currently authoring a book on the relationship between jews and drugs throughout history, from the shamanic rites of the ancient israelites, through the israeli trance scene (which has thus far entailed a number of extrodinary interviews and experiences, including learning to synthesize ayahuasca from plants growing locally in israel).
i'm also deeply involved in political activism. i used to co-organize a weekly anti-bush demonstration in nyc called "the thursday night bush bash" which was featured in shout magazine and was a time out new york pick for what to do on a thursday night. during the buildup to the war in iraq i became very involved with anti-war and anti-globalization activism. i had a fairly well known website in nyc called jakeneck (which was only recently disbanded), and i did a lot of work with the rncnotwelcome coalition, including designing the now infamous metrocard parody design. i was a member of an affinity group there, involved in direction action, but after one too many run-ins with the law decided to chill on it for a bit.
here in israel i've been working with a number of anti-occupation activist groups, but more in the realm of p.r. than in direct action. who knows what the future will bring, however.
all of this comes from the fact that i've been cranking out underground newspapers and the like since childhood. for some reason it's always been my passion, so long as i can remember. everything else has ultimately been an extension of that.
i also do art and make a little of my own music. my portfolio is here and my audio samples here. you can read about me in the press here.
sharona1881:
welcome to the site... im currently recovering from having my tonsils out, so i only skimmed through your website, but i must say im impressed and intrigued by the things you have experienced and your outlook on life. hope youre having a great pesach, although it sure seems that way. ciao.