Joseph Zitt's blog

I landed in Cleveland last night after a surprisingly relaxing flight. Rabbi Yakov met me at a Rapid Transit stop in University Heights, and we headed off to the new place, which is (compared, at least, to the 7'x8' room I was last cooped up in Berkeley) vast and beautiful. After a good night's sleep, I'm logged in from Phoenix Coffee on Lee Ave.

I'm going to spend the day wandering around the area. I intend to walk up Cedar Road to Richmond Ave and find my new workplace. The weather's good, though I'm going to have to reacquaint myself with humidity.

More later...

Here's a very good post from a new Lifehacker feature, "Ungeek to Live" on how to adjust to a new city. I've (virtually) clipped it and will certainly be referring back to it when I get to Cleveland this week.

Following up on Yishai's post from several days ago:

My own religious evolution continues, on a somewhat different but intersecting path.

This article in the New Yorker gives a good sense why some people are leaving the city to move to Buffalo. Map New York to San Francisco and Buffalo to Cleveland, and here I come!

Of course, I'm moving into a suburb rather than the "urban prairie" that the article describes, but a whole lot still holds true...

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb gave a beautiful speech at the Democratic National Convention a few days ago. The takeaway idea from the talk: to love your neighbor as yourself, "Behavior, action, is what counts."

(A hat-tip to the Voz Iz Neias? blog for the link to text and audio.)

There's a good brief article in San Francisco's Jewish newspaper, j: "'Belly' of a tale: One-man play takes dialogue straight from eight Jews". Theatre artist and friend of Tiferet Jonathan Bender will be presenting his work at the San Francisco Fringe Festival, Sept. 6 through Sept. 14 at the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor St. Check out bellyofthewhale.net for more information.

There's an interview with composer Daniel David Feinsmith online at the Teruah - Jewish Music blog (as well as at All About Jewish Theatre).

Here's a video that I just shot. I'm singing one of my favorite of my own songs (the only one for which I can remember all the lyrics and which works unaccompanied), "Lead Me In." You can hear it as a sort of hymn to the Shekhinah. The lyrics are online here.

Enjoy!

Here's a real jaw-dropper. Someone who's apparently cited as a significant literary critic dismisses contemporary Jewish literature because "there's really nothing to write about."

Here's Vivan Gornick interviewed in the Boston Review:

As I finished loading my laundry into a dryer at a Berkeley laundromat this afternoon, I heard a woman's voice (with an accent that I couldn't place) shrieking from outside: "Get out from my face! You! Get out from my face! G'neef! G'neef!"