Why I Love My Mother

E-Mail from Tuesday afternoon:

Hello Jordan:

I just wanted to remind you that you still have your parents living and healthy in the State of New Jersey.

I don't ever remember being so busy that I could not call and say hello to my mother.

I hope you are well.

Love, Mom

Go ahead - you can laugh. It's true. Sometimes life gets too fast and days pass by. We speak a few times a week but I admit, I am not as good as she is at making calls. But, then again, getting e-mails like this reminds me of how much I love her. She has the ability to absolutely crack me up. I laughed for fifteen minutes when I read this tonight. I anticipate getting a similar one sent to me once she notices that I posted it here in the Basement.

Truth is, I am not too busy to say hello to my mother. So, I will do it right here for all to see:

HI MOM!!!!!

I love you!! Don't ever change.

Jews at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!

Hee hee...that title should attract some interesting Google searchers to Jawdy's Basement!! :-)

But it's TRUE!!

Elijah took part in the Interfaith Concert a few weeks back and got to sing with his Hebrew School choir at the Tabernacle downtown!! Click here for the pictures and videos of this event. It was very cool and, even though you can't really see him sitting up in the rafters singing, he was definately there belting out "Shabbat Shalom" at the top of his lungs!!

Days of Future Past

My friend Gary and I used to spend countless hours in the original Jawdy's Basement on Country Club Drive in Cherry Hill, NJ jumping around playing air guitar to our favorite Judas Priest and Def Leppard songs in the early 1980's. When I say hours...I mean HOURS. Between those jam sessions and playing Intellivision and Strat-O-Matic, there was little time for anything else. All I can think of now is....THANK GOD THERE WAS NO SUCH THING AS GUITAR HERO BACK THEN....

If you have been in a cave for the last few years, this is what I am talking about. Deb bought it for me this week and I knew as soon as I strapped that guitar to my body that I was in for something spiritual. Since I got the game on Tuesday I have not stopped playing it. I've been transformed into a guitar god and am finally realizing my dream of stepping on the stage and making 23 year old girls throw their bras at me. Plus my kids think I am totally cool.

Gary has the game as well. He got it last month. We both play it on the Nintendo Wii and that means we can hook up via the net to play with eachother in career mode. When that happens, all of the memories of the jam sessions in Jawdy's Basement will return.

So is it bad for a 40 year old father of three to spend time jumping around his living room with a toy guitar strapped to his back screaming, "WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!!!!"??? The answer is simple. NOT if his kids are screaming back at him, "GO DADDY!!! YOU RAWK!!!!!!!"

I am just worried that I may stuff my slacks with a few pair of those tube socks I never threw away....

Anyway - on the subject of music. Most of you know my passion for most anything that rocks. I don't discuss music here in the Basement much because people always expect stories about the kids and such. However, there is so much fantastic music coming out these days and I am in heaven. My commute to work is so short so my listening times are at night when the kids are in bed and the headphones are strapped to my head (like now!). Anyway - my tastes are quite progressive these days and have been for a few years. If you want to hear GREAT music that rocks but is not the shite that's all over modern radio - check out some of the following albums - all released in the last twelve months...

The Dear Hunter - The Meaning of & All Things Regarding Ms. Leading
Phideaux - Doomsday Afternoon
Pure Reason Revolution - The Dark Third
The Pineapple Thief - What We Have Sown
Ayreon - 01011001
Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement
Sieges Even - Paramount
Foo Fighters - Echoes Silence Patience & Grace
Fish - 13th Star
Sixx A.M. - The Heroin Diaries
Kim Mitchell - Aint Life Amazing
Threshold - Dead Reckoning
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet

OK - there's the music section that most everyone will skip. LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC!!!!

Oh - one more thing. That trip to Alaska that I wrote about? The defendant is GUILTY as charged! Guess I did my job! See the story here.

OK!! Back to shredding my toy guitar to Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me!!"

Seth

Most of you know that I spent ten years as a chaptor advisor in South Jersey Region AZA. My chapter was the Marlcrest Muchachos #2149. These ten years were some of the more rewarding and fulfilling of my life. The aspect of the whole experience that I never expected was the lasting relationships that I would forge during those years. To this day, I am still very much in touch with about a dozen of my "old kids" and Deb is in touch with a bunch of her girls as well.

This past Tuesday, there was a terrible tragedy in Hoboken, NJ. There was an apartment fire that displaced 40 families and took a young man's life. That man was Seth Dembowitz.

Click here for the story.

Seth Dembowitz was the older of two of the most charismatic brothers I've ever met. The other being his younger brother, Adam. Seth was of one of the first Godols (Presidents) in our chapter history. He made his mark as a strong leader and showed skills well beyond his years. Deb and I had a special relationship with Seth because he was dating one of Deb's girls (Elise Lipoff) and the two of them were the sweethearts of our region for awhile. We remember one specific evening when we invited Seth and Elise to our apartment for a double date. Deb cooked dinner for the four of us and it was a night I never forgot.

Seth went on to become President of his college Fraternity at Rutgers and continued to hone his leadership skills in recent years working for several large companies in New York City while living in Hoboken.

The news hit Deb and I like a ton of bricks. If we were in NJ, all of the BBYO kids from back in the day would have been at our house grieiving and talking about Seth. We especially hurt for Adam, who had become almost like a son to us over the years and who was very close with his brother, especially in recent years.

The funeral was today. Deb is in on a business trip in Malibu and I am here with the kids, unable to travel east. Plus I'm just over a weeklong battle with what the doctor called "mild pneumonia". Probably could not fly anyway. I heard the ceremony was beautiful. There were about a dozen Marlcrest guys there to represent, which was nice to hear.

So that's been my day. Getting over being sick, single dad for six days, unable to fly to PA for a funeral that I really should have been at and now Hannah is sick with a fever. Somebody throw me a bone!

Oh yeah and the flippin' Giants had to win the Superbowl too....

Rest in Peace, Seth Dembowitz...one of the greatest Muchachos in history....