Commie Curmudgeon

OK, I’m finally taking on one of these blogging memes. Asfo_del passed this one on to me: Reveal five things about yourself. How could I resist? I think I’m going to say a few things about my cultural identity, background, and tastes. And within those five things that I’m revealing about myself, I guess I’m also revealing a few other things…

1. I am supposedly Jewish. I’ve mentioned this a couple of times on this blog, but not often. I was never brought up with much Jewish religion, and I rejected anybody’s attempt to educate me in that area from early on. (I refused to go for a bar mitzvah, even though I was told it would bring me lots of presents.) My father was a pretty strong atheist, because he had rebelled against my grandmother, who was a superstitious Jewish peasant from the Ukraine. My mother went down a different path - she became a big Shakespeare nut and an Anglophile, and I think she would have liked to have more of an opportunity to join the Anglican church. I’ve never felt partial to any church, synagogue, mosque, temple, etc. And I find it peculiar to be identified in a way that connects me to a religion I couldn’t possibly believe in, because I don’t believe in God. But, of course, there is a fine, long tradition of atheist Jews: Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Emma Goldman... (Not only atheists, but also different kinds of communists!)

2. I grew up on an international diet of takeout and restaurant food. (A family tradition that I proudly continue, no matter how broke I am.) My mother cooked once in a while and was actually a pretty good cook back in the day, but she worked full-time as a high school teacher and was essentially the steady breadwinner (while my father tried various kinds of employment in business, some briefly successful, many not), so there was really no time for my sister and me to be treated to much home-cooked fare. But we got to enjoy all the foods of the world, from Italian to Chinese, to Caribbean, to my favorite, Indian food.

3. I used to be a pretty big Desiphile; that is, I had a particular fondness for things (and some people) originating from, or descended from, the cultures of the Indian Subcontinent. I still have some of that tendency now, but it was much bigger during the 1990s. It probably peaked in the mid-late ‘90s, around that period of several months when I had a Pakistani girlfriend. I’ve always really liked Indian food, music and clothing, some of the art and many aspects of the culture, both the Hindu and Muslim sides. (Though I never had any interest whatsoever in the actual religions of Hinduism or Islam, or Buddhism, for that matter.) I’ve also been fascinated by certain social innovations found in India, such as the workers' co-ops in Kerala. Of course, some friends reading this already know all this about me, but some people don’t. I have usually tried to avoid admitting this to South Asian acquaintances (especially to certain people I know from the anarchist organizing scene). Anyway, the tendency isn’t as strong as it once was. For instance, I don’t listen to Indian music or Asian Underground as much. I’ve moved much more toward Caribbean sounds (which I also liked a lot back in the ‘80s), especially since I became a fan of M.I.A. (Oh, but wait a minute...)

P.S. I also still like to check out this rather interesting and very popular Desi blog. And I like this other one, from a Desi Londoner, especially for the food recipes (not that there’s much of a chance I’ll ever stay home and cook any of this – though I have made some pretty good biryanis in the past few years).

4. I used to absolutely love to go out dancing, and I was very uninhibited about it. People who knew how introverted I usually was couldn’t believe how much I opened up when I went out dancing. But, of course, this was at punk and new wave clubs, and then at acid house and techno events (clubs, mostly – I’ve been to very few raves). So I was never a disco dancing fiend a la “Saturday Night Fever”... And I was very selective about what I danced to. I had a girlfriend throughout my 20s who loved the fact that I liked to go dancing so much; that’s probably one of the things that caused us to stay together much longer than we should have. But she sometimes got annoyed because she wanted to dance to anything, and there were a lot of things that they played in the clubs that I just refused to dance to. That caused a few arguments but, then, so did everything else.

5. I tend to like television much more than movies. I don’t see much TV these days because I don’t want to pay for cable and I have crappy reception and I spend too much “spare” time already looking at the computer screen. But when I have access to a TV with decent reception, I’ll definitely watch it much more than I’ll ever go to the movies. Part of the reason is economic; movies in New York City just cost too much. But I think most movies are overhyped and overrated. I can’t think of the last time I saw a movie at the cinema and actually thought it was worth the price of admission. Although, I probably haven’t gone to the movies in at least a year... There are some TV shows that I got to see this year that I would watch regularly if I had the chance. I was quite impressed by the one episode of The Wire that I saw. And I confess that I like CSI – just the original one, the one that takes place in Las Vegas. I like most of the characters (my favorite one is Brass – yes, I like the cop more than anyone else on the show – because he’s such a good curmudgeon). And, of course, there’s the music – they’ve actually played both Dead Can Dance and Portishead... Right now, I do like to watch our New York public television station, WNYC/Channel 25 (where I still can get good reception). I like to catch Globe Trekker and Secrets of New York, and I've also caught some great concert footage on the Summer Stage show (hoping I'll get to see the M.I.A. performance again sometime).

Anyway, now that I’ve played this game, I guess I’m supposed to pass it on to a few other people. I’m going to try Dru Blood (assuming that nobody has sent her this already), ChuckO and the Inveresk Street Ingrate. (Although I have no idea whether or not any of them will want to do this - it's up to them.)