Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival 2010 featuring Father's Footsteps
It’s Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival time, and since most of you reading this post don’t live in New Jersey, I thought we could have a little fun with a “Guess the Film” game.
Without looking beyond the main film page, can you guess which three films are already sold out? The films are listed in the left sidebar (click on the large graphic above to get to the main film page). No cheating.
Can you name the film that my husband and I plan to attend?
Finally, if you did live in New Jersey, which films would you want to see? Answers to the second question (which film are my husband and I attending) will be posted early next week.
Second in my series of interviews with bloggers on writing (see interview with Lorri of Jew Wishes), Shimshonit kindly responded to my questions with revealing and thoughtful answers. Shimshonit lives in Israel and blogs about family life, Israeli politics, books, Jewish topics, food (I think every Jew must blog about food – no?). She used to live in my childhood home town of Newton (she said we met once, but I don’t remember the meeting, which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen – but neither of us were bloggers at the time; blogging didn’t exist yet).
1) When did you realize that you like to write?
I’ve loved writing ever since I learned to write. Even as a child, I used to write letters to friends and relatives. Writing has been almost as big an obsession for me as reading. In high school, when I was learning to write expository essays, I found it incredibly frustrating to have my writing picked apart and critiqued by very hard teachers. But I emerged in the end a much more confident writer, more aware of grammar, of words, of voice.
2) When did you realize that you like to read?
Again, when I first learned to read. I’ve always loved stories, and to be able to read them myself gave me an independence from relying on others to tell them to me.
3) Which authors influenced you in your youth? Which authors or writers influence you now? (influence of style or in life choices or both)
I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder’s stories of her pioneer family. Her family’s courage, self-sufficiency, warmth and love appealed to me. In junior high school I discovered J.R.R. Tolkien, whose love of poetry and epic storytelling fed my love of adventure, languages, and travel, and spoke to my Anglo-Saxon soul. It was Tolkien who, in one of his very few women characters, gave me Éowyn, perhaps my favorite character of all time, whose restlessness and rebellion led to one of the pivotal acts which saved the people of her world from destruction. (Photo at right is Miranda Otto as Éowyn in the Peter Jackson films).
As an adult, I’ve always admired Charles Dickens for his quirky characters and brutal honesty about the good and bad in people. I think Great Expectations may be my favorite novel of all time. My second favorite is probably a tie between George Eliot’s sweeping, intelligent, sensitive Middlemarch and Jane Austen’s quieter, subtler novel Persuasion. For a little humor, I love Pride and Prejudice and anything by P.G. Wodehouse. I could go on forever, but I’ll spare you.
4) Have you ever taken a creative writing course?
I took a year-long college course on the American short story in my early 20s, reading the likes of Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Gardner, studying their craft carefully, writing my own stories, and working with the rest of the class as a critique group. We continued on our own for three years after that class. It was marvelous. While I don’t write fiction nowadays, that experience has given a distinctive flavor to my nonfiction writing, and has given me much sharper skills as a reader besides.
5) Have you ever studied journalism?
No.
6) Do you find writing or talking an easier way to express yourself, or are both writing and talking similar vehicles of self-expression for you?
I prefer writing to talking. I don’t think at all well on my feet. I like writing for the opportunity to compose and edit my words carefully, and avoid saying anything I don’t mean or might regret later. I also like writing because it allows me to think on paper (or, more accurately these days, on screen). I’ve heard it said that you know what you think about something once you’ve written about it. I share that sentiment.
7) Have you written short stories or poetry (or would you like to do so)?
Yes, but nothing I would care to show anyone now. Disappointment (in employment, in love) make for great poetic inspiration, but very dull reading. And I don’t think I was a very good fiction writer. I write nonfiction when I’m content, and that’s what I’ve been writing for a long time now.
Please add a favorite quote.
The last lines of Middlemarch, which often make me think of my own life:
Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
I enjoyed these thought-provoking questions. Thank you!
If you enjoyed this interview, you may also enjoy:
My daughter and her friend enjoyed their ride on the Philadelphia Zoo carousel last week.
I imagine this parrot is saying “Awk! I am a handsome dude, aren’t I? Awk!”
There is so much to see at the Philly Zoo that we only saw about half the place when we heard it was closing time. The girls really enjoyed the petting zoo and the big cats (pumas, leopards, lions).
For more posts with a lot or a little red, visit:
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I am running a new series interviewing bloggers who like to write about writing. The first one was an interview with Lorri of Jew Wishes. Please come back tomorrow and next week for the next two in this series. Thank you.
Sometimes you can photograph an ordinary bridge and get some good shots. This bridge goes over the Raritan River, and on top is Route 18, a busy thoroughfare that takes you from New Brunswick, through East Brunswick, and eventually leads down to the Jersey Shore area.
This is the top of the bridge. I liked the colorful leaves growing on the fence.
Unfortunately, graffiti is too common a site on bridges in our area.
The bottom of the bridge with the Raritan River: the bridge is at the end of our walk that started at Rutgers Gardens.
Goldenrod growing by the Raritan River in Central New Jersey
Goldenrod was growing by the Raritan River near Rutgers Gardens. Goldenrod is blamed for allergies, but that’s because it blooms at the same time as ragweed.
Thursday Challenge theme is GOLDEN (Jewelry, Coins, Sun, Leaves, Fields, Hair,…).
Next Week: MESSY (Children, Rooms, Garage, Yard, Disorganized, Hair,…)
Inspired by Shimshonit’s Foodie interviews, Ilana-Davita’s interviews last summer and by Hannah’s Cooking Manager interviews (links at bottom), I decided to come up with a series of my own. Who would be most likely to answer a series of questions, I thought? Writers! I decided to interview a few people about writing.
Thank you so much, Lorri M., for being my first one! Lorri M. writes the blog Jew Wishes; I greatly enjoy her book reviews, thoughts on current and past events, picturesque photos, and her warmth. About her blog she writes: “My only goal with this blog is to try to foster religious and cultural awareness relating to Judaism.”
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1) When did you realize that you like to write?
I realized I liked to write when I was an adolescent, starting with poetry and short stories. I would write my thoughts down on scraps of paper, or whatever was handy for me to write on, whenever an idea for a line or two of poetry, or whenever I thought of a good sentence/s to use for a short story, so I wouldn’t lose the thought or idea.
2) When did you realize that you like to read?
I loved reading the moment I was given books as a very young child, even before starting grade school. I would browse through the pictures in the books over and over again, and learned to read simple words before I began grade school. My parents encouraged me to enjoy reading, and fostered my love of books.
3) Which authors influenced you in your youth? Which authors or writers influence you now? (influence of style or in life choices or both)
I am an avid Bronte sisters fan, both of their novels and their poetry. I have been since I was a young teenager. Jane Eyre is my all time favorite classic novel. I also enjoyed Jane Austen’s works. Their depictions of their surroundings filled my senses. I liked how they would bring me back to a time and place that intrigued and fascinated me, and remember hoping and dreaming that one day I would be able to visit those places, especially the moors of Haworth, the home of the Bronte sisters. I have visited Haworth and the Bronte Parsonage several times, and have visited other cities that the Brontes sisters traveled to and lived in for a while. One can see why they wrote what they did about their environment…and the visits were so illuminating. I have also visited Jane Austen’s birthplace and homes.
The authors who influence me now are ones related to WWII/Shoah/Holocaust memoirs, Jewish Literature and Jewish authors. I incorporate these authors and their works into my daily life choices and in my own writing. Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Herman Wouk, A.B. Yehoshua, Sholem Alecheim, Amos Oz, Aharon Appelfeld, Belva Plain, Meir Shalev, and so many others, give me food for thought and discussion, and bring me illumination, both in the non-fictional and fictional prose and in religious radiance.
4) Have you ever taken a creative writing course?
I majored in English (writing) in college and university, and English Literature was my minor .
5) Have you ever studied journalism?
I took several journalism courses during my college days.
6) Do you find writing or talking an easier way to express yourself, or are both writing and talking similar vehicles of self-expression for you?
Both writing and speaking are similar forms of self-expression for me. With my writing, I can try to paint pictures with my articulation of scenarios I am trying to depict. With verbal communication, the articulation and expressiveness is fairly similar to my writing. I try to include metaphors, symbolism, and structure in my writing, that conforms closely to my verbal expressions.
7) Have you written short stories or poetry (or would you like to do so)?
I have written poems that have been published in small presses and publications, not major pubications. I have written short stories that have also been published in small presses, along with some travel articles. I am in the midst of writing two books, one is fiction and one is non-fiction. The non-fiction work is a family history of sorts, including detailed research other than genealogical research.
I asked Lorri to provide a favorite quote or poem. Here are her selections:
One of my favorite quotes is by Eleanor Roosevelt.
“A woman is like a tea bag — you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.”
One of my favorite poems, entitled Epitaph, was written by the poet Merritt Malloy. It encompasses my own feelings and thoughts regarding humankind and humanity, and on remembrance and not forgetting those you love/d or those who came into your life and made a difference, no matter long a time or how short a time you might have known them.
When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.
And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you.
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give them
What you need to give to me.
I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.
Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live on your eyes
And not on your mind.
You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands,
By letting
Bodies touch bodies,
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.
Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away.
Her poetry has been included in many Shabbat services throughout the years and throughout the country, including on Yom Kippur.
• • •
Thank you, Lorri, for sharing with us.
Here are links to interviews by the three bloggers I mentioned at the top of this post:
Fading Rudbeckia with Purple Verbena in the Background
On My Blog
It’s been a while since I did a review, so perhaps this should be a month in review (or two months?). Jewish holidays can do that to you – you can’t remember what it was you were planning in mid August, and all of a sudden it’s October. I was very busy putting up the films for the Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival in September – if you live in New Jersey, I hope you will see one of the films!
There are some lovely paths by the Raritan River in the back of Rutgers Gardens. We enjoyed walking through nature last Sunday.
Some leaves were changing to red; not all the leaves looked so healthy. I wondered if it was because of the dry summer we had.
Is this what Monet saw before he painted his famous lily pads?
I believe this pretty lavender flower by the river is a cleome.
I was excited to see milkweed, as Michelle of Rambling Woods has talked about it on her blog as attractive to butterflies. And I even saw some milkweed aphids, too.
And since many of you enjoy seeing my family, here’s my husband and daughter. The chocolate around her mouth is probably from an Oreo cookie, which may not be a very natural food, but it’s in her nature to enjoy cookies.
For more Nature Notes:
Rabbi Bassous related the following story on Shabbat:
About thirty years ago when the Soviet Union first opened its doors, an elderly woman arrived in Israel who was visited by many rabbis. She was not religious, but she was the granddaughter of someone famous: the Chofetz Chaim. They wanted to hear about her conversations with and stories about her famous grandfather. There was one story in particular that was related. The granddaughter, against her parents’ and grandfather’s wishes, had attended university. After much education, she came back to her grandfather and said to him, when are you going to give up your old-fashioned ways? The world is moving forward with science and technology; all sorts of exciting new discoveries are happening. The Chofetz Chaim replied, with all these great discoveries, they will build bombs. One day there will be a bomb to destroy the world. While they are building bombs, I am building people.
Rabbi Bassous then went on to relate this to the parsha, where the people build a tower toward the skies.
