Category Archives: Americana

Michele’s Cousin’s get together

Americana, Family, Food and Drink

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When I was growing up. my family didn’t much talk about the Holocaust and I have since learned that, at the time, almost nobody did. Out of shame, I think. On the Jewish side, shame that they let the catastrophe – Shoah – happen to them (although, of course, they really didn’t). On the German’s side, shame that they had let themselves become such monsters (although, of course, not all of them were). On everybody’s else’s side, shame that they were passive bystanders (although, of course, in the end, they weren’t). However for much of Michele’s long lost, just found, family – collectively known as The Cousins – the Shoah was the center of their lives.

Michele’s father, Kurt, got out of Europe before the war with, apparently, the help of his – then -wife’s family. They bought him a ticket to the United States where he joined the US Army, watched Europe convulse from the safety of the Aleutian Islands, divorced, changed into a lapsed Catholic named Kurt von Henriksberg from Belgium, remarried, became a photographer and, then, an American success story as Kurt Heath, the developer. In the process, he left his family behind with his old life.

Michele grew up wondering why all of her Catholic  father’s stories didn’t quite line up. So, after Kurt died and after she read and reread his self-written obituary, after she obtained his Social Security application and found out Kurt’s real name was Hoenigsberg, Michele went to the Internet. There she found a family tree that had a branch almost the same as the family Kurt talked about. One of the family, Fred Hilsenrath – in suspenders above – even lived nearby. Michele called him and to see if he was related to her father, while he doubted they were related, he invited us over for dinner (just like Kurt would have done). That was the first clue, the second was their matching accents, and the third was a picture that Claudia brought of their grandfather that was taken in Fred’s home town in Romania.

I had the honor of spending some time with this family at a get together organized by Fred and Michele’s sister, Claudia. In a curious way, I felt very much at home with them. Michele’s cousins give the impression of being closer to my father’s family of my childhood than they do to any part of Michele’s family that I have known.

There is an observational joke sometime attributed to Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, who said For every two Jews, there are three opinions. In many ways that is the core of  the Jewish intellectual legacy. I have been told that it is much of what the Talmud is about and it seems to be the core of both this family and what I remember of my family growing up. Some of my fondest memories of my father – and mother, for that matter – are arguments. Arguments over Dred Scott v. Sandford or the desirability of a tram to the top of Mt. San Jacinto with my dad; here, arguments over Israel or affordable health care. There were more than two Jews at the reunion – and because this is a modern family, and much of it, a modern American family, there were more than just Jews – and many more than three opinions.

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There was also time for more than arguing and discussing the world at the reunion, there was time to eat – lots of time to eat – Cousins-1863

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There was time to visit with grandchildren,

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time to tell stories, and take photographs.

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At the end of the day, there was time to drink a toast to life, to resilience, and to family.

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A couple of thoughts while going to the movies

Americana, Film

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We saw Elysium over the weekend and I enjoyed it. As Anthony Lane says in The New Yorker, At last, a good big film….here is something angry and alive, at least until until we tried to make sense of it while driving home. Then it all sort of fell apart. Michele would say Wait a minute, why did they….and I would have no answer.

But during the movie, sitting in the dark, it is engrossing and believable. It is bright and fast and very, very, alive as well as Matt Damon being the perfect everyman for the part. One little bit that made me chuckle was the bad guy’s personal space shuttle was a Bugatti. And it had the gestalt of a Bugatti. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons that the movie worked so well, is that it felt so real, just like the director’s previous movie, District 9.

Going in, we passed a long line of people waiting to see Lee Daniels The Butler and going out, we saw a long line waiting to see Instructions not included, a movie I had never heard of. Elysium had a – probably – majority Hispanic cast and, I found out after I got home Instructions not included is a movie, in Spanish – or mostly Spanish – about guy from Acapulco. I read somewhere that Pacific Rim was filmed to cater to the Asian market. No wonder that the bigots are going crazy, they are losing.

One of the things that appeals to me about Elysium is the director, Neill Blomkamp. Not Neill Blomkamp, per se, but Neill Blomkamp the idea of what is good about Hollywood, or Southern California, if you prefer. A couple of years ago, he was nobody, he made a two minute movie, a four minute movie, after that a six minute movie, finally a fifteen minute movie – no kidding – then District 9.  District 9 was a hit and Hollywood gave him about $110,000,000 to make  Elysium. No where else, that I can think of, is that possible.

Before and after watching Elysium on the big screen, we watched Che on the little screen. Or, more accurately, I watched the first half of Che before Elysium and then I re-watched it with Michele. Che is by Steven Soderbergh, another guy who came out of nowhere. He made a fifteen minute film about sex to interest investors for his full length film Sex, Lies & Videotape (also about sex, duh!).

Sex, Lies & Videotape made about $24,741,700 on an investment of $1,200,000 and Soderbergh was off and running, cranking out an Ocean’s Eleven or Twelve every time he needed money to make a Bubble or a Che. Che is hugely ambitious and can be seen as either one four and an half hour film or two two hour films depending on how you want to watch it. I went for the bifurcated version and have only seen the first half so far. It is a a slow, almost zen meditation on guerrilla war. For a long time it seems to go nowhere and then I began to realize that it was subtly pulling me along a path that I hadn’t realized I was on.

The photography – in the jungle especially – is one of the main characters. Benicio Del Torro is Che and his performance is an understated tour de force.  I can not imagine two movies more different than Elysium and Che, they are both very worth seeing but, for me Che is the more powerful and memorable.

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Syria

Americana, War

Feeling lucky? I read a couple of days ago that only about nine percent of the American public wants us to get into a war over Syria. Count me in the other 93% on this one. It is easy to say that Americans are tired of war, and we are, but there also seems to be a no plan problem here. How does a Syrian intervention fit into our overall Middle Eastern Strategy? Oh, and by the way, what is out overall Middle Eastern Strategy?

According to Reuters, The United States made clear on Friday that it would punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the “brutal and flagrant” chemical weapons attack that it says killed more than 1,400 people in Damascus last week. What wasn’t made clear is that any punishing of Bashar al-Assad is really punishing someone else. By killing them, or trying to kill them.

If revenge is a dish best served cold, punishment is a dish best served hot. The longer we wait, the less it seems like there is a connection between what we are doing and what Syria did.

Obama said yesterday that we have to attack Assad, because our credibility is on the line. In other words, he is saying we are going to to destroy stuff in Syria and kill people in Syria for reasons that have nothing to do with Syria. It is now because our credibility is on the line. If our reason becomes about us, it really is not legitimate. The only legitimate reason for bombing Syria is to save Syrian lives and suffering. Bombing to save face isn’t bombing Syria to help its people.

It also seems to me that if we threaten to bomb somebody next time it,  it would still be a threat even if we didn’t bomb this time. It still would depend on the circumstances.

Literally now can mean figuratively…really

Americana, Psychological Musings, Uncategorized

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I heard on the radio yesterday, that the second definition of Literally is now figuratively. It is the first time I can remember that the misuse of a word – “It was literally raining cats and dogs.” – has become acceptable usage. I know it has happened innumerable times in the past, silly used to mean very  religious,  somehow flammable and inflammable came to mean the same thing, everybody knows what you mean when you say The fireworks were cool. but….this is the first time I have seen it happen, literally in front of my eyes.

Oh, the house above, we saw it while puttering about in Michele’s cousin’s boat, looking at tornado damage, around Greers Ferry Reservoir. The house was literally totaled.  Take that anyway you want.