Cohesive Lemmings

"Complete History of the United States [abridged]" at Center Stage Theater

2008-09-05T07:47:03Z

Greetings, all and sundry,

Many of you are familiar with the Reduced Shakespeare Company, who wrote and performed "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged]," in which three actors run through every single Shakespeare play (plus sonnets!) in an hour and a half. The RSC have written a bunch more plays in a similar vein, and the amatuer theater company at Merkaz HaMagshimim is putting on one of them this week.

So, Ladies and Gentlemen - The Complete History of The United States, abridged. From what I've heard, it's a funny, funny show, with great actors, and I'm really looking forward to it. Rachel and I are going with friends this Monday (currently a party of 9, and counting), and we'd love to see you there too. Or, if Monday's no good for you, there are shows Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday as well. I highly recommend.

Shows are at 8pm; tickets are 50 shekel apiece, and can be reserved in advance and paid for at the show. Let me know if you want to come on Monday; I'll reserve you a ticket :D

--z

Continuity RPG - Friday, Jerusalem

2008-08-24T18:59:00Z

הי אנשים וחברים,

יום שישי הקרוב, אני מריץ את משחק המסע-בזמן שלי, Continuity, לטובת כמה מנחים שיריצו אותו באייקון. יש לנו 2 מקומות פנויים - מישהו רוצה להצטרף?

הכיף של המשחק הוא שכל הדמויות הן אותו אדם - סוכן זמן מוכשר מאין כמוהו - שמגיעות מנקודות שונות ברצף הזמן. המתעניינים יוכלו למצוא את דפי הדמויות כאן, שעשויים לייצג את המשחק די טוב.

אם מעוניינים - פשוט תרימו טלפון. :)

--זיו

לא כאילו שלא ידעתם

2008-08-20T18:59:28Z

אבל הסבב האחרון-אחרון של נמשך עד מוצ"ש.

בהצלחה למעוניינים :)

Follow-up

2008-07-31T19:43:38Z

To my previous post:

They're dinky - they're Pinchas and the Gr"a, Gr"a, Gr"a, Gr"a...

A big thankee to Sonia :)

Lexicon - stubs round

2008-07-29T19:05:51Z

עכשיו בתחרות טוגל, אנחנו עושים סבב קצרמרים, ואני די מתלהב מהרעיון (של חנן, שבינתיים זכה פעמיים וסרב לקבל פרסים). מדובר בכתיבת מאמרים קצרצרים, שבעיקר נותנים טעם של הערך ומציעים קשרים בינו לבין ערכים אחרים. מומלץ בחום למי שעד עכשיו התעניין אבל פשוט לא היה לו זמן...

לקסיקון טוגל, סבב 2

2008-07-21T22:42:10Z

סבב שני מסתיים מחר בערב- לכל המעוניינים שלא הצקתי להם מספיק, אתר התחרות.

בינתיים רק רפרפתי בשניים מהערכים שקיבלנו, ונראה מעניין... ואני די מתלהב מהטוויסט החדש שלנו, להציע כפרס נוסף משחק בעולם המערכה. זה גם נותן לנו הרבה יותר זוכים, וגם פרס הרבה יותר אישי וייחודי...

נחכה לתוצאות. בינתיים, המון תודה לכל החברים שלי, שלא רק סובלים את ההצקות הבלתי-פוסקות שלי, אלא רבים וטובים מהם גם באמת משתתפים בתחרות. המון תודה לכולכם :)

_standback_ @ 2008-07-13T20:24:00

2008-07-13T17:27:26Z

So I've got an idea for a new TV series, about two yeshiva bachurs, called entitled Pinchas and the Gr"a. Pinchas is a bit of a goof-off, and the Gr"a has this whole holy-visionary thing going on, and... well, I imagine it looking something like this:

Pinchas: So, what're we going to do tonight, Gr"a?
Gr"a: The same thing we do every night, Pinchas - TRY AND BRING THE MESSIAH!

(theme song:)
They're Pinchas and the Gr"a,
Yes, Pinchas and the Gr"a,
One is a tzaddik,
One's meshugana
And from their yeshiva
They'll bring the ge'ulah
They're Pinchas - they're Pinchas and the Gr"a, Gr"a, Gr"a, Gr"a...

Standout episodes include Pinchas and the Gra"s escapades and misadventures as they attempt to hasten the coming of the Messiah, with their schemes to:

freeze the Earth in ice for a weekend so all Jews will keep a Shabbat!
found a breeding farm for albino donkeys,
seek the descendants of King David in the wildest geneology project ever conceived,
and raise the Lubavitcher Rebbe from the dead!

All this, amid our heros' constant efforts to bring about a דור שכולו חוטאים, to raise tzeddaka for their cause, and to get the Gr"a elected as one of the Lamed-Vav Tzaddikkim!

I've got this all pretty well planned out, so I hope you'll soon be seeing Pinchas and the Gr"a weekly on Tuesdays.

Bonus points and brownies for "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" suggestions.

A Most Satisfying Whodunnit

2008-07-08T18:57:21Z

Inspired by Part 2 of Rachel's current programming homework assignment, I am embarking on a new and exciting literary project: I am writing the very first mystery novel written entirely in CNF.

"After rigorous examination," Holmes explained to me, "I have reached a definite conclusion: the murderer must have a birthmark on right cheek--"

"Goodness, Holmes! However did you work such a detail out?"

"I'm not finished, Watson. As I was saying, he has a birthmark on his right cheek, OR he is extremely allergic to fresh trout. OR, he is a direct descendant of Ludwig von Beethoven."

I was stunned by the master detective's display of deduction. "What, one of those three?"

"Yes, Watson. At least one of the three. Possibly more, but certainly no less than one."

"But... but... why, perhaps if we cross this new information with the report from Scotland Yard--"

"Ah, my dear Watson, you refer to the possibility the report raised that the murderer does not in fact have a birthmark on either cheek."

"Well, yes," I said, pleased to be following along with Holmes.

"But you forget," he immediately deflated me, "the report's statement was that he did NOT have a birthmark, OR that chlorificate cyanide is NOT produced exclusively in Brazil. Which is precisely," he said, sweeping out the door, "the clause I hope to ascertain next."

The world may not be ready for the unadulterated genius that is my forthcoming "Sherlock Holmes and the Grim Boolean Perplexity." But at the very least, future generations will acknowledge its brilliance!

...OR, they will eat a yummy pie.

תחרות הלקסיקון שלי

2008-06-25T21:37:20Z

הרבה מכם כבר יודעים על זה; אבל הרבה מכם לא: במוצ"ש הקרוב, נפתחת תחרות שאני מארגן, שמבוססת על משחק הלקסיקון הזכור לטוב, שהקוראים מימים ימימה או סתם כל מי שלא סותם לי את הפה מספיק מהר בוודאי זוכרים.

אז עכשיו עשיתי מזה תחרות. ותיכף זה מתחיל. ואני נורא מבסוט מזה.

עבדתי קשה על התחרות הזו. אני ומיכאל העלנו המון רעיונות איך לעשות את זה בכלל אפשרי. ואני מרוצה מאוד מהתוצאות. השגנו, בתקווה, משחק שיש לו את רוב האלמנטים המגניבים של משחק לקסיקון - המורכבות והיצירתיות שבכתיבה תחת אילוצים - בלי להתעלל בקונספט יותר מדי. הצלחנו, אני מקווה, לעשות את המשחק נגיש, אינטואיטיבי, ולא דורש מחויבות מוגזמת. והצמצום המסיבי במספר הערכים אמנם מוריד מהכיף של ההשפעה המובטחת על המשחק, אבל זה גם מסנן הרבה ערכים סתמיים, מה שאומר שהלקסיקון הסופי אפילו עשוי להיות קריא ומעניין בפני עצמו.

אקיצר, אני מאוד אופטימי לגבי התחרות, ועכשיו כל מה שצריך זה שאנשים באמת ישתתפו. אני מקווה מאוד שהרבה מכם כאן ב-LJ יתעניינו ויכתבו ערכים. משלוש סיבות:
כי אני נורא אשמח לקרוא אותם, וחושב שהחברים שלי יכתבו דברים מוצלחים. כי אני באמת ובתמים חושב שכתיבה ללקסיקון זה דבר נורא כיף ומאתגר, ואני מקווה ומאמין שמאוד תהנו אם תנסו את זה. וכי אם התחרות הזו תצליח, אז שחקני תפקידים וחובבי כתיבה יוצרת ימצאו את עצמם מורווחים, עם דבר פשוט מגניב ונהדר על הידיים, שעוד יש לו פוטנציאל לחזור על עצמו - בתחרויות דומות, ובתחרויות שונות לחלוטין, אבל כולן תלויות בהשתתפות הקהל.

(התנצלויותי לאלו ששמעו את זה מספיק פעמים שזה מתחיל להציק. That's just how excited I am about it. מקווה שאחרים מתלהבים גם.)

אז בקרו באתר. שוטטו קצת, תראו אם מוצא חן בעניכם, אם מתחבר לכם. ואם אתם מוצאים שתוך כדי רפרוף בתחרות, אתם מקבלים הבזקי רעיונות, ורואים לאן אתם רוצים לקחת דברים... אז החל ממוצ"ש, שבו, ותכתבו.

יהיה כיף :)

It's that time of year again...

2008-06-07T22:41:37Z

...when young man's fancy turns to CST Shakespeare productions.

This year, it's "The Taming of the Shrew," put on by the good people of Merkaz HaMagshimim. I've been a loyal fan of their shows in general, and Shakespeare in particular, for several years now, and I really do recommend coming - fun shows, good productions, good location (Moshava Germanit, right off of Emek Refaim), reasonably priced (to wit, 50 shekels), and good company.

Rachel and I, and assorted friends, will be in attendance this Thursday, 12/6, at 8pm. Let us know if you can come too!

PTA - "Stockholm" summary

2008-04-29T09:22:52Z

[roleplaying geekness]
So this Bigor, I decided to do something special: run three subsequent episodes of a single Primetime Adventures campaign, each in a different round, presumably with different players. The assumption here is that a PTA episode stands on its own well enough that players won't mind participating only in one episode, but those that are in more than one - i.e., me - will enjoy it even more. Plus playing an episode things have actually happened before can be more fun and complicated...

Most of you probably aren't too interested beyond this point. But if you are curious, I've posted a summary of the games. It's a cool concept - a drama/suspense miniseries about kidnappers and kidnappees, all cooped up together in a house with nowhere to run and nothing to do but wait... And the games came out very, very cool.

I'm going to shut up now, because I tend to blab for hours about anything PTA-related. Shutting-up commencing...
[/roleplaying geekness]

--now.

Comic Songs

2008-02-17T15:08:51Z

Heya all,

Jeff and I plan to once again grace the stage of Merkaz HaMagshimim's "Acoustic Beit Cafe," with our unique blend of elegance, harmony, and lyrics involving dead pigeons!

United by general geekiness, good fellowship, and a deep appreciation for Tom Lehrer, Jeff and I will be doing a few comic songs. We've got some ideas of which to do this time, but we'd love some suggestions. Just to get you in the right direction, last year we sang Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," Gilbert and Sullivan's "Modern Major General," and Weird Al's "Don't Download This Song."

We'd love more suggestions. Since we're only doing a few songs, we want to make sure to pick really, really, really good ones. Any ideas, from Avenue Q or Weird Al or Capitol Steps or some random parody you read on the 'net somewhere that was amazingly good, I'd much appreciate.

Thoughts?

Sheva Brachot

2008-01-08T22:24:41Z

Hear ye, one and all:

Most of you know that this coming Monday, the 14th of January, Rachel and I will be married. (Huzzah!) Others knew in general but not the particular date; some LJ-only friends might be rather surprised :P (Surprised comments below, loyal readers!)

Many of you are familiar with the concept of the שבע ברכות - Sheva Brachot, the Seven Blessings - wherein, instead of going off on a honeymoon to Paris or Italy or one of Saturn's more pleasant moons, the bride and groom organize more parties celebrating their wedding. What's really nice about the Sheva Brachot is that they're so much smaller, more casual, and more intimate - at the Sheva Brachot, as opposed to the wedding, it's much easier for the Lucky Couple to actually exchange a couple of words with all their friends, and actually enjoy themselves and relax. (Weddings are exciting - not relaxing. In case y'all were wondering.)

Shmuel and Talya will be the gracious hosts of a Sheva Brachot for as many of my friends as I can pack in, on Thursday evening, 17th of January. I'd love to see all of you there (though my LJ-only friends from, say, Canada, may find me more forgiving towards their absence). This is also a really great opportunity for us to celebrate with the many friends that we weren't able to invite to the wedding itself - we'd love to see you, we miss you, please come!

...that's all. RSVPs apreciated. See ya there!

UPDATE: We've set the Sheva Brachot to start at 19:30. Be there, or be elsewhere! (But we'd prefer there.)

Inanity

2008-01-06T13:31:43Z

Today on Facebook I got a Cause invitation (I love Cause invitations; I save them all unanswered and currently have a collection of over thirty, which keeps any further requests from actually being detailed - yay!) for a wonderful cause billing itself as "The Society for a Friendliner World" [sic].

They want to people to be more friendly.

They hope to improve the world by "introducing more and more people to the Friendliness Concept, with the hope that people will adopt it and behave according to it as much as they can."

The Friendliness Concept, you may be startled to learn, consists of being friendly to people.

The Society's Tagline: "Promote Positive Behaving!"

Their webpage: http://www.nice.org.il/index.html

And just in case you haven't yet been sufficiently amused, their website has a page asking: Will the Society ever be a large, influential organization? Their response:

הדרך לגיהינום רצופה בכוונות טובות: רעיונות שנולדו מתוך כוונה להיטיב את מצב האנושות נהפכו לעתים למכשיר בידי אנשים, שהשתמשו בהם כמכשיר לצבירת כוח ושררה, ובסופו של דבר גרמו לסבל אנושי אנו סבורים כי עלינו להיזהר מאוד אם איננו רוצים שרעיון הנחמדות יהפוך לכלי אשר באמצעותו ישליטו אנשים וקבוצות את מרותן על קבוצות אחרות.

מה יקרה אם עמותת הנחמדות תגרוף אחריה תמיכת רחבת היקף, ותהפוך לגוף בעל חברים רבים והשפעה? קיימת סכנה שגוף שכזה צור מעין 'מסמך מוסרי' שיהיה כתוב על-פי השקפתו, ויקים גוף משטרתי" אשר ישאף לאכוף את חוקי המוסר שלו.

Dear me... *sigh*

Heads up: the Anthology Builder

2007-12-27T16:15:53Z

So I've come across a very interesting new initiative: the AnthologyBuilder. The name is pretty much self-explanatory: build your own anthology, picking and choosing any stories you like to be in the collection. Then your anthology is printed up, bound, and delivered to your very doorstep - an honest-to-goodness, physical, literal book. (Take that, Kindle!)

Now, I'd like to get one thing straight here: this is cool. Putting together your own anthology is a great thing for the avid reader. He can make a collection of his favorite stories across a year, so he can find them in one place without rooting through his magazines. He can carefully construct a collection as a truly personal gift for a friend or SO. And last but not least, he can pick and choose the best stories (or those that most interest him) from across a hundred different magazines, without needing to buy a hundred magazines. Just the good stuff, mateys! So, I'll repeat: this is cool.

The problem is, this depends entirely on the site being able to offer variety. It's not enough to have the selection of one hundred stories you've never heard of - you want them to have each of the ten stories you've got in mind that you know are going to make your girlfriend swoon. Now, in theory, you can just zip off an email to an author you like, and ask him or her to add their story to the site. For a huge number of lesser-known authors who have nonetheless written worthwhile stories, this is probably not much of a big deal - and there are a lot of these, I've come to learn by watching The Fix. But since the good stuff does tend to rise to the top, it still seems clear that the stories you'll want most will be the hardest to draw in.

There are all kinds of other issues - like how this works with copyright, or how to make the cascades of relatively-unknown stories and authors easy to navigate and enticing to try out. But for the moment, less than 3 weeks into the beta and already with a bunch of stories (including even some from the biggest SF&F publications), I'm gonna stick with: this is cool.

Now that I've got that out of my system, I'm certainly interested in what the more writerly figures on my flist might think about this... You can probably think of a lot more pros and cons than I can. Bonus question to those of the writerly persuasion: would you want your work up there?

Linkee!

2007-12-23T07:33:43Z

This was open on our internet computer when I sat down... and worth passing on.
Enjoyenze!

Fixings...

2007-11-29T08:54:07Z

In the past few weeks, I've been reviewing short fiction for an online magazine called The Fix. Now two of the three reviews I've written are up and posted - you can take a peek over here.

It's an interesting experience. A lot of you have probably heard me talking about Critters, an online workshop where you send in your own writing and critique others' writing in return for others critiquing your own. I haven't really written much since, oh, ninth grade, but I've been on and off of Critters since then, since I enjoyed critiquing other people's work. I learned a lot there - what works for me and what doesn't, and it's helped me define and understand a whole lot of the craft of writing, merely by needing to explain flaws and merits over and over again.

But this is very different - here, I'm reviewing a final product. The author won't be making any changes based on my advice. And on the other hand, my review may well be all a prospective reader knows about a story when he decides whether or not he's interested in reading it. Additional hands include the fact that I'm writing for an audience that doesn't know the story I'm talking about, and the fact that I can't tell them too much of what happens, or else the story is spoiled. It's not easy.

I'm also reminded of Sturgeon's law. The level of stories I'm reading for The Fix is far, far higher than most of the stuff on Critters - Critters is open to all, The Fix requires at least that someone of some minimal significance/wealth was willing to publish a story. But still, there's a lot of lousy writing out there, and tons of just-plain-mediocre, because writing a really good short story is HARD. It's a bit discouraging. There's good stuff out there - but it's only a small percentage.

Encouraging, though, are the responses I've gotten to the first review published. One author really liked it, and another gave very high praise, which is very gratifying to hear, professionally.

What I'm wondering is how effective this magazine is. Most people, I imagine, have little interest in reading lists of capsule reviews for magazines and anthologies they've never heard of (note how the real responses I got were only from authors of the stories...). More common, I think, is to read reviews for stories you've already read, to see if the reviewer agrees with your opinion. I'm thinking what would be nice is if some reviewers could read whole scads of stories, and then only address the ones they found particularly notable, for good and for ill.

Or, I could just edit a magazine or something. :P

In any case, a couple recommendations from my last assignment:
When Everybody Comes To Your Birthday Party is an excellent story. Read it, please.
Synesthesia I enjoyed. And Catch Me was nice , though not astounding, but a very nice choice and matching of an SF element to the story he wanted to tell.

Wikihistory

2007-11-19T10:29:13Z

Found a short story. 'tsfun. You'll like it! And it's short, too.

Go on, read it. It'll be fun!

Sweet Doggerel

2007-10-08T14:17:23Z

היפיפיה הנרדמת

אל תישק לה לשפתיה
תחכה עם זה עוד קצת
אל תפסיד את זה-הרגע
תלטף רק עם מבט

כי הנסיכה עוד נמה
כה קרובה, כה חמימה
ואתה צופה, מוקסם, בה,
כל תזוזה, כל נשימה.

יֵשֶנָה, חולמת חרש
מכורבלת בשמיכה
דאגה אין על פניה
מחכה רק בשבילך

יופיה קורן, ליבך בוער,
הנסיכה היא גם ילדה
וכל מה שאתה רוצה הוא
לישון גם כן, כאן לידה.

אז אל תישק לה בינתיים
היא תתעורר בשעתה,
עד אז, מצה עד תום העונג
לחכות להיות איתה.

-----

פייטנית ופייטן

בפרשת דרכים נפגשו הם השניים:
פייטן מחוייך, פייטנית שובבה
היא קדה קידה, והוא קד לה אפיים
"שלום ושלום," הם אמרו, ובינתיים
הבחין כל אחד בניצוץ בעיניים
כשישבו ושחקו הם ברוח טובה.

פייטנית ופייטן, פנו הם ללכת
אך פייטן הסתובב - בפניו זיק ניצת,
ואמר לה, "ראי, מה יפה השלכת,
שיחתנו - מה טוב לו היתה היא נמשכת
חברתך בדרכים תהיה מבורכת -
פייטנית שובבה, התלכי איתי קצת?"

פייטנית ופייטן אז הסמיקו בחן
פייטנית לו ענתה: "והיאך אוותר
על טיול עם פייטן מעמיק ובוחן?
נעמה שיחתנו עלי, ולכן
שאלת בנימוס - תיענה ב'אכן,'
בוא, אלך איתך קצת; אולי גם קצת יותר."

פייטנית ופייטן יצאו יחד בגיל
מדאגה ומנעל, הלכו הם יחף
מלמדים זה את זה ריקוד נוח, קליל,
ופוסעים בדרכים לתווי החליל
ואט-אט נעשה כל משעול וכל שביל
מלא בחיים ובצבע סוחף.

פייטנית ופייטן, הוא קורן, היא צוהלת,
גם בחלוף אביבים, צועדים הם יחדיו
ועל אף כל מכשול ומדרון ויבלת
כך יקדישו שניהם חייהם לטייל את
הדרך שלרגליהם מתפתלת,
הרחק אל האופק, ועוד אחריו...

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כמובן, לרחל

Query Letter

2007-10-04T22:13:43Z

How To Write A Query in 40 Simple Steps. I enjoyed. And the rest of Miss Snark's blog is fun too.

Engagement Party: Followup

2007-07-26T09:59:10Z

All who know that they intend to come Sunday evening, please RSVP...
This just in: There will be meat.

מסיבת אירוסין!

2007-07-22T16:17:49Z

או לפחות, רביצת-דשא-אירוסין, או משו בסגנון.

בעוד שבוע בדיוק - יום ראשון, ה-29 ליולי, בשעה 19:30, אני ורחל נערוך את מסיבת האירוסין שלנו. אנחנו הולכים על נוח ופשוט - נרבוץ ונתרווח לנו בגן סאקר, ירושלים, ומי שבא ברוך הבא. נשמח נורא לראות את כולכם.

כנראה נבקש שכל אחד יביא משהו לאכול, כנראה חלבי/פרווה וכמובן כשר. יהיה כיף :) אם תוכלו גם להודיע מראש שאתם מתכוונים להגיע, אז גם זה יהיה נחמד.

מתגעגע לכולכם... מקווה שנתראה שם!

Note for non-Hebrew speakers: if you don't know Hebrew, you're probably not really in the right time zone to come visit our engagement party, but thankee anyway. :D

In other joyous news...

2007-07-19T07:31:30Z

Girl Genius has finished the 101 backlog, and now I've got about 2 years of great comics to read and catch up on. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Good News

2007-07-15T12:08:56Z

Well, I've got good news. Great news. Marvelous, wonderful, fabulous... Ladies and gentlemen, it is with pride and with pleasure that I announce: our upcoming wedding.

As of Thursday night, my girlfriend Rachel and I are engaged. I'm sitting here now, trying to think what line needs to come next, but there isn't one. That's the only important line: we're engaged, we're to be married, we're deliriously happy... and yes, that just about covers it.

As of yet, we're pretty short on details. It'll be a bit before we know a specific date, and even a general season. Updates will follow as warranted...

Twelve Angry Jurors

2007-06-18T07:02:59Z

Anybody want to come and see Twelve Angry Jurors with me? It's at Bar Ilan, a play about a jury which needs to decide whether the accused should hang. Bar Ilan's a fun group - amateurish, but worth seeing, and their shows are quite cheap (20-25 shekels, possibly even less). First show was last night; I'll be going either tomorrow or Wednesday. Anybody want to come?