Sunday, May 17, 2009

Snapshot



I think this video, for all its gyrations, is a snapshot of what part of our society has become. Some of you may not recognize it so I'll do some explaining for those of you out of the loop. What we have here is a young man from Williamsburg, who like many others works for a B&H-like firm. He works there because that's all he can manage. He has no education and he has no zitz-fleish to either sit and learn or get a job teaching. So he works in either the internet sales department, or maybe in the exchange department. I guess he was spared shlepping boxes at the warehouse, being a skinny pickle and all. Soon, we see him get the phone call. THE phone call. Followed by a pink slip. And he's in trouble. First his credit cards are declined - not before he tries to buy at a restaurant with his "benefit" card. How classy. Then his fridge is empty, but he does not despair; he's singing his tune and swinging those hips. He does not fear because he trusts in Hashem.

Nobody's knocking his means of trying to go out there and use the limited skills he has to try and feed his family. Nor is he to blame for the culture of luncheonettes and eateries - al taharas hakodesh - that has sprung up in such areas where it was trief - chazzer a very short time ago. All I'm saying is that just like the goyishe music videos are supposed to speak of what goes on in the inner cities of America, so too has this video gives us a snapshot of what Williamsburg has become. A recruiting ground for electronics stores. Not that this is something completely new, mind you, but it is more than ever and in greater numbers. There was always 47th Street Photo, and to his credit many outsiders - including Lubavitchers - got their daily bread from Mr. Goldstein, but that didn't seem to be the face of the community as a whole. Now it does, and דאס איז צו באדויערען. That a G&G suit and beaver hat doesn't keep you from shaking your hips and praising G-d. That your gartel doesn't keep you from being friendly with the homies on Driggs Avenue. And that אראפגעלאזטע פאות doesn't mean you can't fress just like they do on Avenue J.

שווער מסביר צו זיין, אבער ס'שמעקט מיר נישט

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cute video, nice music, not chasidic style at all.
Waiting to see the "big" picture that I must have missed.

Baal Habos said...

That about sums up the prevalent attitude today. De Aibeshter vet helfin. Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

it looks like his credit card became accepted again before he found a new job??? Perhaps he resorted to an old trick whereas he sent a credit card co. a NSF check, which subsequently bounced, but not before his credit limit was freed up for the amount of the payment, allowing him a window of a few days to make purchases...

Leroy said...

I thought Lubavitch was machmir als sefirah until erev?

HUNGRY said...

I don't know whats worse, the whole scenario or the fact that videos like this are becoming mainstream.

Anonymous said...

Using a benefit card at a restaurant? Sounds like someone has been reading the sophomoric Creedmoorer blog for ideas.

Laughing at that stuff is one thing not that Creedmoor isnt also a chilul hashem berabim who has been asked to stop many times. Posting a video showing that kind of petty fraud as being part of frum life is a cheap way of getting publicity for a third rate singer and his fourth rate song.

Mottel said...

The tune sounds like some cheesy 70's piece, and his voice is Auto-Tuned to death in the style of current rappers . . . What's Jewish about it?
I have no problem with riffs and rips from mainstream culture - but at least take the good stuff, not the junk.

Anonymous said...

Using the benefit card in the restaurant is only an extension of this guy's am-haratzus, not just in learning, but also in the acceptable ways of the world as well. His affected ways is so obviously fake, and only the biggest nerdy-nebs would even think of imitating or emulating him. What a shame.

Anonymous said...

Leroy
you can look with out the music

Anonymous said...

we are sliping and sliding on the route of yidishisim just with side curls

Anonymous said...

Who the hell gave you the right to judge him? For your info, the people who work in B&H like companies work in sales. Have you been to B&H? All the salesmen (whom you love to bash, because they didn't become fucking lubabs) are chassidishe yingerleit. They are very professional. They are well equipped and have all the knowledge necessary to do their jobs.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

I see that most of you are incapable of seeing the whole point of the thread here, and only focus on the peripherals. The point here is not to knock the idea of working at B&H וכדומה, it's just commenting on the fact that so many of our young men have either worked or work there now.

No need to resort to profanity.

Shulem said...

Tzig,
What is the point of your post?
Seriously,I'm not sure what you are trying to say.
The music is cute, the video is also cute, nothing mind boggling about it, though.
I understand that most Lubab would not get the video, because they don't know a lot about the heimishe crowd in Williamsburg and other heimishe places.I'm from Williamsburg and can still not figure out what YOU want to bring out with your post.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Shulem

1) I never attacked it

2) I'm not done writing it yet.

!האב געדולד

shulem said...

Ok,I'll be patient.
Btw,I never said you attacked it.
I watched the video and was scratching my head to figure out what earth shattering thing you saw.
Also as I mentioned, when you post please clarify for your Lubab chevreh.
I've hung out or (tried to hang out) with Lubavitcher guys and they totally don't get our culture.Clueless about yiddish and don't realize that most of the heimishe are not very clued into popular culture.You are one of the few guys who knows both the Heimishe community and Lubavitch, so you can be a bridge.

Anonymous said...

first of all no one told the Creedmoorer guy to cut it out. hes an erlice yid and hes very careful about not naming names or real cases. the genevas he makes up is such shtus that no one could think hes writing about someone real. its kind of an inside joke thing no rov would tell him to stop.

and the video just is supposed to appeal to its audience but i kind of agree that the welfare card has no business there because nisht inzerer also are watching the video. hes supposed to be a typical willy guy who is kind of social chassidish and forgets what emina in der oibershter means until hes shown hashgooche protis in his life when things is down.

Maybe A Litvak said...

This clip made my stomach turn. These guys should just stick to passionately following sports lehachis

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

altz Veheyeesem Nekiyim I should make קלאר that I heard it first on ל"ג בעומר and saved it as a draft already then.

Maybe A Litvak said...

seeing this sight
has me quivering in fright

take the task
go a head and ask

how many yungerleit?
lack any ehrenstkeit'

it is unequivocally clear
he holds not yiddishket dear

attempt to be leibadig
if find ekeldig
makes me sick

Maybe A Litvak said...

this new sensation
all his gyrations
is a sad revelation
of the state of our nation

this might be new
to many of you

so let me explain
the name of this game

can't sit and learn
must go out and earn

in the goyisheh velt
work for gelt

because he has not chashivus
for Ketzos and Nesivus

maybe A Litvak said...

A sight so gruesome
Of a life that is cumbersome
Feeble attempt at fusions
A constant state of confusion


A sight that makes my blood boil
To see someone who is really so Royal
Live a life full of follies and foils
Plagued by intense inner turmoil

A sight that angers and riles
Soul burdened by life’s trials
Face is transparently facile
Plastered with a cheap plastic smile

Menashe said...

Lubavitch is clued into popular culture? What do you mean Shulem

voiceoftruth said...

Tzig- please erase the profanity from anon at 3:03 pm. It doesn't "pas". I believe that this is the first such usage on your blog. You always had higher standards.

Maybe A Litvak said...

A sight that makes me ire
a state that is dire
deep in the mire
dressed in Chaisidic attire
stroking yeneh fire


a clip that is so remiss
reveals a moral abyss

a laydiger lehben
without a Rebben
to lead to the heavens
destroy the inner leaven
to transcend number seven

not to yap or to hock
but to Maybe A Litvak'

perhaps it provides a glimps
that should make one wince

into our toych-toychish
of our teefereh coyches

of what lies within
that can lead to sin
makes one grim
Must not let him win

Y said...

I don't get the gadlus of the video in and of itself, but this is much more complex than your post. First of all, it is the maalah of Willie and all Chasidishe kreizen that you are not only not expected to kolel, you are expected to support your family. So it's not that he has no other choice, his community culture demands that he go get a job (or fiddle with Gov welfare, just another edge of complexity to this).

In finding work as well, many either teach themselves on the job, especially in programming and coding. Many go and get a degree once they start working.

"that's all he can manage" is a very small part of this.

Better to have a reputation for complexity than over-simplification. Let your commenters do the simpleminded part.

T said...

You attack the "eateries" in Williamsburg that "used to be treif".
Wrong.Always were pizza stores and eateries.Ever been to Greens, one of the more famous ones.Landaus on Lee ave, that was a pit stop for many a Lubavitcher on his way to Crown Heights after the stores there would be closed. (and even if you claim Landaus was a "chasidishe place, there were quite a few other eateries)The community in Williamsburg is growing at a fantastic rate and today is huge, so you have more of everything.
It's true that the world has changed and that effects even very insular chasidim, especially with chasidim and artists living in proximity for about 10 years as the chasidim push into Bedford Stuyvesant and Fort Greene, places that used to be high crime.Now thqat crime has dropped, the chasidim and artists/hipsters are vying for the same space.
Kiryas Joel has more of the real chasidic "ghetto" feel, because its an all chasidic town.Even there with its own growth things have changed.Today the chasidic population of KJ is close to 25 thousand, with more chasidim living past the the technical borders of KJ AND IN mONROE , SO THEY ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE CENSUS COUNT FOR kIRYAS jOEL

Maybe A Litvak said...

Despite the last sentence, the tzig did a good job explaining it

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

why despite?

Maybe A Litvak said...

I thought you were saying that it is hard to explain it

Maybe A Lubab said...

nobady is knocking
the guy that is rocking

of options he is void
susceptibel to hemoroids

not the fault of one man
searching desperatly for a plan

lt does not impress
the culture of the fress

nuch machin MTV
so all can see
life of inner city'
dying to be free

lamdan said...

is mtv going to start a "heimish " channel>
nebach

YaakovShalom said...

All I see here is Ayin Rah on this site. Hashem Yirachem