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:

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

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

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  3. 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...

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  4. I thought Lubavitch was machmir als sefirah until erev?

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

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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  9. Leroy
    you can look with out the music

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

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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  13. 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.

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  14. Shulem

    1) I never attacked it

    2) I'm not done writing it yet.

    !האב געדולד

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  15. 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.

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  16. 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.

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

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

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  19. 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

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  20. 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

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  21. 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

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

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  23. 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.

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  24. 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

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  25. 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.

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  26. 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

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

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

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  29. 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

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

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

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