Ed Notes Online: A Big Fat Greek-Jewish Wedding

Saturday, September 26, 2009

A Big Fat Greek-Jewish Wedding

I don't usually do personal but it's a slow Saturday. Two weeks ago our best friends' daughter Dara married Chris at Battery Park Gardens on a beautiful Sunday with a wonderful view of the harbor. They met as freshman 7 years ago at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and with both working in arts related fields, designed their own wedding, beautifully thought out, and it went off practically without a hitch. It turned out to be Harbor Day, so there were lots of interesting distractions coming from outside. Like the 20 person Navy brass band during the ceremony. And the pirate ship with the Jolly Roger parking right in front of us.

Dara is Jewish and Chris is Greek, so there was a Greek orthodox priest and female rabbi, who turned out to be very funny and had the place rolling during the ceremony. When people began to dance, it started with the traditional hora, which morphed into a Greek circle dance.

Mark, the father of the groom, is my video partner in our mythical production company, NorMark Productions. Recently we both bought the new Kodak Z18 flip-type video camera (which can shoot hi-def video, has a mic output, and a pull out USB connector to plug right into your camera, which you don't even have to do because it shoots on SD cards which can be flipped into a computer). The cost was around $170 (sans cards).

Mark handed the camera to a few of us during the wedding to get whatever footage we could. He then created a wonderful montage and put it up on You-tube. People who saw it said they didn't even know someone was shooting video, that is how unobtrusive the camera is.

Dara and Chris, on their honeymoon in Greece, got to an internet cafe and were able to watch it, maybe a world record for the fastest turn around time in a couple seeing video of their wedding. Mark and I think this will be a new paradigm, where instead of putting those still cameras at each table, a few flips will be handed out to the guest to shoot their own footage.

I have it here for those who don't click the links, but it is much better when you watch it directly on you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YddDUXmIq8

Related:
David Bellel has been using a Flip camera for quite some time to shoot many of the political events here. Since there is so much power in video, activists should check out these cheap and effective cameras. The Kodak Z18 has the advantage of an external mic connection to improve the sound. Imagine going to a press conference at Tweed or City Hall and standing next to all the giant TV cameras with a little deck of cards sized camera on a tripod.

8 comments:

Pissedoffteacher said...: I was at a wedding there last year. The view was spectacular.; Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 10:44:00 AM EDT
Charlie said...: Hi Norm,

Great video! Lots of luck to the happy couple. Do you get royalties if I use this in social studies? Great multicultural piece for the kids!; Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 11:57:00 AM EDT
Rebecca said...: Hi there,

I am looking for a Greek Orthodox priest and a Rabbi in New York to marry my fiance and myself (he's Greek and I'm Jewish.) We are having a difficult time, especially finding a Greek priest willing. I just happened to come across your post. Would you mind passing along the names of the officiants to me? I would so appreciate it!; Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 3:11:00 PM EDT
ed notes online said...: Hi Rebecca
Best of luck.
I spoke to my friends and they will give you the names if you give us a contact number. Both were excellent.
Email me at normsco@gmail.com; Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 6:16:00 AM EDT
ed notes online said...: Charlie
I have to put up some video of the morphing of the Hora to the Greek dance. That was fun to watch.; Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 6:18:00 AM EDT
Unknown said...: I am in the same predicament I cannot find a priest anywhere!!! And my fiancé is jewish. I am absolutely freaking out please email me the name of the priest and Rabbi.

Mannyk29@gmail.com; Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 2:31:00 PM EST
Rebecca said...: Hi Rebecca!

My name is Rebecca. I am planning my wedding with my fiancé. I am Jewish and he is Greek Orthodox. I’ve been looking online to see how people have done weddings incorporating both traditions. I saw your post on the blog about the video camera from ten years ago when you were planning your own wedding “A beg fat Greek Jewish wedding”. I wanted to ask you some questions on what you decided on. I feel a little lost in planning and to hear from someone who had been there would be a blessing. I hope you and your husband are happy.

Sincerely,

Rebecca; Thursday, December 20, 2018 at 7:18:00 AM EST
ed notes online said...: Rebecca
Not my wedding but our friends' daughter. They have a 2 year old now. Email me and I will connect you to Dara and Chris. normsco@gmail.com; Thursday, December 20, 2018 at 6:53:00 PM EST

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Saturday, September 26, 2009

A Big Fat Greek-Jewish Wedding

8 comments: