Mah Jongg Gods Are Smiling

Mah Jongg is a game similar to rummy, played with tiles rather than cards. In China the game is popular among men; there are MJ parlors and, from what I understand, the winnings can get pretty big (that's another way of saying you can loose a lot if you're not careful!). Here in the States the game has been adopted by Jewish women for some reason! I can still hear the tiles being swished around by my mom and her friends and the call of bam, crack and dot as they throw out the tiles! For those of us who were raised with the game it seemed that it was an easy, no brainer game...not as challenging as Bridge...so I, for one, never picked it up. We all knew how to play since Mom taught us so she would be able to play! Well, a few years ago, when Bridge was getting painful to play because the cards were so bad, our Bridge game switched over the MJ! Well, now I've been bitten by the bug! I LOVE to play! As is true of any game of chance, some days you can do no wrong; other days you should just walk in, put your money on the table and have fun! Well, not to scare the MJ gods away; this seems to be a good few days for me; I'm winning. I'm sure in the next few days I'll be crying the blues again about how I NEVER win!

Jewish Arts & Film Festival

For the past 7 years the Stamford JCC has been hosting a film festival that runs for about 2 weeks. This year it was decided to expand the programs to include literature, photography, dance, music, and, of course film.

Saturday night, opening night, we viewed a movie "Noodle". Very wonderfully done! If you have the opportunity to see I suggest you do so.
Last night former Mayor of NYC, Ed Koch spoke. He is quite the personality; had something to say about everything with a great deal of wit in his presentation.
Tonight the speaker was Zion Ozeri, a photographer born in Israel, his family is from Yemen. He told the story of his parents living in a tent when they arrived in Israel . Not only were they in the tent, they shared it with several families! The good news was that his father was a very observent Jew, therefore, when Succot approached his father built a succah attached to the tent. It was the first time since they were married that his parents could sleep alone without an audience. As you may have guessed, Zion was born 9 months later! Sometimes there are more than the obvious benefits of being observent!

Zion's photography is something to behold. Go to his website and check it out www.zionozeri.com. We had the opportunity to ask him questions be it about the subjects of the pictures, technical questions about shooting the pictures, personal questions...whatever. I was interested in why he shot in black and white, what kind of camera he used and did he use film or digital.

He shoots in black and white because all of the photographers he admires shoot in black and white; also, when he is shooting in under-developed countries, he doesn't want to make it look better than it is with bright colors so he uses black and white. Currently he uses film, although he just bought his first digital camera...he's not sure how he will like it! All his cameras are Nikons.

It was a very exciting evening; hope you like his work.

Oh no, almost another month has gone by!!!

Where does the time go? I have been spending a great deal of time catching up on my photo books. With the wedding, the party here and the shower that was held in August I have had a lot to do! Well, the good news is just one more book to finish up and then it will be time to do some traveling!!! Yeah, can't wait!

In mid-November we are off to Amsterdam, Israel and Morocco! We are planning on attending the annual conference of United Jewish Communities in Israel and came up with the idea of traveling to some new places for us both coming and going! I have always wanted to see the Anne Frank house, so that is what brings us to Amsterdam. Given the time of year, I'm sure tulips will not be in evidence, however, the canals will definitely be there! Morocco is proving to be more of a challenge. There is so much to see and we will be there a total of 2 and a half days. The only way to experience as much as possible in a short period of time is to use a driver and a guide. Not our usual way of traveling, however, doesn't seem to be a choice!

Look forward to telling you more details as they become available.