Great Interview Experiment 2009

Everyonce in a while, okay...more like, every day...I stumble upon a supercool blog.  I'd like to introduce you to three of them today.  The first one is Citizen of the Month written by the funny as hell Neil Kramer.  I found his blog just in time to participate in an annual tradition called The Great Interview Experiment.  Fellow bloggers volunteer to participate, are assigned to interview someone else, and then and are interviewed by another randomly selected blogger.

My "match" - it's like eHarmony, only no monthly payments and no awkward "what the hell, the photo you posted is 25 years old" - is Vicki who writes over here.  It's a great source for Russian-Jewish culture, Israeli current events, and really funny cartoons she makes herself with Photoshop.  And we kind of look alike so maybe we're cousins.  No wait, that was the aforementioned eHarmony date.  At anyrate Vicki if you ever do make it to Philly let me know!

Okay, enough stalling...here my interview:


1. I admire your drive to finish the NaNoWriMo challenge - what is your story about? Any advice to a writer who wants writing a novel under a tight deadline? How do you work through writers block?

My story is about this 30-year-old Russian (like me) Jewish (like me) guy (here's where the similarities end.) who still lives at home with parents, no real incentive to go anywhere, until he ultimately realizes he is fed up with his mom folding his underwear and decides to find a girlfriend so he can marry her and move out. His best friend knows some girls in Israel, so he goes there in search of love and ends up going all over the whole country. It's essentially a satire of a number of things: Israel, the Russian community in America, Russian men and falafel-all things I love.

Advice: Write every day, even if it's a 100 words. Often you'll get started and you can leverage the kick. Often, I have no clue what I'm going to write about and I just start and it starts flowing eventually. Even if it doesn't, you can always cut it out. Actually, blogging has helped me formulate my thoughts a lot better.

When I get writer's block, I just think of Chuck Norris roundhouse kicking me to the face and I start writing again. Usually ideas catch you at the weirdest times, which is why it's good to have a notebook handy. Last week, I had an idea when I was getting my haircut and I grabbed my notebook and wrote it down while the stylist was doing something in the back. I have no idea how I'll be able to use the phrase "The Proletariat Doesn't Blow Dry," but it's down now, to use for when I do have trouble writing.


2. Do you think authors have a duty at some point in their career to write about their backgrounds/family history and bring the truth of their culture into their writing?

Obviously I'm a huge advocate of this because, I think, every writer's culture is reflected in their writing, consciously or subconsciously. I don't know why this is such a huge sticking point for me, but I get really angry when writers with non-American last names don't post where they're from in their book jackets. I'll be all like, "Oh! Michael Ondaatje! That is a pretty cool name. I wonder where you're from, how that affects your writing- Oh. It says here that you live in New Jersey with your wife and two cats. The hell?? That can't be right." And I feel deceived.

3. I admittedly know very little about Israeli politics/life. Other than reading your blog, what's a good starting point to be better educated in this area?

It's very hard to get unbiased news about Israel (including from my site, no matter how hard I try to maintain balance, because that's just the nature of the beast.) I would say the best way would be to start reading Israeli newspapers: YNet (Yediot Ahranot-"The Latest News") is pretty much considered the centrist paper and always has a lot about culture, etc: http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3083,00.html and Jerualem Post (jpost.com) is a horrible, horrible right wing blatant paper more geared towards American olim (immigrants to Israel) and HaAretz is the more left-wing paper in Israel (haaretz.com.)

Other than papers, there is a huge Israeli blogosphere that I follow religiously (and link to in my sidebar) to get the latest because the news never gives you the real story with Israel, either. Some particular favorites that stick out are whatwarzone.com run by my friend Benji Lovitt who writes humorously about his life as an American immigrant in Israel and Negev Rock City by Neal Ungerleider who spent his time in Israel getting his master's at Ben Gurion University and links to interesting stuff about Israel and the Middle East every day. Then there's also the giant of the Jewish blogosphere that I write for, Jewlicious,com, which has news from Israel. Just like with any niche, read a couple blogs, start looking at the commenters' websites, etc. and plunge in with an open mind. Israel is fascinating and all the ways it is fascinating are generally not covered in the mainstream media.

4. In your professional opinion, is the economy getting over the recession? Is there hope for improvement in the next 5 years? Or is the #*&! really about to hit the fan?

In the short-term, yes the economy is getting over the recession. All leading indicators, particularly world trade, which I deal with the most, (indicators are things like unemployment, GDP, etc, signposts that show how the economy is doing) are increasing and will be out of the slump by 2010. However, the combination of the stimulus package, the proposed healtcare bill, and the bailouts, combined with our debt to China which even SNL recently parodied are not good at all in the long-term and will lead to a higher burden of debt for all of us in the next 20 years. I, for one, welcome our Chinese overlords.

5. What 5 songs are on your MP3/Ipod right now?

I've been trying to listen to songs that closely match the mood of my novel as I write. Just five though?

Poker Face by Lady Gaga-the more I listen to her, the more I realize what a genius she is. And is not a man. Additionally the version by Christopher Walken

Istanbul-Constantinople

Kaifuyem which is one of the most obnoxious Russian dance songs ever

At HaAhat Shel Hayay (You are the only one of my life by Kobi Peretz)-My guilty pleasure song that I discovered in Israel this summer

One Day by Matisyahu (who is actually a religious Jew who does reggae...crazy, right?)


6. You're in Philadelphia for one day - what do you do?

Ideally? Go to the Franklin Institute, then to a Stephen Starr restaurant for lunch, maybe the new pizza place he's opened, and then taken in the Rosenbach Library which, true story, Mr. B actually bought me a membership to for Valentine's Day last year after reading my post about Beauty and the Beast and then go to the jewllery store where he got my engagement ring and get a new wedding ring since I lost my original one three months after we got married (I'm a failure.)

In reality? We never, ever make it into the actual city, spending all the time in the suburbs of Bucks County with our numerous relatives, all who want a chunk of our time. Which is why I still don't have a replacement wedding ring and am living in sin and trepidation.

7. It's 2029. What have you accomplished so far?

Hmm. That's 20 years, right? So I would be....43?! That's insane for me to think about. Well, hopefully me and Mr. B will have 2 kids that are out of college and working as Nice Jewish Lawyers/Doctors by then so that we don't have to do crap and just have them support us (you hear that, future fetuses? Burden's on you guys. ) Hopefully the Future Fetuses will speak Russian and be well-grounded in their Russian roots and all that immigrant junk.

I personally would like to be a published author with a couple of books under her belt, continue to be an economist and obtain a master's degree and learned Arabic by that point. But most important for me are personal accomplishments with regards to having lots of family and friends around me. Professional life will always come if you work for it, but family and friends are just as, if not more important.

Thanks Vicki!
Last but not least is the lovely gal over at i am the diva who posted her interview on me!

So read, bookmark and enjoy my new blogging world buddies and their blogs.  Neil, tanks for letting me join the fun.  Is it too late to sign up for GIE 2010?