tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59723510142408902402011-08-29T04:42:09.096-07:00Travels, Intellect, and Music Thoughts of the artist Yoav (Acoustica) Guttman NEW POSTING every SUNDAY NIGHT! Check during the week for other postings too.Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.comBlogger611100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-871640009812554792011-06-06T15:56:00.000-07:002011-06-06T16:15:32.713-07:00

Ok, so my efforts have been going fairly well. I have not managed to get to a live show everyday or even hear live music everyday, but rather, most days. here is a review:Thursday June 2 - A day after my first full-out failure of hearing music everyday, I was a bit demotivated. So, sitting on my bed at around 9 at night, strumming my guitar, a song came to me. Then, I thought, I had to test it

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-51919968174948886532011-05-31T16:25:00.000-07:002011-05-31T16:53:49.334-07:00

I need a better name for this next challenge...any ideas?the plan is to see live music everyday I am in London until I leave for the summer on June 20.Here are the last few days...Sun May 29 - Mud Morganfield at the Blues Kitchen in CamdenMuddy Waters' son who looks a lot like him and sounds just like him. It was a great show and a great harmonica player named Wes Weston I saw months ago was

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-40528108167509252542011-03-02T10:57:00.000-08:002011-03-02T11:00:15.064-08:00

This week’s sedra, Pekudei, is the penultimate parashah in Exodus, so it is appropriate that the Israelites, who began in slavery, complete their transformation to freedom by completing the construction of the Holy Tabernacle, God’s house on Earth. The Exodus from Egypt only marked the beginning of redemption. Often, we read that the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt, claiming life was better

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-18284323525701559382010-07-22T17:24:00.000-07:002010-07-23T09:51:54.646-07:00

I landed Wednesday in Heathrow and got driven straight to the NOAM office, where I put down my stuff and jetlaggedly met some of the people that work or will be working there next year. The office, where I also spent a good amount of time today, is crazy this week because camp starts in a few days, so all the unit heads are busy busy busy!Wednesday afternoon, my coworker who is the girl I am

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-67423843637434798942010-07-17T22:58:00.000-07:002010-07-17T23:13:34.021-07:00

After his success with Native Son and Black Boy, Richard Wright wrote another book called The Outsider. There are alot of similar themes to Native Son, primarily causeless violence, but the book overall was a fantastic read. I read it last summer while organic farming in Israel. It was the only English book my host farmer had and it was an original copy from 1953. The book was nearly falling

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-23271710176353059982010-06-13T09:10:00.000-07:002010-06-13T09:39:14.701-07:00

We all know the reasons oil is great. It powers our homes, lets us drive our cars anywhere we want, blah blah blah...What I don't understand is why so many people are so against developing alternative energies. Oil was not always the preferred energy. It had to be "discovered" to be utilized, and this occurred just over 100 years ago. That means that humanity went thousands of years using other

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-85779348084755723142010-06-06T18:49:00.000-07:002010-06-06T18:55:24.504-07:00

Life for Jews during in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Crown of Aragon was unlike life for the Jews anywhere else during the medieval period. Under this Crown, Jews were allowed to establish their own autonomous community, including in it a sophisticated court system to preside over Jewish affairs. Rather than becoming a part of the general Christian Aragonese society, the kings

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-39524365990052234752010-05-30T11:26:00.000-07:002010-05-30T11:56:25.827-07:00

Once, when staying in the Bongo District in northern Ghana in a small town called Nayorgo, I walked with my host 7 miles, crossing the border into Burkina Faso into a town called Towongo to pick up a bicycle we had bought in Accra and were awaiting delivery to the market town.As we trekked secretly across the border, I reflected on an earlier visit to the Shoprite Mall in Accra, modeled after

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-74318337904969136972010-05-23T16:01:00.000-07:002010-05-23T16:13:23.603-07:00

“It is the Jew who should always be on the side of the poor, the oppressed, the underdog, the wretched of the earth, because of the Jewish experience.” – Jerry Rubin------------------The 1960s in America is remembered as a time of great social change, a time in which citizens challenged government to expand equal rights to all citizens, to end the Vietnam War, to create a more transparent

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-91957623216379494442010-04-26T07:39:00.001-07:002010-04-26T07:46:11.381-07:00

This week, as Earth Day came and went and I attended a fair here or an Earth celebration there, it also donned on me that Spring is here!So, beyond my environmental excursions, I also attended of variety of events held on my very own Columbia University. Yet, what I found was an inability to fully appreciate some of the events due to the ubiquity of plastic water bottles. Some may laugh, but I

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-85152992032931641642010-04-20T08:46:00.001-07:002010-04-25T18:29:42.083-07:00

Below is a description of what this movie is all about, but I recommend you all come to the screening and see for yourself. Consider this quote:"The wars of the 21st century will be fought over water." —Ismail Serageldin, former vice president of the World BankTapped: The MovieNew York, NYColumbia University, Cowin Center at Teacher's College (between 120/121 st and Broadway)Bottle Exchange: 4 PM

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-67042197056313281132010-04-19T07:34:00.000-07:002010-04-25T18:29:53.911-07:00

American masculinity has a long and complex history. It is constantly shifting its meaning and focus, reacting to the events that occur within American society at any given point. When one thinks of the Revolutionary War, the manliest of all men, George Washington achieved legendary status for his bravery in taking our nation from colonialism to Independence. Thomas Jefferson, years later,

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-31777566871839779222010-04-01T08:50:00.001-07:002010-04-05T08:50:51.312-07:00

An article in the most recent issue of Newsweek magazine—“The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” by T. Christian Miller, Mark Hosenball, and Ron Moreau—discusses the failures of the United States to successfully train a functioning Afghan police force. Spending $6 billion, the U.S. has constantly shifted the responsibility of training police forces from the U.S. Army to the contractor DynCorp

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-89187764889129141102010-03-22T09:08:00.000-07:002010-03-28T19:49:55.321-07:00

If you didn't know, this past week featured World Water Day. A brief internet search can tell you more about this, but the general idea is for people to focus on water consumption and stress the importance of water conservation. Last summer, when I was wwoofing in Israel, water conservation was at the forefront of everyone's minds. It only rains in the winter there, and farming in the summer

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-37087293716625257682010-03-21T15:07:00.000-07:002010-03-21T15:12:40.391-07:00

Henry James’ “The Beast in the Jungle” is a novella about a peculiar relationship between a man, John Marcher, and a woman, May Bartram. Initially, a reader assumes that this story will take the form of many other classic love stories between a man and a woman, namely that the two will go through some series of events which makes them fall in love with each other, challenges that love, and ends

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-53053253427539147992010-03-07T10:18:00.000-08:002010-03-07T10:25:27.137-08:00

Arriving at church, the cold February wind blew from the South, slapping pedestrians without the proper winter paraphernalia. As the devout being navigates through human traffic, through concrete towers, and speeding bullet carsss of yellow and black, the sun suddenly shines through the grew haze. The warmth of the sun moves the turned down head to a proud, tall, towering head, smiling in the

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-89562662846961657132010-02-28T21:10:00.000-08:002010-02-28T21:29:53.202-08:00

What makes good songwriting? Emotions, heartbreak, passion...probably all these things. But also, there is just a creative way of saying old concepts. Saying things in new ways is really the most refreshing aspect of hearing a good song lyric. When you hear that lyric that just captures an emotion previously unvocalized, you realize that this song or at least songwriter is a masterpiece.For

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-15898314194256306982010-02-25T08:44:00.000-08:002010-02-25T17:09:05.803-08:00

For American Jewish children of the late 1980’s and 1990’s, synagogue religious school was often perceived as a painful, yet inevitable event. Hours were spent after school or on Sunday mornings in classrooms learning to chant blessings, speak Hebrew, or read Biblical stories. For most children, the experience was one that in the long run may have harmed Jewish identity, rather than strengthening

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-41606971119863456262010-02-20T14:08:00.000-08:002010-02-20T14:12:03.484-08:00

There are many ways to read the writings of Frantz Fanon and since his death scholars have debated how he arrived at some of his conclusions and whether they were grounded in his own personal experience, the experience of the colonized, or rather, the fictional collective experience of the colonized. Though these debates are still yet unresolved, it seems fair to say that his writings, whether

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-2239253154916946302010-02-11T15:58:00.000-08:002010-02-12T21:57:36.242-08:00

The nature of the contemporary debate on health care is often marred with name calling and child’s play. Even worse, at times, people on either side of the argument will often make up complete falsehoods, disregarding any honesty within their platform of disagreement, and even encouraging libel. Equally criminal is the all-too-common disregard for the will of the majority, in favor for the will

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-58580223396707909622009-12-27T05:25:00.000-08:002009-12-27T05:33:52.516-08:00

With the help of List College, I was able to attend the Hazon Food Conference over Winter Break. This year, I have been interning with Hazon through the List College Fellowship for Jewish Social Entrepreneurship. During the Fall, while working in the office in New York, I would work on various projects assigned to or initiated by me, aiding in Hazon’s NY Ride, campaigning for the Jewish Climate

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-65694146657897524412009-12-24T10:33:00.000-08:002009-12-24T11:07:52.527-08:00

The nature of the contemporary debate on health care is often marred with name calling and child’s play. Even worse, at times, people on either side of the argument will often make up complete falsehoods, disregarding any honesty within their platform of disagreement, and even encouraging libel. Equally criminal is the all-too-common disregard for the will of the majority, in favor for the will

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-73779278881997295442009-12-09T08:46:00.001-08:002009-12-09T08:54:21.132-08:00

It is difficult to truly know what the Jews of early New York thought about the fate of the soul. One can read their wills and understand a lot from them, but more research must be done about the process of composing a will from that era. This is vital because, as this author tries to explicate the fate of the soul through analysis of wills, it is always possible that the discussion of the soul

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-23488365918590076412009-12-06T09:53:00.000-08:002009-12-06T09:58:20.144-08:00

The Maccabean Revolt was a moment of joy for Jews of the 2nd Temple era. It ushered in a new form of political and religious independence, championed by Jewish heroes who defeated foreign Pagan rulers. However, the Revolt and ensuing Independence also exposed Jews as partners in the corrupt system that existed between the political and religious spheres. Whereas prior to the Revolt, Jewish

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-28967390961483429172009-12-04T11:23:00.000-08:002009-12-04T11:27:24.482-08:00

2 Maccabees 4:18-20 explicates the tension in the land of Israel between the supporters of Hellenism and supporters of traditional Jewish life and often how there can be Jews who are all in between these extreme positions. Simply put, Jason, a Hellenizing Chief Priest, sent money with Jewish athletes to Tyre, with the intent that they would use it for making a sacrifice to the local Tyrean God,

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-16037393759966209052009-05-17T19:21:00.002-07:002009-05-17T19:31:22.394-07:00

Abstract: Land clearing is a part of human history. However, since the Industrial Revolution, deforestation has taken place at record rates in the tropics. Though, this had occurred in the temperate zone, the danger now lies that CO2 levels are heating the Earth to unforeseen levels. As this happens and forests are continually cut down, then little can be done to stop CO2 levels from rising.

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-42611559064735579892009-05-17T19:21:00.001-07:002009-05-17T19:21:53.326-07:00

Following my semester in a country where there are few Jews and one in which I rarely expressed my Jewish identity, I thought I had some new understandings about the nature of identity, and specifically Jewish identity. Traveling throughout Ghana, a country in which ethnic identification is the primary social identification mechanism, I came to believe that Jewish identity was not exclusively a

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-37512884308768100162009-05-17T19:14:00.000-07:002009-05-17T19:20:56.664-07:00

Currently, World Jewry is becoming aware of a new kind of a Jewish person. Long standing assumptions of what a Jew looks like and where he/she comes from are being challenged. The case of Ethiopian Jewry is well documented and well known, but is only the beginning of an exploration into the world of sub-Saharan Judaism. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa , numerous ethnic groups claim Jewish heritage,

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-54220034193166513762009-05-17T19:13:00.000-07:002009-05-17T19:14:36.237-07:00

Sixteenth-Century Safed is often one of the most overlooked periods in Jewish history. When it is studied, it is usually in the context of the immense literature and spiritual movement that came out of the city regarding Kabbalah and Isaac Luria. Yet, often neglected is an explanation as to how it fits into the narrative of the rest of Jewish history, how such prominence arose in the land of

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-45691048113812237712009-05-17T19:10:00.000-07:002009-05-17T19:13:31.618-07:00

Jewish history is often told as a narrative of Jews migrating from one place to another, usually escaping some sort of oppression. This narrative almost always separates Jewish history into geographical units, concentrating on Jewish communities that lived in one location, before moving onto the next location of inevitable persecution. Additionally, the focus of these units centers around the

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-35953182590358425882009-03-27T12:47:00.000-07:002009-03-27T12:50:15.670-07:00

Alternative Spring Break (March 15, 2009)March 17, 2009Today was the first day of our trip. We met each other and got to walk around Bourbon Street to end the day. However, the highlight of the day was certainly driving around the Lower 9th ward in the cold rain. Sitting on a cold bus, we crossed the river and took a left into a patch of green land. Sparsely, there were stones, stop signs, and

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-69594118967311263702009-02-01T18:38:00.000-08:002009-02-01T18:40:12.197-08:00

Fall 2008 took me abroad to Ghana, West Africa, where I saw first hand the challenges the developing world faces. I saw poverty unlike I had ever seen before, unlike the poverty that exists in America. Open sewers, dirty water, child labor…all these things made me appreciate immensely how grateful I was to be raised in America, when I was raised in America, and by whom I was raised by. But after

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-57204294906253643772009-01-14T11:06:00.000-08:002009-01-14T19:24:40.512-08:00

Steve-O is a twenty-one year old Ghanaian musician, struggling to break into the music scene of the developing African country. Originally from a small town along the Northern border of Ghana, Steve-O left school and his family at the age of thirteen in hopes of “making it” in the capital city of Accra. Shortly after his arrival in Accra, Steve-O began to grill meat skewers on the street, a

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-70495128851784452932008-12-11T09:21:00.000-08:002008-12-11T09:51:49.421-08:00

Well, I am sorry that I have not been keeping you all up to date! The last month has certainly been crazy. I have just finished presenting what I have been researching - a 2 string lute called the kologo, played by a people called Frafra from Northern Ghana. I have finished a lengthy report about it and hope to show it to many of you. If you are interested in reading it, let me know!But my

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-75809690860861158102008-11-09T05:28:00.000-08:002008-11-09T06:59:02.315-08:00

After spending some time in Cape Coast, my group traveled eastward to the Eastern Region and Volta Region, which borders Togo, the country due East of Ghana. We had the opportunity to meet with some of the ethnic groups we had not met with yet, such as the Krobo in Odumase, Eastern Region, and the famous Ewe, located in the Volta Region. The two regions are lush with greenery, similar to the rest

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-85959766243748345552008-10-27T07:13:00.000-07:002008-11-08T13:37:44.827-08:00

Cape Coast hosts two historic castle dungeons - Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Touring around both, I saw the dungeons where captured Africans were kept until a ship came to take them away to the Americas to work on slave plantations. The scratches on the walls where prisoners were kept are still visible. The real floor is not exposed as our tour guide points to a mark on the wall 1 meter

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-10132615194517788152008-10-23T06:33:00.000-07:002008-10-23T06:53:48.587-07:00

Just under two weeks until the elections and I hear America is in a tizzy about Obamamania. Over here, there is also an election about one month after ours, so campaign fever is certainly in the air. But the main focus is that people are urging for a peaceful nonviolent election, which hopefully will happen.My entire time here I have been asking people here and there what they know of America and

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-6592289281749376722008-10-19T07:53:00.000-07:002008-10-19T08:12:02.350-07:00

Continued from previous post...The other obvious change is how many white people there are here. Most are from Europe working for NGOs which are the most numerous here, more than any other concentrated area in the WORLD. For the first time in Ghana, no one is shouting at me "White Man". It is clear here they are used to white people because of all these foreign workers. But for the big question

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-61039797588758328172008-10-18T14:38:00.001-07:002008-10-18T14:54:25.800-07:00

This week my group has been posted in Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region. Immediately, there were two things noticeable here as opposed to the rest of the country. The first was the influence of West African Islam. Unlike the predominantly Christian South, the North is majority Muslim. In this town aside from the new state-of-the-art soccer stadium the tallest structure is the central

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-56358121098332878592008-10-13T11:03:00.000-07:002008-10-13T11:23:13.905-07:00

"Kweku, dis my koko fawm' Auntie Akosiya said to me. We had not spoken much - she speaks almost no English but this old lady had been my landlord during my village stay. I had not realized it at first as I had been given a room in our headquarters, so I figured I had no host family. But a few days into it I realized it was all rented from Auntie Akosiya...Until two days ago I had been staying in

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-41152897053191400602008-09-27T05:41:00.000-07:002008-09-27T05:59:53.506-07:00

This past week it seems as if my time here has really changed. The feelings I had been having the first few weeks here due to adjustment issues have certainly decreased. There are still moments of frustration, but overall, despite battling with traveler's diahrea/typhoid, I have kept good spirits. I would say the day that changed my attitude completely was last Sunday. After attending church,

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-72011857183186624502008-09-18T09:08:00.000-07:002008-09-18T09:38:40.283-07:00

It is certainly hard to believe I have only been here two and a half weeks. It seems like ages since last I wrote. My homestay in Accra (the capital) ended on Sunday morning and my group made the trip to Kumasi (The Asante Capital) where I have begun the second homestay. But before continuing on specifics I would just like to highlight some things that have happened.The daily schedule of my life

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-1569196935784789732008-09-05T09:39:00.000-07:002008-09-05T10:21:28.571-07:00

Well, it is safe to say that I have already been the a whirlwind of emotion here in Ghana. We landed and had our orientation at a Youth Hostel in Accra, the capital city located on the Coast of the Atlantic. The first couple days were okay. We were mostly with our group and our group leaders and had few chances to go and interact with the local population. Sufficed to say, I was not exactly

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-70949998807127597292008-08-27T20:49:00.001-07:002008-08-27T23:06:34.392-07:00

After I met Maital outside, a white haired Indian man began speaking to us, asking us why we, as young white people, supported him. We both responded with our own reasons, discussed a little about ourselves, and spoke with him. We could both tell that this man was very impressive and smart. It turns out he was the head of the American Muslim Caucaus. Whn he asked me what I was studying and

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-78196259746099308982008-08-26T20:31:00.000-07:002008-08-27T00:33:29.431-07:00

Day 1- Since we began our (Maital, my sister, and I) journey here in Denver at the DNC, we knew that all we could count on was not to close ourselves to any opportunities and see as much as possible. Waking up in a Denver Airport Hotel on Sunday morning, it occurred to me that I had no idea where I was going to sleep that night. We had had plans to stay 30 minutes outside Denver with family

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-30023731757580127352008-08-08T20:41:00.000-07:002008-08-08T20:42:11.503-07:00

The following narrative is an attempt to explain my opinion of what occurs to humans when they die. It is written from the perspective of the human conscious, which I believe lives in us, is the voice we hear when we think to ourselves, the feelings we feel when we are unable to understand why we love, hate, etc, and is often called the soul. This aspect of the self never dies, but regenerates

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-49450313321405758852008-04-06T09:56:00.000-07:002008-04-06T10:10:18.907-07:00

Explain Why Bible Scholars needed to come up with multiple theories with regard to the origin of Israel in Canaan. The biggest question mark regarding the existence of Ancient Israel is their origins. The Bible tells of a great Exodus from slavery in Egypt, followed by a period of settling the land of Israel. Yet, there do not seem to be any extrabiblical sourcfes nor archaeological

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-14345714907823407642008-04-03T11:07:00.000-07:002008-04-03T11:20:47.914-07:00

When three women of three different generations are asked about their most vivid early life memories, the answers obviously vary. Wilma, Barbara, and Anastasia all grew up in different places under different circumstances. Wilma O’Shea, born in 1929 in Nashville, TN, the oldest of the three, first responded that she could not remember anything. She had heard a lot about it from her two older

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-2855910746531159942008-03-09T19:10:00.001-07:002008-03-09T19:10:55.817-07:00

Walk into the Metropolitan Museum of Art and ask how to get to the “Eternal Ancestors” and some of the staff may point you down the Egyptian corridor. Once realizing that your beloved African art has sent you to Ancient Egypt, try to overlook the cultural biases and debates over the validity of African art, ask someone else for the right direction, and he/she will point you to the opposite side

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-5300029140093387212008-02-18T11:14:00.001-08:002008-12-13T01:02:07.419-08:00

El Anatsui’s “Untitled, 2007, Aluminum and copper wire (96 x 111 inches)” displays many references towards the kente visual tradition. Upon first sighting, the piece immediately appears as if it is modeled after a kente and it is only when the viewer inspects it from a closer perspective does he/she realize that it is actually made out of aluminum and copper wire. Another reference to the kente

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-25668875501229603782007-12-10T06:45:00.000-08:002007-12-10T06:49:45.479-08:00

The story of Jewish influence in West Africa is one that is mired in the unknown. It is a subject that must be further explored and examined in order to create a better understanding of what Jewish life in West Africa may have been like. The history of the well-known Moroccan Jews is well documented. Additionally, even the Jews of the Atlas Mountains, the mountain range separating North and

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-7657500720592234262007-12-02T11:14:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:15:57.051-08:00

On May 1, 2003, President Bush told the world “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended” but since then more American soldiers have been killed than when Operation Iraqi Freedom was actually taking place. Beyond this, more Iraqis have been murdered since the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom than prior to it. Primarily due to “sectarian cleansing” countless Iraqis have been executed. But an even

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-11261086196080926162007-12-02T11:13:00.001-08:002007-12-02T11:13:58.710-08:00

Before time existed, there was an emptiness. Existence was merely a vacuum, a space with no border, no meaning, having no definition, and most importantly, no movement. Anything that was, was unknowable, inconceivable. There was nothing - literally, “no-thing”. There was an absence of anything to which we assign knowledge and meaning to today. A permanent drift of stillness floated through the

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-55184171184149020462007-12-02T11:12:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:13:04.669-08:00

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade changed the world forever. Outside Africa, it created an African Diaspora, encouraged the Industrial Revolution, and sparked a campaign against violence and cruelty based on a new code of morality. However, the slave trade may have had even greater affects on the continent of Africa itself. It was essentially the beginnings of relations between Africa and Europe.

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-65587990471095421822007-12-02T11:10:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:12:01.728-08:00

Within any population, there are certain to be various differences among subgroups of that population. Often, these subgroups are distinct enough that they are defined as different ethnic groups. The question of what shapes or creates an ethnic group and its identity is one that seems to have no concrete answer. There are clearly distinguishing features between various groups that one can look

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-63398541709382537132007-12-02T11:08:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:10:44.195-08:00

Out of human memory and experience comes the narrative of human history. Through people’s memories and perceptions, we learn what happened, how it happened, and more importantly what came out of any given event. However, we must also question from where does memory originate? What shapes memory? Naturally, the obvious answer is experience. But how do we define our perceptions of experience.

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-33006718408093770392007-12-02T11:07:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:08:40.941-08:00

A major argument against the human rights movement is that no such concept exists. Rather, the idea of human rights is relative to culture, time, and place and because Western thought has come to dominate the world, it is the moral system of the West that drives the perpetual human rights debate. Opponents of the movement claim that rights are relative – what one culture prescribes as the

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-56363562328746867672007-12-02T11:05:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:07:11.853-08:00

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Perhaps this idiom is most poignant when considered with the history of the human rights movement. This is the movement after all that garners most of its support by displaying images of human rights violations to those who may not know of the existence of such atrocities. With the rise of the age of technology and media, gruesome images

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-49978099594866474302007-12-02T11:04:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:05:49.215-08:00

Jewish Philosophy is a strange term when one really thinks about it. The pursuit of philosophy is truth, without any bias, without any previously known conclusions, and without relying on supernatural rationalizations for explanations. Judaism, on the other hand, is the quest for meaning in a world of one God. It makes no attempts to hide the fact that it evokes imagery of a supreme deity or

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-47332826870882165982007-12-02T11:02:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:03:42.899-08:00

The development of Muslim identity within the context of a western-influenced and dominated world may be analyzed from many different perspectives. One such perspective is to evaluate how Muslim identity is developed within Islamic culture. Another perspective is to investigate how Muslim identity develops outside Islamic culture, and, in this case, how the Western world perceives, represents,

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5972351014240890240.post-12447568776230903812007-12-02T11:00:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:02:23.321-08:00

America is the land of opportunity, the land of the free, the land of prosperity. Often, Americans think of their country as the country in which no man, woman, or child goes hungry. There exists this impression that everyone sleeps in a bed at night. Our nation’s biggest problems exist outside our borders – bringing democratic values to the “barbaric” third world. Granted this slightly

Yoav Acousticahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18000083431983368712noreply@blogger.com0