Geek love

I figure the next stop on my search for a mate is the exciting world of dating sites for nerds. Fortunately, Nerve.com was kind enough to do a roundup of geek-romance nodes (isn't "node" a nerdy word?) so I don't have to. I did, however, write an article once about love among Seattle's hardcore Scrabble enthusiasts. It doesn't get a whole lot geekier than them.

Trouble in Weeklyville

Thanks to a recent jury decision, the San Francisco Bay Guardian may seize some Village Voice Media assets, possibly including my old employer, Seattle Weekly. VVM and SFBG have already begun sniping at each other. It's serious media news, but the back-and-forth attacks are pretty good entertainment, too. Thanks to Michael for the link.

R.I.P., Eileen

Earlier today, I found an obituary from February that listed a friend I'd lost touch with: Eileen Mintz, whose passion for food matched her formidable PR skills. I met her through my work as a food writer for Seattle Weekly, but she was more than just a professional acquaintance. Even though we didn't see each other too often, her kindness to me resembled that of a loving aunt, albeit one with better connections and juicier gossip than any actual relative I've ever had. Eileen was a matchmaker, too, and though she never made any money at it, she probably could have.

I interviewed her about her knack for pairing people up for the Weekly's Valentine's Day issue in 2006, and the resulting piece provides a sample of Eileen's offhand wisdom and joie de vivre. After the interview, she drove me to the house of Emily Cunningham, whom I'd just started dating. That very night, Emily and I began a relationship that would last two and a half years. Coincidence? Doubtful. Befriending a matchmaker gives you an unfair advantage in matters romantic; I highly recommend it.

Wherever you are, Eileen, I hope you're eating well and helping people date better. I'm really sorry I missed your memorial service.

"Anti-Semitism: The Movie"

That's the tongue-in-cheek tagline of Defamation, a new documentary by Israeli director Yoav Shamir that promises to address a very contemporary question: Is anti-Semitism still a significant problem, or are Jews (and others) who think so merely paranoid, insecure, or worse?

As is nearly always the case in such matters, the answer seems to be "both." What excites me about this movie is that it apparently engages with both sides of the debate, unlike Marc Levin's bratty 2005 film Protocols of Zion, in which the director presented a series of hardcore Jew-haters as "proof" that 9/11 unleashed a torrent of anti-Semitic feeling. (Whether the attacks did or didn't galvanize people who loathe us, selective interviewing isn't a persuasive way to show it. I said as much in 2006, when the movie opened here and I reviewed it.) I'm not sure when Defamation will come to Seattle, but you can count on the Kibbutz hosting an excursion to see it and a discussion afterwards, led by yours truly.

Food ref

The artwork above, created by Alli Arnold, accompanied a 2004 piece I wrote for the Weekly about Seattle's Jewish dining scene. In light of Jew-ish.com editor Leyna Krow's recent post about the relative abundance of kosher options in town, I figured it was worth digging up. If only for the awesome illustration.

Craving fame

Seattle chef Robin Leventhal, whose late, great restaurant Crave I was the first to review, is a contender on Top Chef this season. I only hope that if she emerges victorious, I get to meet Padma. A boy can dream, can't he?

God's song

Heard this today on KEXP. I've long been fascinated with songs that explore religion from a secular or semi-secular point of view that isn't essentially disrespectful -- that is, music that asks spiritual questions thoughtfully, even when there's anger in the asking. (XTC's "Dear God" is a fine example.) "Letter From God To Man" certainly succeeds on that level, and it provides a nice contrast to one of my favorite songs, Randy Newman's "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)," in which the Lord is portrayed, as I wrote in 2005, as "a cackling sadist who gets off on our misguided need for him." I like the vision, in "Letter," of a Deity who's willing to share the blame for humanity's troubles but unwilling to shoulder all of it. That's a God I could at least consider believing in.

Its humble origins

I worked for a Village Voice Media paper for years without knowing how the Voice came to exist. Thanks to Louis Menand's informative New Yorker piece, I no longer have to wonder.