Brian Geller’s Blog

These are the pictures of the reception after Rabbi Leintner’s installation. There are many shots to enjoy. If you see one you like, please download it and print it for your self!

Click on the picture to see the rest of the photos!

Classified under “too much time on my hands”, I found a web site that calculates the worth of blogs. So I put mine it. Almost seventeen hundred bucks. Don’t worry, it’s not for sale. Where else would I get to share my photos, pictures of you (my friends) and rant?

If you have a blog and have to know what your sole is worth, check out business-opportunities blog. It’s powerd by the blogs’ friend Technoroti.

What’s your blog worth…to you?

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Originally uploaded by Big Kohuna.

A great time this weekend at Joel and Juliette’s annual Sukkah party. I look forward to this event every year.



Thanks for inviting me!

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Originally uploaded by Big Kohuna.

Ok, it took me awhile to get this posted…But I just love that Irving & Rosemary got married. They are two woundeful and unique spirts that have found each other. It really makes me happy to be around both of them.



Mazal Tov to them!



Brian

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Originally uploaded by Big Kohuna.

My friend Joan Gelfand read Poetry this weekend, acompanied by Goeffrey Kat, at the San Francisco poetry slam LitQuake. Joan, I do enjoy your poetry, and Geoffrey’s playing was subtle and punctuating. Very nice!

More pictures to come tonight.

Wide shot of Jennifer’s Studio

Photos from a recent shoot in my friend Jennifer’s current studio, an emty building south of Market. There’s always intersting stuff for me to shoot when I go to her studios. This time was no exception.



Thanks Jennifer!

To see the rest of the shoot, click on this link!

I just got back from a very unpleasant experience and a restaurant that I have enjoyed for over 25 years, Original Hunan at 924 Sansome in San Francisco.

After easting almost a whole plate of Hot & Sour Beef I notice a fly floating in the vinegar bottle that I had been using to season my dish. Feh! I was disappointed at what happened next. I brought this to the attention of the manger, Betty Chung, and the waitress. They apologized and brought me a new bottle of vinegar. I felt that I should not have to pay the $12.50 for my meal. When I suggested this, Ms. Chung got angry with me, saying that there was nothing wrong with my Hot & Sour Beef and it wasn’t their falt, “I spray every week” for bugs. What a tip that was. On top of that fly in MY vinegar, they know they have a problem. She showed me the care they take by placing little plastic condiment cups as cap on of the vinegar bottles before the are severed, because flies enter them.

No I wasn’t looking for a free meal, I was just disgusted by having eaten a plate of food with Fly Flavored Vinegar, and felt that the restaurant should have taken care of me, rather than give me more heart burn over twelve and half bucks.

I wouldn’t go back, unless you like fly flavoring. Original Hunan has a pest problem and haven’t adequately dealt with it.

As my Grandma Isabelle would say “FEH!”

After days and weeks of reading about Gaza, this piece by Michael Oren in the Wall Street Journal this morning, was the one that broke my heart and brought me back to earth. I had to pause between pages, as I read it on my ride in to work on the 30 express bus, crowded with young, polished professionals. They must have wondered what I was reading the was causing me to wipe my eyes, or not, as their iPods overwhelmed their senses.

Just read it! A Soldier’s Story, by Michael Oren

Michael Oren is 25 year member of the IDF and a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He is also the author of “Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East”.

Last week, the Today Show on NBC shot video at Makor Or, our Jewish Meditation Center at Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco. They also shot at our daily minyan, the morning prayers that we hold twice a day. I’ve been doing this we several times a week for the last several years.

Yes, I’m a mediating Jew. Mediation is not at the expense of prayer. For me, it has enhanced my prayer experience. I have a daily spiritual practice. I ether mediate or pray or both every day. Rabbi Alan Lew, has really helped my find my way back to traditional Jewish practice, by creating a really solid Jewish community at our schule and Makor Or.

Back to the NBC story….this story is in conjunction with an article in Newsweek this week, and not a very good article at that. They chose the most sensational movements in Judaism today with a focus on Kabbalah. Shame on them. I think the way Kabbalah is being portrayed today, cheapens it. My opinion, people should get back to basics, study, prayer, and traditional Jewish ritual. Judaism is not a “quick fix” realign. Don’t be afraid, it takes a little practice to get it, but it’s worth it.

Come to schule!

I just picked up a new telephoto lens and wanted to try it out. The perfect place was the windsurfers at Crissy Field near by. These are the pictures. Many are cropped even on top of the 9x magnification. One of the windsurfers introduced him self, Yannick, from Burgundy, France.

Enjoy the shots. Click on the picture to see the rest of the photos!