Firehose #81: The Book of Genesis

Also: Who’s ready for a Shane Gills watch party?

Fact 1: The ad that Instagram feeds me most often, the one that (unlike the white-bearded guy doing chair exercises) I don’t immediately try in vain to suppress, is a pic of my old junior/senior high school pal Michael Stuhlbarg returning to Broadway to star in the Putin-themed show Patriots. Fact 2: The pic above was taken at yet another fab Fifdom Shabbat dinner at Boruch and Chaya Leah Sufrin’s LBC compound. Fact 3: Chaya Leah (Orthodox) and the late, great Mort Stuhlbarg (Reform) used to butt heads a bit in the great LBC Jewish philanthropy wars. Until they broke metaphorical challah bread (or as Coco calls it, Chaya Leah bread) and evolved to a position of mutual respect. I say this both as a cheesy feature-pic tie-in lede, and also as a reminder, mostly to myself, that our far-flung friends’ parents are passing, and it’s never too late to check in and say hey. And yer damn skippy that I’ll soon be reveling in Mike’s Russian accent….

* Speaking of Darth Putin, Monsignor Moynihan this week went on Just Asking Questions, the newish weekly Reason joint from Liz Wolfe and Zach Weissmueller, to talk Tucker Carlson, Pootie-Poot, Alexi Navalny, “Moynihan's experience reporting in Russia, and the state of economic and political freedom under Putin's rule.” I am reliably told there’s some Fifth Column origin-storyage in there, but I could not detect any underneath the din of my daughter cranking SpongeBob in the hotel room.

* Speaking of origin stories, I have it on good authority that Chaya Leah and her insane, blue-eyed, Guns N’ Roses-loving father Rabbi Aba Abba Perelmuter are this week preparing to unveil a new Judaism podcast called edJewcation. They, like R. Crumb, are starting with the Book of Genesis. No word yet how they plan to incorporate The Spaghetti Incident.

* Oh hey, Moynihan’s man-crush Shane Gillis is hosting SNL tonight! Prompting the ritual conniptions in Unfunny Land. Here’s a dopey promo:

Here’s Gillis describing his prior SNL firing:

And here’s our pal Andrew Schulz (Episode #30 & #32) talking about the “biblical cool” of Shane’s triumphant return:

Feels like y’all should have a watch party, right? I’ll be checking from the plane, but consider this post an open thread, at least until someone starts a new one in the Chat.

* So, about my choice of vacation lodging, as discussed in #Members Only #201….

Some commenters expressed concern about my finances, my tastes, my daughter’s safety…. Fear not! Our week in Cali hasn’t all been bulletproof glass and uncleaned nail-polish accidents!

L Brown had the good manners to reference the great D.J. Waldie, author of the incomparable Holy Land, which explains the context of my upbringing better than anything. This gives me a thin excuse to link to my interview of Waldie from 2011:

* Eli Lake (#52, #65, #141, #174, Special Dispatch #51, #326, #368, #407, M.O. #184), perhaps angling to be Kmele’s running mate, has written a Free Press review of Kanye’s new album, calling it “at turns haunting, petty, and discordant. And you can’t ignore the shadow of his antisemitism over the whole thing. So why did I like it?”

* Some more Reason content for ya: Nick Gillespie (S.D. #72 & #379) interviewed Justin Amash (#184 & #389) at LibertyCon a few weeks back, and the results are now up. “They talked about the 2024 presidential election and the country's political and cultural polarization that seems to be growing with every passing day. And about how his parents' experiences as a Christian refugee from Palestine and an immigrant from Syria inform his views on foreign policy, entrepreneurship, and American exceptionalism.”

* Listener Mike Freedman was clued in by Moynihan to the amazing documentary work of Ukrainian director Sergei Lotnizki, and, well, Mike just went ahead and interviewed the man!

* Comment of the Week comes from Judas Ciscariot:

Re: Meeting the Marine Raider… Matt, you might appreciate this: Early 2000’s, an afternoon in The Roost in Atwater Village. Struck up a conversation with an old timer sitting next to me at the bar… yadayada… life in the 30s, it goes quick savor every moment young buck… yadayada…yeah I was a test pilot… worked for Howard (Hughes)… funny story about Howard…. Yadayada… (I’m listening in awe) one day some guy shows up, General Chennault, came out to the airstrip to see if anyone might be interested in a contract job based in Burma… I interjected amazed, you were a Flying Tiger?!!! He was stunned that I knew about any of it let alone the name Chennault and The American Volunteer Group. For Moynihan… The bar The Roost was immortalized as a hidden track on the Elliott Smith album Figure 8. We loved Elliott and left him alone. A great bar where you could share a cheap beer and a smoke with kings old and new. Cheers gents.

Walkoff music, therefore: