Film Camera? What's that?

A lot of you kids are growing up in the Digital Age. You always have a cell phone at your side, Facebook in front of you, and an MP# player attached to your skull.

Another technological innovation that permeates your life: The digital camera. You can take pictures with impunity, always knowing that an unwanted snapshot can be discarded with the click of a button.

It was not always that easy, and in a nod to the past, the following shots were originally caught on film, using a chemical process (before being digitally transferred to a computer). They were snapped a few weeks ago, when a bunch of foolhardy folks opted to do some hardcore tobboganning.

Britney's Sister is Pregnant!!! OMG!

Britney Spears and her sister, Jamie-Lynn

The world has been rocked by the news. Jamie-Lynn Spears, 16, is pregnant. Cars have stopped in the streets. Airplane flights have been grounded. Lions and lambs lay together in the field as pure anarchy sweeps the Earth. Thunder and lightning have filled the skies. Civilization will never be the same.

Meanwhile, more trivial matters are thankfully being swept aside as the public comes to grips with this shocking revelation.

Some of these unimportant issues include:

• The crisis in Darfur
• Canada's descent into unfair copyright laws
• Iran's continued desire to acheive the destruction of Israel through a long-range attack
• Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq
• Vladimir Putin's erosion of the last shreds of democracy in Russia

Thank goodness for little Jamie-Lynn. She's a helpful reminder that we, as the public, need to stay focused on what really matters. A special thank you to the media for keeping us on track. Journalists report on the issues that matter. I salute their integrity.

Watch this space

Chanukah is over! I know, it's sad, but there is always next year, right?

More material coming soon.

WATCH THIS SPACE

"Come on baby light my fire"

Happy Chanukah to all you congregants at the Shul of Rock. During the festival of lights, in which we reflect on an amazing miracle of the past, I hope you can also remember to look for the everyday miracles that are occurring in your own life. It is sometimes easy to lose sight of how elements of our lives are so blessed.

Bask in that thought for a moment, will you?

All done? Come on, a few more seconds, ok? ……. Alright, that’s good.

I was talking with the co-president of the Shul, Mr. T, yesterday. We were enjoying one of our famous jaunts through downtown Toronto when we began discussing the dearth of good Chanukah movies. Every year, people throw oil-filled parties in which dreidels and DVDs spin, and it’s usually either The Hebrew Hammer, or Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights that gets some play.

Hammer is a fun film, but it gets old after the fourth viewing or so. And as for the Sandler movie, it’s more of a general holiday movie. It promotes all that holiday season mushiness, rather than a specifically Jewish tale. Mr. T and I are brewing up some pretty cool ideas, and if anyone ever has the dough to shoot a film, we’d love to be a part of it. Until then, we’ll continue making our own embarrassingly amateur Chanukah greeting videos.

Keep those dreidels spinning!