I did it! I changed my blog's name. Woohoo! Look at me!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Oh em geeee. As you (probably don't) know, I am obsessed with the NPR radio show This American Life. It has gotten me through the rough times, and through many a 15-hour bus ride in Mexico. I love Ira Glass, and I love that he used to watch the OC with his wife and got really excited when they made fun of This American Life on it. Eeeep!

As you already know, I also love the blog fourfour and the video mentioned here: http://mfthewebsite.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-isnt-americas-next-top-best-friend.html

Now, both of these forces have been combined in the newest episode of TAL, entitled Frenemies. (I also love the concept of frenemies! I love everything! Love!). Yes, good ol' Ira has an actual TAL story about the I'm Not Here to Make Friends youtube video. Life is good.

You can listen to the podcast here (the particular story I'm talking about starts at about 23:15): http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=389

PS I wonder what a This Israeli Life show would be like. Actually, it'd be exactly like This American Life but with more joos. There are waaaay too many TAL stories about Israelis. Remember the one about IDF summer camp? Jews run the media.

DFW I<3U

David Foster Wallace makes me want to write so much fiction! And I suck at writing fiction. (My last attempt at it was a story about a bird who speaks in a Southern accent and its stalker raccoon who speaks in a faux-Shakespearean manner. Enough said.)

When I say David Foster Wallace inspires me, I actually mean that this article in the New Yorker about him inspires me. I have already read this article twice.

I mean, he was compulsively second-guessing everything he wrote! And he was interested in characters who do extremely boring work, and how out of that work they suck meaning into their lives! I am also interested in these things! Wow!

Where in the World is M.F. the Website?

Hello, "readers" (aka people who googled Dogtanian and somehow reached my blog),

The tides of summer have crashed into the glass- and plastic-bag-infested shore, and a new autumn of non-foliage and non-cold is upon us. I, M.F., of M.F. the Website, have a few questions on the eve of this here autumn:

1. Why is M.F. the Website missing its proper punctuation? M.F.: the Website, or M.F., the Website, would have been lovely.

2. How come I haven't yet discussed the new season of Israeli Survivor? (Because it's boring.)

3. When will I have more guests visit me from the US? (Nevar. Hostel o' F. '09 has left me seeking alone time in my apartment by myself forever! Though Hostel o' F. time was lovely.)

4. How excited am I for all the Jewish holidays coming up? (Not very.)

5. When will I finally rename this blog so that it's not the first thing that comes up when you google my name? (I dunno.)

6. When will I actually show up to a Peace Now protest on the other side of the green line? (I'm scared!)

7. Why am I going on vintage shopping sprees 2 months before I go to the vintage retail heaven that is Austin/New York?

8. How awesome is it that all these good indie bands are coming to Tel Aviv these days? Yippee!

9. How did I ever live without watching Seinfeld every single day?

10. How glad am I to not be in a country that would ever argue about giving all its citizens health insurance?

100 Posts

I usually love summer, but am so glad this one is ending. I decided to buy a ticket to the US of A for late November/early December. So I'll be in the US just in time for Christmas madness, and you know how much I hate Christmas. But it's fine. I've realized that the religious/capitalistic fanaticism is not something I can escape from, at least not in Israel (successful kibbutzim excluded). When I walk around on the UT campus, I won't mind the Christian proselytizing, now that I spend a couple of hours every day sitting by crazy people murmuring into their Jewish prayer books on the bus. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. What I meant to say is: I can't wait to go vintage shopping, to eat Mexican food, to see my dog Phoebs, to see real hipsters, to watch people do real drugs, to feel like I know people and they know me, to be treated weirdly for being Jewish, to not hear sexist remarks all the time, and to hug all my loved ones. I'm going to America, bitches! (in a while) (and for only three weeks) (but still)