Hairnets and Haredim

[imomus]

Yesterday Hisae was trimming her hair. When she'd finished, she collected a handful of cut black hair and showed it to me. "I could wear your hair on my head!" I said, and we started arranging her hair on top of mine. It was quite easy to tease it into styles then fix them with hair spray.



We'd decided to go to lunch at Imren, a devoutly Muslim kebab restaurant near our house. I found that my borrowed black hair looked better when held in place by a hat, but the final effect was uncannily Hasidic. The impression was enhanced by forecurls and strings hanging off my trousers (yachting pants that tie up at various places on the leg). I found myself adopting a walk to match the look: the "Williamsburg Bridge Walk" -- stooped forward with concave shoulders, looking neither left nor right, hurrying anxiously to my destination. I got some long, strange looks at Imren -- the kind of place where, on Fridays, the staff chant "Allah, Allah" as they carve at the meat wheel.

Later, I went to Olly Prestele's new Cocolo ramen restaurant (now open daily at Gippstrasse 3 in Mitte) with neighbours Lina and Jan. At Lina's birthday party in a bar nearby I met about ten people I'd never met before. They took me, black hair and all, at face value, as we all tend to do (after all, you don't tug a stranger's beard to see if it's real). I asked a Canadian girl called Lee if she'd noticed anything strange about my hair -- confessing that it actually belonged to my girlfriend. "Now you mention it, I did think you might be wearing a hairnet," she said. "But I assumed that hairnets were just the latest trendy thing around here."

Comments

[hook-and-eyelet.livejournal.com]

After a mostly nice haircut last week, I was left with an unsightly clump of bangs. I trimmed it off whilst Paul was at work today. I left it in our bathroom garbage can, but I still think it would be lovely if I could affix it onto his ever-expanding bald spot.

[alphacomp.livejournal.com]

There's something almost Phil Oakey-ish about it!

[(Anonymous)]

You like taking pictures of yourself, don't you? More than your girlfriend.
Most Hasidim wear the big fur Shtreimel, originating in the cold climes of Russia. Looks a bit hot in NY and Jerusalem.

Of Hasidim, only Chabad-Lubavitch wear the pork-pie Fedora. It's mainly associated with non-Hasidic "Ultra-Orthodox". So your title your read "Hairnets and HAREDIM".

Amongst anti-semites, the ignorance of the differences in Judaism is often a signifying characteristic. They rarely dress up as a Der Sturmer style caricature though.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That definition of anti-semitism is a generously inclusive one, Anon. It makes the mere failure to be an expert into an assumed hatred. A wonderful technique for anyone who actually wanted to create enemies where previously there were none. (But who would actually want this?)

Using your technique, I could say, for instance, that ignorance of my motives for wearing my girlfriend's hair on my head (playfulness and some thinning of my own hair) made you my enemy. But I prefer to think of you as a potential friend. Life's too short, ne?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

By the way, a couple of corrections: my girlfriend took many of these pictures. Also, as the narrative makes clear, the orthodox look was accidental, if uncanny -- strings from my clothes, forecurls, the hat, all came together unexpectedly. Then, Zelig-like, I found myself walking in a certain way.

nanikore!!?

[joji-poji.livejournal.com]

this brightened up my day...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Also: Tamy Ben-Tor (http://www.slate.com/id/2131261/) -- she can only get away with this stuff because she's Jewish herself, right? Do not try this at home, kids!

Re: nanikore!!?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hi Joji!

I suppose what's going on here is play, but it's also visual "miscegenation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscegenation)": interesting that a blond Scot balancing Japanese hair on his head should land, unexpectedly, at the halfway point between occident and orient: the Middle East.

Re: nanikore!!?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Speaking of miscegenation, visual or otherwise, it's interesting that both the Nazi state in Germany and the current state of Israel outlaw it. According to Wikipedia,

"In Germany, an anti-miscegenation law was enacted by the National Socialist government in September 1935 as part of the Nuremberg Laws. The Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre (Protection of German Blood and German Honor Act) forbade marriage and extra-marital sexual relations between persons of Jewish origin and persons of “German or related blood”. Such intercourse was marked as Rassenschande (lit. race-disgrace) and could be punished by imprisonment or even by death (which often followed the deportation into a concentration camp). The laws were discarded in September 1945.

Israel
In the State of Israel, all marriages must be by approved religious celebrants and civil marriages are not legally recognized. Authority over all issues related to Judaism falls under the Orthodox Rabbinate, which prohibits intermarriage and marriage through non-Orthodox Rabbis; as a result, in the state of Israel, Jews cannot legally marry someone in another religion and multi-faith couples must leave the country to get married."

stranger's beard

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

A handsome couple at the meat wheel.
Sounds like an old fashion Glasgow Fair!

http://www1.ntv.co.jp/news/wmtram/news.cgi?movie=070317011.cgi.300k.79546.html

Re: nanikore!!?

[joji-poji.livejournal.com]

hello nick
i was recently in auckland, new zealand.. whilst driving up mount 'eden', the cab driver was explaining to me that all the non native plants and wildlife were being 'terminated' in order to protect and preserve their 'natural heritage'... this mirrored the impression i had of how the chinese were seen in auckland- maybe it was my bad luck, but people would presume that i was chinese and would make me feel very uncomfortable- not looking me in the eye, ignoring me, shouting at me.. and auckland is a pretty bland city, and it was so evident that it was the asian communities that were giving the place a bit of colour and life- something it so badly needs! hopefully some miscegenation will brighten the place up!

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one who sees this as fantastically erotic? :)

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

HAhaha, I love this post. Momus the space jew, it is brilliance.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

PS: next time you should curl it first and be Marc Bolan. Though that may only seem like a good idea to me.

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

I, for one, am glad she didn't shave her legs too.

[freedomsucks.livejournal.com]

you so beautiful.
arent you

Erotic Hair!

[rinusvanalebeek.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I suddenly thought of the biblical scene where Maria Magdalena dried Jesus' feet with her hair. She had long hair. And Jesus was sitting on a chair.

But try,
Hair has a very erotic feel about it, sometimes.

[charleshatcher.livejournal.com]

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

...and a happy St. Patricks' to you too, Charles!

(Brilliant little video, isn't it? Very familiar with the species.)

[(Anonymous)]

I like the secondhand hair, atleast from afar; it has a taste of Diamanda Galas on vacation. And if you somehow stumble down a dark pathway and loose your sense of direction away from all civilization you can always eat it for nutrience.
love,
John F.F.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Re: Erotic Hair!

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Rinus? leuke naam.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I didn't eat it. I pulled it out at 2am on the Torstrasse in clumps. A man approaching stood and stared. It must have looked odd: a fellow -- apparently syphyllitic or plague-ridden -- tearing his own hair out and throwing it in handfulls to the ground.

Re: stranger's beard

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That report, for those who don't speak Japanese, concerns a bride whose marriage forces her to say goodbye to her family. She's from the Golan Heights, originally Syrian, but occupied by the Israelis, and administered by the UN with frequent interventions from the International Red Cross. Israel and Syria are still hostile to each other, so there's no free passage over the border. A bride from the Israeli side marrying a Syrian (the one featured in the video report married a Syrian she met in Jordan) must, once she decides to live with him in Syria, face the fact that she may never return to her family home. At present all Israel-Syria peace negotiations have been broken off.

cute!

[(Anonymous)]

Aw, I thought this was a cute entry. It's cute that Hisae cuts her hair at home. I cut my boyfriend's hair for him, and he likes my sloppiness better than the salon. I have a request: can you do a special on Hisae's hair? I love her hair styles! -Monique