Recalling Bar Mitzvas, Israeli hash, underage drinking with The Wailing Wall

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The Wailing Wall

Special dates in my life:

  • July, 1993 – Getting Bar Mitzvahed, going to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem with two generations of elder Diamonds, faking my way through a prayer, doing some “wailing”, then ditching them to smoke hash with a really hot I.D.F. soldier, and realizing the only thing I had to thank Zionisim for were the beautiful women that Israel would dress up in army uniforms.
  • July, 1998 – Drank a ceremonial “first adult beer” on my eighteenth birthday, buying a ceremonial “first legal pack of cigarettes,” realizing that I didn't smoke and promptly giving the pack to a minor who did. After several more ceremonial beers, heard Neutral Milk Hotels In the Aeroplane over the Sea; life changed forever.
  • Fall, 2001 – Got a copy of The Microphones The Glow Pt. 2 at a record store, swore to god it was the best thing I had heard since the previously mentioned Neutral Milk Hotel album.
  • Today – Catching a single from The Wailing Wall that bridges The Microphones to my Bar Mitzvah; they sound like one of the better updates on the works of Jeff Mangum or Phil Elvrum, and y'know, they're called the Wailing Wall. The new album is out for free tomorrow here.

The Wailing Wall, “Hospital Blossom”