El Gaffney

Do Day: Jew-day

I make it a point to steer clear of agency-specific posts. For one, the risk-reward ratio just isn’t in my favor. (If that’s not clear, what I’m saying is amusing the small number of people who visit this is not worth losing my job because I violated some policy I didn’t know about or something was misconstrued and…you get the point.) For two, this blog often serves as a way to disconnect or escape from work. It is usually a place for me to establish my non-office identity. (Yet, the more W+K Facebook friends I tally up, the more obvious it is that there’s just one me out there.) For three, I’m still relatively new (4 months) and want to make sure I “get” the place before I start writing about it. (Being an informed writer matters to me!?! I learn something new every day.)

But—and you knew that was coming—sometimes I just can’t help myself. (Yes, the holiday sweater party was a prime example.) And—once again, no suspense created—today is one of those times. Because yesterday was Founder’s Day and 1. Some video footage is already on YouTube so I’m less scared about being fired; 2. This was the most unwork company function of which I’ve even been a part; and 3. It was so outrageous, yet so authentic to W+K NY.

As our offices across the globe celebrated the 26th birthday of Wieden + Kennedy, our New York office also turned 13. By the subject of this post, you know what that means. It was time to have our Bar Mitzvah (B’nai probably)…well, time to go out to Charisma Ballroom in Queens and have a Bar Mitzvah party. The theme…Ninjas. And that’s really all I have to say about that. (Still think some things should be left to the people inside these walls.) Except maybe that Coke and Pepsi was played, so the following picture makes some sense.

So forgive me for not doing much today other than recounting the day and night (which you’ve now gotten a glimpse into) with coworkers, looking at pictures, eating, and learning the words to Jay-Z’s verse in Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” (which I butchered at the after Bar Mitzvah bar). Okay, one more picture that must have been taken right after I shouted “the best fur – Chinchilla” into the mic and thought I was going to exit on a high note…only to realize I was just half-way through…

Oh yeah, and the other reason this is titled so broadly yet pointedly is that I just found out that an article I was asked to write (theme – post-Birthright experience) for Contact (a quarterly journal of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish life) was just published. Check it out by clicking on and downloading the PDF of Winter 2008. (Pages 13-14)

That’s all for now. Shalom. Ying-yang. Hov!

Tags: jewish, nyc, party, wk

Sold Out In New York

Nope, it’s not just 30 Rock Live that’s already sold out tonight in NYC. The second show of Birthright Israel Monologues is also completely booked. I wrote pre- first one here.

Now, I don’t want to give anything away about my actual performance (you gotta wait for the DVD to go on sale as a stocking stuffe…eh, and/or make one crazy night a little bit crazier), but I will give you a little behind-the-scenes/in-the-bathroom look at my pre-show ritual. The first 30-seconds is about right.

Tags: birthright, jewish, nyc

Jewish Update

Over a month and five or so worksessions/rehearsals later, I’m less than 4 days away from performing my original piece for Birthright Israel Monologues. You can read about my feelings before my first meeting here. I thought then that I would document this experience but after that first meeting, I knew I wouldn’t. Not because it was secret, but because it became a very personal experience for me. No, not a religious experience, nor a transformational one. Just a very personal one for me and the rest of the people in the show. I didn’t want to feel the urge to write about them, their words, or their growth. I didn’t want to give anything away either. But now, in the final days (and now that I’ve finally completed my monologue) I thought I’d share something from night one.

We spent the greater part of an hour doing a timed writing exercise. This is a fairly common way to practice I believe but she referenced this book called Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg as a good intro for us. Back to the exercise: pretty simple, she would say a phrase, ask a question, play a song, show us a picture, etc. and we had to write what comes into our minds. The only rules were keep your hand moving and on the page, don’t cross out (or worry about spelling, grammar, punctuation), and don’t think to hard (or worry about making sense).

Honestly, it doesn’t sound too unique or amazing, but at the end of the however long (40 minutes I’d guess) I felt incredibly rewarded. Not because what I wrote was so poignant, rather because liberating thoughts from my mind, giving them life on paper was something I hadn’t done in a while. I should clarify that it’s a certain type of thoughts—about Judaism/Jewish stuff mostly—; however, writing was a completely creative endeavor without any purpose other than to get comfortable writing. Still with a deadline (each new question she asked) but not a typical schedule deadline like sending the pov to a client for example.

Rather than use that train of thought to go into how I think this type of exercise would be appropriate for certain types of qual, I’ll show you the first thing I wrote. (The whole point of this post was to pass on the date/time for my performance by the way.) It was my answer to “Do you have any Jewish memorabilia, like jewelry, an accessory, or even a t-shirt?”

Should I raise my hand – the first thing that comes to mind is that cheesy Urban Outfitters t-shirt. The one that I wore in public only once. Not for fear of religious persecution. But scarred shitless, as I should have been) of the fashion police. Yes, you know what I’m talking about by now – “Everyone Loves A Jewish Boy.” Fuck. That wasn’t therapeutic like I thought it would be. It was straight up embarrassing. Whatever. It sucks and I feel like a loser every time I pay to put it in a washing machine. Well, at least it’s comfortable.

Re-writing it now (I suck at using the scanner in my office. Plus I don’t trust it not to be found by anyone else.) is weird, especially since I think that “straight up embarrassing” line made me sound like Kenny from Can’t Hardly Wait. Either way, I wrote a couple pages that night on everything from a freestyle group my friends Craig, Vaz, and me loosely created (meaning we’d break it down drunk at house parties or leaving bars our first year out of college) to female IDF soldiers to JAPS.

Onto the reason for the post, I’ve written something else for this Monday, November 5th at 7PM (doors opening) at The Slipper Room – 167 Orchard Street (Corner of Orchard and Stanton Streets). I think you’re supposed to email alumni@birthrightisrael.com to get on the list. There’s also a show on the 19th of November, which I’ll probably be more prepared for :) if you this is too short notice. Last night was the first night I saw everyone do their pieces and they are really different and really great, so as much as I don’t think it would be the worst thing if no one I knew came, I do encourage you to try your best to make one of the shows.

Update: Ruvym agrees and offers his own encouragement. He’s opening the show, and he’s really awesome, so definitely be on time!

Tags: action, birthright, jewish

My First Rehearsal

I’ve been hesitant to write about this—in fact, even thinking about writing gives me butterflies. Well, first I wasn’t going to tell people that I was trying out (or in more proper but less macho terms, auditioning) because I didn’t think I would be selected. They gave options. Write and read a less than 5-minute piece about your Birthright Israel experience or perform a memorized piece about anything. Oh, and send in your theater resume if you have one. Huh? I almost gave up there, but decided that opportunity to work with Vanessa Hidary (a Def Jam poet) was a potential experience worth the embarrassment. So on I wrote, read, and received – an email back stating that I was selected.

Tonight’s the first rehearsal and it’s fair to say I’m scared shitless. I don’t know if the fact that it’s a group rehearsal makes it better or worse. I guess it depends on how many of these people have that theater resume they asked for.

I’m not ready to share that piece yet, but maybe I’ll feel differently after tonight. I’m not sure if that’s what I’ll be performing or if I’ll be asked to write something else. I guess I’ll just have to see. I’m not ready to send out the performance info either…but that I’m sure I’ll pass on close to the date in early November. And lastly, far be it from me to give advice, but I do want to mention two things:

1. As uncomfortable as this whole process (mostly, the idea of performing spoken word poetry) makes me so far even the act of auditioning was rewarding. It felt like pretty good public speaking practice if nothing else. So, I’m of course not the first to encourage anyone reading this to try things outside of your comfort zone, and I surely won’t be the last.
2. The process of creating something from scratch was extremely rewarding. Every once in a while I’ll start with a blank piece of paper, word doc or powerpoint for work, this blank blog post rectangle even. But even in almost all of those cases I have an idea of what I’m going to write – some slides to recycle from presentations past, google to search for topic pov’s, a link or video to embed. I don’t draw or sew or build (Ikea furniture doesn’t count, and even if it did, I don’t think I could count it), and I only had my own mind as a resource/to get me through this exercise. It was worth it even if I hadn’t gotten picked (but then who knows if you’d ever know :)).

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted but in the meantime would love to hear any similarly rewarding stories (comment or shoot me an email – seth.gaffney@gmail.com).

Tags: birthright, jewish, personal

Why I Love Facebook #5

Awoke to a nice surprise this Rosh Hashana morning…

Sharon is a friend I made in Israel (born and raised and now in the army there) when I went for Birthright trip. She’s one of those people I always admire/am slightly jealous of that has an amazing and magnetic energy around them; that you gravitate toward. So it’s wonderful that I’ve been able to stay in touch with her and other friends I made that trip through the Internet and Facebook, in particular, whose application enabled this thoughtful surprise.

Anyway, there’s my sensitive side after some immaturity and hip hop posting. Happy Jewish New Year to all.

Tags: facebook, Friends, jewish