This is the rob blatt blog.

It’s no secret I miss my grandfather, who died in 1999 a day before I left for college. Since it was 1999 and before the internet was as popular as it is today, he didn’t have much of a presence, despite his relative fame in harmonica circles. Every now and then I search online for pieces of my grandfather, as I never saw him perform and only heard him play once every other year or so when he would visit when I was a child.

I’m not entirely certain if he’s in this videos, as they are fromt he 40’s and now are posted on YouTube, but this was the man (Borrah Minevitch) and his school/vaudeville group that took my grandfather out of the Hebrew Orphans Asylum.

I’ll have to re-read his autobiography to double check if he was in the group at this point. More later.

UPDATE: I found this quote online about my grandfather: “Lou was a part of Borrah Minevitch’s first band as well as working in vaudeville as a one-legged, tap-dancing harmonica player.”

My grandfather was a ONE LEGGED TAP DANCING HARMONICA PLAYER?

Now, I know that he had two legs, but I really wish that I could see him perform as a one legged tap dancing harmonica player.

Day one: Awesome painted faux-digeridoo
Day two: Awesome slippers with grips on the bottoms. I’m psyched about that. From Amber. Suitcases from my parents, LOADS of stuff on our registry from my Massachusetts relatives, LOADS of stuff off the registry from my brother and his wife, a Lightcast from my brother and his wife, a graphic novel from my cousin, another from a friend, a Samoa Joe DVD from Jared, man, the list keeps going and going at the moment… My parents got us a model VW Bus. Now all we have to do is get our real one back from the shop.
Day three: Henry Rollins: High Adventures in the Great Outdoors from Amber. Woo hoo! Leather jacket from my parents. Neato.

I liek Hannukah for the family aspect. I love the rush that we have when giving out our gifts. In Amber’s family there was a set structure to how people are given gifts. They were numbered and people had to go find them and blah blah blah. In my family, it’s really about the giving part and now so much about the watching everyone open every gift. There’s 30 or so of us total and I’d say there are a minimum of 10 entities that give gifts (couples, families, cousins, yadda yadda) every year. Who has time? Not us, it’s a blur of wrapping paper, gifts and yelling.

That’s how we like it.