This thriving country of 23 million has no Alexander Technique teachers. I should clean up!
Email me if you’d like an Alexander lesson in Taiwan for US$100. Maybe I’ll pay a visit.
On the down side, there are only about 300 Jews in the country.
John* emails:
Luke,
I don’t about Dallas/Ft. Worth and I know even less about Taiwan.
What I do know though is that Las Vegas has no Alexander Technique
instructors (at least not according to Google).We have lots of dealers, cocktail waitresses, showgirls, valets, doormen, musicians – all folks that suffer from bad posture, tension and all the crap that makes us hunch.
Not sure that the goy to Jewish ratio is, but I’m sure you can deal with it.
Greg Leake emails: Luke,
I can’t imagine why you would think about a business in Taiwan (I’ve been there) before you would give it a try in Dallas.
You know, Dallas and Ft. Worth are located in very close proximity to each other. The entire shooting match is referred to as the metroplex. The total population is around 6 million, with hardly any Alexander Technique teachers.
Although the Jewish community in Dallas is not as robust as LA, there were 9 synagogues on our side of town, and some of the synagogues were surrounded by a fairly dense population of Orthodox Jews. Our neighbor was modern Orthodox, and sometimes we helped out on Saturdays and what-have-you. There are not the kosher restaurants that you find in LA, but there are a few eateries (sometimes some Orthodox take a day off from being Jewish… you just have a layer of aluminum foil between the fish and the burner, then use plastic forks to eat with and this way you get to eat with the goys once in a while.) It’s not a bad place for a Jew to think about relocating.
Naturally, because of the nature of the beast, the community there is gradually bumming out all of the goys they’re around because of the well-known unfriendliness. (As I left, one girl who worked in a shop there told me she had never been treated like that in her life. I asked her what she meant, and she referred to the snobbish way that the Jews she waited on looked down on her and treated her in a snobbish manner.) At the same time, I managed to get onto friendly terms with a number of modern Orthodox even if it was not easy. I came to believe that it’s better for Jewish communities to live in a sort of 50-50 arrangement with goys as is true in parts of Dallas. It at least forces some friendships and benevolent feelings to come into fruition, which, of course, is better than nothing. Also I should add that Texas traditionally has felt a certain identification and sympathy with Australians. Used to, the idea was that we saw eye to eye, and that would not be a bad basis on which to ply your trade.
You’ve gotten some good advice from various people about ways to stop shooting yourself in the foot as you attempt to grow your business. I suggest that you stop making such a mildly pejorative characterization of goys. I remember one conversation you and Rabbs had several months ago when you were wondering if you should even have any association with goys at all. I was certainly struck by that, and I am one of your big supporters. Obviously, you don’t want Gentiles to think that they should feel awkward about approaching you for your services simply because they aren’t Jewish. If I understood Rabbs correctly a while back, you have to get special dispensations in many areas for goys to be in your space. These things should not be advertised. It’s a real turn-off. Right now I would avail myself of your lessons first thing if I travel to LA, but there have been a number of occasions when I obviously felt I would be very unwelcome, as I was not Jewish. And this is after all these months of communicating.
So the basic upshot would be to think about trying Dallas if you really wanted to experiment with a relocation besides Australia. Just make sure you have some money set aside to keep you going for a while. The Jewish neighborhoods in Dallas are fairly affluent.
Last night there was a huge rain, and the river below our back yard was flooded, and it’s rapids ahead.
Hey, Rabbs,
what’s shakin’, brother?
Sure. 3 seconds, 45 seconds, I still know what you’re thinking. “I’m Rabbi Hershel Rabbs Remer! I’ve been in an Academy Award winning movie! Many nights I’ve driven down in front of the Comedy Club for hours, looking at my name up on the marquee. I draw a lot of water in this town! This is not podunk, buddy, this is La-La Land. I’ve used the same restroom facilities as people who went on to do the Tonight Show. And who are you, that I should remember your name? Some redneck from Hicksville, down there eating your possum stew and your racoon souffle! Sitting out barefoot on your front porch with your shotgun and moonshine and shooting at the mailman!’
I understand. I can’t say that you’re altogether wrong. We, the little people, are trying to learn our place. 🙂
I remember that it was in the same Torah Talks that you explained to Luke that he could sanctify his stove top in the new apartment by using a blow torch to make the stove top glow. I may be totally wrong about all this, but I thought you brought up some word in Hebrew that would sanctify? (I don’t know the right word), to allow goys to touch the doorknob and other items. Naturally, I’m a little foreign on all this, so I can easily get it wrong.
Been surfing lately? Last night the flooded river behind our back yard was so forceful my wife saw an empty yellow kayak rush by. A little different than the ocean. I liked your girlfriend.
Rabbi Rabbs responds:
LMFJAO!!!!!!
That is some funny frickin’ shish right THERE ^^^ !!!
Re: doorknob: I have no idea what you’re talking about man. But, if you could find that piece of video, I would be more than happy to watch it again and respond.
Thanks for asking [about surfing], and thanks for your compliment about my girlfriend. They are correlated, because the last time I surfed, she was watching me from the shore. That was back in November. It’s too cold to surf now, and waiting for
June again.
