Category Archives: Around the world

ADL National Leadership Conference

Austin GLI Class
Austin GLI Class
I joined this year’s Glass Leadership Institute class a few months ago.  This is a program instituted by the Anti-Defamation League to teach young professionals on the core mission and principles of the ADL. While this is a year-long program, the highlight is right at the middle: A trip to the ADL’s National Leadership Conference in Washington D.C., which includes a visit to the office of Michael McCaul, my State Representative, in order to raise some of the issues that the ADL is concerned about.

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The Ten Plagues

Ahi viene la plaga!
Marcos as the Pharaoh, Jave as Moses

As promised.

To best relive the experience, my aunt Jave (read as in Spanish: Cha-veh) made this year’s Seder even longer but more fun than usual by putting together a small skit that included all plagues. I got to be the Pharaoh and I deserve an Oscar for my performance. See the photos after the break while you play this in the background, viewer discretion advised.

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Mrs. Florinda Kirsch’s 80th

Marcos y bubi Florinda
Bar-Mitzvah-aged Marcos with his Bubi Florinda, at Bobe Leike’s house (~1991)

Two weeks ago I did a quick trip for Mrs. Florinda Kirsch’s (a.k.a bubi Florinda) 80th birthday party in Monterrey. It was a big one, just like we like them: almost 200 people. I got to say a speech in front of everyone, holding a microphone and all. Since speeches make me nervous, I figured that the best I could do is distract the audience. An open zipper will accomplish just that (feel free to use my advice).

All of the family made it, which is very nice. As an experiment I decided to leave all my electronic devices behind (camera, iPod, Gameboy, laptop, electric shaver) and instead bring only my iPhone as a replacement on this trip. The experiment was a huge success, except for the camera part. I took only a handful of photos and they came out… good for a cell phone cam, nothing more.

So I’m still trying to collect photos taken by everyone else in order to set up a website or something. Not very successful so far. In the meantime, I leave you with the few photos I’ve been able to collect.

Happy birthday and until 120!

The Lenny Kirsch® Wedding

I will keep this post brief and to the point or I’ll begin to cry. My cousin Lenny (formerly Leny), with whom I shared all of my childhood and saw just about every day of my life since kindergarden up until after we came back from Israel, got married last Sunday to the beautiful Sonia Melamed. Of course the party was a blast, and there’s lots of photos at The MKX® Photo Central. I love you and I wish you both all the happiness in the world and many many

Note from censor: This post has violated the Strictly No Corny Stuff Policy of The Marcos Kirsch Experience®. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our loyal readers. Please click through to be taken to the photo gallery.


The Chupah


He can fly! Best wedding photo ever, by Jacobito.


Betito, Ricky, Leny, Annat,
Jonathán, Marcos: Generación
CIMAC 1978


Lots of smoking hot women from Venezuela at the wedding

Zack Reunion


Click for full album

I was in Monterrey last weekend for the first (and so far only) Zack family reunion. The Zacks are my maternal grandmother’s family. We’re spread across three countries (which is not a lot, come to think of it).

Most of us made it, starting from my great grandmother Bobe Sonia (who just turned 95) all the way down to 2 great-great grandchildren (the third one was born last week and could not make it). I think a total of 74 out of 83 Zacks came.

The whole weekend was great. Lots of eating, stories, eating, laughing, and eating. I made my debut as a game show host. I did ok. People laughed whenever I danced, I could make fun of them on a microphone and I got to wear a tuxedo.

While I’ve seen most of the family in the last years, there were a few I hadn’t in a long time (almost ten years!) and four of the newest members of the familyI hadn’t even met before.

Moi collected all the digital photos from all the cameras. 1400+ total. I copied them to my computer and I’m supposed to sort them out and delete the duplicates (which is a vast majority of the pictures) so we can upload them to an event website we’re setting up. Unfortunately, my own memory card got corrupted and I lost most of my photos (I recovered only about five using a $20 utility called CardRaider – which is not great at all).

I started to look at them last night and learned a few hard facts about people and the way they use digital cameras:

  • Most people never erase photos from their cameras.
  • Most people never set the date and time on their cameras.
  • This make my life harder.
  • Everyone takes the same photo from slightly different angles at the same time, which leads to 10 identical terrible photos in which everyone is looking at a different camera lens.

I’ll post a link here whenever it’s ready. But I doubt it will be this week.

It was great seeing everyone! (except you-know-who).

Update 12/18/2007: The website is up and has all the photos.

Vivaaerobus brings tears of joy to my eyes

Yesterday they finally approved low cost airline Vivaaerobus to fly out of a new  no-frills terminal in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

This means direct flights from Austin to Cancún, Guadalajara, León, Monterrey, Puebla, and Queretaro. And they will be cheap too: supposedly starting at $9.99 before taxes.

Since a quick trip to Monterrey includes:

  • Car permit: about $40
  • Car insurance in Mexico: about $80 for 4 days
  • Three or four tanks of gas: $90
  • Tolls for the border, Colombia road and Monterrey-Laredo highway: $40
  • Sitting on your ass six to eight hours each way: Priceless.

you can see how I intend to take advantage of the new flights. Let’s hope that the prices do actually remain low and the schedules are good. Sadly flights start in March of 2008. More info here.

Update 1/30/2008: Rejoice my friends. After two false promises, Vivaaerobus started selling tickets for their Austin-Monterrey and Austin-Cancun flights yesterday. They begin in May 1st, 2008 and go for $9.99 one-way (yes, 10 bucks). After taxes, it’s around $120-$140. Still a good deal!.