The first section of Time Out Tel Aviv is called "The Bubble"; it's a general survey of past and upcoming parties and events around the city, as well as ironic little info tidbits about cool places and happenings that are a bit off the beaten track. Like, oh, I don't know - an art show in Ramallah, perhaps?

Hey, it's no big deal: if you don't have a press pass or a foreign passport, you just have to get permission from the IDF to cross the Qalandiyah checkpoint. This involves signing a little document stating that you won't hold them responsible if anything bad happens to you while you're in territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority. That's it - you're in.

And how do you keep up with the cool cultural events that are going on across the Green Line? According to Time Out, there's a fantastic resource out there: It's called This Week in Palestine, and it "surveys cultural events throughout Palestine."

"I thought of contacting the worldwide Time Out and suggesting a 'Time Out Palestine,'" editor-in-chief Sani Mayo (sp?) told Time Out Tel Aviv, "but I decided that it's too early. For now I want to re-design Palestine - from a land of suffering to a land of culture and tourism [tourism?]. Sometimes people accuse me of being disconnected from reality [Ya think?], but there are enough people talking about the political situation."

According to the blurb in Time Out TA, "Despite the occupation, the checkpoints and the generally crappy situation, Mayo insists that cultural life in Palestine is thriving."

"You only need the minimum to exist," he says. "As long as there's bread on the table, even oppressed people go out and look for culture. There are huge audiences for cultural events in Palestine, as if the political reality didn't exist."

Nevertheless, says Mayo, the occupation does have an effect on cultural events in the territories. "Because of mobility difficulties [the checkpoints], people can't get to the shows, so the shows come to them. The Israeli authorities also make it very difficult to obtain various necessary documents."

For example, says Time Out TA, "a performance by the popular Iraqi singer Ilham Al Madfai, who was supposed to appear at the Palestine Festival (which opened on Thursday) was cancelled, to the sorrow of his many Palestinian admirers."

[In case you've never heard of Al Madfai, here's an interesting article/interview about him that was published in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, when the singer came to perform in Cairo. ]