Sorry for keeping you all waiting for the tale of the laptop. The thing is, it's a nasty tale - and I'm just not in a nasty mood these days. I'm in The Zone. The New Year Zone. I'm still going to blog about it - just not today.
The Jewish New Year ( ראש השנה /rosh hashanah) has always been one of my favourite holidays - a time when we celebrate renewal and continuity, when we wish one another a sweet and peaceful new year. This year the wish for a peaceful year seems particularly apt, given recent events. I don't think I'm alone in feeling that I just want to sink into this month of short workweeks, introspection and quiet, to stop thinking about politics and wars for a little while and focus on personal stuff and happy stuff.
Last night I was invited to the celebratory dinner at the home of Diana, my oldest friend, and her family (I wrote about them and posted photos here). Kim and Lynn, Diana's twin daughters, just started high school this year. Given that I have known them since they were unfertilized eggs, the sense of time-a-passing was pretty strong. They've been taking guitar lessons lately and before we sat down for dinner they performed the late Ehud Manor's (bio of Manor here) song, "In the Next Year." (Hebrew lyrics here). I filmed them without their knowledge (they thought I was taking still photos) and am posting the video of us all warbling out of key below. Maybe they'll discover the video when they're 16 and tell me that I positively humiliated them. ;) Or not.
Scroll down to the bottom for the video.
Kim and Lynn (click to big)
Roughtly translated, the lyrics of the song go like this:
In the next year
Next year we'll sit on the porch And we'll count migrating birds Children on holiday will play catch Between the house and the fields
Chorus: Wait and see, wait and see How good it's going to be Next year
Red grapes will become ripe by evening And will be served chilled at the table And gentle breezes will carry with them Old newspapers and a cloud
Wait and see, wait and see...
Next year we'll spread open the palms of our hands In front of the flowing white light A white heron will spread its wings in the light And the sun will shine into them
It's a long story, but I'll try to keep it short, sweet and amusing. Also, I hope you will forgive me for using this blog as a means of exacting revenge on the CEO of Bug, one of the biggest purveyors of computer hardware in Israel. (Israeli consumers, unite!)
Attention, English speakers residing in, or within easy driving distance of, Tel Aviv!
Etgar Keret, Israel's most famous young author, is going to give a reading in Tel Aviv this week. The event will be held at the Dizengoff Centre branch of Tzomet Sfarim on Tuesday, September 19, at 7.30. (to find the shop easily, enter at gate 6)
Starting at 8 p.m., journalist Viva Press will interview Etgar about his most recently translated book, The Nimrod Flip Out.
For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of hearing Etgar speak, this is your opportunity to be charmed, amused, touched and challenged; Etgar is one of those rare writers who tells stories as well as he writes them. You will definitely laugh, you will certainly think and you might even cry a bit. It'll definitely be better than Cats.
For more information about Etgar, this is one of the best interviews I've read.
Etgar also wrote this beautiful exchange of letters with Samir El Youssef during the first week of our most recent war. (in case you're a new reader).
I'll be there - anyone want to go for coffee afterward?
Dalit and I. Ha'ir (העיר) September 15. Credit: Ronen Fadida
An interview with Dalit and me was published in this week's Ha'Ir/ העיר (The City), which is distributed free with the Friday edition of Haaretz. Sadly, the paper does not have a website so I just photographed the pages. It's all about City Guide Tel Aviv - I'll post a translation later on... (short version: they like it, they really, really like it. ;) ) Update: Click here to read the article in English.
Another photo by Ronen Fadida, taken at the Dizengoff Centre. (I like this one better).
Meanwhile, go check out Hanan Cohen's World Game - and please pass the link on to your friends. (tagline: Making the world a better place, one link at a time).
See that? The blogging connections continue to blow my mind. The top of page 12 in this week's Time Out Tel Aviv shows the Johnnie Walker billboard in Beirut that I blogged about last week (here, and there's an article about it in the New York Times, here). The text (blue background) to the left of the photo reads as follows:
"Walking in the dark. That's it, the war is over. For those of us who were enthusiastic followers of the Lebanese bloggers - meaning that we sent links to all our friends if they were bored and mined them for ideas for weekend supplement articles if they were journalists - the Israeli online habits have returned to their routine. But still, the post-war blogs are just as interesting as those that described the days of battle. Take for example the photo posted last week by quite a few Lebanese bloggers: a huge sign advertising Johnnie Walker that appeared alongside one of Beirut's major thoroughfares. Sakhten (bravo) for the optimism and a medal of honour to the creative team."
Oooh, and what's that on the same page, just below the item about the Lebanese bloggers? Why, it's a lovely little review of my baby - City Guide Tel Aviv . I particularly like the juxtaposition of Tel Aviv and Beirut, since the two cities are, according to many accounts, remarkably similar.
More connections
A few weeks ago Moko Chen, who edits a Chinese-language magazine called After 17, asked my permission to publish a translation of the post I wrote about the editors of Time Out Beirut and Time Out Tel Aviv (link here), for a special After 17 edition about Israel and Lebanon. Turns out that After 17 is based in Vancouver, the city in which I was born and raised (about 50 percent of Vancouver's population is Chinese).
So Moko sent me the download for the special edition (click here to download your own; the Time Out piece starts on page 75) and I flipped through, admiring the gorgeous graphics and wonderful photos. And then I disovered that Ine, a Belgian
blogger and photographer with whom I have exchanged a few emails, works with After 17. Quite a few of her photos of Israel and the Palestinian territories illustrate this edition of the magazine. Some examples appear below - more are on her photoblog.
A few months ago, Dalit Nemirovsky approached me with an offer I could not refuse: to be part of a team that would compile the first ever glossy, sophisticated, cosmopolitan insider's book about Tel Aviv, the city I love above all others. After weeks of work, during which I drove poor Dalit crazy by missing nearly every deadline she set me, here it is - and I could not be prouder of the results.
The photographs are by Natan Dvir, whose work appears weekly in Time Out Tel Aviv and whose stunning photos of last year's disengagement from Gaza (examples here) were recently exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The supremely talented Lora Rosenberg is responsible for the gorgeous graphics; Dalit, whose energy and creativity never ceases to amaze me, edited and produced the book; and I researched and wrote the text.
City Guide: Tel Aviv was a labour of love for us all. It opens with a general history of the city, followed by a breakdown of Tel Aviv according to area, with easy-to-follow maps, background information and tips for visitors (and locals) about what to see and experience in each. It is about the real Tel Aviv - the multi-cultural, liberal, laid-back, dynamic 24-hour Levantine city with a cutting edge nightlife, thriving culture and arts scene, outdoor markets, fashionable boutiques, ethnic neighbourhoods, chic lounge bars, critically acclaimed restaurants, buzzing cafes and beautiful beaches. It is about a self-confident, exciting metropolis in which real people live. It is most emphatically not about politics, bombs, wars or Middle East crises.
It's really the book I always wished someone would write about Tel Aviv. Sorry if that sounds immodest. ;) But it's not, really (immodest, that is), because it was a team effort. And I was unbelievably lucky to work with such talented people.
Anyway, the book will be available at bookshops in the U.K., USA and Canada very soon. It's already available in Israeli bookshops. If you are interested in obtaining a copy but can't find one in your local shop, you'll find Dalit's contact details on the website, where you can browse the book online.
Now I think you'll finally understand why I have an ongoing romance with this city.
Update: Starting from September 15 you will be able to purchase the book by credit card, via the website.
Update 2: City Guide is now available in Israel at Tzomet Sfarim and it'll be at Steimatzky in a few days.
A couple of months ago I wrote a post about the Hebrew and English Israeli blogospheres. Someone pointed out in the comments that there is also a large blogosphere of Israelis who write in Russian, but since I don't know Russian I didn't bother following up.
During the war Veronika Kokhlova, who covers the Russian blogosphere for Global Voices, sent me the link to Israel North Voices. It turns out that a bunch of people volunteered to translate hundreds of blog posts from Russian to English. Again, and I don't know why, exactly, I didn't follow up. What a pity. A couple of nights ago I finally took the time to read those posts, and I was just blown away by the writing. The vast majority of it is utterly apolitical - just raw, intimate descriptions of personal experiences. Some examples are below:
Remember how in school you had
assignments to read something or do something, and after that to made a
conclusion (from a book, life situation, school trip)? So I have to
tell you – I made a very important conclusion from this war, from my
current life situation. You have no right to postpone something. Thank
you, Hezbollah for our ... shit, for this genius realization :) If
you want to drink coffee – drink it now. Soon there would be another
siren, everyone would go to the bomb shelter and you would still want
to drink coffee. If you want to take a shower – do it now, but quickly.
If you want to have a dinner – do not postpone it, there will be no
time for that later. And the most important thing: tell your children that you love them. Tell your husband that you love him. Tell everyone...
... Siren...
... I'm finishing this post. 15 minutes have passed :)
If you truly respect and value a person – tell him that. Right know. Dear
friends! I respect you and I value you :) And I wish that you would
never hear sounds of sirens and explosions. And the very minimum – I
wish you to have a nice evening! :)
******* July 22, by Julia Kohavit Well, I'm fine, but a friend of mine has a problem. She works for the company providing nursing services. It
was supposed to be her last month before she takes her maternity leave,
and here the war comes.. The bosses fled and left the responsibility
and decision making for employees. How could she leave her cancer
patient that needs at least once in two days to have her bandages
changed as well as that thing she has connected to her intestines?... If
she does leave her, the woman can get infection and die. Oksana teels
me 'I cannot leave her, and I don't know what to do"...And keeps
visiting her once in two days on a taxi, pregnant, together with her
senoir daughter, because she's afraid to leave the girl home alone -
the alert can begin any minute again...
*****************
Beauty should be cherished even during the war. (July 21 by Lorique)
I’m thinking when I’m in the shower: -
Galkin makes fun of one stupid TV commercial -”I shaved one leg – let
another one get hairy!” If I see a woman with legs like this … Yuck… But it’s not funny anymore. If the siren would go off right now – I would be with only one shaved leg… Just
when I washed away the shaving cream from the first leg – the siren
went off. So I run to the shelter with only one shaved leg… I noticed
that only one hour later when I came back home – to shave the second
leg. So now I will dream of peace in the whole world. In the shower.
****************
Renfry, who escaped Haifa and went to Kfar Saba, in the centre, on July 25.
The airplanes first
The elder son is determined to become a
pilot. You can understand why. He has only one question that worries
him : Mom, our pilots bomb only bad guys? We were thinking for long time. Wished all "good guys" to be in time to the bomb shelter. The son said : I hope so very much... Burst out crying. something wrong with nerves.
Father
refused to go from Haifa. Even though there are friends and relatives,
of course I promised to get him from door to the door. No, he doesn't
want. Tired to run up and down the staircases, stays in the shelter,
took the laptop there. And table and two matresses we moved there
before - together. We are staying in touch on phone. He yells that I
have to stay, not to return yet...
When I was staying in
shelter, I was reading Bujold - space wars, explosions etc... In
Kfar-Saba I was choosing the book very long. I've chosen Jane Eyre.
Garantied - no missles and aviation.
A billboard in Beirut. I borrowed the photo from one of my favourite Lebanese blogs, Free Cedar
AM, a Lebanese who lives in Dubai, wrote a post that touched me so much - and not only because she linked to my blog. ;) She expresses with rare honesty the emotional upheaval so many of us - Lebanese and Israelis - experienced during the war. Now that the fighting has ceased a lot of us are starting slowly to examine our feelings.
"The most severe
outcome on the long run however, is the roller coaster of emotions
people in both countries were subject to during the war and its effect.
I myself juggled repeatedly between sadness, anger, hate, confusion,
control, failed control, blind support, despise of the entire world and
pride. Mind you, my family was not affected directly by the war and
each is still getting a half-month salary to go by life. The more I
converse with people around me, the more I realize how difficult and
how long it will take for the hate and indifference that were nurtured
during this war to disappear if ever they do, for the notions of
acceptance and respect of the other to settle back." Read the rest here.
Lebanese blogger Bad Vilbel has been a voice of sanity in the Israeli blogosphere. His comments are reliably thoughtful, but he saves his best stuff for his blog. Toward the end of the war I had quite a few bad days when I felt overwhelmed by the cacophony of hate, rage and recrimination. Then I'd surf over to BV's space for a dose of sanity - like the following excerpt from his August 21 post.
"Ideologies that glorify triumph of arms must be
broken through military defeats. I agree. And that is why it is my
opinion (as stated in a previous post) that a just peace must be
imposed FIRST, for hatreds to melt away. When people are forced to live
in peace with their neighbors, the old hatreds start to fade, as people
focus on leading normal lives, and pursuing normal goals and
aspirations. I’d like to use both the Germans and Japanese cultures as
examples here Both highly proud and militaristic cultures, that were
forced to live in peace with their neighbors post-WW2.
This is why, in my opinion, it is extremely important to spread democracy in the Middle East, one way or another. This is why countries like Israel and Lebanon must be nurtured side by side."
Me, I'm still unwinding. Everyone I know is sad-and-depressed-but-hopeful-and-getting-on-with-life. In this article, Haifa University Professor Fania Oz Salzberger (Amos Oz's daughter) writes that it's healthy to wallow in the post-war depression.
"People here are sad, and scared about
being so sad. But the depression is not only natural and understood, it
is also a stimulus for mental and practical repair – in the army, local
and national government systems, and public discourse. Less arrogance
and more insights. Meanwhile there are reasons to be sad, and that's
completely legitimate both for individuals and for the national mood.
Perhaps, as Arab-Israeli author Sayed Kashua noted recently, Israeli Jews seem more human and likeable when we're depressed and
failing somewhat. At the end, the Europeans may even start to love us
again. On second thought, let's not go overboard with the depression." Read the rest here.
