Shalom Mic

I had a great summer - spent most of August on the West coast of Ireland, between County Clare and Donegal.

Congratulations on the success of your studies - where were you actually studying, in Tiberias? and what are your plans once you get your diploma?

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, right? What insights did you have? Perhaps you've come up with something useful I can learn from...

What's the Feast of Tabernacles all about?

I'm glad you found my thoughts on Exodus of interest. I don't think Bob Marley was referring to the Exodus 1947 - simply to the Bible story as there is such a strong link between Rastafarianism and Judaism. Have there been anniversary celebrations this year for Exodus 1947? Have you ever met anyone who was on the ship?

Come to that, have there been celebrations for the anniversary of the 6 Day War?

I guess I won't be able to see 'The Band’s Visit' for a good while, if ever. Maybe it will make it to subtitled DVD at some point. I just saw 'Michael Clayton', a very good American movie written & directed by the fella who wrote the Bourne trilogy.

I'm delighted you're getting to London. Hopefully we'll get a chance to hook up in the real world when you're here - or does that spoil the whole idea of a 121 blog (co-authoring with a person you've never seen or met)? It's difficult to know where to start with regard to sight-seeing. I'll splurge a few things here:
* the East End around Brick Lane for a taste of London's multiculturalism, formerly a Jewish area, now predominantly Bangladeshi
* the London Eye for a spectacular overview
* Frederick Leighton's studio in Holland Park (Leighton House) - see picture above
* Tate Modern
* a trip down the Thames to Greenwich
* Hampstead Heath / Parliament Hill - for country in the city
* the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley - the oldest cinema in the UK (art deco style)
* I could go on & on...

I know Moblog very well - the person that set it up is a friend of mine and I have been using it for a couple of years. It's a lovely community.

Let's try for shorter posts more often - and in that spirit I'd better hit the sack.

Happy Feast of Tabernacles (whatever that involves!)
A

Hello A,
It's is great to see you here after a while, i've been busy as well last month with exams and work.
Talking about the exams, i passed 2 out of the 4 i had, the other 2 i still don't know if i passed them or not, i will probably will know in few weeks.
I'm about to start internship in a hospital to get qualified as a medical secretary, i'm still waiting for answers about that too, i hope to finish with this very fast.
Already started looking for more colleges to study graphic & website design, this is something i wish to have as a career. I find this field very interesting.

About Tel Aviv & Jerusalem, i would say Tel Aviv is the modern heart of Israel as Jerusalem is more of the religious aspect. Tel Aviv is very hip place, full with
young people and a lot is going on there. I would say Tel Aviv is to us what London is to you.

I am so jealous that you had a chance to see Pink Floyd, i bet that was amazing, i missed my chance watching Roger Waters in his visit in Israel few months back, the ticket was too exspensive and was too far as well.

I remember when i first got to know of The Who's music, it was 6 years ago in my visit to USA. Someone gave me a cd of their greatest hits and since then i am a fan.
I can honestly say that Pete Townshend's music helped me to go throw few hard moments in my life. Sometimes just listenig to the songs can give you a different meaning about things.

I'm glad you liked the Kasabian video, i've been a fan of them for a while, their videos are always fresh with exciting ideas. I'm actually working on a fansite dedicated to this band.

The big art mob project sounds so interesting, if i only had a camera phone i would have joined as well.
(i am probably the only person in this planet who doesn't have a camera phone or a digital camra).

I've been wanting to recommand you on 2 movies i've seen lately. The First one is The Prestige with Christian Bale & Hugh Jackman & Zodiac which is the new David Fincher movie. Both of those movies are somewhat different and great to watch if you like edgy thrillers that will leave you on the edge of your seat dazed and confused.

In that note i will finish this post.

All the best
Mici

Hi A,
This past weeks were really busy on my end with school, I’ve had 2 exams and they both went fine, the last one was really easy though thanks for some computer problems it managed to become so complicated and irritating. I had to switch seats 4 times as every computer i set near has decided to break up and stop working, that was one of the things i wished to not happen to me and it did. Aside from that it all went fine and i will know my score in few weeks time.

This past month was also full with holidays. I was spending some much needed time with my sister, niece & nephew around Passover that was fun. We went down to Tel Aviv for a whole day of walking around stores and places we like. I like Tel Aviv very much, it's the big city in Israel as London is to you ( although Tel Aviv is not as big), it's full of life and things to do and i'm really a big city kind of girl so hopefully one day i could afford moving there.
Independence day was on Tuesday, it can also be called the national barbecue day, you mostly find all the people around the national parks and beach front areas making barbecues and eating and eating and eating....I spent it with my mom at home and later went out with some friends.

So how was your visit in Ireland? I enjoyed reading your post about the Easter Rising, I would like to read more about the history of Ireland, it is such a fascinating country.

The music video above belongs to a band called Kasabian,i have recantly got to know their music and it's very intense & interesting piece of work as their videos are.
I got so much new music in the past weeks, lots of indie rock and some pop music as well.I have got the new Kaiser Chiefs album and an album called Some Cities by The Doves.
Speaking of music, my first record ever was History by Michael Jackson, I used to be a very big fan of his music back in high school, I still listen to his music but not as much as I used too.This days I already lost count on how much records/cd’s I got, I’m getting close to probably 400 cd’s who half I probably listened twice and that’s all.
I got my beloved The Who music collection, all the cd’s special edition versions, their latest album Endless Wire is a real nice piece of music, Roger Daltry’s voice is a bit more scruffy then in the past but still a wonderful one, same goes to Pete Townshend- he is an amazing songwriter. The drums are played by Zack Starkey who is actually the son of Ringo Starr and often plays with another favorite band of mine Oasis.

I’m happy you enjoyed Walk On Water, it is a really thrilling piece of cinema with lots of twists, I’ll try to look for more movies as similar to this, this past couple of years the Israeli cinema has really grown and became successful in Europe, it is really nice to see this happening.
I have taken a note and my next movie to watch will have to be Jesus Christ Superstar & Casablanca ;). The last movie I watched was Casino Royale, I’m not a fan of James Bond movies but this was a nice one to pass the time too, not much of a plot to it but it was good nonetheless, it reminded me a bit of Mission Impossible 3. Daniel Craig is also a nice guy to look at :).


It is past 3 o’clock at night here so I better go to bed.

All the best from Israel
Mici

Hi Mic

I heard it was Independence Day this week over there in Israel so Happy Independence Day to you & yours. How did you celebrate it?

I've just been watching the movie of Jesus Christ Superstar with my kids - they were really riveted. I think they were fascinated seeing Jesus realised on screen. They go to a local Catholic school so stuff about Jesus surrounds them most days but this was something they could connect with. Also they were struck by the hippy dimension of the movie - it's framed by the story of a bunch of hippies arriving in the desert on a bus to act out the last days of Jesus.

I don't know if you know it at all - it was shot on location in Israel (that of course was the thought-train above) by Norman Jewison (Thomas Crown Affair, Fiddler on the Roof, Rollerball). The Big Man is played by Ted Neeley who has a bit of a high, weedy voice so not my favourite Christ. That award goes to the alcoholic Preraphaelite Jeffrey Hunter in Nicholas Ray's 1961 'King of Kings'. Jeffrey also played the first captain of the Starship Enterprise (Captain Pike) in the classic double episode entitled Menagerie which i think kicked off the series.

Jesus Christ Superstar was one of the very first records I ever had (the London stage version, not the movie soundtrack) and i listened to it over and over while colouring pictures on our dining room table. What were your first albums and singles?

Hope the exams went well and look forward to hearing your news.

Hi Mic

A few days off the old PC is probably no bad thing. A chance to get back in touch with the body, the ground and fresh air. That said I'm writing this on the London underground (the Tube) on a Blackberry screen with an iPod wrapped round my head and no fresh air to be had, just the rush of air that heralds the arrival of the train. Do you know the Jam song Down in the Tube Station at Midnight (A distant echo of faraway voices boarding faraway trains...)

Following on our conversation about Purim, are there many exiles from Persia living in modern Israel? I'm not even 100% sure what constitutes Persia - Iraq, Iran? anything else?

I only have one Iranian friend here in London - Mansell, the father of my younger son's friend. We recently went to his mother's funeral which was an interesting if sad experience. In a very English cemetery - Victorian Gothic chapel, a variety of native trees, and of course the rain - we attended a full Islamic funeral followed by a meal of Persian delicacies. I'm not sure how many nationalities reside in London but it's certainly hundreds - including the odd Israeli!

There's one Israeli fella that I know in my neighbourhood, Daniel, my backgammon victim ...I mean partner. I love the game (you guys call it sheshbesh no?) He is married to a local artist/photographer. We originally met them through the local school at the bottom of my road where my older son went to.

So you can see I do have children - two boys. They're both technically Irish - their mum, my partner, was born in Northern Ireland which gives them both the right to an Irish passport. One of them has Charlie as his middle name - after Chaplin.

So how many brothers and sisters do you have? What ages? Do they also live in Tiberias?

It was very interesting to hear about your time in the army. Did you enjoy it at all? Did you make any friends in the army? And is that it now, do you ever have to go back at all?

I’m going to order Walk On Water from Amazon and I'll report back when I've watched it. I really like thrillers.

Talking of Mossad, did you see Spielberg's Munich? I thought it was a really interesting movie, not least for its timing. Last year was a good time to reflect on the chicken-and-egg cycle of violence and revenge, and how people lose their souls in it.

Also did you see One Day in September, the feature documentary about the Munich massacre made around 2001ish? I remember my grandfather getting me a book about the Olympics that year which you filled up with stickers which you could get from the petrol station. As a kid I knew nothing of the horrific events which played out in the athletes' village - all I knew was the sport and medals. I guess my parents shielded me from the tragedy.

Which traditions and cultures does Late Wedding explore?

Did you see any of the shooting (as in production not bullets or missiles!) of Aviva My Love?

Back to Chaplin and The Great Dictator - I love the sequence where Adenoid Hinkel dances with the globe, I guess that's the most famous one but it captures Chaplin's physical grace as a comedian as evinced by The Tramp in everything from how he rollerskated to how he kicked butt.

I did see Richard Attenborough's Chaplin when it came out and remember enjoying it. Think I'll get that from Amazon too as I'd love to revisit it. God knows why I'm promoting the said online store so much here but, for all my reservations about its impact on real bookshops, I suppose it is one of the best ways to access the older and obscurer film titles at this juncture.

Robert Downey Jr's career took a bit of a sad nose-dive after the promise of Chaplin. I saw him recently in Goodbye and Goodnight or whatever George Clooney's movie from last year was called - good film, bad title if you're not American and can't remember the tv show from which it derives.

Let me suggest a game to include in our next entries. Picking up from your point about the Dan Brown book and casting, let's see if we can find a book we've both read but which hasn't been made into a film yet (or not recently) and both do an imaginary casting.

Over&out
A

Hi Mic

Sorry not to get back to you quicker. I used to get an email when posts went up on our blog but that didn't happen this time - not sure why.

I spotted the tattoo in the photo during the summer down at Brighton on the south coast of England. It was on somebody watching a basketball match down by the beach. I once heard Jewish people technically aren't allowed tattoos because they deface the body - do you know if that is true? Are tattoos popular in Israel nevertheless?

Purim sounds like fun. Do you have many nephews and nieces? And what is it actually celebrating?

I don't think we have any public holidays coming up until May Day, the first day of May, marking the beginning of Spring.

I know what you mean about addiction - it can be difficult tearing yourself away from these screens. Mind you, if I had sunshine and blue skies outside I'd find it that much easier!

One of my friends, Thomas Gibson, was in Kubrick's last movie (he's an actor) - Eyes Wide Shut. When he came over to London (from New York) to shoot his scenes he was only given the pages with his lines in, not the whole script. And Kubrick took whole days to light scenes so Thomas just had to hang out in his luxury apartment in Mayfair, poor thing. I met Thomas years ago on a lively night out in Madrid when he'd just finished Far and Away, also with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise - we just hit it off, interested in similar stuff.

Modern Times is pretty much my favourite movie. I'm a huge Chaplin fan. A great artist and a fine human being. Hitler accused him of being a Jew. He said "I don't have that honour". He's a fellow Londoner, from Kennington, just south of the Thames.

Are there any Israeli film-makers you particularly like or that I should look out for? I've got a dvd somewhere called Avanim which i was given - have you seen that? (I watched the beginning ages ago, was enjoying it, but have never got round to finishing it).

I met an Israeli documentary-maker a few months ago over here. His name is David Benchetrit and he showed a film called ‘Dear Father, quiet, we’re shooting’ about conscientious objectors - a pretty radical film. Can't imagine anything like it being made in any Arab country, nor in many Western democracies come to that. Israeli TV helped finance it even though it is pretty anti-establishment.

Have you had to go in the army yet? It's difficult for people from countries like mine to get their heads round the idea of a nation where every individual has to contribute to security by serving compulsorily in the army. I've no idea how I would cope with that. I guess you just get on with it...

Over&out
A

Evening Mic

Glad we got the gender thing sorted. It's strange how you have to make a mental adjustment, binning the image you had in your head. A bit like when you see a picture of someone you know from hearing on the radio and they don't look anything like you imagined them to (that happened to me earlier this week - saw a photo of a radio soap star and she was chubby when i'd imagined her as really skinny from smoking too many cigarettes).

You must come to London one day - it has a very special energy. The thing to understand about us British are two key characteristics: eccentricity and tolerance. Now the eccentricity derives in part from our mix of Norman refinement and Anglo-Saxon brutality. That's why, for example, the fashion is so cool. You get a beautiful dress (Norman) and down below a pair of DMs (Saxon). That's what marks us out from the rest of the world. They can't do that in Paris, Rome or even New York.

And that brings us neatly to TV and music. A lot of British humour stems from these qualities, including Little Britain, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python. And the same for music, not least Punk which I particularly love. Take The Clash - punk (Saxon brutality) meets reggae (tolerance, openness) in great tracks like 'White Man (in Hammersmith Palais)' and 'Armagiddeon Times'.

I have been to Israel, a couple of years ago. My partner's first cousin (who is Irish and more like her sister, they're so close) married an Israeli. She was on a round the world trip, met her man and never got beyond the Land of Milk and Honey. They live just south of Haifa on the coast. Here's a picture i took in Nazareth on that trip.

Regarding the Oscars, I was pleased Helen Mirren and Forrest Whittaker won the acting awards in British films (Last King of Scotland was financed by FilmFour in London and The Queen by Granada in Manchester). I really enjoyed The Departed, especially Leonardo's performance (i've always thought he was a brilliant actor, ever since What's Eating Gilbert Grape?), and of course it's high time Marty got his Oscar, even though we all know it's actually for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, etc. Truth to tell, I thought Little Miss Sunshine was by far the best movie of last year and was delighted Alan Arkin picked up a little smooth golden man.

I'm looking forward to the next Bourne thriller directed by Paul Greengrass - I loved Bourne Supremacy. What is 300?

I thought Cillian Murphy was really good in Breakfast on Pluto (and Batman Begins). I wasn't so keen on Wind That Shakes the Barley - I'm not a big Ken Loach fan. Cillian did a good job in another rather crude film.

Music favorites - difficult to know where to begin - i love music. My favourite female singer - Sinead O'Connor, love her last record, Throw Down Your Arms, the reggae one with Sly & Robbie. Favourite records include What's Going On (Marvin Gaye) and Kind of Blue (Miles Davis). Recent stuff i like - David Holmes, Come Get It I Got It and Michael Franti & Spearhead.

Getting late now so better sign off.
Over&out
A