Tel Aviv Rooftop

July 12, Neve Yosef Community Center, Haifa. MidLife Crisis performs Neil Young's  socially relevant 'Rockin' in the Free World' at a the Neve Yosef community theater festival. Filmed by ML. It took over three hours navigating  traffic jams to get to Haifa in Danny B's 'band van' and when we arrived at the prestigious "back balcony" stage, the audience consisted of roughly 3 little girls and a savta . But MLC will never pass up a gig, no matter how small (as long as we're all free that day and preferably if there's a drum set). After a few numbers, more people dropped in. A few started dancing. For once we had monitors and could hear ourselves. Threatened with only a short 45 minutes, our set extended to over an hour and a good rockin time was had by all. We've been promised the "front balcony" next year. At last, the big time!    

I t's been a roller-coaster week. The sort of week that, in most countries, would be spread over a year. It started with the shocking self-immolation of Moshe Sliman  at a social justice demonstration  in Tel Aviv, continued  with the departure of Kadima from the cabinet , the decision to g rant university status to the Ariel University Center   and the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  and ended with the Damascus explosion and the  terror attack at Burgas airport in Bulgaria  . The frequency with which I (and everyone else) am bombarded with dramatic news of potentially cataclysmic proportions has an emotionally numbing effect. Soon after the shock and despair comes the desire - for the selfish sake of remaining in my comfort zone - to downplay, to rationalize.  If Moshe Sliman was driven to pour "flammable material over his clothes and body" and set himself on fire, maybe Bibi was right when he said ...