Tel Aviv Rooftop

We took a pleasant diversion from trying to figure out the significance of Obama's speech (and Netanyahu's response) by means of Batim MiBifnim (Buildings from Within), the annual two day event in which scores of public buildings, studios, businesses and private apartments throw open their doors to thousands of the curious - us included. We arrived at a project on a rooftop in Florentin where a group of artists had put together a creation built of wood scrap and other discarded junk. Not exactly a completed building, more an exercise in creative recycling. Inside one of the newly created rooms a candelabra made out of upturned salt shakers. In an old flower mill turned into a design studio we found another creative use for an ordinary household object. Later, on Rothschild, I noticed that someone had knitted some socks onto the feet of Dizengoff's horse. On Rabin Square, Tel Aviv's equivalent of Cairo's Tahrir, the newly renovated 'ecological pool' (wat...

Yes, we had to get up at 3.30 a.m., gulp a Turkish coffee on the Rooftop and hit the road. But by about 6.30, this was the scene. Moran , our trusty 'pilot' is shooting blasts of hot air into the balloon that will take us over 'bitronot Ruhama' (the Ruhama Badlands). Anticipation among the ballooners - a mixed bunch of young couples, friends, a father and daughter (and us) - is running high.     With the balloon beginning to rise, we clamber into the padded cubicles that make up the basket - and, almost imperceptibly, the whole contraption rises into the air.   At first you are at tree top level. Then, without noticing, a little higher, and able to make out the patterns on the mosaic floor of a Byzantine church.  And before you can say Phileas Fogg, you are several hundred metres up and looking down on a smaller balloon (the honeymoon flight) and across a wide vista of shifting clouds, the landscape suddenly illuminated by the rising sun (worth...

Another Pessah, the theme of which is "me-avdut le-herut" (from slavery to freedom), a motto with rich potential. Of course the traditional discussion around the seder night table on this mighty theme is supposed to revolve on the story of Exodus from Egypt but the theme is too big to be contained by just one story, however epic. On one radio programme, a lot of people were using the Pessah motto to express the hope that they would find their way out of job slavery or possibly into a better paid version of it. Another association this Pessah is of course what is happening in modern day Egypt. Shimon Peres wished the Egyptians well in their Exodus out of the repression of the Mubarak regime but also expressed the hope that this wouldn't lead "in the wrong direction". Meanwhile a group of distinguished recipients of the Israel Prize demonstrated outside the site of Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, where Israel's Declaration of Independence was made, to expr...

A big, airless balloon lying on a field near Kibbutz Ruhama In honour of our "120th birthday" kind and generous friends bought us a special present - a trip in a hot air balloon, including an overnight stay in a 'tzimmer' (guest house), a champagne breakfast and a massage. This weekend we finally got round to using the voucher. Since what our friends had bought us was what's called chavila (parcel of services), this first involved coordinating with every contact person  in the chain: Hadar for the balloon trip, Gil for the tzimmer, Guy (who turned out to be a lady) for the evening meal, and Hanita for the massage. To cut a long story short, yesterday we took the massage (deeply satisfying), ate Hanita's supper and drank wine (excellent), stayed at Gil's tzimmmer (delightful in its stylish simplicity) and at 5.45 this morning were racing along the deserted, misty roads of the northern Negev towards Kibbutz Ruchama. The "ground crew" there had a...

In our daily lives we play different people (colleague, parent, friend, competitor) and , as the number of roles increase, we stand to forget who the 'real'  me is. Purim (like all carnivals) gives us the legitimacy to stop pretending that we're not pretending and play out a role in public. A local couple showing their appreciation After several years of tension and negotiations between the bar owners of Florentin and the authorities, this year, the police and the municipality decided to cooperate: they blocked streets to the area, set an 18+ age limit and gave the annual Purim Florentin street party the freedom to play loud music all night, sell alcohol on the street and generally go crazy. There are similar street parties on New Year's Eve and Independence Day. Many people wore bunny ears. Japanese nuclear scientists was another strong theme.   Some people took to acting our their fantasies a little too vividly. For others, Purim mi...

Thanks to J for sending me this excellent and thought-provoking documentary  on what happens when the overly protected principle of intellectual property clashes with the freedom and creativity unleashed by digital culture. http://vimeo.com/8040182 Here's the blurb: "Immerse yourself in the energetic, innovative and potentially illegal world of mash-up media with RiP: A Remix Manifesto. Let web activist Brett Gaylor and musician Greg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, serve as your digital tour guides on a probing investigation into how culture builds upon culture in the information age. Biomedical engineer turned live-performance sensation Girl Talk, has received immense commercial and critical success for his mind-blowing sample-based music. Utilizing technical expertise and a ferocious creative streak, Girl Talk repositions popular music to create a wild and edgy dialogue between artists from all genres and eras. But are his practices legal? Do his methods of frenetic...

None of these photographs of old Tel Aviv shops are of Minimarket Eden At the beginning of every month I get a text message from the local minimarket - Eden -which is spitting distance from the Rooftop. Wherever on the planet I happen to be situated, this text message will politely remind me that its time to settle my monthly tab. This is not the only technological innovation introduced by Nissim, the dynamic young manager. He started a customers club and there was also a deal (which seems to have expired) that returned your VAT if you bought for over 100 shekels. At Minimarket Eden, the shelves are well stocked with goods ranging from basic to organic, the prices are marked and the staff is helpful and friendly. It wasn't always this way. When we first moved into the neighbourhood the minimarket was run by Arnon and his wife Aliza and was much scruffier and simpler affair. Arnon's father Yosef, who was the original owner, who used to help out in the shop, was th...