Weird Sighting #३

I recently met a cousin of Barry Manilow while at a gig in Ashdod, Israel. His name is Itzak and he has wonderful things to say about him.

What's crazy about it all is that he looks exactly like this gentleman:

"It's Israel!"

This is a common phrase heard throughout Israel to "explain the unexplained or absurd."

I was throwing my hands up in the air, shouting "It's Israel!" during a recent performance I had with the Herzliya Chamber Orchestra. They called me to sub in on a performance they were having last week. I said, "Sure." How little I knew.

During the final piece, Handel's Royal FIREWORKS (emphasis on FIREWORKS), the conductor/music director thought it fitting to have a full fireworks display on stage...INDOORS. Needless to say, the video you are about to see was filmed by fellow horn player and video-editor extraordinaire Kyle Hoyt. Enjoy, y'all.



***UPDATE!***
Here's the original version of the aforementioned gig. It's just as good.

You can get yourself cleaned, you can have a good meal, you can do whatever you feel ...

I took a few shots of the YMCA here in Jerusalem. It's absolutely gorgeous. I think all YMCAs should look like this.














(with special guest appearance of friend Angie Lin)

This is supposedly the place where the Village People wrote their (in)famous tune and heterosexual anthem Y.M.C.A.

How to learn Russian*

Here's a few easy steps for you to be on your way to the Russian language!

Step 1: Carpool a ride with all Russian musicians, no other language spoken; listen to conversation during the 3 hour ride to and fro.

Step 2: Repeat Step 1 six times a week for two weeks.

Step 3: Pretend to smoke a cigarette (those of you who are smokers, please feel free to light up); converse in said Russian with smoke billowing out of your mouth, seems to help.

Step 4: Wear this hat.

Step 5: Speak!

*this post is in no way intended to be a racist quip on all Russians out there - this is how I learned a language.

Weird Sighting #2

(actually should read AMAZING Sighting #2)

Baka, Jerusalem - Seeing a woman carrying an armchair on top of her head. Sans hands.

Not-So-Alive Sea

Okay kids. I went to the Dead Sea today. Mind-blowing experience. We arrived at this gorgeous beach about 45 minutes outside of Jerusalem:





I can't believe it's a lake, but that's what they tell me. Whatever.

Anywho, one of the first things to do is take a dip. The water is wildly salty, slimy, oily and warm. It's a strange feeling, yet instantly relaxing. In fact, it's so relaxing that...





...you cannot not float. It forces you to become flotsam.



No, this is not some horribly racist Halloween costume, this is the famous mud of the Dead Sea. It does wonders on the skin.



And supposedly Mitsu's ass. Those crazy Japanese:



Jenny was a bit afraid of the camera:



I didn't get it:



(BTW: I have no idea who the guy to my right is. I checked to see if he was actually dead, but he wasn't. Wouldn't that have been ironic!)

Other than the mud and the salt, one can play shesh besh on the shore:



For all you silly, uniformed Amerikans, that's a lot like backgammon. Huh. Amerikans are soooo silly.


Wait.


All in all, I'm thoroughly scrubbed and moisturized, and feeling like I just stepped out of a salon. Life is tov. (that's good in Hebrew) I'm learning fast - can't you tell? I'm currently taking reservations here in Jerusalem. They're filling up...slow. So you have plenty of time. Everyone: MAKE THE JOURNEY OUT HERE! I'm feeling spoiled experiencing this all on my own. Right Shai?:



Yeah! That's right!

Weird Sighting #1

Abu-Tor, Jerusalem - While walking to work, witnessing three men trying to stuff a live goat into the trunk of a taxi, failing, and deciding to carry the goat instead.

An Abu-TOUR

For some strange reason, the biggest question I get is, "What does the inside of your place look like?" Well, here's the daily routine of coming home. Enjoy.

Why is Sunday important?

My weekend:

Friday - It all started out innocently enough, with me waking up at the un-HisName-ly hour of 6:00AM to play a round of tennis. I was thoroughly beaten by my new friend Sashca who plays bassoon in the orchestra. He and my friend Shai like to start tennis at 7:00AM. Why? I don't get this whole waking up early.

Anywho, after sleeping for a couple of hours in the afternoon, I went to my first Shabbos dinner. Although it wasn't the most traditional of Shabbats - lesbian rabbi at the Jerusalem Open House GLBT Center, use of electricity, women shaking men's hands - it was still an incredible experience. I thought not to take pictures considering it is custom, so I don't have any. Big surprise, eh? The service was completely in Hebrew, but my friend and concertmaster of the JSO Jenny helped translate. Hearing Biblical Hebrew sung is wildly gorgeous. You must have this experience. The entire evening, complete with full dinner, was outstanding.

Later that evening I threw a very un-Shabbat-like housewarming party. It fulfilled my social being. The only picture I got out of it was this one:



That's Mitusnori on the left, Jenny in the middle and Taki on the right. I know, I know. I suck for not taking pictures. But look!...

Saturday - After sleeping for 12 hours I woke up and went straight to the Jerusalem Theatre to catch a bus that was taking the entire orchestra to our concert in Tel Aviv. On the bus I brought along my camera...FINALLY:



Okay, that's my friend Shai on the left and Jennny on the right. They weren't into taking pictures.

Here's a picture of Kyle (see first post):



Who's the man?!

The bus ride was scenic but my camera sucks:



This is the best shot I got. We went through a few villages on the way to Tel Aviv, which shows you a real Israel, complete with checkpoints. You don't see this often within the city limits.

We arrived at the hall and played a Broadway concert to thousands. Or a thousand. I can't remember. Anywho, this is where we played:



Kyle is like the master of pointing! Sign him up to an agency, cause he got game!

We got home around midnight, and we was tired. Just look at us on our walk home:





Sunday - Morning hit us like a ton of bricks, but we walked to rehearsal and had a quick and easy one. Afterwards, Ben, Kyle and myself took a cab to get Tax I.D. numbers. I barely know what the heck these are but we got them after Kyle used his brilliant Hebrew powers. The numbers are for gigs and stuff. Boring.

We had lunch at the tax place and it was delicious. The restaurant was typical of a working-class establishment for lunch. This is a dish that I'm kinda in love with called Kube:



Too bad it gives me a case of the screaming mimis. I think it's worth it in the end. The soup is flavourful and sour, with dumplings filled with meat. Every order comes with pita, hummos and salat: a mix of raw onion, pickles and sometimes peppers:



Delicious.

Our bus ride home was a bit confusing:



Okay, I lied. I had them pose.

Star-Spangled Banner sucks

I just heard the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra tonight, and they were fantastic. A pleasant surprise was seeing Zubin Mehta up there on stage.

They began the programme with Jan Freidlin's Poem of the Contrasts, which kind of rocked my world. It was a world premiere, and I think I just witnessed some history. Watch out.

They went on to play Bartok's Concerto No. 2 for violin and orchestra, a piece I fell in love with at the same time I was listening to Technotronic. Yeah, I'm gettin' old(ish). Anywho, the soloist was phenomenal: Leonidas Kavakos.

Finally, they ended with Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony. Get your mind out of the gutter. Good stuff.

What impressed me most was not the classical, modern and new works I was accustomed to, but the Israeli National Anthem - Hatikva - they played at the start. It's GORGEOUS. It makes me think that America's National Anthem was just an afterthought, a song someone scrounged up at the last minute.

Hatikva is moving, spiritual (much like this great land) and digs deep. It's my new theme song.

Movin' on up, to the Eastern boarder

My new home.

This is the "villa" I live in:



Yes. The whole place is ours!

I live on a quaint little street called Oved:




I'm amazed daily how beautiful this part of town is. I never thought living on a quiet street would be pleasant, but this neighbourhood has changed my mind.

A view of my balcony:



The photo is facing south, and in the distance you can see the neighbourhood where I fist lived when I moved here called Gilo. Here's an unfortunate article about Gilo. Things have changed dramatically, even since 2004.

Off the balcony is a view of the separation wall - the West Bank just on the other side, Jordanian mountains in the distance:



I'm excited about living here for a year, especially this gorgeous home of ours. I leave you with a site that greets me every morning outside my front door. Makes me smile.

Dollars and Scents

My friend Fletcher asked a great question recently:

WHAT DOES JERUSALEM SMELL LIKE?

It was the first thing I noticed when I got out of my Tel Aviv - Jerusalem cab ride. The scent of this city is intoxicating. The scents are very distinct: an overwhelming smell of jasmine mixed with mint and rosemary. The mix of the three is HEAVENLY.

There's only one issue. A fourth scent. A horrible stench that we're all too familiar of. The Ginkgo tree is alive and well here in Jerusalem, and I, for one, will never understand why these trees are planted in heavy pedestrian areas. Do people not smell what I'm smelling?

Anywho, there are a few cities/towns/areas I've visited that have distinct smells that I can neither describe nor understand. Here are a few:

1) Paris subway. Very noticeable but not as unpleasant as one would think. I find this smell occasionally around the States. Not sure what it is.

2) New York City subway. My friend Al Vigdorchik once described the NYC Metro as, "the place of mysterious liquids." You get the idea.

3) Blue Ridge Mountains. Crisp. Clear. Woodsy.

Anyone have any other scents that describe a city? Please post a comment.

**PICTURES TO COME. I PROMISE. I JUST NEED TO BE A TOURIST FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS FIRST.**

Shalom, y'all

Okay. So I made it to the Holy Land...and it's amazing. I promised this blog AGES ago, but I've been busy, with the whole moving thing.

I finally found an apartment here, in a little Arab neighbourhood called Abu Tor (read an older article about it here - keep in mind things have changed yet some remains the same). It's a mix of Jews, Arabs and CNN reporters. Quite eclectic yet quiet and peaceful. It's a gorgeous neighbourhood - what you would imagine Jerusalem to look like.

Here's a picture of me:



That's the former tenant to my left. The landlady/daughter told us to leave the picture up "in remembrance". We'll see.

I live with two people. This is Mitsunori:



He's Japanese and plays percussion. He's holding a 4 year-old frozen head of cabbage that the dead lady left. Don't ask, I don't have an answer.

And this is Ben:



He doesn't usually wear aprons like this one, but it was too funny to not capture on film. He's a horn player just like me, and, if you can believe it, we went to grad school together. The music world is just THAT SMALL.

Anywho, I arrived in Jerusalem on Oct.3. It was warm, yet the wind felt oddly cool. I was jetlagged and filled with excitement, which kept me up for a few days. My old friend Kyle Hoyt - whom I went to undergrad with and is also a horn player (remember that SMALL WORLD comment?) - met Ben and me at the Tel Aviv airport with a car waiting. First-class, right? The drive to Jerusalem - about 50 minutes - was scenic. I arrived at the home of Shai, our host, and he welcomed us with food. It's an Israeli thing.

Days were spent walking around town and exploring, practicing for my first rehearsal with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, a few days after my arrival. The city is exciting, full of life. I came in without expectations. I think I'm happy about that. Food has been amazing and the people have been warm and completely inviting.

Our first concert was this past Thursday and it went well. I'm enjoying a full-time position, for the (seemingly)first time in my life, and loving that music is its central focus. Musicians here are filled with emotion and excitement that one doesn't experience often in America. I feel a bit "at home" now. All those comments during college about my "over-emotional" playing are down the toilet. The European one, with the small handle for #1, big handle for #2. Ingenious!:



I've made a quick trip to the Old City and only came up with this measly picture of the Western Wall:



Emotional. I wasn't expecting that, either. But the amount of history and cultural identity here is dumbfounding. The experience thus far was culminated into a true, emotional experience on that wall. I hope there are more to come....

Speaking of more to come, look soon for more on my blog. I plan to update frequently, and I know how you all love to sit and waste time reading a blog. Enjoy.