Photos

Some of this blog is text, some has photos.
Hope you check them out sometimes and tell me what you think.


I took this one in Evanston, IL this summer, at the Northwestern University campus.

And this one is from Tel-Aviv-Jaffa before I moved to NYC

ex-Israeli (women) artists in new york

Keren Ann
soft nick drake music in English & French by an ex-israeli SoHo-Parisian singer-songwriter (of Jewish-Russian-Javanese-Dutch origins).
Her 2004 album was titled- Nolita (after the Manhatten neighborhood she lives in). [wiki ].
To listen to her music click on 'videos' in her site.
To enjoy some French sounds:

BIOGRAPHIE :
"Keren Ann Zeidel est née le 10 mars 1974 à Césarée en Israël. Elle grandit jusqu'à 11 ans en Hollande avant de venir s'installer à Paris. Son bac en poche, elle cherche son orientation future dans diverses branches (informatique, psychologie, etc) mais ne trouve un réel plaisir que dans l'écriture de chansons." (excerpt from this site).

Elinor Milchan
Tel-Aviv born, New York resident, interesting artist. Check out her work.

"Pictures from a war journal " is an article in an Israeli newspaper, written by Keren Ann with pictures by Elinor Milchan documented Keren Ann's tour with renowned Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza, in the north of Israel last summer at the time of the war with Lebanon. The two musicans sang for the people in the shelters and the soldiers.

Tel Aviv Impressions 2004

Sterotypes, Fantasies and the Metropolis. Here are my impressions as a 24-year old who's about to leave to the US....

So I was riding the bus back home, and looking outside the window. I was in love with what I saw. I saw beautiful women and interesting people. People walking, smiling, laughing, talking on their phone, bumping into one another. Walking fast, walking casually. soldier-girls in uniforms, girls in minimal clothes in pink and yellow, Philippino's talking Hebrew on thier cellular phone, people with dogs, old people, security guards in uniform, a Ethiopian bus driver who made me laugh, and skater boys in baggies.
Tel-Aviv!
I remember how, like some of my friends, I used to hate it -
the dirt, the density of people, the beggars, the filthy facades of the aapt. buildings which look as though they will fall apart any minute now. The bad smells. The dirty stray cats who squeal meow. The honking and no parking, the double parking, and reports, and traffic jams, the one-way roads and no U-turns which make so many drivers hate this city.

But in recent years, the more I spent my time here, I just love it more-
The diversity of people,
the fact that everyone is here all the time,
the multi-culturalism,
the lesbians and gays in the supermarket,
the cool record shops,
the middle-eastern markets of food and clothes.
the soap stores, and second-hand stores, and antique stores,
and juice-shops, and cafes and bars which are allways open,
and the falaffel- Israeli style, and the pizzas and sushis. the scooters,
and street-cats, and dogs.
the open-cars with loud music and the small european used-cars.
the cinemas with foreign films,
the kiosks with peanuts and cigaretts and alcohol with TV broadcasts which are open to the street.
the constant flux and movement.
the parties and alcohol and punks and brit-pops and tattoes and piercing
and skaters and 'arsim' and 'frechot' [loud people dressed in loud extravagantly cheap clothes who are all about partying and noise].
the students, the junkies, the models, the old fashionable ladies, the aunties,
the casually dressed with a faded tank top and bathing-suit boxkers and sandles men,
the rastaman, the braided heads, the blackers, the russians, the whores and sex-shops,
the tourists, the ethiopians, the soldiers.

I felt my heart filled up, my eyes devouring all I saw. the colors, thier movement, the sounds.
And I was thinking of this world, this specific social world I live in. And why the hell would I want to leave it?!
Surrounded by friends, whom I approach as "brother" ['achi'] and "sister" ['achoti'] as they approach me, and "honey" ['motek'] and "babe" ['booba']. Surrounded by family, who keeps in close touch with me and with many holidays and dinners and trips we have together as well as discussing most intimate and personal issues.

Surrounded by people who I can have heart-to-heart talks and discussions on any social issue of our choice, with arguments and examples, going into depth, people with awarness and the willingness to discuss issues. People who love art, who are music junkies, who watch European and Eastern movies, who have been to the East for a year, or to South America, who play musical instruments, who dream to become painters or musicians or writers. People in hi-tech works who know about the cutting edge technology, and play computer games. people who have alot of sex, people who smoke alot of grass, who go out to dance, who invite to parties, people who meet up spontaeuosly all the time, who read books, who watch tv shows with a critical eye, and discuss the political situation after hearing the news on the radio and in the newspapers. who go to local shows and support the local bands, who are not stuck up, but people you can easily approach and speak with, who have a good attitude. People who love to challange previous ideas, who are not afraid to think differently, who are born rebels.

This is what i see. And what I love.

The Meaning of Life- A Review

The Meaning of Life, Happiness and Modernity*

"The Meaning of Life"- a collection of essays edited by Asa Kasher, a philosophy scholar of Tel-Aviv University. This book includes essays, poems, and paintings by contemporary Israeli intellectuals and artists dealing with the question of the meaning of life, the meaning of death, and existentialism.

I was interested especially in the article "Why Has the Question of the Meaning of Life Arisen in the Last 250 Years?" by Ido Landau.

It deals with the core ideal in modern thought of "Happiness" which is identified with "fun, amusement and comfort" instead of past ideals like "devotion to God, a life of contemplation, fulfillment of duty or honor ".

"The pursuit of Happiness", says Landau, "is one of the main propelling forces of science, technology and capitalistic activity." He also asserts that because of the emphasis on the need for happiness people are more aware when they lack happiness and that makes us wonder why are we not happy. Landau says: "The lack of happiness in spite of comfort and pleasure require an explanation, and one explanation is the meaningless of life."

He recommends that people who feel that life is meaningless would try and find and develop something that will be important and comprehensible for them. "What is important?" "What is comprehensible?". He tells of a couple of ways which are possible and have been followed:

Trying to create groups in which the modern economy, modern science and etc. are less dominant, or trying to join groups like this which exist already.

Move to places where the instrumental and scientific culture has not arrived yet.

Trying to change the technological, economical and scientific reality. This way has been adopted by environmentalists and 'green party' Europeans.

Calling for a return to past ways of life and ideals. This is done by conservative circles.

Trying to develop and nurture new personal and cultural values, which fit to modern culture on one hand and include stronger elements of significance and importance. This way is suggested by Charles Taylor in " Ethics of Authenticity".

How will the future look in this regard?

One opinion is that *essentially* as humans, we need stable contents, non-relativistic contents, and that the less the culture can provide such content the more the feeling of the meaningless of life will be acute. The other opinion is that there is no essential human need for stable contents which are non-relativistic, and that we are in a transition period, after which this need will disappear. We have expectations, ideals and standards that were made in previous times, and now that science and technology shape our reality differently they will shape our expectations and understanding of the world differently.

"According to this view, the process has already began. Many people in our culture are immersed in scientific, technological and capitalistic activity, and don't feel lack of comprehension and meaninglessness (or insignificance). Many of them may also find it as a strange thing to present science and rationality, which have made so many phenomenons comprehensible, as causing a feeling of incomprehensibility.

Similarly they would think it a strange to present pragmatism and capitalism, which caused appropriation of value and importance to many things, as causing a sense of insignificance [non-importance]. For them modern science and technology provide excellent means for appropriation of value and significance to the world."

So these people would expect that the gap between standards and significance to be closed with time, and that culture would move to new standards which are more dynamic.

* [First posted on Jun. 8th, 2005]