Israeli metal once again reigns supreme
Israel has a tremendous amount of Israel exports but among the most successful is Israeli metal. Israeli bands have actually created a sub genre of metal called “oriental metal.” The most notable is Orphaned Land, a doom metal act whose lyrics consist of biblical allusions and are sang over a sonic bed of undeniable metal amalgamated with Middle Eastern sounds using traditional folk instruments. Other bands such as groove metal bandBetzefer have also received critical accolades abroad and are garnering fans throughout the world.
Recently Israeli-band, The Fading won the first place in Germany’s Wacken Open Air music festival, the world’s most popular metal festival, after beating 15 other bands from all over the world.
Reports Ynet:
“I don’t know how to describe it,” lead vocalist Ilia Badrov told Ynet. “Our excitement is huge, we’re still unable to digest it.” The second place went to the band representing Poland, followed by Greece. The Fading won a record and performance deal with international company ICS, and received musical instruments from the competition’s sponsors and invitations to take part in future metal music festivals in Europe. The battle was held Friday, and the Israeli representative was declared the winner in a press conference held Saturday evening. Upon the announcement, the band was surrounded by dozens of reporters from rock and metal magazines worldwide.
The Israeli metal scene will be getting even more attention soon when the the follow up to “A Headbanger’s Journey” a documentary is released later this year. The movie chronicled the history of metal and the second movie, Global Metal, focuses on how metal flourishes throughout the world – including Israel.
The palm tree
I’ve got this sprawling palm tree in my backyard that doesn’t seem to want to stop growing. As its peak shoots upward, the spiky leaves on the bottom begin to wither, turn brown and hang limp.
It doesn’t really bother me, and I think it gives the tree, and yard, a rustic kind of desert-like, mesquite motif.
But Ahmed hates it.
An all-around handy man from a village near Hebron, Ahmed turns up at my front door on the average of once every three weeks asking for some gardening work – most specifically trimming that tree.
About three years ago, I hired the father of five for a morning to do some basic cleaning of underbrush, trimming shrubs and picking weeds. Big mistake.
Now, he keeps thinking he’s entitled to take care of the yard, which I admit, could use some taking care of.
I have no idea how he gets into my city because I doubt he has a valid work permit, but he’s always working somewhere on the street for one of the neighbors.
Whenever he knocks, we have a polite chat, I check to see if there’s any of the kids clothes which they’ve outgrown that I can offer him for his brood, and we have the same dialogue.
“You really need to do something with that tree. And I have all these hungry kids, so I’ll do it for you for practically nothing.”
“Ahmed, I just can’t afford it, and anyway I like the tree as it is.”
He turns to leave, and I, as always, feel like a heel. As tight as my financial situation might be, I’m sure his is many times worse. Maybe one of his kids, depending on what my decision what, will grow up to be either a suicide bomber or one of the first ever Palestinian peace activists.
In the meantime, the palm tree sits there, with more brown leaves drooping every day.
Good reads
Filed under: Crime, General, History and Culture, Travel
If you haven’t yet, read Roaming freely through a land of obstacles, an International Herald Tribune travel piece about a Christian Palestinian who’s written a book about his walks in the West Bank. Raja Shehadeh, the author, who is also a human rights lawyer, wanders through the bucolic landscape of the villages around the West Bank, or goes on a sarha, the Arabic word for roaming freely at will. He, and the writer of the article, describe the difficulty of doing this, given that it is tough not to be restricted “by time and place in the occupied territories…”
I was struck by the piece for a number of reasons. First off, it wasn’t in the news section, but in travel, not a place where you don’t usually find Palestinian authors. And while I have my own feelings about the book and subject, the subject — not necessarily that of Palestinian political difficulties, but the idea of hiking around this familiar and challenging land, whether around Ramallah or Jerusalem — is certainly something that we have in common. Finally, I also write pieces for the IHT that I’m sure rankle plenty of people, particularly since they’re about architectural finds and design, or the good life in Israel. In that, I guess, to each his own.
But, if you do want to get in a fun read about what life is like for the neighbors, check out the first two books in the Palestinian detective series written by Matt Rees, a Jerusalem writer and former Time Magazine bureau chief. The Collaborator of Bethlehem and A Grave in Gaza are great, award-winning page-turners, yet they also give a very clear and realistic view into life on the Palestinian side.
Yekutieli’s observations know hope
Street artist Adam Yekutieli, 19, was born in California, but he soon moved with his artist parents to Ramat Hasharon, where he recently completed studies in a fine arts high school.
Yekutieli’s chops were honed as a subversive spray-painter, proliferating tags like “Please Believe” and “Know Hope” in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel. Since then, according to a recent profile in The Forward, his work has evolved considerably:
Though Yekutieli began by spray-painting and posting long blocks of text, he has come to prefer a “less bold” aesthetic that solidifies his message into shorter, more easily read bites. About two years ago, he started what he calls his “library project,” in which he pasted drawings and phrases on the street with double-sided tape, inviting removal. On the wall behind the pieces, Yekutieli wrote, “I let you borrow my heart for a while but others borrow it as well.”
In the past year, Yekutieli has worked almost exclusively on site-specific installations that bring his “character” – as he calls the figure at the center of his work – to life in cardboard 3-D. In these installations, the character interacts physically with the surroundings, climbing across Tel Aviv’s landmarks or feeling out crosswalks as if they were Braille.
Sophisticated stuff for a spray-paint-happy teenager. But defining himself as “primarily an external observer,” Yekutieli believes that his preoccupation with the cold and temporary nature of urban existence doesn’t necessarily make his subject matter dreary.
And in terms of specifically Israeli themes to his work, it all comes down to context. On the one hand, Yekutieli says that politics are so saturated in the minds of the Israeli street-walking public that he doesn’t want his installations to fade in to the white noise, but on the other hand, social commentary (albeit more universal than regional) is at the heart of what he’s trying to do. “I want to address the human conditions that compose the political and social issues,” he told The Forward.
Universal, heady messages with subversive executions apparently yield international appeal, as Yekutieli currently has four formal overseas shows on display through the autumn, at noted venues including San Jose’s Anno Domini, London’s The Gallery in Cork Street, West Hollywood’s Carmichael Gallery and Stavanger, Norway’s edgy Nuart Festival.
Aliya via blogs
Nefesh B’Nefesh a pro-aliyah organization dedicated to assisting North American Jews immigrate to Israel is doing something a bit different this time around. They’ve embedded bloggers with their latest group, assigning them a new immigrant to profile and to write about their immigration experience on their blogs.
CK of Jewlicious is accompanying a young woman named Danielle:
Danielle Sheldon, 19 and a resident of Los Angeles, is smart. A UCSD graduate who double majored with a BA in both International Studies and Middle Eastern Studies, she’s multilingual, and loves dancing and reading. Her future plans include graduate studies and after chatting with her for close to an hour, I am certain that Danielle can do whatever she sets her mind to. With her charm, wit and bubbly personality, Danielle’s options are virtually limitless. On August 18th, Danielle will join a plane load of North American immigrants headed to Israel to begin a new chapter in their lives. Danielle’s move to Israel, where she plans on joining the IDF, getting an MA in Security and Counter Terrorism at Tel Aviv University and settling in Tel Aviv, seems to be the obvious culmination of a lifelong path. Her father, born in Israel, insisted on speaking Hebrew to Danielle and sending her to a Jewish Day School. Consequently, Danielle’s Hebrew language skills are pretty darn good (her Arabic’s not bad either!). She got further practice when she spent a summer semester at Tel Aviv University and leading a group of High School students on a trip to Israel. She’s a fan of Herzl, Jabotinsky and Ahad Ha’am’s poetry.
Other Jewish and Israeli bloggers are in the mix as well. Check out Esther, Jameel and Treppenwitz for more on Nefesh B’Nefesh’s latest flight and a little personal glimpse into what motivates some North Americans to move to Israel.
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