Legendary rock bassist chooses Jerusalem stone

August 3, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Immigrant Moments, Music, Profiles 

harveybrooks1The summer is full of flights with new immigrants coming to Israel from the US and Canada. In m my mind, they’re all latter-day Zionist heroes, but not all of them have played on records by Bob Dylan and Miles Davis, or shared a stage with The Doors or Steely Dan.

Meet Israel’s newest immigrant, Harvey Brooks – bass guitarist extraordinaire and the Forrest Gump of rock and roll. He’ll be arriving from Tuscon, Arizona with his wife Bonnie on an August 4th Nefesh B’nefesh flight, but his whole 40-year musical career has been one soaring flight.

He’s played bass guitar on some of the most groundbreaking records of the post-Beatles era – including Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew (1969), The Doors Soft Parade (1969) and 1968’s Super Session featuring Michael Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills. And that’s only a fraction of the some 100 albums he’s appeared on or produced over the last 40 years on his way to cementing his status as one of the most respected figures on the American music scene.

He spoke with me for an article in the The Jerusalem Post.

“We’ve been going back and forth for a number of years, and every time we’re here, we’d talk about moving,” said the 65-year-old Brooks, whose stepdaughter Lori lives in the Gush Etzion settlement Neve Daniel. “Our two other kids are secure and established now, and we figured this is the time for us, for an adventure. It’s a good time to come.”

Calling Tuscon home since 1998, Brooks and Bonnie opened a guitar and music shop (17th Street Guitars and World Music) inside an international food market, the 17th St. Farmer’s Market, and started a Web business together with Jerusalem-based Web developer Charlie Kalish call Treasure Hidden that sells items from both establishments as well as other artifacts. To add to the symbiosis, Brooks formed a band with the market owner, called the 17th Street Band, playing a mix of rock, soul and blues.

“We’ve just released an album called Positively 17th Street,” said Brooks proudly, adding that while he’s going to be spending most of his time in Jerusalem, he plans on keeping his US endeavors ongoing. But when asked if he’s going to become musically active in Israel, Brooks said, “absolutely.”

“There are some great musicians in Israel. The last time we were here, we got to meet Ehud Banai, he’s a wonderful man and a great artist. Hopefully, we’ll spend some time with him,” said Brooks.

Welcome to the ‘hood, Harvey.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Machboim

August 2, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

Israeli director Dan Wolman is best-known for his film version of My Michael (1974) but another of his films, Machboim (Hide and Seek), made its own mark in 1980 as the first Israeli film about homosexuality.

If there was ever a reason to pick up a copy of Machboim, the shooting last night at a Gay-Lesbian youth drop-in center in Central Tel Aviv is enough. There have been other gay-themed films made since — from the late Amos Guttman’s film Nagua m which was hailed in 1983 as a groundbreaker for bringing AIDS to general awareness, to Yossi and Jagger (2002), about two soldiers who fall in love, which was all but mainstream at the box office.

But Machboim, which is set in 1946, was first to address the conflict, denial and ugly aggression against male homosexuality that is part and parcel of any macho society. That same machismo, the film suggests, was perhaps necessary to forge a national identity and bring the State of Israel into being, but is still rooted in the Israeli psyche. It is an uncomfortable thought.

A fairly short if uninformative interview with Woman can be found on YouTube. It’s not about Machboim. Probably just best to rent the film.

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Attack in the heart of Tel Aviv

August 2, 2009 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Crime, General, Life, Religion 

The Tel Aviv Gay Pride parade - will it ever be the same after Saturday's attack?

The Tel Aviv Gay Pride parade - will it ever be the same after Saturday's attack?

We always tout Israel’s – and specifically Tel Aviv’s – tolerant policies and attitudes toward alternative lifestyles. Which makes the horrible news about a masked gunman entering gay youth center in downtown Tel Aviv Saturday night and opening fire killing two and wounding 15 particularly difficult to digest.

According to the police, the masked gunman opened fire, then holstered his pistol and fled the scene by foot to the busy streets of Tel Aviv. The victims of the attack were named as Nir Katz, 26, of Givatayim, and Liz Troubishi, 17, of Holon. According to patrons, the center was not a club or disco, but just a place for teens from 14-21 to hang out in a non-threatening environment.

According to Ha’aretz, Gays and lesbians enjoy great freedom and liberties in Israel. Soldiers serve openly in the military, and openly gay musicians and actors like Ivry Lider are among the most popular in the country. Meretz MK Nitsan Horovitz is openly gay and ran for the current Knesset on a platform of gay rights.

Tel Aviv, one of the more liberal cities in the world, holds a festive annual gay parade, and the there is even a city-sponsored open house for the community. The media in Israel was full of speculation on Sunday whether this was the work of a crazed, lone gunman, or whether it was due to the cultivation of intolerance that certain segments of society have toward gays.

Israel is a place which, on the one hand has liberal laws, but on the other does not attempt to counter homophobia, claimed Danny Zak, a gay activist and journalist,

“The Shas party has the blood of two innocent kids on their hands,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “Shas has blamed gays for earthquakes and diseases. This is incitement, but no one is put on trial for it,” he said.

Shas released a statement following the shooting in which it called for the attacker “to be found and tried. Murder is of course against the Torah’s path and every attack is a contravention of the religion of Israel.”

All of the countries leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Deputy PM Silvan Shalom and Oppostion leader MK Tzippi Livni condemmed the attack. But MK Horovitz also raised the spectre of incitement from public leaders being behind the attack.

“There has been non-stop incitement,” he told the Post. “I very much hope this is not the result of comments made by public figures and Knesset members. They need to understand that some people will take action.”

He said the fact that the location of the center had been disclosed and that the murderer knew exactly where to go were serious blows to the gay community.

While the attack against the center was horrific, the public outcry against the attack and the unanimous condemnation across the board from public officials hopefully points to a future where an environment will not be allowed to develop where something like this could happen.

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