Romeo and Juliet in J’lem

August 18, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, Entertainment, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness 

It’s true that I’ve been posting a lot about parks, partially because I’ve been spending a lot of time exploring local ones with my two boys and various friends, and it is just that time of year; late summer, little childcare available, afternoons cool off around five p.m.

We found ourselves at Jerusalem’s Bloomfield Park yesterday afternoon, but it wasn’t perchance. Last night was the second night of Theater in the Rough’s performance of Romeo and Juliet: in motion, a great way to enjoy Shakespeare, a thrilling story and the bucolic surroundings of Bloomfield, which is situated just behind the King David Hotel.

The idea behind a performance in motion is just that, the actors and audience move around several times over the course of the play, making it that much more interactive as it involves the audience in the motion of the play. By staging it in a park — as Theatre in the Rough did with Twelfth Night last year as well — the production utilizes the surrounding environs, from the glade of fir trees to the large stone cube sculptures that are used by the players as a kind of alternative set.

As for the audience, they sit on the grass, some on chairs, some on blankets, some on the grass, and those with small children, like yours truly, can wander farther afield if necessary, frolicking in a Shakespearean manner on the grassy hillocks of the park.

The play is free, although there is a suggested NIS 30 donation to offset costs of the production. There are also great-looking tee-shirts for sale, and the play ends just before dark really settles in. Just remember to bring that sweatshirt, hoodie or sweater for the cool Jerusalem evening air. There are four more performances: Thursday, August 18; Sunday, August 21; Wednesday, August 24; Thursday, August 25.

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Go out and Gaga

August 17, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, education, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture 

Gaga, it seems, is Israeli. Not Lady Gaga, but Gaga, the movement language developed by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin. Thanks to the International Herald Tribune, I now know that Gaga is considered “a serious new way of training the body”, as developed by Naharin, the artistic director of The Batsheva Dance Company, here in Tel Aviv.

He developed the set of movements for himself when he was recovering from a back injury, and then shared it with the company’s non-dance staff. Now Gaga is huge in Israel, and it made its way to the U.S. where Gaga USA is spreading the word in New York City, and, eventually, the rest of the States. The secret to its success? It appears to force one to let go of the mind when moving, even when those movements seem silly.

It’s funky way to exercise, and you can check it out here, in an Israel21c produced video:

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A vacation in Israel – priceless

August 17, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Travel 

In our family, we traditionally plan a week in August for a summer vacation. When the kids were little, and flying didn’t become so unaffordable, we used to faithfully travel to visit family in the US.

But our goals are more modest these days. A jaunt to a Greek island or a few days in Prague are more suitable substitutes for these austere times. But it’s always curious to me, how, even though we make grandiose plans during the year to vacation out of the country, we invariable end up staying in Israel.

It’s also curious to me how families set aside the funds to make such annual trips. Do they work it into their monthly budget? Do they go further into overdraft than they already are? Or do some generous parental benefactors provide the check for the vacation?

I spend the weeks before perusing the back pages of the Hebrew newspapers where companies like Daka 90 advertise flight and hotel packages to virtually every European and Mediterranean destination – weighing the options of the type of hotel, proximity to the beach, historical sites, etc.

But mostly, I look at the price. Many Israelis think that it’s less expensive to vacation abroad on one of these packages for three or four nights than it is to go to a local resort or hotel. Not true!

The travel sites use the bait and switch approach – splashing $300 per person packages to Crete and Rhodes in their ads – and then when you go to their site or call them, it turns out that either there’s no more room, or it’s not the accepted configuration of fliers (too many kids, too many people) for that particular deal. And what was $300 is now $589.

In the end, we couldn’t bring ourselves to spend that much on a four-day vacation, in which half of two of the days would be taken up with travel and flights. So, we’re staying close to home again, heading up North for a bed & breakfast on the Galilee-Golan border, complete with gourmet breakfast, Jacuzzi, hammock, pool and relaxation.

It may not provide the excitement of a Greek island, but it’s less than half the price, we’re stimulating our own economy, and I can still read the Hebrew papers every morning to see if there are any good deals to Crete.

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Playground protest

August 16, 2011 by · 5 Comments
Filed under: design, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

Classic Jerusalem monster slide playground

As I ponder the housing protests and general public angsting about prices and costs in the land of Israel, I’ve been thinking about a protest of my own, against the abysmal public playgrounds in Jerusalem.

Tel Aviv 'adult' playground

True, it’s always easy to gripe after visiting the fabulous playgrounds of America’s northeastern cities; the sprinkler-filled parks in Boston and New York, the $1 merry-go-round in Philadelphia, and at New York’s Hudson River Park; the funky, sculpture-like climbing structures featured in all of these places, as well as adult-and-child swings.

It’s been a happy thing to come home, but I gotta say, going back to the local playground where the spongy groundcover is ripped, the swings are old and in need of some updating, and the entire area could use some sprucing up, is slightly depressing. At another local playground, in the Arnona Hachadasha complex that is populated by hundreds of families with children, there is only one — yes, one — swing in the entire place, complemented by a dinky slide, see-saw and a couple of other simple structures.

I'd be happy with this playground...

These are neighborhoods in which people pay thousands of shekels in arnona — property tax — and in which developers, particularly in the Arnona Hachadasha section, have made a nice profit on large buildings that house hundreds of apartments. I’m assuming they have to put playgrounds in when they build the developments, but clearly the guidelines for what they have to build and offer are modest, because they do not pass muster.

So, what do I do next? Put up a tent outside the developers’ marketing offices? Outside City Hall? Who’s joining me in this effort?

Let’s create safe, dynamic playground for our kids; spaces that keep kids in vibrant, lively environments and entice families to stay in Jerusalem and keep improving this city.

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Unaccompanied minor

August 16, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Life 

I took my 13-year-old son to the airport last night. He was flying as an “unaccompanied minor” to Los Angeles to meet up with his grandparents who have promised him two weeks of unmitigated American fun (roller coasters, beaches and all you can eat sushi – yum, I wish I was 13 again!)

The unaccompanied minor (or UM, as the El Al staff calls them) program is a mini-industry for the airlines. There must have been a dozen kids, ranging in age from six to fifteen, in the posse, all wearing their UM plastic pouches draped around their necks. For the privilege of keeping their kids from wandering astray in the duty free, buying 12-packs of Toblerones, parents pay $100 each way.

We got to the airport the proscribed three hours before the flight – usually that feels excessively cautious, but seeing the crowds jostling towards the check in counters during one of the busiest summers in history at Ben Gurion International, I was thankful to have the time.

I wasn’t sure exactly where to go – I’d been told something about a mysterious “counter 98” – so I went to ask a security person. “Come with me,” she said somewhat sternly. Uh, oh, I thought.  Had I done something wrong? Nah, she was jumping us ahead of the thousand or so sweaty passengers to the front of the line. Cool – this was better than in the dot.com years when I got to stand in the “short line” to fly business class!

This also presented us with a problem – er, an opportunity – since we now had nearly two hours free before the UM’s were supposed to return to counter 98 to be collected by the El Al staff and whisked through security and passport control.

There aren’t a lot of pickings in the shopping lounge open to the public at the airport. A McDonald’s, a couple of cafes and a Pizza Hut. Also a pharmacy and a Steimatzky’s selling overpriced books that you can buy for half once you cross the Atlantic (hey, how come the social justice movement isn’t protesting the high price of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union?)

My son ordered a sandwich and a water. NIS 40, the kiosk salesperson said. Yowza, can you say price gouging of a captive audience. My slice of pizza was NIS 18 – just earlier in the day my son complained that he’d had to spend NIS 12 for a slice at the mall and that was pushing it.

We ate slowly, talked about the trip, the excitement of flying alone, and the Flash Pass Uncle Dave bought for the their day trip to the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. Before we knew it, the two hours were up and I was hugging my big boy goodbye as he was sucked through the bowels of Terminal 3.

As I drove home, I thought about the time when I first flew alone, also to my grandparents, and how such an adventure marks a kind of rite of passage, even more momentous than the bar mitzvah that preceded my son’s trip just a few months before. Sure, getting an aliyah to the Torah is nice, but sitting in a window seat without your parents and ordering as much Coca Cola as you want – now that’s the real deal!

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