No chickens to be had

October 21, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

Okay, we’ve reached the final, and I mean final, stage of this sometimes endless chagim period. Over here, those of us who are religiously observant, don’t have three days straight of chag-into-Shabbat, like our diaspora brethren. They’ve had three weeks of that, on Rosh Hashanah (we had that too), and then again on Sukkot and this week, for Simchat Torah/Shemini Atzeret. We sort of have it, with Wednesday-into-Thursday, but Fridays off. Then again, Fridays get used for preparing for Shabbat. So we don’t have three days straight of shul, meals and shul again, but knowing that you have to shop and cook, yet again, is pretty exhausting.

Which brings me to today, the last Friday of this month of chagim. We had a simple plan, going out for dinner Friday night and a few friends coming over for lunch on Shabbat. I even had a meal plan, which included a simple saucy chicken for Shabbat lunch, accompanied by rice, perhaps some lubia beans and a course of salads to start. Dessert? Give in and buy some sorbet and cookies. I mean, there have to be some benefits to living in a town where there are bakeries everywhere, even if they’re not so great.

Pargiyot with a lemon/rosemary preparation

But, there were no chickens to be had. Literally. I won’t say that I made an exhaustive search of all the southern Jerusalem supermarkets, but I heard and I saw in a number of butchers and counters that there were really no chickens to be had, thanks to the weeks of consecutive holidays and Shabbatot. There were, to be fair, frozen trays of pargiyot, the boneless dark chicken that’s really delicious, but kind of expensive. And I knew I had a frozen chicken in my freezer, but it would be a pain to defrost and it’s never a perfect solution to quick-defrost, at least not in my experience.

So I came up with a new plan: Corned beef, braised cabbage and potato kugel, the last item to be purchased. I had a moment of panic when there didn’t appear to be any corned beef in the supermarket freezer, but my butcher friend Suleiman came up with a few from his back freezer. And, to be expected, there were no potato kugels left in the city, really, but that’s a quick item to make at the last minute.

A fast internet search offered some new ways of preparing the corned beef, but I stuck to my tried and true recipe, although I will try this method another week, when I have more time. As for potato kugel, my favorite food blogger, Smitten Kitchen, uses this recipe, and it’s looking good in my oven. Finally, I use my pressure cooker to prepare braised purple cabbage, and I tossed in a leftover quince that I had sitting around, in addition to the green apples called for in the recipe.

It’s Irish eats for us this weekend.

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Foto Friday – The First Israeli Meme

October 21, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art, Blogging, design, Entertainment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, News, Picture of the Week, Pop Culture, tv 

A “meme”, as defined by Webster’s Dictionary, is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” During the past few days, driven by the excitement and euphoria over Gilad Shalit’s release, and too much time on their hands given the long holiday weekend, Israelis took to their computer graphics programs to create the first Israeli meme.

Known as Bibi Bombing, it has been defined by Know Your Meme.com as “an exploitable Photoshop meme that involves placing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu in various pictures that were taken in a moment of happiness, monumental historic events, and pretty much anywhere. The meme is considered by Israelis to be the first original Israeli internet meme.”

Already by Tuesday evening, blogger Gal Mor, who runs the Hebrew-language HolesintheNet.col.il, began posting a gallery of images created by any number of contributors who have been spreading the meme primarily through Facebook.

Mor writes, “In this photo, Bibi appears not only as a leader making history behind the scenes but also documents [his] activities in the field. This unusual image, which itself appears to have been Photoshopped, ignited the creative spark among a number of folks who envisioned Netanyahu as a personage whose life and actions are interwoven with the history of Israel’s people, a sort of Israeli ‘Forest Gump’ or Woody Allen’s ‘Zelig’”.

Mor also refers to Netanyahu as having “pushed himself into the family frame”. This perception is, to large extent, the source of this public bile. The day before the release, on his radio show journalist Yaron Dekel made the unusual request to both Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to forgo the public hoopla, allow Shalit to return home quietly, and pay a visit after a day or two. But keeping politicians away from a photo opp is as impossible as keeping journalists away from a red-hot scoop. (This is the truth about the media game, the childish whines emanating from Israeli journalists towards their Egyptian colleague Shahira Amin notwithstanding).

The images provide insight into the Israeli psyche: many are not complimentary, sore-headed, some are downright nasty, others miss the point. But some are funny, even sweet, presenting the PM as a warm avuncular figure who is smiling with satisfaction at being present before great happiness.

It’s also very likely that the flood will taper down to a trickle within the next few days as the euphoria abates and our very short collective attention span turns to the next item on the public agenda — or we simply go back to work where we can only Photoshop and post crap half the day. That said, here are are few Bibi Bombs.

At the concluding episode of Friends…

At the Last Supper…

On the tarmac with Bogie and Bacall…

This is Sparta?

See more on Know Your Meme

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An Israeli son comes home

October 19, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, News, Social Justice, Travel 

It was one of those surreal days, like during the World Cup when you can hear the games coming out of every window walking down the street. Except this time it wasn’t just a goal at stake, but a human life.

I watched the beginning of the events of the day that IDF soldier Gilad Schalit was released from Hamas imprisonment after almost five and a half years from the cozy confines of my bedroom TV with my wife and one of my sons at around 6:15 am. The three regular TV networks here – Channels 1,2 and 10 provided non-stop coverage and commentary.

Having some errands to do, I dragged myself away from the addicting scenes unfolding (when will Gilad cross from Gaza to Egypt, when will the first photos be shown?) and went to the local mall.

I arrived just in time to join about 30 people crowded in front of a TV at the ice cream parlor in the mall’s central expanse, as we watched that first footage of a pale, thin Schalit being escorted by Hamas and Egyptian handlers to his freedom. There weren’t many comments, aside from an occasional ‘wow’ or a gasp or sigh. We all knew it was a scene that would stick with us for the rest of our lives.

But I had banking to attend to. And when I finished my other errands and returned home, I joined my family (this being Hol Hamoed Succot after all) in driving to the grimy central city of Ramle for a short walkabout its Old City and a (very cool) rowboat ride in a giant Crusader-era giant water cistern.

Walking along the streets after heading back to a recommended hummous restaurant, we stopped at a sidewalk café and watched along with the other patrons the footage of Schalit walking off the helicopter at the Tel Nof Air Force base and being greeted by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who then brought Schalit to a reunion with his father. Again, all eyes riveted, without comment, watching something we hadn’t been convinced would ever happen.

By the time I got to work later in the afternoon, I was able to watch the last part of the journey – Schalit’s homecoming to Mitzpe Hila, where he and his family were greeted by throngs of supporters. It was even better than the World Cup – it was the day Gilad Schalit came home.

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Time for “The Clock”

October 18, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Art 

The Clock at the Israel Museum - closing this weekend

It’s hard to know exactly how to describe “The Clock,” Christian Marclay’s award winning art installation, which is currently on display, if that’s even the right word, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Tour de Force? Spellbinding? Unbelievable? They all come to mind.

The piece, at its most simplistic, consists of thousands of short film clips, all containing images of clocks and watches, or references to time, edited together briskly into a movie. There’s room for about 100 people on comfy 3-person white couches spread about in a dark space in which to watch Marclay’s creation.

But that’s just the start. Each film clip refers to a specific time (it might say 2:42 PM on someone’s digital watch, for example); that time corresponds to the actual time in Jerusalem. And the film runs for 24 hours. Although the museum is only open for some of those hours, there are special days where the exhibition space stays all night for those who can’t tear themselves away.

Which is how my wife and I felt during the 2.5 hours we stared transfixed at the screen. How did he do it? How did he find all of those clips, each with a clock, each showing a specific time? Did Marclay watch thousands of movies? Did he have a staff?

The mix of film clips was equally impressive, zipping seamlessly from 1930s black and white to modern drama and comedy. Robert Redford was a recurring image during our brief encounter. There were scenes of London’s Big Ben repeatedly chiming on the hour, a gagged and bound man watching the timer on a bomb countdown, clips which started out with nothing connected with time when, suddenly, the camera would pan up to show a clock on the wall displaying the appropriate hour.

Marclay uses actual and inserted music to tie the images together; to build tension and release. There are explosions and love scenes, in English, Japanese, French, German and many more language we didn’t hear but were probably coming up once the museum was closed.

The result is not only a meditation on the specific times shown via the clocks on screen, but also about how time has changed the craft of movie making.

There was also the audience, which ebbed and flowed as time passed. Sometimes it was standing room only; at other points we were nearly alone. About half way through, a large group of boisterous Israeli teens filtered in, sitting on the floor, yelling, laughing at scenes that were meant to be serious. My wife and I almost decided to leave – the group had ruined our more pristine viewing of Marclay’s art. But then the group moved on. Time passed so slowly – it seemed like forever while we were suffering these teens’ disrespect. In reality, they were there for less than 10 minutes.

“The Clock” premiered in London in October, 2010, and has since been presented in New York, Los Angeles, Venice, and Moscow. Marclay won the Golden Lion award at the 2011 Venice Biennale, where “The Clock” was featured as the show’s central exhibition.

“The Clock” is one in a string of world-class productions that have graced Israel this year. Another that stands out was the performance of Steve Reich’s Trains earlier this year at the Tower of David museum – I wrote about it here.

The show closes on October 22. The next (and last) all-nighter is tonight, Tuesday, October 18; admission is free after 9:00 PM. Run to see – before time is out.

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Welcome home, Gilad

October 17, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Politics 

We’re all thinking about how it’s going to be for Gilad, the Schalits and the greater Israeli reality over the next few days and months.

It’s astounding to think that it’s been five years since he was captured; and what has happened in that space of time. The Schalits have been in a kind of restrained limelight over the course of the last five years, making themselves and their son a well-known issue, and living a very public existence for the last 15 months, as they dwelled in their sukkah — the tent in front of the prime minister’s residence.

As they went home several days ago, their home became a kind of tourist site; mostly for well-wishers, I would hope, but probably for others as well, who wanted to get a glimpse of this couple, this family that has undergone so much for so long.

And so, this photo of a billboard that is being circulated around Facebook is a good reminder for many of us.


It says: A moment before Gilad gets home!…Let’s all take a step back, and give the family the time they need for healing and reclaiming the life that was taken from them five years ago.

Hear, hear. Wishing the Schalits the most joyous of homecomings, and hopefully a time of peace and respite. That goes for all of us.

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