Afraid to go to sleep – Paranormal Activity hits US cinemas
It’s the surprise hit of the year. Audiences across the US are afraid to go to sleep after watching a horror film made by Israeli filmmaker Oren Peli. The low budget movie reportedly cost just $11,000 to produce, but reviewers are calling it the most scary film ever made. Think Blair Witch Project, only worse.
The movie, Paranormal Activity , was filmed in 2006 over a seven-day period. It was set in Peli’s own suburban tract home with a crew of just three including his then-girlfriend Toni Taylor, and best friend (also Israeli) Amir Zbeda.
The film was released in fewer than 200 theaters, but raked in $7.1 million in one weekend – a record for a limited release film.
The film, about a couple who think their house is haunted, has now been picked up by Paramount Pictures . It bills itself as “the first-ever major film release demanded by you.”
Peli is not your usual blockbuster movie type director. He dropped out of school at 16, to set up his own software company. Three years later he immigrated to the US with Zbeda and began work developing animation and video game programs.
He got the idea for the film when he moved into a new home and found the sudden quiet of suburbia disturbing. The house was new and still settling, and at night he could hear the house shifting and groaning.
He wrote a script, fixed up his house a bit, held a casting session in Hollywood, and hey presto, shot a movie. He edited it on his own home PC, and then submitted it to Screamfest – a boutique festival for cult horror in LA.
The film was released in September with limited late-night showings at just 13 college towns, but the ball started rolling and the film became a web sensation on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Critics also jumped on board giving excellent reviews.
Originally Paramount planned to reshoot the film with better-known actors, but studio heads – including Steven Spielberg – decided it could stand as it was, with only a few tweaks.
Peli is now onto his next movie, a thriller called Area 51, but in the meantime Paramount Pictures releases Paranormal Activity at cinemas across the US on Friday. Get ready for some sleepless nights.
Saying goodbye to Asaf Ramon
Happier times: Asaf and Rona Rimon at his graduation ceremony this summer. Photo by Dudu Greenspan/Flash 90.
No death in the Israeli army is ever taken lightly. This is a place where every father, son, brother, cousin or boyfriend has to serve, but the tragedy of this death, coming just a few years after his father’s, was apparent to all.
In February 2003, an intifada-scarred Israel watched with pride as Ilan Ramon became the first Israeli in space. His progress on the US shuttle Columbia, his reports back home, gave Israel a ray of hope in what was frankly an awful time. Even kids in kindergarten knew of his accomplishments and spoke about him as if he were a national hero.
On re-entry into earth’s atmosphere, the shuttle broke up and Ramon and the rest of the crew were all killed. All that remained of Ramon were a few pages of his diary , which were found two months later in a field – ironically, in the town of Palestine in Texas.
Asaf Ramon was 15 when his father died. He decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, and vowed that one day he too would go into space.
Like his father before him he was a top student, and he completed his flight-training course in the IAF as the best cadet in his class. In his passing out ceremony in July, President Peres gave him his wings.
We still don’t know what happened, or why Asaf Ramon crashed. He was flying at 720km an hour when he lost control of the plane near the Hebron Hills. Was it technical error or pilot error? What is clear is that in Israel this isn’t the personal tragedy of one family, it’s a tragedy for all.
The tributes are pouring in on blog sites everywhere, from Diamond Pilots, which carries a full story of the crash , to Dvir Reznik, who writes on his blog :
“Asaf – I hope you’ll find joy and peace where ever you are, watching over us from high in the clouds, reunited with your father.”
On NASA Watch, readers discuss in awe how a 20-year-old could be flying an F-16.
Unsurprisingly, Ramon’s death has opened up the whole painful argument of whether Israel should allow combat service by sons of bereaved families. At present it requires written consent by the mother, a less than ideal solution as any pressurized mother can vouch.
Back at my home all I could think of was what Rona Ramon went through when officers from the IAF knocked on her door for the second time in six years with the very worst kind of news.
It must be Rosh Hashana time
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness
It must be getting close to Rosh Hashana, because Benji Lovitt over at What War Zone? has posted his annual wacky Rosh Hashana video.
No matter what bad news keeps coming down the pike, from Iranian nuclear capability getting closer to the awful tragedy of the Ramon family, watching earnest Israelis trying to explain the Rosh Hashana custom of eating fish heads to a perplexed Lovitt is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face.
Lovitt, a stand up comedian by profession, did his bit on Sunday at the Second International Jewish Bloggers Convention in Jerusalem, attended by 300 bloggers.
The Nefesh B’Nefesh-organized conference, titled “Uniting the Jewish Community through Social Media,” included eight workshops followed by two panel discussions aimed at advancing Jewish, Zionist and charitable causes.
And it’s evident that one of the best ways to do so is through humor. Laughing at ourselves and allowing others to laugh along, can go a long way to creating an affinity for Israel, or at least let us see things through a little less intense lens that we’re normally viewed around the world.
So enjoy, the clip and let’s all look for the big ball to drop at Rabin Square at midnight on the Jewish New Year.
Israelis love gadgets on Google
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, Business, General, Israeliness, Pop Culture, Technology
Ever wonder what Israelis look for on Google? If you thought it was photos of Bar Refaeli, than you’re only partially right.
According to Google Israel Ltd., Israelis are actually nerds – mostly interested in gadgets. The business site Globes reported Google’s assessment of Israeli behavior on the search engine, which found that we’re particularly interested in the…. global cellular market???
The anticipated arrival of the new iPhone in Israel and the expansion of cellular companies into the music content field with Pelephone’s Musix, Cellcom Israel Ltd. Cellcom Media and Partner Communications Co. Ltd. Orange Time have resulted in a high rate of search for these services, Google Israel media and telecom sector head Nir Korchak told the site.
“Without doubt, the biggest new buzz over the last six months was the much talked-about iPhone. The late launch did not curb the appetite of Israelis for the coveted handset and may even have strengthened it. Searches for it were astronomical and broke all records for handset searches.”
Korchak added, “We can draw conclusions from this about Israeli consumers. He loves gadgets and is quick to take up new technologies, and this trend is expressed in the largest number of searches even before the launch. In other words, the enthusiastic Israeli public sees itself as part of the global village, and does not wait for the local launch to get information about something which is already being sold abroad.”
He said, “The Israeli public uses the search engine at every stage in the purchasing process: from initial interest through searches like ‘critique of Nokia N97 through market surveys, ‘iPhone price comparisons’ and onto the order stage ‘buy mobile phone.’”
According to the study, Israelis also use the search terms ‘loans’ and ‘financing’ alot, but not in ways that characterize an economic crisis – 55% of Israelis looked for a loan to finance a vacation, 25% to renovate their home and only 20% in order to repay debts.
And demonstrating that Israelis aren’t just business minded, there have been two peaks in the last six months for searches for swine flu in both English and Hebrew – the first was after the initial outbreak in Mexico and the second was after the outbreak of the virus in Israel.
Of course, what the survey didn’t indicate was that according my own informal polling, after searching for all of the above topics, 93% of Israeli males also typed in ‘Bar Refaeli photos.’
Foto Friday – A Walk Down Nachalat Binyamin
Filed under: Art, Blogging, Foto Friday, General, Life, Travel, design
Every Tuesday and Friday, there’s a crafts fair on Tel Aviv’s Nachalat Binyamin Street.
There’s no end to the coverage about it, because it is a very good event that has managed to maintain high standards of quality for over a decade and a half — no mean feat, as so many other so-called crafts fairs start out in promising fashion, then sink quickly into a mire of cheap crap from India and China. But the TA municipality keeps close tabs the Nachalat Binyamin artisans and artists, many of whom staff their own booths.
Most visitors pay more attention to the products than the sellers, as is only natural when shopping. And that’s where the photographer’s eye comes in.
Photographer Jessica D. Korman, a recent new immigrant to Israel, took a stroll down Nachalat Binyamin and — aside from snapping shots of the wares for Tchochkes.com, where she is a regular contributor, she also took a look at what goes on around the booths.
Korman, who studied interior design, says she looks for architectural elements wherever she goes, “to present a different view of an object or event.”
“I like photographing everyday scenes,” Korman says, “always looking for a different angle or perspective to the mundane or even the ‘ugly’ side of things.”
A former picture editor for publications such as Scholastic, Star Magazine and Woman’s World Magazine, Korman now works as a Visual Communications Consultant in Jerusalem. “What I love about [photo editing] is that it is the marriage of written content with images. The proper choice of image will enable one’s work to have the greatest impact. Besides, what better job is there than getting to look at pictures all day?”
There’s inspiration everywhere. More of Korman’s work is available on her website, The F Stops Here.
Trying to explain Tel Aviv
Yet another take on the Tel Aviv bubble, this time from the Christian Science Monitor. This time it’s done – both in writing and on video – with insight and knowledge by the CSM’s Josh Mitnick, who knows the city from the inside.
To mark its centennial, Tel Aviv has staged a public tribute heavy on pyrotechnics, as well as a nocturnal citywide block party. It has lured international cultural acts like Italy’s La Scala opera. But its birthday comes at a time when the liberal city seems increasingly out of step with Israel’s shift to the right.
Hanoch Marmary, a former editor at the Haaretz newspaper, says Israelis have a love-hate relationship with the city: “Tel Aviv is an icon. It is a dream. It’s a concept. It symbolizes success, an open life, and hedonism,” he says. “But it also raises feelings of jealousy. On the one hand you want to be part of it, and on the other hand there’s condescension, fear, a recoiling, and jeering” of Tel Aviv.
The debate between what is the ‘real’ Israel will go on for eternity. But it’s undeniable that Tel Aviv certainly represents a valid version of Israel – as valid as the versions represented in Jerusalem yeshivas, West Bank hilltops and drab development towns.
Promoting Israel’s virtues
Filed under: Blogging, General, Holidays, Movies, Pop Culture, Travel
A promo for 'Men of Israel' (Courtesy Lucas Films)
The imminent release of Men of Israel, an adult X-rated film featuring explicit gay sex, is being touted by New York-based director Michael Lucas as a landmark – the first gay porno film to feature an ‘all-Israeli’ cast. Hurray for the blue and white!
According to a story in The Tablet, Lucas’s web site calls the film “a bold move to promote Israeli culture and tourism,” and extols extols the gay-friendly virtues of a country rich with natural wonders, intriguing museums, liberal politics, and friendly locals.
With names like Morr Foxx, Matan Shalev, Avi Dar, and Naor Tal, the actors in Men of Israel certainly expose a side of Israel that hasn’t yet been exploited in the hasbara wars. The Tablet story, by Wayne Hoffman, focuses on a few of the Jewish porn stars who have thrived in straight adult films, and mentions the short-lived film career of New York Israeli Consulate worker Dror Barak, who appeared in films for Raging Stallion Studios under the name Roman Ragazzi.
Whether it marks a trend in the future of promoting Israel, or whether our shores will be swamped with gay tourists from around the world as a result of Men in Israel remains to be seen. But maybe if the haredim hear about it, they’ll forget about the parking lot for a few weeks.
Comedy of Israeli errors
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture
Raised in the metro Washington, DC area, Daniella Ashkenazy (pictured) has been living in Israel for over 40 years and working as a journalist for about half of that time., currently covering the environmental beat for The Jerusalem Post’s weekend Metro section.
Launched a few months ago, Ashkenazy’s Chelm-on-the-Med website is an ever-growing collection if local soft news items – those curious, often humorous stories that would sound like they are urban legends if they weren’t in the mainstream news media.
Among Chelm-on-the-Med’s gems are the tale of a farmer who used his LoJack–like car theft recovery device to recover bales of hay that had been stolen from him, a Knesset proposal to combat the ever-lowering water levels of the Dead Sea by importing water from Turkey, and a Hassidic man who proposed throwing books of Psalms at enemy entities as a poetic response to falling rockets (because in Hebrew, the word for missiles, Tillim, is similar to the word for Psalms, Tehillim).
Chelm-on-the-Med’s beat is relatively similar to ISRAELITY’s in that both sites attempt to take Israeli life out of the realm of hard news and into the realm of real life. As Ashkenazy puts it in her FAQ….
Beyond life and death issues, Israel is an outrageously amusing and lively place to live, and it’s strange that Jews, famous for their humor from Charlie Chaplin to Seinfeld, haven’t a clue about the humorous side of Israeli life.
She also sees the site as a useful tool for spreading a positive image of the country, especially among Diaspora youth:
A lot of things that make some adults uncomfortable will be viewed as very cool by adolescents. In fact, I think the zany, irreverent intriguing encounter with Israel that Chelm-on-the-Med offers will make Jewish kids think Israel is a very neat place – a vast improvement from the image of a gloomy and dangerous…and yes, dead serious and humorless ‘tight-ass’ country that focus groups have found.
Although the site is relatively new, the concept is not. In the late Eighties, Ashkenazy launched the column under the moniker “Gleanings” in the now-defunct Israel Scene magazine, and it has run in a variety of additional publications under other names as well.
Foto Friday – David Shankbone’s Jerusalem
Filed under: Art, Blogging, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture
David Shankbone is a photographer, writer and vice-president of non-profit organization Wikimedia New York City, Inc. He has also, for the last three years, engaged in a public art project on Wikipedia, in which he has released all his photography on topics ranging from landscapes and cityscapes to celebrity portraits, for the public to use. As Shankbone puts it, “I set out on a project to create a body of high-resolution work whose copyright allowed the public to reproduce it, even alter it, without my permission. Even for commercial purposes, as long as nobody’s personality rights are violated.”
“The totality of the work is a documentation of human existence” states Shankbone, who has photographed everything “from subway stations to Kanye West; from Madison Avenue to Madonna; from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to the hills of southern Lebanon.” And, as of this past March, Israel, where he was invited as a guest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For his project, Shankbone snapped pictures of Jerusalem that are illustrative…
and poetic…
…ranging from the Old City…
…to the New…
…the past — and possibly the future!
Shankbone’s Wikipedia work is an amazing resource, giving users the benefit of being able to use work from a photographer who is both skilled technically, and an artist in terms of effect and composition.
They can also benefit from his news-savvy. On Wikinews, which is Wikipedia’s news arm, Shankbone has posted over 40 interviews with global cultural leaders. A story about the project entitled, “Why Shimon Peres sat down with David Shankbone” is definitely worth a read as it explains a bit about his history and the project.
Israel Independence Day
Filed under: Blogging, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life
Benji and hummous -two Israeli institutions
As the smells of barbecued meats permeate the country, let’s keep in mind what’s special about Israel – besides everyone barbecuing on Yom Ha’atazmaut.
One of the funniest – and most astute – lists has been written by Israelity contributor and stand up comedian par excellance Benji Lovitt – You can read the whole list of ‘61 More Things I Love About Israel’ here.
But a few of my favorites are:
31. I love that my cab driver offered me a peach and that I accepted it. That will happen in America when falafel balls fly.
43. I love words like “teetchadesh” that neither exist nor make sense in the English language. “Wow, cool shirt! Enjoy using your new thing!” Nice try.
57. I love the superhuman Israeli hearing which allows them to pick up the “beep beep beep” of the news even while someone is using a jackhammer three feet away.
Whatever way you celebrate Israel Independence Day, may your celebration be joyous.
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