Power, one of the most respected indie rockers over the last 15 years, was scheduled to perform for the first time in Israel on Sunday night at Reading 3 in Tel Aviv. However, on Thursday, the singer, whose real name is Chan Marshall, posted a message on her Facebook account expressing a change of heart.

“Due to much confusion in my soul, playing for my Israeli fans w/such unrest between Israel and Palestine I can’t play, as I feel sick in my spirit. XX,” she wrote.
She also tweeted: “Music is healing and it is not humane if all cannot have the choice, the right, to attend,” apparently referring to Palestinians who would not be able to travel to Tel Aviv to see the show. The announcement came after Power had tweeted earlier in the week asking her fans to “find a show in Ramallah… for the people of Palestine”.

So what’s wrong with this picture? Does Cat Power actually think there are Palestinians in Ramallah – or anywhere else – who would come out to see her in concert? Even Paul McCartney and Leonard Cohen realized that there’s not enough of an audience for Western music among our neighbors, and they found other ways to show their solidarity for the plight of the innocent members of Palestinian society affected by the situation, whether you believe it’s caused by Israel or by their own leadership. McCartney visited a Palestinian music school and Cohen donated the proceeds from his concert to a fund for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

With a little thought, Cat Power could have come up with something to ease her pained conscience. Ironically, as a friend pointed out on Facebook, the night before her decision to cancel, she performed in Turkey, the same day that Turkish troops killed 13 Kurdish rebels who have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast since 1984.

I guess Elton John wasn’t right when he defiantly roared from the stage at Ramat Gan Stadium in 2010 that musicians “don’t cherry pick our conscience” over where to perform. Cat Power seems to do it just fine.

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My eldest son asked me what “that noise” was. My youngest son said “is that music?” Fortunately my daughter said nothing (which means she did not hate it).

Feeling defeat, I slid a ‘Mozart for the Young’ CD into the slot instead. The little ones started to dance – a sign they approved.

My mother – a great fan of classical music – would be delighted to know that her grandchildren in Israel prefer Mozart to Madonna, Bach to Blur.

Then again, I suppose I’m partially to blame.

You see, when we go to concerts with the kids we prefer a quality performance to the nonsense often served up to toddlers.

My two older children (twins aged 4.5) adore Magical Sounds at the Israeli Opera. Actress Nitza Shaul introduces little ones to the lives of the great composers in a sort of combination play-concert-opera. She is mesmerizing, captivating and interesting.

My kids role-play the classical masters long after we see the shows.

Nitza Shaul dedicates a performance to Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. (Photo: Yossi Tsevker)

After hosting Bach, Mozart and Beethoven in her studio, Shaul is set to launch a production dedicated to Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian (March 6-8), in the theme of Purim, at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv.

The Israel Stage Orchestra (ISO) is another adult-oriented company that has taken it upon itself to attract the future generation of classical music lovers.

In its current production, The Four Seasons and One Sheep (Feb. 18, 21), the ISO tells the story of Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi with a twist.

The music takes center stage but the ISO adds a story of a sheep to the production which helps the young audience identify the different seasons in the music based on what the sheep encounters. At first my children were a bit frightened by the sheep’s Commedia Dell’Arte theater mask but soon got used to it.

To “put the higher arts in first place, one has to make an effort, and to combine them,” ISO musical director Roni Porat said in the past. “I have no problem with the audience being entertained a little along the way, if the goal is listening to good music.”

The Four Seasons and One Sheep at the ISO.

Indeed, my children liked watching the sheep’s antics on stage but when we came home they were imitating the violinists.

I know there’s nothing wrong with raising classical music devotees, but I wouldn’t mind if they’d let me listen to my music as well.

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Madonna performing in Tel Aviv in 2009 with an Israeli flag draped over her.

The Material Girl, who provided a spectacle-filled half time show for attendees and viewers of the Super Bowl on Sunday night, scored her own Hebrew touchdown this week when she announced that her mega-tour to promote her new album MDNA would kick off on May 29 at Ramat Gan Stadium.

In a press conference, Israeli promoter Shuki Weiss disclosed that the 54-year-old cultural icon will arrive in Israel two weeks before the concert, accompanied by an entourage of more than 300 people, to carry out intensive rehearsals for the show.

And since debuts of world tours of someone of Madonna’s caliber are international news events, hundreds of foreign entertainment journalists are expected to descend on the country.

This provides an amazing PR opportunity for Israel to gain worldwide exposure for a news event that has nothing to do with the things we’re usually in the news for: Iran, Palestinians, Hezbollah, separate seating for men and women, or any other of the issues that the foreign media tends to focus on when Israel is the topic.

How cool is it that instead of more of the same, this time we’re going to be seen hand in hand with the world debut of Madonna’s show that is going to travel to over 50 other cities in the world and probably one of the biggest-grossing tours of the year. While it may be a coincidence that the tour is starting in Israel, Madonna’s past indicates that she’s developed a real affinity for the country and its people ever since she performed here for the first time in 1999 at Hayarkon Park.

Since then, she’s returned a number of times for event as the Kabbala Center in Tel Aviv, and in September, 2009, she closed her Sticky & Sweet tour back at Hayarkon Park with two shows.

“It isn’t even a regular visit anymore when she comes,” Weiss said at the press conference on Tuesday. “It’s as if she is the process of making aliya.”

What he probably meant was that Madonna likely feels comfortable with the country and its lifestyle to the extent that she decided to use it as a base for two weeks ahead of the tour’s opening.

“Every time I come here, I get so supercharged with energy,” she said onstage in 2009. “I truly believe that Israel is the energy center of the world. And I also believe that if we can all live together in harmony in this place, then we can live in peace all over the world.”

By choosing to open her tour here and bringing the world’s focus to our small country, Madonna is doing a great service in promoting the above ideals and spreading the word that what we have here is indeed the energy center of the world, and proving that in addition to whatever other monikors that she’s had hoisted upon her, there’s one more that fits her to a T: Zionist.

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Baby in Bamba

Her sidebar of French lessons includes:

Children should say hello, goodbye, thank you and please. It helps them to learn that they aren’t the only ones with feelings and needs.
When they misbehave, give them the “big eyes”—a stern look of admonishment.
Allow only one snack a day. In France, it’s at 4 or 4:30.
Remind them (and yourself) who’s the boss. French parents say, “It’s me who decides.”
Don’t be afraid to say “no.” Kids have to learn how to cope with some frustration.

I chuckled as I read this, because as an American mother in a foreignish land — Druckerman is an American living in Paris — I think about this all the time, wondering if my kids will turn out differently than their American counterparts, or if they’re already different, which they probably are. And if that’s a good thing, or a bad thing.

So if I were to look at that list and the general tendencies of Israeli kids, I’d say the following:
1) They know to say hello, not so great at goodbye, thank you when prompted and please, well, it depends.
2) Big eyes on misbehaving? Interesting idea, but I am Jewish, and, now, Israeli. Yelling comes naturally.
3) One snack a day? Lol. This is Israel, where snacks are built-in to the educational system. Moreover, parents think nothing of putting raspberry-flavored water in their bottles, chocolate spread sandwiches for lunch and Bamba for snacks.
4) Who’s the boss? Oh, they know. I think.
5) Saying no. That, I agree with. Just gotta be brave.

So, I would venture to say that the French rules of thumb make sense, but you know, so much depends on where you live and what’s going on around you. This is a land that worships children, where every kind of restaurant has highchairs and people schlep their kids everywhere. Do Israelis spoil their children because they know they’ll be going into the army in 18 years? I’m not quite sure, but I’d be happy to hear from anyone out here.

Comment away.

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After consecutive weeks of rainy weekends, Israelis flocked outdoors this weekend to feel the nature.

Several went to the beach. Some headed north to the Galilee and Golan Heights. But based on the traffic jams we encountered, the majority went to the North Negev to the Red South Anemone Festival.

Red South Anemone Festival (Photo: Viva Sarah Press)

With cameras at the ready you could hear “cheese” in just about every language.

The Anemone Festival is my favorite event of the year – and it takes place every weekend in February. These little red flowers carpet the northern Negev area (and can usually be found in the western part as well) and make getting in touch with nature all the more fun.

There are hiking options, biking routes, four-by-four tracks, guided tours and cultural activities.

Our group opted for just sitting down and enjoying a picnic. Our kids loved running and jumping among the flowers.

Jumping over anemones at Red South festival. (Photo: Viva Sarah Press)

And though there were thousands of other families at each field we visited, the flowers managed to keep the spotlight. It truly was a great day out.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s the case anyway with the current TV ad campaign by cable provider HOT, which is promoting its ‘on-demand’ epidsodes of the popular spy-comedy show ‘Asfur’ by offering a free Samsung Galaxy tablet as enticement for prospective customers to sign up for the on-demand package.

In the ad, a bored Mossad agent stationed in Iran, apparently to monitor Iran’s nuclear development, meets up with three characters from the show who are also clandestinely in the country dressed as women. Sitting in a café, the agent shows off the Samsung Galaxy, explaining that he used his downtime to use the on-demand option to watch episodes of ‘Asfur.’

At the end of the clip, one of the three Asfur accidentally pushes an application on the tablet over the frantic efforts of the agent, and a nuclear reactor is detonated in the background.

Typical Israeli sophomoric, whistling in the dark, hilarious humor. But evidently neither Iran nor Samsung are seeing the levity in it. According to a report in The Jerusalem Post sourcing Iran’s Press TV, Arsalan Fat’hipour, who heads the Iranian parliament’s energy committee, said over the weekend that Tehran was considering imposing a complete ban on buying all Samsung products. And, of course, they’ll probably aim their first operational nuke at the HOT corporate offices.

Meanwhile Samsung issued a statement saying, “Samsung Electronics is aware of a recent news report in Iranian media regarding an advertisement aired by HOT cable network of Israel. This advertisement was produced by HOT cable network without Samsung’s knowledge or participation… As a member of the global community, Samsung is committed to demonstrating respect for all people and cultures around the globe.”

The question is, how did Iran know that HOT was even airing the ads? Do they have spy here who subscribes to the company’s ‘Three-in-one” cable/Internet/phone service? If so, I hope they’re just as frustrated as the rest of us at having ‘You, Me & Dupree’ screening a million times a month on its movie channels. But I also hope he doesn’t have an itchy trigger finger.

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Ben and Jerry's Israel ad for their ice cream club

In fact, when I typed ice cream for breakfast into the search bar of Facebook, dozens of posts popped up for celebrants around the globe, from Mexico, Seattle, Louisiana and Philly to Maine, Albany and Shanghai.

According to Serious Eats, all you need to do is eat ice cream, for breakfast, and on the first Saturday in February.

We’ve always celebrated on Saturday, Shabbat in our house, which is the only day that we’re all around, fairly calm and relaxed, and have the time to enjoy the wonders of ice cream for one’s first food of the day. Usually it’s a good selection of Ben & Jerry’s, sometimes with homemade ice cream as well, thanks to my nephew Natan, the artisanal ice cream connoisseur. Toppings? Not always, but it does add to the experience.

Serious Eats also adds that “the holiday was started in the 1960s in Rochester, New York by Florence Rappaport, who let her kids eat ice cream for breakfast on the first Saturday of February to make winter more bearable for them. Now this custom is done all over the world, from Minnesota to Israel to Australia.”

Turns out, there’s an official IEICFBD blog, where you can list your own celebration — there are four in Israel, including one in my own neighborhood of Talpiot (I think that one is hosted by other neighbors of ours) and one down at Kibbutz Ketura, where given the hot weather nearly year-round and a surfeit of American-born kibbutzniks, they’ve been celebrating for some 30 years.

It comes down to the fact that you just need to celebrate sometimes, and even with the upcoming holiday of Tu B’shvat, which, lord knows, offers ample opportunity for celebration, February can be a bleak month. So, if you missed it today, go for it next week. We won’t tell.

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So, in a refreshing change of pace, one of the first Israeli singers in English – Yael Deckelbaum – is bucking the trend and has just released her first exclusively Hebrew-language CD, Joy and Sadness.

A long-time fixture on the Israeli-Anglo club and festival circuit, Deckelbaum combines the folkie elements of Joni Mitchell and the bluesy wail of Janis Joplin into a cohesive whole. She’s the daughter of the late David Deckelbaum, who immigrated to Israel from Canada as a youngster and with his banjo led the bawdy folk/country/Irish Jerusalem legends The Taverners throughout the 1970s and 80. That’s where young Yael learned about music, and not even into her teens, she was joining her father onstage at The Jacob’s Ladder Folk Festival – Israel’s annual version of Woodstock.

By her early 20s, she stepped into the solo spotlight, and has been a live mainstay on Israeli stages – becoming even more well-known when she joined up with singers Karolina and Dana Adini to form the vocal trio Habanot Nechama.

After releasing her debut solo album in 2009 called Ground Zero, Deckelbaum began focusing on writing songs in Hebrew – her actual native tongue. And the result is Joy and Sadness, featuring a poignant photo of a young Deckelbaum riding on the shoulders of her father.

She promises she hasn’t abandoned writing and performing in English, and when she takes the stage for the album’s debut this month in Tel Aviv, she’ll be bi-lingual, and backed by two different bands – her own and special guests Mashina.

Whatever language Deckelbaum sings in, it seems to come out magic.

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Kishkashta and Shpitzik - separated at birth?

On one side we have Kishkashta, the thorny singing star of Israeli Educational TV’s children’s broadcasts for over 30 years. And on the other side is Shpitzkik, the spiky sabra mascot designed for the Israel Olympic Committee and the team of athletes headed to the Olympics this year.

IET has filed a motion with the Tel Aviv District Court to prevent the IOC from using Shpitzik because they say the two mutant sabras are too similar in appearance.

This case is actually being covered, and while not as urgent as the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, it is causing nail biting and nervousness among cartoon plant life around the country.

According to a report in The Jerusalem Post, Kishkashta made his first TV appearances in the 1970s, as part of the children’s show Ma Pit’om! (“What on Earth!”), and became known for his deep, somewhat lugubrious voice and signature song “They call me Kishkashta.”

In December, the IOC chose Shpitzik, a jaunty cactus clad in Israel’s official Olympic strip, as the mascot that will accompany the Israeli delegation to the London 2012 Olympic Games later this year.

The case is in court now, and our wise judicial sages will undoubtedly and down a just ruling. Sabras everywhere are bristling waiting for the answer. But in my mind, you can’t beat Kishkashta’s talent.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Monty: before

At first glance, it looks like any other veterinarian’s office. Pictures of dogs and cats on the walls, efficient and busy animal doctors flitting around in blue cotton smocks. But the pets coming this morning to the Jerusalem Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (JSPCA) in Jerusalem’s Talpiot Industrial Zone all had one thing in common: they were about to get snipped.

That’s because the JSPCA specializes in sterilization: spaying for females, neutering for males. It also has the lowest price in town, NIS 438, a good 25% less than our regular vet. You can get the job done for even cheaper if you want to schlep out to Atarot – only NIS 300. The Atarot facility also doubles as a rescue shelter.

The animal in question was our Maltese, Monty. “But he’s just a puppy,” the kids cried out when we told them of our plan to introduce Monty to the joys of sexual ambiguity. The kids were right about his age: Monty’s one-year birthday is coming up at the end of February. And there is a school of thought – dismissed by all the best selling dog trainers in their books – that a male dog should have the chance once in his life to copulate, while girl dogs should have at least one litter.

The problem is that the offspring of those unions more often than not end up at the pound where they’re likely to be put down. So, letting your dog sow his wild oats could be a death sentence for the resulting puppies.

For male dogs there are even better reasons. High testosterone levels lead to a greater chance of testicular cancer. Males also have a tendency of charging into the street to chase females in heat, another potentially fatal move. Plus neutering makes dogs less aggressive. The best age to neuter, the experts say, is between 5-7 months. Protestations from the children aside, our mind was made up.

Still, I was a bit put off by the vet’s first words to me. “He’s here for a castration?” he said in wobbly English. “Well, we prefer to call it ‘neutering,’” I replied somewhat testily (must have been the testosterone). “But he’s so young,” the doctor then added. Hey – are you reading the same books I am, dude?

“He should be done after noon. We’ll call you.”

A few hours later, we picked Monty up. He barely acknowledged us; the anesthesia was still wearing off. For the next couple of days, he dragged around the house looking pained, both physically and undoubtedly broken hearted for the breech of trust (OK, he’s a dog, he probably just didn’t feel well).

But then I had a thought. What about the royal eunuchs who worked the palaces in days gone by? Perhaps there might still be a bright future for Monty serving in the court of a golden retriever or a greyhound. In some cases, less could very well be more.

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