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Foto Friday – Edward Kaprov helps splice the ends

Splicing the Ends is the name of a new art exhibition that opens next week, November 28th, at the Amiad Center in Old Jaffa. Over the past two years, Amiad has emerged as a unique center for the arts in Jaffa’s newly revived Flea Market area, now a hot nightlife spot for Tel Aviv’s young bohemian set.

According to the organizers, the exhibit celebrates the winter season festivals for the three major monotheistic religions — Hannuka, Christmas and Eid ul Fitr — by “telling the story of mankind through the different religions… exploring the themes of immigration, living as an individual and as part of a community, and how one relates to oneself and to one’s environment.”

The show features works by over 30 painters, sculptors and photographers , including Edward Kaprov. A veteran immigrant to Israel from the former Soviet Union, Kaprov has worked with Israel’s biggest newspapers including business daily Globes, Haaretz and Yedioth Aharonot. His features have been published by National Geographic, GEO, and Russian Newsweek as well as other publications.

His work on display in “Splicing the Ends” deals with how religion informs day-to-day life in Israel, whether in the army…

…at a soup kitchen for hungry children…

…motivating political protest…

Kaprov’s work ranges from news and commercial photography to personal projects, including a series on Shamanism in Israel.

Splicing the Ends runs from November 28 through December 21 at the Amiad Center. A portion of the proceeds from the exhibit will go to ILAN, Israel’s Foundation for the Handicapped.

TIME cites Israeli for creating ‘new art form’

We wrote about him back in March and now the rest of the world is catching on. One of the top 50 inventions of 2009, according to TIME magazine is the music video montage Web site created by Israeli musicians Ophir Kutiel, who goes by the name Kutiman.

Kutiel’s site, thru-you.com, has atttracted more than seven million viewers with its striking remixes of video clips by amateur musicians from YouTube. TIME called the work “video jams of amazing funkiness, in the process creating an all-new art form.”

Kutiman takes YouTube footage of people giving gear demos and lessons on how to play certain riffs and combines them into incredibily cohesive and soulful songs. Hailed as the “psychedelic funk architect” Kutiman brings UGC (Users Generated Content) to the next level.

According to his record company NMC, Kutiman sat in his bedroom studio and watched and sorted thousands of music videos uploaded to YouTube by mostly anonymous users. Kutiman chose around a 100 of these videos – made by users from all around the world, featuring both musical instruments, vocals, toys and other surprising artifacts, and fused them together into Thru You. Using only materials found on YouTube, not playing a single note himself, Kutiman’s Thru You is a 21st century version of Found Art.

On an inventions list consisting of primarily gadgets and technology, Kutiman’s Thru You is certainly striking an appealing chord.

Nostalgia Sunday – Old ads are more fun

If we are to learn anything from Mad Men, it’s that advertisements are most fun and best viewed in retrospect. We look back in “What were they thinking?” wonderment at the positioning of certain products. For example, here’s a slideshow of Israeli advertisements from yesteryear – including one for Osem’s Bamba as a crispy late-night party snack – a far cry from it’s primary role today as the ultimate teething toy.

Or this one, for Elite powdered instant coffee. Although it employs a completely archaic production method, “Cafe Ness” is still being consumed happily by millions. Or thousands. Or at least by me.

Here’s something you don’t see every day – an advertisement for cigarettes! With actual smoking!

And to close, an ad featuring the Yarkon Bridge Trio (Shlishiyat Gesher HaYarkon) — Benny Amdursky, Yehoram Gaon and Arik Einstein racing around town and touting the wonders of Tadiran’s new-fangled electronic devices.

As you watch, bear this in mind: TV in Israel was black & white until 1980, broadcasting was limited to one commercial-free station until 1993 and ads were shown only in movie houses.

A free offer that’s too free

It happens every year at this time like clockwork. I get a call from a “private number” according to my phone’s caller ID. I answer, expecting to hear a plea for funding from a new charity. Instead, it’s the Haaretz newspaper offering me a free gift: a two-week trial of the English print edition of the paper along with the International Herald Tribune.

How can I resist? Never mind the fact that virtually the entire daily and weekend Haaretz is online and I can (and do) read it regularly, and that by having the paper delivered to my door I am contributing to who knows how many extra trees that must necessarily be felled because of my greedy acceptance.

Still, growing up in a newspaper family (my father worked as a reporter for The San Francisco Examiner for 35 years), there is nothing like the feel of fresh newsprint at the breakfast table (and later in slightly less fragrant parts of the house).

We subscribed to both the morning and afternoon papers, which turned out to be somewhat of a problem as I felt compelled to clip out any and all articles of interest. Several years ago, when my parents moved to a retirement community, leaving the home in which I grew up, I had to wade through the 31 boxes of “stuff” I’d stored in my old bedroom. A majority of those boxes were filled with my obsessive newspaper snips.

My kids will never have the same “opportunity” to take scissors to paper. Within a few years, publications will be online only (you think it will take longer…bookmark this article and read it again in 2015). As a result, anything even vaguely resembling the current newspaper form factor will be consumed on a portable reading device like the large screen Amazon Kindle or the upcoming “Que” from Plastic Logic. My 31 boxes of data could fit on a generously sized disk-on-key.

When my two-week free trial of Haaretz ended this week, I waited for the inevitable follow up call. But it never came. In fact, the nice salesman who made the offer in the first place didn’t call last year, or the year before either.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the point of freebies to hook the recipient into purchasing something they really don’t’t need? Perhaps Haaretz isn’t bound by the natural laws of marketing. Is it possible that the newspaper was truly giving me a thoughtful gift out of the goodness of its icy corporate heart?

You want to know the most ironic part of the story? After two weeks, I was feeling like I might actually enjoy a daily subscription! Oh well, back to the Internet where the bytes still roam free.

Music downloads? Israel goes CD retro

As more and more people are downloading music on the Web and choosing Ipods over CD players, where can you find the good, old fashioned mega-CD stores? In Israel!

True, Tower Records has taken a hit here, with its Jerusalem flagship store closing down last year, but instead of throwing in the flag, other outlets have taken up the slack.

Whenever I’m in Tel Aviv – like yesterday – I try and make it over to the Ozen Hashlishi (Third Ear) on King George St. It’s the closest you can get in Israel to imagining you’re at one of those sprawling vintage CD/vinyl shops in the Village in New York, where the clerks wear Black Flag t-shirts and look like they’d just as soon stab you as take your money.

Tons of used and new CDs, vinyl, DVDs, books, featuring ample sections of niche music like ‘Israeli indie’ and ’60s Psychedelic,’ the Ozen is one of the few places you can pick up a copy Television’s landmark Marquee Moon CD – and at a bargain price. They’ve also got a club which at night hosts eclectic Israeli rockers for intimate unplugged chats with fans.

But Tel Aviv doesn’t corner the whole market for the discerning music lover. In the nation’s capital, Hatav Hashmini, a music store that began more than a decade ago by importing CDs at cheap prices and has since grown into a massive chain with its own music label, recently opened a massive, 340-square-meter store. They claim it’s the largest music CD and DVD store in Israel.

According to a report in The Jerusalem Post, the store features ten listening stations that allow visitors to sample virtually any CD in the store, one of them in a room dedicated entirely to classical music and opera.

During the grand opening last Thursday, Hatav Hashmini’s stated commitment to “music you can hold in your hands,” as opposed to downloadable MP3 files, was in strong evidence, as several big names on the label’s roster assembled for brief impromptu concerts.

Hatav Hashmini’s label boasts such artists as pop performers Micha Sheetrit, David Broza and Shlomo Gronich, as well as jazz saxophonist Danny Zamir. The store promises to host its artists for small-scale performances in the future. The venue is certainly spacious enough.

While it’s unlikely to replace the Ozen in my heart as THE place to shop for music in Israel, I’ll be certainly giving Hatav Hashmini every chance to prove itself in the coming months.

Emma Shapplin crashes and burns in Haifa

Usually, when touring musical acts make their way to Israel, they rise to the occasion and put on a stellar show. Just look at Paul McCartney, Faith No More, Leonard Cohen – despite the lofty price tags, they delivered with consumately professional concerts that left audiences thrilled.

But there’s another kind of concert thrill – the train wreck. Even more surprising is the train conductor in this case – French pop soprano Emma Shapplin, who launched a world tour last week with two shows, in Haifa and Tel Aviv.

Now we’re not talking about someone who you’d expect to be erratic, like grungy Pete Doherty. Shapplin has a distinguished track record of dazzling performances featuring spine-tingling vocals. Her 2003 show in Caesarea was so outstanding that she released it as a live album and DVD.

However, she’s had a few years between albums, and when I talked to her a few weeks ago, she seemed somewhat hesitant about rushing out to perform her new album Macadam Flower ahead of time.

“When we received the offer to do these two shows, I thought, ‘well, it’s a bit premature. The album isn’t finished yet, we haven’t started rehearsing,’” she said.

It turns out that Shapplin’s apprehensions were well justified. According to a review in The Jerusalem Post of the first night’s show by my colleague, Amanda Borschel-Dan, Shappelin was like a deer in the headlights.

Aside from obvious technical difficulties with microphones, etc., Shapplin was confused, forgetting words and musical phrases, once to the point of restarting a number twice and waving away the accompanist who was playing “a different arrangement… why did Shapplin decide to perform a series of classical soprano arias when she was obviously under-prepared?

While the concert-goers were justifiably unsatisfied with the performance, I found myself thinking that it was refreshing to see someone screw up in public. We’re so conditioned to perfection that any blemishes are considered to be horrible miscues and an affront to art. On the contrary, false starts, flubbed cues, and unreached notes are performance art at its most riveting.

Shapplin may have had an off night, or maybe she’s fallen off of her pedestal and is just showing her humanity. Rather than booing her, audiences should be embracing her flaws as well as her talent.

Israel gets its newest celebrity visitor

We get a lot of celebrity visitors to Israel. Bill Clinton, George Bush, the Dalai Lama, Madonna
, Leonardo DiCaprio, Grover from Sesame Street – you name it, the great and glorious come here. It’s a field day for the press, who follow their every move in Israel, trying to get that one great shot of Madonna at the Western Wall, or the Dalai Lama at Temple Mount.

The newest celebrity visitor to our shores, however, crept in without the slightest bit of press hoo ha, making surprise visits to a number of top Israeli hot spots without causing any kind of media stir or even extra security. It’s Alpha Rex, the Lego Mindstorms robot. Yes, you heard it here first.

As part of Lego’s 10th anniversary for its Mindstorms robot line, the company sent out two of its Alpha Rex humanoid robots to cross the globe.

The sturdy little robots left the FIRST World Championship in Atlanta in the US in April 2008 and have been travelling every since. One headed off to tour the US, and the other – clearly more adventurous – headed west to Japan, taking in Europe, Australia, Canada, Egypt, India, China, the South Pole, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, Iceland etc. etc. etc. along the way.

They aren’t alone of course. Lego employees, fans and business associates have guided them on their long, difficult and sometimes lonely journeys, taking snaps of them at their destinations.

Now it’s the turn of Israel, where Alpha Rex along with his human guide, David Schilling, got to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Sea of Galilee, enjoying some occasionally autumnal weather on the way

It’s not the end of Alpha Rex’s global endeavor. He’s still got quite a few countries to go – including Greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia (hope the Israeli authorities didn’t stamp his passport), and Argentina to name a few.

At the end of it, the Lego team plan to make a screensaver showing all the places he visited. They should also consider setting it to music and putting it on Youtube. It worked for Matt Harding after all.

So what did Alpha Rex think of Israel? Wasn’t it the best place he visited? Does he plan to come here again? He declined to answer.

Nostalgia Sunday – Take a Hike, Alte Zachen!

It’s the end of an era. Ynet News reported today that following six-year struggle, Tel Aviv has become the first city in Israel to prohibit the entry of horse-drawn carriages into its territory.” That phrase, “horse-drawn carriages” is a pretty euphemism for the age-old Jewish profession of dealing in rags, bones and bottles. In other words, alte zachen. (The phrase is used universally even though for most Israelis in the trade it is about the only Yiddish word they will ever know).

According to Ynet, “The Tel Aviv Municipality and the Ministry of Transportation recently completed the posting of 23 road signs across the city’s southern entry routes which ban the entry of horses. The step completes a six-year long struggle to remove metal traders and junk peddlers from the city, who do their business using horse-drawn carriages.” So, no more surrealistic traffic jams like this:

“Attorney Reuven Ladiansky, who was elected as a Tel Aviv Municipality representative a year ago together with his Latet Lihyot (Let Live) movement, led the campaign against horse labor in the city. He was joined by Councilman Dr. Moshe Tiomkin, who acts as head of the municipality’s Transport & Parking Authority.”

Kindness to animals is a value in which I believe – and trust me, legislation of this sort was necessary as the horses working in the service of the local rag n’ bone men never seemed to be the happiest of creatures. Nonetheless, part of me will miss the clash of images that was so emblematic of this country: modern 20th and 21st century electronics being transported by ancient means.

It’s also unclear how the Tel Aviv ban can possibly affect animal-drawn carriage use everywhere else in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, where beasts of burden have traditionally been, well… just that. It looks like organizations like Latet Lihyot, Hakol Chai and Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holyland will still have plenty of work to do.

Hang the blessed DJ

Israelis are not only making their mark in world high tech and science. We also know how to boogie… or whatever people do when that electro-trance jackhammer stuff is playing.

British dance music bible DJMag knows what to call it, and being the experts they are, their readers recently came out with its ‘Top 100 DJs’ list, and there are six Israelis on it! No British boycott of Israel going on here.

Just in case you care, the top three DJs in the world are Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, and David Gueta. But our interest piqued already by the number 12 slot, awarded to Israel’s very own Infected Mushroom.

According to the magazine, the long-time duo – Erez Aizen and Amit Duvdevani – are the most likely to cross over to the mainstream, thanks to their album ‘Legend of the Black Shawarma’, which featured vocal contributions from Perry Farrell of iconic rock band Jane’s Addiction.

“We are continuing to play the Infected sound, which is continually evolving and building,” Amit explains. “‘Legend of the Black Shawarma’ was almost three years in the making and it encompasses rock, trance, breaks, psychedelic and many more styles,” he says.

Stopping in a number 43 was Ofer Nissim, the Tel Aviv-based DJ who helped bring Dana International to stardom. Besides a residency at the club Forever, Nissim has earned a worldwide reputation for performing at gay pride parades that take place across the globe.

“This year I’ve been finishing a double album with Mya Siman Tov, a singer songwriter. I also did a remix for Whitney Houston, which was very special,” he says of the latest in a long line of high profile collaborations that include Barbara Streisand and Christina Aguilera.

To see the complete list of the top 100 DJs and who the other four Israelis are, check out DJmag.

Here’s a clip of Infected Mushroom performing at a festival in Rio.

Tel Aviv battle of the bands

It was an opening line that did not forebode well.

“You picked an interesting night. Almost all the entries are metal,” said Bryan Steiner, greeting me at the bar of the Barby club in Tel Aviv Sunday night.

Steiner was referring to the 16 musical acts which were set to perform two songs a piece in the hopes of going on to the Israel finals of the Global Battle of the Bands Challenge. Steiner, the head of Blue Sun Records, along with promoter Carmi Wurtman and Barby owner Shaul Mizrahi, organized Israel’s participation in the event for the first time.

Over a dozen qualifying heats have taken place in October and November throughout the country with scores of Israeli bands vying to head to the finals taking place on Wednesday. The Israeli champion then goes on to the world finals in London on December 13, competing against the finalists from 36 other countries, with the winner receiving an artist development package worth $100,000.

Along with Sderot-based musician and producer Avi Vaknin, and Ziv Goland, a musical arranger for Dana International, I was asked to be one of the three judges for the event. However, unlike the high-profile American Idol model of in-your-face judging, we were allotted comfortable back-of-the-room tables and a scorecard to rate the entries from 1-20 and to provide written constructive criticism.

Battle of the bands have taken place for as long as there have been rock groups. Even in the mid-1960s, local high school bands would perform against each other at sock hops and on TV talent shows. One of the highlights of my college education in the late 1970s in Boston was attending the annual Rock & Roll Rumble held at the venerable punk club The Rat, where young hopefuls would wield “guitars like switchblades” in order to lay claim to the title of Beantown’s best band.

Turns out that not much has changed in 30 years. Despite the digital age of downloads and the gradual disappearance of CDs, the fading on the radio of guitar-based rock & roll in favor of studio wizardry hip hop, pop and dance music, and music in general receding as a number one priority among the social network-crazed youth culture, there’s still a lot of guitar slingers out there – of all ages.

The Barby was swarming with a mostly rambunctious teen audience – many of them bused in from Modi’in, where a good number of the competing acts hailed. The high school-aged entries, which made more than half of the 16 contestants stood in contrast to the half-dozen or so ‘older’ bands of adults, including one bass player who was even older than me, and a singer-songwriter, Yasmine Ariel who was in an advanced stage of pregnancy.

According to Steiner, amateur and professional musicians were eligible to sign up for the Challenge, with the only requirements being the ‘bands’ consist of two to eight members, all the music is live with no playbacks, and the songs are original compositions and not cover versions.

Regretting the fact I neglected to bring ear plugs, I took my seat, ready to face Steiner’s prognosis of a head banging evening. And indeed, there were a good number of acts – like Rockweiler (guess their genre) and Behind the Sun that looked and sounded like they learned everything about music in the back seat of Wayne and Garth’s car in Wayne’s World. Long hair flying in circular motions to the thunderous beats, they were parodies of a genre invented to be a parody.

Yet, there was something fresh and innocent about it nonetheless, as if despite the years of watching music videos and playing RockBand to get their moves just right, these kids were feeling music’s primal power and creating their own magic, no matter how derivative.

A big revelation for me was how musically tight and well-rehearsed every band was – this was no ‘hey, let’s enter the competition and write a song’ operation. While the lineup was male-dominant, women were represented by two high school bands featuring female singers of the Pat Benatar variety, a third with an incredible 16-year-old female lead guitarist, and the aforementioned Yasmine.

Particularly eye-opening were the school-age musicians, who must have been playing since they were kids and waiting for this day. It was a little sad that they’ve had to latch on to the music that their parents grew up with and many of their moves and riffs are mechanical regurgitations, but it was uplifting to see that another generation has caught the rock and roll bug.

When each band played, some singing in English some in Hebrew, its fans stormed to the front of the stage holding signs, pogo dancing and moshing in a show of solidarity. The audience also received scorecards, and like on American Idol, it was their vote, not the judges which ultimately determined the winner.

My top pick was a young four-piece band called Hageveret Harishona who performed sparkling guitar power pop with precision three-part harmonies . But chosen by the majority and headed to the finals on Wednesday is Spitfire 07, one of the female-led Modi’in high school bands. They were a ‘great for a high school band’ entry, and I gave them high marks for their spunky, arena rock performance and stage presence, while citing their lack of originality.

But they were unsurprisingly the audience favorites, with singer Meit Botton, dressed in Joan Jett black and reaching all the vocal shredding high notes, darting around the stage in various ‘rock chick’ poses.

While it’s unlikely they’ll be headed to London for the international finals, you can be sure the members of Spitfire 07 will keep their victory on Sunday night close to them for the rest of their lives. Even though there’s nothing new under the sun, rock & roll is still alive in Tel Aviv.

 

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