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Foto Friday – Behind the Urban Outfitters Scene

A few weeks ago, Jessica reported that Urban Outfitters had come to Israel for a catalogue shoot. Urban Outfitters has since posted a sneak peek on Facebook at their Early Spring line, which includes some gorgeous shots of some equally gorgeous people making our drab winter surroundings that much brighter.

Along with the fashion shots, there are also some interesting artistic ones as well. That’s because three of the models — Coco Young, Marcel Castenmiller and Jonas Kesseler — are also photographers in their own right. Urban Outfitters who, despite their retro aesthetic, are ever on the cutting edge, asked the trio to document their Israel experience with a Behind the Scenes look.

The result: “Their photos reveal the little unexpected moments that make a trip special – snacks, late nights and the people that you meet for a second but will remember forever.”

The full exhibition is posted on the Urban Outfitters blog, along with interviews with the artists. Coco Young said that the Dead Sea was one of the trip’s highlights.

Photo by Coco Young

She also kept an eye out for unusual fashion statements.

Photo by Coco Young

The Dead Sea was also a highlight for Marcel Castenmiller but his favorite part of the day, he said, was “Getting back to the hotel room and staying up late with Coco and Jonas drinking wine.”

Photo by Marcel Castenmiller

And the absurd little details of a country where a kitchen clock gets tied to a street lamp — for heaven knows what reason — didn’t escape his notice.

Photo by Marcel Castenmiller

Jonas Kesseler said the funniest moment of his trip was arriving at the airport only to be strip-searched on his way into Israel. Glad to hear he kept a sense of humor about it. Certainly, that wit is reflected in his work.

Photos by Jonas Kesseler

Kesseler’s website, by the way, features a photo and drawing essay about his “wandering the endless streets of Tokyo”. Here’s hoping that a new edition — the lighter side of coming hard up against the finite borders of our little country, perhaps? — will turn up in the near future. As for Urban Outfitters, a radio commentator put it best today when he said, “Next time you come, please could you bring a branch of your store with you, too?”

Revisiting the Dead Sea for a ‘yom kef’

This isn’t the first time my wife and I have traveled to the Dead Sea for a ‘yom kef’ – a day of fun that all the hotels there in the Ein Bokek area offer. But it was certainly the most entertaining.

For a reasonable price, the hotels offer access to their spas (with Dead Sea water and minerals), their regular fresh water pools, health club, a locker, a voucher for coffee and cake in the lounge, and a huge, buffet lunch – everything but the room, and you can be there for up to eight hours.

It always sounds so enticing, and the upshot is, we did have a splendid time, taking advantage of all of those amenities. But either we’ve been in Israel too long to be annoyed, or it was just too entertaining, but observing the other guests and the hotel staff was as much fun as the paid attractions.

It must have been ‘Pensioners’ Day’ or something, because the hotel we chose – Le Meridien – run by the Fattal Chain, was chock full of older people availing themselves of the therapeutic powers of the Dead Sea.

All fine and good, but older folks tend to be a little more demanding than other guests. And whether through inefficiency or inability to cope with the onslaught, the staff seemed overwhelmed, whether it was running out of towels, angry patrons walking behind the front desk to demand to see the manager over trifles like not being on the list to enter the beach area for free, or throwing health club wannabies out for not wearing the proper footware required to work out.

In between the ‘floor show’ that kept us riveted, we were able to float away for a few minutes in a few meters of unused pool space, soak up a jacuzzi, run on the treadmill, sit outside poolside with the NY Times crossword puzzle, eat a filling lunch of fish, chicken, chinese veggies, salad bar and egg rolls, and enjoy a slice of pie and cafe hafuch during the late afternoon, before we headed home.

If you’re able to put up with the crowds and can laugh at some maddening Israeli quirkiness, then you’ll love the ‘yom kef’ concept. Just try to go when it’s not Pensioners’ Day.

Goodbye GPS, hello Comodo

GPS for travel navigation is so… yesterday.

Israeli startup Iway Mobile along with Cellcom, the country’s largest mobile phone operator, have launched what they say is the world’s first complete communications, Internet and entertainment system for the automobile.

The Comodo Console will be sold first exclusively in Israel, but Iway is in talks to sell the product to cellular operators in other countries, most likely France, Russia and China first in line, over the next six months.

Besides English, the operating system is programmed for 20 languages, including Russian, Arabic and Chinese, and more will be added.

Comodo includes a 4.3 inch touchscreen, speakerphone, a rear camera to increase security when in reverse, a GPS antenna and a cellular modem for an always-on connection to the Internet via a 3G cellular network. The driver can listen to radio stations from around the globe.

“There is one world that hasn’t yet been captured by the Internet revolution, and that is the automobile,” said Adi Cohen, head of marketing at Cellcom told a press conference on Sunday reported by Reuters.

To ensure drivers’ safety, videos can be watched only when the car is not moving, and emails can be received but not sent. Text messaging and chatting services are not available, and the 80 applications can be activated with two clicks.

The three-dimensional navigation system warns drivers when approaching a dangerous road or intersection and can alert when the driver is exceeding the speed limit or to problems up ahead, such as camels on the road.

I actually haven’t encountered camels in the road for quite a while, but it’s good to know the Comodo can detect them.
According to the report, the Comodo will cost NIS 109 ($23.5) a month for 36 months, and the service package without the music costs NIS 20 a month and another NIS 15 for the music.

With all that stimulus and cutting edge technology, the big question is whether it’s going to be make Israeli roads safer, or more dangerous.

Nostalgia Sunday – Jerusalem City Center

Last week, Jerusalem’s Light Rail project entered the trial run phase. This included changing the city center’s traffic patterns and causing no little havoc. Not at all like what’s been promised in the pictures… but we’ll reach this idyllic stage eventually…

Image: Jerusalem Municipality website

The municipality has publicized the new traffic arrangements but that hasn’t seemed to calm the population’s ire — particularly cab drivers who are now barred from driving on Jaffa Road. In their minds, it should be as spacious and accommodating as it was in the days of these horse-drawn carriages driving towards the Old City…

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Meanwhile, Jaffa Road has been closed to all traffic except for the good old pedestrian kind — not too different from when King George Street was inaugurated.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

King George eventually did get paved and trees lined the boulevard…

Image: Harry Charles Farmer, Palestine 1947

…while Jerusalem’s few cars passed by Froumine House, home of the first Knesset. But those days are long gone and the need for a public mass transportation system is absolutely critical. Do you hear me, irate cabdrivers and nasty Egged bus drivers?

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Everything will settle down by August (we hope) and the first line of the new Jerusalem Light Rail will take us conveniently from French Hill to Mount Herzl, passing the Jerusalem Central Bus Station on the way. Which, by the way, used to look like this. Who says there’s no such thing as progress!

Image: Egged archive via Pikiwiki

Foto Friday – Celebrating Ethiopian Ledet with Matanya Tausig

Freelance photographer Matanya Tausig has always been fascinated by religion and religious subjects. For his final project at Jerusalem’s Hadassah College, Tausig chose to document the priests from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The Ethiopian Church has two centers in Jerusalem: the historic Deir es-Sultan on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Debre Gannet constructed in the 19th century on Ethiopia Street. On one hand, both locations are only a short walk from the college; on the other hand, they are worlds away.

The resulting series went on to win second prize in the Local Testimony exhibition of regional photojournalism, (which runs concurrently with the annual World Press Photo exhibition).

The series is part of a larger project of documenting religions and religious ceremonies all around the Holy Land. “I generally work on things that take a long time; they percolate for years,” he says.

So, for example, last night Tausig was in Bethlehem, continuing work on his ongoing project by documenting the Orthodox Church’s Ledet (Christmas) midnight mass.

Ledet falls on January 7 in the Gregorian calendar (which is December 29 in the Ethiopian calendar). It comes after 43 days of daytime fasting known as Tsome Gahad (Advent), with a and is celebrated with processions, the mass service and a breakfast meal of traditional Ethiopian fare: cooked meat and vegetables served on injera (flat, spongy buckwheat bread), and washed down with tella (beer) or tej (a sort of weak mead).

In two weeks, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church will celebrate its most important festival of the year, Timket (Epiphany; also Timkat), a three-day festival commemorating Jesus’ baptism by Saint John in the Jordan River. Again, there will be processions and feasting.

Tausig maintains contact with his subjects and is planning future projects with them as well. Meanwhile, there are more photos to enjoy of the Ethiopian Orthodox priests on the Local Testimony site. And Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has more information about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.

 

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