Madonna to bring her friend Justin to Tel Aviv
Those crazy Zionists Justin and Madonna
Yediot Aharonot reported that Justin Timberlake will be joining Madonna on her visit here – as a fellow Kabalah enthuiast. The story reported that Timberlake has been studying Kabalah at the London Center along with the queen of pop for some time, and he was eager to make his first trip to Israel.
As far as performing, the story sourced a member of the show’s production team saying that there might be some surprises onstage. There have been rumors about Timberlake joining Madonna onstage at the Sticky and Sweet tour debut on July 4th in London, but it hasn’t been confirmed. The two previously collaborated on the song “4 Minutes” from Madonna’s Hard Candy album.
If the rumors are true, it might prove a security threat to certain Israelis. The local paparazzi might not be able to cope with the burden of having two photogenic superstars here at the same time.
In addition, the British paper The Sun is reporting that Madonna is going to utilize her visit to Israel as a sightseeing vacation for her family, especially her newly adopted daughter Mercy. Currently, she’s spending time with her new addition in London.
“Madonna wants to give Mercy enough time to settle in to her new home. By September, she feels she will be ready to take the trip without danger of upheaval. The Wailing Wall (in Jerusalem) is a very sacred place for anyone with links to the Jewish faith, and she wants all the children to see it.”
Maybe it’s time to declare Madonna an official ambassador of Israel.
Foto Friday – Pearls of Music at Azrieli contest
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Pop Culture
With so many top-flight orchestras and musicians, Israeli is a feast for lovers of classical music and folklore That population is well-served by Pninei HaMuzika or Pearls of Music, a non-profit organization dedicated to showcasing Israeli and international artists – in variety of musical styles: baroque, classical music, liturgical music, jazz, Klezmer, Irish, Balkan, gypsy, country and other folk music, flamenco, as well as children plays — through festivals and concert series. Pearls of Music selects unique venues, from Jerusalem’s Ticho House, churches, monasteries, and caves, to, in this case, the stark modernity of the Azrieli Center, which will serve as the backdrop for a unique photo competition.
The contest, which was just announced this week, offers music loving photographers the opportunity to participate in a competition that combines music with the urban landscape of the Azrieli Center Amphitheater, an open-air venue located on the third floor rooftop of the Azrieli Mall, at the base of the Center’s towers.
This year, the Amphitheater will host a series of festive summer concerts, presented by Pearls of Music, kicking off on June 11 with Celtic Fire, a celebration Irish music and dance – yes, that’s them looking like Riverdance — followed on June 20 by the Latino-Argentino Ensemble featuring Natan Formansky who, together with Israeli tenor Yotam Kohen, will perform Latin American songs on acoustic guitars and and exotic instruments. 
“Brazilian Carnival” an evening of Samba, Salsa, Bosa Nova, Lambada and Capoeira, happens on July 4; an evening of Viennese dance music – from the waltz to the polka – with harp, flute and orchestra on July 24; Israeli folklore on August 13; Jazz, Blues & Swing on August 29; and others to be announced. The series of concerts runs from June 11 to September 25, and tickets can be ordered via the Pearls of Music website.
Now, as to the competition. Check out this trippy pic. Clearly there is plenty of room for improvement and I guess Photoshopping is allowed!
It is sponsored by the Geographical Photography College, Azrieli Malls and Pearls of Music. Participating photographers will be allowed to enter eight of the 11 concerts, with entry limited to six photographers per performance, to take pictures before during and after the show. (Two photographers per performance will be GPC students). Photos will be judged for quality and originality, as well as fidelity to the competition theme “Pearls of Music at Azrieli”. The winning photos will go on display in October at the Azrieli Center gallery. Winners will receive a free subscription to the 2010 Pearls of Music summer concert series, and runners up will receive a course in photography at the GPC.
Interested photographers should contact Giora Shalmi of the Geographical Photography College at: giora@gpc.co.il.
CREDITS: The top two photographs come courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The latter two are courtesy of Pearls of Music.
Waiting for Paul
When I arrived at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning, I didn’t expect to see hordes of teenage girls outside waving banners saying “I Luv Paul”. But I did think there would be some indication that the most successful musician of all time – former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney – was upstairs in the hotel’s 5th floor Presidential suite, possible in golden slumber.
Aside from the usually posted guard asking me who I was going to see (“meeting a friend staying at the hotel, sir”), there didn’t seem to be any extra security, as I sidled in, and scoped out the scene. I knew there was supposed to be a photo opportunity with Paul at 11:30, to which all journalists had been disinivited. There weren’t going to be any questions allowed, and all the photographers had been told not to say anything to the man.
But since I had to be in Tel Aviv anyway, I decided to crash the party and catch my first glimpse of a Beatle in the flesh (assuming that Paul didn’t die in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike imposter).
I easily found the corner of the hotel set aside for the photo op, because there were a lot of poorly dressed guys (about 30) with big cameras and loud voices hanging out. I had the camera in my Samsung cell phone, and I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, so I fit right in.
Fortunately, there were a couple other crashers who I knew – Israel Radio’s music correspondent Benny Dudkevitch, who knows more about pop music than most humans, Yoav Kutner, the country’s pre-eminent Beatle expert and music director of Radio Tel Aviv, and rock singer Danny Robas, who has a second career performing Beatles music. Like me, they just wanted to see Paul, and soak in the fact that, for the first time, a Beatle was in Israel and playing a show (Thurs. night at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv). We traded some stories, rumors and excitement.
Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, Paul didn’t show, and they kept delaying his arrival from his suite. Another 20 minutes, than an hour delay, and then the Israeli PR people were afraid to return and give an ETA fearing the, by now, ornery photographers would start using their cameras as weapons. These guys aren’t the most polite bunch to begin with, and their comments about McCartney can’t be repeated here.
Pitchers of juice and trays of apple strudel courtesy of the hotel did little to ease their moods, and when McCartney finally descended almost three and a half hours after schedule, there was no reason to caution them again not to talk to him. They would have spurned him anyway.
Like a surreal silent movie, they snapped away, Paul stayed silent, except mumbling something about a story I had written in that day’s Jerusalem Post about the ‘Paul is dead’ myth, and then he walked away surrounded by flunkies and bodyguards.
I took a couple pix with my cell phone, but mostly I just did what I had intended to do – looked at Paul, remembered seeing him on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, and watching the Beatles through all their developmental phases which helped form who I am, and affected the music I still listen to.
He left the hotel, and finally, I saw a dozen or so fans surround him. He politely signed autographs before getting into a car and taking off for a tour of Bethlehem. Fans surrounded the car, a couple banging on the hood and windows and saying “I Love You Paul.”
It was reassuring to discover that Beatlemania in Israel still exists.
‘Paul is alive’ rumors abound
Well, it’s official, sort of.
Paul McCartney is on the way play in Israel – which is being touted as the biggest concert in the country’s history.
Despite the PR firm of promotor Dudu Zerzevsky calling reporters Saturday night to notify them that McCartney would be appearing at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park (seating upwards of 50,000), and all the papers and TV news shows running items on Sunday, there’s been no official confirmation, and McCartney’s publicist, Stuart Bell was quoted by AP as saying, “Nothing’s been confirmed.”
Still, I’ve been assured it’s a done deal, and baby boomers are already speculating at how much they’ll have to dole out for tickets to the show of a Beatle fan’s lifetime.
A Channel 10 news report said that prices would be in the NIS 500 range – that’s about $145. But it’s a given that no matter the price, the show will sell out.
Costs for the show being bandied about reach an estimated $4 million, including a 100-person production team, an extra-large stage and expansive sound system, and additional touches such as two vegetarian kitchens at the show’s location for the vigorously anti-carnivore musician.
Earlier this year, Israeli Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor sent a letter to McCartney and the other surviving Beatle, Ringo Starr, inviting them to perform in Israel for its 60th birthday.
“We should like to take this opportunity to correct the historic omission which to our great regret occurred in 1965 when you were invited to Israel,” Prosor wrote, referring to a missed chance Israeli promoters had to book the Fab Four in 1965. Legend has it that members of the government denied the proper permits to perform in Israel on the grounds that their music might corrupt the country’s morals. But Beatles historian and aficionado Yoav Kutner disputes that theory.
”It never happened that way,” Kutner told Ha’aretz. “The concert was canceled because of a dispute between music promoters Giora Godik and Yaakov Uri. In 1962, Godik received an offer from the mother of the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein that they come to Israel. But [Godik] preferred to bring singer Cliff Richard, who was much more famous at the time. When Uri bought the rights to hold the concert two years later, Godik was angry that he blew the opportunity and went to the Knesset’s Finance Committee to persuade them to bar the promoters from taking out foreign currency.” At the time, expenditures of large amounts of foreign currency in Israel, which would have been used to pay the band, required government approval.
Hopefully, in the next day or two, the concert will become official, all the 40-60-year old fans who have spent their lives hoping to see The Beatles, will cash their savings accounts, and the country will experience a month of Beatlemania that had previously been denied.
Now, if only the Pixies would come here.
Sheffield Sends Coexistence
As previously discussed on these pages, the summer of 2008 is shaping up as a respectable time for Israelis to see international rock shows. Acts like Dinosaur Jr. and Cypress Hill have already wowed us. Bjork and Leonard Cohen might have canceled their planned Israel concerts, but The Breeders, Macy Gray, Low, Air and even Snoop are reportedly on their way.
While many A-list names are certainly being increasingly associated with concerts here, the biggest trend seems to be for nostalgia acts – classic rock brand names that play small auditoriums and rock clubs in Europe or the US but come here and succeed in selling out amphitheaters full of Baby Boomer sabras. Hence Ra’anana gigs last week from Air Supply as well as Blondie. Deep Purple and Blood, Sweat and Tears have also recently announced that they’re headed this way in the coming weeks.
And now wall-of-white-man’s-soul pioneer Joe Cocker has entered the ring as well. The Woodstock-bred performer has just two non-North American shows booked for this summer: an environmentalism-themed festival in Germany and a coexistence-themed festival in Gilboa, set to take place on August 26 through 28.
The appropriately titled Gilboa Coexistence Festival’s program consists mostly of outdoor nature activities, seminars and Jewish and Muslim folk music performances. A Bible-Koran quiz and the two-day “Gilboa Women’s Jeep Challenge” are also on the program. According to The Jerusalem Post,
“This will be one of the biggest events ever put on in Israel promoting coexistence,” says Daniel Atar, head of the Gilboa Regional Council, “In the Gilboa, coexistence is our reality and proves that a way of life of brotherhood and equality forms a solid foundation for cooperation, understanding and mutual recognition that we believe can be established in all of Israel and beyond.”
Cocker’s last performance in Israel, at Jerusalem’s Sultan’s Pool in the fall of 1994, was certainly fun. Even if we’re talking about someone who hasn’t broken new ground since the early Seventies, how can one not enjoy mildly enthusiastic (alright – somewhat spastic in the Belushi tradition), real-time renditions of classics like “Summer in the City” and “With a Little Help from My Friends”?
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