Word games

November 20, 2011 - 11:42 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, design, education, Entertainment, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

It’s Bananagram time. Hebrew Bananagrams. For the uninitiated, Bananagrams is Scrabble un-boarded, kind of Scrabble and Boggle combined, with each player working fast to create words out of their tiles. It’s fun, it’s fast, not quite as fast or competitive as Grab-Scrabble or Anagrams, but since it was created by a fellow Anglo immigrant, I’m partial to trying it out. Even though there’s really no way I can play a Hebrew word game well, even after 16 years in this country.

The story’s like this. Robert Dalfen, a Montrealer, and his family were playing the English-language Bananagrams on a Shabbat afternoon with their kids’ Hebrew-speaking friends looking on enviously. When challenged to create a Hebrew version of this still fairly new game, the Dalfens agreed, and have now set out to sell their Hebrew version.

It’s ironic, in a way, that an English-speaking family is introducing a Hebrew-language game to the Israeli public. But for the Dalfens – self-described word games-aholics – the venture fell into their laps.

So wrote Viva Sarah Press in a recent piece for the Canadian Jewish News. And it’s true, it is ironic. But not so ironic that an Israeli family, yes, immigrant, but still imbued with a certain Israeli mentality, decided to create and sell something on its own. This is a place filled with entrepreneurs, of all types.

Check it out — it’s a great game whether in Hebrew or English, but it is a great way to improve your Hebrew, perhaps with a dictionary by your side, as an accepted handicap.

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IBA’s Close Up feeds news jones

January 16, 2009 - 1:13 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Politics, Pop Culture, War 

Steve Leibowitz and Leah ZinderEarlier this week, the relatively new free daily nationalist tabloid Yisrael Hayom (Hebrew-only informational website viewable here) reported that mainstream Israeli news websites have been experiencing around a 30% spike in traffic since the start of the current Gaza conflict – hardly a surprise, and hardly a trend relegated to the video-heavy, Hebrew-language outlets cited in their stats.

With the thirst for Zionist-friendly war-related information peaking even among English speakers, the Israel Broadcasting Authority has been wise to initiate the launch of a new English news program called Close Up. Airing Wednesdays at 5:25 PM on the IBA’s Channel 33, the live in-depth weekly analysis magazine Close Up premiered this week with a half hour’s worth of content headed by IBA talking heads Steve Leibowitz and Leah Zinder.

The program joins the growing stable of English-language IBA news reports, which includes the ten-minute weekday News Bulletin and the 20-minute daily IBA News, all of which streams over the web on-demand at the IBA’s video mini-site (like most Israeli websites, works best in the Explorer browser).

For the inaugural episode, Zinder and Leibowitz were joined at the news desk by panelists Effi Eitam, a controversial MK from the hawkish religious National Union, and left-of-center David Horovitz, the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. Eitam remarked on the high levels of motivation among IDF, proclaiming that “The spirit of confidence will prevail amongst the soldiers, and, I might add, amongst the citizens.” Horovitz commented on pragmatic goals for ceasefire arrangements.

In other segments, Hebrew University’s Dr. Robbie Sabel, a former legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry, spoke about the ethical issues of the war, reporter Leah Stern gave over a timeline for how diplomacy breakdown led to the current battles, and a visit to opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s office yielded a predictably “I told you so”-style statement.

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Aviv Gefgen to release first album in English

October 23, 2008 - 10:44 AM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: General 

Aviv is EmoIsrael’s number one moperocker and emo poster boy Aviv Geffen is poised for, ahem, ahem, international stardom with the release of his first all-English solo album. Gefen has recorded in English before, most notably with Stephen Wilson of The Porcupine Tree. The two achieved success in Israel and Europe with their band Blackfield which delivered two albums of pretty damn good prog-pop. His new album is being produced by veteran producer Trevor Horn and Geffen has lined up a few key opening spots on former Suede frontman Brett Anderson Berlin and Paris gigs as well as a few opening spots on Mercury Rev’s current tour. Geffen and Mercury Rev go way back. A few years ago I saw Mercury Rev at Hangar 11 in Tel Aviv (incredible show!) and Geffen joined them on guitar on a song or two.

Ynet reports:

“Anderson got my latest album from my London office,” Geffen told Yedioth Ahronoth. “We met for coffee, he told me he loved the songs and then asked me if I would like to open for his Berlin and Paris gigs. “I was floored. He just set it all up with the office. We’re also talking about headlining a concert together. He’ll be performing my songs and I’ll be performing his. This is a really big deal,” Geffen continued. “Brett Anderson, to me and to an entire generation that grew up in the 90s, is a big deal and someone to learn from.

While I do concede that Geffen has an incredible gift of melody I am a bit skeptical whether he can pull off an entire album in English. You can hear a couple of tracks on his myspace page. His accent isn’t as strong (thought it is there) as I have heard in the past but the lyrics are, uh, not so good.

You can watch his electronic press kit on the YouTube:

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