Nostalgia Sunday – From Zeev to Zeev
Filed under: General, Holidays, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
Illustrator and comics artist Zeev Engelmayer creates works that are rooted in nostalgia for an Israel gone by. In his new Passover exhibition, “Matza & Tequila” — which opened last week at Tel Aviv’s Urbanix Gallery — Engelmayer displays illustrations, collages, and original hand written texts from the “Engelmayer Haggadah”, ceramics, animations and pieces inspired by the Haggadah, which was published 10 years ago and has now been reissued by the Israel Cartoon Museum.
Engelmayer likes to mix visual references of Israeli culture with combined with cinema images from the 50’s, commercial advertisements, catalog photos and schoolbook illustrations. His text are usually a dopey play on words that nonetheless strike a deeper chord. For example, this picture whose title, loosely translated, is something like, “Behold, the Prom-assed Land.”
And this one, entitled “Hametz On the Arava Highway,” which could be a reference to the “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” genre of horror film, or could equally be a comment on the panic demonstrated by vigilant family members trying to rid their homes (or perhaps the world…) of unleavened bread before Passover.
Another exhibition that opened this past week: a retrospective of works by the late Yaakov “Zeev” Farkash, whose cartoons and caricatures were a staple feature in Ha’aretz for 40 years. I remember Zeev from the glory days of Cafe Tamar, a small, modest smiling man who, every year at Passover, created a new and different “Gone On Vacation” sign for proprietor Sarah Stern in his signature pen and ink style. The works — and Sarah– are still there today.
“Matza & Tequila” runs through April 16th at Urbanix, which specializes in urban art and vinyl toys. The Zeev retrospective will be up through June 20th at the Israel Cartoon Museum.
Spin Takes A Turn With ISRAEL21c
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Pop Culture, Sports
ISRAEL21c is now a contributor to SPIN Earth, a new web video initiative from SPIN Magazine. The first video up: a profile of the Israel Parkour Team, who use the sidewalks and walls of Tel Aviv as their training ground.
Jazzy Jay and other esoteria
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Music, Pop Culture
Just because the Israeli concert-going market can’t support more than one or two performances from A-list-ers like Paul McCartney each summer, doesn’t mean that we need to deal with washed-up international talents like Deep Purple the rest of the time.
The best of the not-quite-mainstream pop talent whose art is uncompromised, esoteric and less disposable have been entertaining us here more and more often, whether it’s Devendra Bernhardt, Low, Blonde Redhead, Lee “Scratch” Perry or Morrissey. Thankfully, more and more performers along these lines have been making their way to Israeli stages in recent years.
And despite the ongoing violence in the south of the country in recent weeks, the show must go on. No notices announcing a cancellation of this Friday’s Urbanology Festival have reached this cultural correspondent’s desk so far, which means that old-school talent DJ Jazzy Jay is still expected to hit the decks this weekend at the Cult Club at Herzl St. 154, Tel Aviv (tickets available at 057-777-4422).
Jazzy Jay is one of the founding fathers of hip hop. A scratch turntablism pioneer, he spun at street parties in the Bronx in the late Seventies and in downtown Manhattan clubs in the early Eighties. Part of Afrika Bambaataa’s Universal Zulu Nation collective, Jay was also a co-founder of the influential Def Jam Recordings. His “It’s Yours” single was the label’s first-ever release, and he helped broker the partnership between notorious trailblazing rap moguls Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons. His own Jazzy Jay’s Studio was an early home to luminaries like A Tribe Called Quest Brand Nubian.
Jay comes to Israel for the Cult Club’s Urbanology party, branded as a celebration of everything associated with old-school hip hop culture – rap, breakdancing, graffiti and more. Events like these have been taking place at venues across Israel for years, but none with a marquee performer of this stature. Other participants include local talents like the disco funk-fixated DJ Alarm, DJ Mesh, local old-schoolers Quami and Kottage, the Tachlis Band and alt-rappers Peled and Ortega.
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