The bitch is back – in Ramat Gan
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Politics, Pop Culture
Even as the famous (Elvis Costello, the Pixies) and the obscure (Dvendra Bannhart, Klaxxons) continue to bow out of scheduled shows in Israel due to some misplaced sentiment that they’re ‘doing the right thing’ by boycotting Israel, the ‘bitch is back.’
Elton John is scheduled to zoom in on his private jet Thursday morning for a sold-out show that night at Ramat Gan Stadium. He evidently has learned a lesson from his previous visit here in 1993 that the less interaction with the Israeli media the better.
On that visit, after a long security and immigrations ordeal at the airport, John was accosted by papparazzi at his Tel Aviv hotel, causing him to jump over a couch in an attempt to flee the mob, and eventually jump out of the country back home to England. Calm minds prevailed however, and John returned the next day and performed his show at Hayarkon Park a day after it was scheduled.
This time, with the landing, the concert and the departure all within a single day, John is managing to avoid a repeat of the hotel scene and the need to hold a press conference and answer questions about the whole boycott issue.
However, all credit must go to Sir Elton for not caving in to the appeals and pressure that have undoubtedly been thrust upon him to cancel his concert in order to punish the ‘bad Israelis.’
Maybe it was just because it would have been to expensive to stop the huge touring juggernaut in its tracks, maybe, for Elton, it’s only business, or just maybe, he doesn’t think Israel’s being treated fairly by his musical colleagues. Whatever the reason, his performance on Thursday will do wonders to stem the boycott tide, and the coverage of the show will erase the negative press causes by the previous musical cancellations.
So, who cares that, as Yediot Ahranot reported, that his technical rider has stipulated what kind of car can take him from the airport to the stadium or that he’s demanded luxurious couches and a certain kind of drapery for his private dressing room. Elton John is a diva, but he’s our diva.
Nostalgia Sunday – Save the Stadium
Filed under: Business, design, Environment, General, History and Culture, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Social Justice
“Ramat Gan” means “Garden Height” and, true to the city’s name, its citizens will brook no nonsense when it comes to their green spaces. They pay one the country’s highest municipal taxes and will stand on principle when it comes to preserving a patch of grass – particularly if it is surrounded by stadium seating with bunch of guys on it, running up and down after a ball. But more about that in a moment.
The visionary behind Ramat Gan was its first mayor, Avraham Krinitzi, who contracted Moshe Kavshani, a graduate of the Mikve Yisrael agricultural school, to plan the city’s parks and gardens. Kavshani, according to the Wikipedia (Hebrew) entry about public park Gan Shaul, “as evinced by the municipal records from the late 1930s, was a gardener of great soul, who was very aware of the importance of the connection between people and their environment. Every time a new public park was inaugurated, Kavshani would invite pupils from the local schools to the ceremony, during which he would ‘hand over’ [the garden] to their care. In this way, he created an emotional tie between the children of Ramat Gan and their city’s parks.”
Kavshani designed Gan Shaul to sprawl 25 square kilometers over the city’s hillsides. Popularly known as “Gan Ha-Kofim” or “The Monkey Park”, Gan Shaul was inaugurated in March 1938 at a ceremony presided over by Mandatory Palestine Southern District Commissioner REH Crosbie. The park got its nickname from the cages of monkeys, peacocks, turtles, rabbits and other animals put on display. In 1974, the animals were transferred to more humane surroundings at the newly established Ramat Gan Safari. Gan Shaul didn’t fare as well: its area, already cut to 16 sq km was reduced to a mere 12 sq km and an 11 meter tall water tower was erected on its highest point.
But the real blow came in 2007, when the Ramat Gan municipality announced its intention to construct a public parking lot on the Gan Shaul site. That’s when the neighborhood rallied to save its Monkey Park in a well-publicized battle that garnered popular support from members of the city council, the local Green Party, the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel (SPNI), the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (Adam Teva v’Din) and the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites (SPIHS). The municipality caved in 2008, scrapped the parking plan, transferred the NIS 8 million in funding to education and social welfare and invested NIS 300,000 in new playground equipment and greenery. What an amazing city! The Wikipedia entry also notes that closed circuit TV cameras were also installed around the water tower site to stave off vandalism.
Given this proud history, it’s no wonder that Ramat Gan’s citizenry are once again up in arms over the latest plan – this time opposing the Hapoel organization’s plan to sell off the Machtesh Stadium. Although a complete eyesore on the outside, on the inside this unusual field –- built into a steep hillside– is lush and green (and flat). It’s also the historic home of soccer team Hapoel Ramat Gan (now used to train the junior leagues) and you do not mess with their fans. On Thursday, Y-net reported that the police was investigating the possibility of an improper sale of the land to real estate developer Eurocom and the neighbors are planning a public protest this coming Tuesday, June 1. Although motivated less by love of football and more by not wanting a high-rise in their neighborhood (there really is NO parking in Ramat Gan), you’ve got to admire their spirit. Moshe Kavshani would have.
Click here for more about the demonstration. You can also join the Ramat Gan Facebook fan page here.
Update: Boycott of Metallica results in lower prices
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture
It almost reminds me of those halycon activism days of the ’60s and ’70s. 26-year-old business and management student Tomer Mussman has proven that the little guy can stand up to the ‘Man’ and make him back down on unreasonable demands.
As reported on Israelity yesterday, a growing contingent of Metallica fans were joining a Facebook page that Mussman had launched over the weekend calling for a boycott of the band’s May 22nd show at Ramat Gan Stadium over what they claimed were inflated ticket prices.
Well, it turns out that the groundswell of support for the boycott (the Facebook page had garnered 6,000 members and a dozen or so articles on music Web sites) got the attention of the band and the promoter of the show Gad Oron.
On Wednesday, Oron and Mussman had a pow-wow, and when the smoke cleared, guess what? The prices of tickets for the standing room field – where most Metallica fans want to experience the show – had been lowered significantly.
Standing space that had cost NIS 1,200 will now be sold for NIS 990, while the tickets that originally cost NIS 900 and NIS 600 for the back and middle sections respectively, will be going for NIS 490. That’s almost 50% being lopped off the price of some tickets, demonstrating the huge profit margins that had been in the works.
“We would like to personally thank Metallica and their management for directly helping us with reaching our goal and reducing the prices,” said Mussman on Wednesday night following the announcement of the new prices.
Mussman, who told me that he’s been a fan of Metallica’s for 15 years and saw them in Rishon Lezion in 1999, explained that the campaign wasn’t against the band.
“We want the show to go on – what we want is the price to be lowered,” he said earlier Wednesday before the meeting with Oron. “What bothers us is that they’re raising the price because they can – the promotor is taking advantage of the fact that Metallica fans have been waiting 11 years for them to return here.”
By Wednesday night, however, Mussman, along with the other fan/activists were elated.
“After a four-day campaign, tens of news items about us worldwide, over 6,000 supporters and numerous media interviews we can say that we did it!” wrote Mussman on the Facebook page. “We won!”
And so did the little guy everywhere.
***
Foto Friday – Jacob Ackerman’s Birds of Prey
Filed under: Art, Environment, Foto Friday, General, Travel
Whether in Israel or abroad, Jacob “Yaki” Ackerman spends days and nights in the heart of nature, lying in wait to capture its magic and power.
Patient and alert, he spends long hours for that perfect split second in which to freeze the action of a body in motion. Perhaps that is why he relates so strongly to birds of prey.
Ackerman’s work will be part of a group art show about Israel’s predatory birds opening next week at the Man and the Living World Museum in Ramat Gan.
This unique museum, situated within the Ramat Gan National Park, features a variety of natural history exhibits as well as a center for educational activity and cultural events.
Ackerman’s extensive portfolio includes images from around the world but his passion is nature photography, and birds in particular. He’s participated in numerous wildlife photography exhibitions and his website contains some magnificent interactive photo albums that should not be missed. Enjoy.
Hallelujah!
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Music
You just haven’t lived until you’re in a stadium with 49,999 other people, all of whom are singing along with Leonard Cohen as he performs “Hallelujah.”
This was just one of the countless transcendent, goose bump-invoking moments in Cohen’s concert Thursday night in Ramat Gan Stadium. It was one of those shows where you enter some kind of suspended time zone in which for three hours, somehow all seems to be right on the planet.
Full of joy, hope, great musicianship, and excrutiatingly beautiful moments, the show was perfectly placed only a few days before Yom Kippur, a time of reflection and self examination. Seeing and hearing Cohen sing his songs like in some long-carved-in-stone prayers transformed the stadium into the world’s biggest, yet most intimate synagogue. And when the singer offered a dramatic rendering of the Bikat Kohanim (the Priestly blessing) late in the show, it only added to that feeling.
The audience, consisting of ages from teen to Cohen-era 70s, hung on his every lyric and delivery. A few times when he kneeled, there were a few gasps from people fearful of a repeat of the fainting incident that occurred in Spain last week, but Cohen was only making the moves for dramatic effect.
The three and a half hour concert (including a 25-minute break in the middle), included a slew of encores, with Cohen seemingly unwilling to leave the stage on his last show of a huge European tour. In fact, he brought out all the crew members on stage, introduced them and thanked them at the end.
Even though there were definitely some Palestinians and Israeli Arabs in attendance, some involved in the Fund for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace, which was launched earlier in the evening with proceeds that Cohen donated from the show, I kept thinking how nice it would have been if the crowd had been half Jewish, half Arab.
If only Cohen’s message of hope, peace and reconciliation had been allowed to be heard in Ramallah as well, and not been banned by angry Palestinians who refused to let a planned concert take place there. Witnessing 50,000 Palestinians singing “Hallelujah” and applauding efforts for reconciliation would have been a real New Year gift for all of us.
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