Nostalgia Sunday – Ghosts of Cinemas Past
Filed under: Art, Blogging, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
Architect Sharon Raz is a man with a mission: to capture Israel’s disappearing architectural heritage on film, and write about it, too. Going through Raz’s blog, Natush (meaning: “abandoned”) and his Disappearing Architecture website is like falling into a deep, deep well of what once was.
It can also be sad. It means revisiting ideals once held dear — from the fantasy architecture of early Tel Aviv and practical, functional Bauhaus to the swoops and whooshes of our Fabulous 60s (the Fabulous 50s came here a decade late) — seeing how they were expressed in concrete and stucco, and coming to terms with their current state of neglect and decay.
Raz’s special project on Israel’s shuttered cinemas reflects the state of things in general. Movie theaters have given way to small screened mega-multiplexes that, although far cleaner (one must never forget that for generations, Israeli movie goers were warned, “Do not roll bottles or crack sunflower seeds during the show”), they also lack soul.
Raz has methodically visited movie-houses around the country and created a comprehensive index of Israeli movie-houses that includes, in his words, “[the] old, abandoned, closed, destroyed, refurbished, some still standing, some under threat of the wrecking ball.”
With an architect’s eye for detail, Raz tries to present his viewers not only with general site shots but also the little things: the staircase that once led up to the balcony of Jerusalem’s Orna Cinema, now a stairway leading nowhere at the downtown McDonald’s. The Eden at the bottom of Lilenblum Street, Tel Aviv’s first movie-house — still elegant and seemingly waiting for customers to start lining up at any moment. And another Eden Cinema, this one in Jerusalem, whose whimsically round ticket booth now stands at the back end of a grotty parking lot. The Ron in Haifa, gaily decorated with mosaic musicians. Beer Sheva’s Orot, a circle of concrete diamonds, the motif repeated in the wrought iron ticket booth bars. All stand empty.
“In this life’s work, which is original, unique, voluntary, activist and Sisyphean, I work with conviction to preserve on film for future generations our constructed environment. I photograph many structures – abandoned factories, neglected vacation spots, empty houses, shops, industries, farms, centers for culture and recreation, public and private buildings — most of them old and abandoned. But of all the structures I photographed, I’m particularly proud of the old movie-houses. They are romance incarnate; structures we all remember and hold dear in our hearts, buildings where vast numbers of citizens visited, that gave birth to endless memories and longings.”
Raz’s Disappearing Architecture website and Natush blog are available only in Hebrew but there are amazing photos, including pictures of how the cinemas looked in their heyday. Definitely worth a click.
Nostalgia Sunday – Netanyahu’s fixer upper
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Movies, Music, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics
The members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet went on a little trip today up to visit historic Tel Hai in the Galilee. Going on tiyul is quite common this season — dozens of people are hiking Shvil Yisrael, the Israel National Trail this month — but it’s unusual for members of Knesset to move en masse out of their comfort zone and into the periphery.
However, this was a special occasion. Today being the 90th anniversary of the battle at the Tel Hai compound — itself refurbished thanks to the efforts of The Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites (SPIHS) — it was selected as an appropriate time and place for a cabinet meeting to approve a comprehensive plan, the largest ever, to “strengthen the national heritage infrastructures of the State of Israel”.
What is a national heritage infrastructure? As set out in Netanyahu’s plan (called TAMAR which in Hebrew is the acronym for “national heritage infrastructure”) it consists of about 150 “tangible/material cultural resources” (archaeological and historic sites) and “intangible/nonmaterial cultural resources” (archives and collections of literature, poetry, philosophy, arts, crafts, music and song, dance, theater, film, traditions, holidays, festivals, ceremonies, etc.) all in need of rehabilitation and/or enrichment. TAMAR will cost almost NIS 400 million, and will be funded by private donations to be matched by allocations from the budgets of 16 government ministries.
The list of sites — which is not yet finalized — includes 37 archaeological sites, 39 museums and collections, and 62 sites relating to Israel’s Jewish and Zionist heritage — many literally crumbling to bits, such as the magnificent painted ceiling in Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim Yeshiva. There are also 13 projects in the “intangible/nonmaterial” category that would restore cultural resources like the backlog of yet-uncatalogued movies still in cartons at the Israel Film Archive – as well as upgrade the archive building itself.
Two additional trails will be created in addition to Shvil Yisrael, promised Netanyahu, one a historic trail of archaeological sites from the biblical, Second Temple and other eras in the history of the Land of Israel, the other a trail tracing the places and events that gave rise to the modern-day State of Israel.
Netanyahu couldn’t have given a better example than this one: dowdy, dingy Independence Hall in Tel Aviv. “It is good that the city is open to the world and good that the city is alive and moving forward. But at 16 Rothschild Boulevard, there is a small auditorium in which the State of Israel was declared. There, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, declared the State of Israel.
“The hall is run-down. I am not saying that it is about to fall over but as far as the many young people and others, who flock to the street, to Rothschild Boulevard, are concerned, they do not know it. They do not visit it at all. And therefore, we will rehabilitate Independence Hall.”
The long-term payoff for TAMAR, say the plan’s authors, will be NIS 630 million in annual tourism revenue, job creation in the amount of 3,500 permanent positions plus 800 more during the 5-year period of the plan’s execution, and development of tourism to the Negev and Galilee regions. Later this week, the cabinet is due to approve the national transportation plan joining the Galilee and other regions to an accessible national transportation grid.
The cabinet also made a separate decision today on a new building for Israel’s National Library, funded by a donation from Yad Hanadiv (the Rothschild Foundation).
Picture of the week: Acco festival back on track
This time last year, rioting over Yom Kippur led to a temporary postponement of the much-loved Acco Festival – an alternative theater festival that spills out onto the streets of the old Crusader city every Succot.
The festival was held eventually in December , but much was written about how the rioting between Jews and Arabs had damaged the fabric of a city where coexistence is the norm, not the exception.
One year on, and the festival, an event devoted to coexistence, is back in its usual time slot and last year’s unexpected outbreak of violence is being put to rest.
Now in its 30th season, visitors to the run-down, but beautiful World Heritage city, have been enjoying some 450 performances from theater groups across Israel and the rest of the world, including a show that follows six Acco residents who took part in last year’s riots.
Picture by Shay Levy/ Flash 90.
Nostalgia Sunday on Tuesday – Adloyada
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
Apologies for the delay in posting; this was due to circumstances far beyond my control. Whew. Okay. A moment before the Purim holiday ends, let’s take a look at days gone by, in particular the Adloyada parade.
“Adloyada” is a bastardization of the phrase “ad lo yada” or “unable to differentiate”, referring to the Purim tradition of drinking until one is unable to tell the difference between evil Haman and good Mordechai. The parade was instituted in 1912, in Tel Aviv, the first modern Jewish city, by a teacher at the Herzliya Gymnasium high school and became the stomping ground for Hevre Trask (“the noisy folks”), a band of merrymaking bohemians.
In the 1920s, the event had its profile raised by dancer-choreographer and bon vivant Baruch Agadati. Here he is, the crown prince of of Tel Aviv night life in the 1920s, pictured with Zippora Zabari, winner of the “Queen Esther” beauty contest for 1928.
And another Purim lovely:
And here’s a picture of the parade itself, which was famous for its floats.
It had the support of Mayor Meir Dizengoff. This costume parodied his well-known penchant for riding around town on a horse.
At the end of the 1920s, a committee of artists, poets, architects and theater people was established with the stated goal of giving the Adloyada a higher educational and artistic tone, and it became something of an establishment tool.
Adloyada floats never shied away from politics, such as the 1926 coffin burying the British Mandate, and the 1934 anti-Nazism float. The event ceased activity in 1936 but after it was reestablished in the 1950s, the topical subjects continued. Here’s Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser and David Ben-Gurion, acting out a prime ministerial summit that never happened in reality… as far as we know…
The Adloyada shut down, once again, in the 1970s and was revived, once again in the early 1980s by the Sheinkin avant garde, led by a stellar performance artist, the late Danny Zakheim. This time, the tone was different and probably more like that of the original Adloyada of the 1920s – a punk street fair bacchanal that went on for days. Here’s Mayor Shlomo Lahat venturing into unknown territory.
There are a few parades today calling themselves Adloyada. Holon – a sleepy suburb with ambitions to become Israel’s new center of the visual arts – has apparently been deemed the location for the national Adloyada. But the real deal has been and always will be Tel Aviv. It’s only a matter of time before the Adloyada comes back home.
The hills are alive
Filed under: General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Music
Living in Jerusalem, and with more than my fair share of family and friends who are amateur actors, it’s not surprising that I would end up attending a generous smattering of local English language community theater. I’ve smiled through JEST performances of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Prairie Lights; considered Mercaz Hamagshimim Center Stage versions of The Vagina Monologues and Tick Tick Boom!; appreciated local Gilbert and Sullivan productions and clapped for the Hebrew University players and their annual shows.
It’s never Broadway, but then again, even Broadway doesn’t always satisfy. And there’s something to be said for seeing your loved ones on stage, singing their hearts out, acting their lines, performing for the community at large.
But last night, I was truly astounded by a great production of The Sound of Music, produced by Yisra’el Lutnick and directed by Kim Glassman (who, in the small world that is Jerusalem, is the sister of a former camper of mine). It’s hard not to love any version of this old favorite, particularly when you can sing along to every song (“She climbs a tree and scrapes her knee,”) and even know most of the dialogue by heart. Yet this was an example of appropriate staging, fine choreography, good, strong voices and simple but significant sets that helped ‘set’ the stage for Austria, circa 1938, and all by a semi-professional cast and crew, performed at the Jerusalem Theater.
And while the play was written by Americans, set in Austria and performed by American, Canadian, Israeli, British and South African actors, the final test was in the typically Israeli applause, which is in a uniform beat, rather than the more individual clapping that you come across in the States or Europe. When you hear that kind of applause, it’s the sign of an Israeli audience expressing their appreciation for what they’ve just seen and heard. Kudos.
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