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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 |
xnbach
|
8:32p |
And just like that... ... one of the people in my writing group came through. Thank you Buddha and all the Devas of Heaven. Current Mood:  relieved |
xnbach
|
8:06p |
Emergency Request This is sort of out of the blue, but I am in a bit of a bind. I have been staying with friends while I am looking for an apartment, and originally told them I would be out by July 1st. Now it looks like I am not going to have a place until August, but the friends want me out by July 4th. Which is tomorrow night. If any of you has space for me to stay until the end of the month, it would be a huge life saver. I know it's sudden notice and a bit above and beyond the call of duty as it were, but I am at the end of my rope on this one. If anyone could help me out, please let me know and I will owe you big. Thanks. Current Mood:  worried |
| Friday, July 4th, 2008 |
murasaki_1966
|
12:52p |
Shaun Tan's book the Red Tree is being turned into a choral piece. I may need to go to this. Current Mood:  sore |
mordwen
|
12:37p |
I'm a soppy sod Have a look at this beautiful video. It's rare to see something so simple that reminds you about all the good things humans can be. And once again, I'm crying because I'm happy.
Check out the whole project (or watch the hi-def version). Thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) anthonybaxter for the heads up. |
kateorman
|
10:09a |
... just when I'm about ready to give up (yet again) on fandom and its childish self-importance, along comes this: someone rather forlornly asks in ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) doctorwho why everyone hates RTD so much. The responses show plenty of self-awareness, humour, playfulness - and quite a bit of affection for Russell. :-) |
kateorman
|
9:36a |
World Youth Day The State Emergency Service and the Rural Fire Service, both staffed by volunteers, are refusing to adopt the policing powers given them for World Youth Day. |
jack_ryder
|
9:18a |
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girliejones
|
3:03a |
Jeweller comes through! First things first, the jeweller very kindly met us at our hotel this morning at 8. I was worried about the payment for the Magen David but in the end he drove me to his shop, I paid with Visa and then he dropped me back at the hotel. He was a very nice man really. So, nu? What did I buy? D says "Magen" means "shield" so technically I was looking for a Shield of David. But in the quest, I discovered what I actually prefer is the Seal of Solomon. A minor technicality on the construction of the star. Meanwhile, this is what I bought:  And here it is on me (sorry, this was the best light I could get) and you can also see that yes, I have seen too much sun already (I promise I am wearing sunscreen):  I had a little bit more money leftover from the gift my Grandmother left me. I bought these candlesticks in Jerusalem today because I wanted to start my own home and you need candlesticks to light candles on Friday night and I thought I might like my set to come from Jerusalem. It was only after I bought them that I realised they cost about the same as what I had leftover from the Magen David, and so I have decided that my Grandmother gifted me these too:  Handmade - glass and silver. And yes, it's gonna be a pain getting them home without breaking. I love them.  |
| Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 |
mrteufel
|
10:53p |
Hancock Goes Off!
It's not about the powers. It's about the people.
This is a movie that uses the tropes of the superhero genre to tell a serious story about real people. The powers stand in for destructive behaviour, destructive relationships. The sort of relationship that you can see will go no-where good, and hurt you both if you keep on. Boy, it struck a chord with me. Will Smith displays an intensity I haven't seen before, although I haven't seen all his movies.
I've always believed the genre could tell serious stories if played straight - everything from simple action fare through to adult drama. Mocking superheroes is the lazy path, something I think I realized instinctively the first time I was totally underwhelmed by Adam West's Batman. Perhaps it took advances in CGI to make it possible, but finally movies are doing what some graphic novels did in the 90's: use powerful tropes to tell stories of power; stories where the battles on screen are the battles inside all of us writ large.
Hancock isn't perfect, but it shows what is possible.
I loved it. |
deborahb
|
5:52p |
More good words For beach readers who want stories that are thoroughly engrossing but can be finished before it's time to reapply yet another coating of sunscreen, this anthology definitely delivers. -- Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, PA), June 26, 2008 And catsparx gets a special mention for her 'beautiful and unsettling' tale. Woo hoos all 'round! |
murasaki_1966
|
4:09p |
It had to exist somewhere Thanks to dsgood
Apparently, the Axis of Evil does exist. In Deep Space. Very pretty it is too.
Current Mood:  bemused |
catsparx
|
3:54p |
Happy Birthday Kaaron Today is Kaaron's birthday & what better way to mark the occasion than a visit to the fabulous Waterfall bar at the Suva Motor Inn? The bar sits on the far side of a precariously angled water slide. Kids were hurtling off the end of it & somehow managing to land bang smack in the water rather than overshooting the mark to skid across wet concrete. 
The Suva Motor Inn is famous for one thing: its wall of shame. Four panels of sunbleached polaroids pinned to the boards with rusty thumb tacks. Names and descriptions scrawled below in faded biro include: Sinbad - Track record 3 days, 
Badge - 26 Hours awesome, 
Strawb - Paid First Drank Later, 
Bitch no 2 - The name says it all, 
Slopes - Crazy Kiwi, 
Sam - Son of Sam - That’s a worry, 
& the fabulous...
[Cap'n Naked had been awarded a double tour, triple crown plaque. Not only that, but he'd written a long poem entitled The World Beer Tour Wall of Shame which was framed and mounted proudly on a post, dated 6/4/98] There's also Butter Boy - Full Kiwi Cream, G-Man - Always gets the girl, Big Mac - No French Fries, Gator Warren (no relation, Kaaron claims) Triple Crown - Double tour. And many more.
The bar itself features several engraved brass plaques screwed permanently into the wood, such as:  There's a laminated A4 sheet of paper explaining the world beer tour rules: Go around the world and be eligible to join the extremely exclusive "WALL OF SHAME CLUB" Complete one half, north or south, and receive a Suva motor inn golf cap. A full circumnavigation will be rewarded with your own engrave tankard and a permanent place on the infamous wall.
The plaque where I sat read:
In recognition of 4 world beer tours This seat at the bar is Awarded to "FAT MAN" Derrick Rooney I only had one beer so I wasn't a contender.
Well, thats all the blogging I'm going to be doing from Fiji. Returning home tomorrow, unfortunately. Current Mood:  chipper |
kateorman
|
8:34a |
World Yoof Day The Catholic Church, I'm sorry to say, supports the new police powers. Catholics, on the other hand, are not so impressed, with prominent figures attacking the new laws. "It would rather be like Jesus calling for a police escort on Palm Sunday." |
girliejones
|
3:11a |
Diaspora Museum According to my notes, the only other thing I wanted to post about was our visit to the Diaspora Museum, at the University of Tel Aviv. We went on Monday I think and I have been waiting this long in order to be able to accompany the post with this really bad (grandpa) joke that goes along with this picture:  In case you can't read it, the plaque reads "Albert Einstein Square" and D says, shouldn't that be: E equals M C Square? Bah Doom Doom. Worth the wait, no? So the Diaspora Museum is a museum about the history of world Jewry outside of Israel. I noticed that there was very little, if anything at all, about Australian Jewry. That was a bit disappointing. There was an amazing commemoration for fallen Jewish people - this sort of column of interlocking grid that looked like cages inside cages with a stream of lights running vertically up the centre all the way to the roof, several floors above - looking like imprisoned light rising up towards heaven, I guess. It was very powerful to stand at the bottom of it, in any case. We found some great quotes to a couple of installations. I think this was probably my favourite: A rabbi whose community does not disagree with him is not really a rabbi, and a rabbi who fears his community is not really a man.There was also just such an overpowering sense of the richness and diversity of people and times. It was really very inspiring, I guess. Which is probably something I also have taken away from the Yad Vashem visit and wandering through Yako today too. That you can be beaten and trampled down but from that can come courage and bravery and creativity. So many interesting times and eras and communities through space and time were documented. I found so many aspects of myself called to in all sorts of bits of the history. Like this quote: A people embarked on a long journey, with only a book as its guide and so many interesting people - lots of different kinds of publishing enterprises, and places/courts of high discussion and debate (including in Baghdad which was soooo cool) and also a section on the scientists and philosophers and so on. Most of all, I got the reminder to dream big and aim for the stars - why not? From free thought comes free ideas. I wandered around with D and we might have giggled and laughed through a lot of it as well as discussed other bits. We were looking at some religious artifacts and I saw this wedding ring that was *enormous* and I was like - Really??? That's a ring? And D thought perhaps it was the ceremonial ring used at the chupah and belonging to the Shule. And then he was telling me about a particular community wedding ring that has the whole of the city of Jerusalem on the top and I was like "ooh I want that ring!" And he says to me: Not *too* Jewish? (related back to the Magen David shopping from like Sunday!) Too funny. I thought that you could most certainly take someone's eye out with a ring like that. I also really really liked the models of all the different styles of Shules (synagogues) from around the world. Was just stunning and so interesting - even one from China. Some of the European ones were amazing. And of course, another example of where the text next to the display reads: here is a beautiful and amazing thing, and then the Nazis destroyed it. You know, even if you hate Jews, why ruin amazing architecture? I just don't get it. Warning, a second grandpa joke in the same post and this one only, like, 4 people reading this will get. One of the models had this bizarre tiling on the roof which was crooked and not how you would expect to tile the top of a building. D says: I wonder why you would tile a building like that and I reply: maybe it's in Rashi script? Bah doom doom I owe emails. I love you. I am tired. I may get to them tomorrow night although I may be tired from J-town. At least now, the blog is up to date. I feel better for it. |
girliejones
|
2:46a |
So much to write I have so much to write and say and every time I sit down, it's the end of the day and I get too tired to write big thoughts. I have some more photos of Jerusalem from the other day - and tomorrow P and I are off to J-town (as we call it) again. This time to get the "Christian things" (as I call it) done and also to do some more chachka shopping. We are hoping to get into the Dome of the Rock also. (Here's the closest I have been to it so far)  I think one of the things that strikes me most about Israel is the constant contradictions - it's something I noticed when I lived here and I love it. I think to live here you must understand and appreciate them and to understand the politics and the society here you must understand and appreciate them (or go mad - your choice). So here is an example of what I mean. I love the comingling of the old and the new. Some of the places are so old you can't even get your head around it and then on top of the stone will be a McDonalds sign or something. Here is P and D shopping down one of the streets off the Western Wall plaza:  Here is me taking a picture of the rest of Jerusalem through one of the turrets in the wall (of Jerusalem):  That kinda blows my mind, me standing there with my digital camera taking a snap of a 2000 year old city where maybe a guard stood watch some time in the crusades. Or this, which is maybe my favourite so far:  Some boys playing soccer. And if you look very closely, instead of playing "shirts and skins" they are playing "shirts and tzitzit" - a tzitzit is a prayer vest type thing that religious men wear all the time under their shirts. Here is the final J-town shot for today - the Damascus Gate:  |
| Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 |
girliejones
|
10:38p |
The wedding Okay, so my uncle and P have kindly given me permission to post pictures of them here but the others have not since I have not asked. So my photos of the wedding posted here are limited. The wedding of course is the reason that I got on a plane and flew a very long way. My cousin married an Israeli and they decided to have the wedding here. It was a very big event and I was really shocked by how many Perthies were there - we had a Perth people photo and it was huge! The wedding was held somewhere that was an hour drive from Tel Aviv. We ended up getting a lift from my mother's cousin and his wife who were also going. They were my family away from home when I was living here years ago. Their's was the house I hopped on a bus (from Haifa) to go to for the weekend when I was homesick or when I ran out of money for food or when I had no plans or whatever. And I got to be very close to them. And coming all this way was also partly about getting to sit down and have a coffee with Z and just hang out. And I got to do that on Monday before the wedding! We caught a taxi to their place and hung for a bit. And it was so great! There was this amazing feeling of coming home as I got in the lift up to the 4th floor (which I remembered even though I hadn't thought about it probably in 9 years) and then their apartment door was open and they were smiling and "Shalom Shalom!" and "Aleeezah! You haven't changed a bit!" Ahhhh ... it was great!!! And so eventually we piled into the car and off we went, with Z pointing out all the new things that have been built or torn down since I was last there. So ... we got to the wedding venue (the Magical Garden) an hour early and it was hoooooooot. Anyway, lots of people were already there including my uncle and aunt and cousins and whatnot. And there was this lovely outdoors area to hang out in to take photos and greet people as they arrived. My uncle (D) and I doing just that, below. See the outrageous cleavage? Everyone else was covered from chin to toes except my cousin's wife. And ... I dunno. There it is. Will have to see what the family photos look like.  We had wine. We caught up with family as they arrived - a lot of my mother's side of the family (cousins) live here and almost all of them came. So we spent the next two hours catching up. There was even a pre-wedding buffet spread that came out. It was about at this time, that I deeply regretted how crap my Hebrew is. I'm not too bad listening and can follow conversations reasonably well - family talking to one another at pace has me understanding about 50% of what is going on. But as soon as they ask me to join in, forget it! So annoying too because I so much wanted to get into in-depth conversations and had to limit these by their English - most of them speak excellent English however (so that's more me being annoyed at not being bilingual enough). So, some wedding shots. The chair below is the bridal seat - the bride comes out before the ceremony and sits on this chair for viewing. Family and friends sing and dance to surround the bride with joy before the groom comes out to view her. The groom is brought out surrounded by singing and dancing (and slightly drunk) men to greet the bride, check this is the one he was after and then he places the veil over her. Agreeing basically to marry her (see Jacob and Leah and Rachel in the Bible for the significance)  Here also is the Chuppah - the bridal canopy - this is what Jewish people get married standing under. Everyone's looks different and they can be as simple as a Tallis (prayer shawl) and four sticks (one in each corner) held by 4 men to the fancy one here. The bride, groom, their families and the Rabbi all stand underneath for the whole ceremony.  The wedding ceremony itself was at least an hour late, maybe more. I would like to report more about it but unfortunately was not able to watch it live due to the cameramen standing in exactly the way ALL the time. I couldn't see the veiling of the bride, I mostly couldn't see her walk around the groom 7 times and could hardly see any of the actual ceremony. The groom smashed the glass and apparently they were married! She'koach! Mazal Tov! I went up to congratulate everyone and my aunt yelled at me "You're next! I have someone to introduce you to!" And then we went inside for food. There were no speeches at all. The wedding party came in for the first round of dancing after the first course. There was much traditional (chassidic, apparently - I never knew we did chassidic traditions, I thought those were orthodox) dancing and then more food. I accidentally ate meat cause the waiter said the course choice I ordered had no meat but he was wrong! So annoyed and nearly threw the plate across the room (in a style well developed by my grandmother) and he brought me a borekes (pastry with mashed potato inside). I was mostly annoyed that I had eaten meat without intending to, I really hate that. We weren't seated with our Israeli fam so we instead just went over to their table and hung out with them - heck, I flew all this way to be with them, I wasn't going to miss out on one second of getting to be in and amongst the dynamic. I have to say, I love them so much! They are such an amazing group of people - such fantastic and wicked senses of humour, so kind and caring. And they love me unconditionally - I hardly know them and they were so happy to see me, some of them met me for the first time, and they wanted to know about me and what I do and they were so interested. They want me to send them 2012 so they can read it and they want to stay in touch with me. It's a feeling I cannot express to be so unconditionally welcomed, loved and accepted. And I have made myself a promise that I will not leave it 10 years to come back and I will come back regularly and often in my life. I am heartbroken to live so far away from them. I should add that this is my mother's father's side of the family. My grandfather passed away when I was 6 and I miss him terribly. So many members of the family remind me of him and his nature that being amongst them is the closest I can get to him. And so ... that was the wedding. For me it was about family - being with family and sharing in family simchas (happinesses, happy events). And in truth, at the core, this is really what being Jewish means to me. And ... I am so happy and glad I came and did not miss out on this. It was worth it. 1000 times, it was worth it! |
girliejones
|
9:34p |
My cousin is a rock star Have been desperately trying to find posters of my cousin's gig from the other night, which we missed since we went to the wedding instead! Found one this morning on our failed jewellery expedition:  I am still yet to secure the Magen David. The jeweller is going to bring it, and the earrings P bought, to the hotel tomorrow morning. I am worried because I am not sure if we will accept my credit card in this fashion and thus may not obtain my desired item. I technically have one more shopping day in Tel Aviv on Sunday but don't like how fine that is cutting it. We shall see how it goes tomorrow. Here is a photo of P. We were staking out the jewellery shop from the comfy location of one our coffee shops. P is obsessed with ice coffee. The store was supposed to open at 10am. At 11 we called him to find out that he was not going in to work today.  We also dropped off some clothes at the local laundry this morning and it was so fun - just reminded me of the kind of Israeli movies I've watched on SBS. So much seemed to be going on behind the scenes between all of the people. What else? There was of course more coffee in our day than any of you could contemplate. Me, I have had to switch to tea and am rapidly being reminded of how much coffee I drank the last time I was here and how that ended up. I have also switched to grapefruit juice, which just tastes so much better here than at home. We are also going to buy a watermelon to eat some stage because they also taste better here. We spent the early afternoon at Jaffa (Yafo).  It's 4000 years old and used to be a port - it's all through the crusades history and stuff (sorry, not a historian *shrugs*). I like it because it is so old and pretty and now very much an artists quarter. It's got lots of windy narrow streets with lots of steps and little nooks and crannies and it overlooks the sea.  The art was just stunning. Such an inspiring place to create work, I would imagine. And such lovely and interesting pieces. I could have wandered around all day but we were on a time limit. D and I bought some beautiful silk screened paintings from this lovely little gallery run by the artist and his wife. An old couple but so friendly and kind. They even gave us bottles of water to take with us when we left. The works were mostly of religious icons but with a bit of fun in them - so children playing in the foreground of the Western Wall in the background etc. D bought a framed one with some figurines painted onto the glass giving it a 3D effect. Just stunning! I'll finish with a view of Tel Aviv from Yafo. All the things we've seen this week have me think about art, and Jewish art and Jewish artists. There's some kind of thoughtfu post brewing but I don't think I have it sitting just right yet. I mean ... I'm on some kind of thought quest here about what it means to me, to be Jewish, I think. And maybe I just dont know the answer to that yet.  |
girliejones
|
9:03p |
Woot! Photos are back in action! Breakfast photos *finally* added to that post from a few days ago, for those of you *dying* to see what I was complaining about. Meanwhile I have corrupted the other two and we have a new "breakfast place". Of course, I have now hit my coffee limit, stomach has drawn the line, and now I have to drink tea. Bugger. Here's me at the Kotel yesterday:  |
deborahb
|
4:41p |
In good company Did you know that the days and nights are stitched from bolts of unearthly cloth, joined by the sewing machine of the Tailor of Time? And, if the Tailor creates the passage of time, then one can arrest him and gain just an extra moment, right? Avery, whose daughter is dying, seeks more time for her from the Tailor. When he grants this desire, the Tailor affects the world all the way down to a dying girl and all the way up to the Engineer of all. In “The Tailor of Time,” Deborah Biancotti spins out her conceit with a light and fluid intelligence. She resists the treacle of simple wish fulfillment, choosing instead to study the characters of Avery, the Tailor, and the Engineer. -- Elizabeth A. Allen, Jul-8, The FixNow to the books. Norilana, established by the fantasy writer Vera Nazarian, is showing commendable dedication to publishing original anthologies, with a commitment to several new series of these: first Lace and Blade, and now, with a very strong first volume, Clockwork Phoenix, edited by Mike Allen. Established writers and new names all are in good form here... -- Nick Gevers, Jul-08, Locus "Author and editor Allen (Mythic) has compiled a neatly packaged set of short stories that flow cleverly and seamlessly from one inspiration to another.... Lush descriptions and exotic imagery startle, engross, chill and electrify the reader, and all 19 stories have a strong and delicious taste of weird." -- Publishers Weekly Via norilanabooks || Buy Clockwork Phoenix |
catsparx
|
6:12p |
Tiki Tiki Today Kaaron took us to two of the coolest places ever! An all but empty resort which featured the 'Bloody Mary' -- the boat from the movie Anacondas: the hunt for the blood orchid permanently moored out back, and then on to a similarly deserted Tiki pool with a cannibal pot spa and giant head that you can climb in. Tourism simply does not get better than this.   in the galley  liquid lunch by the pool  the coolest pool ever  village  Current Mood: happy |
girliejones
|
1:12p |
stuff
Remind to post on my thoughts about yesterday ... about art n stuff. |
girliejones
|
12:27p |
Jerusalem
Yesterday we caught a Sherut (let's see... it's a taxi that follows the bus route, is a little more expensive than the bus and takes like 6 or 8 ppl. So like a cross between a taxi and a bus? a public taxi???) to Jerusalem. It's about an hour ride between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. And the trip did my head in because a lady sat between me and the others who didn't speak Hebrew but did speak French (she was from the Congo as it turned out) and the others had a chat with her. Which meant there were 3 languages flying about and it was really hard to keep it all straight in my head! In the end, I opted for looking out the window!
I love Jerusalem. I think it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It's hard not to be overawed as you pull up and you see the walls of the city, so tall and stood for so long. It's humbling to think that those walls have stood, and withstood so much, for so much longer than you have existed and may well do so for so much longe after you have gone. The tangibility of the history blows me away. And the colour of the city - it really is golden! The whole day I had the song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" stuck in my head (Jerusalem, City of Gold).
So. We as a group basically had three priorities - chachka shopping, the Kotel (Wailing/Western Wall) and Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum). We hied it down to the Kotel in the hopes that we would also be able to go to the Dome of the Rock. No such luck as it was closed for lunch (prayers, I think). So we did the Kotel and then headed off.
What do I mean by "did"? Men and women may approach the wall but in separate areas, divided in two by a barrier. So P and I headed down to the women's area (you have to get searched before you can enter the area and even that is divided into men and women!). I wanted to put a small prayer into the wall. So P and I sat down and each wrote something on a tiny piece of paper and then approached the wall to find a crack and put our rolled up paper in it. I had an idea of what I wanted to pray for (I had had so long before I even came to Israel) but on sitting in front of the wall, I was overcome and felt like anything that I wanted to ask for was petty and selfish. I asked for World Peace in the end (and some other smaller things). It was also a bit hard approaching the wall - right up close to it there are 3 or 5 rows of women sitting and praying, and then a row of women actually leaning on it and praying, and then everyone kinda stares at you, like who are you to approach the wall? Maybe they scoff and those of us who slip paper in the cracks, I don' know. But I remember thinking "it's not just *your* wall, it's *my* wall too!". (Have a photo to go here too!)
You don't turn your back on the wall so as you leave it, you walk backwards away from it. That was kinda funny watching women doing it on our approach. But when it was time for me to leave, there was something really respectful and humbling about slowly backing away from the wall.
I got some great shots of the wall so I will either post these separately or eta these and then blog the links later.
After the wall we went and had lunch in a little cafe just near it. I am for some reason making a point of eating Shakshuka whenever I can. Why not? *Israeli shrug*. And then we wandered through some streets and some markets. I think I am going to buy a belly dancer outfit before I leave. I also had a bit of a look at some Magen Davids and saw nothing I liked. The others bought chachkas, I am very far behind in the chachka buying. I have none!!!
And then we caught a taxi to Yad Vashem.
This is an enormous deal. For those of you who know me, and for those who have read this blog for long enough, you will know I have a "thing" about the Holocaust (like you couldn't have one about it but whatever). I quote my uncle with "thing" because it became apparent on our trip as we vaguely discussed when we would go etc - P really wanted to go, it was on her list to do here. I was reluctant but figured it might take me 50 years to actually do it and I might need a very slow introduction - like this decade I will simply stand outside the front. I took a book with me and didn't mind sitting and reading for 2 hours whilst she went through it.
So we went and my D and P were really good with me - I decided to sort of see as much as I could and then bow out when it was enough and they continued to check how I was going.
I didn't have nightmares last night so I think that was okay.
The Museum is not one building - it sprawls across several with beautiful squares and tree groves linking them. There are also halls and auditoriums and stunning views of Jerusalem. However, the actual history museum does not permit children under 10.
I decided to visit the Hall of Remembrance with the others. It was an overwhelming experience. I was flooded with emotion and realised that I was not actually going to be able to see all that much more after it. You enter the hall which is very dark, and the walls are made of large boulder type rocks. Everything else is black. Set down from the walkway is another floor which you look down to see the names of all the concentration camps in large gold letters. There is a flame burning off to the right hand side and several large wreaths. That is all. You, the dark, the names of all the camps and an eternal flame. That is all. And that is all that needs to be said. It is enough. More than enough. And it tears your insides out.
This is such a beautifully and compassionately crafted museum. They have thought very carefully how people will feel and you constantly are thrust back into the daylight and everywhere there are vast expanses of blue sky and groves of trees. You are constantly grounded back into the present.
I made it slightly further along, to the art gallery. Artwork displayed was done by the victims - some in the ghettos and some in the camps. A lot of it was not what you would expect - ie it was artwork by artists, who happened to perish. So pictures of dancers or portraits or whatever. There was the most beautiful set of illustrations for a bible that an artist did for his 2 year old daughter. It and the daughter were hidden with a catholic family and both survived the war. There are 90 illustrations of scenes from the bible and they are just exquisite, I want a bible illustrated with them (the artist includes some twists and rereadings of passages that show you his sense of humour and insights to his mind - they were just great)
There's only so much of "here was something brilliant or genius and beautiful and then the Nazis destroyed it" that you can take. But my "thing" about the Holocaust was at maximum and I was starting to feel panicky and very very upset. That was pretty much all for me and I was about to bail out, which was fine by D and P, and then the boy called me! All the way from Australia on my mobile! In fact, he had been trying to call me back when I was panicky in the gallery but there was no reception in there.
It was so lovely to hear his voice and I sat and listened to him and overlooked the vista of Jerusalem and he chased all the horrible images and thoughts out of my head. He talked to me for 55 minutes whilst the others went to the graphic, historical museum, and by the time they came back, I was good. All the yucky was gone. And I was up to looking in the bookshop - where I actually freaking bought 2 books (poetry and art by the children in the camps and ghettos and a Women in the Holocaust - letters they wrote and stuff). And I didn't have any nightmares last night.
After the gruellingness of the day, we caught a Sherut back to Tel Aviv, hit the cafe strip, enjoyed all that was built to be sure that never happens again and then went home to bed.
More later. |
girliejones
|
12:19p |
UGh
Am depressed - haven't been able to upload photos in all these days and I have so much I wanna blog with photos.
Will press on though else I will miss the mood and I got a lot to post about. Apologies in advance for the multiple posts and the flist spam. Skip me if I bore you.
Today we are having a kind of slower day. We are going to pick up the jewellery and I think I am going to buy the Magen David I was talking about the other day, if it is still there. Then we are going to meander down along the beach towards Jaffa and do whatever at Jaffa when we get there. I love Jaffa- it is so old and lovely.
Anyway. That's today. More about what has already happened!! Gonna do them in separate posts and I wish I could have posted them in the order that they happened cause I think my headspace jumps around a bit. I did draft up what I wanted to say after the wedding though so it should be somewhat honest towards the truth. |
benpeek
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2:14p |
The Quiet
This'll be my last post till sometime next week or so, just as this is the last day or work for that time.
Here's a thought to end on, though:
A couple of days ago A was talking to me about publications with audiences, and just yesterday, T told me I was on my way to becoming a writer's writer. For some reason, the two have combined in my head, and I can't shake off the belief that being a writer's writer is code for a writer without a very big audience, and thus without a lot of cash, and thus, without a Lamborghini. I think we'll all be in agreement that I deserve a shiny Lamborghini, and that most authors do, if only so they can appear on Top Gear and do that racing contest they have. But still, it got me thinking that, really, at a certain point in the 'career' of a writer, it stops being about whether you're a good writer or you're not, and instead becomes a question of what kind of audience you have. Do you have the kind that follows you just because it's a genre thing, do you have one that follows you to the point that they have an interest in your evolution as an artist, do you have a big audience that allows risks, do you have a small, but dedicated one, do you have any, do you have none, is it just your friends. The answer to all those is one each writer (or musicians, or artist, or whatever) has to give to his or herself, but there comes a point where the author has to look around at the publishers and books that they appear in and work with, and decide if these are going to help them grow the audience that they want. The work that you put out is essentially a product, after all, and you have to be able to put it in the right place for the right consumer, to use such disgusting retail terms.
The thing about this thought is, I find, that it doesn't influence the creation side of writing, but what you do with it once your finished. It can be a bit of a hassle--in fact, I know it is, especially if you feel your work is becoming more and more difficult to fit the markets you were previously interested in, which is sometimes shown by people who call you 'hard to classify'--but it's how you get the best mileage and how you grow.
I dunno, thoughts for the day. Me, I'm quite happy with the audience I have, though if you want to bring your friends with you, I won't object, because the truth is, that's the area of growth for me. But it's my concern, and no one elses, and time will tell if I can get it right.
In other news, if I may say so, BBQ Beef Fantastic Noodles are really kind of awful. Stick to the chicken or vaguely racist 'oriental' flavour while writing your blog posts.
Okay, I'm out.
Current Music: the cruel sea - better get a lawyer |
murasaki_1966
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2:07p |
Religious tolerance, not in our State, yes siree About WYD: Personally, I think Premier Dilemma and the Cabinet of Crooks were told by Archbishop Pell that they'd be excommunicated if WYD doesn't go according to plan (divine or otherwise) Current Mood:  annoyed |
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