| הכיבוש! הכיבוש! הכיבוש! |
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| 08:01am 22/04/2009 |
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אני חושב שזה די טיפוסי שבדיוק כשהבטחתי לא לכתוב יותר יש לי מה לאמר.
הייתי שלשום בטקס יום השואה האלטרנטיבי בתיאטרון תמו-נע.
היו שם משהו כמו עשרה אנשים שעלו לבמה לפי הסדר ודיברו כל אחד על איזה נושא פרטי יותר או פחות שנוגע לשואה. קובי אריאלי דיבר על הסרטון "היטלר מחפש חניה", שהרה בלאו דיברה על האובססיה כלפי היטלר ועל הבת של סבא שלה. היו כמה מונולוגים מאוד מעניינים: יוכי ברנדס דיברה על הרגע שבו הבינה ששני הסבים והסבתות שלה לא שרדו במקרה אלא בגלל היותם אדמו"רים; ניר ברעם דיבר על מערכת ההכחשה וההדחקה של הבורגנות הגרמנית, ושל בני אדם בכלל.
והיו שם, כמובן, שלושה שמאלנים שדיברו על הכיבוש.
לאבי גיבסון בראל היה איזה מונולוג ספק קומי ספק סאטירי וללא ספק מטומטם על היהודי החדש שמעלה אותם למשאיות וזורק אותם לים. יניב איצקוביץ', סרבן לעת מצוא, דיבר על הסרבנות שלו ועל מוסר אישי (והוסיף "וזה מה שלי אומר יום השואה" במשפט האחרון). והיה אמיר אוריין, שנגיע אליו עוד מעט.
השמאל הישראלי, השמאל האירופי והעולם הערבי במיוחד רוצים להתייחס לסכסוך כאן כעוד איזה מלחמת אור בחושך. יש כאן טובים ורעים, הם אומרים, יש כאן אי צדק משווע. יש כאן זוועה בסדר גודל של השואה, או בוסניה, או דארפור, או לפחות האפרטהייד הדרום אפריקני. כי ככה אנחנו אוהבים את המלחמות שלנו, מאז מלחמת העולם השניה. אנחנו רוצים מישהו להזדהות איתו, צודק ולא צודק.
אבל מה לעשות, וכל מה שיש קטן הוא איזה סכסוך קטנוני על טריטוריה. הם רוצים אותה, אנחנו רוצים אותה, הם לא רוצים אותנו כאן, אנחנו לא רוצים אותם שם, אז נלחמים. היו אינספור מלחמות כאלה בהיסטוריה האנושית, ולא בכל אחת מהן היה צד אחד צודק. אף אחד מאיתנו לא מחזיק דעה ניצחת לגבי האשמה של סרביה או אוסטריה-הונגריה לפרוץ מלחמת העולם. אף אחד לא מסתובב ומדבר על העוול הנורא שעשה בית לנקסטר לבית יורק - או להפך - ב- 1450. אף אחד לא משווה את נפולאון להיטלר כי הוא ניסה להמליך את אחיו למלך ספרד. אבל אצלנו כל מבצע צבאי הוא בעצם השמדה, כל חומה היא אפליה גזענית. וכמובן שיש צדק מוחלט ואמת מוחלטת ורוע מוחלט.
אסא כשר דיבר גם כן בטקס. הוא דיבר על החיילים היהודים שלחמו בצבאות בעלות הברית. חצי מיליון חיילים אמריקאיים יהודים, חצי מיליון רוסים, ועוד חצי מיליון מפוזרים בין שאר הצבאות. 300,000 מתוכן נהרגו בלחימה, וכשר חושב שצריך להזכיר אותם ביחד עם ששת המיליונים שנרצחו ע"י הנאצים. אני חושב שהוא טועה, והוא מצטרף לשורה ארוכה של יהודים שרואים את השואה כעניין יהודי. משהו שקרה בין העם הגרמני לעם היהודי, שהתשובה לו היא בהקמת צבא יהודי, אולי החרמת גרמניה, ובהנפת הדגל הישראלי מעל אושוויץ. אני חושב שהלקח מהשואה מדבר על מה שבני אדם מסוגלים לעשות, ושהיהודים והגרמנים היו שחקנים מקריים שאפשר היה להחליף אותם בעמים אחרים בקלות רבה.
וכשעולים האדונים הללו על הבמה ביום השואה והדבר היחיד שעולה להם לראש הוא הכיבוש, הם נראים לי פרובינציאליים בדיוק באותה מידה כמו אסא כשר. כי התרחשו ומתרחשות בעולם זוועות גדולות הרבה יותר, ויש הרבה מה לאמר על כל אחת מהן, ולא מעט שנשאר עדיין להגיד על השואה. אבל האנשים האלה כל כך מרוכזים בעצמם שהם הופכים את השואה ללקח ליהודים בלבד, והם לא מסוגלים לעשות שום השוואה פרט לזו שרלוונטית ליהודים, והם לא מסוגלים להתעסק אלא בשאלה האם היהודים עושים לאחרים מה שנעשה ליהודים. ובהינף יד הם חוזרים מהמסר האוניברסלי לעניין יהודי פנימי, רק שהתשובה שלהם היא שליהודים אסור לעולם להרים נשק. בסך הכל תמונת ראי של המחנה הקודם.
והצביעות הגדולה ביותר הייתה של אמיר אוריין, שעלה לבמה והקריא איזה שיר שהשורה החוזרת בו הייתה "ואמרו לי, 'זה לא הזמן לדבר על הכיבוש'". וזה שיר כל כך מגוחך, כי הרי הוא דיבר על הכיבוש אתמול, והוא ידבר על הכיבוש מחר, ובכל יום שעובר נשפכת מסה עצומה של מילים ותמונות ודימויים שמדברים על הכיבוש, ואין דבר שמעסיק את המדינה הזאת יותר מהכיבוש. ואפילו ביום הזכרון לשואה, כשמגיעים לטקס כזה, שלושה מתוך עשרה דוברים לא מסוגלים לדבר על משהו חוץ מהכיבוש.
אז אולי ביום השואה הבא אני אוכל לעלות לבמה ולהקריא עוד פואמה כזאת, רק שהשורה החוזרת אצלי תהיה "ואמרו לי, 'אי אפשר! חייבים קודם לפתור את הכיבוש,". ואולי אז מר אוריין וחבריו יתנו לי להעביר ערב בודד בלי להסביר לי מדוע אני דומה לנאצים.
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Read 5 - Post |
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| The joy of making |
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| 01:42pm 18/04/2009 |
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While מוסף הארץ continues to deteriorate along with the rest of the paper, the cooking section's new owners caught my eye a couple of weeks ago. Their inaugural column just sounded so fresh and spring-like that I had to give it a go. In fact, I had to give it a go twice. I made the simpler lettuce and green pea pasta the day before the seder, and while it came out nice it was nowhere as good as it looks in the picture.
The gnudi, though, were what really grabbed me. On Sunday we had some friends over for dinner and I finally got a chance to make them, and they came out quite magnificent.There's quite a bit of joy when something like this comes out right.
I notice that I haven't posted anything for three months now - this journal seem to have run its course, and I don't have enough to share on a regular basis. I was using it as a reading journal for a while, but I lost track somewhere along the way... In any case, I had long been planning to shut it down once I move to the States. (as inspired by another graduate student's livejournal)
So, this is most likely the end of this one. We'll see about a replacement.
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Read 2 - Post |
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| Beach update |
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| 11:42pm 13/01/2009 |
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I wasn't quite sure last week, I thought perhaps the tide was exceptionally high and my eyesight surprisingly poor, but the tide was very low today, so I'm pretty certain; over those two weeks when I didn't run, someone tore down the large contraption that was allegedly pouring groundwater into the sea.
Odd. Now I'll never know what it was for. |
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| האתר של חד"ש |
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| 12:31pm 05/01/2009 |
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אזכורים של דוב חנין, מס' 3 ברשימה לכנסת: ארבעה + קישור לבלוג idov
אזכורים של מוחמד ברכה, ראש הרשימה לכנסת: אחד (סרטון)
חברי כנסת היהודים של חד"ש ב- 15 השנים האחרונות שמאוזכרים: 100%
חברי כנסת הערבים של חד"ש ב- 15 השנים האחרונות שמאוזכרים: 20%
מועמדים יהודים מתוך העשיריה הראשונה של הרשימה לכנסת שמאוזכרים: 100%
מועמדים ערבים מתוך העשיריה הראשונה של הרשימה לכנסת שמאוזכרים: 12.5%
סך הכל אזכורים של פעילים יהודיים: ארבעה
סך הכל אזכורים של פעילים ערביים: אחד, יחיד ומיוחד
*snicker* מזל שבראש הרשימה עומד ברכה, אחרת אפשר היה לחשוב שמדובר בסניף של מרצ
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Read 1 - Post |
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| Nine (cf. the loneliest number) down |
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| 05:48pm 03/01/2009 |
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So with Columbia done we're at nine down, and one (maybe) to go. We've having some doubts on Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. In any case, I hope by the end of the week we can have our killer end-of-applications party.
I've been recently enjoying Yossi Gurvitz's political blog. I find myself agreeing with him on most subjects, and having the same reasoning he gives. Oddly, I remember not agreeing with him very often back in the Ultinet days; one of is getting old. When I want to raise my blood pressure, on the other hand, I go here and read some patronizing bullshit on how anyone who thinks differently than Mr. Lerman does is a corrupt idiot motivated by money or petty political aspirations. Not since Pravda has one witnessed such fine writing.
I've finished reading March Violets by Philip Kerr (no relation to Roy?), a detective novel set in 1930's Germany. I thought the book was ok, but not grand; I suspect it suffered from the comparison to Fatherland, another novel about a non-Nazi investigator in Nazi Germany. I enjoyed March Violets, but it wasn't quite as compelling as other things I've read recently. I've now gone back to the second part of the Latro book. I'm not reading quite as much due to stress with the applications - and because it's dark outside now on my way home from work.
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| Just so they don't take my blogger's license |
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| 03:26pm 09/12/2008 |
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Biking through Tel Aviv in the rain, little droplets of rain hanging at the edge of my helmet. True bliss. I'll miss this city.
Not much from me in the form of online presence here recently, and probably not much for a month more. Applications, applications, applications. We've two down, five more by Monday, and then three more in January. Busy, busy, busy.
Of books: I've finished two. הקברט ההיסטורי של פרופסור פבריקנט was rather weak - I felt that I got the point after the first two chapters, and the rest was just a rehash. The point being, quaint Jewish eastern Europe before the war. Aside from that atmosphere, there isn't much in the way of plot or characterization to keep you interested in the book.
The other one was Fearsum Endjinn, by Iain M. Banks (M stands for "My Science Fiction name) which I enjoyed a lot more. It's a far-future kind of novel, half post-singularity and half forgotten science, but it's well written, as one could expect from Banks. It suffers from two flaws. The first is that every fourth chapter is written in a phonetic transcript of spoken English ("In whish caysh ahd 1/2 dropt on u from abuv, u shilly boy") which is a bother to read. The second is the ending, at which the book just kidn of sputters away without a proper finish.
I actually found myself getting used to the phonetic transcript chapters - the first must have taken me several minutes per page but by the end of the book they were flowing - but they were still pretty annoying. Especially because, thinking about it, they don't seem to serve a purpose other than satisfying Mr. Bank's fancy. Still, all in all an enjoyable book.
To the list of Hebrwe words with no proper English translation we may add להקוות. |
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Read 4 - Post |
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| You win some, you lose some |
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| 10:26am 05/11/2008 |
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נו, אז נראה ש ניצחנו, גם אם נכון לכתיבת שורות אלה נראה שאנחנו מפסידים בחלק מהנושאים. בכל מקרה אני צריך להתחיל לחפש תחביב חדש. אני עדיין קול צף בבחירות של שבוע הבא. מצד אחד, אני חושב שרון חולדאי מנהל את העיר הרבה יותר טוב ממה שדב חנין ינהל אותה. מצד שני, כניעה לכל קבוצות המסכנים בעיני עצמם וגירעונות תקציביים שיש להניח שחנין יצבור מהווים נזק לטווח קצר (יחסית) בעוד שהמגדלים של חולדאי ואובדן השטחים הפתוחים האחרונים בעיר יהיו קשים הרבה יותר לתיקון. מצד שלישי, דב חנין, עם התמיכה האוטומטית שלו בפלסטינאים ועם האג'נדה האנטי-גרעינית-אנטי-סלולרית-ירוק-פיל-גוד שלו הוא כל מה שאני מתעב בשמאל האנטי-רציונלי. מצד רביעי, מי שהצביע לניידר קיבל את ג'ורג' בוש. לא יודע. יכול להיות שמה שיקבע בסוף הוא הצד החמישי, כלומר האדם האחרון שינסה לשכנע אותי ביום הבחירות. אם מאתיים מטר לפני הקלפי יעמוד איזה בלוגר דביל שחושב שחולדאי צריך לשמור לו על האופניים, ספק אם אצליח להתגבר על הדחף להצביע נגד המועמד שלו. לפחות מבחינת הרשימה לעיר, החלטתי לשמור אמונים ולהצביע למרצ. דווקא רציתי להצביע למישהו אחר ולו כדי להוכיח שאני לא מצביע באופן עיוור למפלגה; שקלתי בעיקר את לתת לחיות שמתבססת על הנושא הקרוב לליבי. אבל נדמה לי שזו עוד רשימה קיקיונית שלא תיכנס למועצה, ואני גם לא חושב שיש הרבה חיות להציל ברמה המוניציפלית. בסופו של דבר האופציות הן עיר לכולנו, הירוקים ומרצ. עיר לכולנו פסולה בעיני מכל הסיבות שצוינו לעיל בצד השלישי, וגם בשל הניחוח האנטי-פוליטי המפונק שלה. את הסיפור של הירוקים והאם הם באמת ירוקים או סתם אופורטוניסטים אין לי כח להבין. נשארה מרצ, שבראשה מיטל להבי שראיתי רק שבחים לפעילותה, ושכבונוס נוסף לא התאחדה עם עיר לכולנו ולא קוראת להצביע דווקא לחנין. (לא שאני אופטימי - אני מניח שמרצ תתרסק בבחירות האלה כשכל קולות הצעירים יעברו לעיר לכולנו) גם לכנסת אני מניח שאצביע שוב למרצ. אני חולק על הדיעות של הח"כים בנושאים רבים ומעצבן אותי שהתנועה הקיבוצית מחליפה שם מנהיג לבנבן אחד באחר כל כמה שנים, אבל בסופו של דבר זו המפלגה הקרובה ביותר לדעות שלי. והצבעות מחאה, טוב, נו, ראה את הצד הרביעי או את תפארת מפלגת הגמלאים. |
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Read 17 - Post |
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| Books and where they live |
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| 05:54pm 25/10/2008 |
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I was at the צומת ספרים in the Center the other night and it kind of hit me that it's a really nice place. It's a well-lit space, filled with a large selection of books, with comfortable sofas where you can sit and read, or tables for those that need to write as well, with the day's papers available, a small bulletin board, and a pleasant café just outside. I guess some would prefer the small and cozy neighborhood second-hand bookshop, but as big-chain stores go, this one's really great.
We left this in the sink last night, and it was still there in the morning. I no longer believe in the dishes fairy.
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| Nine is the loneliest number |
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| 08:46pm 22/10/2008 |
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It's the loneliest number since the number three.
There is a storm brewing over the horizon; I saw it to the north as I was running. All lightning and no thunder - I guess it's some kilometers away. It's a wondrous sight, how the sky lights up - exhilarating and ominous at the same time. To start with I figured it for an airplane lighting up the clouds, but on it went, and then I saw it quite clearly for lightning. Then I started to wonder if it was coming from above or from below.
Earlier today I got Spore working on my Ubuntu (through Wine). Then I went running - I haven't played it yet. I got it on Yom Kippur for my birthday, and I've been holding off installing it because I had the GRE. Now I gaze into the abyss of the new game addiction, and soon I shall take the plunge.
Feeling adventurous after I got Spore to work I went ahead and installed Internet Explorer as well. Effin' Internet Explorer. It works, too - I got into one of those sites that bug out on Firefox and everything was smooth. IE7 doesn't run, but IE6 worked great. Microsoft Internet Explorer. On the linux. I practically have no reason to boot into Windows now.
Well, except if I want to hook up the TV to watch some DVD. In, y'know, color.
So, ah, had the GRE, then. It went as well as could be expected - knew most, guessed some, was clueless as to the rest. I think I was a little too bold with some questions, which can come back to bite me, but I'm not too worried about it.
One question pissed me off to no end, being which of these particles has mass greater than the proton's? with the options including the Tau lepton and the Top and Strange quark. How is this piece of esoterica something you want to sort future grad students by, I cannot say.
All these holidays break up the routine, which is good, but takes away regular updates and keeps me off the books. So I have neglected reading הקברט ההיסטורי של פרופסור פבריקנט for nearly three weeks; Add to that another week where it lay forgotten at the missus' parents' house, and I guess I've been on it for more than a month. Before that I had finished Gene Wolfe's Soldier of the Mist (first half of Latro in the Mist, first of two books in his Latro series). This one's an alternate-historic account written by an amnesiac mercenary travelling throughout the Greek isles at the time of their war with Persia.
I'm a big fan of Wolfe, and I like this book too. It's written in his traditional disorienting style, albeit with simpler language than Book of the New Sun. The interplay of the Greek gods reminded me of the Long Sun series, and since Wolfe uses the English translation of all terms that we know in the original greek (Spartans are the Rope Makers, and their allies come from Thought, not Athens) there is a game for the interested reader in recognizing all these mythical figures. It's not as good as New Sun (so far) but it's pretty good. I'm looking forward to the second half, and I'll probably get the second book, too.
Greek-mania also fits well with my newly-gotten copy of Agon. All glory and hoplons!
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Read 2 - Post |
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| Words not appearing in "Hotel California" |
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| 09:49pm 13/09/2008 |
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There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
"this could be happening, this could be her"
I don't know, it seemed to make perfect sense.
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| Are dreams of tomatoes actually nightmares? |
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| 08:57am 22/08/2008 |
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So here we are with our monthly summary. I actually find that I have something to share with the nation every week or so, but somehow I never get around to it until I finish another book, at which point you get these three-paragraph posts. This one will have four, what with this introduction and all.
I've now read על תנאי מאת אקירה יושימורה, (and you'll have to forgive me for not reproducing the name in the original Japanese). This is Yoshimura's second book that I read, after ספינות טרופות. I had read ספינות טרופות about a year ago (over the course of one weekend, it's a short book) and loved it, and I was looking for another book of his for a while until I finally found it during Book Week.
I find it hard to define what it is about Yoshimura's style that I like so much, but there is definitely something to it. Perhaps the subtlety, the subdued tone in which everything is told, even when events are dramatic. Certainly it is the feel of Japan - medieval Japan in the previous book and modern Japan in this one - that oozes out of every page, small tidbits that make you long for Cherry Blossoms. And there is also the sly way in which both books conduct themselves. From the very first chapter, from the moment you get to know the characters, there is an unhappy ending waiting just beyond the horizon, at the edge of your sight. Objectively there is nothing wrong, but in your guts you are waiting for the tragedy.
I'm a sucker for a well-written tragedy.
A few more words, though, on the feel of the book. על תנאי follows the life of a murderer, paroled after fifteen years in prison. At first glance it might appear that the themes of the book could be applied anywhere in the Western world. Jails and paroles are not a Japanese concept and the themes of reintegration into society and the burden of the past could be universal. But even after you remove the superficial trappings, the Shinto temples and the tatami and the aforementioned cherry blossoms, the book still feels deeply Japanese. The behavior of characters in the novel, the reverence of the protagonist towards his parole officers, his interaction with his new employer, are all distinctly non-Western. The book was written in 1988; I wonder how much of this world still remains.
On to tomatoes and dreams, then.
We buy a lot of tomato paste for the cat food. There are two brands, יכין and טבע טרי. And these brands runs some strange dance around each other, prices for 100 ml fluctuating from 1.69 to 2.59 shekels in a chaotic way. You'd think that this is somehow related to the cost of tomatoes going up and down, but somehow when one brand is up the otherwise is always down! Last month יכין was at 2-something and I promptly bought טבע טרי, for 1.89. This month טבע טרי remains but יכין drops to 1.69. Each time I set to buy a few boxes I reach for the type that was cheaper last time, only to find that the Invisible Hand has sent its price rocketing upwards and the price of the other spiraling down. It defies logic.
I dreamt the other night that, along with Shimon Peres we were visiting Menachem Begin's secret bunker. Begin showed us a glimpse of his plan for creating babies in artificial wombs a-la Brave New World. He had sketches of the fetal life-cycle and all.
I find that this dream defies logic as well |
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Read 8 - Post |
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| Sometimes I forget to put a title, that's funky |
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| 10:47pm 07/08/2008 |
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) calanya and I have this game where he calls me a right-wing-extremist-zionist for voting מרצ and I call him an arab-nationalistic for voting חד"ש. I was reminded of this when I saw this piece mention that the illustrious Dov Hanin took part in a recent event supporting Muhamed Bacri, of "Jenin, Jenin" fame. Bacri is a lier; his movie manipulates film from the actual events to make Israeli soldiers appear to murder children and innocents and includes (factually baseless) salf-proclaimed-eyewitness accounts of this massacre.
Bacri's movie was censored in Israel, which I oppose in the same way I oppose any kind of censorship. But that's where my sympathy for Bacri ends. There's enough hate and lies in this conflict and there are enough real wrongs being done by Israel that there is no need to resort to demagoguery and slander. But in the eyes of the Automatic Left, anyone who's being censored by Israel, anyone who's against the occupation, anyone who's for the Palestinians is one of us and deserving of support. It's this kind of simplistic white-and-black view of the conflict that I can't stand about the supposed-extreme-left. And Hanin's presence there... well, that's the kind of thing that assures I'd never vote for him on a national level, and the kind of thing that makes me suspicious of the new Tel Avivian movement he participates in.
I finished Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union yesterday, and I loved it. A real masterpiece. It's got noir, it's got alt-history, it's got yiddishkeit, it's got it all, and it's written in Chabon's masterful style. There's a slump in the middle where you think it's going to be the Kavalier-and-Clay Antarctica thing all over again, but where Kavalier-and-Clay descends into incoherence Policeman's Union turns around and shoots back up, ending on a high note.
I read the English original (with an added bonus in the back of Chabon's original two-page essay on the English-Yiddish phrasebook that started him off on the idea) and I am told that the Hebrew translation may not be as good. I know Kavalier didn't work for me in Hebrew, but in here the English language is almost a burden, the book just anxiously waiting translation into Yiddish, so I don't know.
I installed Ubuntu a couple of weeks ago, and it has a little gadget next to the hour where it tells you the temperature and what the sky's like. It seemed off to me at first, as it was telling me 29 C at night, so I found myself looking through the meteorological service's site here, fascinated by the little graphs. All last week the temperature in Tel Aviv ranged between 26 and 30 degrees Celsius, and the humidity from 70% to 80%. I'm telling you, this kind of controlled environment, usually you need a lab to get it. |
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| 08:43pm 13/07/2008 |
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I've finally finished Robin Hobb's Shaman's Crossing, first part of the Soldier's Son trilogy. And it's important to note that it's part of a trilogy, because Crossing spends half of its 300 pages (200 to start with and the final 100) telling the story related to the eponymous crossing, and another 300 dull pages laying ground for what presumably happens in the rest of the series.
The books starts off well enough. Hobb spends a while describing the childhood and youth of the Soldier Son, the son of a "new noble" in a vaguely 18th century-like realm in the midst of an expansion campaign into the untamed wilderness of the east. The world Hobb creates is rather fascinating, in fact. Often in fantasy the setting is either a generic kingdom filled with knights and princesses, or is closely based on some historical counterpart. Even Martin's masterful Seven Kingdoms are identifiably European, with his eastern cultures resembling other earth locations. But Hobb's Gernia is a post-gunpowder kingdom that is taming the wilderness. It has a king and strong nobles and vassals, but it fights the plainsmen and the forest people. It's possible that my knowledge of history is simply lacking, but the closest I could come up with was "America if it had a king".
Unfortunately, halfway through the book any semblance of plot gives way for an overly long description of life at a military academy. The protragonist's uncle warns him around page 200 that the academy discriminates between the sons of the old nobility and those of the newly invested lords. The next three hundred belabor this point with an Ender's-Game-sans-Space kind of theme. Finally at the last hundred pages the plot comes to its senses and some loose ends from the start of the book are tied up; but this is not so satisfying as it's a rather abrupt return and these hooks have no time to develop.
I'm not ruling out Hobb entirely, but for now I'm giving her up. I'm going on to Spiegelman's Maus and Doron Rosenblum's תוגת הישראליות. Both should finish rather quickly.
I watched Lost in la Mancha over the weekend. It's a documentary about how Terry Gilliam failed to shoot the movie The Man who Killed Don Quixote. Starts out slow, but there's a remarkable fatalistic sense to it and the second half is touching. It's also rather sad, as it looks like it might have been a great movie.
Last two or three weeks have been packed; I had a game on Mondays, Spanish on Tuesdays and two out of three times an afternoon shift on Wednesdays, so I'd kind of start the week and whoosh find myself on Thursday. But at least I had three day weekends pretty much consistently. Of course, this weekend the cat was sick, which was taxing, but she looks to be almost entirely better now.
Confidential to Y: It's "bon marché". |
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| The Tolk |
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| 01:55pm 08/06/2008 |
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I have finally finished reading The Children of Hurin, the latest (possibly last) excavation of Tolkien's work. I actually finished it last Saturday on vacation, and yesterday I read the appendices. There are, of course, appendices.
There's sort of a vague similarity between reading a new Tolkien book and going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I also did last night. You approach either one with some apprehension about how they will measure up to the originals, hoping in your heart they'll be just as good but prepared for the inevitable dashing of another cultural icon.
Except, it turns out it's not so inevitable. Crystal Skull is not Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade, but it's closer to them than to Temple of Doom. And Children of Hurin is every bit as good as the Silmarillion.
And that's the catch. You can't go into Children looking for another Lord of the Rings. It doesn't feel like novel - there are few dialogues, the characters are shallow, and there is no suspense or traditional story structure. But if you're looking for an epic tone, a feel of mythology and of another time and place, if you want to know when Cabed-en-Aras turned into Cabed Naeramarth, and how the kingdom of Nargothrond fell, if you want a Greek tragedy set against a fantastic backdrop, in short - if you're looking for another Silmarillion - then you'll be very happy with Children of Hurin. |
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| Food |
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| 09:56pm 25/05/2008 |
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For a minute today I felt like I was in the Fellowship of the Rings movie, but then I realized it was just Jonathan Moses passing on the street.
As I often seem to be mentally noting to myself I should at this or another spot as I pass them by or contemplate them, I have decided to make a list.
פלאפל בבוגרשוב
קובה באבן גבירול
הזופה שמגישה דים סאם בקיץ
אייסברג וולקנו
בודהה בורגר
חומוס אבו דאבי
הפיצה בבוגרשוב
They are in no particular order, except for Abu Dubby and the Pizza which are at the bottom because I've eaten there not so long ago. |
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Read 1 - Post |
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| Her yellow face stares at him from above |
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| 08:47pm 24/05/2008 |
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At the night safari trip we were on a couple of days ago, we witnessed the following exchange:
מדריך: וההיפופוטמים חייבים להישאר במים כל היום, כדי לא להתייבש, כי מי האוייבת הגדולה שלהם?
ילד מאחור: הג'ירפה!
Oddly enough, it seems like most of us were thinking it, too. |
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| Ze Germans |
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| 01:32pm 22/05/2008 |
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I've finished Fatherland, an alternate history detective novel taking place in 1960's Nazi Germany. I bought it for the alternate history tag, but it really turns out to be a proper detective novel, complete with the unshaved inspector and the young blonde. (I'm not sure she's a blonde)
The whole nazi thing figures in there, too, and it's interesting to read - it all sounds pretty realistic. Well, most of it; if anything this alternate-Germany feels a bit too liberal, more free than I'd imagine it.
In any case, good book. I finished it sometime around the weekend, and I haven't really gotten into the next book beyond a few pages. Busy week, somehow, and when I get to bed I'm usually too tired to read. |
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| Bloody essays |
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| 06:17pm 11/05/2008 |
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The need to write those little essays about my goals and my past is causing me physical discomfort. I haven't slept well in three days due to this impending doom hovering above me. Bloody hell. |
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| in the city |
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| 09:52pm 04/05/2008 |
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Between the English, French and the occasional German on the streets, there is no mistaking it - summer has come to Tel Aviv. |
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