in israel

2006-10-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

Back Again

I'm sitting in French Hill, also known as Givat Sarfateet and Givat Shapiro, where I call home for the time being. It is in a neighborhood north of Jerusalem and across the green line, but not far enough to be considered a "dangerous" area. From the porch of my friend's home I can look into the West Bank, the Jordanian Mountains, and the valley between French Hill and Mount Scopus where the nearby Arab town of Isawiyya lies.
My class begins tomorrow for my masters in musicology, four hours of music analysis in Hebrew and then Sunday, a class in Bach, also in Hebrew. Tomorrow is basically the assurance that I am attempting the ridiculous, but hey if not now, when?
No really, I'm quite fired up for this degree. I looked over the description today in English and it is the path I want. I will be able to return to my studies of Middle Eastern culture through music while exploring other musics of the world.
I am enjoying Jerusalem. Regardless of all the crap that can make this country a terrible place, she never ceases to amaze me. Her winding corriders and cobblestone paths shape her. In her voice, the prayers of Muslims, Jews, and Christians sound from their houses of prayer as well the occasional Dixieland Band playing on Ben Yehuda Street. Just last night, I caught a brass band playing, Marsh Dondurma (www.marshdondurma.com) playing on Ben Yehuda, highly recommended! The whole city is a spiritual and material meeting of continental plates carrying servings of wonderfully, slightly unbalanced in the healthiest of ways with the more often than not, eccentric and quite absurd _________ (fill in the blank . . . it could be anyone) that just won't stop irritating and contributing to the balagan (mess) of the city.

It feels good to be here.

peace

2006-05-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

as long as i am writing as infrequently that i am, i might as well write about the bedouins again. one can never hear enough about the bedouins these days anyway.

so, the story begins . . .

last december, my local rabbi visited with his students an invited me to join them at a bedouin tourist site. just to give a fair assessment of the place, its probably not owned by bedouins and bedouins don't drink a much tea and black coffee as portrayed in the bedouin tents and believe or not they actually live in houses! these sites give some insight into bedouin customs and tradtions and appropriately leave out the modern problems the bedouins suffer from as of late. it would be pretty unfair to scare the tourists away anyway. now that i've started a rant about about tourism, maybe i should stop and actually talk about what i sat down to write about.

at kfar nokdim (a hop, skip, and a jump from arad), i met a bedouin musician ( a real bedouin musician) who plays the "oud." Just to refresh your memories, its a 1/2 tear drop with a guitar neck and angled headstock, very much like the lute. the musicians's name is muhammed abu ajaj and an individual next to none. it turns out, he's the only bedouin recording and studying the music of his people and currently studies musicology at hebrew university. after our conversation, he invited me to study with him. i gladly accepted his invitation and we parted ways with his number and CD, entitled "Kseifa."

i tried contacted muhammed, but we never seem to be able to connect. thanks to one of our group's coordinators and a friend of mine, i finally made contact with Muhammed. It turns out Daphne the coordinator worked with Muhammed at her previous job at Kfar Nokdim and Anna the friend ran into Muhammed while visiting kfar nokdim. anyway, they both gave me his number and told me to call because that he was looking for an english teacher top help his children out and would gladly teach me in exchange.

if i had only pursued him more intensely . . .

i'm sitting at the computer at 12:50 am, about a half hour Muhammed and I parted ways. I hopped a bus to his hometown of Kseifa at about 3:30 this afternoon. we met up at the town's entrance and promptly sat down to talk about music and the oud. after about 2 hours, we finished up and i began my lessons with his children. another two hour passes and mohammed asks if i want to attend a concert in the center of town. His student planned to perform in honor of his upcoming participation in the "arabvision" music competition (www.farfesh.com). So, of course, I said "yes." how often does the white, privledged jewish boy from jersey receive an opportunity to hang with folks from the other side of the world.

Upon sitting down at table in front of the musicians, a fellow approaches me and offers me a drink. though it sounds like a pick-up, this overt friendless is a part of their culture and something to be appreciated and not weirded out by. Aatef and I talked for a while about the bedouins and the jews. he told many bedouins volunteer as police offeres in the bedouins areas and that most of the occupied territory border are protected by bedouin scouts. Aatef partipates in programs by the Negev Institute for Stategies and Peace Development, www.nisped.org.il. if you're interested in learning more, please check the site out.

For the remainder of the time, more and more people introduced themselves to me. I met an artist, Amin, who studies in the area. Great artist and good friends. In the midts of theses meetings the band played. The band didn't just play they played and they never let up. The melody came from the bedouin tradition, but the words were about modern experiences, sung extemporaneously by several young bedouin men. Women were not a part of the scene. Usually, the women will dance seperately and sometimes obscurred by a tent. Several of the men did line and circle dance, similar to sqaure dancing and jewish folk dance. sometimes, a dance would break off from the group and lead the dancers in a kind of call and response dance, where dance became the repeated idea as oppossed to the word.

This continued on to about 12 at night and after, imbibing the culture of Kseife, I returned back to sleepy Arad.

When you get a chance, search Muhammed Abu Ajaj. he's done quite a number of performances around the world. he is someone to certainly keep an eye on.

2006-04-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

NEW MUSIC!!

or at least one song --

www.myspace.com/amiyares

2006-03-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

Elections!

I just witnessed the results of the Israeli Election exits polls. To be privy to this has been such a fantastic event in my life. first off, the presence and importance of multiple party system as opposed to the two party system creates a much broader spectrum of issues. some parties offer singular views on a given topic and other present more diverse issues as a part of their platform. In Israel, the parties compete for a majority of the seats, 61 out of 120. Rarely and almost never has this occured, thus the need for a coalition and compromise with other parties is needed to forge a government. These coalitions can be both positive and negative because a party participating in a coalition wants to have its needs met. Those needs can be a hinderance to the head of the coalition. In this parlimentary system, a minority voice can be very important and can help decide the success of a coalition government. An unknown party called the pensioners, a group that did not compete in the commericials and public debates won 8 seats (out of 120) in the knesset (the israeli government). the pensioners are a group of people that want to give more aid to retirees and education. The social economic situation had been threatened previously while the gap between the upper and lower class grows. Out of nowhere, this group arrives and makes clear an issue that needs to be heard amongst the ever-present security issue that surely has been a center peace to the election. This being said, the pensioners will be seeking out to give a voice to the elder and poor in the hopes to be remembered in the future's political agenda. Granted the larger parties have views on this subject, the pensioners' presence in the government and participation in a coalition will further their cause. This presence of the pensioners can make or break the upcoming coaltions. However, i'm sure the pensioners will side with the majority coalition due to the importance of their goals.

As it looks right now, the government will be left of center. this goverment will be deciding the borders of israel. Will israel return to the 67 borders or will some exchange of land take place, concessions with Hamas? -- who knows? But I am happy to say, it seems the country is going in the right direction -- israel needs to be a voice of peace and remove the archaic and decaying right's aggressive rhetoric.

Maybe this time around, peace will be realized.

and "yeah" for a parlimentary government!!

2006-03-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

New Music

I'm starting to post my music up on the web. I've begun with some older stuff, but more recent material will be posted within the week. Go to: www.myspace.com/amiyares

cheers

2006-01-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

Doing well . . .

I know its been a long time since, I've last written. I have definetly settled into life out here and a routine of sorts.

Sunday: Hebrew Language Intensive all day, followed by some music and food

Monday: Some music practice in the morning, a trip to the outdoor market for my week's food, followed by Hebrew Language Intensive in the afternoon

Tuesday: The rest of the group usually goes on a trip somewhere in the country, These days are optional for the arts track participants, so I usually stay back and write for most of the day.

Wednesday: Hebrew Language Intensive until lunch and then I take a bus the Old City of Jaffo to study "oud." Check out my teacher's webpage, www.yairdalal.com and here's a good site for information about the "oud." http://www.mikeouds.com/ -- Its a great instrument, I'll write more later about that. the ride lasts baout two hours and my class usually last about four hours, sometimes 5 1/2 hours if i take a private lesson before hand. The class is taught all in hebrew, so its a great place to improve hebrew and my understanding of middle eastern music.

Thursday: Return to Arad in the AM for Hebrew Language Intensive in the afternoon. After class on thursday, the weekend begins.

Friday and Saturday: Late wake, some errands, and then the stores close for shabbat and its pretty much relaxtion until saturday night.

It seems pretty easy, but I'm definetly devoted to figure out this language and writing my own music. I'm working hard and if i can post some music that I have finished, I will.

2005-12-09T03:17:00.000-08:00

December 7, 2005

I spent this morning in a Bedouin Village close to Arad. A local artist who moonlights as a special needs tutor invited me to watch her work with five year old Bedouin children.

Here’s a little history . . .

The Bedouins are Arabs but traditionally a nomadic people until the last sixty years. They lived all over the Middle East, traveling with their herds and families. When the Ottoman Empire was carved up, Bedouin, in a way lost their independence. Their nomadic tendencies began to change and when Israel gained its independence, she also gained several thousand Bedouin – and even more now. The Bedouin presented Israel with an interesting challenge, to integrate the Bedouin into the Israel demographic. Unfortunately, the thought provoking question, only provided unthoughtful action. It is nearly impossible for a pastoral society to transfer its culture and influence unto a nomadic culture without nearly disastrous results. The desert’s capital Beersheva began as a town for Bedouins to live and settle, however it turned into a place of tribal strife and their traditional lamb skin tents lay in the streets adjacent to the buildings built for the Bedouin families.– it failed – though has become a very successful city for the Israelis.

In the desert, the tents would welcome visitors without question for three days. On the third day, the Bedouin hosts decided if the guest would stay. In the mean time, black coffee, sweet nana tea, and whatever food on hand would be served to the guest. It was unfathomable for the Bedouin to trade their tents in for concrete blocks. On the other hand, the Bedouin lifestyle limits the effect of modernity, meaning education and health are more than just several years behind times. This conflict of culture versus modernity continues today.

Scattered along the desert highways, corrugated steel roofs and cement structures house many of today’s Bedouins. Some of these towns are recognized by the Israeli government and these Bedouin recognize Israel, some even serve in the army. However, many villages exist and are unrecognized by the Israeli government, many of these “cities” lack electricity, running water, etc.

I visited four schools today and sat with teachers, some barely out of high school – the bedouin population grows at an extremely fast rate and the recognized districts lack the resources to employ professional teachers. I worked with two teachers that were studying my friend’s number and color lessons. We played Dominoes and Memory in arabic. I think I found a great way for me to pick up Arabic. In another school, I sat in a sand box with 15 bedouin children staring at the big, goofy American. We counted in Arabic, then in Hebrew, and English for about an hour. This impromptu lesson consisted of the haphazard construction of several sand mounds that were soon thereafter wiped out by the children as soon as we said the number of mounds in three different languages. In another, it was a sadder affair – the regular teacher bailed on school and does this on a regular basis due to some raging nepotism within the infrastructure of the school. Thirty children sat and watched Arabic cartoons of Don Quixote, Hansel and Gretl and numerous other stories. I also later found out that there is an extremely high level of incestuous relations that lead to some debilitating diseases. Its not as bleak as it seems – the children smile and play, and the teachers do care – but as I was told today, when you students arrive on mule - you should know you are in for an experience like none other.

2005-11-22T03:21:00.000-08:00

2005-11-22T01:28:00.000-08:00

2005-11-22T01:04:00.000-08:00

Pictures like I promised -- enjoy . . .

The Mercaz Kleeta "Yafeet." My home for now.

My Window

Ten Minutes From My Room

2005-11-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

In to the fire . . . .

So, the program has officially begun. No more orientations, no more getting-to-know-you circles, and no more-what-are-your expectations conversations. I’m here, I’m in it, and it’s breathtaking.

I am in an intensive Hebrew class that meets 17 hours a week. By the end of the program, I will have accrued about 410 hours of instruction and that certainly does not include homework. Homework almost begins a new story in itself. The work outside of class manifests in the standard reading and grammar handouts, but also in life. As I converse with the people around me, native Hebrew speakers and non-native Hebrew speakers, the benefits of practical language application emerge, making me wonder why I didn’t study more Spanish in college and why my high school’s foreign language curriculum took me to only the center of bound pages.

I spent the weekend in Jerusalem visiting friends, several people on the mid-twenties angst trip, others who call Israel home, and the obligatory rabbinical students. On Friday, I found myself traipsing around the Old City of Jerusalem, small portions of East Jerusalem, and the bohemian neighborhoods of Baca and the Germany Colony. Many of the places in theses areas are either hundreds of years old (parts of the Old City) or a hundred years old (Baca and the Germany Colony). Everything is made with Jerusalem stone and the buildings sometimes seem to glow in the sunshine. It’s quite a workout circumnavigating Jerusalem. I mean this place is just one hill after another, after another, after another, you get the picture.

More importantly, I ended up in the hospital . . . no, I didn’t get hurt, in fact I’m pretty damn healthy right now. A friend of mind began to suffer some gastro-pain and later in the emergency room, the doctors diagnosed him with not appendicitis, but appendage-citis. Not many of us have figured out what it is, but the doctors loved bringing students into his room, pointing to my friend, say “appendage-citis” and then leave. No words for the patient, no comments to his students . . . “cloom” as the Israelis say (it means nothing). Anyway, my friend is fine now and I got a glimpse of an Israeli hospital voluntarily . . . not a bad deal.

My weeks are beginning to have some sort of routine and I have even begun writing, the primary goal of this trip. Another week has now begun and I am running headfirst into it. In a month, I’ll have my first performance as an artist presenting his work and in the meantime, some other musicians and I are getting a group together to hit the pub scene.

The pub is where I will end my blog for this week. Of course, I have frequented the pub to observe the locals and taste the-ever-popular Danish fermentation technique and on many occasion, the choice of music in the pub comes to my attention. Never I have been to a bar where it seems upon entering, I have entered a time warp (except for McGann’s where 80’s rock lives forever) --- this isn’t like your standard Irish pub with memorabilia and the like. Rather, the music conjures up images of “Jams,” spike-dyed hair, some combat boots, and a smattering of leather. Last week, I heard almost all of Dire Strait’s “Greatest Hits” and this week it was the Scorpions “Greatest Hits.” I’m not knocking Dire Straits, but I am most definitely knocking the Scorpions. I mean I really liked “Winds of Change” when I was 10, but I mean who really wants to hear “Rock You like a Hurricane” and their collected greatest hits, geez. It’s almost awful.

2005-11-06T16:51:00.000-08:00

November 6, 2005

So, I split the country last week to enjoy Israel for several months to become fluent in Hebrew and make music a vocation instead of just an avocation.

It is now one week since my arrival in Israel. Its also been one week that I have know that coming to Israel at this point of my life was the right thing for me to do. Before I even boarded the plane, I met an ‘Ud (the middle eastern lute) teacher and played a little music. If things work out, I’ll have a teacher and someone to help me buy an ‘Ud. I’m not one for signs, but this meeting was definetly a bonus.

The town I live in, Arad, is pretty small and everything I need is within walking distance. We’re surrounded by the desert. The mountains of Jordan and the Dead Sea lie only twenty miles from town and easily seen from the hills here.

I wake up every morning to a panoramic view of the Negev (the Israeli Desert that comprises of nearly fifty percent of the country) and my days are filled with playing music, learning Hebrew, and being in the presence of many passionate and inspiring people.

The program set me up with an apartment in the local Immigrant Absorption Center called Yafeet. I room with a fellow from Holland named Petr. It’s a fairly small apartment. One room, a tiny kitchen, a closet, and a bathroom. I live among a variety of people. Of course there are plenty of Americans, but there are also people from Holland, Hungary, France, South Africa, Switzerland, Scotland, Mexico, Argentina, and Russia.

So far, the Group has traveled in to the Negev to explore some dry rivers (wadis) and a natural phenomenom called machtesh. A machtesh is very much like a crater, but created by the erosion of a mountain top. A top layer of hard earth erodes, leaving a very soft clay-like dirt that also blows away. Over enough years, the appears to be a gigantic hole in the ground. This event only can be found in Israel.

This coming week is the formal beginning of the program. I’ll be in an intensive Hebrew language immersion program and practicing/writing several hours a day. Soon, I will have a space in the conservatory and that’s when things will really get serious.

I'm going to post some pictures, but the upload speed here is terrible. So, hopefully in a few days something will be up here.