Water and Guide Disagreement

Saturday's walking tour, thought mostly concerned with outdoor murals ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/fooled-my-eye.html ), paused at Micha Ullman's work "Water," the half of it in Kikar Tsion(http://jerusamelblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/handprint.html ).

This year's guide, a Bezalel grad, said the sculpture represents the union of the sewer systems in East and West Jerusalem, while the 2007 guide mentioned the unity of the water systems. Web sources quote Ullman on the common need for water.

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Manou Bashouk

Eitz Khaim is Shouk MakhaneYoodah's covered shopping street.

Manou BaShouk is one of the wonderful little restaurants recently opened in the shouk. Cuisine is slightly Lebanese.

Walking from Yafo Rd (where the light rail is), Manou Bashouk is on your left, about a third of the way along the street, tables one step up and open to the street.

Ingredients are as fresh as on the market tables. It's a kosher meat restaurant with superb vegan dishes as well as (I am told) excellent meat options. Wonderful for a carnivore to have a meal with a vegetarian.

The name is a Biblical pun (Exodus 16:15), pronounced as it mainly is in today's Hebrew and in French.

The owners, who staff the restaurant, speak excellent French and English.

My only twinge about Manou Bashouk is that it is part of the gentrification that may in time push out the fruit and vegetable stands, the fish mongers and olive sellers, the salads and cheeses, which makd Mahaneh Yehuda (as it appears on maps).

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Harel Stanton said at the lecture (jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/sufi-lectures-and-music.html), which prepared us for the Sufi music and dance concert, that women got up and danced spontaneously at the small gathering he attended before the Rumi Festival in Konya, Turkey. Possibly those dances were similar to the flowing yet enrgy-filled movements of last night's dancer. For her final dance she did the traditional, seemingly impossible, whirling associated with Sufi men.

The musicians were equally good.

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Adrienne Haan

Adrienne Haan sang Weimar (and slightly later) cabaret songs at last night's rather strange Israel Broadcasting Authority - Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra concert. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuaY2Cd9Cts) The entire second half of the program was hers, mostly with a full orchestra behind her, though two or three songs had only the more-traditional piano accompaniment. She provided a continuity talk in English, part of the strangeness.

Haan is built like a swimsuit model who still competes in swimming matches. Her dressmaker should love her, and her hair (or possibly wig?) stylist is a genius.

Her voice singing these songs was uncannily similar to that of the magnificent Raymonde Abbecassis (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/cultural-differences.html ). I found a description of Haan calling her a "belter." Perhaps that's it.

"Belter" did amuse me. To science fiction readers, a "Belter" is a person who lives between Mars and Jupiter, making a living from asteroid mining.

But none of those exist, while Haan and Abecassis pleasurably do.

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Crowds

Crowds in the shouk Monday -- more than I'd have expected on an odd Monday, but the weather was sunny and warm, and Yafo Rd sidewalks were also full of pedestrians all the way to Kikar Tsion. For a long time after they closed Yafo to traffic to build the light rail, few people walked this route. Now I have hope the crowds are buying more from the stores along the way.

Many of the shops sell shoes. "How many shoes can Jerusalem need?" my friend asks. to be sure, in spite of a more and more people owning cars, Jerusalemites still walk more than do the inhabitants of most US cities. Also, I've noticed relatively few cobblers' shops. Many of today's shoes cannot be repaired.

If you like Nayot or Beautifeel shoes, buy them here for less.

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Mohawk

The man sitting in front of me on the mumber 13 bus had a mohawk. Haven't seen one of those in a while.

At first, it looked strangely like a wig. I suppose you could stick a mohawk wig on a shaved head with glue or spirit gum. After a while I could see how his own, growing, hair was twisted and combed.

Copyright 2-14 Jane S. Fox

Cultural Differences

The Israeli Andalusian Orchestra of Ashdod continues to be once of our favorites. Last night's concert reminded us of cultural differences between this orchestra's audience and the audiences at the Etnakhta concerts.

The audience claps along in the rhythm of some of the pieces. They sing along with vocalists. This all adds to the already considerable energy. At the end of each piece, and at concert's end, there's no feeling that you ought to go on applauding until the soloist leaves the stage. They stop applauding and, usually, the soloist walks off as the other musicians gather their instruments and follow.

The audience at last night's concert loved Raymonde Abecassis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75VZQAm1YXQ ). At the end, she stayed on stage, talking to members of the crowd.

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Dror Levy's Ethiopian Stills

Dror Levy's stills of Ethiopia, exhibited in the downstairs lobby of the Jerusalem Theater's Henry Crown auditorium, have a strange quality reminiscent of the old ViewMaster slides. Figures stand out from landscapes as if floating before imaginary backgrounds. Even a donkey floats, one hoof lightly touching the ground.

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Musrara

On Saturday, the Municipality's Hebrew walking tour was to Musrara. Somehow the closest I'd ever gotten to Musrara was the Italian hospital (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.co.il/2006/12/italian-hospital.html ), now Education Department offices.

Musrara is easy enough to get to: take any downhill street or path from Helene Malka. It is a lovely neighborhood which went through a period of overcrowding and poverty between the Independence and Six-Day Wars, when people with enough money to live elsewhere considered it undesirable because it was right on the border. Musrara houses at least ten art and cultural institutions, and it is one of the few Jerusalem neighborhoods in which Jews of various religious practice, and none, live together without overt hostility.

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Sufi Lectures and Music

We're looking forward to the Sufi music concert at the Islamic Art Museum (http://www.islamicart.co.il/en/). Friday's tour and lecture was part of the preparation. Photographer Harel Stanton showed us photographs of a low-key Sufi festival in Konya, Turkey, where the poet known as Rumi was invited to make his home. I liked Stanton's approach. He asks permission to photograph each subject, and offers them opportunities to take his picture. Thus he was able to capture one intimate meeting of Sufi believers -- or perhaps practitioners is a better word. The more public festival, in a basketball stadium, showcased traditional whirling dancers finding their way to God, but the people who gathered in a small room for music, dance, and sharing simple food were more appealing and almost understandable.

Stanton's pictures of Petra had no connection to Sufis or their music. They were just magnificent. We are now busy trying to find a suitable tour to Petra.

Copyright 2014 Jane S. Fox

Finding the Seam Museum

Never been there, but after the cashier at the Islamic Art Museum told a bewildered tourist she was not the first to wander in looking for the Seam Museum, I looked it up. To be sure, I first thought she said "Sea Museum," and wondered why there'd be one in Jerusalem.

Maps.google.com thinks the Seam museum is at the corner of Palmakh and HaNasi -- not surprising as maps.google.com also thinks Chel Handassa Street is over here where Katamon meets Talbieh.

The Seam Museum is actually on the seam, which is to say the old green line that separated East Jerusalem from West Jerusalem 1949-1967. The museum, whose official name is The Museum on the Seam, website (http://www.mots.org.il/Eng/Index.asp )has a good map hidden away at http://www.mots.org.il/Eng/Contact/Directions.asp .

If you want to go there by taxi, show the driver that map, and make sure he (it seems it is always a he) does not use his GPS.

But if you end up at the Islamic Art Museum, spend some time there.

Copyright 2013 by Jane Schulzinger Fox