Sunday, November 12, 2006
Pride in Jerusalem
the Hebrew words "Loh G'Vuloht" means "without borders"... On some level maybe it worked cuz all the religious people of all the different religiouns finally agreed on something...
None of them wanted the International Pride Parade to happen in Jerusalem...
So the Ultra Orthodox protested and were rioting in the streets, and Hamas was threatening to bomb stuff, and the Pope just basically said he was dissapointed in Jerusalem and that he didn't want it to happen.
The Israeli army said they didn't have the ability to protect the Parade from the violence threatened by the Ultra-Orthodox, and also deal with potential Hamas bombings, so they put it in a corner of the Hebrew University campus on the edge of the track field and called off the actual Parade...
The Israeli band "HaDag Nahash" played and had the crowd jumping around for a while... They were fun, even though I was mostly irritated by the whole thing...
The "Green Party" was there too.
and that's 'Green' as in "Legalize It"
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Israeli Critical Mass sticker
I was walking around a few days ago and came across this sticker..
It says "Critical Mass" spelled phonetically in Hebrew (actually it says "Mass Critical" but who's getting specific?)
Jerusalem tall bike!
Today was successful and unsuccessful. I did not do any of the things I set out to do today mainly because I was nausous the whole day from eating Krembo's last night (see posting below).
Tthis morning I was going to go meet some old friends and visit a gravesite of personal importance but somehow I missed my bus even though I was standing right there. Since I was feeling sick anyways, I decided to come back home and sleep for another couple hours. On my walk home from the central bus station, and only a couple blocks from the place I'm staying at, I came across not only a bike shop, but a bike shop with a freak bike outside!!
I went inside all excited to talk to the owner of the bike shop and find out about the tall bike and I saw a photo of the same peice of graffiti that I took a photo of the last time I was in Israel almost four years ago.
The graffiti was an addition to a 'no parking' sign. Someone had added a question mark to the no parking sign, painted a big bicycle and added the words "Ride a Bike!" in Hebrew. Simple. No parking? Ride a bike!
Yesterday I walked past the spot where that graffiti used to be (near the old Jerusalem train station) in the hopes that it might still be there but of course it was gone.
I asked Ilan (the bike shop owner) about the tall chopper bike outside, and the photo. He said he built the bike last winter when he was bored and showed me another recumbant freak bike in the shop (that he also built). This one was adorned with a styrofoam head in he front. The kind that religious women use to sit their wigs on when they're not wearing them. It was awsome!
He was excited that I knew about the bike graffit and told me it took him years to find out who did it. Turns out it was this girl and her brother. He said that they painted it one crazy night while drunk or stoned or something. He said now she's religious and doesn't ride bikes anymore.
He gave me a flyer for Critical Mass in Jerusalem. Last Fri of the month at noon. Maybe I'll postpone my stay by a couple days so I can ride with them...
I told him I'd come back tomorrow and talk more.. he said he has more bikes to show me... and I want to take more pictures of him and his shop.
Ophney Nitzan
is my new favorite bike shop in the world (besides all my other favorite bike shops of course).
surf bike?
apparently you ride this bike like a surf board and go really really fast...
krembo
A Krembo is an Israeli treat that my gross sweet tooth habit has a true love for. It is a marshmellowy cream puff surrounded with chocolate, sitting on a little cookie. It is also the reason why I was nausous all day today (I ate two of them last night!)
I'm gonna lay off the Krembo's...
Yeterday.
I walked for 7 hours today.. all around Jerusalem.. visited memory spots.. didn't really set out to do it.. just sort of happened.. went past the house I used to live in when I was 18/19 yrs old.. went into the building in the old city where the Rabbi who fancied himself a marraige counselor told me that it was probly a good thing that I was about to have a miscarraige since he didn't think I was capable anyways... walked past the spot I sat in across from the Roman ruins in the Old City the night we found out that the Prime Minister, Yitzack Rabin, was murdered. That night, through my one good eye (bc the other was covered with a patch from an operation I had to have bc of a crazy car accident), I watched people crying histerically and pulling their hair out in mourning. I also watched people dancing with joy through the streets because they were so happy that he was killed since he was pro-peace and 'giving away' land. And amidst all this, I watched 2 friends come to blows over heated words and chase each other down the street drunk and violently.
I'm trying to peice it all together.. I really wish I could just take it out of my head so I could look at it.. I feel like every step I take leaks memories..
