Jerusalem Diary: February 2009

Friday, February 20, 2009

magic etrog juice

magic etrog juice
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

I decided to buy magic etrog juice on my birthday, after someone tried to sell me a bottle of absinthe from Czechoslovakia. Perhaps I should have bought them both? I said, what am I going to do with a whole bottle of absinthe, and the salesman said, "You give it to your guests, it is very classy." Apparently Marilyn Manson has his own brand of absinthe now, called "Mansinthe." And he paints - watercolours! He seems more and more like a late 19th century decadent to me in light of these details - as much green carnation as green fairy.

rooftops old city

rooftops old city
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

In the Arab market, there are stairs that lead to the roofs of the old city. Behind the bicycles and antennae and broken furniture you can see the dome of the rock, and in the other direction (not pictured) the church of the holy sepulcher.

train tracks

train tracks
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

The city was thick with yellow smog yesterday - sand blowing in from the Judean desert. Drifts of sand collected on the windshields of cars, and there was a sullen, unstable quality to the air.

ben

ben
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

Is kicking his cold to the curb. He was sick most of the week and recovered in time for capoeira. This virus has made both the boys tremendously sweet - it's perhaps part of its evolutionary strategy, since they are such irresistible vectors of infection.

lev reading

lev reading
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

Lev now knows all his English letters, in caps. He's prostrate on the couch right now. The plague has struck our house. I think the viruses are bigger and badder here - sabra viruses. He woke up in the night, stuffed up, and said, Imma, I can't smell you! Imma, I can't smell myself!

old city

old city
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

This stall is run by a Bedouin with a shaved head who fakes a Texas accent and plays Charlie Armstrong.
It was my birthday yesterday. I've been reading Saki. "To have reached thirty, said Reginald, is to have failed at life."

Friday, February 13, 2009

Happy Valentine's!

valentine
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

ben and ella

ben and ella
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

Ben and my friend's new baby. Because he loves their little hands...

crossroads of the world

crossroads of the world
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

This is the best crosswalk in Jerusalem. I stood there about a half hour today but couldn't quite get a photo depicting the multicultural madness of it- I'll try another time.

ben and lev

ben and lev
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

The batman cape is back in favor.
Here Ben and Lev are watching election results in great finger-biting suspense.

ben's ceremony

ben's ceremony
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

Ben at the siddur ceremony. I liked it that the boys got to do a little interpretive dance. You can't see the red paint that Ben got all over his new white shirt right before the ceremony.

lev

lev
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

On our long walk on Tuesday. The force is strong with this one.

waffles

waffles
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

This was our election day in Jerusalem. If only the whole country had been voting for waffles with blueberries or waffles with strawberries.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Some comments on the pictures below:

Spring has sprung. That means the almond trees are blossoming, like the song says. They lie like snow on the tree branches and make me think of Montreal. The days are also getting longer which means we can take the boys to the park after school. They are becoming such good co-conspirators - I like the picture on the bottom, where Lev is looking at Benjamin in disbelief, like Augustine looked at Ambrose of Milan when he saw the latter reading to himself - whoaaa - you mean you can do that?

It is a relief to have the war over for now, and the weather is guiltily delicious - guiltily since the country needs rain. But elections are here to provide daily doses of bathos and idiocy. Recently Barak accused his rival, Lieberman, of "never even shooting a man" - as if that was a necessary criterion for political office. And Lieberman himself wants to require all citizens to take a loyalty oath to the state or be stripped of their citizenship, and he's under trial for financial corruption, and has a criminal record including indictment for hitting the classmate of one of his sons. Because you have to show them who's boss....