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."

Happy Valentine's!

valentine
Originally uploaded by nostalgist