nudes ascending a couch no. 2 (after Duchamp)

nudes ascending a couch no. 2 (after Duchamp)
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

I think I may need to retitle this picture - it is attracting the wrong kind of traffic to my Flickr account.
The boys, after the bath last night, running wild, like the futurist dream they are.
I watched Waltzing with Bashir last night. It is excellent - just excellent. And I read the graphic novel The Rabbi's Cat, by Joann Sfar, about a cat in a re-imagined early 20th century Algeria - self-described as "nocturnal, unpredictable, and deeply ethical." And I'm reading Alice Munro for my class. My student described the impact of her stories as a "maka yevesha" which means, roughly, a dry bruise - a harsh blow deliberately placed so it will not show a mark. The term comes from army interrogations.

ben in school

ben in school
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

I took pictures at Ben's school this week, at the teacher's request, in preparation for this big grade 1 bash where the kids all get their first prayerbooks. So they sent all the children out to me, one by one in the little courtyard under the palm tree, to be photographed, and then when Ben's class was done they kept on sending me more kids - the other grade 1 group, the special needs kids - until I had taken about 200 pictures (the girls were much better at posing). I took my memory card to the photo shop at Hebrew University the next day and it was empty. I was shocked - so shook up I wasn't even sure that I could teach. It wasn't only the waste of all this work, and the prospect of humiliating myself, it was the epistemological shock of something gone that I was certain was there. Kind of like what happened to the stock market this year.

But when I got home and put the photos in the camera they all reappeared. Now if only my stocks would do that.

ben and lev

ben and lev
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

Roadrunner before shabbat. On his way home Jeremy asked Benjamin if he'd like to play Magic with him and Benjamin said, yes, but I'd like to spend some time with Imma first, I didn't get much time with her yesterday.

chalil

chalil
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

On the bus on the way from the market I sat across from a man who said his name was Chalil (flute). He took out his recorder and played a few notes - he said it was a shabbat song. Before he got off the bus he played it again and some people near the front applauded.

cider

cider
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

In the market today the cheese store was having a tasting of cider from Normandy - two kinds made of apples and one of pears. I ate cheese off the grand knife and tried two of the ciders before stumbling around the rest of the market. It was ten in the morning. I bought a plate of cheeses, a bottle of the cider, jerusalem and potato kugels, passionfruit cheesecake and chocolate rugelach, black olives and olives with lemons, humus and pesto.

lev strawberry

lev strawberry
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

Strawberry season! We ate over a kilo yesterday, and I'm hoping to go back to the market for more. The strawberry merchants at the market have a song they sing to attract customers: Tut sadeh, tut sadeh, gam gadol vegam yafeh (strawberries, strawberries, large and lovely).
Other news: Jeremy had a birthday yesterday. We went to see a Scots antique dealer who claims to be descended from the khazars and has an incredible shop in meah shearim, heaps of second temple coins on the table, statues and vases everywhere. He showed us parchment that he claimed was from the Raibid (medieval Jewish scholar) and amuletic bowls and coins and fetishes. We walked into the old city, met a Bedouin who faked a Texan accent , and showed us the stairs up to the linked patchwork of the roofs of the old city (Jerusalem - divided in its people, united in its roofs). We went out for supper and walked home and then I watched the inaugural speech - so happy birthday Jeremy and happy Presidency Obama (for weeks Jer's been saying - I want a black president for my birthday.)

orit

orit
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

Orit was here last week--we haven't had a chance to hang out, without children, for years.