Tel Aviv Diary - July 12-16, 2010 Karen Alkalay-Gut
July 12, 2010
Spain it is. The Arabs and the women I know wept with Holland even as they knew that Spain was better. I don't know about the Israeli men. We have a thing about winning and losing - associating with the losers but ignoring them the minute after they lose. Wanting so much to be the winners. Of course it is a matter of survival as well - if we don't win, we lose. Completely. Hard to imagine transcending that mentality.
July 13, 2010 Maybe because we spend all our time fighting battles, maybe because we have to improvise all the time to make up for lack of funds, but even the way we fight cancer here seems so different and so unique. As "graduate" of the lymphoma ward, Ezi was invited to a concert tonight (with me) at Ichilov hospital of poetry and music written by patients and former patients. It was a crowd of patients, staff, and admirers, and excitement and energy filled the air.
The voluntary cooperation of everyone, the overwhelming desire to heal, the openness and the variety of the poems - all combined to make this an amazingly effective experience.
July 14, 2010 Heat. Heat. It seems to confuse every one's judgement. Everything is mixed up: good guys turn out to be killers (like religious saints), boats going where their log says but not where they say their going, bad guys turn out to be not so bad (like ex prime ministers), etc. etc. Me I| don't want to step out of my house because I may make a similar mistake. July 15, 2010 Cleaning my desk I found two old poems published in Hebrew in Iton 77 in 1981 "The Second Time" and "I Knock". I kind of remember writing them but they didn't go into the book published a year later, "Pislei Chema," and they would have been lost to posterity and my memory. Surprise! Actually, the first one is in the book, but the second one isn't. Here's a more cultural experience you wouldn't want to miss:
July 16, 2010 This just came out on Leadel and I thought you might want to know what I've been up to.
If its too heavy just follow the Leadel link above, until I figure out how to lighten it up. If you're wondering why my name only appears on the film and not as a credit, it's a good question. Ask them.
July 16, 2010
A wonderful review of Danza del Ventre For those of you who don't read Italian, I'll translate --- eventually.
Hot Day Long bike ride. Old Lady.
