This morning, I jumped on my bicycle and pedaled to משרד הפנים misrad ha-p'nim (the Office of the Interior) to get a new תעודת-זהות te'uudat zehuut (Israeli identity papers), which I lost, or maybe were stolen - but which, I need tomorrow when I go to vote. When I got back to my flat, I had a surprise in my mail box. My friend, Mike Brody mahakala78 who is a comedian, sent me a dvd of some of his material. (Thank goodness he's really funny - a riot, in fact!) On the bus on the way to school, I did my own rendition of his rap song, much to the amusement (?!) of my fellow passengers. Why Mike, a cute Buddhist boy, would make a Christian rap song about sexual abstinence his theme song - well, you really need to see him on stage to get it. (Get thee to a comedy club, pronto!).

Then, I went to the university, to the Moshe Dayan Center, to copy a chapter I need to help prepare for a lecture on Wednesday. http://www.dayan.org Afterwards, I met my friend, Hamza at a cafe on campus and we sat out in the sun. I gave him an impromptu music lesson on the different families of instruments of an orchestra in the Western symphonic tradition, and the history of the role of the conductor. Then, I put him through some rhythmn drills. He's preparing for entrance exams at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, so, this is good medicine. http://www.jmd.ac.il/english/

I finally pulled myself away and went to the library to hunt down some leads for a paper on the Ottoman Conquest of the Balkans and the Process of Islamization, which I'm still kicking around. It's just supposed to be a bibliographic exercise and not more than, maybe, twenty-five pages, but it's gone through several incarnations (so far!), as I've continued to read and think about the topic in different ways. It seems there are some obvious ommisions in the discourse that I'd still like to explore.

At 6:30, I went to בית-הפוצות beit-hafutzot (The Museum of the Diaspora), to attend a concert which was part of a series called רוק ופיוט Rock & Piyuut. Piyuutim are liturgical poems, often song.  You may know some of them:   Adon Olam, Maoz Tzur (from Channukha), Lecha Dodi... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piyutim At each meeting, there is a singer or a band (tonight it was a band called Knisiyat ha-Sechel), plus a singer named Lior Elmaliach who has a fabulous Mizrachi voice.  There was also a flamenco guitarist.  There program went rapid fire with lots of variety. Interspersed, there were a couple of Jewish stories and a bit of Midrash.  The series is sponsored by Hillel.

Back home again, I watched a clip on the MEMRI site of an interview of Syrian poet, Adonis in which he suggests that Arabs are extinct. Interesting! You can find the clip is here: http://www.memritv.org/ Click "Previous" and then, scroll down a little. It's clip #1076. It's from Dubai TV (11 March 2006). Daniyal, wicked_danu did you see him?

Off to sleep now, so that I can get up and be a good citizen in the a.m. - and vote!

Here's a poem before bed by Adonis:
ADAM
Choking quietly
with pain,
Adam whispered to me,
"I am not the father
of the world.
I had
no glimpse of paradise.
Take me to God."

Tags: adonis, brody, piyuutim, rock
Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Patty Larkin: I Told Him that My Dog Woudn't Run