I feel like I want to shout that over the roof-tops of Los Angeles. I don't mean to say that there is not a vibrant art scene in Los Angeles; only that it is, in my experience, spread out, expensive, and in many ways difficult to access. It takes a dedicated interest to seek it out.
Within two blocks of my apartment here in Tel Aviv there are at least 6 art galleries. 8 blocks away there is a historic museum and art gallery combined next to the CUTEST performance hall that I have ever seen. Every night there is a multiplicity of different live performances around the city, which all sit remarkably close together. Art walks, club walks, performance walks are all available by simply googling the day's scene and google mapping the tour.
Today Adam and I went with his mother to a performance of 3 young musicians; a singer, a violinist, and a pianist. They were extraordinarily talented and the performance hall was packed. I haven't attended many musical performances like this and I found myself inspired and introspective, appreciating the amount of hours and dedication these young people put into their art.
The concert hall was in a historic center of Tel Aviv, near the old city hall. These buildings are all situated in a circular plaza around a fountain pond full of fish and a living eco system. It's a small, very beautiful, quaint little center and every time I've been there it's had at least one or two families with dogs and small children enjoying the pond.
After the concert, we walked just a few short steps to the neighboring city hall memorial/ art museum and wandered around enjoying a loud and vibrant poster art exhibit. I also had the opportunity to go to the computer portals and watch really, really old videos of Tel Aviv. These were fascinating and even featured the "tick, tick, ticking" of those old-time videos. I LOVE this part of old cinema.
Now one thing was pervasive and consistently uncomfortable for me throughout this experience. I bet you can't guess what it is. I'll give you three seconds.
ONE...
TWO...
THREE...
It's the language barrier!!!! At the concert, the musicians spoke Hebrew and the emcees spoke Hebrew. Everyone we met spoke in Hebrew. The tour guide at the museum... spoke Hebrew. The exhibit descriptions... in Hebrew. Even the computer portals were only in Hebrew! The best part is that almost all of these people speak English... but they have absolutely no reason to when they're together. Except me. And I will say, a great deal of the time the Israeli's that I'm with make it a point to speak only in English around me. This will certainly change when I begin to learn Hebrew... but for now I definitely appreciate this gesture of shifting their entire mode of speaking so that I can be included.
After our magical tour of this circle we had a few more excursions, ultimately ending up at the Jaffa (pronounced Yah-fo) historic city center. This was the original city of Tel Aviv. This part of the city is what many people probably expect Israel to look like: old, religious, and intense. Because of Shabbat most of it was closed, but we did have an amazingly delicious meal and great dinner conversation on a cobblestone patio near the crashing waves of the Mediterranean. It was magical.
This was followed by a walk along a cobblestone path overlooking the water at sunset. We were at the top of the hill and could see over most of Tel Aviv when the Arabic prayers started playing from three separate minarets, which are something like mini-mosques (please don't take this name seriously by any means... unfortunately I just don't have the understanding to better explain them.) This was a beautiful experience that reminded Adam and I of the power of religious practice, or spiritual practice. I was especially enthused about the idea of honoring the day by stopping at sunrise and sunset, no matter the time or situation, to pray, meditate, and appreciate.
This and so much more happened on this beautiful day. I experienced this all sans camera, soaking in the arts and history. But soon I will have to relive at least the Jaffa excursion so that I can share it with all of you. Here is a picture of Jaffa that I borrowed from Google Images to give you an idea:
And here is a picture of the minarets:
What a beautiful day!!!! :)
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