Sandemans Tour of Tel-Aviv

I finally went on an official tour of Tel-Aviv. Now I've been on a Sandeman's tour before in Prague and found it very educational and informative there. I decided the other day that I would give it a shot here. At 3:30 p.m. on Wed. I took the tour around the city. With an Australian guide, a group of German tourists, two women from the Netherlands (who ducked out after 30 min.) and a Canadian originally from the Philippines we took off on this 3 hour journey. The tour - in English - starts off at the fountain in front of the Opera Tower and then weaves from the beach, to Bialik's house, to Bauhaus sites, to various other locations and ends in Neve Tzedek.

Opera Tower

The tour is great for learning historical information about Tel-Aviv and its founding.
One story I was particularly fond of was of Chaim Nachman Bialik's (Israel's national poet) initial arrival in his home in Tel-Aviv in 1924. Bialik was a household name at this point and the community was so eager to have him stay in Tel-Aviv and make him comfortable that they went to comical extremes. The neighborhood was very interested in keeping him writing that when he would take afternoon naps the area went silent (essentially all the neighborhood was warned and told the poet needs his rest).

Bialik's House

Some of the stories I found the most intriguing on the tour were the personal ones about the tour guides. Our guide, the Australian came here a year ago on a trip and has stayed ever since because he fell in love with an Israeli - who he met on the beach. He intends to return to Australia (with his mate) soon to begin graduate school in Middle Eastern politics and Medicine (which is apparently a shorter program down under).

Another story our guide told us, was about an American who came to Israel on birthright and went to the Billiard bar in Tel-Aviv - she got fairly drunk and had little to no recollection of the night before. However, the next morning a guy called her, who she remembered she exchanged numbers with and asked her out. She said why not and went out with him. As they say the rest is history, after 6 weeks of dating they got engaged and are now happily married for over 2 years. So birthright success - matching Jews up for years (JDate take note).

Ok enough of the asides back to the tour. Another tid bit of history I found particularly interesting came at the end of the tour and has to do with the proclamation ceremony of the founding of the State of Israel. After long fierce debates on what to name the to be announced state that evening, a committee of prominent figures including Ben-Gurion finally agreed on the name Israel. They all went home to get ready for the event that was just an hour or so away. Meanwhile, Ze'ev Sharef, the man who had volunteered to type up the agreed upon proclamation on his typewriter had finished with just enough time to spare to dress up and go to the ceremony. One thing he forgot to take into account was transportation. He goes outside to flag a taxi down and sees that the streets are deserted everyone is indoors listening to the radio awaiting the momentous declaration of the state of Israel. So Sharef begins to run, he sees a car whirling around the corner and jumps out in front of it. He explains to the driver the situation shows him the document and the driver agrees to take him to the Tel Aviv Museum (now Independence Hall) for the ceremony. After driving for a little while the British police stop the car for speeding. At this point the driver shares with Sharef that the car he is driving is borrowed and that he does not have a license. Slightly panicked and with the clock ticking Sharef explains the situation to the British police. Either they were Zionist policeman or they knew that in a couple of hours they would be leaving the country, either way they let Sharef and the driver go. Sharef arrived at the museum a minute before Ben Gurion opened the ceremony. With the reading of that document the State of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948.

The tour proved to be informative and I met some friendly interesting people along the way. I would recommend this tour to people who are new to the Tel-Aviv area and would like to learn a little about the history of the city.

Jaffa HaYafa: Jaffa Art Galleries

Word to the wise, if you decide to take a day trip to Jaffa (or Yafo) to go gallery crawling make sure you go early. The galleries, as I found out, tend to close at 4 or 5 p.m. some even earlier. Most of them open at 10 a.m. Also be aware that some are only open certain days of the week. One gallery I passed was open three days a week. In short, check before going.

Once I arrived, the first gallery I checked out was a gallery that sold vintage Israeli posters, featuring old ads for Israeli products, movie posters - including James Dean's "Rebel Without A Cause" (Hebrew edition) and Hashoter Azulai (Ephraim Kishon's "The Policeman") - and scenes from yesteryear Israel. The Farkash Gallery, is definitely for the college aged crowd with posters moderately priced at 75 shekels, not to mention the postcards at 3 shekels a piece. These posters would make great additions to a dorm room. In fact, as I walked in a mother and her high school/college aged daughter from the UK were leaving with a tidy sum of posters and postcards from the gallery. As I bought my postcards, I asked the gallery owners more about their gallery and apparently they have owned the gallery in Jaffa for about 30 years. However, the gallery itself was originally founded in 1948, and has been exhibiting Israeli art, including photography and paintings as well as posters ever since. Also good news, they ship!

The next gallery, was the Rachel Gera gallery, which specialized in jewelry with some small sculptures of Jewish figures and smaller ceramic works. The Jewelry - largely vintage silver pieces - seemed fairly heavy, with breast plate necklaces and a Gagaesque (Lady Gaga) head/face piece of jewelry. Very ornamental jewelry, much of it is not particularly functional for casual or formal events - unless you desire to be seen; spotlight seekers this may be your jewelry haven.

I walked into the Gabrieli Gallery afterward. There I found a collection of painted objects displaying female figures, scenes of Israeli landscapes and the seven species of Israel. Also in the back room were nice hand woven kippot and tallitot (prayer shawls).

The next site was a bit too modern for my likings with the exception of a few pieces. Art Nova has some beautiful woven paintings. My favorite was of a group of dancers in movement in a wide array of bright colors. It was hit or miss otherwise for me with these paintings.
Mansohn House, next door to Art Nova, has an exhibition of painted works. A lot of the pieces have a stucco appearance to them - the paint is so heavily layered and gives off a splendid textured effect of largely Israeli sites.

Last but not least, I visited the Frank Meisler gallery a unique display of caricature sculptures. The material the artist uses is Pewter metal and his subject matter tends to consist of comical portraits of professions from lawyers and doctors to gamblers (some would say these are synonymous). Meisler also created a dedication statue/ award for Shimon Peres, who is pictured accepting the award in the entrance to the gallery.

Side Note: While in Jaffa you will notice a lot of blushing brides passing through and taking wedding photographs, which makes complete sense given the ancient port-city's charm with the sand colored stone walls, cobblestone roads and who could forget the view of the coastline. Yet, something I have yet to understand in Israel is the wedding dresses. I mean what woman thought it was a good idea to design a dress that is skin tight and then becomes fluffy and dare I say ridiculous from the waist down? The brides I have seen so far (which have been a lot), wear too much make up, too much glitter -it's as if Tinkerbell lost control of her wand and it malfunctioned all over these women, and have no concept of what best suits their bodies. Nobody wants to see lingerie tops teemed with a hoop shaped synthetic material circus style bottom. Vera Wang would cry at the sight of some of these dresses.


















Brides aside, Jaffa (or Yafo) is truly a wonderfully preserved ancient city and one that deserves to be visited, if not to see the galleries then to take in the sea air and walk the streets.

Hatachana - The Old Tel-Aviv Train Station

A few nights ago I went to the Tel-Aviv old train station, a renovated historical site on the border of Jaffa and Tel-Aviv. A location that has become the site of nice restaurants and upscale boutiques and clothing stores. This area remains preserved as it once was, some train tracks remain intact as do two box cars. It was nice to wander around this area on a calm summer night. The restaurants were seemingly trendy with some 20 and 30 somethings sipping cocktails at the bar, couples wining and dining and store keepers furtively stealing glances out the window awaiting the next customer to enter their designer high end stores. Almost immediately outside of this area sits a quaint park and a basketball court. On the way in we watched as these Arab and Israeli men played basketball, which soon after turned into soccer. Hatachana, as it is called in Hebrew, was first opened in September 1892. During the time of renovation the site hosted several cultural events. The site remains an active cultural center to this day.

For more information and a map, visit: www.hatachana.co.il

Bus it or Bust

Alright, so the public transportation system not the easiest to maneuver. I've been moving around Israel quite a bit since arriving here two weeks ago. I started out in Ra'anana then journeyed over to Ramat Gan and now I'm somewhere in Northern Tel-Aviv. As a result, I have had to use quite a bit of public transit and have come to realize that the buses are not my friends, though the drivers might be ;)

So from Ra'anana I took the 501/502 bus to Azraeli. I ask the driver kindly if he can tell me where my stop is when it comes. He's like fine, fine and waves me off. I lose faith in him when a woman stands up and says "hey, you were supposed to tell me my stop, wasn't that it." I turn to the female soldier sitting next to me and ask her. She was nice and told me to get off 2 stops before I was supposed to. Fine, what's a little walking and asking directions ever hurt.

My next adventure on the buses was substantially better getting to Azraeli was the easy part. However, getting back was another story all together. I was heading to Ramat Gan. This time I opted out of asking the driver at first and decided I would recognize the stop when I saw it. Bad idea (I'm sure you already sensed it). I make it to the main street I need, but then there are about 3 or 4 bus stops on that street, which work in conjunction with that main street. Now of course I don't know the cross street's name ( I only know the name of the street I need, which is parallel to the main street). So I do it, I ask the driver if he knows the stop to the street I need. After a lot of him grinning, he says, "No Hamudah (equivalent to cutie or sweetie)." Now I have a new friend, only problem is neither of us know where I'm going. On a whim I get off at the next stop. The driver, my new friend, and I both decide that is the best idea and I can call my roommate. Irony of ironies the bus stop is called "Hatikvah," which means hope. I take this as a sign. I look around and just start walking - a block later I arrived at the street I needed. Miracle or Luck.

Fortunately, I have way more opportunities to get lost on buses. Today for instance, I got on a bus and asked for a stop and the bus driver told me a different bus was better. But not before a woman interjected and told the bus driver I was French. I guess my bizarre American accent comes off as French to some - go figure.

Dear Dan bus lines,
It would help if you a) either announced your bus stops or b) made the signs larger/clearer and more evident to bus riders passing by. Or even c) fixed your website so that it had all the stops listed for your routes. This would make bus travel a lot easier for just about everybody.

Best travels and happy trails,
Tamar

Walk it Out: Pop Art, Voyeurism and Go Getters

Today I decided to walk to the the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. Boy, was that a sticky situation. The heat and humidity here is unfathomable, especially considering it was only about a 30 minute walk. In the end, I found myself in front of the sculptures of Moore, Picasso and some other noteworthy artists and I was only in the outer courtyard. I went in and in the central exhibition space there was a display of 20th century car design. Front and center stood a white BMW painted by Roy Lichtenstein in 1977 with his signature pop art design - which was Awesome! This goes without mentioning the huge Lichtenstein mural on the wall behind this exhibition. It was most endearing to watch a 60 or so year old man say to his wife "look at this car, do you remember this...take a picture of me with it." The wife smiled politely and obliged (to her husband's request), about 6 pictures later of this man striking the same pose - grinning widely throwing the thumbs up, while a guard watched on with amusement; I decided to move on.

Evidently, entering the next exhibition from the wrong side. I worked my way backwards piecing together information about the artist, Robert Baser. As I learned when I finally reached the end (or rather the beginning) of the exhibition, Baser was born in Athens, Greece in 1908 and immigrated to Palestine in 1934. His work is abstract in nature and largely represents war scenes. I much preferred his sculptures over his paintings. One sculpture in particular remains in my mind. Entitled "Unknown Soldier," the piece consists of a mirror (that serves as the face)-reflecting the viewer's visage, attached to a mixture of polyester and weapon parts that form the intestinal body of a human being. The sculpture is a good marriage of concept and material and strikes a particular chord in Israel. The sculpture is from the 1960s - perhaps made during the time of the six day war. Baser also has another series entitled "The Lebanon War, 1980s" depicting people, weapons and geometric shapes that appear as shattered glass. The artist certainly doesn't shy away from the conflict. In a quote in the exhibition, Baser says

"Nature is where I escape to. With the watercolors I go out to the landscape like a bird. These are my moments of rest and liberation from stresses.. Sculpting is my other side, in which I express the human landscape, put in my world view, my criticism of the society in which I live."

Though I didn't always appreciate the aesthetic of Baser's paintings. I really liked the message of his work and how he utilized his mixed media material.
I continued on to "The Sculptures of Edgar Degas" exhibit, which displayed a substantial collection of his dancer sculptures. Also included were his horses - which focus on the horses movements. Perhaps the most voyeuristic, a collection of the bathers - also my favorite sculptures. "The tub" and "The Masseuse" are both interesting in composition and completely catch the subject matter off guard. "The tub" depicts the intimate setting of a woman bathing. While "The Masseuse", as one museum goer noted "looks like the most painful massage ever - that's not the way I get them."
The exhibition of Degas' sculptures was well done and had a nice 60 minute video at the end that explained his inspiration.

I then checked out the Tamar Getter : G0 2 exhibition, which I honestly wasn't overly impressed by. It is definitely very politically charged - but in an almost overwhelming way. The canvases are enormous and are all side by side, image after image of at times seemingly disconnected paintings. Don't forget to pick up a packet with an explanation of the artwork, otherwise the exhibition will seem completely disjointed. I wish they had some more writing on the wall for viewers to follow. The packet serves only as a partially helpful guide.

A unique artist that I discovered today is the winner of "The 2009 Rappaport Prize for an Established Israeli Painter," Tal Mazliach. Tal paints very vibrant paintings that often largely appear like design patterns. The paintings utilize image and text to offer political and social statements (a prominent one was about gender and uses phallic imagery). Her political paintings mostly address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Tal finds inspiration from the respective peoples flags and uses their colors together in her compositions.

Overall, the museum was fantastic and I learned a lot about artists I had never known about before. Although, I must admit I didn't make it all the way thorough the museum. After about 4 hours of walking and gawking I called it quits and walked back in the still humid air.

I guess i'll just have to go back ;)

*Stars: 5 of 5 - Highly recommended. Permanent collection is also wonderful. For art lovers, enthusiasts and curious wanderers.