Two Jewish Americans

Posted on August 19, 2010 by admin

I am watching the PBS documentary series The Jewish Americans which is for me a fascinating look into the complex history of the Jewish community in the United States, with all the fights for survival, the identity dilemmas, the achievements and the contributions to the overall evolution of the American society and culture. The episode I reached talks about the first decades of the 20th century, and it amazing to see how the situation of the Jews in the US by that time was similar or maybe worse then of their brothers in Europe. Henry Ford’s antisemitism was a model that Hitler mentioned with admiration in Mein Kampf, numerus clausus was limiting the number of Jewish students in the major American universities prior to WWII, and ‘no Jews and dogs allowed’ was a common and legal restriction in many hotels, restaurants or social institutions in many American states.

source www.pianoparadise.com

Two major figures drew my attention in this episode. One of them was born in Russia in 1888 as Israel Irvine Beilin one of the eight children of a cantor. The Jewish music that he heard as a child can be felt in many of the compositions of the man who came in America as a five years kid to become one of the greatest American composers under the name of Irving Berlin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj3ogtzFEz0

(video source heeter71)

Starting his career in the sizzling Jewish musical theater atmosphere of the Manhattan Low East End,  Berlin became known in a few years by his dance compositions which combined Jewish and black musical elements in the popular ragtime style of the epoch. E.L. Doctorow’s novel with this name Ragtime is a wonderful rendition of the period. What better musical illustration than Alexander’s Ragtime Band sang here by Judy Garland?

(video source TheEdSullivanShow)

By the time the United States entered World War I Berlin was famous. He was however conscripted, but did not see too much action beyond waking up his fellow soldiers at the sound of his trumpet. Yet, he had time to write a musical to raise the moral of the soldiers. One of the pieces written for the musical but not included in the representations was a song that was to be premiered later and sang first at the 20th anniversary of the armistice in 1938 – God Bless America. Here is Berlin (who lived 101 years) singing this second hymn of the United States at the Ed Sullivan Show.

Louis Brandeis - source www.hillyer.org

If Irving Berlin was born in a traditional Jewish family in Russia and made his way through the American cultural and social establishment becoming the model of the American composer, the second personality I met in the episode walked to a certain respect the opposite path. Born in a family of Jewish emigrants who came to America in the first half of the 19th century, Louis Brandeis was a secular Jew, who encountered little discrimination as a young and talented lawyer. His judicial skills and strong social beliefs made him famous as ‘the lawyer of the people’ and the cases he fought for contributed to the creation of the workplace rules, insurance and anti-monopoly legislation in the first decades of the 20th century. However, when president Wilson nominated him as the first judge of Jewish origin at the US Supreme Court, the nomination was a shock for the whole judicial and political white protestant establishment of the time. For years at least one of his colleagues at the Supreme Court did not greet him, referred to him with disdain and even boycotted the traditional annual photo opportunities of the High Court. As a Supreme Court judge Brandeis is remembered for his rulings in defense of the constitutional freedom of speech.

It is however his Zionist activity that makes him remarkable in my eyes. ‘The highest Jewish ideals are American’ Brandeis is quoted to have said, and he saw no contradiction in being a faithful American and at the same time a strong and open supporter of the rebirth of the Jewish nation and of the formation of a Jewish state. He was a leader of the Zionist Organization of America , contributed to the issuing of the Balfour Declaration, was part of the American delegation at the Peace Conference in Paris  and visited Palestine. The kibbutz Ein Hashofet (Spring of the Judge) is named after him.

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50 Years Ago – The First Concert of the Beatles in Hamburg

Posted on August 17, 2010 by admin

We are having an extraordinary celebration today – 50 years since the Beatles hold their first concert at the Indra club in Hamburg. It was the first in a series of hundreds of concerts in Germany which in the next few years saw the stabilization and the formation of the style of the band that changed music forever.

(video source proukraine)

The city of Hamburg prepares to celebrate the event with gatherings of fans, exhibitions, and of course, a lot of music of the Beatles.

(video source bogmantim)

Here is also a taste of how the band looked and sounded by that time.

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Film: ‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’ (Woody Allen, 2010)

Posted on August 16, 2010 by admin

Something is happening to Woody Allen … or to me … not clear exactly what, but I started to like more his latest films. His 2010 production screened at Cannes seems to have been seen by very few people, and if I hurry I may be the first viewer to post a review at IMDB. It will be released in October in Israel, and last night I saw it at a pre-screening at the Herzlya Cinematheque.

source www.imdb.com

With this film Allen is back in England, but there is very little Britishness in this movie excepting the setting and the opening quote of Shakespeare. To the same extent the story could have happened in Manhattan, or some other corner of Allenland. The quote that I mentioned is about the meaning of life, and it leaves nothing to fate or to higher goals in our lives, but rather a lot to chance and to trying to find a support that makes us overcome hurdles, any support, be it a dream, or a cheap superstition, or even a cheat. The Tall Dark Stranger in the title can be a handsome male the women in the movie dream about, or maybe the dark end that expects each of us at the finish line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVtfduiEmY0

(video source gigatrailers)

Each of the characters in the film finds his own cheat or lie or fraud to rely upon. Helena Shepridge (wonderful British actress Gemma Jones) is abandoned by her husband Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) and finds refuge and advice in a fake fortune-teller who tells her what she wants to hear. If her fortune-teller is real, the other characters can be said to have private virtual fortune-tellers of their own. Alfie marries a prostitute half his age in a vain attempt to win back his lost youth, just to find himself deceived as expected. Helena’s daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) fantasizes about an affair with her rich boss gallery owner (Antonio Banderas). Her husband, Roy (Josh Brolin) unsuccessfully tries to sell his second novel, then fate and fraud combine to help him make an apparent jump ahead which allows him to cheat on his wife and dare date the neighbor in the near-by building which he observes in a Peeping Tom manner that allows Allen to quote Hitchcock. Each of the character has ups and downs, actually more downs then ups, but we are in Woody Allen movies, nobody is really hungry, suffering is existential, and despite all problems in life there is always money for good meals and whiskey.

(video source AFP)

The story can actually end at any point in time, ten minutes earlier or ten minutes later. Each of the characters goes through convulsions of fate, but the story and the film must end, as everything ends, but do not look for meanings about the ending, it just ends. The combination of skillful story telling and abrupt ending works well. As the end is not served on the tray it is the spectator who needs to fill it in with some meaning, if there is a meaning. Yet, the overall impression is of having seen a piece of life as Woody Allen understands life, and it is funny and well acted, as the actors seem comfortable enough in Woody Allen’s films, they like acting here, and in some cases they give some of the best roles (I liked the performances of Brolin, Jones and Watts).

There are little things that I know about the next year (no fortune telling skills, sorry), but one if them is that for sure there will be a new film by Woody Allen on the screens. Maybe it will be about a director making one movie each year, I do not know. Chances are that I will like it.

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In the Heart of Europe / 4 – Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht

Posted on August 13, 2010 by admin

I love visiting art museums and I love to do it in places which are not necessarily on the beaten track of the art circuit. Of course, the big museums of the world have their fascination, complexity and completeness, but as there are big cathedrals and small churches there are also the bigger and the smaller museums, and the feeling of spirituality for the art lover as for the religious person can be reached whatever the dimensions of the building and of the institution.

Bonnefantenmuseum - the exterior

Actually the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht is not a small institution. In a country and in a geographical area with big art museums and brilliant schools of painting from the Reanaissance until the contemporary times, the museum in Maastricht was founded in 1884 and hosted by the bons enfants (‘good children’) monastery which gives it the name. Today’s building was designed by the Italian architect Aldo Rossi, and it’s original exterior shape reminding somehow an astronomical observatory became one of the landmarks of the landscape of the city on the Maas. Three levels host a collection of fine arts that combines various styles and time periods, from the medieval religious art to contemporary art.

Bonnefantenmuseum - the interior

One of the things that makes Bonnefantenmuseum different is the refuse to present its permanent collection in a chronological order as well as the absence of the categorization of art in epochs and styles that usually guide and lead the visiting experience in the majority of the other museums. The collections of modern art and old masters, medieval and contemporary objects are mixed and as a visitor you exit from one hall and you enter another representing a totally different epoch and style, permanently jumping in time ahead and back. Each new hall represents a surprise, a different epoch, a new experience that allows you to relate to the objects without necessary following the usual didactic path. It’s an Augenspiel (play of the eyes) – concept inspired by a quote from Elias Canetti’s memoirs.

Here are a few pieces I loved most, and I will follow the same technique as in the exhibition, not presenting them in any particular order.

Census at Bethlehem

Census at Bethlehem belongs to the atelier of Pieter Brueghel the Younger, and dates from the beginning of the 17th century. It is believed to belong to the a large extent to the master himself, and inspired by a well known work of the painter’s father. Bethlehem is represented in the tradition of the Flemish masters, as a typical Flemish village in winter.

Rene Daniels - Painting on the Flag

Rene Daniels is a Dutch contemporary painter born in 1950, and he has one full hall of works in the museum. Painting on a Flag was painted during his stay in New York. It is a dialog with the flags paintings of American artists like Jasper Johns (the Dutch and the American flags have the same colors), but also an interesting work by itself with several layers of painting the older one still visible and a game of perspective that catches the eyes.

Two Pharisees

Woodcarving of religious statues is an art well developed in the area, and the Two Pharisees from an Antwerp atelier in the 16th century are a good example.

Saint Catherine of Siena

The 15th century representation of Saint Catherine of Siena belongs to Sano di Pietro, one of the outstanding pieces in the room dedicated to the works of the early Renaissance.

Anselm Kiefer - Le Dormeur du Val

Jumping into contemporaneity we can see one outstanding work of the German artist Anselm Kiefer. Kiefer is one of the most interesting artists in Germany today, dealing with the painful issues of the recent history of Germany including the war and the Holocaust, in a very expressive and daring style.

Head of Saint John the Baptist

English religious art in alabaster has a room of itself with several outstanding pieces among which the allegoric Head of Saint John the Baptist. The unusual style of these pieces are very much worth the attention, I knew very little about the style and the period (15th century) when Nottingham was exporting such works in all the Western Europe.

Altarpiece

Altarpieces combining painting ans sculpture are a genre that florished in the Flemish area around the year 1500. It cannot missed from any serious collection of all Flemish art – here is one piece created in Antwerp arounf 1518.

Sandra Vasquez de la Horra - drawing

Bonnefantenmuseum also hosted two temporary exhibitions. The first included drawings of the Chilean artist Sandra Vasquez de la Horra – combining a fantastic and macabre vision of the world with strongly opinionated political messages.

Sandra Vasquez de la Horra - La Zorpa Manca

Many of her drawings are grouped, and make sense as a whole as well as individual works. They call to close examination and reflection – unfortunately I had too little time and I need to get back some time in the future to look more carefully to the work of the artist.

Pierre Kemp - Fourrures

The second exhibition belongs to the Pierre Kemp, a local of Maastricht, who is also known as one of the finest Dutch poets of the 20th century. The exhibition here comes maybe as a surprise for part of the Dutch audiences, but for the less advised non-Dutch viewer Kemp is certainly an accomplished and mature artist.

Pierre Kemp - Concerns

His Fourrures dated 1929 are sophisticated with erotic hints. Concerns from 1941 resonate with the anxiety of the continent plunged in the horror of war. Both are works of a mature artists, synchronized with the issues and atmosphere of his times, with the artistic trends and techniques of the first half of the past century.

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In the Heart of Europe / 3 – Dutch and Belgian Beers

Posted on August 10, 2010 by admin

Maastricht is located in the South-Eastern extremity of the Netherlands, and the city is a few kilometers away from Belgium. Besides sharing a common language the Dutch and the Flemish Belgians also share the passion for good beer. Actually Belgium with its 125 breweries and its countless brands of beer (well, some people do count them, and results differ from 800 to more than 8000 brands!) is the place of origin of the best beer in the world. Maastricht enjoys some (but not all) the varieties of beer, but for me and for many other IETF-ers it was the opportunity to get as close as possible and taste as many as possible Belgian beers without entering Belgium. The Dutch beers are by far not that varied and interesting as the Belgian ones, but if you search well you may have some pleasant surprises.

Affligem Dubbel

Let us start with some terminology. A Dubbel is a almost dark (brown) beer, one of the traditional brands produced by the Trappist monks starting with the 19th century. It is typically 6 to 8% strong. The Affligem Dubbel is 7% strong and is produced in a 12,000 inhabitants village north of Brussels. The monastery there dates back from the 11th century. This was one of my preferred beers during the stay in Maastricht.

Grimbergen Dubbel

Another brand of dubbel I had in Maastricht comes from Grimbergen which is said to have brewed its first beers in 1128. No need to say, any beer you drink comes in its own glass.

Westmalle Trappist

Another Belgian dubble which I enjoyed comes from Westmalle Abbey, a Trappist brewery which dates from the mid-19th century. The concentration of their beer is 7%, the taste is complex and a little bit on the sweet side, with a consistent feel.

La Trappe Tripel

A Triple is a blonde and even stronger beer. There are seven breweries producing triples in the world, six of them are located in Belgium, and the seventh one La Trappe in the Netherlands.

Heineken Oud Bruin

Staying in the Netherlands, anybody who knows beer heard about Heineken. They actually manufacture non-boring beer as well, one of them being the Oud Bruin also known as the Flemish sour brown ale. It is aged in wooden caskets, same style as the wine aging caskets.

Wieckse Rose

Last, on a lighter note here is the fruity Wieckse Rose which was one of the beers served at the IETF social. It is not at all my style, but, hey, it was free!

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In the Heart of Europe / 2 – Churches of Maastricht

Posted on August 9, 2010 by admin

A city with a history of at least two thousand years, Maastricht hosts a number of remarkable churches, witnesses of history and centers of spirituality of a city which is not only located in the center of Europe but also at the crossroads of the Christian faiths in Western Europe.

Basilica of Our Lady

The oldest church in town was built by the first bishop of Maastricht, Saint Servatius at the end of the 4th century. It was located at the place of an old Roman temple, at the place were today we find the two-towered building of the Basilica of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasiliek).

Star of the Sea

Much of the exterior structure of the present building was raised in the 11th and 12th century. A beautiful statue of the Madonna Star of the Sea is said to hold miraculous powers and is taken out in processions in the streets of the city once a year.

inside the Basilica of Our Lady

The interior of the church is rather dark and sober, yet powerful and elegant, in Gothic style.

Saint John the Baptist and Saint Servatius Churches

The Vrijthof square in the center of the city is sided by another two imposing churches. One of them is the protestant church of Saint John the Baptist (Sint-Janskerk). It’s imposing red tower is the tallest in the city and offers the best perspective for the audacious who climb its more than 200 stairs, but the interior is less than impressing.

galleries inside Saint Servatius Church

It is the Catholic church of Saint Servatius that catches the attention of the visitors and remains in memory as the more exquisite monument of religious architecture in Maastricht. It is a complex structure of church, chapels and cloisters reflecting a long history and a combination of styles from Romanesque to Gothic until more recent elements.

Shrine of Saint Servatius

The church is built around the grave of Armenian-born Saint Servatius who died and was buried here in 384, during the reign of byzantine emperor Theodosius and his tentative to reunite the Roman empire under the rule of Christianity. The grave of Servatius is located under the floor of the church, while a splendid golden-plated shrine can be seen in the museum.

Interior (nave) of Saint Servatius Church

The interior of the church belongs to the Baroque period.

stained-glass windows at Saint Servatius Church

Exquisite stained-glass windows have been created along the time, from the Gothic to the more recent periods.

Jerusalem Mosaic in Saint Servatius Church

The latest additions are the backdoor gate and the beautiful mosaic in front of it, with a representation of Jerusalem.

Selexyz Dominicanen - the most beautiful bookshop in the world

I could not end my tour of the churches in Maastricht without entering the bookshop that the British newspaper The Guardian put at the top of its list of the most beautiful bookshop in the world. It is located very close to the Vrijthof square, in a former Dominican church.

the bookshop church in Maastricht

The combination of the elegant arches of the former church with the three levels of the bookshop full is indeed unique. The spirituality of the former house of God is preserved and amplifies the force embedded in the endless number of book on the shelves. This renovation and second life of the former church is a daring and successful idea.

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Film: Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)

Posted on August 8, 2010 by admin

(video source nwatts88)

Uri Klein, the film critic of Ha’Aretz chose to open yesterday his short presentation of Jean-Pierre Melville‘s Le Circle Rouge (The Red Circle) with a short appearance of the director in Godard‘s Au Bout de Souffle. Melville is in this sequence Parvulesco, an exiled Romanian writer, answering in the Orly airport to questions posed by journalists among which young and beautiful Patricia (Jean Seaberg). We see him as maybe he was in real life, detached, amused, preoccupied more by the pleasures of life and by women than by existential questions, a little bit like a visitor playing a role of observer of the world around.

(video source francoisXIV)

Melville whom we can see in a real interview in the sequence above talking in 1970 about his fascination for cinema was indeed a strange appearance in the landscape of the French cinema. Born in a Jewish family he got his first camera at the age of six. He fought in the Resistance and the period of the war was one of the two big themes of his cinema.  The other one were his gangster movies, which included the classic Le Samourai, maybe Alain Delon‘s best role, film which inspired Gost Dog, the film I love most in Jim Jarmusch’s cinema until now. Melvilled died at a relative young age, and left only 12 movies, but many of these were exquisite. He brought to the French cinema the shady and ambiguous atmosphere of the great American thrillers of the 40s and 50s, bringing the gangster movies at the same level as the traditional French art cinema. He led a lonely life, he at some point in time he bought a studio in which he not only made films but he also lived, film-making being not only his profession, but also his way of life and his permanent obsession.

source www.imdb.com

Le Cercle Rouge is a typical story for Melville’s cinema. His characters are gangsters and policemen, who while fighting the eternal wars one against the other share the same behavior and honor code, with rules of themselves, rules out of the books of rules, rules which do not request many words to be explained and followed. They also share the same dressing code, wearing the same trench-coats borrowed from the requisite of  Humphrey Bogart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAWnRWlhhRA

(video source ceer)

Le Cercle Rouge brings to screen one of the exquisite teams of actors that could be gathered in a French film at that time. Alain Delon is in his natural element in the role of the gangster Corey, who just released from jail is dragged in a sophisticated jewelry theft. Delon is paired with Gian Maria Volonte who is in this film Vogel, the gangster on the run, whom Corey will recognize and who he will recognize as a fellow that destiny decided to meet together on the Red Circle (a Buddhist concept all invented by Melville for people that fate decides to put on the same track). They say that Volonte did not really cope well with the freedom that Melville used to give to his actors, I do not know if this is true, but nothing is to be seen on screen, and the Italian actor fits perfectly in the dynamics and relations of the film. Yves Montand completes the trio on the bad side of the law with a role which is smaller in words and screen time, but extremely exact and with a performance to remember. It is in the role of the cop that Melville made his most daring casting, selecting one of the greatest comic actors of France ever – Bourvil – in a completely dramatic role. This role was even more memorable taking into account that this was the last in his career.

(video source pipeoxide)

Le Cercle Rouge is a well told story which survives well the four decades since its making due to the consistent art of the director, and to the remarkable acting of its stars, who meld well into the film, playing their characters and not themselves. At a time when the American genres like the westerns and the gangster movies were making their way into the European cinema, Melville and his film are almost typical examples of the moment. A few years later it was the European art cinema which made its way back refreshing the themes and the genres in Hollywood. The dialog between the two cinema schools continues, to the delight of the film fans from all over.

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Film: Le Concert (Radu Mihaileanu, 2009)

Posted on August 7, 2010 by admin

This is the first film of Radu Mihaileanu that really did it to me. It is moving, I resonated with the subject, I laughed when it was funny and I was close to tears when it meant to be emotional. Yet, as his previous films, it is not a masterpiece just a good film to remember. Which is no small matter either.

source www.imdb.com

Mihaileanu’s previous films were each of them based on original and different ideas. in each of those the ideas hold above the execution. Train de vie was one of the first films to deal with Holocaust from a comic perspective, and maybe the most interesting idea of all, better even as Begnini’s maybe. Les pygmees de Carlo dealt with the communication between cultures in an unusual way.  Vas, viens, et deviens is the only movie until now to deal with the Ethiopian immigration to Israel. Here, in ‘Le Concert’ two main ideas dominate the action. One is about the new culture of vulgarity and mediocrity that dominates the life after the fall of the Communism. The main hero (wonderfully acted by Aleksei Gluskov) is a great conductor. His life and career were broken during the Communist rule for having opposed the regime of Brezhnev. Yet, the change of the social order did not put him back in place, as the collaborators of the old regime and the new oligarchs took the place of the rulers, siding the real values.  The second idea is that music redeems, transcends politics, and is worth any risks and sacrifices.

(video source OptimumReleasing)

‘Le Concert’ is correspondingly divided into two parts. The first one is a brilliant comedy, one of the best that I have seen lately. It is based on stereotypes one may argue, the stereotype of the Russians and French, of the Jews and Gypsies, of musicians and impresarios, Communists and oligarchs, but in these case they work, and the result is true and funny. The Russian orchestra of former musicians, sided away by the new times makes it to Paris under the label of the Bolshoi to give the concert of their lives, the proof that Tchaikovsky, and Russian music, and value are still there despite all. Then the second part begins, the one in which all becomes personal, with a seemingly love story which turns to be something completely different, a much more dramatic story in which music is not only revenge but also personal redemption, is not only survival but also coming from beyond the graves of a tragic history.

(video source port375)

(video source port375)

This is were the strength and the weakness of Radu Mihaileanu’s art meet. All the film converges to the final scene, the one of the concert in Paris, we know it from the beginning. All the explanation will be present in that scene, and this is the bet and the risk of any music film in the history of cinema. The result is only a partial win. Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for Violin provides the appropriate background, and the emotional result is immediate. The doubts start after the screening ends. The situation is certainly less than credible, from an intrigue and musical point of view. Mihaileanu’s execution is too direct, he plays too much on short term emotions, tears are too apparent. He has huge ideas, and one day he may turn them into one or more great movies. ‘Le Concert’ is too explicit, it lacks the patience and the sophistication to be that one .

More about the film at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1320082/.

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In the Heart of Europe / 1 – The City of Maastricht

Posted on August 6, 2010 by admin

The 78th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force was hold in the heart of Europe – in the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands.

the IETF at the MECC

The venue of the meeting was The Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Center (MECC) not far from the place where in 1992 the treaty that defined the European Union and the creation of the Euro currency was signed. The location is a little remote from the center of the city, but frankly speaking the 20 to 30 minutes walk at night after dinner from the center to the nearby hotels did us just good, and the free pass that was granted to the IETF participants on buses during the week helped the lazy ones.

one shore of the Maas ...

The name of the city derives from the Maas (Meuse) river that crosses the city. The place is inhabited at least from the times of the Romans.

... and the other

The history of the city includes several interesting episodes. Good chances are that you have read about it during your childhood if you have read Alexandre Dumas’ novels. The death of d’Artagnan – the hero made immortal by Dumas happened during the siege of Maastricht by Louis XIV’s armies. The story is told in Dumas’ novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne.

the city seen from above ...

The city has many beautiful churches and at least two of them are outstanding. I will tell more about them and also bring up some pictures in one of the coming episodes.

... and down in the streets, at day ...

I love wandering on the streets of European cities like Maastricht.

... and at night

They are beautiful at day and at night.

terraces in the Vrijthof square

The week I spent in Maastricht was a pleasant summer week, following a wave of heat which had made the atmosphere challenging they week before (as we were told). The few showers were short and just cleaned the air. We could spent some of the evening dinners on terraces like the one in the Vrijthof square …

the Town Hall in Markt Square

… or the ones in the Markt Square.

a city of statues

Adding beauty to the picturesque streets are the statues that can be found in Maastricht at the crossroads or even on the sides of the streets. Most of them are not big in dimensions, in many cases at human sizes and proportions allowing for an feeling of intimacy and belonging to be established between the statues and the street walker.

Johannes Petrus Minckelers

One of the few that look at visitors from a pedestal is the statue in Markt Square of Johannes Petrus Minckelers, the inventor of the illuminating gas, who holds an eternal flame in his hand reminding all about his invention.

bycicles, bycicles

As in many other places in the Netherlands bicycles are a preferred means of transport. Locals are bicycling to work, to recreation, or to their commuting train stations.

the police orchestra plays for the IETF

The social event is the one moment of recreation that happens on Tuesdays of the IETF meetings allowing for a change of atmosphere and pace for the big heads who build and run the Internet.

rocking the boat at the IETF Social

The social at this meeting was organized on the boats near the river (who are used during the day for the tourist rides on the Maas). We had fanfare music, we had rock music played from the high deck of the boats, we had even tribal drums by the end. Food, wine and especially beer ran free, but beer will be the subject of a dedicated later episode.

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Film: Zohi Sdom (Israel – 2010)

Posted on August 5, 2010 by admin

‘Zohi Sdom’ which is translation means ‘That’s Sodom’ deliberately places itself at the intersection between the very popular Israeli TV show ‘Eretz Neederet’ (Wonderful Country) and the big screen British Monty Python movies of historical and Biblical inspiration. The Israeli weekly shows are a local version of ‘Saturday Night Live’ bringing at their best some of the sharpest political, social and typological satire in a country that provides endless sources of humor and badly needs laughs to cope with a myriad of problems and conflicts that seem to be unsolvable other than in a comical fantasy. A permanent team of actors usually play all the roles in the show, in a collection of sketchers interleaved with permanent features, which were abandoned here, as was the newsreel format in the favor of the Biblical story parody. The British show was starting with the end of the 60s the source of inspiration of all other comical and satirical TV series all over the world (including the American SNL) and also pioneered the transcription to the wide screen with anthology successes that seldom have been equaled by other similar shows world-wide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ0xVAx1eQQ

(video source rsaker14)

The too close following of the sources of inspiration may be the cause for which the big screen movie does not really work. Although the idea is quite cool (the TV anchor in the original show is a cynical God attracting patriarch Abraham into the trap of the Holy Contract while preparing the destruction of the sin city of Sodom) and the story works better that you would expect, there are many laughs during the screening, but none is hysterical. The TV stars do in the movie of the same that they do in the TV show, just the screen is bigger, and some of them do not look as well on the big screen as in the TV box (the otherwise beautiful and talented Alma Zack for example, or Orna Banai who gets a very insignificant role and little screen time). Best are the street scenes depicting the life in Sodom, and here the references to reality nowadays work well. However, the exaggerated adherence to the Monty Python formula (including the insertion of music and dances) provide a (maybe unintended) air of detachment and diminish the acuity of the social and political comments which make the original show interesting for the majority of its viewers.

Released at the pick of the summer season ‘Zohi Sdom’ will certainly be a huge hit in Israel this year. I am less convinced that it will survive as an outstanding movie beyond this summer.

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