silence

I've been very reluctant to say anything at all about what's going on in Southern Asia. I have a lot of firends in the region (as far as I know, they are all ok) and I work with people here in Israel who have lost friends, family and loved ones. It's all just so far beyond my ability to comprehend. And so I choose to say nothing.
Because saying nothing is always better than saying something colossally stupid.

Go Canadian

this is the awesomest.

Ong Bak

So, over a year ago I blogged about a movie that I seen on a bus in Thailand. Well, you'll all be happy to know that it will soon be coming to a theatre near you*.

*unless of course you live in south east asia... in that case, this movie is so old they were showing it on the buses between Bangkok and Yasothon over a year ago...

what does a cow say in japan?

This is so rad.

(just follow the "enter here" link on the left)

Beautiful day

Beautiful day today. Stunning, just stunning.
Sat with a beautiful girl and savored a lazy breakfast and sweet coffee in the sun.
Went for a walk through old Haifa and saw ladies selling produce and men smoking in doorways, children running in the strees and shady-looking guys peeing in alleys.
Lamented the fact that, despite being here for almost 15 months, I really don't know the city or it's people at all. Talked about the sense of community that exists in old neighbourhoods like these. In places where people watch out for each other and know each other's business. And are expected to know each other's business.
Beautiful friend, who haapens to be North American, commented that in North America, if you one wants community, one must sign up for it.

Later on we were serenaded in Hebrew by an old woman wearing a flowery bathrobe and little pink slippers and who had eyes like pools and crooked fingers.
Lamented, again, that despite being here for almost 15 months, I still don't speak a word of Hebrew.

Back to the night shift

So I'm back to working the night shift. Means I'll be working from 2pm till 2am for a while. Back to showing up in the lunchroom fresh from the shower. Back to lonely walks home in the dark and the silence. And back to calling security everytime I need to pee.
On the other hand, I do get to play my music as loud as I like.
hope you're all having a great night.

Three degrees of Baha'i seperation.

So I watched the movie Six Degrees of Seperation the other night. And while the movie was certainly interesting, I didn't think they really explored the whole six degrees* thing very deeply. I mean, if everyone in the entire world really is connected by less than six people, why marvel at the fact that you're so connected to someone who lives in the same city as you? lame.
But it got me thinking about connections. About the people I know. And especially about the Baha'is that I know.
Granted, it's much easier to be connected to a lot of people from all corners of the globe when you're working in the centre of the Baha'i world. But I'm still constantly amazed at the number of people I meet here who I have friends in common with. Even more surreal is it seems that I have just as good a chance of having a friend in common with someone from Africa or Asia (or Eurpoe or South America or Australia) as someone from North America. Just the other day I met a guy whose parents and sister I met in Bangkok last year. Before that it was a young woman from Los Angeles whose friends I had met in South Afirca. And before that a guy whose mother I had met in a tiny village in rural Malawi.
Sure, it helps that I have been able to travel a lot. It also helps that the worldwide Baha'i community is only 6 million and not 6 billion.
But it sure makes the world feel like a much smaller place.



* The title of the movie comes from the idea that all people in the world are connected by only six other people. So it means that you are connected to everyone else on earth though the friends of your friends of your friends of your friends of your friends of your friends of your friends. or something like that.

now with pictures

and what's a photographer's blog without some photos?

only a matter of time...

I'm just a little confused as to why this is so unbelieveable to me.

I'm temped to buy a whole box of them a shoot an interview from 10 angles simultaniously. Wouldn't that be...um...rad?
Or strap a few to my mountain bike and go carreening down a mountainside...
I wonder if they'll ship to israel?

more than meets the eye

Back when I was a kid, I was really into transformers. Of course, as I grew up I sort of lost interest. But man, I would give anything to have one of these.
On a side note, I just met a photographer from LA who was here in Haifa doing her Baha'i Pilgrimage. Nice to sit and chat with another real, live, photographer (even though, as my friend Jamal loves to point out, I only used to be one).
But now I'm all excited to be shooting again and have started carrying my holga around with me and shooting random pics on my way to work. This morning's take was: a lightswitch, a garbage can, some hebrew graffiti and a photographer from LA. Maybe I'll get around to posting some of them here.
Oh, and my friend Calla is coming in January to work on a piece about the wall they're building around the west bank. So that should be fun too. I just wish I could go with her down to Jerusalem but alas, work and things prevent such a trip. Perhaps next time.

hoodie.

Couldn't resist this one. Seems that the fine people from the Oxford English Dictionary are trying to find the origin of the word "hoodie"so that they can include it in their fine publication.
Hoodie.
Oh, and also plausibilize. Though, I find it less than plausible that that second one is even a word. Though perhaps it's inclusion in that list serves to plausibilize it.
word.

r.e.b.l.o.g.g.i.n.g.

So it seems that this blog has been pretty quiet as of late.
Not for lack of excitement mind you (well, only partly for lack of excitement. mostly cause I'm lazy). I have all kinds of wacky and wistful adventures which now, because of the blog shortage, will be lost to the mists of time.
But I can share this brief snippit:
A week ago three of us decided that it would be a good idea to ride bikes up to the top of the mountain on which we all live and then race down the other side. Jumping rocks and dodging trees as nature intended. Unfortunately, nature also intended it to rain the proverbial cats and dogs down upon us while we were slowly grinding our way up to the top. So we were soaked. And freezing. And really really exhausted by the time we got to the top.
Now, I have ridden bikes in all kinds of dodgy conditions and all kinds of not-really-a-trail trails, but here in Israel they have a whole new level of unmountainbikable terrain.
How to build an Israeli mountain:
1) start with some clay. Make sure that when it's dry it's just like talcum powder and when it's wet it's just like glue.
2) Add a whole bunch of rocks. All shapes and sizes. now sharpen them. Yes, that's right, just like little knives. perfect. Now, make sure that there are enough rocks that you will never, ever see the clay, until of course you get to the flat portions of the trail. Then the clay should be deep enough to swallow mountain bikes whole. nice.
3) Get it all nice a wet. Of course, this part is optional. But it's just so much more fun this way. Cause the only thing more slippery than a wet israeli rock is a whole pile of wet israeli rocks. And the only thing more energy sapping and bicycle coating to ride through than talcum powder is wet talcum powder. weeeeeee.
4) After you have slipped and slid and skidded your bike through the woods and along the sides of cliffs, and followed the trail as far as you could before the mud has coated your chain and caused one of your riding partners to nearly shear off his derailer by putting it through his spokes, turn yourselves around and do it all over again (minus the derailler shearing, except of course now he only has one gear and has to walk most of the way back to the road. in the mud. and across the slippery stones. but at least it's stopped raining).
5) after you get back to the road at the top of the mountain. marvel at how fast the clear skies turn cloudy and begin lashing you and your bikes with rain. awesome.
now you're cold aren't you? of course you are.
6) after surviving the rain and the jagged rocks and the sucking mud, relish the realization that it is all downhill back home. Which is a good thing because 2 of you can no longer pedal your bikes. You may as well stop at the gas station halfway down the hill and borrow their hose to wash of what little mud the rain didn't manage to reach. And while you're there, chat with the nice lady that works there. And if you're nice she'll give you jelly donuts. But only if it's Chanukah.
7) Since it's all downhill home, you can go really, really fast. Even if you can't pedal. It gets even faster when you draft behind the buses. You can't see much, but when they have to slow down for the corners, you can race right past them. weeeeeeee
ahem.
anyone want to come riding this weekend?