It's raining and hailing outside and I'm here listening to old Lenny Bruce routines and sipping chicken soup. The house is very clean - tomorrow my subletter is moving in, then Saturday night Itka and I are going to take over her apartment in Paris for a month.
Paris has a liberating effect on my spirit and God only knows what will happen there. Right now liberty is on my mind, this Lenny Bruce guy, a man who was too free for his time so they had to keep handcuffing him, what a disaster.
I had an encounter with two other free spirits this week. The Berliner Ensabmle came to town with its production of the Threepenny Opera. Brecht was too free for his own good and too socially aware, so he teathered himself up in post war DDR. Weill wouldn't hear of it. Even before the war he split up from Brecht, saying he couldn't compose music to Communist manifestos. Still, while they were together, their work was truly free and balanced in its freedom. it was all about freedom: first and foremost - freedom from the most hidden prison walls that surround us, those of materialism and the bourgeois order.
"What's a thief's ladder next to a stock share?" asks Mack the Knife on the scaffold, "What's robbing a bank next to founding a bank?" We're leaving for Paris with nearly no money. The current crisis, bourne of greed, is hitting Israel and everywhere else quite hard. This is precisely the time to break loose, hitchhike a bit, eat a "demi-baguette", ramble around looking for adventure and grow intensely richer.
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Friday, February 27, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Marzipan
Of the past 16 nights, I have spent 11 in hotel rooms. All this travel is for work and all is paid for by various organizations with which I work. It's the life I always craved, not to mention that I keep getting upgraded: from the bare basics of the inn at Sde Boker, to the decent hotel in Tbilisi, to the shiny monster that I now call home: Eilat's Royal Beach hotel, venue of the current chamber music festival.
I love it. I love being received in the lobby with champagne and a selection of fine chocolates, the little basket with fresh fruit and bottle of wine in the room, the perfect view to the sea, the palm trees and the desert mountains, the massive bed and en suite Jacuzzi. I love the slick design, how clean everything is, the Finnish sauna, the steam room, the hamam style sauna, the "Scottish shower" and what have you. I love that a hidden speaker plays the TV soundtrack in the bathroom so you won't miss a scene while taking a leak. I love having to wear a jacket for the evening functions, I even love the elevator music, though not nearly as much as the Mozart arias that are sung here onstage.
Somehow, I'll probably still vote for the Communists in a few days. None of the luxury lets me escape the fact that I'm a pennyless journalist. I am no less than a victim of the system that allows a fortunate few to pay for all this. But till then, how about some more marzipan over here, oh, and a glass of royal flush.
I love it. I love being received in the lobby with champagne and a selection of fine chocolates, the little basket with fresh fruit and bottle of wine in the room, the perfect view to the sea, the palm trees and the desert mountains, the massive bed and en suite Jacuzzi. I love the slick design, how clean everything is, the Finnish sauna, the steam room, the hamam style sauna, the "Scottish shower" and what have you. I love that a hidden speaker plays the TV soundtrack in the bathroom so you won't miss a scene while taking a leak. I love having to wear a jacket for the evening functions, I even love the elevator music, though not nearly as much as the Mozart arias that are sung here onstage.
Somehow, I'll probably still vote for the Communists in a few days. None of the luxury lets me escape the fact that I'm a pennyless journalist. I am no less than a victim of the system that allows a fortunate few to pay for all this. But till then, how about some more marzipan over here, oh, and a glass of royal flush.
Monday, July 21, 2008
La Zona
Its trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5SzXJe-NMk) makes it look like a mediocre thriller, but make no mistake. Rodrigo Pla's "La Zona", currently in Israeli Theatres, is one of the most merciless, disturbing and fascinating films you'll ever chance to watch. It tells the story of a juvenile delinquent trapped inside a posh gated community, following a burglery to which he was an accomplice and which ended at a shootout. The hunt for him, conducted independently by members of the community, exposes all the ills of society within and without the complex's concrete walls, from plain police corruption down to self-loving, pretend-activism (at one crucial point, a more moral members of the community urges a like-minded friend to act quickly and save the child. Rather than act, he sits her down for a bleeding heart conversation on the philosophical folly of life within walls. It's one of the most cynical scenes i've ever witnessed on a screen.)
La Zona attacked me just as my mind is full of thoughts about money and its social implications. Ehud Olmert's lavish and corrupt life style, bought (such are suspicions) by cheating American philantropists, is coming to light over the last few months, but the experience is also personal: This past week I traveled around the country as guide to a highly affluent Parisian family (at one point they discussed an email exchange with "Sarco"). we stayed at the delightful and firmly secured complex of the Scots hotel in Tiberias. Another gig - that of restaurant critic, took me to Moule- Yam, One of Israel's finest culinary establishments, where bottles of wine are sold for the price of an avarage Israeli's bimonthly salary. I had fun in both cases, and I'm no advocate of poverty, I realize that only great social gaps allow the culinary art of Moule Yam and the decadent gardens of the Scots Hotel to exist, but compramise and social justice are better still. As La Zona demonstrates, high walls of concrete and of fine seafood can easily obscure that from the eye.
La Zona attacked me just as my mind is full of thoughts about money and its social implications. Ehud Olmert's lavish and corrupt life style, bought (such are suspicions) by cheating American philantropists, is coming to light over the last few months, but the experience is also personal: This past week I traveled around the country as guide to a highly affluent Parisian family (at one point they discussed an email exchange with "Sarco"). we stayed at the delightful and firmly secured complex of the Scots hotel in Tiberias. Another gig - that of restaurant critic, took me to Moule- Yam, One of Israel's finest culinary establishments, where bottles of wine are sold for the price of an avarage Israeli's bimonthly salary. I had fun in both cases, and I'm no advocate of poverty, I realize that only great social gaps allow the culinary art of Moule Yam and the decadent gardens of the Scots Hotel to exist, but compramise and social justice are better still. As La Zona demonstrates, high walls of concrete and of fine seafood can easily obscure that from the eye.
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