Fun Tones

O.K. I have had it with these fun tones. It's bad enough that people seem to compete who can have the most annoying ring tone, so I have things like "Alo, Alo" and "Cockadoodle-Do" and the sound of someone's child calling "abba, abba" everywhere I go. Now, when you call people (the women in my family, for example), you get a snippet of a song instead of the ring. The problem with this is that someone like me, who often has to call these people (the women in my family, for example) numerous times a day, gets to hear the same snippet over and over. You know, I used to like the twangy guitar in "Sultan of Swing" and the clever words of "Romeo and Juliet". I used to like Radiohead's "Creep". Now they're used up for me. I never want to hear them again. This gross exploitation of popular music must stop, I say.

The Decemberists II

It's true that I have posted a The Decemberists song here in the past (the whole "a The" thing is bad news, but the bands name is clear). Some time last week, one of the kids came home singing The Crane Wife 3 (yes, it was probably you, bdo) and the song has been stuck in my head since then. I hope that by putting it out here in the blog, it will leave my head and enter yours. The video is one of those home made photo montage things made by some poor haunted soul. An excellent, if simple song, with a most excellent bass line.

p.s. Talking of homemade The Decemberists videos, check out this school video project of Eli, the barrow boy.
p.p.s I was just about to quit my youtube window when I spotted this. It's Marianne Faithful, and Nick Cave doing a cover of The Crane Wife. Wawawaaweewa.

Parking sloth

I can't pretend I've been too busy to blog. It's just not true. I am just struggling to find what to say. It's been the first two days that I have consciously just not written anything. I suppose after a year and a half I have run out of what to say. Not quite.

So with all this self doubt and condemnation running through my head, I stepped out of the house at 5:30 this morning. Lo and behold, I remembered why I need to blog. Last night I got home from a school meeting in Jerusalem, just in time to see my neighbor, two doors down, drive up in her car. Now this woman has got a real issue with the concept that the parallel white lines on the road are meant as an indication as to where to park you car. She always parks either at a horrendous angle, thereby crowding the cars on either side, or she just cannot get the lines thing straight. So last night I watched her drive in. Three empty parking spaces in a row, and she could not line up with the middle one (see picture above). Where, Oh, where are you Driver License man.

DLM

We did not do any archaeologicaling this weekend. For the first time in six months or so. I had a school board meeting this morning (Saturday 8am - at least there were bagels). So that that put an end to any idea I had of going driving around the country looking at stones.

Yesterday, we were driving around Raanana doing our Friday morning errants when I realized we need a new superhero. Driver Licence Man (DLM). DLM would swoop down from the skies (swoosh!) and pluck the driver's licence from all those fools driving around, peering left and right, helplessly trying to find something while driving at 20kph. He would grab the licence out of their bag, place the car gently into a parking (in a single bound) and say "Sorry maam, you're too stupid to drive" (he would be scrupulously polite). Then DLM would zoom out of nowhere and grab the newspaper off the steering wheel of the imbecile reading the sports section while stopped at a traffic light. He would whack him over the head with the rolled up paper (thwack!), confiscate the fool's licence, park his car and say "Sir, driving is a full time job, it requires all your brain cells, sorry but you are too stupid to drive". DLM would be very busy on a Friday morning in Raanana. Oh, DLM, where,Oh were are you? We need you so badly.

Sweet 16

Today is my beautiful daughter's 16th birthday (and Guy Fawkes Day in the civilized world). I am a very lucky chap. I have been blessed. My girl has it all. She is smart and spicy (we like spicy), she is sweet and sour (we like sour), she is everything one could ask for. She has the strength of will to change the world. It seems to me that birthdays are really for parents to mark the changes our kids go through, and each year, dyl, you become someone I learn to admire and respect more and more.

Sweetie, you are now 16. I will repeat the only two pieces of advice I can give you about boys. One, they are all fools. Two, watch carefully what they do and ignore what they say.

If the first 16 years are any measure, you have it all - use it well. Happy Birthday, girl, you dominate all aspects of the game.

Andy White

I have always loved this song, since Johnny first played it for me in his kibbutz room on Kfar Blum. Rave on Andy White, has been one of my favorite albums since it came out in 1986. I had no idea a video to Religious Persuasion existed, and I am glad to have found it. The "troubles" in Ireland so much resemble the mess we have here. Maybe we will be able to make as much progress as they have (here's hoping). At one point, when his CD was hard to find, I emailed Andy White and he emailed me back. He sent me a CD of Rave on..., signed. Nice chap.

Unfortunately, as is happening more and more frequently on YouTube "Embedding disabled by request", so you will have to click over here to see it. Sorry. I looked for a copy elsewhere on the internetz, but cannot find one.

A Burial

We buried Granny Leila today. In the pouring rain. Whitegoato (or blackdanao depending on whether we are going by blog names or real names) gave an excellent eulogy. It was a fitting ceremony, respectful and kind, just as Granny Leila would have ordered. The fact that so many people braved the flooding rain, shows the depth of feeling people have for her and her family.

The picture above is the vending machines at the entrance to the cemetery. For 6 NIS you can get a yotsite (memorial) candle, and matches. Quite a deal.

Granny Leila

Granny Leila passed away today. She was a lady. The picture above was taken many years back, and its clear where my wife gets her good looks. The little boy on her right is Jo's dad. She was 92 this year, and has been in decline for a little while. It is sad, but I am sure she is proud of how her family looked after her. No matter how much I persecute my wife's family, they really are good people. Few families are as committed to looking out for one another as they are. So to all the real goldsmiths, Alex, Nat, Jo, Ari and Dana and Uncle Michael and his clan, what can I say except "long life" from the in-laws (I have no idea why we South Africans say this, but that's for another blog). She will be missed.

Tel Qastile

This morning bno and I set out in the rain to Tel Qasile which is in the Erez Israel Museum which is next to the Yarkon river near downtown Tel Aviv. Blacksono was not interested, he was still tired and shagged out after a 3 day high school field trip. It was pouring. The museum itself was actually way better than I expects. It's really quite big and spread out over a a large area. Tel Qasile is in the middle of the museum grounds. Excavations begun there in 1949, that made it the first archaeological dig in the newly formed state. The Tel covers the remains of a 12 century BCE Philistine port city. It was built on a sandstone ridge overlooking the Yarkon river. In the 11th century BCE it became a thriving city with three temples all built of mud brick. On the southern side of the tel living quarters built along a street were uncovered. At the center stood a four room house. The signs claim that the city was destroyed by King David in the 10th century BCE, but I think that recent research has shown that to be not exactly true.

In the background you can see the "four roomed house" looking quite sad and quite the worse for wear. As you can see its been raining.
I just love the skyline of Tel Aviv in the background. This is the main street of the town and dwellings.
More houses. These were built out of sandstone and not mud brick like the temples.
Got to love the skyline.
Around the temple area the walls are looking a little sad.
This is one of the temples. It is covered with a corrugated metal roof to protect the mud bricks from damage by the elements. There are actually signs that point out what is what. Not bad for a fifty year old site.
This is a basalt millstone in one of the reconstructed mills on the museum grounds. There is also a nicely reconstructed olive oil press as well as a host of other buildings covering copper, ceramics, glass and the post office (I swear).

All in all a nice place, even though the Tel itself is a little sad and run down. The best news of all is that I flashed my University of Leicester student card and I got a 10 NIS reduction. Man I was chuffed.

Here Comes The Rain Again

It's not like we live in the third world or anything (right!), but, like any true developing country as soon as the rain started this morning we had two power failures of at least an hour each. I called the bank in the midst of the darkness, they couldn't help me because, of course, they too were out of power. So it rained today, first real rain of the season, and like everything in Israel, we just were not prepared for it. Streets flooded, phone lines went down, power outages all over - big fun. Yet through all this, everyone was so happy to see real WATER falling from the sky that no one could complain. The water shortage here is real and threatening. They raised the price of water to households significantly and now the shortage is causing real pain for everywhere in the most sensitive spot - their pockets. One one hand we need a real wet winter, but on the other, if it rains enough, the government will go back to putting their heads in the (dry) sand and tell us all is well - what water crisis !!!

So bring on the rain - I love it.

Z Music

Due to the current ball of stress that is my life, I did not post yesterday. So today I will make up for it. Alon posted this picture of Z Music. It's Alon (and Bowie), Jony and Me standing outside our record store, Z Music, Rehov HaGiben 1, Jerusalem. Must be around 1981 or 2. Something happened to the photo and smudged Alon's face - it's the only photo we have of the stores, so it will have to do. Were we ever that young?

Peter Murphy

I heard this song on the way into work this morning and realized that I am not listening to enough music. I promise to start listening again. All work and not play ..... Anyway here is Peter Murphy and the excellent Cuts You Up. This video must be from twenty years back at least.

Actually I would have like to post this video which I think is fantastic, but you need a facebook account to log in and see it. That sucks.

Lame

I really don't have time for this. This blog is slipping away. I have no time. I was up at 4:50am this morning, at work at 5:30, to the university at 7:30 back to work at 10, wrote an rfi and some performance reviews, rushed home to a sick bdo at 5:30pm, sat down to study at 6:15 and been at it ever since. I'm just too wasted to write anything that makes sense. I think I'll go to bed. Apologies for the lameness, I never promised more than 80%.

I Love Greece

I arrived back home today. It's always nice to come home. I loved Greece. The most impressive thing of all is just how good the Greeks are at service. Everywhere we went, taxis, hotel workers, guides, store owners, waiters and bartenders were all friendly, smiling and incredibly helpful. I was really surprised by this. The Greek people seem to take pride in the country and its history and understand that tourism contributes at least 15% of their GDP. Almost everyone I met spoke passable English, including our taxi drivers (there are 14,000 taxi drivers in Athens alone - the traffic is horrendous). This joy for life and willingness to help is somewhat lacking here in Israel.

We arrived back at Ben Gurion Airport, got through passport control and picked up our luggage in record time (the airport is batting close to the maximum 80% achievable, not bad at all). We walked out to the taxi rank and were sulked and glared at by the young girl in charge of shepherding people into their rides. Like we were disturbing her day by actually expecting her to work. Our taxi driver was sullen and aggressive, a total contrast to the rides to and from Athens' airport. Welcome back, I suppose.

Athens. Day three (The Acropolis)

Today after classes we went on a tour of the Acropolis museum and then we walked up the Acropolis to look at the Parthenon. It was very impressive indeed. We had an excellent guide who was very knowledgeable and just spicy enough to make things interesting. I don't have a whole lot of time, so I will briefly comment on the pictures.
This is one of the statues in the museum. As I took this one of the guards shouted at me for taking pictures. There are no signs, and not a lot of explanations. But they have an excellent collection of Greek art.
The museum is built over parts of the ancient city.
This is one of the only views of the Parthenon where yopu dont see the scaffolding all around. They are not really doing restoration, mostly the scaffolding is to keep the columns up.
This is part of the Roman buildings in front of the Parthenon itself.
This is the temple of Athena. I think this is the nicest building I have seen (almost forever).
Same Temple. I came here with my parents when I was 11 and I remember this building from that time. It impressed me then. We were even able to go inside in those days.
The Parthenon itself. It is a beautiful building and well worth the trek up the hill. It was a nice day. Good company and interesting archaeology - what more could you want (I would have liked my bwo to be with me).

Athens Day two (The conference)

My conference started for real today. I'm back for a short break between sessions and dinner. As many of you know, education is one of my "hot button" issues. I think the biggest issue in the world today (and certainly in Israel) is the quality of education (O.K. poverty is very important, but I think its related). Today's opening session was run by two serious innovators in education (Grant Wiggins and Martin Skelton). I know from last year these guys like to talk about education as learning. They claim there is too much focus on teaching and not enough on learning. All learning is a delta, basically the change from what you knew to what you know. This change is what needs to be measured in school. They went on to share what they thing learning isn't.

• Learning isn't ... caused by teachers it's what the learner does. (The learner is the key and teachers must adapt to the individual).
  
• Learning isn't ... being busy. (Ask why are you teaching this and what does it help).
  
• Learning isn't ... about what the teacher says it is, it's they require students to do. (Teach students HOW to learn).
  
• Learning isn't ... about current performance. (It's about the change caused in your performance).
  
• Learning isn't ... about successful acquisition of content. (The goal of school should not be to be good at school).

I know this is all motherhood and apple pie, but it sounded good when they presented it. I like the fact that they constantly see an issue with the lack of teaching kids to learn. This is such an issue when you finally get to college. Anyway, I am learning.

p.s. Love to all the Goldsmiths out there. Granny is not doing well at all, and my thoughts are will you. She has been gifted with having such an amazingly caring family.

Athens. Day one.

I arrived in Athens this morning after the taxi to the airport at an ungodly (even for me) 3:30am. Of course, our hotel roo was not really ready so we took a walk around. We are near the Acropolis, and the weather is perfect. So far, there is not a whole lot to complain about, except the hotel room is quite small, I'm sharing with Neville and the internet costs an arm a leg and a liver. We went over to the conference hotel and I see why it is double the cost for a room. They have free internet. I think I may like Athens (so far).
This is the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus. Began in 515 BCE it was never really finished. There were were originally 104 columns (in the doric style), only 16 survive and one of these blew down in a storm in 1852.
You can see the Acropolis on top of its hill. We are going there on a tour on Friday, and there will be more photos then. I am sure you will all be sick of columns by then.
A closer view of the columns of the temple and the Acropolis in the distance.
A nice frieze, in someone's garden. There are quite a lot of excavations going on all around.
This is where Neville and I had lunch. My Greek salad was great. Big pieces of vegetables and an excellent feta. By the time we left it was completely packed. The food was very good actually.

O.K. More tomorrow.

The Miracle of 22 years

Jo guest posting for Torturous Tunes for Tuesday.

There is no way I can live up to Blackdaughtero's awesome video post last week, so I will make it short and sweet. I think Annie Lennox is a Goddess. There, I have said it. Firstly, she has the best voice in the business. Not only that, second only to BDO, she has the best eyes. The Miracle of Love was our wedding song. Petero thought it was a bit emo, but I loved it. Even though the official music video shows sort of bizarre images of atomic bombs and nazis, I am posting the slightly irreverent later live version, cause I love Annies glasses. I also think the juxtaposition between their army fatigues and silver spandex shirts is pretty cool.

On another note, my shrink told me that last week (while visiting her kids in LA) she had dinner with Hugh Laurie. I am not sure if Hugh sings, but he does play instruments and has an uncanny gift with accents. Uhm, ok, that was a tad random, but deal with it.

So without further ado, Live in concert....we have.... The Eurythmics.

This is the official music video:

A Day

I actually had some things to blog about today. I went to my first real archaeology class at TA university and I loved it. Bwo's car is full (and I mean full) of pumpkins (something to do with Halloween and the school). But, I am not going to mention either of those and instead I will show you a commercial. I saw this for the first time today, which probably says more about our TV watching than anything else.

This was not computer generated. It apparently took 606 takes, 3 months and 6 million dollars to make. I think I'm going to get that Honda hybrid.

Jenya

The pictures above are a little hard to make out, I know. It's the table in the engineering lounge at squint central. We have a cleaning lady who comes in each day to clean and tidy after the squints. Her name is Jenya and she speaks no Hebrew. She speaks a little English and a lot of Russian. In her own way she has tried to leave her mark. Showing us her artistic eye she decorated our coffee table. I have no idea where she got the cut outs from, but the one of the lady on the divan is a classic. Adds a little style to the converted bomb shelter, don't you think?