So,

I don’t really know much about the Hasidim, I do remember first seeing Hasidic men, when I moved to NYC back in the 70’s.I lived way up on the East Side, and I used to get off the Lexington Line train at 86^th and 96^th,streets, where there was a large enclave of Hasidim. The first time I saw some Hasidic men, I thought, “Wow, what are these Amish men doing in the middle of New York City?” I’m probably not the first Mennonite guy who thought that. (I was raised a Mennonite, a conservative Christian religion, that’s related to the Amish, look it up in Wikipedia!). There are some amazing similarities in their choice of dress, and the long beards and hats are similar. Now, of course, having more of a discerning eye, I see that there aren’t so many similarities, and it seems foolish to me now, that I could’ve confused the Amish with the Hasidim, but, it seemed so, back then.

( now I’ve seen everything….i was doing some more research for this post and i came across this article…wow, wow..!)

http://www.jewssip.com/7443/amish-go-on-a-hasidic-walking-tour-through-crown-heights/

I believe that there are two branches of Hasidim, and each branch is named after a leader, I can sort of say their names, but I can spell them, so I won’t try…I’m not sure what part of Eastern Europe they originated in, but, I do remember my NY Jewish friends telling me all about them, and explaining the differences between Ashkenazim and Sephardic ethnicities (my cab driver was Sephardic, his parents emigrated to Israel in 1947 from Morocco. The Sephardic have darker skin, their background is from around the Mediterranean. Ashkenazim is European in background, and they have lighter skin, like all Europeans. I hope this is right, I don’t want to offend anyone, and I don’t want to advertise my ignorance, I only know really what my friends used to explain to me, I did learn some great Yiddish words, too, from them! But, as I said, I’m not completely sure that I have this right, and, my memory isn’t what it used to be.).

Anyway, there were many Hasidic families on the plane coming over to Israel, and since the flight ending up coming to Israel through the night and early in the morning, the Hasidic men went through a whole ritual of prayer, while on the plane. It was very interesting…

The other thing that my Jewish friends told me in NY, was that the Hasidic women all wear wigs, Upon closer scrutiny, I noticed that their hair was strangely unnatural…and on this flight, the Hasidic women took their wigs off, and they apparently have some head scarf that fits over their head to hide their real hair,

orthodox Jewish women cover their hair with this snood, but Hasidic women cover their hair completely

and then they put the wig on top of the headscarf…I think…very interesting. It was a long flight, so I had time to observe!

So they say that Tel Aviv is more secular, and the more conservative religious Israelis control Jerusalem, and there seemed to be quite a few Hasidim in Jerusalem, as I began to walk through the streets. There seemed to be schools in the Old City too, so the streets were flooded with children, many of them Hasidic, so there were all kinds of people mixing and moving around in the Old City…

this is the stone that Jesus was laid out on after the crucifixion

This is where Jesus was supposedly laid ( there are various versions) after the crucifixion

Coolest thing about The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the light in the ceiling...

I found my way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, crowded with people, and found myself regretting that I hadn’t done my homework on the various places to see there in the Old City…I found the vendors and the aggressive vibe a little disquieting, and it was difficult getting into the feeling of the place, I tried to stop for a moment and just feel where I was, but it was only momentary, soon the noises, and the souvenir sellers were all I could think about, and I kept walking.

I found the Via Dolorosa, the way of the cross, where Jesus supposedly carried the cross to his crucifixion on Golgotha, and it was kind of quiet, this was really the most ‘connected’ moment that I had there…then I went through the Moslem Quarter

Seller of Grape Leaves in the Moslem Quarter

and on to the Wailing Wall.

Wailing Wall

Via Dolorosa, 'the way of the cross', where Jesus carried the cross on the way to the crucifixion ( see Life Of Brian for a comedic take on this...one of the funniest scenes ever )

I found an antiquities shop, and was harassed by the King of Aggressive Marketing,

not my shopkeeper but, similar

a real standout amongst the others, he had me in his shop, and I managed to wriggle out of the shop twice and he got me back in his shop, three times total! Amazing. Of course, he started off with, “Are you married sir?”

‘No, divorced.”

He said,” Oh, me too, well, your girlfriend will appreciate this more than your wife would have,” So, he was a comedian, as well, which was all part of his pitch.

After a few hours, I was right near where I started this journey at the Jaffa Gate, and I stepped up into a side street for a moment to count my money. I had been told not to flash any cash around, so I stepped into this side street, and feeling a bit hungry, thought about finding a falafel place (the falafel in Israel, like all the food we had, was fantastic…fresh vegetable, hummus, falafel, everything was so fresh and tasty, great for me, a vegetarian)

I was immediately accosted by a shopkeeper, who implored me to come visit his shop, right up the street, and played on my sympathy by saying,” My family has a shop, and it’s off the main street, so we don’t get many visitors, and please come in for minute as see if there’s something there that you would like, we have beautiful things…please, please, please…. my brother will open the shop for you….”

I joked,” I’m just looking for a good falafel sandwich.”

Well, that was it, I was hooked and he reeled me in…

He said, “ I will get you the best falafel in Jerusalem, you come up to my shop, and my brother will get you the sandwich.” He rushed around, and pushed his brother up the street to get the falafel, and I was left sputtering.’but, but, but”, but it was too late.

So, it turns out the shop wasn’t even open, until they found me (I guess it’s not too hard to spot a tourist, not to the experienced eye)…he had to unlock the door, and pull up the gate, and then we went into this boiling hot shop…. small and hot…

Man, I was sunk…I thought, well, I’ll look around the place and find something that I could buy, something cheap, so that they will let me out of there alive, after they have gone to the trouble of getting the sandwich.

So, Ali is rushing around the shop, pulling things out left and right, there were all kinds of jewelry and table clothes, and old pictures and nothing that I wanted to buy, it was full of the worst junk that I had seen all day… The other shop where I had gotten the map at least had some good stuff that looked interesting, but this shop was hopeless. And this guy, Ali, was working really hard, he had all the tricks, too, asking am I married… watching where I was looking, and then rushing to where my eyes were looking, and making a sales pitch for everything that he thought I was looking at, rushing around and pulling things out…. I was desperate to find something…and wondering where the falafel was…. hurry up, please, I was sweating profusely, it was so hot…

“ Here, sit down and relax, be comfortable…please, be comfortable.” However, I didn’t sit, and I just wanted to get out of there.

I finally found some old coins on necklaces, that were at least something that I could take home…of course he swore these were real old coins…oh, yeah, I really didn’t believe it for a second, but if I could just buy something and get out of there…(Earlier in the day, I had bought a old coin, a silver coin from Alexander the Great’s time…I’m really hoping it’s authentic, it wasn’t cheap!)

Finally, the falafel came; it was not the best, actually the worst one of about 8 falafel sandwiches that I had while visiting Israel. (The best one was the one that JB had gotten for Gordon and me at the Shuni Theater) I haggled him down a bit, not much, but, it was something…so, as soon as I had picked out these necklaces, I was hoping they would leave me alone, but, it just got worse. Ali and his brother (if it really was his brother!) started to work on me to get some more things, they are bringing out all kinds of useless stuff and I’m just sweating away…I was desperate to get out of there. But, they decided that I needed a drink, because it was so hot, and they sent out one of the brothers to get water, before I could stop them…so, of course I had to keep waiting there in the shop…do you see a pattern here? It was dawning on me, at this point…so, I said, that’s it, I’m out of here, I’m not that thirsty…but, they had all kinds of stuff to say…

“ We want to give you a gift for being such a good customer.” I guess he meant I had been a good sucker for them to take advantage of…

“ Please tell me, which one of these pictures do like the best? Please tell me how many children you have? I want to give you a gift… “

I was already out the door, and he said he was going to give me a gift…please come back into the shop and pick out which ring I liked the best…

They were a force of nature!!

I finally forced my way out the door, just as the water bottle came in from the shop, and so they gave me the water, and I made another escape…but Ali followed me…

Ali said,” Please, I want to give you my business card, please, follow me, my card is at my cousin’s shop around the corner.”

It was in the direction that I wanted to go, any way, so I just kept walking and he was right beside me.

I was trying to get away from him but he walked around the corner with me, imploring me to come up the next alleyway, which was right next to the first shop that I been in, the one where I had gotten the map, for me to come to his cousin’s shop where he would give me his business card.

‘It’s right up here, not very far,” he said, pulling my arm…Ah ha… I could see what that tactic was. Get me into the cousin’s shop and start shoving more stuff in my face; I must have been the easiest mark of the day.

I said, “No, I have to be going.”

Just at that moment as we came up to Jaffa Gate, right in front of the first shop, where I had received the map, and has looked around the store and had said that I would come back…. UH OH…I could see the shopkeeper standing outside of his shop, and when he saw me with Ali, he went nuts…

You have to know that in Israel, there’s a lot of arm waving and yelling. Maybe it’s the climate or something, but it seems like there’s a lot it there. When we first arrived in Israel, and were coming to the hotel in a van, we were involved in a little accident, and our driver and everyone else got out and there was a lot of arm-waving and very serious angry shouting.

So, first the shopkeeper is yelling at me, “ You promised to come to my shop, how could you buy something from him, how could you do such a thing, you promised to come back, I even gave you a map!” Then he’s yelling at Ali, and they’re nose to nose, with a lot or arm waving and yelling that I can’t understand, then there’s the relatives, they both have reinforcements, and the kids are running out of the shop and it’s a scene. Then he’s yelling at me, and then Ali is yelling at the other shopkeeper and he’s yelling at me, and gesturing at me, and they are all throwing their hands up in the air, and waving and yelling…

It all became clear in an instant that these guys have probably been rivals for a while, and they are probably competing daily for the tourist dollars that walk through Jaffa Gate….

From the look of horror on the aggrieved shopkeepers face, you would think that I had just run over his dog or camel, maybe. He was so upset, it was the look of betrayal, I had betrayed him…or so it seemed…there wasn’t even a chance to explain or make excuses, it was pandemonium!

As this got hotter and hotter and the scene got uglier and uglier, I did the most sensible and courageous thing I could think of …I slinked away!! The last I saw of that scene, there were brothers, uncles, kids, all yelling, arm waving, cursing, spitting, at each other, as I high-tailed it out of there through Jaffa Gate.

I jumped into the waiting air-conditioned cab, with my ice-cold water bottle from Ali, and the cabbie said, “How was it”?

I just said, “Great, really great!”

Bookmarks:

Answering some questions from the postings…

We are not limited in the amount of ELO songs that we can do, or which ever songs we do…there is a performance royalty that is due to the writer of any song when it’s performed in any type of situation, live, by any band or performer, or on the radio or TV or any other way….So, yes, Jeff Lynne gets a payment for each performance that we do or that anybody does of songs that he has written, and the amount is based on how many people are in attendance at the performance. Even if Jeff did a performance himself, the promoter of the show is obligated to pay this performance royalty, which would be collected by the performance society in the country where the performance took place,( such as ASCAP or BMI or PRS) and the payment would eventually make it’s way back to the publishing company and the songwriter of the song.

Neta, thanks for the kind words, we had a great time at both those gigs, and I was really intrigued by the area around the Shuni Theater,. And, really, the whole trip to Israel was a amazing… we loved it there, and I have been telling everyone I know, to go visit Israel!

Jeff, yes, that tour was in 2001, you are right…however, I don’t remember Barefooting…could you hum a few bars, and I’ll see if I recognize it?…..are you sure you weren’t thinking of ‘What’d I Say’? we did it once or twice, but it wasn’t that great, I remember really messing up my solo at the Manchester gig…so embarrassing…….oh, well… …Lou did do some Hooked On stuff, I think it was Hooked On Beatles….

Alby, we can’t find any reference to ELLO…and we are starting the promo right away…hopefully we will get the word out…

Nathan,

Both shows in Israel were sold out, the Shuni only holds 1000…and the Ra’anana holds about 3 thousand, with standing room on the lawn….there were about 4000 total there….

Colin…good call, you’re right it’s Ticket to the Moon that Lou is rehearsing at the Ra’anana

Hi Igor….I remember the show in Moscow, it was fun…really great….i don’t think there’s a ‘legal’ video version of the show…but, shhhhh, don’t tell anyone…but, i think we are coming back to Moscow in December….not confirmed but I think it will happen….

Emma and Alba

yes, we did tour in 1991 with the Moscow Symphony…and it was expensive….and we did that little tour in 1999? I think it was…with the choirs and orchestra…that was really fun…but there aren’t enough venues that could do that big of a production…and it’s very expensive too…

Also, you’re right, the weather would be an issue regarding doing outdoor concerts in the UK…what to do with a rained out concert…promoters would never commit…although we are doing the festival at Grassington…

Jeff, what does’ re-recorded semi-live’ mean?….just kidding…i don’t think we did any recordings with the Halle….wish we would have..they were fantastic…and I don’t think we have ever recorded Twilight with the Part 2 band or The Orchestra…

Yes, the guys are a little annoyed that I’m video-ing…but, they are taking it in pretty good humor….

The kids music, the Disney stuff, I may put that up on a different website….I’m thinking about it all…

Shout-out to my cuz Rodney…how’s it going? Hope to see you some time soon,..

David and Sue, thanks for the really nice words….see you in Newcastle!

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The Whole Story

It was the last day of our 5 days in Israel, we had done the two shows, and Gordon, Lou and myself didn’t have to leave the hotel until 8pm; our flight was around midnight. Lou had been to Jerusalem once before, 20 years ago, when he famously had gotten thrown off of a camel,

which, inadvertently, had miraculously and permanently cured his chronic back problem. And now, Gordon currently HAD a back problem (I know, I know, we should have seen the connection, and he should have come to Jerusalem and started looking for the a camel to give him a back adjustment!). Anyway, Mik, Phil and Ralf were on their way back to Europe, so I was on my own…

I am usually quite adventurous whenever we are traveling around the world, and I do not like to sit in the hotel if there’s something interesting around. I was very interested in visiting Jerusalem, it is a holy city for 3 religions, and I decided that it was only an hour or so away, and I would regret it, if I had come all this way, and had not taken the opportunity. However, I surprised myself at how naïve I was, and how easily I got into trouble!

I wanted to rent a car and drive to Jerusalem, it seemed like the cheapest way to get there, and I wanted to be able to wander around take back roads, to get more of the local flavor…so, I went to the hotel business desk to ask about renting a car…

She said, “you definitely don’t want to rent a car, it’s much to complicated, getting into Jerusalem and parking and finding your way around…”

I said that, well, I didn’t want to spend too much money, and I didn’t mind the adventure, etc…

She said, “ No, don’t rent a car, take a bus. Get a cab from the hotel to such-and-such station. There you get the bus to Jerusalem.”

So, I jumped in the cab and ask for that particular station, where I would find the bus to Jerusalem.

not my cab driver but similar

The cabbie said in a thick accent,” Where are you going?”

I played hard to get,” I’m going to the bus station.”

Exasperated he said, “No, where are going on the bus?” He knew, of course, he knew, all cabbies know what’s going on.

So, when I told him, he said,” You don’t want to take the bus, I’ll drive you there for 300 shekels (about 75 dollars). If you take the bus, you have this cab ride, then you wait at the station, and when you get to Jerusalem, you’ll have to get another cab, it’ll take all day!”

He was right about the cab at the other end, and I had been thinking about a bus ride in Israel, hmmm, a bus ride in Israel, and thinking and thinking, so it didn’t really take too much to convince me. However, I played it cagy, being the savoir-faire traveler. I had heard that you should haggle for all the prices in Israel.

Israeli Shekels

I said, “300 shekels is too much, I’ll just take the bus, maybe if you’d do it for 250? “

He said in his thick accent, OK. OK, 280?”

I said,” Well, how about 270?”

He said mock angrily.” You gonna argue about 10 shekels? That’s like 2 or 3 dollars!”

I said,” Well, you only came down about 5 or 6 bucks from your original price! OK 280 shekels!”

So, things settled down, and we drove to Jerusalem.

The landscape around Tel Aviv is fairly flat, but as you get closer to Jerusalem the terrain gets very hilly. I realized that I didn’t know much about where I was going, and what I was going to see, and made a mental note, that when I get back, to read up on all of the places to visit in Jerusalem. Also, in the future I needed to do some research on all the other places in Israel, so I know more about this when I get a chance to visit next time. The same thing happened when we played at the Shuni Fortress Theater, I realized I would love spend a couple of days around there, just seeing all the historical sites. Other place I like to visit would be, the Dead Sea, Massada, Sea of Galilee, etc..

So, we got into Jerusalem, and I was glad that I didn’t drive, I could’ve done it, but I would’ve needed a GPS unit or something, and traffic was pretty bad, too…

We finally saw the old walls of the Old City, very beautiful, and my cabbie said that he couldn’t take me any further than just inside the Jaffa Gate. We arranged to meet there again in 2 hours and he would take me back to Tel Aviv, for 380 shekels! He had ask me a few questions about what I wanted to see, and he decided that he would drop me off at a souvenir store, right inside the Jaffa Gate. We drove in, and he pulled up close to the shop and called the shop keeper out, and asked for a map.

So, he brought out a map of Old Jerusalem, and invited me into the store, or, should I say, he pulled me into the store.

He said,” Are you married?”

I was taken aback, a little, that seemed a little personal, so I thought I throw him off, “ Divorced.”

He shot back,”Oh, girl friend. I have something perfect for your girlfriend.”

So, he started to show me things, jewelry, rugs, tablecloths, trinkets, rushing around, pushing all his kids out of the way, and dragging me all over his shop, and finally I said that I wanted to walk around and maybe I would stop back in his shop when I was heading out of Jaffa Gate, after the sightseeing…He said ,”OK, OK, we will see you in a while.”

So I looked at the map, which turned out to be more of an ‘opinion’ than an actual map, it didn’t have some of the streets on it, and had some on that I couldn’t find at all…so I immediately got lost..

As I went along the street, I became aware of the throngs of shopkeepers, mostly Palestinian, I think, and their world-class pleading and begging….they are the crème de la crème of aggressive sales force…they could give seminars on sales! They were amazing. If you pause for a moment as you walk by their shop, or if your eyes fall for a split second on their goods that was displayed out into the street (really a small alleyway) they were all over you, “ Please, sir, I have something very special to show you, please come this way, and even if you showed no interest, no acknowledgement of their implorations, they would follow you down the street. I saw many shops and things I would’ve liked to stop and look at, and I will be more assertive next time, but, I was put off balance by their tactics, and just moved on. The little streets, the people, Arabs, and Jews, Hasidim, and tourists, all in their traditional garb, all mixing together, was a wonder, a real wonder. It’s a little unexpected, when you read about all the conflict, and then you see that there’s a mixing together of all these people, maybe uneasy, but still they are walking together, and interacting somewhat, it’s just a little unexpected.End of Part 2

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there’s more to this story….I will write the whole thing out…and some pics and video too….stay tuned…

Jerusalem!

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Ralf played bass and did some great singing for our gigs in Israel…he’s a pleasure to work with and is an excellent musician…great work ethic, too, he really did a lot of studying and rehearsing to get ready for the gigs…
Anyway, he took some great pictures in Israel, and I thought I’d share them with you all…

Our hotel in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv View From 17th Floor

Shuni Fortress orchestral rehearsal

Shuni Fortress with the Ra'anana Sinfonetta Orchestra

Shuni Fortress Theater before show time

Ra'anana Amphi soundcheck

Ra'anana Amphi

Ra'anana Amphi orchestral rehearsal

‘

Ra'anana Amphi before show time

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this is a long clip, unfortunately the camera doesn’t record loud sound very well, so the sound is distorted…but, you can see that Gordon hurt his back…there’s other stuff too….

the orchestra is doing their check and Lou is doing his thing that he does so very well….

later in the day, after the sun went down…the sound check continued…Lou finished and he was looking around for us, we had disappeared, we were up on the balcony…

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We went to do an interview on radio in support of the shows in Israel….these guys were really nice…and we had a good time…they were playing what we called the Italian Medleys….we recorded these medley a few years ago, when we were invited to perform to a track in a Italian TV show from San Remo….actually playing Mr Blue Sky from the Live in Australia CD…and while we there, they had President Obama on, as you can see, in the background, he was giving the speech from Cairo…

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