Tel Aviv, you make my heart sing

I had black coffee today ("black coffee" is a Hebrew term--I think it's called Turkish coffee in English, meh) and got super happy/creative/jittery. I get in these moods a lot when coffee is involved.

I walked around Tel Aviv and felt so happy. It was like the Cleveland 30 Rock episode when Liz and Floyd see a chic older lady walking down the street and triumphantly yelling "oh, how I love New York in the spring" and then someone pushes her into some trash. Except in my case, there was no shoving-into-trash involved! And then I did some vintage shopping, which made me even happier. When I was living in Jersey for a couple of months right before I moved to Jew World, I bought so many boring, Eema-approved clothes so that I could look professional when I started working in Israel, blah blah blah. And I've felt like the biggest Gap-clad loser ever since. I mean, I am M.F.; I wear only shiny purple flowery shit. I should not look like I work at the mall!

So today's xtreme vintage shopping brought a little non-Eema magic back to my life. I got mustard/turquoise flats with bright yellow trim. I got white/black checkered-looking sneakers (not Hot Topicky-looking, I swear). I also got a big vaguely pastel sweater and a black velvet purse with gold trim. Sha. Blam. I'll be looking like some Austin douche in no time!

Tel-Aviv life rules. It's like being in Austin but the bars are all closer to my house. The bars here play amazing music. I thought that in Israel, I'd be knee-deep in bad techno all the time, but everywhere I go I hear lots of ridic 90's stuff and adorbs Hebrew classics. The other day, I went to a bar that played the rap from Space Jam, and last night, this one bar played one of my favorite songs from Ha'Lehaka:

It gets good at 1:56 or so.

And, to top off this post of happiness, AVIV AND I FOUND AN APARTMENT! In the neighborhood where only pretty people live in Tel-Aviv. Our apartment is beautiful. I will post pix when I move in, which will only be in a few weeks. But damn, it is really nice and renovated and we have TWO balconies, and our floors have pretty drawings on them, and I will be fulfilling my childhood dream of living in Tel-Aviv. OMG. The most adorable part of the whole thing is that I'll be living pretty close to my baby apartment, i.e. the apartment I lived in as a baby/toddler.

My only problem these days is that I'm not sure who to vote for in the elections. I'm thinking of writing in Barack Obama.

May Favorite Blogs

Note: I want to change the URL/title of this blog due to sheer Googleability. I haven't been writing about so many things because of Google. I'll figure it out and let you readers know if I decide to change it.

In other news, I just read a fabulous article about Chadash Party in this Orthodox lefty college professor's blog (whaaa??). He said Meretz "exists as a club for some Tel-Aviv secularists and some kibbutznikim who became dinosaurs long ago." (This is, embarrassingly enough, a dead-on description of me, especially when I'm in velociraptor mode--i.e. making hand-claws in photographs).

Guess what? That quote was a lead-in for me to talk about my favorite Israel blogs! Even before I moved to this here country, I was on the lookout for lefty Israeli blogs in English to make me feel better when times are rough (i.e. when I'm not in my happy Tel-Aviv bubble). At first, I found jack shit, but little by little I have accumulated some interwebs treasures.

1. www.falsedichotomies.com: This blog always manages to provide me with insightful political commentary. It's more of a center-left blog, but breaks down arguments logically and in great detail. I wish I could write like that about politics, but I tend to just cover up political talk with pictures of unicorns and puppehs. This was the first lefty blog I found and it makes me happy, damn it.

2. olahadasha.typepad.com: Leila's blog is, well, way more than a blog. It is book material. It's filled with detailed sensory impressions of Israel from "the other side," which means usually incorporating a Palestinian/Palestinian-Israeli perspective, and of course Leila's perspective being an "ola chadasha." She actually lives in London most of the time, though, I think. This woman is passionate about minority voices in Israel. Her blog is heartbreaking most of the time but it's the kind of stuff you just need to read. Again, the kind of stuff I wish I could write, if only I could stare the truth in the face.

Also, thank you Leila for telling me about that protest even though I got lost on the way and ended up signing a five-year-old's petition to build a preschool in his neighborhood. Sigh.

3. nizos.blogspot.com: This blog belongs to a hilarious Palestinian guy who lives in Montreal. I am obsessed. His posts include topics like running off to have sex with some Norweigan guy instead of attending the Gaza protest, and he also posts beautiful pictures of his stamp collection. I love super-crude humor and people who make light of everything while remaining intelligent. It's hard to find this tone in Middle Eastern blogs, but Nizo nails it.

4. themagneszionist.blogspot.com: I just discovered this blog today, and it is the blog I quoted in the beginning of this post. It's another strong, unabashed lefty voice. I need to find out more about the Orthodox left. It is a mysterious part of Israeli society to me.

Hope you visit these favorites. If you can think of other blogs that should be mentioned, let me know.

Israel WTF Moment of the Day

Man dressed in complete, albeit slightly "off" cowboy regalia on the bus. He had a twisty mustache, a dark leather Australian-looking cowboy hat, leather boots, a huge-ass belt buckle, plaid shirt, straight-leg jeans, and a ponytail. The look almost worked except for the hat and boots looking more like random leather items than true cowboy clothes.

She's no Michal Yanai, but...

Oh, hello there, lady-from-my-mom-and-I's-workout-videos. What are you doing in the same bar as me, drinking and smoking and laughing in such a relaxed manner? Just wanted to let you know that I thought you were good in that one children's video that incorporated one lady acting as five different types of grandmas.

Smarmy

I got my exemption from army service in the mail today! Thank Jesus this won't become a reality:

Yacht parties must still happen though.

Socialism, You My Friend

I am crazy sick this week with a throat infection (yes, I'm always sick--so what?). And I still don't have health insurance since I have to go to the Immigrant Absorption office first. And I can't go to the Immigrant Absorption office until the army sends me my beautiful, coveted service exemption, which is supposedly on its way.

Last night I got a home visit from a nice Russian doctor lady. Today, I stumbled around the smelly streets looking for some antibiotics, which I had to pay full-price for, no insurance at all. Three packs of antibiotics cost me a whopping $15. WOW.

This, and the free food at my new job, and mothers getting to leave their jobs early, and the ability to get abortions . . . make me love socialism.

Organization, a Celebration

I'm watching the inauguration prep on Israeli news. The anchors won't shut up about how "organized" the ceremony is. "In America, everything is always set up perfectly! They have everything together!"

Their response to Gates not being at the inauguration just in case anything happens to Obama and the rest of the new government: "Those Americans have a procedure for everything!"