ISRAEL TAKE 4, ACT 2: HOLIDAYS IN THE SUN

The trip was not nearly over after the amazing ROI experience. Seth flew in on the last day of the summit, and joined me for another week of mayhem, Israel-style. I won’t get into all the nitty gritty here, as I am packing and prepping for the next adventure…leaving on Monday for Haiti to shoot a short doc on some young people who have benefitted from Wyclef Jean’s incredible organization, Yele Haiti. So excited! And a little nervous!

Whether real or imagined, the weight of all of our projections of significance onto a place like Israel is heavy and palpable when you visit. Fortunately, in our case, this was balanced out by many moments of joy, beauty, and love. Check out the pics on Flickr, and here are a few highlights:

• Catching up with lots of old friends from all over the map, including several who have added babies to their posses, and now-grown-up punks from Jericho's Echo and most importantly, our long lost old friend THE SUNSHINE.

(Watergun fight!)

• Taking full advantage of our very first day in Tel Aviv, with a trip to Hilton Beach, a massive flashmob watergun fight with several hundred people in Rabin Square, and a late night rooftop party with my favorite Jericho’s Echo punks, Dennis and Tom from Smash4$ (who are now both Mohawk-less) and some of their crazy Russian vodka-swilling friends.

(Russian Rooftop Revelry)

• Staying with Avital, the lovely and generous woman who hosted me for both the filming and screening of Jericho’s Echo back when she was a swingin’ single lady. The apartment was a little more crowded this time, with her husband Amit, unbelievably adorable daughter Shailah, and another girl on the way!
• The last night of our trip was the transition between Seth’s birthday (July 9) and mine (July 10) and it just happened to be that two different people from Jericho’s Echo were having their own birthday parties that night (Tom’s girlfriend Malki and Ishay from Useless I.D.) so we got to crash, and see so many of the folks from the movie…everyone from Asi of Chaos Rabak and Tsahi from Retribution (who are now in a new band together, Instinct HC) to all the Useless I.D. guys (who just returned from a European tour) to Roy from Punkache (whose short army crop from the movie has turned into an adorable curly mop and who also fronts a new band, Malkat Haplakat)

(me and Roy of Punkache fame)

• Outside of our good times in Tel Aviv, we managed to travel to the complicated, controversial, beloved and beautiful city of Jerusalem; the heart of Israel’s “wine country” Zichron Yaacov; the hippie mountain town Amirim; and the center of Jewish mysticism, Tsfat. Whew. Thank goodness for the AMAZING cabin we rented in Amirim with a hot tub overlooking the Sea of Galilee!

(View of the Galilee from our cabin in Amirim)

This was my fourth time in the Holy Land, but the first in 12 years that (after the summit) was purely for vacation purposes, and vacation we did! What a great time.