Time runs out in Tel Aviv

If we could only stop time.  That’s the strapline for Mayumana’s show Momentum.  And oh, by heck, how I wish we could.  On this trip there simply isn’t enough time. 

I’m overwhelmed. I have sensory overload; mental overstimulation and smile fatigue.  I went to bed at 2.30am last night yet am wide awake at 6am because my head is buzzing and my brain is fizzing (are those two separate things?  I dunno but they certainly feel like it right now).  This trip is unbelievably full-on – we are meeting so many people, getting so much information; it’s becoming hard to remember what I did two hours ago, let alone two days.

Don’t get me wrong – I love it.  It’s just I feel like I need to lie somewhere quiet and assimilate it for a little while.  Like two years. 

Haj Kahil Arabic restaurant

I’d hoped to blog my experiences and thoughts as I went along but it’s simply not possible.  I want to tell you more about Jerusalem, about the strangest things that happened there. I want to try to make sense of the stories I’m hearing about how it is to live in a country that is at odds with all its neighbours – and how not everyone sings from the same song-sheet on questions of politics.  And at some point I’ll try to go foodie on you all and show you some of the incredible food we’ve been eating.

 

But not now.

When I think back to yesterday there’s this kind of crazy incoherent swirling kaleidoscope in my head.  So for now I’ll throw up some pictures and a few random thoughts.  

 Everywhere we go we get photographed - or even, as in this case - filmed.  My jaw literally aches from smiling so much.  We have signed away every right known to humankind so have strong suspicions that we will end up as advertising fodder for all kinds of unfortunate enterprises.  As Sally said - 'We'll probably see ourselves ten foot high as poster girls for some kind of cystitis cream.'  Great. 

The view from our bus for Tel Aviv's 'White Night' - where the city simply parties the night away... Our bus driver is great but it's hard to forget the fact that we'd been in the country for all of half an hour when we ended up colliding with another car, maiming countless helpless kittens (joke).

 It's wild. The shops are open at 2am, the bars overflow into the streets, the malls host art shows and gigs and parties. It's crammed and crazy yet so easygoing and friendly.  Mind you, Monica made the mistake of getting too close to this guy and he decided he wanted to get very friendly with her!  

This woman felt I was under made-up and wanted to go nuclear on my eyelashes...

This guy - Pini Siluk - had an exhibition in Neve Tsedek, a shopping mall, with the most amazing images.  My pictures are crap so check out his website...

And this is Ruth Aharoni, one of the dancers/singers/musicians in Mayumana - simply stunning.  The show is all about Time, our perceptions of it.  

"Movement creates sound and once it's synchronised in time it becomes music."

Or, in the lyrics to one of the songs:

"Time went by and here I am again

Never thought I'd be standing on my head.

I had a dream last night I was standing on a cliff

I had a dream last  night, I was flying off that cliff

For time has caught me, and I'm floating in air

And there's that safety net I'm trying to repair

And there's those wings I'm trying to grow

So I can land on the ground now

Land on the ground

Time went by and here I am again."

So, it ain't the greatest poetry but you know, it's where I'm at.  Time.  Standing on my head seeing the world upside down.