An Israeli in Paris

All these years in the US and I'm still thrilled to see any positive depictions of Israel -- especially when I'm traveling, and especially if it's someone like, say...

this guy! The cover guy of Tetu, the local gay magazine, is an Israeli hunk, and on top of it they include a great review of gay life in Tel Aviv, which more pictures of my hometown. I had to buy the magazine, of course, and now it's yet to be seen if I'll be able to decipher the French and read those 3-4 pages.

An easier task should be to watch the film "Infiltration" that was published on every wall in every metro station (almost):

From the creators of "Yossi and Jagger", it's another gay-themed Israeli film that promises to be sexy and intriguing. I can't wait!

Go Cock Blockers!

I'm looking at my last week schedule - volleyball on Sun/Tue/Thu, yoga on Mon/Wed, weight lifting on Friday, tennis singles this morning and doubles tonight, and all day volleyball tomorrow. Makes me wonder - what happened to that kid who used to hate sport?

When I was in elementary school, PE was my worst subject. I flanked the fitness tests, I could hardly run, and I especially hated team sports. You know that feeling, when they pick up basketball teams, and the only last two people left are the obese girl with a broken arm and you? Yup, this was my life.

And then something changed - I started playing tennis. It took me forever to get a hang of it, but I started to enjoy it. What a strange feeling - to play a sport and not to suck at it!

Highschool was another turning point. Our PE, Avi Zilberman, was a mean, menacing, professional basketball player who told us upfront that we were a bunch of pussies ("choir boys") and he'd make men out of us. The chances looked slim - we had a few athletes in class, but most of us were total nerds. We had PE classes twice a week, and it was always a torture. Classes started with running, and then usually push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, etc. These exercises looked impossible to me. I could do maybe a couple of push-ups and sit-ups, but 0 chin-ups. But Avi insisted we keep trying and trying.

At the end of the year, I suddenly found myself doing 10 chin-ups with no problem. I ran 2 km in an amazing 8:15 minutes, and I was the school champion in sit-ups. I can't even begin to describe what it did to my self esteem. Yes, I was far from being a "stud", and couldn't fight my way out of a brawl, and yes, I still sucked in all team sports, but finally I achieved a level of fitness that looked impossible just a few years before.

My team sport skills remained pretty subdued over the years. I played basketball once a week during my army service, and 5 years of practice still left me with no coordination and a complete disability to get a rebound. It's funny how guys 6'' shorter than you can jump above you and take the ball. I played indoor soccer in college for a semester - it's the kind of game where there are 10-20 goals on average. I scored 0 during the entire time. But I did find my niches: tennis, squash, weight lifting.

In the last few years I found a new passion: volleyball. It's the first time I play a team sport and actually enjoy it. I'm still at the recreational level, but constantly improving. I've tried to move to Intermediate a few times already, but never made it. I hope that either they'll get tired of failing me or I finally improve enough to pass. Either way, it's a lot of fun.

Tomorrow we have the big annual tournament. I played in it for the last two years in two different teams, and yeah, I'm not the best player in the team for sure, but I can tell you one thing: my team always wins! We won the 2009 cup and 2010 cup without losing almost any game, under the name "Ball Busters". This year our team is the "Cock Blockers". At 6', I'm the shortest guy on the team - I think we're going to kick some ass! Wish us luck!

2010 winners

The Baker

More than 10 years ago I dated a baker. He had big brown eyes, a dreamy look and a constant expression of someone who's completely lost. With a past including a year in the Hari Krishna cult, attempts to hurt himself, and unclear future, he was, perhaps, lost and undateable. But he baked me a baguette with my name on it. He baked me a doggie, which stood on the window shelf in my old St Botolph apartment and watched the quiet street below with sad eyes. He baked me a wonderful cheese cake. And he disappeared one day with no explanation, a few short weeks after we met, while I was going through a nasty flu that kept me in bed for a week.

Why did I date him? Perhaps I was young and stupid. Scratch that - I wasn't that young anymore, just a bit lost myself after the end of my first and longest relationship. It hurt, but eventually I moved on, and after a few months the doggie moved on as well.

I haven't seen Joey since, but I still make his cheese cake recipe from time to time. I wrote it down while watching him making it with no recipe and no measurements. It's a wonderful recipe - easy, forgiving, and open to improvisation. Add or remove a cup of cheese or cream, or even add an egg or two - it won't make a big difference.

Here's for you, Joey, and all the other lost souls out there. Have a piece of cake!

Joey’s Cheesecake

Crust:

• 1 cup graham crackers, crushed 
• 50 gr melted butter (4 TBSP) or sour cream 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

Filling:

• 700 gr cream cheese 
• 1.5 cups sour cream 
• 1 cup heavy cream 
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 2 TBSP cornstarch (not corn flour!) 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1 TBSP lemon juice 

Topping:

• 2 cups blueberries 
• ¼ cup sugar 
• 1 TBSP cornstarch 

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. 
2. Mix the crust and pad into a large round baking pan (11’’ or so). 
3. Mix the dry ingredient of the filling; mix in cheese and cream; add the rest and pour on top. 
4. Bake for an hour or more, until the top is golden brown and a little soft. 
5. Mix blueberries, sugar and cornstarch in a small pot, and cook over low flame for 10 minutes (a little more if the blueberries are frozen). 
6. After the cake cools a bit, cover it with the topping and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

Spring Recital, March 27 2011

Home recording, Chopin's Nocturne in D flat Op. 27 #2

Taalul update

It was time. I neglected my website, taalul.com, for too long. For a while, instead of uploading pictures I created links to facebook albums. It turns out that these public links expire after a while, and none of my recent albums were available. It took a while but I've uploaded all the pictures up to 2011.

Then there are my friends and my family pages. Some friends have expired (no, they're not dead, just not my friends any more), and one very important guy was missing. With my family, the kids grow so fast! The pictures had to be updated, and of course include the newest addition, the 2.5 years old Oded.

And having done that, I had to update the main page, and start thinking about a new music page, and more work to do... which got me tired. I guess I'll need another lazy cold snowy weekend to make more progress. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the update.

Schubert's Erlkönig

Something about this lied makes me shudder every time I hear it. Schubert's composition is complex and unrelenting, depicting the mad dash though the forest, the rain and the despair of the father holding his dying son.

The front page of Schubert's lied, his Opus 1, as it turns out, cannot convey how much emotion is embedded in it.

I recently found this amazing animated version, with the wonderful Ian Bostridge (his Boston recital was one of the best concerts of my life.) The quality is not the best, but stay with it - it's a haunting experience.

The Five Seconds Rule

Outsiders often think of us as a bunch of rude people, especially on the road. "Massholes" is the common term. Local drivers often ignore traffic signs, lanes (if they're marked at all), and especially traffic lights. Even in Israel, home of the macho "I will not let you pass me even if it kills me" driver, traffic lights are strictly obeyed. Not here.

But I've come to realize that there's a plausible explanation for this phenomenon. We're not crazy, we're not reckless - we just have an acute sense of justice. Which brings me to the Five Seconds Rule:

If a driver approaching an intersection would be able to cross it safely and legally, but, through no fault of his own, is barred from doing it, for example since the driver in front of him is too slow, or since pedestrians are crossing in red, or since he was busy sending an important text message, in this case his right of way is extended by 5 seconds from the moment the light turned red.

Check it out the next time someone runs a red light in front of you and you'll see it makes perfect sense.