Rhythm|

Ever since, people in Israel have received the Shabbat in different ways; some sing, others dance, some cook, and some only play drums.

Every Friday, passion and leather are mixed by people who play drums on Tel-Aviv’s beach. Why? We just don’t know; maybe the need for rhythm, maybe solitude, maybe just a very easy way to overcome daily problems… maybe, everyone has his own cause.

The rhythms of Shabbat are so different but at the same time so equal; they have a pacifist mission, but they sound as war drums coming from an army, an army of soldiers of beat, Tel Aviv’s tribe of beat and rythm.

Color|

We went to look for variety, we stopped in the street and asked everybody there to show us their tattoos.

Fantastically, more people than expected had tattoos, each reflecting the personality and emphasizing the uniqueness of each urban history hidden. The simplicity and sometimes complexity of each of the pictures showed a gradient of exotic reason and meaning.

A movie on wheels|

Biking in Israel is like watching an urban movie, filled of extraordinary landscapes which might touch your sensitivity and invite you to keep cycling; the actors are as real as life itself, and every meter traveled is a scene of peace.

Idan Braslavi, who has spent years visiting the streets of the world on his bike, believes that in Israel this film is never repeated; and thinks this show is eternally accompanied by songs trapped in his mind created with the help of the breeze and the road - which constantly change and smile at him.

Music by Israeli band:

Sabroso and Elegant |

Fernando Knopf was born in Argentina. The well known Composer and Performer immigrated to Israel in 1996. Although he is an Israeli Citizen, he considers himself to be a worldly citizen. His amusement has captivated souls from different corners of the world. His music proposal & awareness has satisfied the most demanding audiences and has convinced the most selective ears with his sophisticated and ‘sabroso’ rhythm.

At the age of fourteen, he already studied the piano, bass, and music theories. Later, Knopf moved to Tel-Aviv, a city that received him with open arms. He studied at ‘Rimon and Barkley (Boston)’, where he received scholarships and graduated as a Compositor and Jazz Performer. Until 2004, the year when he featured his own band, Fernando played with well known local musicians from Israel and other great musicians from around the world.

As the director of “The Israel Salsa Band”, is considered an icon in today’s modern Israeli music culture and has performed at several festivals where he has been well recognized in the Israeli public eye. In 2006, he introduced his first release to the market – qualified & marked as a revelation by the locals. Battling with the big figures of Latin Jazz, made it tough yet inspiring. Fernando Knopf reached amongst the first top-ten spots, playing throughout various Latin radios in the US and Europe, such as Dimension Latina Radio in Chicago.

Fernando Knopf is the Representative of both Latin music in Israel and Israeli salsa in Latin America. By adding passion and meaning to each notes and silences, the Argentinean-Israeli Composer and Performer lives to be on stage, and offers unbridled virtuosity and a lot of ‘sabor’.

The clip soundtrack is part of Fernando Knopf disc.

Fernando’s website: http://www.fernandoknopf.com/

And be sure to check the breathtaking Graffiti video and photos:

Art to Go |

Their faces covered with handkerchiefs, they walk unrecognizable to decorate the streets of Haifa and Tel-Aviv.  With great ability, these spray masters capture stunning and abstract forms without judgment, sometimes in peace and sometimes in anger, but always with a spray can in hand. 

It was around ten o’clock when we went to collect material for Cool Israel. It was cold, but the excitement instantly warmed us up.  After walking for a while, we saw two graffiti guerrillas, who invited us to photograph their rebellious masterpiece. 

Ignoring any commitment, our hands were taken; and by staring at our painted fingerprints, they led us to a graffiti labyrinth. It was an abandoned factory in Haifa, where jealously hides samples, signatures & traces of different exhibitors who today secretly adore Tel-Aviv and Haifa. 

The cool trend here is that, although local authorities have a budget to repaint the walls, no changes have been shown on the adjacent murals to this temple of color and creativity.  This place is regarded as a haven for those who are banished from the artistic conservative community, and is seen today as heroes of urban art. 

Amongst all this fantasy, the admirable reality is seeing how graffiti artists get lost in their art imprinted on each brick and imperfections found throughout the different walls of this country.

 
Music by Israeli bands:

Don’t miss the Israel Salsa band video and pictures:

The project first opening was in 1999, and completed last year, with the construction of the square tower.

Every tower is equipped with cutting-edge technology, that hosts several offices of Israel leading communication offices.

Azrieli center also features a shopping mall, with dozens of stores, restaurants and an eight-screen movie theater.

We were amazed looking at every piece; it was impossible to hold back our emotions while the works were progressing.

The abstract beauty was confusing, sometimes we weren’t sure if the paint was on the skin or the skin over the paint; the form made us follow in love, the color hypnotized us, and the ideas convinced us.

Every year, body painting artists meet in Tel Aviv, Israel to offer an alternative life to the body, transforming it into a living canvas.  The participants come from all around the country, and for them, nothing is more rewarding than seeing their magnum opus finished.  There are some pieces that took three hours to be finished, even some which required more time, but all the artists worked with the same passion and perfectionism.

The men and women who were painted claimed they didn’t feel naked, they rather told us ‘it was like wearing an extravagant and genuine outfit’. 

Music by Israeli bands Infected Mushroom & Sabaya:

Deep inside the city of Dimona we met the men who obtained the Guiness Record for cutting hair with ten scissors simultaneously.  Dany Bargil surprises everyone by performing a moderately known art, but in a cool and extraordinary manner.         

Between Turkish coffee, noises of scissors and hair dryers, Dany tells us about the eventful journeys he had with his parents and his thirteen brothers when they emigrated from Marroco to Dimona, “we used to live in a tent in the middle of the desert” – narrates to us with a proud smile. 

With bright in his eyes, he points out a picture where he and Marco – his older brother and mentor – appear styling hair.  Dany started working as a hairdresser at the age of 9, when used to go to his brother’s barbershop every afternoon after school.  Years after, wile serving in the army, he continued being admired while cutting hair and mastering the scissors at the same time.

In 1997, at his own barbershop ‘Figaro’ he obtained his first Guinness record cutting hair with 7 scissors simultaneously.  Few weeks ago, vehemently, he imposed a new Record doing the same exercise, but with 10 scissors this time.  

Dany also holds a technical degree in electronics and electricity, but as he says, “the scissors become to him better than the soldering”.  

Music by Israeli Band ‘Habanot Nechama’: