Looks like a great place to visit. As a friend of my granddaughter not too long ago told her Tel Aviv Rocks."
Let your travel senses go Gaga in Israel
Mt. Zion, Jerusalem, site of the Last Supper and David’s Tomb. Photo by Curtis Ellis more >
By Curtis Ellis - - Monday, October 27, 2014
Hearing that I was going to Israel right after the conflict in Gaza ended, friends reflexively said “be safe.” I understood their reaction considering the media coverage and all, though I never doubted the security of my life and limb. Now that I’m back I am happy to report I was safe – as were Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett and the mesmerizing popular combo The Klezmatics, all of whom I had the good fortune to encounter in my travels.
I inexplicably scored a ticket to Lady Gaga’s open-air concert in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park. She had flown on her private jet directly to Israel from Dubai, a first. The first surprise of the night was the light security footprint. Expecting an interminable line feeding into airport style metal detector gates, I found no stanchions and only a quick wanding. Twenty-three thousand eager fans watched the pop princess power through her hits and a dizzying phantasmagoria of costume changes, one of which was executed on stage, cleverly concealed by carefully placed handlers and accoutrements. I suspect she had a different wardrobe on her Dubai stop. When Gaga brought on her special guest,Tony Bennett, for a duet from their new hit album, two puzzled young fans asked me “Who is that man?” After Tony, the electropowerpop party resumed
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CURTIS ELLIS Let your travel senses go Gaga in Israel - Washington Times
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But I was gaga long before I saw the Lady. Enjoying a breakfast of salads, labaneh and shakshuka at the Mt. Zion Hotel on my first morning in Jerusalem, I overheard a New Yawk accent at the table behind me. Curiosity got the best of me, and I was soon immersed in conversation with David Licht, a founding member of The Klezmatics, in town for the annual Sacred Music Festival.
That evening I bathed in the eclectic vocal stylings of Hebraic Harlem gospel singer Joshua Nelson, orchestral maneuvers of Morocco’s Orchestre Chabab Al Andalous, and the meditative resonance of the begenna, the stringed instrument from Ethiopia known as the “harp of David.” The music would have been enough, but the staging added another dimension – the concert took place in the Tower of David, an ancient citadel inside the Jaffa Gate to the Old City. Well, I was gaga.
The absence of crowds was a clear benefit, to me if not the shopkeepers. No lines, no waiting and no crowds at Golgotha, or at Jesus’ burial tomb inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or at the Western Wall. I was free to wander the narrow alleyways of Old Jerusalem, take in the desert view and breeze atop Masada, soak in the Dead Sea, stroll the gardens of Galilee where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount, and see Peter’s house, he of “upon this rock I shall build a church,” without being rushed or shoved by mobs following an umbrella. Fascinated by history and the Mysteries that have exerted a magnetic pull on humans from Altamira to Owsley, I was gaga.
The bustling Mahane Yehuda market in West Jerusalem, where you’ll find everything ... more >
The broad span of history was on the dinner plate at The Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem, where the charming
Read more: CURTIS ELLIS Let your travel senses go Gaga in Israel - Washington Times
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Let your travel senses go Gaga in Israel
Mt. Zion, Jerusalem, site of the Last Supper and David’s Tomb. Photo by Curtis Ellis more >
By Curtis Ellis - - Monday, October 27, 2014
Hearing that I was going to Israel right after the conflict in Gaza ended, friends reflexively said “be safe.” I understood their reaction considering the media coverage and all, though I never doubted the security of my life and limb. Now that I’m back I am happy to report I was safe – as were Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett and the mesmerizing popular combo The Klezmatics, all of whom I had the good fortune to encounter in my travels.
I inexplicably scored a ticket to Lady Gaga’s open-air concert in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park. She had flown on her private jet directly to Israel from Dubai, a first. The first surprise of the night was the light security footprint. Expecting an interminable line feeding into airport style metal detector gates, I found no stanchions and only a quick wanding. Twenty-three thousand eager fans watched the pop princess power through her hits and a dizzying phantasmagoria of costume changes, one of which was executed on stage, cleverly concealed by carefully placed handlers and accoutrements. I suspect she had a different wardrobe on her Dubai stop. When Gaga brought on her special guest,Tony Bennett, for a duet from their new hit album, two puzzled young fans asked me “Who is that man?” After Tony, the electropowerpop party resumed
Continue reading at:
Continue reading at:
CURTIS ELLIS Let your travel senses go Gaga in Israel - Washington Times
Ads by Adblade
Watch this shocking cancer expose before you EVER agree to chemo, radiation, or surgery.
40 Hottest Female Celebrity Bodies of All Time
30 Child Actors Who Tragically Died Young
But I was gaga long before I saw the Lady. Enjoying a breakfast of salads, labaneh and shakshuka at the Mt. Zion Hotel on my first morning in Jerusalem, I overheard a New Yawk accent at the table behind me. Curiosity got the best of me, and I was soon immersed in conversation with David Licht, a founding member of The Klezmatics, in town for the annual Sacred Music Festival.
That evening I bathed in the eclectic vocal stylings of Hebraic Harlem gospel singer Joshua Nelson, orchestral maneuvers of Morocco’s Orchestre Chabab Al Andalous, and the meditative resonance of the begenna, the stringed instrument from Ethiopia known as the “harp of David.” The music would have been enough, but the staging added another dimension – the concert took place in the Tower of David, an ancient citadel inside the Jaffa Gate to the Old City. Well, I was gaga.
The absence of crowds was a clear benefit, to me if not the shopkeepers. No lines, no waiting and no crowds at Golgotha, or at Jesus’ burial tomb inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or at the Western Wall. I was free to wander the narrow alleyways of Old Jerusalem, take in the desert view and breeze atop Masada, soak in the Dead Sea, stroll the gardens of Galilee where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount, and see Peter’s house, he of “upon this rock I shall build a church,” without being rushed or shoved by mobs following an umbrella. Fascinated by history and the Mysteries that have exerted a magnetic pull on humans from Altamira to Owsley, I was gaga.
The bustling Mahane Yehuda market in West Jerusalem, where you’ll find everything ... more >
The broad span of history was on the dinner plate at The Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem, where the charming
Read more: CURTIS ELLIS Let your travel senses go Gaga in Israel - Washington Times
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
