January 8th, 2009 - Jerusalem, Israel

So right now it is 6:20am and I am watching the sun rise in a very fancy hotel in Jerusalem. We arrived here last night after a 3 hour drive from Heifa, a huuuge city that reminds me of a mix between San Francisco and Dubai... It is massive and everything is run on solar power. Israel is extremely energy efficient in every way, it's quite unbelievable. We visited our tour guide Dani's kibbutz yesterday and hiked such a beautiful trail with olive bushes and lemon trees and mango trees. The kibbutz really reminded me of the show Lost! You'll see pictures when it doesn't cost me a fortune to send them! I should be able to upload in Paris... Two days ago we had a full day of greatness. I have to tell you that we are really treated like kings and queens over here. First we woke up and hiked the Golan Heights, which was too beautiful for words. Waterfalls, every kind of fruit imaginable, palm trees, eucalyptus and bamboo everywhere. I've seen eagles and lizards and wild boars and wild cats (they all look just like Rufus and MIA!!) There is definitely a discovery channel aspect about this trip and you know I dig that stuff! After the Golan Heights, we went for food and a wine tasting at a vineyard in a volcano. We drive our bus down into the volcano which would have made you all puke. It's like one of those twisty turny little roads that is so close to falling off the edge... To tell you the truth, we saw multiple cars at the bottom that had fallen off over the years, kinda freaky. After the winery, we went to a hot spring SPA!!!! Now when I say that this was the most amazing, rejuvenating experience of my life so far, I am not lying. It was like a real Turkish bath at the bottom of a volcano, but the whole place was made into an ornate Spa with basketball coarts, soccer fields, alligator ranches, masseuses, underwater valleys of natural hot tubs... We spent 3 hours getting pampered there. Then we went back to our kibbutz where we partied all night with two other groups from birthright, one from England, and one from Toronto. We drank wine from the vineyard until every last drop was gone. Everybody instantly became friends, and it was sad to leave the first kibbutz that we visited. Today, we have 8 Israeli soldiers that are joining our group permanently to spend the rest of our trip with us. Yes, Israelis do birthright too! It's a huge thing in their culture, and it's a great way to really get to know their life. I've met so many kinds of people here so far. The markets in the cities are like the ones in Aladdin. They are so cool! All the Arabs try to barter with you... They all like my mustache and tell me I have the "cousin" discount!! Hehe. I have been partying and enjoying everything so much, that I really haven't slept much. Last night I finally stayed in instead of going to the bar. It was much needed. I can't wait to see what's in store next.

Peace in the Middle East!

Top Eleven Movies From My Childhood That Fucked Me Up Permanently...

I'm calling these movies and not films because of the B-listed nature of them all... Some of the movies listed here are not actually movies, but TV shows or "made for TV" movies... I count them as movies though because they were viewed by me on VHS several times a year for my entire childhood. I suggest you watch the ones that you've never seen. OR - If you remember seeing any of these as a child, please watch them again to see how they may have impacted the way you think nowadays.

11. Huggabunch

A girl travels through her mirror into HuggaLand to find a way to keep her grandmother, the only one who knows how to hug, young.



10. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie

Seven disgusting kids but nevertheless of interesting personality are being made of the green mud coming out of garbage can. Once alive their master gives them rules to obey although they think that life is funnier without following stupid regulations like no television or no candy. Naturally this will cause some conflicts.



9. The Peanut Butter Solution

Peanut butter is the secret ingredient for magic potions made by two 'friendly' ghosts. Eleven-year-old Michael looses all of his hair when he gets a 'fright' and uses the potion to get his hair back, but too much peanut butter causes things to get a bit 'hairy'.



8. The Boy Who Could Fly

Milly and Lewis, and their recently-widowed mom, Charlene, move to a new neighborhood. Once there, they all deal with a variety of personal problems, but Milly finds a friend in Eric, her autistic next door neighbor. Eric has a fascination with flight, and as the story progresses, he exerts an enthralling force of change on all those around him.



7. House 2

The new owner of a sinister house gets involved with reanimated corpses and demons searching for an ancient Aztec skull with magic powers.



6. The Ren and Stimpy Show

An intense, hyperactive chihuahua (Is there any other kind?) and a happy-go-lucky, empty-brained cat share bizarre and often repulsive adventures. Their experiences usually involve hairballs, filthy litterboxes, "magic nose goblins", sentient farts, jars of spit, outhouses, eating dirt, monkey vermin and any other imaginable disgusting substance.



5. Chip An' Dale (1952)

Donald needs a log for his fire. Unfortunately, the one he picks is occupied by a couple of chipmunks and their stash of acorns. When he cuts it down, Chip and Dale fall out, but their acorns stay behind, so they work at putting out Donald's fire and retrieving their stash. Donald, of course, takes this as calmly and cheerfully as you would expect.


4. Beetlejuice

This is the story of Adam and Barbara who live in a beautiful house in New England. One day while driving home they are involved in a terrible auto accident. They manage to walk home only to discover later that they have died and now haunt their house. When their house is purchased by an out of state family, they feel their home is threatened by the over-the-top artists wife and real-estate idea-man husband. Their only relief is the Gothic daughter of the family. Their attempts at scaring the family out of the house are ignored or laughed at. Finally they fall to the temptation to use the people-exorcizer Beetle Juice. When they find his tactics too dangerous, they attempt to contain him and save the family they were trying to boot.



3. Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Pee-wee's bicycle, a material object he desires above all human relationships, is stolen. The journey he is forced to make exposes him to the land that suburbia forgot, a mythical working-class America filled with truck stops, waitresses and runaway convicts. This is Tim Burton's remake of Vittorio De Sica's Italian neo-realist classic, The Bicycle Thief.



2. The Stuff

Weird yummy goo erupts from the earth and is discovered by a couple of miners. They taste it and decide to market it because it tastes so good. The American public literally eats up the new dessert sensation now known as the Stuff but, unfortunately, it takes over the brains of those who eat it, turning them into zombie-like creatures. It is up to ex-FBI agent David Rutherford and a kid named Jason to stop the spread of the mind-devouring dessert.



1. The Gate

The boy Glen (Stephen Dorff) and his best fried Terry (Louis Tripp) accidentally open a gate to hell when a rotten tree is removed from the backyard of Glen's house. When his dog die and a friend of Glen's sister, the teenager Alexandra (Christa Denton), buries the animal in the hole, demons from an ancient civilization are released, seeking for two human sacrifices to dominate the world. Glen, Al and Terry, who are spending the weekend alone in the house, fight to save their lives and close the hole.

Betty Boop

I'm not ashamed of letting the world know of my infatuation with Betty
Boop. I don't collect toys, magnets, ashtrays or shot glasses with
her face on them... I just have this sincere desire to be inside one
of those old black and white, hand drawn Fleisher cartoons with Cab
Calloway's swing music backing those discreet political commentaries
of the day. The animations of the 20's and 30's had no censoring,
which made them real. Those intricate details and delicate drawings
have been lost in animation through time. Nowadays cartoons are
censored and reality is not. I find that an absurd twist in history.
I once met the granddaughter of Max Fleisher and explained my love for
Betty, which she found weird... I'm still not ashamed of it.
Obviously.

Article written by me, for Philadelphia City Paper 2/20/08

Here's my favorite Betty cartoon that is definitely a must see...