Tu B’av: Where’s the Love?
Check out this funny clip brought to you by the witty Benji Lovitt. Tu B’av is the Israeli version of Valentine’s Day. Benji wants to share this holiday with a hot Israeli girl, but does a hot Israeli girl want to share it with him? Watch the video to see if Benji can bring it!
15+ Places to work off the Jerusalem 15 – The good, the bad, and the ugly
Gyms in Israel. Grr. I am only complaining because I am from LA where the gyms are huge and the models are extra thin. Where a gym is open 24 hours and there is always a machine available. Where customer service and great deals on membership do exist. Can’t there just be one gym like this in Jerusalem? Just one!
Here is a list of fitness centers in Jerusalem with some honest commentary. Warning: Lots of anger. (Thanks, Rebecca, for putting the list together)
Bodyline
Phone: 02-6783864
Address: Malha Mall
Genders: Men, Women
Comments: This gym is the closest thing to a real gym in Jerusalem and cheaper than most of the other gyms too! Check it out as long as you don’t mind shlepping to Malha for a workout and did I mention walking through the mall in your nasty sweaty clothes!
Body Control Studio
Phone: 02-5865831
Address: a801 Hakisufim, Ramot
Body & Soul
Phone: 02-6788861
Address: Hamusachim 5, Talpiot
Genders: Men, Women
Comments: Well friends, this is the shadiest gym I have ever been to and I’ve been to almost all of them. Two years ago they did renovations and left the gym open during the process. That’s right, I was working out with some guy chipping off paint and asbestos over my head. Did someone say gyms are for getting healthy? Finally, after lots of Israeli-style arguing, the manager said I could have three months free, since in typical Israeli fashion, the one week of renovations took three months. But of course when it came time to give me the three months, he suddenly had no idea what I was talking about. Also, the machines were almost always broken. And it is located in one of the shadiest parts of Talpiot figures that it would be since it is such a shady gym!
**UPDATE** It seems the gym has finally got their act together and respecting the customer a little bit more. They now have top of the link equipment and their new studio is located on the bottom floor and awesome classes, not to mention they have babysitting for your little one when you work out. What exactly is the babysitting, well watching the baby in the stroller and if he or she cries they’ll come looking for you. Still better than nothing. They also have decent deals and if you sign up with a friend then you both get an additional month of free membership.
First International Jewish bloggers conference in Jerusalem – geeky or cool?
A few years back I avoided reading blogs at all costs. I was afraid of landing on endless posts about a cat’s latest dietary restrictions or how cute it is when a 3 year old drools on the couch. And if I did find a blog that seemed useful, how could I trust the information? At the time, I couldn’t see the value of reading or writing a blog.
Fast forward to present.
Today, the blogosphere has grown up and most blogs adhere to an unofficial set of standards because they realize that the only way to gain readership is by providing meaningful and reliable content. So it’s no surprise that blogs are my first stop for finding out what’s happening in my city, what trends are happening in my industry, and what videos are likely to crack me up. In fact, I can hardly remember the last time I visited a static website.
And, as the blogosphere naturally evolved into social media (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter), people have stopped seeing bloggers as geeky, and started seeing and respecting their talent for being “social” and providing and recommending premium content to the web.
As for the Jerusalem blogging scene, all of us nerdy or cool kids, depending on your take of the whole blogging culture, are invited to the First International Jewish Blogging Convention in Jerusalem at Nefesh B’Nefesh HQ on August 20. Sorry for posting about it rather late, although I think I was the first to break the news on Twitter.
Rafi at Life in Israel brings up an good point about how anonymous bloggers will participate. Paper bags over their heads? Nametags that say “Anonymous”? I guess they can watch the event live online, but I have a feeling it won’t be the same. In any case, I’m looking forward to meeting all of my fellow bloggers and have to make sure to catch up on my reading.
The event is to be from 5-8:30 and includes panel discussions with bloggers Treppenwitz, Jewlicious, IsraelMatzav and Hirhurim, WhatWarZone, Oleh Girl, My Shrapnel, and My Right Word.
The Big Felafel gets a new look
I apologize for slow posting lately, but I have some goodies coming up for you. The Big Felafel’s first birthday is coming up in 3 days, so I decided to take off its diapers and give TBF a more mature look. If you’re reading this in a feedreader or your email, come by The Big Felafel and let me know what you think of the new design.
Where to Study Graphic Design in Israel
I’m finishing up the Graphic Design and Multimedia program at John Bryce in Jerusalem and thought I’d review the course and recommend other resources for people interested in graphic and web design in Israel.
Discounts
If you made Aliyah within the last 3 years, you may be entitled to some major discounts off these schools. But you’ll need to check with Misrad Haklitah or Misrad Hastudentim first.
Graphic and Web Design Schools / Programs
Below are some of the better known schools for graphic design in Israel. Almost all the courses are in Hebrew, but don’t let that stop you since the software is in English. At first, I thought the Hebrew would be extremely challenging, but by the second day, I caught on to the Hebrish lingo of “checkbox-im”, “undo-im”, and “tab-im”. And by the end of the course, I had a whole notebook full of these little phrases.
Also, many of these schools offer other creative classes such as video editing, jewelry design, animation, etc.
Considering that these are design schools, let’s see how creative and effective their websites are. After receiving grades throughout the year, it feels good to give back a little constructive criticism.
Please leave a comment if you have a review of a school or if I left any out, which is very very possible.
John Bryce Doesn’t sound Jewish, but hey…
Location: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv & Haifa
Phone: *6460; In Jerusalem, 02-678-1881 and you have to push 011 after you dial.
Length of Course: 10 months (in theory). Due to snow days (in Israel, crazy – right?), teacher sick days, random no-days, it turned into a year. Classes are twice a week at night for 3.5 hours each. Don’t worry, you get breaks, and a free coffee machine. You receive a certificate of completion at the end although I’m not sure how valuable the certificate is, since portfolios carry the real weight in the design world. So if you work hard on the projects during the course you’ll come away with a nice portfolio.
Programs Taught: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, ImageReady, Flash/Actionscript
Overall Review: B+ I can now use each of the design programs pretty easily and quickly, but there is still much more to learn and practice but Photoshop and Flash are no longer scary programs where I don’t even know where to start. However, the program lacked in teaching design principles and fundamentals. In an amazing bookabout design for non-designers, Robin Williams (not the comedian) teaches basic design principles simply and brilliantly, but unfortunately John Bryce never mentioned any of her ideas. Also, I felt like the Dreamweaver section spent too much time on building websites with tables, and not enough time on DIV’s and CSS.
Website Review: D Annoying sound when you enter which I couldn’t figure out how to turn off, crazy flying flash sections in sidebar, inside pages look much different than home page, scrolling welcome message unnecessary.
Bezalel: Academy of Art and Design
Location: Jerusalem
Phone: 02-5893323 Email: viscom@bezalel.ac.il
Length: 4 years – Bachelor’s Degree
You’ll Learn: Visual Communications: Graphic/typographic design, Interactive design, Broadcast design (including animation), Illustration, and Advertising
Website Review: A I love the clean looking design and colorful photo. Nice touches of Flash. Easy to use menu with good English section.
Hadassah School of Practical Engineering
Location: Jerusalem
Phone: 02-6291932 Email: oragolan@hadassah.ac.il
Length: 2 years – Associate’s degree
Track: Print Production
You’ll Learn: Typography, Graphic Design, Website Design, Drawing & Sketching, Engraving and Etching, more
Track: Interactive Communications (Internet and Multimedia)
You’ll learn: Design for user interface, HTML, Introduction to Java, Introduction to Photography Three Dimensional Images and Animation, Website Production, Interactive Animation, more
Website Review: B+ Very informative with a good English section and usability, but could use a little creativity
Dealbox – Keeping up with all the deals and sales in Israel
It’s not exactly mysupermarket, but Dealbox is trying to keep Israeli consumers updated with deals at hundreds of stores. You can configure ‘deal’ emails by selecting the categories you’re interested in hearing about such as fashion, computers, electronics, food, etc. You can further customize your settings by checking the boxes next to stores you where you like to shop, most of which are big name chains like Mega Supermarket, Castro, Golf, B.U.G but there are also a bunch I’ve never heard of.
Or, if you’re sick of getting newsletters, you can just look at the homepage which features current deals and sales. Amazing how every store just happens to be having a 50% off sale or the 1+1 sale that they’re a big fan of around here. Could it be a ploy to get you to come into the store?! No, never…
Here’s the latest Zara sale and I have to admit that it is tempting…
Srugim and Haolim – 2 new Israeli TV shows that I can relate to
Lately, I don’t relate much to the characters in TV shows – doctors with tough decisions to make (Grey’s Anatomy), moms that sell pot to support their kids (Weeds), a secret call girl in London (Secret Diary of a Call Girl), etc.
As Esther points out, Sex and the City comes closest in its understanding of the ups and downs of being single in a city but obviously does not touch on the Jewish scene. Yes, Charlotte converts to Judaism, but it’s not quite telling of the singles scene on the Upper West Side in NYC or the German Colony in Jerusalem.
In contrast, Srugim, a new Israeli drama on Yes!, focuses on the singles scene in the Katamon area in Jerusalem so accurately I feel like I’ll be invited to their next Shabbat meal and end up on the set. The show included shots of Burgers Bar and Coffee Mill on Emek Refaim, so I was even looking for myself in the background somewhere. On top of that, I even knew one of the actresses, Shira Katz, who plays Stacy, the American neighbor. A little too close for comfort? Maybe, but I really got a kick out of it and couldn’t turn away, and I’m definitely waiting for the next episode. You can watch the show online in Hebrew with Hebrew subtitles. Explorer and Safari only. [Update: Available in Israel only] Continue reading this entry »
The Big Felafel featured on Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop Israel page
Alltop says you can think of their site as a digital magazine rack that collects stories from all the top sites on the web. They group the info “into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science,” and now Israel! The Israel page features many of the big name bloggers in Israel, and also some new bloggers I hadn’t heard of that I’ll have to catch up on. You can read more about Guy Kawasaki, the man behind Alltop and how it got started on the about page. Thanks Guy for listing The Big Felafel!
The greatest part about Alltop is that Guy listens to his Twitter friends’ recommendations for who to list as the top blogs for each category. All 15,000 + friends. He’s even following The Big Felafel, if you can believe it. That’s why Twitter is so easy to love, it connects you to people you would’ve never been able to talk to otherwise.
When is – free online tool to find out the date of the next holiday
Right before each Jewish holiday, I go to good ol’ Google and search for the dates and candle lighting times. This works ok, but I just found something way,way better. When-is.com lets you easily look up the dates of Jewish holidays, civil holidays, and other religions’ holidays – in case you were wondering what kind of day Kwanzaa comes out on this year.
Here’s one that I was curious about – when is Tisha B’av this year? Here’s a screenshot from when-is.com
Unfortunately, When-is doesn’t give you candlelighting times, but it does help you fill in those lesser-known Jewish holidays to calendars that you (gasp) write in by hand. I still can’t give up the Staples monthly calendar. Even if I hardly use it, I feel like my life will fall apart the one year I decide not to get it. I have yet to find one monthly-layout calendar in Israel, so if you know where to get one, please let me know.
Attention Chocolate Lovers: How to find the best chocolate in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Galilee, and more
Dark, white, truffles, bars, bittersweet, milk, fondue – if any or all of these types of chocolate make your mouth water, get ready for Sandra Andrews-Strasko’s Guide to Chocolate in Jerusalem, Guide to Chocolate in Tel Aviv, Guide to Chocolate in the Golan and Galilee and Guide to Chocolate in Israel.
Sandra’s guides detail each chocolate spot with the location, website, telephone number, if it’s kosher, type of store (restaurant, retail, etc.), and an honest review and recommendation.The ratings “take into account the quality of the chocolate, service and overall atmosphere of the seller”.
The most detailed review is about little-known “Chocolat” at 8 Arlozorov St. in Jerusalem that carries a range of different chocolates from truffles and fondue to chocolates I never heard of or realized were available in this part of town. To top it off, Chocolat shares the name of the famous movie, Chocolat, and could easily turn its own story into the sequel.
Sandra, if you’re reading this, and ever decide to update your chocolate guides, I offer my exquisite taste-testing talents.
The Big Felafel 