01.08.05 - 10:19 a.m.

Last night in Tel Aviv, where drinking from open containers is not illegal on the street, but all kosher restaurants and buses shut down Friday night and don't reopen till Saturday night. Honoring Shabbat is a law of the state. Luckily there are still non kosher places open tonight & we can get a special taxi to the airport tomorrow. "This is Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem!" said the pierced-all-over boy who served us pasta

We were planning to go out tonight, but too knackered from last night with Dori. He took us all over to good dj bars, a night of rumbling bass and fun times, ended up coming home at 4AM-- and this was a "mellow" night!! They have the same party schedule here as they did in South America. Nothing gets going till super late, peak time is 3AM, parties still going at 7,8,9. It's ridiculous and quite frankly I am too old for this nonsense. Plus I think I have bronchitis from all the 2nd hand smoke. Not to mention the 1st hand smoke.

I didn't get a picture of Dori. You just can't take a camera out with you at night. He gave us this Israeli mag that has an article about red bull music academy, has pix of him and Cosmo. It's in hebrew and when Az. translates she's gonna be like "It says 'cosmo plays deep funky SF house... he is moving in a trance direction and fave producer is Paul Oakenfold'. Also the mag is hilarious because it's mostly a standard pop mag but then on page 78 there's suddenly softcore lesbian porn! It really comes out of nowhere. Is this a 'european' thing?! Can we get the Economist to do likewise?

Funny/depressing moment from the other night-- passed by this small office that was boarded up & filled with cardboard boxes. A couple of faded promotional posters on the glass said

Slovakia: Part Of Europe Worth Seeing

Hahaha, I swear that is exactly what it said, I'll show you the pic later. We were contemplating other potential slogans that they rejected:

Slovakia: There's Stuff To Do Here

Slovakia: No Longer A Stinking Cesspool

Slovakia: You Could Do Worse

Now I will go finish this Recanati and read Paul Auster's autobio "Hand to Mouth" that I picked up at Jaffa flea market for 4 shekels. I was annoyed because I realized I probably could have gotten it for 3. Granted it's like 25 cents but it's the PRINCIPLE of the thing. I have no idea who Paul Auster is but I liked the opening sentence where he says "In my late twenties and early thirties, I went thruogh a period of several years where everything I touched turned to failure."

Goodbye Tel Aviv. I will miss the people watching on Sheinken Street and the cafes of Dizengoff. We're leaving just as Az. was learning the latest slang from Dori (who is quite fashionable and raffish even). Apparently all her Hebrew slang is extremely dated; it would be as if some foreigner came to the US and said "Hey hep cats! Let's get tubular! Far out!" Actually, that sounds kind of cool. I think if you use old enough slang it becomes new again.

Note to self: do best xxx of 04 upon return

Note to self: you are a lazy bastard and will never do this.