06.16.03...Wow, I'm really making a movie
After a frustrating weekend of many roadblocks and not much action, things are finally really happening. If all goes as planned (ha ha), I am booked every day this week. I am off to Be'er Sheva, in the South, today, to talk to the 16-year-old girl singer of a ska-punk band. Tomorrow, up to Haifa, in the North, to finally spend some "quality time" with Useless I.D. I may not have much Internet access for the next few days, f.y.i.

Last night was crazy--I met up to interview some guys from the Ska/Oi punk band, Smash4$...Dennis and Tom. We were doing the interview in a mall, because that was the only place with enough light at night. The security (every public place has security here...you can imagine why) wouldn't let them in with their beers (!) and as we waited on the sidewalk, a whole group of other punks showed up. It is such a small city and such a small scene. They were all speaking to each other in a mix of Russian and Hebrew. Turns out that many of the Israeli punks have Russian roots. Both Dennis and Tom are immigrants from Russia, and they were saying that Russians in Israel are often treated like outsiders, which may explain why so many of them are drawn to punk rock--a natural scene for those who don't always fit in in other places.

After the interview we went to this square where they hang out and drink with the other Tel Aviv punks. I got some good footage of the group just hanging and doing their thing, which I haven't really been able to get so far. Here's the crazy part: one of the kids lived in a punk squat near the square and he offered to show it to me. Of course, this was an opportunity I had to take! They had no electricity or water so i was shooting by candlelight and the whole time i was thinking, "This is just like in a movie!" hA hA. Five people stay on the top floor of an abandoned building in Tel Aviv. The walls are covered with grafitti like "Punx not Dead." I couldn't see much because of the light, but I was really thinking about how THIS is what punk rock originally came out of. These kids are poor and don't feel like they have any future in Israel. I don't imagine that this is the life that their parents envisioned for them when they emigrated from Russia. Anyway, it also made what Useless I.D. has sone seem so much more impressive...they are the ONLY punk band in the whole country who has gotten their shit together enough to get out and make an international name for themselves. Much to think about...

06.18.03...Be'er Sheva and Haifa
Haifa is such a beautiful city. It's built atop Mount Carmel and from the mountianside you can see the whole city and out into the Mediterranean. It's a far cry from what I saw of Be'er Sheva, which is the dusty desert city I was in yesterday. Dafna, the girl singer I met there, claimed that Be'er Sheva was the REAL Israel, because it it home to such a diversity of immigrants...from Ethiopia, Russia, etc.

Dafna was a ball. She's just made for the camera. I can't wait to see her band, Beer7, perform this weekend. She just turned 17, and already has her first meetings set up with the Army people. Crazy. We didn't really do an interview, but rather wandered around Be'er Sheva getting an impression of things. She had a good time telling people I was from an American news station and getting free stuff off of local business owners. (How punk rock! ha ha) We got some pretty good footage of one of her bandmates participating in a skateboarding demo. It was the first public skateboarding event in Be'er Sheva history. About time! I wonder why skateboarding and punk rock have always had a link. The guy who organized the event said it's because skaters and punks are all destroyers. I think this is partly true, but that both are also creators. Skaters are constantly building ramps and rails, and making playgrounds out of junkpiles. And punks break down old song structures or social structures, just to create new ones.

Anyway, I'm now in Haifa. I've had a couple of good interviews with Guy and Yotam from Useless I.D. It's amazing. All my "interviewees" so far have had pretty different answers to many of my questions, but the answer has been virtually the same for one question: "What does punk rock mean to you?" Older, younger, Russian, pop, political...they all answer, "FREEDOM." I am beginning to realize how important this concept or feeling of freedom is to these kids, who feel trapped in so many ways. They feel trapped by three years of obligatory military service, and a lifetime of reserve service following that. They can't move around freely, because there are security guards checking them in every public place. They are trapped in a situation that they didn't create but whose future is up to them. No wonder so many of them are clinging to this punk rock scene despite the pressures of society to follow a "normal" route.

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