Last night was weird.

I was planning on listing stuff on eBay right after yesterday's post (no really, I was). But then I thought maybe I'd watch a little RSTV (Really Stupid TV) first.

Then there were fireworks! Why? I have no idea - the 4th of July is not usually celebrated here - but it was cool. They were so close to my balcony, it was almost scary. I'm really going to miss this apartment someday. Nothing beats being able to watch fireworks without having to leave your living room.


Someone forgot to turn off the light first.

After that, I thought maybe I'd watch a little more RSTV, and THEN do the eBay stuff.

But then my brother called.
"Listen!" he says. "You have to come to the Barby right now!"
"I have to do... ummm... WHAT?" The Barby is a club in downtown Tel Aviv, where they have live music and dead air-conditioning. I think it used to be really trendy or something - but now it isn't anymore (or is it? I don't get out enough to know this kind of thing).
"There's a gig you HAVE to come and see!" The gig was a heavy metal band called 'Shworchtsechaye' - two of its members are a guy I used to date in high school and another guy who was the pal that used to sit in front of me in class. I hadn't seen either of them in ten years, at least.
"Ummm, hi, I'm your sister. Remember me? I don't go outside on short notice."
"Stop being so BORING", he says. "You're lying! You do go outside! I saw you go out, at least twice. I know you can do it! Just come on already!"
My brother is one of the world's best salesmen - one of those guys who could sell ice to an eskimo. So, somehow or other, I found myself saying, "yeah, okay, I'll come" and asking myself, "have I really gone mad this time?"

I ran to my closet to look for my wannabe-rock-chick attire. Then I remembered I threw out all my wannabe-rock-chick attire 10 or 15 years ago - around the time when I stopped wanting to be a rock chick. That is probably a good thing, because there's a chance I may have looked totally ridiculous. But fortunately, it turns out that anyone can pretend to be a wannabe-wannabe-rock-chick with a black tank top, tall black boots and pants with lots of unnecessary zippers in weird places. I am not sure if I pulled it off or not, but hey, nobody was giggling in my face or anything. Do people even say 'rock chick' anymore?

Then I went out and flagged down one of those time machines with the little yellow 'taxi' signs on top, and traveled back to somewhere circa 1992.

Yeah. I went to a Death Metal gig last night.
Seriously. I did. I have photos to prove it!
'Nuff said. I don't really know how to describe this kind of thing anyway, except for "delightfully surreal". I haven't even used the phrase 'Death Metal' in the past decade or so.

I never would have recognized them if I ran into them in the street.


My high school sweetheart


And a long lost friend
More pics here if anyone happens to be remotely interested in this.

I'm actually glad I went. It was kind of fun. Not the type of music I'd play on my iPod while lampworking or anything, but almost enjoyable if you're in the right mood and your long lost friends are in the band (or if you're smashing goldstone chunks while thinking about all the Mrs. Smiths of the world. I should try that sometime). Oddly enough, I was in the right mood. But I guess the best part was catching up with people I hadn't seen in so long.

It's funny how everything is completely different and yet somehow, exactly the same.

Ten or fifteen years ago, they had pretty much the same rock band. Well, pretty much everybody had a rock band back then. I even played bass guitar for a year or two. I have absolutely no musical talent at all, even though there is some pretty extreme talent in my family - that gene just passed me by. It took a bit too long to figure that out. Oh well. I had a really cool bass though. It was dark blue and sparkly - I think of it whenever I see blue aventurine (I recently ordered some blue aventurine chunks. I wish they were here now. Argh). At that same time, I was trying to sell some pathetic jewelry attempts (a career that only lasted a few months). I used to think being one of those street vendors who sell handmade jewelry and stuff to Jerusalem tourists would be the coolest job ever. Funny.
It's charming in a way. You don't meet many people who actually followed their offbeat highschool dream.
Of course, nobody had heard of the internet back then. Even cellphones were just means of communication for people like James Bond.

It's a long journey back to 2007. Today I am feeling quite nostalgic, kind of old and a bit hungover.
 
I will do eBay later today. I promise. In the meantime, I'm off to the torch. I was looking at some old photo albums yesterday, and buried underneath them I discovered an old book of fractal designs that I forgot I had. Inspirational, to say the least. Some of them sort of remind me of some of the beads I've been doing lately - and now I have some ideas for more.

Later!