Tel Aviv Hot Spot: The Stern1 Bar

This place is one of my favorite bars in Tel Aviv: Stern1. It's classy without yuppiness, it's mature without being agist, its got great beers, great food and a great playlist, and its smack in the middle of Florentine.

Video: Tel Aviv Purim Madness 2011

Purim always marks the beginning of springtime and summer festivities as the weather gets warmer and the parties star moving outside. But this year, Tel Aviv's Purim celebrations were especially numerous and especially exciting with so many wonderful costumes wandering the streets, hopping the bars and decorating sidewalks all over town.

The Purim holiday - which officially fell on Saturday evening, March 19th and lasted through Sunday evening, March 21st (with Shushan Purim on Monday March 22nd)- seemed to extend over the entire week, with parties beginning on Thursday evening and continuing all the way through Monday.

Wait, scratch that- they are still going on! (Who's going to the Desert Ashram Galactic Purim Rave with me this coming weekend?!)

And with such energy and vibrancy shining this Purim (and with the fantastic weather we've been having) it would be a shame not to share some of the extraordinary funness of the week.

So, I put together a short video of the costume fever and party madness that overtook Tel Aviv this weekend and hope you enjoy!

Tel Aviv Skaters Are Still Cool Even If They Are Under 15

There is still a young skater scene in Tel Aviv- young and diverse - and while it isn't your standard "underground" scene, I still think it's blogworthy.

Some of you might say that the "skater phenomenon" is passe, but I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the dudes with the long hair, plaid shirts, black baggy jeans, massive headphones and chained wallets who zip around the street on their boards.

Most Tel Avivians aren't aware of it, but there is a massive skate park in south east TLV in an area called "Yad Eliyahu". It's situated right behind the well known Nokia Center which serves most of the year as basket ball team Maccabi Tel Aviv's home court, but most tel Avivians have never thought to peek around to its backside.

Behind the huge arena, which on game nights is teeming with fans clad in yellow and blue, you'll find a large concrete skate park right in the center of a large grassy playground. Not the most conventional place for a neighborhood park, but it works. And just down the street there are a number of skate shops and bike shops that have popped up.

I pass by this park nearly every day on my bikeride to and from work and I just love it. At nearly every hour of the day there are kids of all ages practicing their roller blading and skateboarding moves.  They have competitions, they bring photographers, the parents come to cheer the kids on- and it's really good, clean fun.

"Clean?!" you're saying to yourself. "When was skater culture ever clean!?"

Well, I've resigned myself to
Despite the unimpressive graffiti around the park, the scene is still pretty cool and exciting. And, I guess this is something we'll all have to come to terms with- that graffitti culture has diverged from skater culture since "street art" has come into its own and pushed your every day tagging vandalists back into the trashbin.

So, I'll have to find the cool graffiti in a less public area that isn't filled with skate-boarding highschoolers. But, really, that's ok with me.

Israeli Poets to Appear on Israeli Currency

Israel, it seems, is really trying to tone down its political and controversial image. At least in the world of finance and money.

Israeli Beer Fills Our Cups: Beer 2011

While Israelis do enjoy their alcohol, and Israeli wine has successfully broken into the international market,  Israeli beer, specifically Israeli micro-brews, are a relatively new phenomenon. Beer in Israel has arrived only recently as a fashionable gustatory interest, but it has caught on extremely quick.

Poppies, Poppies Everywhere!

It's March 1st which means that the height of the poppy season in Israel is now coming to a close.  The poppy, (Kalanit כלנית in Hebrew, and in "science speak", anemone coronaria) has become emblematic of the blooming land in the late January, early February,which in Israel marks the beginning of spring.  The flower blooms in nearly every color including white, purple and yellow, but the most iconic color is bright ruby red.