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Israeli film The Band’s Visit (Bikur HaTizmoret) received prestigious awards and was shown worldwide - except for the Arab world. The film, which depicts a fictional visit of a ceremonial Egyptian police orchestra to a remote Israeli town, was boycotted in Egypt and in other Arab countries ‘to avoid cultural normalization with Israel’.

Last week, the Israeli Embassy in Egypt invited distinguished local intellectuals for a private screening of the movie at the Four Seasons Hotel. Film director Eran Kolirin was also invited and answered questions raised by the audience after the screening. Since local Egyptian cinemas do not show the movie, Kolirin encouraged local folks to “take it off the Internet, anyone who wants, get pirate copies off the Internet and watch it“.

Here is the video evidence from this evening’s Israeli Channel 10 news:

I was interviewed for an article that was published today in the English edition of Haaretz newspaper, in regards to the 2008 US presidential election. Here are the relevant last two paragraphs:

As the U.S. presidential race reaches Israel, Hebrew-language campaigners try to choose words wisely

By Raphael Ahren

[...]

Some political items are created by people who can’t even vote in the United States. Obama supporter Shahar Golan, of Rehovot, crafted a poster with the Hebrew translation of the slogan “Change we can believe in.” After a smear campaign tried denouncing the Illinois senator as a Muslim, Golan felt he had to publicly declare his support for “Baruch Obama,” as he calls him. “As a born and bred Israeli, my interest in the U.S. elections is mainly because American presidents tend to influence the entire world,” the 31-year-old photographer and graphic designer said.” And since I cannot vote myself I create graphics that hopefully might call attention to a candidate worth voting for.” Currently, Golan is working on a new poster featuring a Hebrew version of Obama’s “Yes we can” slogan.

Golan knows that translations can be tricky. On his blog, he elaborated on his choice of words. “Translating ‘Change we can believe in’ proved to be somewhat of a challenge,” he muses, “as the Hebrew word for ‘we can’ (nuchal) is the exact one for ‘crook’ (nochel).” Not wanting to repeat past mistakes, he added that “even a hint of such subliminal connections can be bad.”

Click image for higher resolution

Eddie Adams - Saigon Execution - photograph - 1968 - Vietnam

Henry VIII’s Wives - Iconic Moments of the 20th Century - photograph - 2007 - UK

Mark Daughhetee - Hosed - photograph - 2004 - USA

Borf Brigade - The Consolation of Ruin - 2007 - USA

Mike Stimpson - photograph - 2007 - UK

Xiang Jing - Bang! - sculpture - 2002 - China

Amnesty International - print - 2005 - New Zealand

Dolk Lundgren - Weed Killer - graffiti - 2008 - Norway

Franck Réthoré - painting - 2007 - France

Krista Wortendyke - Iconic Recall - print - USA

Notes:

• The original photo received the Pulitzer Prize for ‘Spot News Photography’ in 1969 under the name ‘Saigon Execution’. Nowadays it is often captioned as ‘General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon’.
• For such an iconic photo and a well documented event, it is surprising that so many people cannot eloquently explain the context of this image, summarizing it to ‘a bad guy killing a good guy’. Please take a moment to learn more about the incident by clicking here and here.
• If you are aware of additional artworks derived from the original photo, please send details and links by leaving a comment or sending an email.
• If you enjoyed this post, please make sure you check back in a month or so, as additional artworks will be added.

I am not sure if everybody knows The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain , but after watching their DVD Anarchy in the Ukulele, I came to the conclusion that everybody should. Their rendition of popular songs on the Hawaiian instrument is so refreshing and often humorous, and as someone who loves remixes it is no wonder I loved their performance.

After playing their 2005 performance at the Barbican oh-so-many times, I have noticed one of the musicians, Jonty Bankes, looks eerily close to English actor John Simm, which I first knew as Detective Inspector Sam Tyler on BBC One’s ‘Life on Mars’:

In addition to the facial similarities, note the ‘Life on Mars’ connection as you watch this ’song about plagiarism’ from their DVD: