The other night, on the 24th of September 2009 to be precise, Lihi (my life partner and the mother of my daughter) and I went to see Leonard Cohen in concert at Ramat Gan’s stadium near Tel Aviv.

It was an event neither of us will ever forget.
It wasn’t just that we went to celebrate the birth of our daughter Or there (the tickets were our treat to ourselves for becoming parents : ), it was the entire atmosphere of the evening.

The man somehow succeeded in granting the 50,000 people that came to hear him the feeling that we were all in some intimate jazz club, and Cohen, rather than was singing to a massive stadium was in fact just sharing the evening in the company of the most intimate circle of his closest friends.

Although he turned 75 this week, he gave a generous 3 hour concert, multiple encores, and ended by skipping off the stage in funky little dance steps : )

It was especially comforting as he had collapsed at a concert in Spain earlier this week and everyone here was kind off worried about him…

Leonard’s is legendary, so it was no surprise that to experience him was incredible but it was a real treat to discover how amazingly talented his band is.

The current ensemble features Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters (background vocals), Roscoe Beck (musical director & bass), Neil Larsen (keyboards & Hammond B3 accordion), Bob Metzger (electric, acoustic & pedal steel guitar), Javier Mas (bandurria, laud, archilaud, 12-string acoustic guitar), Rafael Gayol (drums, percussion), Dino Soldo (sax, clarinet, dobro, keys).

“Everything that’s beautiful is cracked, that’s how the light gets in” - Leonard Cohen

…to top it all off Leonard signed off with “Birkat Cohanim” - The traditional Jewish blessing that Cohens (the literal Hebrew word for “priests”) give unto the congregation.

By the way, Our daughter Or (Hebrew for light) has just turned 3 months old. Her favorite “soothing song” is Leonard’s - “Marianne” : )

Mike
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“Moments like this Mike are what makes the creation of my art worthwhile.

Without individuals like you, this would not have been possible”

That’s how my friend, artist Susan Olmetti chose to start a recent email.

What have I done to deserve such praise?

Frankly, very little.

All I did, and continue to do, is try and support Susan in her latest charitable venture.

Over 25 of Susan’s works and installations will be offered up for auction during the “Andersonville Arts Weekend” and proceeds from the sales will benefit the “The Chicago House“, a well renowned charity that provide housing and supportive services to HIV-affected families and individuals who may also be impacted by poverty, substance abuse, and mental illness.

The event will take place on the 2nd of October from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m, and is generously hosted at the SIR Spa at (5151 N Clark St. Chicago)

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For inquiries just email Susan at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Pete Hillman, the SIR Spa’s owner at 773-271-7000.

Susan says that:

Life provides us so many opportunities to help others.

I guess this is something I believe in too.
With all my heart.

Which is exactly why I’m asking you to share this post onwards and spread the word.

Mike
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This evening I went to Garagegeeks. Arianna Huffington was Yossi Vardi’s guest speaker for the evening. In a nutshell the evening was a yet another case in favor of the whole Garagegeeks concept and I personally had a blast.

We had Beatles

From Garagegeeks with Arianna Huffington

Junk

From Garagegeeks with Arianna Huffington

Enthralled Crowds

From Garagegeeks with Arianna Huffington

Yossi Vardi

From Garagegeeks with Arianna Huffington

and Arianna Huffington

From Garagegeeks with Arianna Huffington

… ooh! and Shani Rosenfelder (editor for the Jerusalem Post) (AKA Jpost.com) was there too!

BTW the picture in the background is my Batsheva…

From Garagegeeks with Arianna Huffington

I had two beers and a ton of fun especially since I ran into an old school mate only to discover that he is now Professor Oren Harman

From Garagegeeks with Arianna Huffington

For those of you who don’t know
GarageGeeks is an Israeli based not-profit physical and virtual space for innovative and creative people to introduce, network, expose, create, brainstorm, innovate and build. People that take part in the activities come from different disciplines such as electronics, software, mechanical, art, design, music, hacking and gaming. The spirit of GarageGeeks promotes building non-commercial projects that would otherwise may not have come to life.

Yossi Vardi makes a point of bringing his most distinguished guests (Sergey Brin and Tim Armstrong to name a few)…

From Garagegeeks with Arianna Huffington

…to a mildly dilapidated old garage in the middle of Holon’s Industrial zone for an evening full of geekish fun and booze. The presentations are usually pretty good too… ; )

You can see all my photos from the event below.
If you want to make use of any of my pictures feel free to do so but please credit me & link to http://DigitalArtPrintGallery.com

Good Night
: )

Mike
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Yesterday I had the supreme privilege of participating in the opening of Hertzliya’s Artist Association’s exhibition “New Friends“.

A while back I wrote about my feelings on being accepted to the association.
The exhibition experience was a validation of my feelings and was a case in favor of my motto: “I do Art because it makes me happy, everything else is a bonus…”

As far as events go it was a wonderful success. We had everything such an event requires:

Beautiful women

Speeches

Supportive family members

Funky artists

and Art lovers

To cut a long story short: It was a blast and I had a lot of fun…
especially after I downed a glass or two of the good stuff Henrik Rotem was passing out in small plastic cups : )

You can see all the pictures from the event below.
If you want to download any of the pictures for friends and family click and download it from Flickr at the largest size.

Mike
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