Friday, January 26, 2007

"Jahrusalem" - respect, man.

This is the only kind of dread that should be tolerated in Israel.
At last night's reggae concert at HaMa'abada (The Lab), a smallish alternative music venue in Jerusalem, the crowd was totally captivated by U-Roy (pictured right) and Junior Murvin. The mixed audience, wearing forelocks and dreadlocks and every conceivable kind of Rastafarian headgear or kipa, stood and swayed to the beat. For a moment, it seemed like all it might require for peace in the Middle East is heavy bass and drums, horns and guitar, and a little mutual respect, man, in Zion.
Tres-Ann Cooke, a Jamaican pacifist, told Izzy that Grandpa U-Roy, resplendant in his yellow suit and grey dreadlocks, way outperformed Ziggy Marley. She attended that gig on Israel's Mediterrranean coast last August, just after the Lebanon War. It was meant to be happy clappy, but she thought it bombed.

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