Neighbourhood foray 2

This is the studio of street artist Rami Meiri whose works enliven many a concrete wall throughout the city with their ultra-realistic images, mainly of ordinary people doing ordinary things like hanging out the washing or lying on the beach. The one I like best is of two teenage boys peeking through the window of the ladies changing room on the outside wall of the ladies changing room on the metzitzim (peeping tom) beach. I haven't seen much of his new work recently though. Maybe he's gone out of style, now that our environment is slowly becoming more ordered and in a uniform sort of good taste. Typically, Rami's studio is situated in one of the last undeveloped stretches along Rehov Hayarkon, an area of overgrown back yards, semi-legal parking lots and rundown old houses.

Down on the beachfront next to what was once the Dolphinarium and is now a half deserted hulk of contested real estate, the cat man is tending to his wards by placing small amounts of dry cat food along the wall at regular intervals. There seem to be a lot of cats on this part of the promenade, the only section where rocks face the sea rather than a beach. The cat man is surely one reason why the cats like it here.

Incredibly, another species also still flourishes on the beachfront, the Israeli folk dancer. The 'hora' species, once thought to be extinct, still stubbornly congregates every Shabbat to strut their stuff with varying amounts of grace and talent. Some of the dancers do no more than the necessary minimum while others, notably the men (some with an unbalanced look in their eye) risk wild twists and twirls.