My piece on Tel Aviv for NewNowNext is up here; I'm posting some photos that didn't make it into the story. More than "some", quite a lot, actually. Great visual town. Just wish I'd had more time to hang out and explore and shoot.
Above, and below, the rooftop at The Brown, a wonderful, intimate boutique hotel. No pool on the roof (as the lovely concierge who brought to mind Audrey Hepburn said, "we're 10 minutes from the beach." And they are. The rooftop bar has become a very buzzy, very gay scene since I was there in June.
The tub on the rood and the showers only run cold water--you'd basically never want a hot shower in sunny Tel Aviv.
No one would argue that Tel Aviv has major waves but there are some decent ones near the Hilton Hotel beach. And where's there's surf there are surfers, so that's always good.
Amazing light, a combination of desert light and ocean light.
I had no idea there was this vital street public art presence there. Tons of ingenious, lovely, funny or sometimes political works on re-purposed public walls.
On the funny side.
Multimedia.
Have no idea if this was city-sanctioned art or just a guerilla rainbow paintjob, but this is one fantastic bench.
Back down at the Hilton Beach. During Gay Pride there were hundreds of these kinda guys on the beach, and in the water.
They were all over town, too.
Ben Yahuda Street during Pride. Good times.
Most of the shops along the parade route hosted parties during the fetivities. This shop had champagne and an ingenious iPod/boombox/turntable hybrid for broadcasting their party soundtrack.
Drinks at Hotel Montefiore. They do a proper Negroni there, the acid mixological test. Pleasant lobby bar that feels like a scene out of Casablance.
Cafe Noir, also rock solid on the cocktail front.
Cafe Social has prog-Euro cuisine and another smart cocktail menu. And a hell of a back bar, underlit, floor to ceiling wall of bottles.
More of a beer-and-a-shot bar, Bar Vaz is primarily lesbian but definitely mixed. During Pride week the party spilled onto the street from the small bar, in an alley.
The DJ was set up on a rooftop next to the bar, with speakers aimed at the alley. The rainbow flourish led my friend Jillian to refer to it as "The Care Bear Bar' for the rest of the trip.
Nightime alleyway.
Great doorways in this town.
Pride Week posters at Shpagat, a friendly, ecletic and lively bar that gets my vote for Best Gay Bar In Israel.
Cool rooftopscapes.
And then there was this site from the rooftop of the Brown. While I was up there enjoying dusk this lean artist appeared in the parking garage across the way and began painting. Again, art is going on everywhere here.
Down in Yafa, the arab village.
Back at the beach.
Dawn.
Last look in my room at The Brown.
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