Loren Noyman - Battle War

♥

I'm in the battle war
I'm fighting for what is right or wrong
I'm fighting for justice
For deep emotion
Honesty

I'm the prisoner of this song
Don't want to be here
I'm the prisoner of my heart
Don't want to feel

I'm in the battle war
Don't you see
I'm wearing my best arms?
I'm feeling weak but also strong
In the battle war

I'm playing the game
Like you told me
Somebody's laughing
In my face
I am worried

I'm waving my flag
Can you see me?
I'm breaking through these
Clouds of fog
Now I'm breathing

I'm in the battle war
Don't you see
I'm wearing my best arms?
I'm feeling weak but also strong
In the battle war

I'm in the battle war
I'm fighting for what is right or wrong
I'm fighting for justice
For deep emotion
Honesty

https://lorennoyman.bandcamp.com

Walkie Talkie - Jellybean

So cute!

I wanna take you out
But it's just too hard to reach you
So I think I'll just stay home tonight
Let's try one more time
I know your phone keeps ringing
I just can't get you out of my mind

And I know that you feel that this love isn't real
But just let me reveal how much big of a deal
Is to me to be with you, please just let it be,
I want you so bad, can't you see?

You're my Jellybean
You're my Jellyqueen
You're my Jellybean

I wanna take you out
Maybe we can have some ice cream
Put all of our problems aside
Let's try one more time
I know your phone keeps ringing
I just can't get you out of my mind

And I know that you feel that this love isn't real
But just let me reveal how much big of a deal
Is to me to be with you, please just let it be,
I want you so bad, can't you see?

You're my Jellybean
You're my Jellyqueen
You're my Jellybean

https://fanlink.to/JellybeanWalkieTalkie

Ishai Adar feat. Elite - The Hyenas

♥

https://confusedmachines.bandcamp.com/album/12

Meital Trabelsi - Oh Captain

I think about posting this song every year near Rabin's memorial day but something always stops me. It always feels too dramatic and not relevant enough. The song captures the mood in Israel in 1996 but when I hear it today I can only think of the shrinking left camp, not the entire nation. Yet it's the first song that came to my mind when I heard about the horrific shooting in Pittsburgh last Saturday afternoon and it's stayed with me all week. This poem was originally written by Walt Whitman following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and Naomi Shemer translated it and wrote music for it in 1996. The lines "the prize we sought is won" and "the victor ship comes in with object won" were understandably not part of the Hebrew version because these lines allude to the preservation of the Union after the end of the Civil War. Lincoln was assassinated after the Civil War had ended but Rabin was assassinated at a peace rally and the peace process he fought for was never completed.

I also thought about this song this week because the shooting in Pittsburgh confirmed my shaky feeling that there is no captain to steer the ship through stormy waters, not in Israel and not in the U.S. The rhetoric of hatred and incitement flowing freely on social media channels which fueled the shooter's vile actions is all too familiar to Israeli citizens who recall the incitement against Rabin before his murder. An incitement which was recently denied by today's right-wing government. We're heading into an election year (the latest date for the general elections is November 2019, but they might happen earlier) and the organizers of tonight's memorial rally for Rabin said that the rally "will focus on warning against an atmosphere of division and incitement ahead of the upcoming elections". The stormy waters cannot be avoided but we can choose how to steer the ship.

Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!":

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
                          But O heart! heart! heart!
                             O the bleeding drops of red,
                                Where on the deck my Captain lies,
                                    Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up - for you the flag is flung - for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths - for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
                        Here Captain! dear father!
                            This arm beneath your head!
                                It is some dream that on the deck,
                                   You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
                            But I with mournful tread,
                               Walk the deck my Captain lies,
                                   Fallen cold and dead.