When you wanna get some, what do you do? (Do "The Bird!")

i know it's been a while... (some sources say two weeks?)... but i've been a bit under the weather, and my internet hasn't been working cause breaker #17 got broke and nothing in our living room has power. so to get net, i go sit outside with my computer for, maximum, as long as it takes to run out of battery (about an hour) and steal signal from my neighbours. sometimes it's really hot and i can't sit out there very long, or sometimes the stone really hurts my butt and i can't sit out there very long, or sometimes it's chilly and i can't sit out there very long. so, apologies to the faithful followers who've been getting on my case about the recent absenteeism (laura and jess).

so as i said, i've been kinda blah and not too much has been going on... i wrote about the activism festival i think... there was an awesome art/photo/media/video hoo-hah in my neighbourhood and i saw some great bands play - including an awesome israeli/gypsy band called Oy Division, which was funny to nobody but me. Eyal has been busy at school - he's showing his latest work this very second - two enormous panoramas of Mamilla, the disgusting mall that was built over an old neighbourhood right next to the Old City (i think i've even ranted about this place before?). he explored some cool artistic/technical stuff, and also commented on the politics of the mall/neighbourhood. now he's going to try to sell the photos to some egomaniac over in Mamilla because there's no room for these in our apartment, or really any abode we are likely to inhabit over the next few years.

so, boring stuff out of the way. the REAL juice comes from a seemingly normal day on Chulda Haneviah St, when i saw a baby bird hopping about close to our front door that looked curiously unlike the pigeons that poop all over our front steps. this little guy couldn't fly yet, but still appears capable of consuming me. he hopped away and i went inside. but LATER, i went out with Leon to the courtyard close-by to engage in the aforementioned activity known as wireless theft, and came across one of the neighbourhood garbage cats (as i have affectionately titled them) hovering over this poor creature of the air! he was on his back and there was a stick in his eye and i didn't know what to do to help. so i phoned around frantically until i found someone to come pick him up, because this clearly was a bird of importance. so leon and i bird-sat for a few hours - i skyped with Jess and leon chased away cats who came close to the bird. one cat even spooked Cliff (i thought he looked like a Cliff) off his back and onto his feet, and he cuddled into a bush until what's-her-face came with a cat carrier to take him away. it turns out that he's a very endangered species of Kestrel, called the Lesser Kestrel (or Baz Adom in hebrew), and prospects are very dim for this bird of prey. and i saved him!! i was sad to see Cliff go, but then what's-her-face told me that i'd have to feed him mice if i wanted to keep him, so i gave the responsibility to the Jerusalem Zoo.

isn't he beautiful!?!??!!?!!??!