Pre-Israel This and That
Great food and wine, a great hotel, a banger of a documentary, a tech rec, and an awards speech for the ages. Plus, Tel Aviv, ho!
Forty-eight hours from now I will be asking myself, Is it too early to leave for Newark Airport?
Newark seems to be the place my international flights leave from, and the taxi ride from Manhattan is always awful: long, exhaust-choked, expensive. I took public transpo to EWR when I went to Ukraine and - pro-tip - it’s easy, fast and cheap!
I just spent a glorious week in California, including a few days in Los Angeles. I highly recommend the Everly Hotel in Hollywood, in eyesight of the Capitol Records, with a great lobby bar, a pool table on which I only 90% humiliated myself, and an enormous casbah-like lounge. Did I mention the view?
Further north in Los Alamos, we had a pretty bangin’ meal at Bell’s Restaurant, which is prix fixe and very much a “we are walking into an experience…” type of place. Sit at the counter; watch the chefs, drink the delicious wine (you are in the heart of wine country and, as my friend said of Los Alamos, “This is a town that Sideways built”).
Speaking of delicious wine, we went and hung out - and drank amazing wine - at Babcock Winery and Vineyards in Lompoc. The winery, thanks to vintner Bryan Babcock’s wife Lisa, is a total eye-popper. Also, get yourself a bottle of the 2020 Until Venus Forte of Petit Verdot. (You’re welcome!)
I adore writing on planes and am always the person to whom the steward has to tell to put the tray table up, that we are landing… and then has to say it again. But I was not on a deadline on the trip west and so watched a movie. Holy moly! I cannot highly enough recommend Made You Look: A True Story of Fake Art.
The story is a study in decadence and corruption and how humans can fool themselves and others. More than this, it’s the way the story is told, the beats, the music, the pacing, the humor, the surprises. It’s something I will watch again and study for my own work, and speaking of: I’ll be in Israel for two weeks starting this Monday, writing for Reason as well as for this site. I will be reporting from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the West Bank and among the Druze in Daliat el Carmel; from where the October 7 slaughter occurred (but likely not Gaza; kids’ orders) and picking up stories on the fly. I am super-lucky in that a fan (I have them!) bought my ticket; the rest is on me. The work I do takes time and money. If you find the it useful, please consider becoming a paying subscriber. If you want the full stories and cannot afford a subscription, drop me a line and I’ll get you on a list. The rest of you, you know what to do.*
*I want to thank everyone who’s asked, “How can I support you besides becoming a paid subscriber, which I already am?” Venmo (https://account.venmo.com/u/Nancy-Rommelmann) and CashApp (https://cash.app/$nancyrommelmann) work! Be prepared for posted thanks yous and photos of me eating reader-supported hummus xx
Speaking of the Druze community, which a friend yesterday characterized as “wonderful people, loyal Israelis, outstanding soldiers, generous, friendly, and they cook delicious food,” I woke up the other morning thinking the way in was… bread? I don’t know I thought this, only that it led me to look into whether there are any Druze restaurants in New York City. Of course there are! Last night, my friend Yael and I went to Gazala’s, on Amsterdam and 81st. We’d only planned to chat with owner Gazala Halavi, which, hahahahaha, whoever heard of a cook not feeding people? And boy did she, and all of it was wonderful.
We were in a motel in Los Alamos when Lily Gladstone won for Best Female Actor for Killers of the Flower Moon.
I can barely - scratch that, I cannot - get through writing this without tearing up. Anyone who’s been on this site knows my family’s history re: Natives and film…
…and more specifically, my daughter Tafv Sampson’s relationship with Lily (click at bottom of link).
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I spent ten minutes crying after I saw Lily her speech, and then five minutes in silent conversation with Tafv’s grandfather and father; it had come around, it was all here, past, present, future.
I will be filing stories from Israel, and also doing audio and video. Toward that end, I bought some wireless lav mics and man oh man, are they great.
I’ll leave you with a song from Jason Pontius, which I heard two years ago and thought, let’s go to the Skyview Motel…
If someone, say, wanted to help fund your trip since everything but the ticket is on you and they are already a paid subscriber, how would they do that?