Lolita Lolita

One of Noga's good friends, Lail Arad, (god I feel dirty linking to myspace) the daughter of the Ron Arad the influential designer (although I am sure she would love to be mentioned without her father in the same breath, particularly in Israel) performed a concert the other night at the Levontin 7. It's been a while since I've heard music that was so playful, snide, sincere, well-written and performed so well. I had met Lail a few times before when we all went out, and she introduced us to Lychee Martinis which are amazing. And not a kind of drink I usually like. I've cultivated my taste for beer into something thoroughly blue-collar in the context of white wine and martinis. How pretentious is that? Maybe just lame.
Point here is that the concert was fantastic. Lail had a presence that commanded the stage without overwhelming it, keeping a very intimate atmosphere, as it was a small venue. She has a delightful sense of humor that shines through in her songs, and even her covers. With just a few word changes and a sultry twist to her voice she turned in a rendition of "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady that was the most sensual, seductive thing.

Her own songs, performed in this concert on just piano and guitar, were absolutely wonderful. Or to use one of the eight Hebrew words I know, makseem. Ok, I know more than eight words, but that's only if we include counting to 10. Even if it is damn close to Arabic. She performed one song, "Generic Love Song" that at first blush was a dig at the entire genre, but was performed with such sincerity and obvious pleasure that it was hard to not to be taken by it. She even managed to please the crowd immensely by singing snippets in Hebrew. Parts of her performance reminded me of the Dresden Dolls, although that's a pretty limited comparison. It's sort of hard to lump her in a category, which is certainly part of her appeal.
I managed to take a few photos, but left my camera in Tel Aviv, so I'll have to post them later. If you can, check out her songs. Even if it does mean myspace. In this case it's actually worth it, even though the recordings that are up are not that great. They don't capture the dynamics of her voice


I think this video is of her father's work, with her singing. It's not a particularly great recording, but the lyrics are still funny.


Side note-when I'm really wealthy and riding a fancy road bike (if anyone wants to get this for me, it's on the dream bike list)I either need to not run into dogs with 5,500 dollar wheels (yes, you read that correctly) or I need to not ride 5,500 dollar wheels. The results could be tragic.

That's an ex-wheel.