Out and About: Top 10 things to do

Cultural events around Israel for the weekend of July 24, 2014 and the coming weeks.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Miyazaki’s ‘The Wind Rises’ will raise your spirits (photo credit: Courtesy)
Miyazaki’s ‘The Wind Rises’ will raise your spirits
(photo credit: Courtesy)
1. Film: A War of Words and Images
In the romantic drama Words and Pictures, prep-school English teacher Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) laments his students’ obsession with social media and good grades rather than engaging with the power of the written word. He meets his match in Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche), a painter and new teacher on campus, who was once celebrated for her art. The two flirt and provoke each other with equal relish. Jack declares a war between words and pictures. Dina and her art students accept the challenge, and the battle lines are drawn.
2. An Uplifting Experience
The animated film The Wind Rises, about a Japanese flight pioneer, is visually exquisite and emotionally charged. There is a wonderful gentleness and intelligent idealism to this film by 73-year-old Hayao Miyazaki, understood to be his final work. It is a tribute to aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi, who was a pioneer in aircraft design in the first half of the 20th century. The title is an allusion to lines of Paul Valéry repeatedly cited in the movie: “The wind rises, we must try to live.”
3. Art: The Place of Print 
The new exhibition “Homage to Struck: The Art of Print Today” at the Hermann Struck Museum in Haifa coincides with the opening of an art education center for youth and children at the museum. This first exhibition at the center examines the medium of print as a focal subject of Struck’s oeuvre, which enhanced his relevance for contemporary artists in Israel and worldwide. The exhibition features works by leading Israeli artists such as Zadok Ben- David, Jan Rauchwerger, Osvaldo Romberg, Ofri Cnaani, Maya Attoun, Yigal Ozeri, Smadar Eliasaf, Uri Gershuni and Sharon Poliakine.
For more information: www.hma.org.il.
4. Polish Synagogues
For the first time in more than 70 years, the Alois Breyer collection of photographs and drawings of wooden synagogues that were destroyed in World War II will be shown in a new exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. This rare collection dating from 1910 to 1913 is behind some of the most important studies and reconstructions of Polish synagogues in the world.
Through October 18.
5. Mixed: Miniature Models
The “Mini Art” exhibition, which opens on August 8 at the Old Jaffa Museum of Antiquities, comprises dozens of miniature creations made by professional and lay artists from Israel and abroad. The works cover a wide range of themes, from everyday situations to tiny models of well-known locations around the world, as well as items inspired by classic works of literature and children’s stories. There are pint-sized replicas of historic works, miniature models of ships and dozens of minuscule buildings.
Through January 31. For more information: (03) 682-5373 and www.miniart.co.il.
6. Dance: It Takes Two
The Warehouse 2 venue at the Jaffa Port will host a program of dance duets.
The lineup includes works by Sahar Azimi, Tami and Ronen Yitzhaki, Rachel Ardus, Gil Carlos Harush, Ido Tzeder and Ella Ben-Aharon.
The Yitzhakis’ contribution, This Is the Time, was first performed in 2009 and is based on the biblical story of Adam and Eve and of Plato’s Feast and the concept of the single male-female being. Meanwhile, Ben-Aharon Falling A Part, which will be performed by Shira Ben-Uriel and Tamar Gutetz, addresses the twilight zone between almost touching and the tension fueled by the expectancy of touch and making actual physical contact.
For tickets and more information: (03) 902-1563 and .
7. Music: Made In America
The Azrieli Amphitheater in Tel Aviv will host the cross-disciplinary show America! America! tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. The show features vocalists Maya Gutman and Amiran Zemani, with clarinetist Amir Levy, keyboardist Bela Steinbok and the Festival Orchestra Soloists backing them. The program covers a wide-ranging repertoire, including spirituals, folk songs and numbers from musicals such as West Side Story, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess.
For tickets: (02) 535-6954
8. The Angels Sing 
After numerous adventures, concerts and festivals around the world, The Angelcy sextet finally got to record their first album and then hit the road again, playing their love songs to the world. The members of the band come from varied backgrounds, including classical music, folk and progressive rock, and the mixture of those influences is manifested in their hypnotic original music.
Saturday at Haifa Sinkopa; July 31 at Barby in Tel Aviv; and August 2 at The Yellow Submarine in Jerusalem. For details, contact the venues.
9. Geffen's Best 
Yehonatan Geffen and The Revolution Orchestra will be the special guests of the Israeli Opera’s next Classi-Rock concert.
Two works, based on the poet’s large body of work, including his satirical pieces and his popular songs, comprise the evening. Other participating artists include Assaf Amdursky, Efrat Ben-Zur, Sivan Talmor, Noam Rotem and Vered Pikar.
Tuesday at 9 p.m. at the Opera House, Tel Aviv, (03) 692-7777, www.israel-opera.co.il.
10. Festival: An Animated Event
Celebrating its 14th anniversary, Animix, the annual festival of animation and comics, opens on August 6 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. The event includes a host of international and Israeli films, a competition, lectures and workshops, and caricature exhibitions, including one dedicated to new Israeli president Ruby Rivlin and one dedicated to late singer Arik Einstein.
For tickets, call (03) 606-0800 ext. 9. For a full program, go to www.animixfest.co.il.