Recent artistic happenings in Jerusalem . . . Word from: tova messer

A local band called Teiku, featuring Shimon and others, drew out some 100 plus fans and friends to the subterranean section of Jerusalem's ex-pat bar, Mike's Place, to applaud the band's covers and original compositions in thealready not-so-uncommon style of fusing Jewish lyrics including Biblical verses with rock-n-roll and other "secular" genres.

A more current event that swept up the hippy-trippy community and thensome, was a party coming on the heels of Hanukah that celebrated the yarzheit of the simultaneously renowned and infamous anti-nomian Ishbitzer Rebbe, aptly called Antinomian Dancehall. The walls of Mamaleh displayed hand-written excerpts of the Ishbitzer's teachings and the beloved former Nahlaot-er Avi Poupko delivered a brief Torah from the Rebbe to the crowded pub. The party featured Crazy Yosef and Mobius mixing music in between outstanding performances by special guest Adam Stotland of Montreal playing, among others, with Simchat Shlomo's teacher-ecologist Shaul and sometimes-teacher Eliyahu. "Fire on the Mountain," which has been half-jokingly referred to as Bat Ayin's theme song, particularly animated the already enthused crowd groovin' to the music.

The final act was Acharit Hayamim, whose fluid reggae-Latino-Eastern fusion succeeded in creating an other-wordly vibration. A velvet curtain gracefully concealed the women-folk going crazy in a sectioned-off area of the bar, while the main portion unfolded into a jumble of traditionalists and Haredim, Israelis and Anglos, ranging in age from 20's to 50's and from the entire spectrum of observance and anti-nomianism. The fiesta continued into the wee hours of the morning, one a work-night no less, synthesizing the Ishbitzer's conviction that everything is in God's hands with the hints of the Messianic potential that Acharit Hayamim's name suggests. The night was an explosion, the culmination of Hanukah's dazzling light ablaze in the holy city . . .