On the road to god knows where 7 ISRAEL

on the road to god knows where 7 Israel from Alex Zhang Hungtai on Vimeo.

Some post tour thoughts on Israel:

While some people kept writing me and asking me why we toured there based on Israel’s political activities, for me personally, it was an eye opener to see and experience it first hand.  Theres Israeli Arabs/Jews, Morrocan Jews, Russian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, European Jews and everything in between…  The population is so diverse and varied, it is almost beyond comprehension for foreigners like us to understand the history and their business there.  The everyday people who housed us, showed and drove us around, told us their past military experiences, and all the fucked up shit they saw…I could go on forever about that trip.  An hr drive each day between the cities of Haifa, Telaviv and Jerusalem, we swam in the ocean everyday, and it was the longest I went on without eating meat.  4 days.  I wouldn’t trade the experience/memories for anything else.  It sparked my interest to travel in the middle east which I never really thought about…Israel is surrounded by mountains, oceans, and deserts.  Its got cities and small towns, speaks Hebrew, Arabic, and English, and is unlike any other place I’ve ever been to.  It reminded me traces of Asia, but also North America mixed with hints of Europe…You should go see it for yourself, understand how much tension is there, and think of the insanity of the shit going on there and how much they are hated by their surrounding neighbors.  Next time before you express opinions about a country you know not a whole lot about, you should really go there and see it for yourself.   That was my lesson there.  

For myself personally, there was a sense of connection I can relate to, this unspoken feeling of displacement with the people that were around my age (early 20's to mid 30's) Some people were of Arab descent, born there, or of mixed backgrounds, but whatever the combination of reasons why their family was there in the first place, I could sense a feeling (again, unspoken...just my intuition and observations doing the talking here...) that some people felt a sense of entitlement to be there because they were born there.  They didn't choose to be there in the middle of all this conflict, they were born into it. And then there's a feeling where that entitlement is being questioned sub/consciously almost on a weekly to monthly basis, especially when news of the Israeli government policies or behaviours get into the international headlines.  Imagine growing up in a place like that where theres people pointing fingers all around you and you have no clue whats right or wrong and have to figure it out for yourself to just have a somewhat decent objective sense of perception of whats happening in the world around you, instead of being brainwashed into hate machines, or worst, insensitive emotionless fucks that don't give a shit about anything or anyone.  This state of lost feeling... of where you belong, was something I picked up on immediately and could heavily relate to and understand based on my own weird upbringing, of constantly having to deal with people trying to pigeon hole you based on your race, or background, telling you what you are and what your not, reminding you, that you don't belong here.  And THEN, combine politics, religion, and history into the mix dude, it becomes fucking heavy man.  Its so fucking heavy I can't even begin to digest this when I first left...It took me 6 months to write this and to have some what of a objective look at what it was that I experienced there...

I wanna thank my brothers Shub and Bernardino for keeping me in company, we were always taking care of eachother like family this year.  And I wanna thank the people that hosted us, Ben, who drove and shown us and planned everything that gave us this experience, and all the people that came out to the 3 shows...it was really intense and we really appreciate all the support you've shown us.  Truly, thank you.  

One day, I hope to see the pyramids in Egypt, and play in cairo, Instanbul, go to Jordan, Lebanon, Morroco, and venture to Northern Africa, and hopefully get to see South Africa as well.  I also want to play Central and South America too... When I've toured the whole world, I think that will be the end of Dirty Beaches.  I know this will take years to accomplish, and its a dream...But so far all my teenage dreams came true.  So I know god will look upon those who work hard.  If god is not on your side, then you still have luck and the spirits of the whole fucking universe.  And most importantly, your mother fucking self.  

Here's to this fucking crazy year.  2013.  Worked my fucking ass off.  Thanks for showing me the way.  Just gotta follow through like how I've always did for the last 10 years of my life.  Work hard, play hard, write write write, record, write write write, Live Love Drive.  Repeat until you succeed.  

Yours truly,

Pacific boy.

xo