In February I received an email that I was convinced was spam. 

It was from Womex, the World Music Expo, inviting me to be one of the “Seven Samurai" jury members selected each year to choose the coveted 27 performance showcases at the conference. When Mike Orlove, one of my Chicago mentors, was chosen to be a Samurai in 2009, I interviewed him about the jury experience on Radio Womex in Copenhagen. I was fascinated by the process, and hoped that one day I would be lucky enough to be recognized with the same honor. Thinking it impossible to be asked at age 24, I didn't believe it until I received a confirmation letter inviting me to the jury meeting in Berlin in May. 

On the road to Tel Aviv we stopped in Arcadia to check out the beautiful beach and grab some lunch. Even in winter the temp was 70º and sunny! There was literally one person lying on the beach in a bathing suit. Power to you sister. If this is winter in Israel, I’m trying to imagine how crazy things must be here in the summer along the Med coast. We arrived back in Tel Aviv to meet Ehud Banai, “the Bob Dylan of Israel.” Voted the 28th most important Israeli of all time, Ehud is renowned for mixing rock and Middle Eastern rhythms.

He chose his favorite childhood park as his personal stage to perform on his acoustic guitar. The park, set high up on a hill, overlooks the city of Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean. Ehud told us a funny anecdote about the song he decided to play for us, “Blue Kna’ani”. One time he was with his daughter in London, and they were watching a street performer play guitar. The performer randomly handed Ehud his guitar out of everyone in the crowd. His daughter told him to play “Blues Kna’ani”, and the surprised crowd went wild.That street performer must’ve been pretty intuitive!  Listen to the song here: 

We wake up at the Dan Panorama Haifa, twenty-one stories high on Mount Carmel. The panoramic views are incredible-the city of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa Bay and the Mediterranean. One of Haifa’s renowned attractions is the Baha’i temple, and the MV crew went to check it out and get some temple shots. 

Conclusion: worth the hype.

I met up with some friends from Northwestern for breakfast at a great cafe called Tmol Shilshom. It's a legendary spot frequented by Jerusalem scholars with  poems inscribed on every plate and killer eggplant and goat cheese shakshuka (tomato based egg and vegetable dish). After picking up some spices at the Old City market we hit the road, headed north towards Tzfat.