Revolution and the Monster

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How many Revolutions Per Minute can the kids get the merry-go-round to turn?

City Daily Photo bloggers are posting for our monthly Theme Day about the multiple meanings of REVOLUTION.   Give them a visit here.

My photo is from 2009 when daughter Naomi and grandsons Dean and Eyal come for a visit to Jerusalem.
In back of them is The Monster, in profile view.
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The Monster landmark of Jerusalem

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Theme Day at worldwide City Daily Photo bloggers group today is LANDMARK.

My favorite landmark in new Jerusalem is The Monster! 

It's a giant slide loved by kids and by their parents and even grandparents as well.
The neighborhood folks make a birthday party for the sculpture every year. 

Jerusalem's "Golem" was created in 1973 in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood by sculptress Niki de Saint Phalle as a gift to the children of Jerusalem.
A UC San Diego website says that de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) "is best known for her oversized figures which embrace contradictory qualities such as good and evil, modern and primitive, sacred and profane, play and terror."

But no one calls it Golem.
We call it HaMifletset, Hebrew for "the monster."
It is a landmark.

The bottom doubles as a sand box.
The sheer size of the cavernous slide can be frightening the first time a little boy sees it.
But my grandsons gradually learned to accept and love the Monster.
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(More pictures at my earlier posts.)
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 UPDATE Nov. 3:  Google gave Niki a doodle in honor of her 84th birthday!
Unfortunately, as a result of inhaling toxic polyester fumes while creating her artwork, she suffered from emphysema, from which she died in 2002 at the age of 71.

(Hat tip to my fellow Israeli blogger Yael for the doodle tip. Visit her delightful blog, "More or less, simple life of a grandmother.")

Zany creatures at the Zoo

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Zany creatures at the ZOO for ABC Wednesday today!
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These animals are wild!

Many of the 23 or more sculptures in the Noah's Ark Sculpture Garden may be climbed on.
That is just what Dean did when he came to visit Israel in 2006.

Niki de Saint Phalle and Swiss architect Mario Botta completed their work at the Biblical Zoo in 2001, in the dark days of the intifadah.
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Niki's other landmark in Jerusalem is the Golem, popularly know as the Monster (hamifletset).
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Lying lips

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To answer Robert's Sunday Psalm Challenge at Daily Athens, here is PSALM 12.
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1. For the leader; on the sheminith. A Psalm. Of David.

2. Save, O LORD! For the faithful are no more; the loyal have vanished from among humankind.

3. Men speak lies to one another; of smooth lip, they speak with two hearts.

4. May the LORD cut off all smooth lips,
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the tongue that speaks boastfully,
5. those who say, “By our tongues we shall prevail; our lips are our own, who can be our master?”
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6. ‘‘Because of the plundering of the poor and the groans of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD; “I will grant him the salvation for which he longs.”
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7. The sayings of the LORD are pure sayings, silver purged in an earthen crucible, refined sevenfold.
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8. You, O LORD, do keep them; ever protect each from this generation.
9. Round about the wicked roam, as vileness is exalted among humankind.
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Photos:
"The Golem," popularly known as The Monster, by Niki de Saint Phalle. More about it here.
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A homeless sitting by the [British] Jerusalem War Cemetery.
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Fine silver cases, crowns, and breast plates for Torah scrolls in a Judaica store.
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CDP Theme Day Photo of the Year

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The City Daily Photo community is having a Theme Day today for bloggers to share their own Best Photo of the Year 2009.

Here is one of my favorites.
Eyal, my youngest grandson, was here in Jerusalem, visiting from Australia.
Click here to see The Monster statue where he was playing.
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Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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Eyes in the sky

Regular readers might be fed up already with three days of "Mifletset" / Monster posts this week, but this photo was taken specially for today's SkyWatch Friday group.
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Eyes in the sky?
No, it is not some new secret Israeli radar.
It's just a giant slide dedicated to the children of Jerusalem.
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Matza week at the Mifletset-Monster

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We are still in the week-long holiday of Passover, still eating matza instead of bread.
Kids on Pesach vacation love to play on, in, and under the Mifletset (meaning Monster) in Jerusalem.
My picture of little Eyal posted yesterday was shot from the cavernous inside (bottom) of the sculpture.
An earlier post has more information about the Mifletset (aka The Golem).
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Here's my visiting daughter and grandsons, with a profile view of the sculpture.
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First you climb up to the top
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and then slide down one of the three tongues.
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Pesach week is when many religious Jewish families can come to this park.
Everybody gets into the act.
Even somebody's bearded grandfather!

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Go over to ABC Wednesday to enjoy other bloggers' M-Day posts.
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The Monster and the Lamplighter

A grayish day in Jerusalem today but the clouds produced no rain.

From the bus I saw a man in a boom lift, putting up a streetlight.
The Monster seemed to be looking at him and protesting, "Hey, how can any human be taller than I am?!"
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(If you missed my September post about "The Golem" aka Monster and want to see him better, please click here. )
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Golem

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G is for Golem.
No, not the famous Golem of Prague (but DO see a fascinating summary of the legend here).
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Jerusalem's "Golem" was created in 1973 in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood by sculptress Niki de Saint Phalle as a gift to the children of Jerusalem.
A UC San Diego website says that de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) "is best known for her oversized figures which embrace contradictory qualities such as good and evil, modern and primitive, sacred and profane, play and terror."

But no one calls it Golem.
We call it HaMifletset, Hebrew for "the monster."
It is a landmark.
So you can hear "Driver, does this bus reach the monster?" or "Go straight-straight then turn right at the monster."
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A certain guide would always quip to his tourists that, because of its many frightening tongues, it is nicknamed "The Mother-in-Law."
Not true.
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The sheer size of the cavernous slide can be frightening the first time a little boy sees it.
But a few weeks into his visit in Israel my brave grandson asked to stop at this park again and to go up the stairs you see here above and then slide down the steep slide.
Yay Dean!
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In July signs go up in the neighborhood inviting folks to a birthday party for the Mifletset.
Don't you love that idea?!

Hope you will visit other bloggers showing off their Gs today at ABC Wednesday
and especially my friend at her wondrous From a Thin Place.
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