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who will: Reot Akerman, 38, actress and screenwriter; Alon Lotsky, 32, photographer; Leah, 4 and a half, a shy dog
where: Some alley
seniority: five years
Meterage: 70 square meters
How much does rent pay? Around NIS 7,000
How did you come to live in this apartment?
evil: “Our friends, Kobi and Timur, who also participated in this section, They told us about her. One day we went to eat hummus in Shlomo and Doron and then Kobi sent a picture of this apartment with a ‘for rent’ sign, of courseWe called. We were given a high price and told them it was over budget. They told us that if we come to Petah Tikva now, they will reduce our salary by NIS 700 per month. We flew to Petah Tikva. Since then, every year the salary has gone up, of course.”
What is it like to live in a place that is so iconic? Above the statue of the lion in a certain alley.
oak: “It’s not always easy. Several times a day there are tours of groups that come to hear the story of the alley and the statue. It’s not always convenient. Many people litter here. Look into the balcony. You can sit comfortably on the balcony at the end of the day and suddenly hear: “Hannah! It’s here!” and to see the Akiva girls running around here like crazy in some mission of the race to the million. But that’s fine, it’s part of the point of living above an attraction. Besides, we have a lot of fun here.”
Do you know the story of the place?
evil: “More or less. Of all the lectures we have under the house. There was one rich Jew whose name was Shapira. The one who founded the Shapira neighborhood. He was in love with a girl named Sonia so he decided to build her this mansion here. It was a private house. He added the statue of the lion below to protect her from people wanting to get close. He wanted to name the alley ‘Sonia’ after her and the alley next to it ‘Shafira’. So the mayor at the time, Meir Dizengoff, did not agree to this decision and that is why one alley is called ‘a certain’ and the other ‘anonymous’.”
oak: “This alley is also known from the cover of Eric Einstein’s album. We have a debate about whether he would have lived here or not. And I also remember Shelpa Rivlin There was a TV show here. Maybe ‘The House of Pistachio’?”
The statue of the lion today and the balcony of Reut and an oak above it. Photo: Ariel Arbel
How do you live here and not rely on this information?
“I’ll tell you what, because there’s always enthusiasm around it, you develop some kind of antagonism. Sometimes you want a moment for it to just be your home.”
the entrance
Photo: Ariel Arbel
oak: “I was in India in some village in the middle of nowhere and I went into some grocery store to buy water. I saw this board with the scratch cards of the lottery, I had to choose a face card which really made me laugh. I asked the seller how much all this cost, he told me five shekels. I told him ‘come on’ and walked around with it all over India.”
oak: “I have a lot of photography jobs in Kiev. There’s a crazy flea market there that every time I’m there I go there and buy items worth pennies. I bought this urn there.”
the living room
evil: “When we got the apartment, there was nothing here. Luckily, my brother, Matan Ackerman, is an amazing carpenter. He built or renovated all the special furniture in the apartment for us. The bench, the bed, the chairs. We have a very close relationship and every time I tell him I need something, a week later he brings it to us. this chair Alon found an oak in the street, it was smelly and rotten. Matan renovated it from scratch.”
“The library is the first piece of furniture we built. We saw that there was a niche in the wall that was just right for it. Until then, we stored our books in a container for flower pots. Matan came with boards from the street, we broke them together and he arranged and glued them, the most raw. We love her very much.”
evil: “Some of the photos are pages I took out of a book I found on the street and combined with frames I received or collected. You are here Billie Holiday, who I’m on fire for. a picture of My parents andJapanese from a flea market in Kiev, a questionnaire he bought for us.”
oak: “A good friend of mine is an iron bender, he made us this deer as a gift and we put light bulbs in it.”
evil: “Maria’s picture She is a gift from a good friend who was a dancer of the ‘Bat Sheva’ troupe. During one of their tours when she was in Brazil, she bought it for me in the market.”
“A drum we bought in Sinai. The image of Jesus We got When we were on our honeymoon on an island in Greece that we can’t say the name of, so that Israelis don’t get there. The owners of our airbnb apartment were an amazing couple that we connected with. The woman had a wall full of statues and pictures of Jesus so she decided to get us one for good luck.”
evil: “I really like blues, etc. My mom probably got it.”
oak: “DAnd D Shelley brought the speakers from the United States in the 80s. 10 years ago he called me and said: ‘Alon, Rachel wants to throw away my speakers. Can you keep them for me?’ since They are in a bunker at home. Reut also wanted to kick them out and I didn’t let her.”
evil: “Wait wait wait. I wanted to throw them away because at first they were covered with an ugly black net. I said to Alon, ‘The only way this thing is standing in my house is without the net’. So we took it off and now they are beautiful and useful. We like to play loud music on the speakers on Friday mornings to drown out the voices of the tourists.”
oak: “In the beginning, the small room that comes off the living room was a work area and we had a wardrobe in the room. But we realized that we had too many clothes and that we probably wouldn’t have a study anymore. Reut suggested moving the wardrobe to this room and in retrospect it was a great idea.”
evil: “Always when we have parties at home, and it happens quite often, people come to the closet and measure clothes. It gives the feeling of a second-hand store.”
evil: “Alon hates you The flowers on the door. Every Christmas I have a strange habit of buying all kinds of decorations on Matlon Street. I do not know why. Maybe because my mother is Dutch. This is the only decoration from the previous holiday.”
The balconies (yes, there are two)
oak: “The balconies are my favorite place in the house. Both are fully used. Sometimes each of us sits on a different balcony. Reut writes and I answer emails. And it’s an interesting experience when you sit on the balcony and people are standing below. They see you in a really intimate place. Some of them can turn around and walk away so as not to disturb you and some of them can start talking to you, ask for a glass of water or a cigarette, even ask for a fee and see the apartment.”
bedroom
evil: “During the time of the corona virus, I was hiding on the wall in the bedroom. Every winter we had leaks from the ceiling and mold. I scraped the wall with a cheese grater until I exposed the bricks below. I uncovered old paintings that were hidden here. The whole house was red with burgundy paintings. There are still examples of this that can be seen in the stairwell of the building. Only this year we decided to close the wall again. It made a lot of dirt.”
evil: “My brother also made the wall covering and the shelf for us. So that it would match the bed he built for us as an engagement gift.”
oak: “I just won.”
oak: “This is Reut’s writing corner. We got the table from a friend who brought it from his grandmother. I bought the lamp outside second hand. At first it was inside and then Reut brought it outside because it was dirty. The war is still going on.”
evil: “I found a pack of porn cards from the 70s in the trash. It made us laugh a lot. We chose a few and arranged them together.”
evil: “An example of Alon’s teeth. Don’t ask.”
oak: “A few years ago, the ‘American Apparel’ store in Dizengoff Center closed and they were having a liquidation sale. I went there and bought a lot of things, including this white net. I bought the right pot at the cheap nurseries on the way back from Mai Hamelech. I bought the left one at the flea market in Haifa. It’s worth coming there in the morning to get all the good stuff.”
Services
oak: “A vintage poster that I really like from the ‘Tomer Posterim’ store in Shinkin.”
kitchen
evil: “We have a thought that part of our film is going to be filmed here. We want to turn the kitchen into a tiny one-room apartment. There are not many indoor balconies in Tel Aviv. it’s special. By the way, the house looks like one of the most beautiful things there is when you look at it from this part. He is surreal.”
oak: “I like to look from this dream. There is a scene in the backyard here that is completely different from what you see from the balconies in front. A lot of interactions between the neighbors. It feels more folk.”
“Picture from the movie ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ Jarmusch’s, it’s a movie we really like. There are two rappers here (GZA and RZA from Hu-Tang Clan – AA) and Bill Murray. The entire film is actually filmed in a cafe and records people’s conversations over coffee and cigarettes.”