Re: help me complete Ofra FAQ ( was Ofra Haza fanNew s)

[Mark L9 <markl9...>]

Did you receive my response to you with my listing of the Ofra Haza albums
in my own collection? 

I, too, have ONLY been to Israel four times, and I have not purchased ANY
of my recordings there! ALL have been bought from Hataklit record store
here in Los Angeles. I believe that their address is:

Hataklit
457 N. Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90048

If it is not correct, I'll check tomorrow night and upload the corrected
address. They do have an "800" phone number, though I suspect it won't
work from where you are.

They do ship internationally, so I recommend that you contact them.
Cassettes are about $10 each and CD's are about $18-20 each (which is why
I have only three CD's).

Other than Hataklit, I'm afraid you'll have to go to Israel to find these
things!

It was a real pleasure for ME when I had the opportunity to meet Ofra
personally (and shoot a roll of film of her also!), and to have my picture
taken with her (an 8x10 glossy adorns one of the walls in my home!). She
is really a down-to-earth person and not like a lot of big stars who get
stuck on themselves and think they are better than you. She is not like
that at all.

I'm aware of the work she's done out of the country (Israel), and I must
say that I have NOT been happy with her work with "rap" musicians. I think
that it is a waste of her talent.


About two years ago, she was in town here working on some recordings, and
the recording studio was DOWN THE STREET, more or less, from where I was
living at the time! Of course, there was no way I was going to get in
there.

Anyway, the one film you mention, "Suburban Girl" I saw and I thought it
was not too bad (for an Israeli film, mind you). The ending really got to
me. The title in its original Hebrew is "Na'arat Ha'Parvarim". Literally
translated, it means "Girl from the Neighborhood". Suburban Girl is a
pretty good translation, too. Though, in that movie, she wasn't exactly
from the "suburbs" but rather from a "slum" area. I thought it was a good
film.

I have two videos of Ofra's, one is the one you mention "From Dusk to
Dawn", which is narrated entirely in Hebrew. The other, I can't recall the
name, I think it's just "Ofra Haza", is narrated in English by Ofra. That
may be the one where you see her "abducted" by the "Sheik".

It's only natural that Israeli singers release more recordings in Israel
than in other countries. Ofra is one of the VERY FEW Israeli singers who
are known by ANYONE outside of Israel. In fact I can't think of ANY other
Israeli singer that has done the kind of work that she has with the top
singers in America.

Keep in mind that, in America at least, a hit record will sell anywhere
frm 100,000 to several million copies. Compare that to Israel, where a
really BIG hit record will sell 5,000 to 10,000, on a rare occasion, maybe
50,000. So, there hasn't been much of a world market for Israeli music.
That is, until Ofra started "getting around"!

So far, her "Yemenite Songs" album (in it's European and American
incarnations) is her only truly Israeli record to sell in other parts of
the world. Of course, "Shaday", "Desert Wind", although they have some
good songs, are a bit too "disco-ized" for my tastes. I prefer her older,
purely Israeli, stuff. 

Good luck trying to "have dinner" with Ofra. I'm sure that her people are
very protective of her and probably wouldn't give you the time of day.
But, were you to run into her on the street, say, I'm sure you'd find her
as nice and as "regular" a person as I did when I met her.

I'm not sure where she's living now (believe me, she now longer lives in
"Shkunat HaTikva"!), but I believe it's somewhere around Ramat Aviv or
mabye Hertzliya. I could be wrong. I'll have to see if I can find out.
But, she also spends at least half of her time here in America, either in
New York or here in Los Angeles. 

You could try writing to her agent here in Los Angeles, she used the
agency ROGERS AND COWAN. They handle all of Ofra's publicity when she's
here in the States.
Favorite Book Title:

"All I need to know I learned from watching Star Trek"