Tel Aviv Blues club tragedy - update (no harp content, but musician content)

[Michal & Dov Drori Hammer <michaldr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,
Danny Wilson was kind enough to post my letter to him about the
suicide-bombing attack on "Mike's Place", a Blues bar in Tel Aviv, late
Tuesday night. I thought I'd just add a few things.
I play an acoustic Blues show at "Mike's" every Sunday night, and a full-band
electric Blues show on Thursday nights. "Mike's " is Tel Aviv's only Blues
bar,and has a sort of neighborhood feel about it - although it caters to many
tourists (the US embassy is next door and many hotels and hostels are in the
area) there are many regular patrons (mostly young, 20-30 year olds, but some
older) and between them and the staff there is a "family " sort of feeling.
Tuesday nights are Jam session night at "Mike's", so many of the people
injured were musicians. A 42 year old guitarist named  Yanai Weiss, a father
of 2 children, and Ron Baron, a 24 year old drummer were both killed, as was
Dominique Hess,a French woman in her early 20s who worked as a waitress.
Dozens of others among them, many freinds and aquaintances from the local
music scene - singers, bass players, guitarists and drummers - were injured.
Still hospitalized in bad condition is my freind Avi Tabib, who was the
security guard of "Mike's", a young student and a great guy. Avi spotted the
terrorist trying to enter and was struggling to push him away from the door as
the bomb went off. This brave action probably saved dozens of lives of people
inside the bar - if the bomb had gone off in a closed and crowded room, the
devastation would have been far worse. My thoughts and prayers are with Avi,
hoping he'll pull through.
I apologize for lack of harp content, but seeing as this list is a community
of musicians, I thought you may empathize with our hard feeling of
helplessness. Not that musicians are more important than anyone else, but this
hit close to home. Innocent young people went out to play music and never made
it home. It's sensless and incomprehensible, and I just wanted to share this
sadness with other fellow musicians.
To end on a bright note: I just got a call from the woman who books the bands
at "Mike's", and she said they plan to reopen by next Tuesday, and will I be
doing my regular Thursday Night gig. The best news I've heared in 2 days. I'm
definitely going to be there.As I like to tell the audience sometimes :"I
think we'll play some Blues now. It's all we're good for, anyway"    :-)
Best regards,
Dov Hammer, Tel Aviv