Cabin fever? Five activities to shake those winter blues

It has been a cold, wet and rainy (and even snowy) winter, often making it hard to motivate. But, there are a lot of upcoming events taking place throughout the country that’s worth making the effort to get out of the house and do something fun:

1. Get out your running shoes and take part in the five-kilometer night run, sponsored by Janglo and Crossroads Jerusalem, on Tuesday, January 20 at 8 pm. The race begins at First Station — Jerusalem’s old train station — and goes along Park HaMesila on the refurbished train track path. All funds go to support Crossroad Jerusalem’s efforts to help at-risk English-speaking youth. Some 200 runners have already signed up, but you can still register through Janglo.

2. The TLV branch of Global Game Jam, an international game event from January 23 to 25, offers 48 hours straight of gaming. Taking place at Beit Ha’ir, the city’s historic City Hall, the “hackathon focused on game development,” bring gamers together to share experiences and express themselves using video games. The jam starts on Friday afternoon with a short video that reveals a secret theme — all sites worldwide are challenged to make games based on that theme — and ends on Sunday afternoon. If you’re not interested in being part of the game, check out Immersion, a current exhibit about gaming at Beit Ha’ir (Bialik Circle, 27 Bialik Street, Tel Aviv).

3. Four artists are opening exhibits at the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery in this northern Arab-Israeli town. Fatma Shanan Dery’s drawings focus on personal memory of family, history, culture and religion. Nidal Jabareen’s drawings and sculptures offer broad perspective and tidy impressionism, while Karim Abu Shakra takes a look at the unity of humans, nature and animals. Samah Shehada approaches drawings with questions of the world and its modern themes. The exhibitions run from January 24 until April 19. 

4. Join the Vertigo dance troupe and Koach Haizun, a troupe of both wheelchair-bound and non-wheelchair bound dancers, at their performance on Sunday, January 18 at 6 pm at Jerusalem’s First Station. The two troupes, implementing contact improvisation in the performance, will include pieces from Vertigo choreographer Noa Wertheim, as well as Ohad Naharin and Barak Marshall.

5.  It’s time to hear some music with the Banai family. There’s the Ehud Banai and Mashina (led by Ehud’s first cousin, Yuval Banai) reunion in February. While three of the concerts are sold out, they added another one on February 23 at Tel Aviv’s Heichal Hatarbut, the Charles Bronfman Auditorium.

If that’s now enough, listen to this selection from Yuval Banai’s new solo album, “One More Song,” in which he speaks to his late father, actor Yossi Banai, about the changes that have taken place since his death. Yuval Banai is also performing solo in March. Check his Facebook site for concert dates.