Purim in Tel Aviv. Purim in the city is all of Israel magnified and set in processional. Girls in piercings and scanty costumes: angels, devils, cowgirls, porn stars, boa-laden flappers, amazonian warriors...their boyfriends in dresses, tutus and pancake makeup, M16s slung over their shoulders...white-clad Carlebachers in stitched white kippas dancing in the back of pickup trucks to dervishes of Hasidic rock music, extolling their hedonist brethren to the sanctification of dance...news camera darting amongst the crowds...heads turning at a loud report, breathing stops, then the crowd exhales and the revelry begins again. Alive.