Maya's Amalgam – Page 20 – Illustrated stories from life

Road priority

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I know Jounieh very well and therefore don’t need road signs to know directions. But let’s suppose someone is in Lebanon for the first time, and needs to know whether this road is the highway, or an exit, or a bridge, or a closed road. How can they know? As I was stuck in traffic yesterday, I noticed for the first time a small shy sign saying that the highway ends here on the zouk turn. Poor, poor sign! No one will ever see it behind all the ‘laser epilation’ and ‘super night clubs’ signs! There should be SERIOUS quotas for promotional signage… Or at least some sense of structure… Let’s hope this will happen one day! 🙂

Stop the referee

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It’s not the first time Lebanon loses a basketball game. And it’s not the first time that we “accuse the other of cheating”. Yet, it is the first that the cheating accusation is valid. Watching the game from an objective point of view, it is impossible not to notice how the referees were biased. It is sad, because this was a chance for the Lebanese basketball team – that I have been following for oh so many years now – to excel and prove its strength. The situation reminded me of the story of the boy who cried ‘wolf!’ In fact, the Lebanese tend to use the “the other cheated” excuse in all kinds of situations, be it in sports, politics, you name it. Click here for the story of the boy who cried ‘wolf’. And talking about wolves, a friend linked to Shakira’s new video clip “She wolf” on Facebook. What exactly does she think she’s doing? Oh God what pop singers would do to get attention! With all those thoughts, I wish you all a great week 🙂 See you soon!

Book Signing event on Future TV & Rotana TV

Future TV | 16/08/2009 | 8:00-9:00 am

If you can wake up early on Sundays, check out a report about the event on Future TV, (& Future News channel) tomorrow, August 16th, between 8:00 am and 9:00 am, in their morning news sequence. If you talked to the camera during the event, you will get to see yourselves 🙂

Rotana TV | 18/08/2009 | 8:30 pm – 11:00 pm – 3:00 am – 10:00 am (the next of course)

Rotana will also add a report about the event in their news section, Tuesday, August 18th, at the times specified above.

Event photos

As I promised you, I am adding a (very small) selection of images from the book signing! Click here for the public Facebook album. I hope this gives a general idea of how beautiful you guys made this event! + scroll down for a small-exclusive-top-secret-very-special image of the book in VIRGIN MEGASTORE DOWNTOWN!! 🙂 (you all know taking photos in Virgin is not allowed right? :P) Yes, yes, the book is officially in Virgin Megastore and Librairie Antoine all over Lebanon so run now to the closest bookstore and check it out!

And for the FINALE…………………… 🙂

Maya Zankoul's Amalgam in Virgin Megastore, Beirut Downtown

With this, I wish you all a lovely weekend, see you Monday! 🙂

Maya's Amalgam book in The Daily Star

Thank you Chris for the lovely interview! 🙂 You can check it on the link below.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=4&Article_id=105210

Event posters

Hello everyone! Let me start by thanking every single one of you who was at the event, and who made it special and fantastic! I really couldn’t have wished for it to go better… To those who couldn’t make it, worry not for I will upload pictures of all the details 😀

While I’m uploading the pics on Facebook first, I’ll start by adding a series of 11 posters that I designed for the event, to animate the room, and entertain the people waiting for their copy to be signed. As I promised you (since many of you were too lazy to photograph them), I am adding them here! Enjoy 🙂

Photos tomorrow! 🙂 Have a great day!

Altico

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Don’t worry I got it all under control now and my fingers have ben safely unglued 🙂

SEE YOU TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So excited!

A pleasant encounter

I was pulled over by a stuuupid darakeh (policeman) today just because I was asking an adjacent car for directions in the middle of the TRAFFIC! (meaning that the cars were stopped anyway!). At first I thought he stopped us because the car I was addressing didn’t have a plate number, but as it turns out “I” was the source of his problems, while he let the non-plate-car go. Very efficient I must say. After investigating and checking my papers, and asking endless questions about why I want to go to horsh tabet, he eventually laughed at me saying I wasn’t close, and let me go. All that, and I was late already. What a beautiful encounter it was!

I think this is going to be my last post before the signing, so I hope to see you all at the signing, can’t wait to get to meet you! I now have to prepare the cookies and candy and marshmallows, as well as the posters that will be hung around the room (yes, yes like a small exhibition). Don’t forget, if you need directions you can check the map here or, in worst cases you can call this number 03 866 007, but I cant guarantee an answer 😛 With that, I wish you the loveliest of days, in the hope to see you tomorrow! 🙂

What's wrong with Sin-el-Fil?

If you’ve been to sin el fil, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s surprising how it’s so much easier to add posters, than to remove them. I guess it’s easier to let time fade the colors away from the posters until they’re not visible anymore. Really awkward to have christmassy decoration in the middle of august’s killer-heat! Please someone remove the christmas decoration until December! Anyway… I should go back to the preps for the big day!!! Hope to see you all there ^^

To those who were tanning at the beach while I was stressing in MTV studios, here’s the interview in Kitab section, with Karen Boustany. Thank you Karen!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQSf_EuVksE]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0K7AtH10u8]

The solution to your worries

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7-woman-fall

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Oh life! After a major disappointment/surprise in the contract with the distributors of the book, I found complete consolation in a cup of chocolate yogurt. It works wonders to fix all the problems of the world. And what’s more enticing about it is this billboard with a huge chocolate yogurt that they have all over the highway… If you have seen it you should know what I mean. I find it irresistible! Hope your lives will be full of chocolate yogurts! 🙂

Maya's Amalgam on MTV

Maya Zankoul’s Amalgam book will be the topic of Karen Boustany’s live section “Kitab”, this Sunday at 12:15 PM on MTV. See you there ^^

In other news, the book is part of NOW Lebanon’s Summer Reading list. Click here to read more.

Modern slavery

Just another example of modern slavery… I stood there for a whole minute not believing what i had just seen! The woman left the car forgetting about the maid. When I saw the man who was driving making signs to her that she forgot something, I directly thought it was a suitcase, until I saw the maid hop out the trunk, and the woman laughing that she forgot her. Click here for an interesting article about the topic by Maysam Ali.