• Smile like you mean it!

    What's with the whole "vote for my smile" contest for femme magazine cover?

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    Come on! We already have enough voting to do with the municipality elections!

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    So femme and crest are doing a competition for best smile cover girl

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    so i thought.. why not show my smile for crest and femme?

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    my submission, which got rejected...
    I wish they had accepted my submission! Their moderator doesn’t seem to have any sense of humor at all…
    I hope the girls submitting their photos read the terms well!

    “8. By sending her photograph, a Participant assents to its free-of-charge publication at any time by the proprietor of the “mycrestsmile.com” domain.”

    If you want to know what I’m talking about, you can see the campaign site here.

    In other news, I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about another war happening in Lebanon soon… the thought of which brings out very ugly feelings in me. Here’s this song (&video) by Meen produced in 1 day only during the 2006 war. Hoping this is all only talk and Lebanon will keep on growing like it has been doing for the past 4 years. You can listen to the piano version of the song here.


  • Parking Ticket Sticker – update

    UPDATE:

    The parking ticket sticker made it to the newspaper this morning! 😀 You can read it in today”s issue of Al Akhbar.

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    I”ve been getting A LOT of parking tickets around Beirut. So I thought that I might as well be courteous with the policemen working hard on adding the tickets. So I created those stickers!

    In English:

    In Arabic: [I guess the darakeh will understand this better]

    And because I love you all so much, I”ve uploaded the PDFs for you to download, print, and add to your cars!

    * Download CarSticker_EN in English

    • Download CarSticker_AR in Arabic


    The stickers are licensed under Creative Commons, you can download them, use them, remix them. But you cannot sell them. And don”t forget to mention the source! 🙂

    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

    If you”re wondering how to place the sticker, here”s a HOW TO image:

    Have a beautiful week my darlings! Here”s a song for you 🙂 Nick Drake”s “One of these things first”.

    04 One Of These Things First

  • Parking ticket here!

    I”ve been getting A LOT of parking tickets around Beirut. So I thought that I might as well be courteous with the policemen working hard on adding the tickets. So I created those stickers!

    In English:

    In Arabic: [I guess the darakeh will understand this better]

    And because I love you all so much, I”ve uploaded the PDFs for you to download, print, and add to your cars!

    * Download CarSticker_EN in English

    • Download CarSticker_AR in Arabic


    The stickers are licensed under Creative Commons, you can download them, use them, remix them. But you cannot sell them. And don”t forget to mention the source! 🙂

    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

    If you”re wondering how to place the sticker, here”s a HOW TO image:

    Have a beautiful week my darlings! Here”s a song for you 🙂 Nick Drake”s “One of these things first”.

    04 One Of These Things First

  • Lebanese Laïque Pride

    I am NOT telling you my religion because it”s about time we learned in a country like Lebanon that you cannot judge and stereotype a person based on something that, in 99.9% of the cases, (s)he was born with.

    Tomorrow is the Lebanese Laique Pride. See you at 11:00am near Ain El Mreisseh.

    As for me, if you must know, well I believe in music. It”s the only thing I truly believe in. Here are 2 beauties for you today: Ella”s fantastic Mac the Knife, and Lhasa de Sela”s fantastic Pajaro.

    02 Mack The Knife

    09 Pajaro

  • Briefly in the elevator

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    The guy managed to tell me his autobiography from the ground to the 14th floor. It was interesting and I felt it’s really a Lebanese superpower to be able to converse deeply with anyone you face, in any situation, at any time!

    Today’s song is Tarzan Boy’s Baltimore. This tune is full of positivity! Have a great day/weekend my darlings! 🙂

  • Schengen Disagreement

    There, I said it. I’m so sick of all the Schengen procedures, when I’m only going to participate to a round table on blogging [more details on that soon] and not to blow up the country, really.

    Anyway, here’s a song to brighten up your days. Who else than Brad Mehldau? <3 Enjoy! 🙂

    10 No Moon at All

  • CC Beirut highlights

    To those who don’t know, Friday April 16th was the 1st Creative Commons Salon in Beirut. Creative Commons in a type of ‘flexible copyright’ that allows you to share your work with less restrictions than the classical coypright. All the content of this blog is under a CC license [see bottom of right sidebar], which means you can take the comics, use them and abuse them, as long as you mention the source without making money out of them.

    You can check photos of the event here and here. You can check a video here [thanks to Hyperstage.net]. For more details about the presentations lineup, check the Facebook page ‘description’.

    A big thank you to Donatella, Mohamad, Naeema & Habib with whom I worked closely to make this event possible. Here’s Donatella’s announcement of the Salon.

    In short, it was a fantabulous event. Thank you to all who helped and attended! Hopefully this will be the first of many! Let’s spread the spirit of sharing our work 🙂

    In the spirit of Creative Commons and sharing, Slutterhouse just released their first single EP “Inside the Station – remix EP” in all digital stores worldwide, AND for download. For more about this Lebanese ‘electro-rock with a twist’ band [whose music I love!!],  check their website www.slutterhouse.com, or start your Monday with their song 🙂

    Slutterhouse – Inside the Station (Pushtronic mix)

  • New job musing

    Bringing you exclusively..my new desk!

    Actually, a more accurate depiction would be:

    I'm still in euphoria-mode from new job. I guess the reason behind this can be simplified as follows [metaphorically speaking]

    a while back... there was a box.

    I know I’ve been talking a lot about this new step in my life, but this blog has always been and will always be the space to express myself, and I just had to draw those. Late night musings. This new job/setting/experience/life has given me splashes of motivation, positivity, that I can hopefully pass on to you as well 🙂

    Yea at this stage I wouldn’t be surprised if I started liking techno. Ok not that much 😛 Here’s a [everything-but-techno] song for you 🙂 Have a wonderful day!

    12 You Win Again

  • It’s not about the traffic…

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    Thank you so much for the wonderful comments you guys sent me yesterday! You made my day with your support, as usual! I guess I underestimated the power of making a change in your life routine. It’s beautiful. Just like this cover by Brad Mehldau of Nick Drake’s Things Behind the Sun. Enjoy, and have a lovely day! 🙂

    01 Things Behind the Sun [Nick Drake Cover]

  • To new beginnings

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    Wish me luck! Today’s my first day at my new job! A big thank you to Ayman Itani who made it happen; he is the person who has most supported me ever since I started the blog. Forgive me for not posting much, but the whole move and CC Beirut are taking up a lot of time.

    I wish you all a wonderful week! Here’s Lhasa de Sela’s De Cara a la Pared from her fantastic album ‘La Llorona’. Enjoy! 🙂

    01 De Cara a la Pared

  • A day in Hasbaya

    During this long week-end, I visited Hasbaya, the village I come from South of Lebanon

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    Of course, after the classic stop at al baba sweets in Saida. I'll have the honey and pine nuts ice cream

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    Hasbaya is a village full of history, a perfect example of Lebanese diversity

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    In the village, people visit each other everyday. This is abu assaad.

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    In the house, I found a box of old images

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    Why were oldies so much more elegant in the old days?

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    Then, I picked up flowers and made 2 bouquets

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    Watching granma in the kitchen

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    But in all this serenity, one thing broke my heart...

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    the chehabi citadel is crumbling down and noone seems to care!

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    this citadel is a historical, architectural and cultural treasure

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    This boy is a prince by blood, he lives in the citadel. His family cannot afford to maintain it, leaving most of it falling apart. They are willing to let go of the property for someone who could take care of it... but nothing has been done about it!

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    Wish box: I HOPE THAT THE CHEHAB CITADEL IN HASBAYA WILL BE WELL PRESERVED BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, THAT IT WILL BE DOCUMENTED AND PROPERLY ORGANIZED TO WELCOME PEOPLE INTERESTED IN KNOWING MORE ABOUT THE AREA'S HISTORY, ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE. IF ONLY SOMEONE COULD HEAR AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

    If anyone of you knows a path that could lead to the realization of the above wish, please let me know. I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend & easter vacation! Now it’s back to work, and when we say work, we say music to compensate! Here’s Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong singing ‘Our Love is Here to Stay’. Have a wonderful day! 🙂

    12 Our Love Is Here To Stay

  • Mini-vacation

    Guys! I’m heading South [Hasbaya] for the next three days, with no internet connection [how will I survive that, do not ask!].

    Meanwhile here are the latest illustrations for ELLE Oriental to keep you entertained 😉

    In French:

    And in Arabic:

    Have a great long weekend and see you soon! 😉