• Announcing… CC Salon Beirut

    Remember when I went to Jordan for CC Salon Amman? Well, now we’re finally organizing CC Salon Beirut with the help of Donatella, Habib, Naeema & Mohamad!

    What I’d like to share with you is the design process of the poster, which is a collaborative design between the talented Naeema Zarif and myself, à la Creative Commons 😉

    Step 1: I designed this

    Step2: I sent it to Naeema, who sent me this back!

    Step 3: I tried to mix both designs, CC-style 😉

    And… lo and behold, the CC Beirut Salon poster… [click to enlarge]

    What do you think?

    Now the next step is to SPREAD THE WORD! Join our Facebook event, and if you’re a blogger, download a banner from the options below to add to your blog!

    160 x 800

    150 x 417

    160 x 200

    150 x 90

    Share away! And don’t forget to follow the updates on Twitter, follow @CCBeirut, and use the official hashtag #CCBeirut and join the Facebook event.

    As for the line up of presentations at the event, here it is:

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    *PRESENTING ARTISTS*
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    CC for music
    > Meen The Band, Lebanese Rock. Live music
    >     Michelle Keserwany, Jagal el USEK

    CC for visual arts
    > Naeema Zarif

    CC for photography
    > Lara Zankoul – 365 project
    >     Samer Nakfour – Analog photography

    CC for media
    > Jessica Dheere – SMEX

    CC for filmmaking
    > Cyril Aris & Mounia Akl – Beirut I love you (I love you not)

    CC for comics
    > Samandal
    >     Maya Zankoul

    CC for geeks
    > Leb Geeks

    See you all at OBROS, Clemenceau on April 16 😉 And to end it with music released under Creative Commons, here’s another song from Meen: Superhero

    01 Super Hero

  • April goodies

    It’s that time of the month, time for next month’s desktop background!

    Download for free [:P] at your convenience! [Hope I didn’t miss any resolutions – including iPhones!]

    320 x 480, 1024 x 640, 1024 x 768, 1200 x 800, 1280 x 1024, 1440 x 900, 1620 x 1280, 1680 x 1050, 1920×1200

    And before I leave you to your busy days, I’d like to share the music of a band I’ve known for a while but that I REALLY discovered when I won their CD at Twestival Beirut Amman. Meet Meen – true Lebanese rock. I just LOVED their songs!

    Here’s my fav so far “Shefta Jayyi Min B3id”

    07 Shefta Jayyi Min B3id

    Here’s how the background looks on my laptop! Feel free to email me [maya.zankoul at gmail dot com] yours, I’d like to do a collage of them all 🙂

  • The Twibbon

    How to use the Twibbon: So, for the newbies, twibbons became the mutant of ribbons when people became avatars and words became tweets.

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    Before: Ribbon - After: Twibbon

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    The twibbon grew to become an independent customizable organism.

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    This led to common use and abuse of the service, which calls for the below clarifications and rules.

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    Please, one twibbon at a time

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    Please, select a real cause.

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    But please, make sure they're timely.

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    Finally, remember that it will resize your avatar.

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    Thank you!

    If you like Twibbon, you can go ‘”start something” on their website, as their slogan says. Ok i just had to let out what bothers me about twibbons. Today’s song is Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty, I adore the lyrics. Enjoy! 🙂


  • Special gathering

    it's that time of the year again.

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    The annual socio-religio-politico-fashiono-masquerade gaterhing of all 5 family generations

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    Palm Sunday - Les Rameaux - Sha3nineh

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    But I nag not, for the true victims of this are the children (this year I did not wear heels)

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    Yalla mami wlek smile pour la photo!

    In comparison to last year, it was a much easier experience & I spent the occasion observing others – something I very much enjoy doing [in case you haven’t noticed yet] 😉

    It’s Monday, and I have a beautiful tune for you. This is another Joe Hisaishi, from the soundtrack of Howl’s Moving Castle. Enjoy and have an amazing week! 🙂

    Ending_ The Promise Of The World_ The Merry-Go-Round Of Life-cut

  • Illustration for self-expression

    I was very happy to give a workshop at Nasawiya about using illustration to deal with your frustrations. I had a great time, met lovely people, and we all drew and chatted about illustration. Add to that cake and juice, how better can it get? 🙂

    I’d like to thank Nadine Moawad and Joelle Hatem for helping me to organize it, Jessica Dheere from SMEX for the projector, and everyone who attended for their participation and making this fun!

    Here’s the outcome of the workshop, for more photos, check out the Facebook photos.

    My illustration of the event:

    Maya Zankoul workshop at Nasawiya

    Nadine‘s funny -true story- comic: [click to enlarge]

    Joelle‘s existential cartoon 😀 [click to enlarge]

    A 12-year old girl, Alice El Asmar, surprised us all with her AMAZING TALENT, she’s a real pro [wacom and blog and all!]

    Jessica‘s cartoon who looks just like her!

    Nadim’s also kind of existential cartoon

    Abeer‘s drawing against photography restrictions in Leb – She’s right!

    Ali’s Gemmayze demonstration:

    If your drawings aren’t here, please send them to me at maya.zankoul [at] gmail [dot] com!

    Have a lovely weekend all 🙂 I’m off to play some piano…

  • Live from ArabNet – Day 2

    All I can say is that ArabNetME conference KICKED A**! Congrats again to all who participated to making this event as successful as it was. I am proud of you all for organizing such a successful event to encourage the web in the Middle East and allow the “big” people and the “new” people to mingle. You have exceeded my expectations by far! 🙂

    Presenting the Arabic Web Font during the ideathon – Photo credits UxSoup

    Presenting the Arabic Web Font during the ideathon – Photo credits Ayman Itani

  • Live from ArabNet – Day 1

    Today, I’m live-illustrating from ArabNet.ME conference [which is turning out AMAZING!] and I pitched my arabic web font idea at the ideathon and getting a lot of + feedback. Here are some of the illustrations I did, and you can follow them live here and here.

  • Heads up for tomorrow!

    The clock is ticking!! Tick tock tick tock

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    2 big events are coming up tomorrow!

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    live.arabnet.me

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    Twestival Amman Beirut. Tweeting can't get any better! At twestical, we'll be tweeting for a cause, education!

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    tweet. meet. give. now what exactly will i be giving, you ask?

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    3 books

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    10 posters

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    how to use a poster

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    I am completely excited about all this, and extremely late as usual, so I’ll leave you to your beautiful days and go back to panicking about TOMORROW!!!!!!!! SEE YOU ALL THERE 😀

  • History repeats itself

    True Story: They FINALLY removed the "iso and elissar" poster from dbayeh highway! Joy! Happiness!

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    I'm sure they will replace it with a cultural event!

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    Or environmental! Or educational! Or even artistic!

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    BUT NO.

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    Presenting... Elianor & Elissar!

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    NOOOOOOO!!

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    I'm left with drinking it away.

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    Believe it or not, this story is 100% true! [Well, except the drinking part, it’s not true just yet.] I wish you all a lovely Monday, with today’s song ‘Wild Horses’ & I’m not exactly sure who sings it… Enjoy! 🙂

    Wild Horses


  • A miracle at Lebanese banks

    Breaking news! Lebanese banks & postal services implement numbering system to avoid waiting in line and to save time!

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    BEFORE: we had to wait in line.

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    THEN, THE MIRACLE: Numbering system

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    2- Get informed of "THE MIRACLE".

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    3- Nag about it and try to negotiate a faster deal. "But my transaction is fast!"

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    4- Resignedly go to miracle and not know how to use it. "Hmm. This looks like toilet paper!"

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    5- Have someone explain the "right" way to use it. "you only get one ticket!"

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    6- go back to waiting in line

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    7- When your turn finally comes 40 minutes later...

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    When your turn comes, lady interrupts

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    "Madame get a number, please!" "But my transaction is fast!"

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    Take the lady to step 4 and repeat to fade

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    If you’ve been at a bank [that I won’t name] or at Liban Post lately, then you have surely noticed the new “numbering” system. I had to wait about 40 minutes for my turn to come, so I thought that I might as well observe and analyze the different interactions happening there! 🙂 I wonder how long it will take for the new system to be understood by people coming for transactions!

    I’ll now leave you with this beautiful song, covered by Eva Cassidy “Song Bird”. Have a beautiful day! 🙂

    Songbird 2

    That this post is being added live at LAU social class!

  • Visiting Zahle #2

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    I know one or two who will recognized themselves in the comics 😉 I have very beautiful memories from those 2 days spent in Zahle, thanks again to all of you who showed up at the exhibition, and who gave me feedback, I really enjoyed it! To those who missed it, here are the photos of the event, tag yourselves and your friends. Tomorrow, I will be giving a presentation in Ayman Itani‘s class at LAU, and will be posting live from there! 😉 See you then!

  • Visiting Zahle #1

    Last week, March 8 [International women’s day], was the opening of ‘Amalgame’ exhibition at the French Culture Center [CCF] of Zahle. It was a chance to discover a beautiful town far from Beirut’s chaos...

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    Zahle is a gorgeous town that was nicknamed "bride of the bekaa" by poet said akl

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    It's located right behind the mountains, in the Bekaa valley.

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    The area is full of blossoming almond trees

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    … That was the “touristic” aspect of the Zahle visit! Isn’t Lebanon just beautiful? You can see some photos of the visit on the Facebook page. Tomorrow, I will tell you about the “serious aspect” i.e. exhibition, book-signing and encounters with lovely local schools & university students.

    And before I leave you to your busy days, here are 2 Lebanese songs that I love [for a change!] by Fairouz: Al Bint Al Chalabiya & Shayef El Bahr Shou Kbir. Enjoy & have a beautiful day 🙂

    AL BINT EL CHALABIYA

    09 Shayef el Bahr shou Kbir