where the hell was i.

the 1000th day mark


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somewhere in Keserwan, between the trees on a foggy, drizzly day, with M, L & C.


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The 2 buildings i love most on my way to work every freakin' day.


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the other hole i was buried in for all this time.


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singstaring my ass out. the night i kicked K's ass on Ordinary World.


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chinese store hygiene pads. funny. sunny girl.


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Blossoming almond trees in Chouf on ZOoz, K n L's day out.


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The view on most of my after-work nights out.


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Czech hybrid cheese?!


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czech sarcasm at it's best.




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what this anthology lacks is the fact that i haven't written for 9 months, and that's shameful ZOozoo. During this time, i had a lovely light summer, a cool enlightening trip to London, then a shitty 6 months workin' my ass off for ungrateful stupid corporate clients. The worse is that i had to drag happy-n-gay-K with me, the poor soul; she hates now as much as i do. i ruined her.
Then i finally decided to go visit Hos in Praha, CZ. Then Pregnant Mou made her entrance, and that is quite a load of fun. Then i left to cz, it was a lotta fun and a lotta cold but a lotta fun.
and now am back to both lebanon and blogging. sweet.

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Soundtracks of that period of my life include:
- the brillantissime new !!!
- the enivrant Iron&Wine
- the awesome I'm Not There OST
- the elegantissime Feist
- Nick Cave's Dig, Lazarus! Dig!
- inRainbows, ob-f*****-viously
- The Paris Derniere Compilations
- BabyShambles' There She Goes
- and a shitload of shitty 90s songs (including the OST for empire records, sad but true)

of how little i've been doing.

can't focus these days. i dunno why really. i know it's not the situation, because in that department i'm all settled in; nothing surprises me anymore. dunno. maybe it's the university thing... i had an english test in the embassy today. god it was annoying, felt right back at school doing the SATs.

am listening to the newest Feist album, it really is very very good. i like it, there's a version of see line woman that is very cool; but they called theirs sea lion. which to some effect makes much more sense to me than see line. actually, before, i used to think it was ceylan woman—as in the woman from srilanka, but then it turned out to be see line, which i didnt (and still don't) understand.

my stupid ipod is dead again. and that pisses me off. am restoring it right now, if it keeps messing with me am gonna throw it away—but only to buy a newer one. damn the capitalist world and the consumerist thinking. zoozoo can't live without an mp3 player now... god forbid! what have this world become, goddammmit!

about the tribunal.

now what?
the situation in the camps is not getting better. Ain el helwe is also on fire. i'm not getting anything anymore.
one good thing we witnessed out of that tribunal voting: the st george road was opened. yey.

what waits for us? i dunno shit. and i don't think anybody does.
will it stay like this?
aaaahhh it sux.

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yesterday watched The Science of Sleep. it was gr8. i love gondry.
that guy has an such an ease in the display of vulnerability. unbelievable. the line between cheesiness and heart-wrenching vulnerability is a very fine one; and he succeeds effortessly.
really really cool. although some elements do feel as if recycled by him, but it's still very nice; i also loved its un-hollywoodness. eternal sunshine was still cleaner and more by the book.
and chabat s gr8 in it; i love that guy.
i just felt like watching it again straight away.
it was good.
highlight of the week.
or maybe a good start for a gr8 week?!
nah...
god am bored today...

of my de/at-tachment.

on saturday, was on a road trip with alfie. we had fun.
it was sunny and it felt good. we saw taggers on the street, and we tagged a bit ourselves. then we went up to Souk el Ghareb and had fun looking for abandoned buildings and trying to get into them. it was fun.
at night we all went to dine at Abou Hassan, then we sat on Hamra street, playing guitar and singing. it was nice.

violet trees on Spears. love those trees.


taggers


alf's running man tag


mine :D


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the next morning we woke up to news of fighting in the streets of tripoli. it shook me. i stayed on tv all day long, depressed. couldn't do anything all day long, and god knows i have a shitload of things i need to attend to. 20 people dead all in all. 2 kids were held hostage. it's horrendous. Chica, nina and bello were stuck there. i can't believe it.
couldn't sleep at night, i was too agitated. i was zapping on tv, and then i saw from the window all the buildings light up from one side. "what the f..." KHABBBROOOMMMMM
it was the ABC bombing.
ambulances whistling turuturuturu and car wheels screaming iiiiiiiiiiiiii people driving like mad to make it to the scene. one lady died, 10 injured. i can't believe this shit.
next morning. finish my shit at home, go to T's, we have a meeting later. we go to the meeting. then i go with the girls meet chica on the airport, she leaves. we go back home.
meemee, mimo and alfie pass by, we have dinner and a beer on the balcony. the buildings light up again, and then a second later KHABBBROOHHOOMM it sounds far as if from Hamra or sth... no it's verdun. i call nouks, she's fine, the site is a street away from where she lives. alfie calls his dad, they live only 3 min away from the site. he's fine. dammit. when will this end.
the next morning, back to work. as if nothing has happened the night before. it became part of our day to day life, i guess. it's becoming natural. it does not seem as major as it actually is. an idiosyncrasy of Beirut/Lebanon life.
and now we live on tv, checking what's happening in the north, emailing each other warning emails of possible bombing locations, putting (f) in our msn names for the souls of those who are dying every day.
living in virtuality.

we r back in hell.

that guy is funny.

please do not touch the newspapers and the magazines and do not borrow them,
because the newspapers and the magazines are for sale and not for borrowing. and thank you.


ma as2alo sa7ee7.

shame on me for not blogging this last month.

it's been a long long month or so. done a lot, and then just crashed from exhaustion.

what you missed:

Nina got me cool socks.



i fell in love with 2 rabbits around easter time.



chica got married.


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then i went to aleppo, for a project i was working on with T. it's a hiking trail connecting early christian cities next to aleppo. the hiking trail is part of an ecotourism initiative in that area by both the swiss and the syrians. T and i worked on the signage. it looks really really sexy.
for 2 days we finalized the setting up of the signs in the correct spots. the project will include more than one trail that connect the ruins which are all dated to 300–450 AD. and the coolest detail is that the kurds live between and next to the ruins, so one gets to experience the kurd life and traditions. highly recommended extreme stuff.

planting a sign. look how sexy it is!


mansaf on the ground! with laban drink, laban immo-like dish, laban-almost-labneh dish (yumyum). ooh and bread.


our generous hosts. very nice people. and RJ in action.


a lebanese beer i discovered in aleppo.


descriptive marketing strategy. ismo 3a kasmo.

i am contributing to the demise of the world.

i finally got a car and started driving. not only am i worried of the danger i represent on the road but am also feeling bad that i will be directly contributing to the increase fo pollution in the world.
i seriously feel bad. and so i will make the promise, here, on the blog, so as i can never fail to keep it, or try to deny i ever made it that i will only use the car to make long trips, trips that are not made by public transport or ones late at night, when public transport is simply impossible. i also promise i will car pool or take part on car pooling as often as possible. and if possible will try to exchange the car into one that is more environment friendly.

here, i can sleep better tonight.

of my psychosomatic dream.

woke up around dawn this morning, dont remember why—might've been duty calling or thirst. anyway i go back to bed and live one of the most deranging real-like dreams ever.
i usually can awake myself from freaky moments, but this time i was completely immersed in it, thinking it was true...
it starts with an image of reality; i am (still) watching my tv that notoriously stays on all night long. a spectre takes shape in front of it, slowly, from a kind of see-through mist to a clearer suggestion of full limbs into a physical solid form of an upper body i don't recall a full body... i'm seeing it from the back, the figure turns suddenly towards me, screaming, it looks like an asian/japanese woman with an eery manga like face, disfigured by anger and rage. the spectre runs towards me, i am still lying in bed, and starts stabbing me in the chest; each stab is more and more real, i actually feel pain and incredible pressure on the chest. i want to scream and free myself, and as always can't. feeling my body completely trapped in paralysis, while in my head i'm climbing up the walls. i am desperately trying to scream but am completely dumb. i also remember wanting to call my dad's name while usually, in circumstances like these, i call out for my mother's. at that moment, i remember feeling that there's no point in fighting it, and that i should better give up, it is then that the angry spectre disappears.. i actually think am dying. i feel another presence next to my bed, in the same misty form as the angry jap bitch. strangely, i am in deep belief that it is my brother. the misty form starts materializing from the hand, to the upper arm, without really fully taking shape. i reach for the hand, and it is feeling real; it is my brother's hand, skinny but strong with its characteristic protruding veins... it feels so real, i am actually holding his hand... and then i wake up, heart beating erratically, sweaty, alone in my room, the history of rock'n roll lightening up the room.

about politics on facebook.

There's an ongoing debate on facebook whether Palestine is a country or not; and reason for this, is because really the debate is whether Palestine should figure in the Country listing in Facebook. The debate led to another on whether Kurdistan should be added as a country on facebook, obviously.
An unexpected turn of events, from a purely social/socialite (la2 7akkeh w nassnasseh) site to one with deep (haha) insights on geopolitical debate.

seriously...

lady, what were you thinking?

facebook marad.

about inland empire.

yesterday went to watch the latest David Lynch. hence the pondering.
and i slept in the middle of the movie.
but from the half i saw, am willing to watch it again. although me sleeping in it would raise the obvious question whether it was boring or not; i would say it wasn't. guess i was tired.
his camera work, editing, film quality is gr8. i personnally loved it. he seemed to be having loads of fun with it. the sound was gr8.
i think i'll watch it again.
although most of which who went out of the movies yesterday night, were not willing to go thru it again—coz the usual level of creepiness and story entaglements were slightly (to say the least) enhanced.
no no. definitely watchable.
one little detail though, i was surprised that some of us expected some moments/details of the movie... which could be quite disappointing if you really think about it...

i will advertize fe's studio.

my post-war tension tourism idea was not so far off.

info sms of the day!


is this taking advantage of the situation or just a brilliant marketing strategy?
a penny for your thoughts...

ain't this cool?

i just love men/women/men and women holding hands.

(probably some student project spray-painted) around in hamra.

woohoo.

mou and rudz are coming to town!!
and aya is in town now!

woohoo.

about stupid american awards.

anybody else felt that yesterday/this morning's best director award was a pity oscar? as if the academy felt bad on never letting scorcese win any awards knowing that he was nominated more than 6 times—if i'm not mistaken—, and for cornerstones of the american film legacy such as taxi driver (palme d'or, mind u), raging bull, the last tempatation of christ, ...—need i go on?! as if they finally gave him one just to be able to stick him a life achievement award in a few years...
seriously. getting spielberg, lucas and coppola to hand it to him. enno, seriously, did anybody think that anybody else was gonna recive the award after getting those three aligned on stage?! to get all the directors that were of the same "generation"(in the history of film at least) and that beat him to the statue. pity oscar... that sucks.
And, granted, the departed is awesome, but for it to be the film that got him the oscar, the recognition, what da fuck!?!

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w ba3den, why do all best actor/actress awards have to be given to the ones who had characters that existed in real life. enno, if you want a score an oscar, get a role that is based on a true life story (you stil have to do it well, though; but still half the work is done for you)
It's true that whitaker is a gr8 gr8 actor, but he only got the recognition when he took a role based on a real human being. helen mirren for the queen. Phoenix and witherspoon for walk the line. roberts for erin brockovich. theron for monster. swank for boys dont cry. smith for ali. kidman for the hours when she played virginia woolf. hoffman for capote. foxx for ray. halle berry also for monster's ball, no?!. anyway, anybody seeing a pattern here?!?

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stupid american awards.
guess i'll always hate'em ever since they let saving private ryan win over the thin red line.
never forgive, zoozoo, and never forget the great offenses of the stupid american academy awards.
stoooppid.

it's time to post Lawein.

enjoy
:D

ode to bored.