Monday, August 28, 2006

blue series


Why didn't anyone bother to tell me that we have Garlic Ketchup in Kuwait! I can't believe you people! Sometimes I wonder why people can't just say such things.. "hey.. did you know that they now sell such and such?".. I'd love to hear more about the latest in the supermarkets. You people better tell me if something cool like this hits the market! I would tell my friends about it! Although I stopped doing that after I got many responses.. the worst of them being the harsh, bitter and indifferent "So..?"


That's one..
Now why on earth would they ban Silver Marlboro! Malboro Ultralights! I know for sure that this became the most popular brand among smokers the first day it was released in Kuwaiti markets.. WHY is it banned now! I mean I can understand banning Menthol, but Ultralights are so popular! And its relatively ... (clears throat).. healthier(?)

I, currently in a mood for old Iranian songs and music, am listening to Marzieh. Inspiring lively old music. The good thing about old music is the fact that it was spontaneous and you could even hear them shout things at players or some of them not playing the notes right for a second, or even the singer might forget the lyrics.. sooooooo very spontaneous and beautiful. Its like you're there; one more thing and that's the amazing thing.. no computerized music! No computer-enhanced voices!
Nowadays, they can have the violinist on a day to play the notes... then comes the oud player.. then the drums.. then at the end.. the singer would come with the music recorded and that's it! Is it the same.. when you are there when the music is played and you listen to it.. and get all emotional and sing with the music? is it not better when the musicians are there interacting with the singer? There's no contact between the two nowadays.. that's why I hate it.. (unless it was private recordings from parties and such).
Marzieh!

I should write more
I started on a project to write a series of stories involving a very surreal and blue image; hopefully a disturbing one. Yet I could not find the time to do so. Its not really about time.. I have time to write this.. its just I never can get in the right mood to do it.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

cheap

I decided after re-reading what I wrote.. to delete it.
I was just so angry to make myself clear; I was motivated by emotion rather than reason. I will soon re-post it with a reasonable discussion and analysis of the situation.


Cheap books are cheap, for cheap readers to read them, cheaply. I'm cheap, I bought cheap books... cheaply

Thursday, August 24, 2006

O Saki

my life is on hold right now

Inspired by "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell, I say...
It is strange to feel sorry for people who commit suicide; to escape what is too "life-like". I used to think of them as really desperate people with problems that are worse than our worst nightmares. However upon reading more about the human psyche and its powers. Those who commit suicide are not worthy of life; to escape?
Ah...
Pathetic people that deserve nothing of our sympathy. Why should they deserve our sympathy if they decided that they're too weak to face what everyone could go through? Had they decided to kill the self that has accepted to die physically... they would've been reborn to a self that would endure life as it is, a bitter one with a difficult never-ending maze of choices.

I'm losing weight.. and I'm starting to like my job.
The manager assigned me to do something that is nowhere around the area of my job "title". I thought it over.. and I said I'm doing nothing of my job title.. so why not just do this... because I know if I said no she will say "fine.." and assign me to do the job I am supposed to be doing.. which I'm not doing right now because I'm new and still getting to know the job. Meaning extra work... plus her spite. So why not do a job that is so easy instead of being an idealist and fight back...
sometimes courage is overrated. I say, be a coward and win friends on your side in such a lousy workplace.

Antique books!
Its been almost a year now since I found this Antique Bookstore! They sell really old books and other really interesting items. Like buttons from the Ottoman Egypt, antique matchboxes, old movie posters. I loved these antique official papers over two centuries old! It was official mumbo jumbo about loans and seizing land or something like that.. must've been horrible for whoever received it.. yet its just beautiful to have something 2 centuries old in your room.
There's this little dictionary of medical terms that belonged to a med student in Cairo University in 1925! The price tag read KD 75! Bah I could buy a better one in KU's bookstore for KD 2.
Old newspapers, old magazines... and man they had sexy models back then. It is disturbing though to see a picture of an actress who back then was young and sexy. Now she looks more like a creature from wall carvings of Babylon or Greece, half ugly old human, half God-forsaken mutilated animal.

Its called Dar Dawood Publishing.
Its in Almubarakiyya, Al-Souk Al-Dakhli... just walk around and you'll notice it.

اوكي ... وين محلات الصرافة في الديرة ؟
آخر الشارع ... السوق المسقف آخر الشارع هذا السوق الداخلي
يم ديوانية الرعيل الأول , دار داوود للنشر

ساغرم شكست
اي ساقي


My cup is broken
O Cupbearer


كأسي مكسورة
يا ساقي


Thursday, August 10, 2006

eugene


Ever thought of creating an underground group?
I think keeping secrets is a wonderful experience. I tried it and still do keep secrets (not regular secrets, more like espionage kind of secrets) that if exposed could.. mmm, could probably change people's view of me? I don't know.
فاتن حمامة و محمود ياسين
فلم حبيبتي
أفضل فلم عربي شاهدته في حياتي
صراحة الفلم أعجبني لعدة أسباب

مكان الحدث شاعري جداً
مع احترامي لمصر كبلد و شعب , و لكن مصر تفتقد العنصر الرومانسي في حياتها المدنية , حضارة القاهرة كعاصمة لا تعطي أي مجال للقصص العاطفية و الرومانسية , و أعني بذلك القاهرة الحديثة , قاهرة ما بعد الثورات القومية و الخطابات العصماء . قاهرة ما قبل جمال عبدالناصر جميلة جداً و على طراز أوروبي هادئ , بينما قاهرة اليوم مليئة بالبؤس الملتحف بالتفاؤل الكاذب لفجر قومي يكون فيه العرب سادة العالم , قاهرة اليوم مليئة بالشحاذين و المدعين و السياح الخليجيين التافهين و النصابين المصريين المتخصصين في دراسات علم الاجتماع الخليجي و البذخ الخليجي الغبي

بينما بيروت , حيث تدور أحداث فلم حبيبتي , بيروت ما قبل الحرب الأهلية
جميلة يا بيروت , الطراز الأوروبي و التعايش الجميل اللامتعصب بين أطياف مجتمع حضاري جداً

القصة تدور حول شخصية لا بطولية , بطل القرن العشرين الضعيف الشكاك ما يسمى بالـ

Antihero

محمود ياسين فنان بوهيمي لا يستطيع تسديد أجار شقته , و لكن أهم من ذلك أنه لا يملك ثمناً لعلبة أسبرين لينتحر
فاتن حمامة فتاة صعبة المنال لا تترك لمحمود ياسين سوى خيوط دقيقة ليلحق بها , و أكاذيب
قصة حب عظيمة لا تقف عند لا بطولية شخصياتها و لكن تقف على قلوبهم النابضة بالإخلاص


I'm not a fan of the Pink Floyd, its just that I like some of their songs and their philosophical lyrics.
Whisper, whisper, sounds inaudible and a mood of early angry depression.
[light screaming from Waters]
Careful, careful, careful with that axe, Eugene.
[very loud and prolonged scream]

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

ashes


Having a job is not so bad. It IS challenging. It's a challenge to wait for six hours in a gloomy, improperly-lit and cold office (its supposed to be a shared office, however I'm the only one there.. thus its my own office). To wait for six hours hoping that no one comes in asking you to do little work. Having to endure all types of people. The worst though is waiting in great dread and hope for the day to end without having to deal with a person who'll force you to get the worst of your rotten burried self of anger, hatred and loathing for those people.

Days pass

The fifth day of the acting workshop.
The aerobics class is no longer; today was the last class unfortunately. I will miss being forced to exercise to death. I have proven myself worthy of respect being the only one of all the applicants who received a full mark for the personal interview and the entry test. Everyone was asking who's this guy? Are you the one?
It was all about using the good tips I got on how to impress interviewers; and man their methods were so traditional.

I'm going to do a short play I wrote; an adaptation from Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.





she puts the seeds in me
plant this dying tree
she's a burning string
and I'm just the ashes



Marilyn Manson

Saturday, August 05, 2006

dada

Cheap classics
I realized that I don't have enough of western classics so I decided to crusade the market for cheap CDs of classics. I loved Schubert's symphony no. 8, the unfinished.
Cheap classics... I found a CD for kd 2 and it included two symphonies by Schubert, and after I purchased that I found a collection of 4 CDs for kd 5 only of the best of Schubert. oh well.

This should be the third day in the acting workshop.
Even those with little knowledge of what really is theatre... prefer to degrade what theatre represents as hard as possible.
One stated clearly that he is here for "fame", "to have friends", to be "popular and loved by everyone". The easiest way to be famous is to fake your way into this field; to fake it, is just to tell jokes on stage.
No matter how many original actors, directors and playwrights are out there trying to preserve the real meaning of theatre; they are always overwhelmed by this barbaric mob out to eliminate any sense of seriousness related to theatre.


"If I shout:
Ideal, Ideal, Ideal
Knowledge, Knowledge, Knowledge,
Boomboom, Boomboom, Boomboom
I have recorded fairly accurately Progress, Law, Morals, and all the other magnificent qualities that various very intelligent people have discussed in so many books."

Tristan Tzara

Very true.
thus, dada