post 190/365
“I feel that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, gaiety, or misery. It can propel narrative swiftly forward, or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. Finally, it is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.”
Film composer Bernard Herrmann.
post 189/365
A certain calmness starts to take over our Beirut’s mornings today as the first day of Ramadan is upon us. Today many Lebanese start fasting, praying more earnestly, watching what they say, thinking twice before speaking, being kinder to their families and friends, contemplating on life, respecting, laughing, and loving. The month of Ramadan begins with the sighting of the new moon, which varies from country to country.
post 188/365
Change occurs very rapidly in the city of Beirut. It has changed often and quickly and is still changing now. The Sporting Club, located in Al-Manara, lies there guarding the sea, in the shadows of the ferris wheel or the Luna park and facing the sakhret el Rawche (the pigeon’s rock). It stands there in stark contrast to the anarchic growth of high-rise buildings surrounding it. Untouched by modern esthetics, it remains one of those great city institutions. This beloved venue that evokes strong feelings of nostalgia among the city’s residents is the last man standing in terms of guarding Beirut’s old glamour days, maintaining its sense of identity.
post 187/365
The Dabke is an Arabic folk dance that started in the mountainous regions above the Mediterranean coastline and the Tigriss River. It is of possible Canaanite or Phoenician origin. According to some sources the Phoenicians were the first teachers of the dance in the world, and the Dabke is a representative descendant of the Phoenician dances.
post 186/365
On the way to Tripoli, as you drive pass by Chekka, the feel of the country changes and you will directly notice that modernity has not laid its extending hands from this point forward. The road to Tripoli feels like life’s long journey, where one leaves life’s excesses and moves to a less hectic and chaotic state of being. The highway is calmer and the sky opens up to a horizon of a forgotten shoreline.
post 185/365
Today is a special post as I celebrate reaching half way through my blog. If someone had told me 8 months ago that I would start a blog and would have the discipline to sit down everyday for a couple of hours to research and write, I would have laughed and said ‘yeah right.” This blog has taught me so much and I have to admit, awakened something in me that I thought was long gone. Back when I was at AUB, I took a course in creative writing, my professor had told me to keep writing since I seem to love it so much, but in all honesty I never had the confidence, thinking that no one would want to read me. It’s really incredible how things happen in ones life and change you in ways you never thought possible.
post 184/365
Winter and spring long since passed, as cold wind, rain and frost now belong in the past, Lebanon’s starts brewing for a season of festivals taking place all over the country. Darkness thankfully no longer descends, as fast as long hot summer days arrive at long last. All around the country there is a festive atmosphere. This land becomes all flickers of light in warm weather and we know that music will fill its air from north to south, enchanting the spectators from one performance to the other.
post 183/365
“In Khiam prison we died a hundred times every day. Torture included electric shocks, being tied naked to a whipping pole for hours under the burning sun in the summer and snow in the winter, and getting whipped and beaten continuously with metal rods, wires and nightsticks. We were caged and treated like animals. Believe me, it wasn’t so much about the pain, but the humiliation.”
Degol Abou Tass Continue reading
post 182/365
On a high hill overlooking the Mediterranean some 30 miles south of Beirut lies the pilgrimage town of Maghdoucheh, famous for its 30-meter bronze shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was here in Maghdoucheh that the Virgin Mary is said to have waited in a cave for her son Jesus to return with his disciples after preaching in nearby in Sidon. The statue, which depicts Mary holding Jesus in her arms, weighs a hefty six tons and was built in 1963 above the cave in which Mary was believed to have waited.
post 181/365
The modern art of glass blowing may use modernized equipment, but the essence of working with glass remains an ancient art. Molding red-hot liquid glass to create a lasting glass artifact is an act that requires a creative mind, dexterous handwork, and stamina, a very physically draining work.
365 Days of Lebanon 