You Wana Be Famous??

You HAVE to kill somebody "important"!

What a way to start the day... giggles all'round!



Ok. I promise, I won't get carried away with posting videos. Seriously. Honest.

Maybe one more.

No?

Singing & Dancing to Beirut

It's a strange feeling. In a way I am sad, but also relieved, that last night was our last Elham monthly evening as we go on a break over the summer. Ah, no more headaches and running around and making calls and pinpointing people etc! Having said that, last night was a wonderful night. Serena, Helen and Ahmed presented some very interesting work and everyone seemed to have had a good time.

And in that spirit of goodness and merriness, I shall leave you with this outrageously gorgeous video that will make you feel like singing and dancing and acting all jolly!

Elham is Six and Counting

Once again, and for the sixth time, we have for you another Elham monthly evening. This one will be on Tuesday May 29th, usual time and place (fro 7pm to 9pm at Al Riwaq Art Gallery).

Check out the line up on the invitation card to the left (click to enlarge).

This will be our last proper monthly evening before our summer hiatus. There won't be events on June, July or August and then we will restart our programmes in the autumn.

Will keep you up to speed on the latest developments and what we plan to do with elham for the next season.

For now, come down to the gallery on Tuesday for a fine evening of art and literature.

Top 25 Songs on My iPod

Here is my first top 25 most played songs on my iPod nano. I'll be updating you with that list every now and then. Don't you just love lists!?

Some Surprise - Gary Lightbody & Lisa Hannigan
Ride - Cary Brothers
Rocky Took A Lover - Bell X1
Battleships - Travis
Set The Story Straight - Tom McRae
The Music - David Usher
Yer Not The Ocean - The Tragically Hip
Selfish Jean - Travis
Either Way - Wilco
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough - Manic Street Preachers
Baby I'm Yours - Arctic Monkeys
Four Winds - Bright Eyes
One Mississipi - Tom McRae
Elephant Gun - Beirut
I Wish That I Could See You Soon - Herman Dune
My Eyes - Travis
First of May - Jonathan Coulton
Rewind - Paolo Nuitni
Wrong - The Clyde
Brainstorm - Arctic Monkeys
Butterfly in Reverse - Counting Crows
White Light - Wilco
Seems Like Home To Me - Two Gallants
Close - Travis
Once In Your Life - Idlewild

Any of these songs on your iPod? If not, then start downloading!

No Bread Loaf For Me

About two months ago, I submitted an application to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. The event is held between August 15 and 26 at the Middlebury College in the USA. I had just heard back from them. And it's not good news. They informed me that my application was rejected due to limited space availability.

Ah, well, better find me another one then.

Oh Please Dear Cyber Gods Not Again

Ok. I am starting to panic.

It's been two days since I last managed to loginto my yahoo account. For some reason I just can't access my inbox. And memories of my horrible experience with gmail are all rushing back to me! I can't go through another such scaring ordeal.

I am down on my knees praying to the Cyber Gods to spare my account and deliver it from the etheral cyber blackhole.

Anyone else out there having problems with their yahoo accounts? Any idea what's going on?

Hollywood Can't Speak Arabic

It really pisses me off when I hear bad/broken arabic spoken in Hollywood films. I mean, whats the deal with that? Do they do it on purpose? Because, come on, they spend millions of dollars making these tacky films, and they can't even find one proper Arabic language coach! Seriously, some of the things they say aren't even close enough to resemble Arabic. It is so broken that it ends up sounding like inconsistant grunts rather than words.

The examples are way too many. Perhaps the most known and popular recently are the 24 television series, which are basically about bad-ass Arab terrorists! The list is big but other films that come to mind now are The Mummy and Hidalgo (last night there was a film called Live From Baghdad which also had strange sounding Arabic).

Also, what's up with mixing dialects! If the person is from Iraq, then he wouldn't sound like an Egyptian, and if they are from Egypt why the hell do they sound Lebanease... and for god's sake, Persians are NOT Arabs!

I am sure that there is at least ONE person who can speak proper Arabic in Hollywood. There must be! If not, then I'll move there tomorrow!

Fork in Hand

I was busy being young
Until you woke me with a fork in hand

We need a translator
To make sense of this world

Would you be my Yoda?
And teach me how to fight
Those blasé monsters

With forks in hand

You were busy being in love
Until I showed you the other side

They needed a painter
To paint a picture of their dream

Would I be your Travis?
And teach you how to love again
And to remain young

With a fork in hand

How To Write Fillumms

Over the space of a couple of hours I managed to write a 9-page screenplay; an adaptation of one of my recent short stories which is kinda/sorta about love and loneliness. I did this because I was thinking of making a short 5-7 minute film as soon as possible. I want some action and I want it now!

The whole idea was to come up with a script with no more than two charachtars and one location. The only issue with this script is that it is heavy on dialouge, which means we'll have to find a couple of decent actors... anyone interested out there!??!?! We are looking for a man and a woman. That's it. If you fancy being in a short film, drop me a line.

Speaking of scripts, remember the TV/short film thingy I mentioned here months ago. Well, its back to square one with that. We had a completed script which we realised isn't working anymore so we had to abandon the entire thing. So we'll begin working on a new one with the hope that we learnt from our mistakes. Now the good news is, I might be able to post the old (abandoned) script here for you to read, coz, I figure, what the heck aye?

The Boy With No Name

Travis are back. They are back and I'm in love. I'm in love and I'm happy. I'm happy so much I'm crying.

Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!

After the rather disappointing fourth album 12 Memories, Travis have somehow managed to put together what can be arguably their most gorgeous, perfect, powerful, solidly, wonderfully, beautifully meorable record to date. The Boy With No Name is so heartbreakingly, endearingly sweet that you'll literally feel your spirit lifted!

No person should be without this album.

I've Gone All Nano!

I am a recent convert to the iPod. A couple of days ago I bought my first iPod nano from the Apple Centre and I'm loving it! I got the 8GB black one for BD110 which is fine, as a) I don't like the colored ones, and b) the colored ones have only BD4 and cost BD104. So the way I look at it, I got an extra 4GB for BD6 only! Bargain aye.

I already got 400+ songs on it. My previous MP3 player was a 2GB Philips one that I got from the UK (cost me about BD55 I reckon) and suddenly it died on me a couple of weeks ago for no apparent reason.

And speaking of MP3s, the Fabulist website has some of the finest music you'll ever find anywhere online. The website is updated often with wonderful music videos and gorgeous tunes to download for free. Check it out. Go on.

Unfair

Do you even care what your voice does to me
Shakes my blood, perforates my heart
Do you care what your eyes make me see
Oceans of stars, skies of cream raining rose-petals
Do you know what it means to be me
Lost, heartless, confused, loveless
Do you know it, or you pretend to disregard?

Signing Little Hands & Stories

Book Signing
Originally uploaded by *A*L*I*.

The little girl sat on the chair next to me and watched as I signed copies to a couple of people at the bookstore. She then posed next to me with a copy of my book in her hand for the photographer.

"Your wrote this?"

"Yes."

"This is your name?"

"Yes."

She got excited about the prospect for some reason. Her other friends gathered at the table too. I normally get quite anxious around children.

"Can I get your book for free?" she asked me.

"I'm afraid you can't," I said, "They belong to the bookstore. But I can give you this!" I handed her a couple of Moments bookmarks and signed them for her and her friends.

Then, Yara offered me her hand and asked me to do the same.

"Sign on your hand?" I asked.

She nodded excitedly. I obliged with a big smile.

She then sat back on the chair and began going through the book. She wanted to read something so I helped her find a story. She read the first couple of paragraphs from Lemonade & Snowflakes.

I had a wonderful time at Friday's book signing. So for all those who turned up and bought Moments, and those who stopped for a chat, thank you.

Lets Have a Moment Together

I forgot to post this earlier. That's how disracted I've been. Anyways, it was in the papers today (GDN and Gulf Weekly) and you might've seen the flyers around!

Be there - at the new Jashanmal Bookstore - tomorrow from 4pm to 6pm. Even if you wana come for just a chat... just don't forget to bring with you a cup of coffee from Caribou on the way!

See ya folks