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Last night marked the start of Hamra festival lasting till Sunday featuring a lot of live performances across three stages near Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, and Starbucks.

The festival started on Friday at 5:45PM with a street parade that lasted till 7:30PM, but unfortunately I couldn’t manage to get there before 9:30PM which explains why I only got back with a couple of snapshots! You may check Sietske’s and Rawad’s blog posts who were there and took cool photos of the event.

What was remarkable though during the walk I took is the number of people who got furious at the street blocks, so a lot of them took the liberty to just move them away and invaded the festival premises with their cars. The photo below shows one of them, a taxi driver.

The program for today and tomorrow is loaded with live acts starting 5PM till midnight, so make sure to be there!

No need for introductions here… you’ve all heard and watched about the clashes that erupted in Burj Ab Haidar 2 days ago between Hizbullah & Jamiyyat Al-Masharii’ Al-Khayriyya Al-Islamiyya (The Association of Islamic Charitable Projects). Yes, an islamic charitable association that possesses machine guns and RPG’s! Kif, leish w min? No one knows. What I know though is that what they did is everything but Islamic, and horrifying people in their houses is certainly not an act of charity!

The craziness that we witnessed was of course not over a parking space as the two parties officials claimed in the media, and it will remain a mystery until someone comes clear about what happened. Let’s see what is awaiting our beautiful city from these ignorants!

Anyway I leave you now with the below video and photos that I found on the web for the clashes and the aftermath.

All photos ar from www.daylife.com

Tnein bi 15? Yalla!! Ahh tnein subscriptions…

This is a new billboard advertisement for CableVision that is all over the streets now.

Joe has already pointed out that it’s a copycat, but I would like to add that the use of a hot girl in such ad is VERY cheap!

This is what happens when you do second and third row parking, you come to find your car in the middle of the road at the end of the day and sometimes disturbing the traffic flow.

Needless to say, some drivers are simply assholes and enjoy throwing their car anywhere. On the other hand, the number of cars in Beirut is way beyond the parking lots capacity in the city.

I was driving and melting yesterday in Beirut’s hot and humid weather when I noticed that the indicator in my car is showing a weather temperature of 43 degree Celsius!

We’re used to high temperatures in the 30′s, but 43?! That’s so Dubai! We’ve got no more snow in the winter, and summer is starting to feel like a living hell, I wonder how will it be like in the next few years…

I got the photos below from the launching of the not-so-new dining concept that was lately introduced to the snobbish people of Lebanon, a dinner in the sky.

This dining experience consists of a 22 guests table that goes up to 50 meters in the air (with the aid of a crane of course) along with three staff members, the waiter, the chef and an entertainer, to enjoy a magnificent view of the city while having your dinner. I’m not sure though if the adrenaline rush will allow you to identify how does the food really taste…

The launch of  ”Dinner in the Sky” took place at BIEL on June 11, and was attended by media personalities, celebrities and VIP’s (you know those who have 4-digit car plate numbers). It was held by ALF Events and the food was catered by La Table d’Alfred.

In case you’re interested, you can reserve the whole table for 8 hours at… $15,000 ONLY! So that’s $727.27 per person, ya baleish! Still, their website claims that you can divide the 8 hours according to your taste, so the more people you can get to share the 8 hours with you, at the rate of 22 person per session, the less the cost per person will be.

I know you might have seen this video at other blogs, but I am re-posting it here to spread it as much as we can.

Beach resorts in Lebanon are known for denying foreign workers from swimming inside their premises after granting them an entry, but some places have gone a step further by not allowing those workers from even stepping inside!

The video below, taken at the Sporting Club Manara, shows Anti Racism Movement activists trying to get their maid into the swimming pool. The activists are allowed in, but not the maid!

When you get bored of the nightclub scene in Beirut, Music Hall is definitely the place to go to. Numerous artists and band appear each night and play an entertaining mix of western & eastern music.

The video and photos below are from a fantastic evening I had last Saturday.

Last week I got to enjoy Ivan M., one of the world famous saxophone players from Cafe Del Mar, playing live in Amethyste Lounge Phoenicia.

Below is a small video I recorded during his performance. The light is very low so you wont be able to see how the ambiance really was… but you will still enjoy his tunes.

Good food, great music, what more can one ask for?!

One of the most fascinating places I have ever been to lately, that’s seriously without any exaggeration the newly opened Amethyste Lounge in Phoenicia Hotel.

To those of you who still don’t know about it, Amethyste is a new outdoor bar and lounge that was launched on May 13th with a fabulous opening that started at noon and lasted till midnight.

So I got the opportunity to go there with a group of friends two weeks ago and had a blast! I honestly don’t know how to describe the place, and I hope the photos I included do justice to it, Amethyste is just unique and different than any place of the same category.

Your world will be painted purple the minute you step in, even the pool water turns purple when it’s dark (due to the lightning of course), and the color is guaranteed to make up your mood if your going there after after a long day! Just the way a real lounge should be. And to complement that, chill out music is played all the time.

The food is good, nothing tasted new to me, but the presentation is EPIC! Some plates are served in a theatrical way, for example the salad we ordered was brought in a jar, to which the waiter added the sauce and shook it like a cocktail, then put it into our plates. On the other hand, grilled meat comes to your table on a small barbecue! (yes with coals and everything)

Cocktails are… you guessed it right, good as well! I think I can easily write another post about their cocktails because they have a wide variety to choose from, they actually have a separate menu for these.

The staff is very friendly, our waiter was very helpful explaining to us about the items in their menus. What is really remarkable though is that they are cooperating to make podcasts and publish them on their blog! And I hope they continue doing it, the first episode featured Grant Collins and a guy named Haytham showing how to prepare the poolside Margarita.

Surprisingly, and believe it or not, Amethyste is NOT overpriced. Their menus along with the pricing are available online for you to check, The Pool Menu, The Cocktail Menu, and The Main Menu.