Tag Archives | gemmayze

Lebanon to witness total blackout tonight?

The EDL Board of Directors declared n Monday that the company will be forcibly closed until contract workers and collectors end their sit-in.

In a statement, the Board said that due to this step, power cuts are expected all across Lebanon in the next few hours.

Later in the afternoon, the EDL administration announced that it will be moving to the Zouk power plant and called on President Michel Sleiman to task concerned authorities with ridding the company’s main building of protestors. Source

Now that the EDL building in Mar Mkhayel is officially closed, when is the security forces willing to intrvene and send the clowns occupying EDL back home? If not now then when?

While many online campaigns are showing support to the contract workers, I personally support Minister Gibran Bassil in this matter. Those people were almost all hired through politicians like Berri and the alikes, and of course there’s an excess number of them now who are becaming a burden on EDL.

To me, these workers represent corruption at its best in our government, and Bassil SHOULD win his battle against them. Otherwise, workers in other sectors will follow the same path to stay in their positions and keep earning their undeserved salaries!

Photo via Marwan Tahtah from Al-Akhbar

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Fête de la musique Lebanon 2011 schedule

Here’s the schedule for Fête de la musique this year which is taking place as usual in Downtown Beirut, Hamra and Gemmayze. I’m personally looking forward to watch Band Audi, Wled El Balad, and Youmna Saba & Jade Balaben.

Place des martyrs

20h00 Gabriel Abdel Nour (Pop)
20h40 Michelle & Noel Keserwany (Folk)
21h10 Belime (Electro pop)
21h40 Bruno Live! (Pop rock)
22h20 Dana Dragomir
23H30 Anixa@Labex (Funk disco)
23h55 Epic (Rock)
00h35 Poly (Soul pop funk)
01h05 Mancer Dust (Rock alternatif)

Thermes romains

20h00 Soukara (World music)
20h35 Stephy Sfeir (Folk)
21h00 Nahas Project (Fusion jazz)
22h10 Les Blérots de Ravel
23h35 Limelight (Rock alternatif)
00h05 Lazzy Lung (Rock alternatif)

Souks de Beyrouth

20h00 Akachic Field (World music)
20h30 Rabih Rihana Trio (Jazz rock)
21h10 Silent Movie (Soundtrack)
21h35 Sandmoon (Folk rock)
22h20 Soweto Kinch (Hip hop jazz)
23h30 The Incompetents (Pop alternative)
00h10 Wled El Balad (Rock)
00h50 Jammit The Band (Reggae)

Jardin Samir Kassir

20h00 Karim Kneyzer (World music)
20h30 Episode (Rock symphonique)
21h10 Nadine Khouri (Folk rock)
21h50 Samar (Electro folk jazz)
23h00 Band Audi (Rhythm & blues)
23h40 Beirut Blues (Blues)
00h10 Plugged (Rock alternatif )
00h40 Rebellious Phoenix (Rock)

Gemmayzé

20h00 Charles (Pop)
20h30 Valérie Abou Chacra (Pop)
21h00 Cheesecake (Jazz pop)
21h40 Jolly Joker (Rock alternatif)
22h30 Tony Bayeh chante Zaki Nassif
23h30 Blue Band LB (Reggae)

Hamra

20h00 Purple Sea (Trip hop)
20h30 Moe Kabbara (Folk)
21h00 Arcane (Rock progressif)
21h40 Hanna Barakat & group (Pop rock)
22h20 Elissa Boustani’s band (Pop soul funk)
23h00 Nachaz (Rock blues)
23h40 Youmna Saba & Jade Balaben (Folk)
00h10 Nasama (Rock)
00h50 Pulse (Blues rock)

Scene Basement (souks de Beyrouth)

21h00 Ladybug
22h00 The BCE
23h00 ACIX
00h00 Djette
01h00 Jade
02h00 Vanclode Jandam
03h00 Ronin & Nesta

VJ’s :
Labo Strongsky & Vj Mosig

Eglise évangélique

18h30 Ecole de musique Ghassan Yammine

Schedule via Agenda Culturel.

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Ahwet Leila to replace Ahwet El Ezez in Gemmayze

After all the rumors (that proved to be wrong later) about the possibility of a bank replacing Ahwet El Ezez in Gemmayze, it turned out it’s actually a 4th branch for Leila that will be replacing the old cafe.

Leila already has 3 branches in ABC Achrafieh, ABC Dbayeh, and Verdun. This new branch will be called “Ahwet Leila” to probably maintain the feel of its predecessor…

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Ahwet El Ezez to shutdown by the end of 2010

2010 is parting in a few days and it seems like it is taking away one of Gemmayze’s landmarks with it!

According to this article from The Daily Star, Ahwet El Ezez will soon shut its doors after losing a legal battle with the building owners regarding the continuation of pre-civil war rents.

The premises will now return to the building owners, who have been embroiled in legal disputes with the café for years over the continuation of pre-Civil War rents.

What will become of it now remains unknown. Building owners have assured conservationists that the site will not be demolished but speculation is rife over what will become of one of central Beirut’s last traditional cafés, with rumors circulating it will be turned into a new snazzy bar, maybe even a Starbucks or a bank branch.

Do you think it is time for us to finally accept that those small pieces of Beirut’s heritage are not meant to last forever or at least survive the real estate boom in the city?

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Bank Audi, I apologize

On October 1st I published this blog post criticizing Bank Audi for planning to buy Ahwet El Ezez in Gemmayze and turn it into a new branch,  and I based my post back then on a couple of blog posts that I saw here and here.

But according to Tarek, a fellow blogger from Waja3Ras.com who sent a complaint letter to Bank Audi about the matter, the whole thing turned to be a rumor, and below is the comment he left on my post:

From Banque Audi after I wrote a complaint email:

“We would like to assure you that Bank Audi has not bought and has no intention to buy ”Ahwet El Ezez” to establish a branch in Gemmayze. Please note that we already have a branch in that area.

On the other hand, Bank Audi is committed to preserve national and cultural heritage and has in the past shown its commitment. For example, the old villa in Achrafieh-Sursock has been preserved and turned into a cultural center/ museum.”

Therefore, and based on Bank Audi’s reply, I would like to apologize to them for the post. I should have double checked the news before writing about it.

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Bank Audi is insensitive!

I really don’t understand how Bank Audi who agreed to execute the below ad to promote a new credit card is the same one who’s planning to replace one of the oldest coffee houses in Beirut, Ahwet El Ezez, with a bank!

The old man in the ad (who appears to be living in a beautiful old house) is recalling the good old days of Lebanon, when he used to commute using the tramway, and go to Saint George, Teleferique, Casino du Liban, AUB, and Carlton (which was demolished few years ago). I’m pretty sure Ahwet El Ezez fits very well in this ad, but with Bank Audi’s decision to replace it, they’re just acting like a guy who hates himself! With the memories he’s recalling, the old man in the ad would never in his life want to see Saint George being demolished for example!

Photo via Beirut Spring

I totally understand Beirut is short on spaces for big offices, but it isn’t like Ahwet El Ezez is the last available space in the city.

Bank Audi is just committing a crime against Beirut Heritage. Who do they think they are?!

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Le Chef Gemmayze – Authenticity at its best

I’ve been to Le Chef in Gemmayze for the first tine last Saturday, I don’t know why I always thought it was a meat shop everytime I passed by until a friend told me about it and recommended it to me.

As soon as you step inside you get greeted with a loud “Wlecooooome” by Charbel the head waiter at the restaurant. Charbel is a phenomenon himself! Throughout your stay he can’t but grab your attention everytime he strikes a “Welcooome habibi! how are youuu?”.

Le chef gemmayze 1

The restaurant is relatively small with few tables, and at first glimpse you feel like everything around you has been there since the 70’s of the 80’s (except for Charbel of course :P). The food is just great, it tastes like real homemade food, unlike other restaurants that throw the word “homemade” everywhere on their menus but taste like plastic. They serve nothing very fancy, but rather traditional plates such as Lebanese mezze, and a plat du jour varying between roast beef with mashed potatoes, sayyadiyeh, kibbeh bil sayniyyeh,  mloukhiyyeh, and few others.

Le chef gemmayze 2

The pricing at Le Chef is really something! The most expensive item on their menu costs 8,000 L.L, while others such as lentil soup and fattoush cost 1,500L.L and 2,000L.L!

Le chef gemmayze

Definitely worth a visit!

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Stolichnaya and the girl in the bathtub

I was heading towards Gemmayze last Friday when I came across this red truck. Everything appeared normal from a distance until I got closure, there was a bathtub in that truck with a girl sitting inside and apparently enjoying it, at least her seductive legs movement said so!

Stolichnaya Gemmayze 1

Stolichnaya Gemmayze

The whole thing turned out to be a promotion for Stolichnaya’s Stoli Gala Apple, which explained the use of a girl (eve) enjoying the forbidden fruit (an apple), it is just the bathtub that I couldn’t explain!

Anyway I think it was nice, although some people might claim Stolichnaya crossed the line, but you should have seen the traffic around the truck, they definitely succeeded in grabbing the passengers’ attention. Another proof that sex sells!

Update:

In addition to the two photos I took above, I found these photos on twitter from @fadisabbagha. (Special thanks to @MayaZankoul)

Stolychnaya Gemmayze 3

Stolichnaya Gemmayze 2

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