As you may have read around the web in the last couple of days, the world witnessed the biggest and brightest full moon in 2012, also known as a Supermoon, which is the name used when referring to a full moon that occurs when the moon is at its closest distance to earth, and usually happens once every 412 days.
Below is a cool shot taken by Beirut Drive-By of the Supermoon over the Lebanese mountains last night.
I just came across this cool project “Dispatch Beirut” aiming to patch the old walls around the city using Lego bricks which we all grew up on.
As mentioned on the website, the idea has originally been started a few years ago by a German artist who started patching old walls with Lego bricks during a contemporary art festival in Italy, and the project then started to spread worldwide.
It looks pretty cool to me, but I wonder if curious people will leave these patches intact!
Some Lebanese chick who’s half silicon half human is doing her own reality show on YouTube using a point and shoot camera, and the result is a complete disaster so far. I can’t believe she could be serious about it!
Look like there has been an update on the issue of “33 Days” movie being banned at several theaters in Beirut with Carmen Lebbos announcing in an interview on Talk of the Town last night that ABC Achrafieh will start screening it as of this week, while City Mall still have not provided a confirmation whether the movie will be screened at their theaters or not.
With all that fuss being made over the contribution of Iranians in the movie production, imagine the drama that could have been made if this was a 100% Iranian movie!
According to this article in Al-Akhbar today, the Lebanese ministry of tourism is planning to pay one million dollars to CNN for promotional reports and programs about Lebanon over a period of 2 months in order to boost the tourism sector after the number of tourists visiting Lebanon declined by 300,000 in 2011 due the instability in Syria.
The deal will include reports about Lebanon to be featured in “Quest Means Business” by Richard Quest, “World Business Today”, and a dedicated program called “Eye on Lebanon” for a whole week.
I hope this improves Lebanon’s image abroad for a change, and maybe stops people from comparing ever messed up place to Beirut!
Varouj is probably one of the best places I’ve lately discovered in Beirut. It’s a small restaurant hidden in Bourj Hammoud’s maze of streets and serves some really good traditional Armenian food.
The minute you step inside the place and get greeted by the owner who’s a relatively old man, you’ll be surprised by his character as he acts more like a dictator running his restaurant! But he’s not rude though.
There’s no menu for ordering there and the old man will just ignore you if you ask for it. Shortly after you get seated he’ll just come to your table and quickly list to you the available hot and cold dishes. We ordered Hommos, Fattoush, batata Harra, Mouhammara, Sou Boreg, Soujouk, Chicken Wings, Manti, and soft drinks, and although we tried to tell him which plates to bring first and which to delay a bit, he again ignored our request and decided to bring them as he pleases but didn’t disappoint us since he was serving us 2 dishes at a time that go really well together.
The food was so delicious that we wiped clean the dishes we ordered, all of them, and the old man was smiling every time he notices we finished a plate till the last bit.
Price wise, I have absolutely no idea how the pricing works there! We were not given a bill when we asked for it, he just immediately answered us “90,000 L.L”. That’s it all the 8 plates we ordered for exactly 90,000L.L, which is way cheaper that other Armenian restaurants like Mayass or Mayrig.
Varouj is TOTALLY recommended as the food is heavenly good, especially the Manti and chicken wings, next time I’m planning to try their little birds, frogs, and chicken liver. If you’re tempted to try it make sure you reserve beforehand as it only has 4 tables and always seems to be busy, their phone number is 03-882933.
I’m sorry I was unable to locate Varouj on Google Maps to show you where it is, so I appreciate if anyone can provide me with the coordinates to post a map of it. Here’s a map showing where Varouj is. Thanks to Roupen.
The bridge might be illogical, but it’s about time people learn which lane to drive in depending on their destination.
The traffic jam is all caused by people heading to Sin El Fil and insist to drive on the left side of the road until the last few meters before reaching the bridge located on the right side. That of course forces them to suddenly slow down and make a right turn to take the bridge, causing everyone behind them to slow down as well.
Keep left if you’re going to Beirut, and right when going to Sin El Fil! Easy!
Update:
Here’s the Facebook page of the people behind that sign.
Thank you @Marilynzakhour
I always love to see how things are made, even the simplest ones, and so I found it cool that Executive magazine got inside the Cedars cigarettes factory located inside Lebanon’s Regie and documented in photos the process of producing that brand.
Cedars is to my knowledge the cheapest cigarettes brand in Lebanon since it’s the only local one, and is made from tobacco grown in the south of Lebanon, but is always mocked for its poor quality. Anyway, you may check the photos here.
Thanks to Michael Chaftari
Right when we got bored of the numerous articles in The New York Times and other international journals about Zaitounay Bay, Downtown Beirut and always comparing the two places to a rising phoenix, comes this slide show by Newsweek to show the real pleasures of Beirut.
Jared Moossy, a photographer and also the author of this slideshow, unusually decided to shed light on the other side of Beirut and visit areas like Basta, Bourj Hammoud, the Cornish, and the pigeons’ rock. He’s definitely not the first one to write about these places, but it’s good to let tourists be more aware of these authentic areas. I mean it’s cool to have a dinner at the Beirut marina, but trust me it’s way cooler to have some authentic Armenian food at a place like Varouj in Bourj Hammoud, which I’ll soon be posting a review about.
You may click here to check the “pleasures” chosen by Newsweek.
Looks like the hack of 4 governmental websites last month was just a warm up. A group called RYV (Raise Your Voice) hacked 16 other websites today morning and left a message asking the government to solve its self-made problems, and encouraging the people to mobilize and stand up for their demands. You can check the full list of websites here on Pastebin.
“We are RYV, short for Raise Your Voice, and we are simply a group of people who could not bear sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon,” the group said.
It vowed to continue hacking the sites until the Lebanese people earn the rights they are asking for and until living standards are improved.
“We will not stop until this government’s self-made problems are solved, like the power shortage, water shortage, rise in gas prices and rise in food product prices,” the group said.
“We are RYV, expect us to break the silence, whether in the streets or on the Internet,” it said, stressing that “silence is a crime.” Source
The message of course speaks our minds (except that nobody is probably ready to mobilize), but I’m not sure how well was that message grasped by our dear politicians!
You can stay up to date with RYV’s latest news through their twitter and Facebook accounts.