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A Lebanese Blog

Tag: Beirut

  • Metel Ma Shelta

    I just came across a cool anti littering campaign called “Metel Ma Shelta” via Elie’s blog.

    Knowing beforehand that people would definitely pick a 10,000L.L off the street, a group of graphic designers threw small pieces of paper on the streets with a the forged look of a 10,000L.L bill on one side, while the other side had “As you picked this up, you can pick up the litter of the streets as well” written on it.

    I’m sure this wont make the people who might fall for this trick actually start picking up litter off the streets, but it may at least make them stop littering or stop the people around them from doing it.

  • 7assesneh Inne Rkheesa

    WARNING: RATED R

    An “unserious parody”? WTF! That’s like getting naked in the street to take a stand against nudity!

    7assesneh Inne Rkheesa is a lebanese unserious parody song written by Moe & Shonda and recorded vocally by the legendary lebanese diva, Shonda during the first week of November 2011 To the melody of the instrumental version of Katy Perry’s ET (extra terrestrial).

    It was written to highlight the wide spread of the unethical and illegal social phenomena that has been the reason behind the broadcasting visual images of moving objects with exposed flesh, voices that sound like hairballs stuck in a cat’s throat, and music that unfortunately slows down the functioning of the human brain cells. The song was introduced with the melody of the song Extra terrestrial (ET) by katy perry due to its catchy beat and rythm. It was recorded two days after it was written. Ever since, it has been among the playlists of DJs in pubs, ipods, and phones around the city. a Crowd of communication arts students offered to shoot a music video staring the vocalist herself, for the priceless charisma she acquires and the powerful effect she projects within the song .

    One of the Saint Joseph University (beirut) students was impressed with the piece and contacted the New Tv broadcasting company who offered Shonda an interview on its comedy show “chi nn” to discuss the art of “7assesneh enne rkheesa” and spread the message of Rokhos to all generations. But she had to turn down the interview due to severe circumstances.

  • $105,000 Receipt from Dubai’s Cavalli Club

    Are the Emirati people aware that this receipt can get many Lebanese “VIP clubbers” jealous?

    What’s the maximum amount one can pay for a similar wild night at Beirut’s most prestigious clubs?

  • Bringing Central Park to the roofs of Beirut

    I was complaining to a friend of mine a while ago that wherever you plan to buy an apartment in Beirut, and no matter how good your view over the sea or the mountains might be, it will always be ruined with the ugly rooftops all around you! They’re all crowded with rusty water tanks, satellite dishes, and even pigeon houses sometimes!

    And today I came across this cool idea by Wassim Melki who is proposing to start growing trees on the rooftops of Beirut’s building to compensate for the lack of green spaces in the city.

    It definitely needs lot of work to be implemented, and most importantly needs commitment and support from the municipality of Beirut which is as efficient as any governmental institution in Lebanon. That unfortunately leads us to the ugly conclusion that this project will never be destined to become a reality.

    You can stay up to date with the project’s news via their Facebook page.

  • Happy New Year!

    That’s how the new year’s eve looked like in downtown Beirut, if you’re curious about the rest of the world you can check this nice collection here.

    Wishing you all the best of life in 2012!

  • Beirut ranked 170th in quality of living

    The annual survey on the quality of living in 221 cities around the world by global consultants Mercer Human Resource Consulting ranked Beirut as the 170th most desirable city for overall living standards and 16th among 25 cities surveyed in the Middle East and North Africa region in 2011, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group. Source

    Pretty normal if up till now in 2011 we still have to worry about the basics like water and electricity.

    According to the report also, European cities dominated the ranking with Vienna in the first place, while Baghdad (221) was the lowest ranking city in the world. And among the Arab country, Dubai (74) had the highest ranking.

  • Beirut parking meters – 3tineh khamsmiyyeh

    This has got to be the perfect stencil graffiti for parking meters in Beirut, especially the ones in downtown Beirut where you can’t park until very late at night.

    Thank you Raissa

  • Beirut Theater will be demolished

    I heard about the demolishing of Beirut Theater located in Ain El-Mrayseh earlier in November but coudn’t find any piece of news online to support the story until today morning.

    I found this post by Marie-Josée Rizkallah over at “L’espace lunaire” blog about the matter, and a petition is now online calling for a sit-in in front of the Lebanese ministry of culture to save the theater by labeling it as a cultural heritage. Being real, I guess we all know these stuff never worked and the theater will eventually be demolished.

    Anyway, a friend of mine told me that Beirut Theater is now open free for people who want to exhibit their work or performance until it completely closes down anytime soon.

  • Snoop Dogg being sued by a Lebanese concert promoter

    Lebanese police are reported to have started an investigation after a footage of Snoop Dogg smoking weed at some club in Beirut was featured in the music video for “That’s Tha Homie”.

    Kalaouz claims Snoop blazed up some weed in the middle of a concert after-party — which is illegal in Lebanon — and then featured footage of the puff session in a music video for his song, “That’s Tha Homie” (image featured above).

    Kalaouz claims Lebanese authorities caught wind of the weed smoking — and launched a criminal investigation into his company … leaving his reputation “severely damaged.” Source

    Shu wi2fit 3a Snoop Dogg? The whole country has been high on something over the last few years!

  • Waiting for Godot

    The government always succeeds to leave us on our tiptoes waiting for the “next big thing” to solve the problems with our cellular networks.

    It started with the poor service following the expansion two years ago, then the absence of 3G, and now the whole mess they got themselves into after introducing 3G! Thus the need for $110 million now to enhance the two networks and eventually put an end to the problems in 8 months.

    “I am happy to announce to the Lebanese that the National Quality of Services for the cellular networks will put an end to the poor mobile services. This plan will take eight months to be completed. But the Lebanese will feel the positive results in two to three months. Today I have signed the appropriate investment decision which will allow the two cellular companies, Mtc Touch and Alfa, to start work on this big project,” the minister said. Source

    I wonder what are we going to anticipate next!