This video was made back in November but didn’t go viral probably because it didn’t have the best dance out there… still, the smile on the girl’s face was definitely priceless!
Tag Archives | downtown
Downtown’s famous street seller
If you go around the Nejmeh Sqaure at night, there’s a high probability you will be frightened by a street seller yelling “BEIRUT!!!” from behind your back in an attempt to later sell you images of old Beirut. To my knowledge, this man, Saadallah Basha, is probably the only street seller in Downtown Beirut…
It was probably about time someone writes about him, and yesterday he made it to The Daily Star!
Michelle & Noel Keserwany – 3al Jamal bi wasat Beirut
Michelle and Noel got well known last year with their song “Jagal el USEK”, and they just released a new video called “3al jamal bi wasat Beirut” a few days ago.
You can check Michelle and Noel Keserwany’s website here, it has more of their songs, but be careful from clicking on the “microwave” link!
The ice skating rink at Beirut Souks
I was at Beirut Souks last night and thought of passing by the new ice skating rink to check it out but was disappointed by how small it is. It’s like 20 x 20 meters and looked a bit crowded to me with like 20 people on it. Not to mention the overpriced tickets at 20,000 L.L.
The rink is lasting till the end of February, and opens from 12PM till midnight.
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
Here’s to launching the 3G service in Lebanon!
Last day I got a phone call from a gentleman in MTC Touch telling me that I will be granted the 3G service for a 1 month free trial period, and so right now I’m among the lucky people who got to participate in the pilot testing of this service in Lebanon. An yes I’m so excited about it!!
The service got activated at around 1PM today on my phone and didn’t require any special configuration to run. I randomly started loading websites and found the connection to be pretty fast compared to home ADSL and the crappy GPRS. Below are two tests done using speedtest.net after I shared the connection with my laptop.
As you can see, download is @ 1.7Mbps which is superb compared to the current internet speeds, while upload is varying between 0.11 and 0.22Mbps. Ping is of course higher that it is supposed to be, and I hope it’ll improve soon. Note that I was in Beirut central district at the time of this test, and I guess speed might vary depending on your location.
3G subscriptions will be available for both postpaid and prepaid lines, and data transfer will be limited to 4GB/month. It isn’t clear tough how much will the operators charge for it.
I’ll hopefully be posting more updates on the connection quality and speed throughout this trial period.
Beirut city center to be demolished in the few coming days?
I just saw this post on Facebook about the possibility of demolishing Beirut City Center (also known as “the egg”) over the next few coming days.
“The egg” was designed by Philippe Karam in 1965 and served as a cinema for a short time before the eruption of civil war in Beirut. For some reason it survived the demolition works during Beirut’s central district reconstruction in the 90’s and remained standing until some artists started using it in the last few years to exhibit their work inside it. And now, rumors has it that it will demolished very soon.
I’m not sure I’ll be sad to see it going, though if it were to me I would have renovated it instead, but I’m certain it will feel awkward to pass by the martyr’s square and not see the egg laying there at the end of the street.
Thank you @SeenKaf
Update:
Solidere denied any plans to demolish the egg anytime soon. They even claimed they’re against the demolition and that the dome will be integrated in the new design.
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.
Amethyste Lounge – Phoenicia Intercontinental Beirut
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.
The new Beirut Waterfront
On May 16th, Solidere announced opening of the new Beirut Waterfront to the public as the first bicycle lane in the city. According to The Daily Star, the lane would start at the Beirut Souks on Tripoli Street and pass through Patriarch Howayek Street in the direction of Beirut’s new maritime front, through Allenby Street, and back to the starting point.
Before getting too excited about it, access to the waterfront will be granted on Sundays only from 10 AM to 8PM! And that’s why I’m having mixed feelings about it, I’m glad we finally have a public space away from the pollution that we got used to, but opening it on Sundays only is sort of disappointing, why can’t they keep it open everyday?
Soliders is acting like someone who invites you over to his house, but then tell you beforehand that he will be kicking you out at 8PM.
Anyway, hoping we get a permanent access to the waterfront, I leave you with this cool video of the place made by Rawad El Hoyek.
New Beirut Waterfront from Rawad EL HOYEK on Vimeo.