Blame the sources and Lana Del Rey’s rabid fan club, especially its Lebanese base, but Lana Del Rey isn’t coming to Lebanon on July 10th to perform at the Byblos festival despite earlier very sure confirmations on the matter. Sorry to those who got their hopes up.

However, she is replaced by someone who is equally, if not more, popular these days: Calvin Harris, the producer behind recent huge hits with Florence from Florence + The Machine. That concert will take place on July 20th.

I’m not sure if the concert that will be offered by Harris is comparable to that of Del Rey but at least it’s still an interesting choice and not some God-forsaken band or artist whose glory days are long past.

Apologies, again, and here’s the full line-up of the Byblos Festival, as per a picture of what will be announced this week:

And this is the source (link).

According to Frodo’s Blog who has been actively leaking major performers throughout the past several months, the rumors about Lana Del Rey coming to the Byblos festival this year are true.

The singer who’s famous for her melodramatic songs will be coming to Lebanon as part of the aforementioned festival for a concert on July 10th, beyond her showing up for the opening of Skybar on May 30th.

I’m not a fan of Lana Del Rey but I’m actually  surprised  the organizers of any festival in Lebanon were able to draw in such a currently “in” name to come perform here. I expect this to be the most hyped concert of the summer, if no other surprises happen.

For those who don’t know who Lana Del Rey is, you may recognize her sultry voice from the most depressing songs you encounter on Lebanese radio (if you listen to it). The songs that I know and which I believe are good enough are the following:

Born To Die: 

And The Great Gatsby song, Young & Beautiful:

You can check out ALL of the lineup for the Byblos Festival here.

Our ministry of culture Gaby Layoun has no problem in allowing the demolitions to continue. But new evidence is now surfacing according to this source that the site in question may contain Lebanon’s first and oldest Church. And yes, that possible Church is part of the things that are going to be destroyed as well.

Source: The Beirut Report

What will replace the Roman gate and road as well as the potential Church? A five star hotel and mall. Because that’s precisely what Downtown Beirut is so desperately lacking. After all, why would any tourist in their right mind want to see anything in Beirut that doesn’t revolve around the Zaitunay Bays and the Solidere edition of Downtown Beirut?

Gaby Layoun is well on his way to be Lebanon’s prime minister of culture to allow the most transgressions against Lebanon’s culture. From the Roman hippodrome, the Phoenician port, Amin Maalouf’s house and the constant destruction of Achrafieh to the current site at hand. Of course, all of the aforementioned entities are not  things that can be milked electorally for them to be anything substantial for Layoun and his friends. Roman hippodrome and Christian rights sure doesn’t sound catchy enough.

We, as Lebanese, have apparently no right to at least have the parts of our history that are discovered be fully studied and documented because it will ruin the plans of multi-billionaires who are paying our government in droves to turn a blind eye to every single transgression taking place.

It’s not only about stone, mosaics and ancient significance. It’s about this monumental carelessness and barbarism with which authorities handle every single situation in this country, including ruins and culture and houses and highways. And quite honestly, I’ve come to expect nothing less of people who probably find the pillars of Baalbek are enough for this tiny country.

I can say with absolute certainty that terrorizing campuses is not something they teach us in medical school – and I’m going to the same medical school Mr. Charbel Sleiman went to. Why can’t I be the son of the Lebanese president so I get to have my own henchmen following me around, threatening security guards who are doing their job just for the fun of it?

A sense of unlawful superiority isn’t restricted to our politicians nowadays. It has become infectious and spread to their offspring. I have no idea why Charbel Sleiman wanted to enter LAU’s campus but does it really need armored vehicles and security personnel? After all, pardon my honesty, but how is Charbel Sleiman relevant again?

This is political inheritance fair and simple. If Mr. Sleiman doesn’t manage to create a halo while his father is the president of the Republic, how will he manage to do that when his father’s term ends in 2014? How will he make absolutely sure he will have a political future for himself?

It starts with simple measures: threatening journalists at basketball games, injuring campus security guards… until everyone accepts your situation as something special, something important, a force to be reckoned with. I, for one, sincerely hope the protective laws governing our president’s stature don’t extend to his son.

They can park in handicapped spots. They can box in your car on the highway. They can do whatever they want. And they get away with it every single time. It’s worth mentioning it for the sake of venting. But at this point, is it really something worth getting upset about? It’s their country and we’re just doing our best living in it.

W ya Charbel Sleiman, ya m3ayyishna – what the people of Jbeil will probably find themselves saying a few years from now.

I’m sure that place wasn’t the only site where oil was discovered through some geologic research done prior to the civil war. My hometown and neighboring regions in the Batroun caza were also hotspots for oil interest. Or so I’ve been told for years.

I wonder, are we using that research today to search for oil in our soil? Or are we considering it obsolete due to time passing?

Moreover, how is it that the notion of Lebanon potentially being an oil-rich country got erased so drastically from the nation’s collective memory only to resurface in 2009? It can’t all be due to the civil war.

I guess Lebanon wasn’t “allowed” by higher powers to tap into its natural resources back then. Why’s that? Because it would have strengthened the country to a point where those powers wouldn’t have been able to use it for all sorts of regional bargaining, which begets the question: will our current foray into the world of oil and gas be smooth or will hurdles beyond those caused by the country’s sectarian calculations pop up at each bend in the road?

After all, we’re already terribly late (link).