A Lebanese Parody on the State of the Music Industry: 7assesne Enne Rkheesa

The lyrics for this “song” have been circulating around for a while now. And now there’s a video to boot. For those who thought the lyrics were actually serious, fear not. They are but a parody on the over-sexualizing in the music industry today, be it American pop or Lebanese music.

Trust me, I wanted to dismiss this as a gimmick but they do have a point, somehow, somewhere.

For non-Lebanese readers, the title “7assesne enne rkhisa” translates to “Make Me Feel Cheap,” which is how the people who did this believe music nowadays represents women.

Check the video:

I’m sure it won’t put a dent in the trend of music today. But at least people are noticing that there are less and less songs you can listen to with another person on radio without feeling awkward about their content. Case in point: Rihanna’s latest album has more than numerous proclamations of “F*** me.” Even the reviewers of that album said they felt self-conscious listening to it. I did not bother reviewing it.

Guess I’ll return to my safe country music bubble now. Good Girl, anyone?

Lara Fabian coming to Lebanon After All?

Honestly this is getting quite confusing.

After demands to cancel Lara Fabian’s concerts and stop her from coming, the Italian-Belgian singer complied and wrote a passionate love letter to her Lebanese audience saying she won’t be a reason for tension between them.

And just when we thought the whole Lara Fabian saga is behind us, it looks like the story refuses to go away. Lara Fabian is coming for her concerts on valentine’s day and February 15th after all, according to a very heated article reposted by Lebanon Files from Al Akhbar (The article comprises the sentences: Lara Fabian not coming to the country that got Israel to kneel, etc…). You only need to read the last paragraph to see exactly how much they hate her.

Briefly, Fabian and her crew got visas to enter the country, Virgin Megastores are still selling tickets and the billboards on highways have not been removed.

I won’t go into how ridiculous and absolutely hilarious I think the statements containing “usurping entity” and “concert” in the same syntax. But this is going to be interesting to watch. And for those of us who simply can’t afford to splurge on Lara Fabian, time to bring out the pop corn and watch.

Lara Fabian’s concert organizers to BDS: “check.”

The Descendants – Movie Review

Alexandre Payne’s first movie in seven years is about Matt King (George Clooney), a Hawaii based lawyer and the trustee over his family’s pristine lands, worth in the billions of dollars, as they are about to sell. However, tragedy hits Matt’s family when a boating accident strikes his wife Elizabeth and she becomes comatose. It is then that Matt has to deal with his two daughters Scottie and Alex (Shaileene Woodley in a brilliant role), except that he always thought of himself as the “backup parent.” And after learning that his wife will never wake up, Matt has to set out on the path to say goodbye.

But as Matt’s older daughter Alex reveals, her mother was having an affair with a real-estate agent named Brian Speer, with the intention of asking for divorce. The Descendants then becomes Matt’s obsession with finding Speer, to see the man who was taking his wife away from him and to allow him the chance to bid her farewell.

Telling it like this, The Descendants seem like a true tear-jerker, right? Well, no. The movie is flimsy. This is a movie that wants to confront painful truths about love, loss, family, yet there’s a sense of emotional brittleness present throughout. It attempts to build itself as an emotional tour de force for the viewer but comes crashing down without satisfying neither itself nor the viewer in question. Even the scene, which is supposed to be the movie’s highlight, of Matt talking to his comatose wife, seeking catharsis, ends flat amid all the emotional dryness of the previous acts.

Perhaps The Descendant‘s biggest mistake, of sorts, is the fact that you can’t relate emotionally to the movie’s centerpiece: the wife who’s dying. After learning that she was cheating on him, you get disconnected from her character and, in a movie that is almost two hours, there isn’t enough character development to let you perhaps give her a reprieve, even as she lays in the hospital bed on life-support.

George Clooney’s character is extremely like-able. His performance that drives this character is top notch, nuanced and engaging. And yet, you just can’t bring yourself to care for anything he does, which is more of the shortcomings of the story around which his character is built. The story alludes to his shortcomings as a father, husband, and yet never showcases them. He is the man hurt by his wife’s betrayal as he tries to say goodbye and deal with the responsibilities his new situation has forced on him. But it’s just not convincing enough. The movie is centered around him. You end the movie not knowing anything more than what you did as the movie started.
And it’s just that… The Descendants may be a good movie in absolute value but its heart and your heart regarding its characters are as far apart as it can get. It tries to be sentimental but it turns out to be comical. And when it tries to be comical, it comes off as satirical. I doubt Alexandre Payne wanted his first movie in seven years to be such a mess. It’s a shame, really, especially with all the acclaim it’s been getting.

6/10

 

An Open Letter from the Syrian Revolutionaries to the Lebanese People

An open letter, written in Arabic, from the Syrian National Council to the Lebanese People has just surfaced online. You can check it here.

The highlights:

1) The open letter acknowledges the troubling Syrian-Lebanese relations and blames the Syrian transgressions in Lebanon on the tyrant Syrian regime.

2) The open letter declares that a free Syria will acknowledge Lebanon as a free and sovereign state, therefore the relations between both countries would become on equal footing, between equals.

3) A new Syrian regime will honor the Taef agreement and will look into all the Syrian-Lebanese accords, set the international borders between both countries (including Shebaa Farms) and regulate them, cancel the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council, end the age of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon and look into the situation of the Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons.

The open letter is more extended than this and it’s definitely worth a read. I don’t know to which extent I should believe all of this, but one can hope. Either way, down with the Assad regime and down with all the tyrants of the region.

The “Arab Spring”… One Year Later

Yesterday, January 25th, marked the Egyptian revolution’s first anniversary. To celebrate this, millions of Egyptians went to Tahrir to protest the current situation in their country:

The protest in Tahrir on Jan 25, 2012.

Yes, the Egyptians are protesting after a parliamentary elections that birthed a parliament with people like these in power. Thinking about it, though, if one wanted to give an overall description to the “Arab Spring,” the most accurate expression would be: rise of the fundamentalists.

It serves as a catchy Hollywood title, no? Arab Spring: The Rise of the Fundamentalists. I should trademark this. And nothing describes the way it is in Egypt, Tunisia and other countries that protested better than this picture:

A caricature circulating currently in Tunisia

Who cares that Egypt has a soaring poverty rate or that Tunisia has a ridiculously high unemployment average. The first thing the new Egyptian parliament did was not to start serious discussions about the country’s future but to refuse to commit to women rights. Again, who cares about women rights, men rights, children rights, animal rights. Who cares about the Copts getting killed on daily basis because of their faith? What matters is saying no to overly revealing clothing and taking extended naps during parliamentary sessions.

Just some food for thought but perhaps one of the few things keeping the society in Lebanon from absolutely crumbling is the fact that fundamentalism cannot and will not get to power.