Walk of Causes – Lebanon

Matias and Jørgen are two Norwegian men have decided to do something that most Lebanese don’t even think about, or consider doing as one so gladly pointed out in the video I’m posting below as “bullsh*t”: Walk Lebanon from the North to the South, collecting donations from the people they encounter for good causes.

The first episode, the video of which can be found below, features them going around Lebanon’s gorgeous North. The money proceeds of that episode will go to the Lebanese Red Cross.

What’s interesting about this to me is, apart from the immensely interesting thing these men are doing, that I, as a Lebanese, have never been to the parts of Akkar they’re visiting. I also haven’t been to the Lebanese South, unless you count Saida as part of the South, which many don’t.

It goes to show how little we’ve really discovered firsthand of our country and I think this applies to the majority. However, we do excel at nagging. But no matter, behold the video:

And make sure you check out their Youtube page for other episodes.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Movie Review

Based on the bestselling book by Stieg Larsson, which I reviewed last summer (read my review), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the second movie based on the aforementioned novel, the first being a critically acclaimed Swedish drama.

Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is a top Swedish journalist whose world is crashing around him. He just lost a court battle during which he was accused of libel against a top Swedish businessman, his credibility is in ruins and his magazine is struggling. Amid all the chaos, he gets a peculiar job offer from Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), the head of Vanger corporations, to write a biography about his family as a cover to a journalistic investigation into the disappearance of Vanger’s niece some forty years prior.

As Blomkvist begins to make advances in the case the likes of which he didn’t think he would be able to do, he is faced with the possibility of a Swedish serial killer of women being on the loose. The killings are biblical, based on Leviticus verses. But he needs help, which comes in the form of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), an emotionally reclusive, mentally challenging and emotionally unstable hacker.

One cannot talk about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo as a movie without talking about the reason it has such a title: the character of Lisbeth Salander. To say that girl is one of the most interesting characters to recently grace literature and now cinema would be a gross understatement. There’s just something about the fire in Lisbeth’s eyes, whether you’re reading her off a page or watching her on screen, covering a dark emptiness inside that is very unraveling, very dark and very fascinating. Therefore, the need of great acting skills to be able to interprete such a multi-layered character is in need. To be blunt, Rooney Mara excels.

Not only does she get you to feel compassion with her character’s moments of weakness, she also gets you to root for her in her moments of triumph. Rooney Mara is fascinating, down to the very basic articulations of the Meryl Streep-esque accent she has formulated for her character. She literally doesn’t shy away from giving the viewers of the movie everything she has to offer and she shines doing so.

Daniel Craig is great as Mikael Blomkvist. As I read the book, I didn’t really picture a character in my head for Blomkvist. But Craig manages to fill in the “blanks” I had after three books of reading Blomkvist’s pursuits. His performance is nuanced and is beautifully complemented and elevated by the previously mentioned stellar performance by Rooney Mara. However, what works against Craig in this movie is the fact that his character is nowhere near as interesting as Mara’s Lisbeth. But the biggest evidence to how greatly these two actors’ performances complement each other is the fact that the movie doesn’t really take off until you get both Lisbeth and Mikael in the same frame.

Another brilliant part of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the superb electronic music present in it, which has sort of become correlated in my head with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, whose previous works include last year’s The Social Network (My review). The darkest scenes in the movie are taken a step further in darkness by the score that Reznor and Ross envisioned for the movie.  Moreover, the cinematography in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is top-notch as well. On top of being very pleasing to listen to, it is a beautiful movie to look at – despite its very violent moments, some of which are among the most brutal I have watched on screen yet.

David Fincher, who also directed on last year’s The Social Network, manages to craft this Swedish noir novel into a movie that is very pleasing to the fans of the book. He manages to preserve the dark essence of the book and transfer it on screen with minimal changes to the material presented in the novel. Stieg Larsson would have been, in my humble opinion, very pleased to see his work presented this way on screen.

On the overall, the crew that worked on this movie managed to a dark and mysterious world full of family secrets, corruption, sexual perversity and redemption. The beautiful thing about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is that all the pieces fall together in a synchronized manner to deliver a truly brilliant cinematic experience, albeit being a movie of extensive duration, due to the book’s thick spine. At the end of the day, however, this is simply Rooney Mara’s movie. And with books two and three of The Millenium trilogy featuring Salander more and more in the spotlight, I can’t wait to see what she has up her sleeve. But let me tell you, this is epic and the next two will be epic, indeed.

9/10

Happy Birthday Little Miss

Today is one of my closest friends’ birthday – little miss Elia turns 22 today. About time, I guess. She’s the youngest one in our click. She’s not even a 1980s person. Isn’t that so sad, everyone?

But no matter, as little miss folds another year of her life today, I figured what better way to make her want to shoot me on her birthday than to write a blog post to wish her a happy birthday. Also, just for your information, she recently took shooting lessons so I’m putting my life on the edge over here. Yes, dear reader, you’re welcome.

So miss Elia, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you – poor ependorf tubes will miss you immensely as you celebrate your day. For those of you who don’t know, Elia is soon to be a biology MS holder (no that’s not multiple scleroris although I think all the time she spends culturing her precious cells will eventually lead her to have this). Her favorite passtime other than watching The Vampire Diaries, which she vehemntely refused to watch until my awesome persuasion skills overtook her, is to cultivate cells and attempt to “teach” biology students how to act like scientists (and limit their answers in the allocated space she has given them, which is in itself one of the most impossible things in the world, akin to asking a philosophy major to shut up).

And then I figured, who would make Elia very happy if he/she wished her a happy birthday? And the answer was so obvious that I decided to get him/her to do it. Sadly, it’s no me. But:

I’d quote Izzie over here. But that would be weird. Happiest birthday missy. May you have a hundred birthdays more during which you always remain kind, you always remain smart. You’ll always be important.

The Civil Wars

I recently discovered this American folk duo called “The Civil Wars” and let me tell you – they are fantastic.
I downloaded their album soon after I heard them on The Hunger Games‘ movie song: Safe & Sound and it’s definitely one of the best albums released in 2011, slightly behind Adele’s 21. Yes, it’s that great.

Their songs are soothing, breathy, calming. Their songs are simply great.

I highly recommend you download their debut album, entitled Barton Hollow. You can find it on iTunes here. Or if you’re more “resourceful,” you know what to do.

I’m actually saddened that such great music cannot find its way to radio and be exposed more. It seems you really have to dig deep to find these great artists that are so overshadowed by radio-played uselessness.

My favorites off their debut album? Well, apart from every single song on the album, I think you’d enjoy these a lot. They’re simply great. My Father’s Father is a gut-wrenching homage to “home.”

20 Years:

My Father’s Father:

Poison & Wine:

 

 

 

Michel Hayek’s 2012 Predictions

When I was younger – way younger to be exact – I used to get excited about New Year’s Eve when Michel Hayek came up on our TV sets to give us a “glimpse” through his “gift” of what the coming year held.

As I grew up, I became more critical of the “information” he gave us through his “visions.” I began to think of them as bland, useless, very obvious…. 2012 wasn’t any different.

If you thought this post is a list of his predictions, you won’t be very disappointed because his predictions can be compared to the following story that I was once told by an old man I know:

“I once met a man that you know but I won’t tell you who. He rolled up in front of a store whose name I cannot mention in a black, big car. I won’t tell you the make. That man told me a very interesting story. I can’t tell you that story. He was also very funny. I can’t tell you the joke either. But then something happened – a very dark, mysterious thing whose nature I cannot divulge. And the man became very sad, the kind of sadness I cannot describe. But somehow, things got better. He got into the car which I cannot give you more details about and drove away from the store. But let me tell you this, that conversation was hilarious.”

Did you get anything out of that story? No? Well, those are Michel Hayek’s 2012 “predictions” for you – unless you’re too keen on believing our national currency, the lira, won’t collapse and that the oil we’ve discovered off our shores will solve our national debt in the long run and that the political situation will remain troubled and that there will be sadness for the arts in Lebanon (Isn’t Sabah 90 and very ill?) Except those are obvious things anyone can deduce.

But if you are still adamant on checking them, here you go.

Well, till 2013 I guess. At least we’ll have elections then.