Tag Archives: music

The Conclusion of the Myriam Klink and Nemr Abou Nassar “Cat” Fight

This is a Lebanese meme done by twitter user @RachaMneimne and, even though I said I wouldn’t blog about the whole thing again, I think this is way too spot-on to be passed on.

Racha has also had the following to say, as a reply to Nemr’s 30 minute rant in which he declared Myriam Klink and other like hers as being “whores” who couldn’t take criticism but can take other things easily, “full pun intended.”

Hey Nemr Why So Angry? “Have a Sense of Humor, For The Love of God!”

 As a sum-up, here’s what Lebanon has been busy with for the past few days.
  1. Myriam Klink’s performance of her song “3antar” surfaced. (Check it here)
  2. Nemr Abou Nassar noticed the video and made a big deal of it. Twitter drama with Klink ensued. Everyone started making fun of her as well. (Check it here).
  3. Nemr Abou Nassar went on his radio show and had a full-blown rant about the state of the music industry. I’ve seen many people call it EPIC. I see it as everything but. (Check it here).
Finally, thank you Racha for telling it like it is.

The Myriam Klink Saga: Nemr Abou Nassar Replying to her on Radio

Remember when I said Nemr will be using Myriam as one of his sources? Well, it didn’t take long. Here’s a full-blown 30 minute radio show about Klink and about what he thinks she represents of Lebanese society.

I don’t listen to Lebanese radio so this is my first time hearing this. I agree with him on many points that are raised. Our music scene is despicable.

However, how’s calling women whom you don’t approve of whores and sluts part of the Lebanese culture you’re trying to bring forward?

Is Myriam Klink giving Lebanese women a bad image? Only people who categorize a whole population based on a distorted perception would think so. And we are fueling that, giving way more attention than necessary to those we “deem” inappropriate.

Simply put, Nemr Abou Nassar has given Myriam Klink 30 minute of radio time during prime time, which she wouldn’t have dreamed of. He even says the MixFM site crashed. He has made her almost as famous as he is in almost one day. Does he think the points he raised will resonate with her or those who like her? I doubt.

I’m pretty sure if Nemr had discovered Nancy Afiouny before or Lara Kay, this whole debaccle would have been a repeat. In fact, I’m sure both Nancy Afiouny and Lara Kay would kill for the publicity Klink has gotten in 48 hours.

Anyway, both sides of the dispute have said their share. Can we refocus on important things now? Li2anno sara7a, shi bila33e. 

And this is the last Myriam Klink/Nemr Abou Nassar post I’ll have here. Enough with giving attention to the both of them.

A Comment on Carrie Underwood Endorsing Gay Marriage & the Backlash

The following is a guest post by an American reader who wishes to remain anonymous.

Country superstar Carrie Underwood has gone 180 degrees against the Country current by endorsing gay marriage. In an interview with The Independent UK, she had the following to say on the matter:

“As a married person myself, I don’t know what it’s like to be told I can’t marry somebody I love, and want to marry,” she said. “I can’t imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love.”

“Our church is gay friendly. Above all, God wanted us to love others. It’s not about setting rules, or [saying] ‘everyone has to be like me’. No. We’re all different. That’s what makes us special. We have to love each other and get on with each other. It’s not up to me to judge anybody.”

I am not pro-gay marriage. Not for religious reasons but for reasons I will talk about later on.

The responses her endorsment has been getting are mixed between those who approve based on liberal ideologies and those who disapprove based on a twisted understanding of the bible.

The infamous verse that is quoted nowadays is Leviticus 18:22: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Bible-nazis are taking this sentence and flaunting it around. If you don’t follow it, then you are not a proper Christian.

Well, I’ve got a few words for them. And what better words than from the Bible itself.

Exodus 21:7:  “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do.” Would those Bible-loving men and women sell their daughters as servants? I don’t think so. That’s one thing of the Bible they wouldn’t abide with.

Leviticus 25:44: “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.” According to another Leviticus passage, I’m allowed to have slaves provided they are from neighboring countries. Does that mean illegal Mexican immigrants are our slaves now? The Bible says so. It must be. No?

Leviticus 11:10: “And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you.” The Bible forbids me from eating things coming out of the Sea. But I’m a seafood lover. Do you eat seafood? If you do, then you must stop. Immediately. The Bible demands it.

Leviticus 19:27: “Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.” This states that men are not allowed to cut their hair nor shave. Do you cut your hair?

Leviticus 19:19: “Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.” To the awesome Americans of the Bible-belt, many of you have farms, right? Do you have different types of animals in your farms? Do you grow different crops? Because if you do, then you are committing blasphemy, in which case Leviticus would also demand that the entirety of your town comes forward to stone you.

The thing about Leviticus, my fellow Christians, is that it is part of the old testament and it is what Jesus Christ came to Earth to change. The thing about Leviticus, my fellow Christians, is that the only part of it that you know is the part pertaining to homosexuality.

When it comes to my Christianity, it’s about the message Jesus wanted to bring forward: a message of love.

Jesus Christ forgave those that were killing Him before he died on the Cross. Leviticus would call upon those people to be stoned and burned. Jesus Christ called on those without a sin to cast the first stone. Jesus knew that none of us is without sin. Jesus knew that when it comes to life, compassion is the most important emotion to get us by. Compassion makes everything else seem so small.

So next time you want to quote the Bible to prove a point, make sure you quote the part that makes you a Christian today: the New Testament, whose pages are all about the redemptive power of love.

When it comes to me, I’m not pro-gay marriage but that doesn’t mean I’m against those who are homosexual. How’s that? As I look around, I see families crumbling around me. The concept of a family sticking together like my grandparents did, for more than fifty years, is becoming more and more nonexistent. My parents got divorced when I was ten. My cousins’ parents divorced when she was twelve.

Out of my high school friends, at least half of them came from houses where they were raised by a single parent – and not because “death did them part.”

With crumbling family values and surging divorce rates, I don’t approve of adding another portion of society to the whole mess of marriage because, like it or not, homosexuals feel the way we do and they change their mind. And because the notion of marital love fades away after the initial infatuation and many are left wondering: Is this really what I signed up for?

Moreover, you don’t want the kids gay couples will adopt to be more disoriented than those of heterosexuals couples as well in case of a divorce.

And as a cherry on top, I think there are way more important issues that are worth the discussion today than this. Just a quick question to illustrate this point: how would any married couple, regardless of what that couple is, have an optimal marriage in the horrid economy we live in?

When it comes to Carrie Underwood’s comment, I am neutral. I like what she said because it doesn’t seem forced. She’s not telling people what to believe like many other celebrities do. She’s stating her belief. On the other hand, in a time when much more serious things are happening around the world than accepting gay marriage or not, I think other stances precede this in importance. And for an artist who had publicized her refusal to comment on anything of a political nature, regardless of how she spins it, I wonder what changed her mind.

There will be backlash. It has already started. It won’t be pretty. But kudos for Carrie for saying what she believes in, despite it coming out of the blue.

To conclude, here’s a quote for you all:

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” – Mahatma Ghandi.

You have your Christianity and I have mine.

Teaser from Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away Music Video

This was leaked from the fan club party that went on at the Opry in Nashville, a 13 second teaser from the upcoming music video by Carrie Underwood for her song: Blown Away, which I correctly predicted would be the second single off the album of the same title.

The storyline of the video looks like it’ll be what was leaked a couple of days ago:

The video opens with heavy rains. People in town running with newspapers over their heads to their cars, a lady’s umbrella gets turned inside out. The camera is zipping to different parts of the city showing people trying to deal with the storm.

The camera then zooms out of the city down a road to a big farm. It isn’t raining there, but you can see the lightning clouds coming towards the house.

The first verse starts and the camera zooms into the house. There’s an old man laying on the couch, passed out as if he were watching TV. The emergency weather service is is on the TV. Between the TV and the couch stands Carrie. Holding a picture frame and flashlight. When Carrie sings “those storms clouds gather in her eyes,” the camera zooms into her face and her eyes are watering, but she’s not crying. She shakes her head in a disgusted way, looks away from him. At the line “the weatherman called for a twister,” she shuts the TV off and walks away.

The camera goes out to the street and you see the band playing and Carrie is singing “there’s not enough rain in Oklahoma…” It goes back and forth between this and the Carrie in the house collecting all of the pictures off the walls and scrapbooks. You can see the dad still passed out on the couch and the girl walks up the stairs to her room.

When the chorus starts, the camera is switching between Carrie with her band outside (the winds have picked up a bit at this point) and Carrie in her room tearing it to pieces. She’s tearing up pictures of her dad, throwing her clothes, etc.

When the chorus ends and Carrie hits the high “Blown Away” note, the clouds are now really dark, her hair is blowing wildly and a single lightning bolt strikes near the band, tearing the ground up.

As the second verse starts, it zooms back into the girl’s room. As soon as she starts crying, it starts raining lightly outside on Carrie and the band. The winds are still blowing. It starts showing people around the neighborhood running into their cellars, gathering their kids and just kind of panicking. Carrie (the inside one) sees her father still sleep on the couch. She picks up her whiskey bottle and takes a big drink of it and wipes her mouth.

When the second chorus starts, it’s really raining hard and lightning striking everywhere and for the rest of the video, it zooms between the storm progressing, eventually with a tornado touching down right behind the band and ripping up the house and the inside Carrie who is sitting in a chair in the basement with the light right above dangling and swaying as if the house was moving. There are lots of shots of the house be ripped apart by this storm, with pictures flying everywhere etc.

At the end of the song, Carrie emerges from the basement and the entire house is gone, except for an empty couch.

Sounds great, no? Here’s the teaser for you:

The Official UEFA Euro 2012 Song?

Update: this is not the official song. Armin Van Buuren just did an official video for it that’s Euro 2012-inspired. Shakira can still have a song be the official one :p

It’s not a Shakira song. Can you believe it?

Armin Van Buuren is delivering the official “song” for this year’s Euro 2012. It’s obviously trance and features one sentence, which is incidentally the song’s title, “We Are Here to Make Some Noise.”

I actually like it. It definitely serves as something that would get the crowds going.

As for me, I’ve got my jersey ready for next week. The flags will soon be taken out of storage. We are pumped for some football!

Yes, Forza Azzurri!