On a lazy lonely night, I watched the movie “A Perfect Day” by Joana Hadji Thomas and Khalil Joreige, while longing for a loved one in Beirut and battling my own demon. The following is what this movie has inspired as thoughts and feelings, and was sent to this same loved one. Read on, and [...]

We drive all the way to Rumiyyeh, somewhere in the mountains, somewhere close to Eley3at… way up to where the air is far from Beirut’s polluted humidity… We come by an attractive looking restaurant, we decide to grab a coffee and continue exploring elsewhere. She welcomes us in warmly; a women in her late 30’s, [...]

First time in Beirut? Interested in exploring Beirut’s layers of history by foot? WalkBeirut offers the city’s only guided walking tours in English. Their tours are run by Lebanese students who know the city inside-out.
The tour offers an insider’s look into Beirut’s rich and often troublesome past, while witnessing upfront our city’s enduring spirit. Walk [...]

Behind a ludic title that could lead our imagination to Hollywood, unreality and imagination, “De Niro’s game” is nothing but the coarse reality of the fall of a country which citizens either drowned into the mud of civil war or left searching for a better place.
My first literature experience in Canada was a book written [...]

“I couldn’t understand why the characters were still living with their parents!” Between bang-trimming and magazine skimming, that was what Jennifer, my hair stylist here in Saint Louis, asked me while we discussed the Lebanese movie “Caramel,” released in the summer of 2008. The subject of foreign movies somehow came up, and as soon as Jennifer [...]

Towelhead?  Seriously?  Why not camel jockey or sand nigger?  Just as well, of course. The writer must have been trying to be a little different perhaps. Well there was nothing different about the movie “Towelhead” in my opinion.  Apart from the fact that there was an extremely annoying and unredeemable Lebanese character who played the role [...]

The music of Philippe El Hage, who is currently residing in Paris, is a perfect mix of oriental and western sounds resulting in an original and intriguing form of Jazz. His first Album, called Byblos, was released on the 20th of December of 2007 in Europe and the Middle East. Since the huge success of [...]

When we are asked about the cultural life in Lebanon, we often talk about the summer festivals (Baalbeck, Beit edDine, Byblos and others), international DJs who come to mix in parties, Fairuz, the Rahbani brothers or Haïfa Wehbé. All of those are excellent examples of the mainstream Lebanese cultural life. But does Lebanon have a [...]

“Coeur toujours tu m’interesses”. “Heart you will always interest me”.
It actually doesn’t mean that much in English, but in French it is derived from the saying “Cause toujours tu m’interesses” - otherwise translated as “I don’t care about you anymore”. You will understand the double-entendre of these two statements and how they are very much [...]

You are Lebanese, and proud of it. We’re in May 2006, you are 28, you’ve been on the move since 2003, and you land in Belgium, the heart of Europe, joining your husband who moved with his multinational consultancy company to the Flemish student city of Leuven, 20 minutes East of Brussels.
Three months later, the [...]