Beirut/NTSC gets a new logo!

Oh dear me!!! So at some point even I had to think in terms of "branding", "visual identity" and all that jargon I myself sell to clients and students alike... So with this, please welcome the new logo of Beirut/NTSC.... First let's hear it for the creative rationale: The logo had to reflect retroism and modernity, had to be an image of Beirut in all its paradoxes, had to represent the stuff I put on the blog, had to imply the diversity in the city, had to retain current readers and attract new ones, had to be about advertising and marketing, and to quote Justin McGuirk from the Guardian newspaper about the Rio Olympics logo: "(designers) were asked to transmit Olympic values and attributes, to reflect the local culture, to project the city and country's image, to assure universal understanding as well as be current until the actual Games, along with many other considerations. Is that all? I'm surprised they weren't also asked to make it reveal the word Beelzebub in moonlight."
And so with all these requirements in mind, I had come up with one which was based on old Egyptian movie posters.... Held on to it for a couple of days, then very late at night on Sunday, I changed it to this... Beirut is still taken from an old movie's typography, but "N T S C" (or "anty as see" - as it is spelled in Arabic) comes from the covers of old romantic novels for ladies dreaming about love.
Please note that the logo is completely "home made" - I have so many designers who could have helped me with it, who could have come up with something professional, brilliant and sleek... The only problem is that it would not end up reflecting any of the kitsch stuff I like!....
As for the above header, well it juxtaposes two photos from my archive - one taken in the Phoenicia hotel in 1996 (when I was part of a shooting crew of a film there) which shows it empty and deteriorated (prior to the major reconstruction) and the second dates from the heydey of the 70s before the war of the same said pool. Well, maybe I put these photos for the bragging more than anything else, after all, who apart from me has them? :)