arkewallogistanbul - the poster by Fadi Chahine!

Well, when a designer is a pro it is immediately obvious - and when I do my bits and pieces on paintbrush the difference is quite wide... So, once in a while, I let you enjoy professional stuff... My amateurism can get boring.

Graffiti unplugged

Photo credit: Geonna Hobeiche
And so they have done it again? I think that the culprits are the amazing people who had the graffiti beneath the Hekme bridge and which got covered by a silly advertising billboard.... Seems they have done it again. I do hope this one will last longer than the other though.

The new banner!

One of the problems of this site is that, no matter how outrageous your demand, you might actually get it... So you asked for "khalli balak min Tarek"? You got it! Hope you like!

Wikileaks: The Playboy Joumblatt invterview (July 1984)

It seems someone beat me to publishing this interview a long time a go, still no matter, here are some of its highlights below:

Sometimes you have to fool your people. You cannot always tell your people the whole truth, they won’t be able to understand it.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I think it would be better for him (Amin Gemayel) to commit suicide, but he won’t do it.

We are just surrogates to somebody, puppets for somebody. We are all puppets.

The Israeli druse, in fact, were very quite active during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

I am not a Saudi sheikh, fortunately, or I would be spoiled.

I am nobody’s puppet! Syria has its agenda, I have my agenda! I am allied to Syria. Canada is allied with the United States. Is Canada’s prime minister an American puppet?

I have to believe it is possible (for me to become the president of Lebnon) but I don’t know if it is realizable. After all, Lebanon is much too complex to be ruled.

If we achieve a deal to separate religion and state, I could be the next president.

Why should the presidency only be allowed to the Maronites?

Maybe the Syrian regime is not very democratic, but it is going through a process of socialism.

Fatalism will give you freedom. If you resign yourself to destiny you will free yourself to live better. 

I think it’s time for the world to come to an end, because the world has no sense of existence these days.

This so-called civilization is without any human purpose, I think it would be better for everyone to end it. Maybe the next one will be better.

The Ten Commandments were too brief and restricted to one people.

Either you get your rights by begging, or you assert yourself. Syria has asserted itself, which is good.

If we as Lebanese are unable to settle our internal problems peacefully, Lebanon will just disappear.

What will happen will just be, but let’s have dinner first.

The two Beiruts - a conspiracy theory

The two Beiruts ended up meeting - that's Beirut Drive By shooting and Beirut/NTSC... The meeting happened in an undisclosed location over coffee (OK, a cafe latte and a cappucino if you want details) and basically we reviewed the good, the bad and the ugly in the industry and had basically a blast doing it... As my grandmother used to say "if you don't have anything good to say about someone, let's hear it!"... But seriously, it was really nice to eventually connect. Oh, and none of us had internet on our mobiles, which means we actually got to talk rather than sit at the same table and ignore each other!

The new crop....

The season for seeing dead people is back in style, the commemoration of Elie Houbeika's death is the beginning of it.... "We want the Christians to be heroes of unity not martyrs for plans of isolationism". Any arguments?
The Zinger KFC ad could have got unnoticed had it not been for the tagline "express yourself hotly" (or something close to it with "hot" doubling as intense emotions and spiciness).
Klim (that's the reverse of MILK!) is back to town claiming to have 50% more Calcium than.... Than what? It is written in small typo at the bottom of the ad but I doubt anyone stopped to read it (making such claims is perfectly legal under the current advertising law where you can use "generalities" to prove your point without naming your competitors).
Kurban tours are promising "all you need is love" - apparently the ride is by a yellow submarine.... Question: What position is that when your feet are like this? Kamasutra specialists please enlighten me!
Congratulations for MTV for having ranked number one in the census of "Zahrat al khalij" as the "comprehense Arab station" (whatever that means, and however credible Zahrat al khalij is!)...
Nissan Sunny are ditching the sex factor from the window - they are targeting consumers on reliability, trust and heritage (as opposed to what Toyota did to its camry moving from sense to sensibility)... You are owning "45 years of trust" but thankfully, it is this year's model!

The new Beirut/NTSC banners - made in Egyptian nostalgia

Beirut/NTSC is releasing a new set of banners, they focus on vintage Egyptian movies such as "my father above a tree", "stronger than life", "the life of a prostitute", "a woman on the road", "keep an eye on Zouzou" and "my big country" starring various Egyptian movie gods and goddesses.... One of these will be my new banner, any suggestions?

And now for the alcoholic murals!

This is a wall on the inner souk of Jounieh, I am surprised no one thought of painting over these (they have been featured in the first acheWALLogy book).... I hope this is not a bad omen I am throwing, but it always moves to see this wall and the beauties on it....

The non-alcoholic series....

Crush, Jalloul and an old Mirinda banner that survived the war and then was destroyed by peace.... As least you can look at the old logos and appreciate....

Odds and ends

So if you want to know what happened to the peace doves, the answer is above :) and what about that ghost singer in Jar el Kamar restaurant? Well, he's the original Phantom of the Opera if you must know!

A case of mistaken identities (7)

So what is the Commodore Hotel selling exactly?... Enjoy this flashback down memory lane.

Baleha - The Lebanese Adbusters are on!

So Baleha exists! Finally someone thought about creating a local "Adbusters/Casseurs de pub" in Lebanon. Beirut/NTSC managed to meet with the creators of the movement – and boy do they have things in store for you! Everything from a "no TV day" to "no cellphone day" to "no car day" or "no spending day" – and the big novelty (which even the people from "Casseurs de pub" France envied them for) "no gossiping day" – since envy and gossip are at the root of every evil in the materialistic world. Their selling line is "wa2fe dod el e3len" (which is a twist on "time for a commercial
break" to become "time for a break of the commercial"). I must however stress that Baleha (even the name means "without it" but also "stupidity") is not about copycat ads but about someone trying to ring the bell on over-consumption and manipulation from the ad world. As a small scoop for my readers, there's also the full list of the spoofed logos of brands they intend to tackle! Between Beirut Drive By Shooting, Beirut/NTSC  and now Baleha, the world of advertising is suddenly under a lot of strain!

USEK graduate - Antoinette Maghames

Antoinette Maghames created a new TV channel called “La2ale2” (which means pearls but also insinuates the word “la2la2a” or gossip in Arabic) which covers the news of the stars but like TMZ it does so from their closest and most trustable sources – her selling line is “Dourar al akhbar” (the jewels of the news). Antoinette goes on to create a full campaign based on the idea that nurses, waiters, lifeguards, housemaids, and even bodyguards are informants for La2le2 and even creates a full day of events headlined “not only walls have ears” which warns stars that their movements are tracked from the unlikeliest of sources. One of the programs she prosposes is "Zabet el mish zabet" (the officer in charge of what doesn't fit - or "Fashion Police")... Trust me, many stars were arrested!