Yesterday I promsied you the story of Coco, the parrot from the Commodore hotel, and today, I share it with you in video art format. Enjoy.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Friday, August 29, 2014
Coco, the Commodore hotel parrot lives again.
Photo credit: Nick Waite |
Photo credit: Nick Waite |
Photo credit Eli Reed |
Photo credit: Eli Reed |
Soon, I shall be telling the story of Coco in video art format. Stay tuned.
Below are two different accounts of Coco's vanishing for your pleasure:
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Crystal Clear Brooks - Roger Waters' Gaza Poem
Artwork from "The (Com)Promised Land" series by Tarek Chemaly |
Crystal clear brooks – Roger Waters
Crystal clear brooks
When the time comes
And the last day dawns
And the air of the piper warms
The high crags of the old country
When the holy writ blows
Like burned paper away
And wise men concede
That there’s more than one way
More than one path
More than one book
More than one fisherman
More than one hook
When the cats have been skinned
And the fish have been hooked
When the masters of war
Are our masters no more
When old friends take their whiskey
Outside on the porch
We will have done well
If we’re able to say
As the sun settles down
On that final day
That we never gave in
That we did all we could
So the kids could go fishing
In crystal clear brooks.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Bayan Bibi's "Gaza in my heart" products
It's good to know someone is doing something apart from throwing ice buckets on themselves for no apparent reason. Bayan Bibi, ever the maverick and the activist, has launched a line of products in support of Gaza. Drawing from the Palestinian visual heritage of the Koufiye she applied the motif to a panoply of products (from the mini bandana to the pin or fridge magent). Please visit here to know where the points of sale are and what you can do yourself to support this campaign.
Monday, August 25, 2014
"The journey is the destination" a new series by Tarek Chemaly
Artwork by Tarek Chemaly |
Artwork by Tarek Chemaly |
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Why I will NEVER win the lottery
Artwork by Tarek Chemaly |
Sure, as the saying goes "to win the lottery you need to buy a ticket" something which I have done a grand total of 2 times in my life - at the suggestion of two different people who saw me being "lucky" on those two occasions. The world is full of people whose life was ruined by winning the lottery.
Some people are pragmatic about it, an Amercian friend - the US being a country where nouveau riche and excessive display of wealth is not frowned upon - told me he wouldn't buy a lottery ticket because if he won he didn't want his children to squabble over the money and people to start befriending him out of nowhere.
This reminds me of a recent exchange over social media with former Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui who was prompting people to come read my blog, sheepishly I admitted that - apart from this making sort of shy, I also did not recognize him when we met the first time in February 30 cafe in Hamra. His reply was something to the effect of that this is how real relationships grow, out of lack of expectations. And people approaching him out of "expectations" is something he knows only too well.
Actually, I once read that the common denominator between lottery winners is that they all feel they are lucky, so does this mean I don't feel I am? Assuming so would be would be taking a pessimisitic view of events. Rationally, you might be thinking "He will never win the lottery because he doesn't buy tickets, he doesn't buy tickets because he doesn't feel he is lucky, he doesn't feel lucky because he thinks the odds are too far against him, he feels the odds are against him because he doesn't believe in happiness".
How about this expalanation: he will never win the lottery because he already won it.
And whereas I do not subscribe to simplistic notions of happiness as sold in pop psychology, I will end with this gem in the words of House M.D.: "Miserable stays miserable, happy doesn't buy lottery in the first place".
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
USA: Of "American Exceptionalism" and tarnished brands.
Artwork by Tarek Chemaly |
But the above pales in comparison to what is happening in Furgeson, Missouri, with protests, chaos, and riots which followed the killing of an unarmed (and reportedly with hands up in the air) Michael Brown by a police officer.
The notion of "American Exceptionalism" - an unwavering faith in the country, a "USA! USA!" shouted during every Olympics when other nations would try to snatch the gold medal from the rightfully-deserving American team, the "America the beautiful", the "land of the free, home of the brave" - were put to the forefront by Ronald Reagan to an America trying to get over the (Nixon) Watergate scandal and the Vietnam war blunders.
And should you think this notion has gone out of style, look no further than Hillary Clinton (supposedly the front runner of the Democratic Party for the 2016 elections) who still parroted that notion on CBS very recently only to repeat the notion in her interview with the Atlantic saying "we don’t even tell our own story very well these days” which makes it look as if - with the right narrative (think pre-emptive attack on Iraq with fake evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction) - the whole thing would be fine and dandy again.
Of course it's all pretending that the Snowden NSA revelations did not happen, or Julian Assange never existed, or that the US sided with every wrong side in recent history, or how powerless they are in all international conflicts to impose their view (including the oh-so-loved-ally Israel whose PM Benjamin Netanyahu said to the US "don't ever second guess me on Hamas again").
However it is sobering to see US enemies having fun at their expense publicly, such as Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin who tweeted the following photo:
Source The Guardian |
The bully of the neighborhood is still delusional about his grandeurs, but to everyone else he is a down-on-his-luck slob living in times gone-by.
Monday, August 18, 2014
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Supporting wine and Lebanese religious contradictions
"From the harvest of our grapes, the joy in our wine" - such is the new campaign from the Ministry of Agriculture dubbing itself "the national campaign for the support of Lebanese wine". Never did one visual encapsulate all Lebanese contradictions in one go - let me explain: this campaign is supported by the taxpayers' money, a respectable chunk of whom is Moslem, and assuming that a solid proportion of which is against alchohol consumption due to religious reasons (notice I am measuring my words very carefully, using abstract and generic terms due to absence of any statistics or reliable surveys), then we deduce that the money these people put went to promote an industry they vehemently oppose. Go figure! All this at a time when one of Lebanon's big cities (Tripoli) took it upon themselves to ban beer ads over there.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Fenicia bank, continuity via Chinese whispers.
Fenicia Bank (formerly known as Bank of Kuwait and the Arab World) is emphasizing its heritage with a cheesy ad. I think though not sure that the client is actually old and the "client service" people (just look at the name card in case you did not get it) are young to emphasize continuity? The line is "lifelong relationship" - for a more confusing take, check this on their own homepage. Under the line of "there are things you'd rather not inherit". Only to come to the visual above with "some things you'd want to inherit".
Of course what the bank did not bet on is that when you open the page the images start scrolling randomly which makes it difficult to understand the visuals being displayed. Frankly, if you did not want your clients or potential clients confused, maybe you should not have changed your name in the first place instead of emphasizing on heritage and continuity.
The other issue is that in Arab society, it is very taboo to speak of "inheritence" especially when related to a bank, because of the view of life and not wishing-ill on anyone (especially not your rich fat uncle as he appears in the ad). Hence the words "be3d el char" (may evil be averted), or "Allah ytawwil bi 3omrak" (may God give you a long life) etc.... whenever unintentionally a death reference is uttered.
Funnily enough, the game "Chinese whispers" (or telephone cassé) is also commonly known as "telephone Arabe" in France. So this might explain it then!Friday, August 15, 2014
Picon fails on all counts
Picon, the popular spread cheese, is reintroducing the large portion. Actually, this is the shape we have always known Picon in until a smaller portion was introduced (sorry, not able to pin back the date). And so now Picon is going back to a larger shape with a drastically silly campaign.
My first question is - who are they talking to? The visuals (the cut cucumber to make it a "balance" and in another visual cut in the shape of a boy showing his "muscles" made of cucumbers) are silly even to kids by today's standards. If they are adressing mothers (or parents at large) it's also a fiasco. And - if - as they did with the Picon melting blocks - they are adressing hipsters in rock bands (with girl groupies preparing cheese sandwiches - yeah right), then...
OK, and the visuals suck too.
So what's left?
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Beautiful graffiti vanishes in Hamra
Hamra mural before (1) |
Hamra mural after (1) |
Hamra mural before (2) |
Hamra mural after (2) |
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Farah Samman's great design for Julia's album
Let's face it, Arab singers have horrible designers working for them - it is so very rare for the albums to be well designed and what's worse are the concert promotions which are usually horrendous collages of photos of several people badly cropped and intermingled mish-mashed together. Sure, you will now accuse me of being biased considering the new album by Julia Boutros has been designed by Farah Samman - someone with whom I have collaborated frequently in the past. Actually, it's the other way around it's because I was so impressed with her work that we started collaborating. So there, the design of Julia's new album and concert promotions are stunning! Everything from the typo to the choice of images, to the overall feel and positioning of the artist (if I am not mistaken the images are by Mokhtar Beirut - actually, if the choice was mine I'd have put the image of Julia in that majestic Tom Ford gown on the cover of the album).
In other words it's a very refershing change to have an artist in the Arab world who cares enough to give a distinguished package - not just a singing product.
Failing to find the original here's a snapshot of the photo in question from Julia's website |
Satrbucks is lost in (Arabic) translation
"Yes to an all-time favourite" is according to Starbucks "The drink of choice for all times" in the Arabic version - notice the subtle but drastic difference? "all-time" becomes "all times". Still don't get it? An "all-time favourite" is a "classic" or something that has been enjoyed for a long time, "all times" refers to the hour of the day of consumption, or the occasion in which it was being enjoyed.
So basically, the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucino is not to about enjoying it whenever one desires, it is more that so many people enjoyed it in the past it is now a classic drink. Now, can I have one please? (I'll skip lunch to compensate the calories).
So basically, the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucino is not to about enjoying it whenever one desires, it is more that so many people enjoyed it in the past it is now a classic drink. Now, can I have one please? (I'll skip lunch to compensate the calories).
Of blue vintage cars in Beirut.
Ford |
Oldsmobile |
Citroen |
Porsche |
Alfa Romeo |
Buick |
Fiat |
Peugeot |
Renault |
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Pop art invades the city via Roy Lichtenstein
Khoury Home as inpired by Roy Lichtenstein |
Khoury Home as inpired by Roy Lichtenstein |
And just for artistic reference, here's a work called "Explosion" by Lichtenstein.
Explosion - Roy Lichtenstein |
Beirut Beer redeems itself in English.
Research credit: D.P. |
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Aizone has a hit on their hands.
I heard several comments on this ad already, "ugly" is one of them. However I tend to really like this one - the punk rock edgyness to it is undeniable. The over-the-top ambaiance, the in your-face-attitude all combine to make it very much the Aizone spirit (sure, you'd be shelling a lot of dough to appear as if you were a "rebel" and fighting the system, but then the concept of high fashion masquarading as street clothing is all about that).
I think ever since Sagmeister and Walsh took over the reigns of the Aishti/Aizone account, the resuts were very consistent - strange-odd-incomprehensible for Aishiti, pop-rebellion influenced-stricking for Aizone. Maybe the fact the Sagmeister and Walsh do not know the Aishti consumer per se is what makes them go in these directions (on the economic level it is indeed the same people who shop at Barney's or Saks but on the socioeconomic level the equation becomes very different). Naturally, all those strange and pointless ads never stopped anyone from purchasing from Aishti, which perhaps goes to show that good or bad advertising the brand is now so established it is immune to such pitfalls.
I think ever since Sagmeister and Walsh took over the reigns of the Aishti/Aizone account, the resuts were very consistent - strange-odd-incomprehensible for Aishiti, pop-rebellion influenced-stricking for Aizone. Maybe the fact the Sagmeister and Walsh do not know the Aishti consumer per se is what makes them go in these directions (on the economic level it is indeed the same people who shop at Barney's or Saks but on the socioeconomic level the equation becomes very different). Naturally, all those strange and pointless ads never stopped anyone from purchasing from Aishti, which perhaps goes to show that good or bad advertising the brand is now so established it is immune to such pitfalls.
Milton Glaser: I ♥ Earth
Milton Glaser |
Do note that the United States has a significant portion of its citizens who deny that human actions have anything to do with climate change mostly calling it a "liberal hoax" and other such terms. So simply acknowledging the fact that global warming is happening is a big thing in itself. Not everyone however is seeing the campaign positively from a media angle and the way the website is presented does not help much with a hashtag like #itsnotwarming unfortunately a lot of people won't understand that the rest of the message is that "it's dying" and might stop there in their interpetation of the campaign which could seriously backfire.
Actually, technically and scientifically the slogan is misleading - earth will be fine, it's the species on it that will disappear.
Actually, technically and scientifically the slogan is misleading - earth will be fine, it's the species on it that will disappear.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
"Light at the end of the tunnel (and it wasn't the train)" video art by Tarek Chemaly
This is a new video art composed of 61 hand-animated frames on a digital platform. The joke goes “I saw the light at the end of the tunnel,
and it was the train” – so after several years of trials and tribulations, I am
hoping I now see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that it’s not the
train.
Still from "Light at the end of the tunnel (but it wasn't the train)" by Tarek Chemaly |
Friday, August 8, 2014
Why Anthony Rahayel should decline Deek Duke prize
Source: Facebook |
No Garlic No Onions is one of the rare blogs I comment on - and frequently - everything from my opinion on the piece to typo mistakes etc... Which is why, to keep the credibility, I humbly ask Anthony to decline the prize.
Otherwise, mabrouk!
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Aishti goes all Carmen Miranda
Composite image - Aishti ad and Carmen Miranda |
Carmen Miranda was famous for feisty style and fruit hats, my introduction to her came from an episode of Quantum Leap where Scott Bakula lept into the south during a beauty pageant and this was his talent segment (singing Cuanto la gusta by Carmen Miranda). To save the day.... he ends up signing Great Balls of Fire (and thereby promoting Darlene from third place to winner).
Fun fact, singer Carole Samaha, who now pretends to speak bad English on twitter, while we were shooting a movie together in 1996 (a graduation project for a friend) picked up a fruit bowl, put it over her head and said "I'm Carmen Miranda" (and that's of course, before dumbing herself down for the purposes of the masses).
Destroyed MEA planes as art inspiration
Soon there will an auction in Doha which which include interesting Middle Eastern art, Ayman Baalbaki will feature among the lot with a work entitled Al Sharq Al Awsat (which means "Middle East" - but also refers to our national carrier Middle East Airlines).
Here is the work in question courtesy of Sotheby's:
As soon as I saw the work I remembered it was based on an actual photo, from the 1982 destruction of the Beirut International Airport. Sadly I have no credit for the photo as to who took it but here it is nonetheless:
Here is the work in question courtesy of Sotheby's:
Ayman Baalbaki, Al Sharq Al Awsat |
And just in case you are interested, here's a different view of a plane that suffered the same fate (from the same era and time):
The same infamous photo appeared as an inspiration to the airport scene in Waltz With Bashir (director Ari Folman)
Still from Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman) |
It is good to know that destroyed planes actually ended up being an inspiration to artistic works.
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