“If voting could change the system, it would be illegal.”
[Via Je Blog]
Month: August 2004
Sonia M’barek Concert
Last night we had the great pleasure of attending Sonia M’barek’s concert in the Hammamet Festival.
We got invitations to the concert through my aunt, whose husband Hammadi Ben Othman composed most of Sonia’s new songs and who was leading the orchestra at the concert.
Sonia M’barek isn’t really well known outside of Tunisia, but she sure as hell should be.
She’s one of the greatest Arab women singers of our time. I actually put her up there with people like Majda El Roumi and Feirooz.
Attending her concert yesterday was truly a great pleasure.
The lyrics were wonderful, the music magical and her voice was so beautiful, pure and strong.
Listening to people like this performing lyrics like this to music like this is really what ears were created for.
She’s very classy, and her audience are tasteful classy people too.
The amphitheatre wasn’t packed like it would be in other concerts for pop artists, but the people who were there were real music lovers and people who appreciated true art.
She doesn’t have to strip down to as little clothes as possible or dance around like a mad person to capture her audiences’ attention. Her amazing voice, awesome live performance, high class and pure un-plastified beauty are enough to do that and lift her audience to the skies she’s soaring to with her performance.
As I already mentioned, the music was great. It was Arabic music that certainly showed the Tunisian flavor in it and some of it’s Andalusian origins.
The lyrics were beautiful too, most of them written by the Tunisian poet Mohamed Boudheena. The concert was dedicated to his soul as he passed away earlier this year.
To not make it any longer. The concert was super great, we truly enjoyed it and had so much fun. I’m buying her album as soon as I can. And I advise anyone who really appreciates great music to check her out. She truly rocks big time.
She is undoubtedly THE Tunisian Diva.
I Wish…
I wish I knew how it would feel to be free
I wish I could break all the chains holding me
I wish I could say all the things that I should say
Say ’em loud say ’em clear
For the whole wide world to hear“(I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be) Free”
Lighthouse Family
A truly beautiful song which describes exactly how I feel right now.
Running…
He’s running…
He’s pushing himself to run even harder, even further, even faster…
He doesn’t remember what he was doing before he started running.
Is there even a “before”?
He’s been running all his life for all he can remember.
Where to? Why? When he’ll get there? What next?
A blank…
He doesn’t know…
He remembers something though…
He used to know where he was running to…
He used to know why he was running…
He used to know what he would find…
He used to know where he would run next…
What went wrong?
A blank…
He stops. He thinks.
He must have made a wrong turn somewhere along the way.
He must have missed the guiding signs.
He thinks, thinks and thinks more…
He picks himself up, looks around him and starts running again…
He’s happier now…
He’s running in a different direction…
On Science & Learning
“The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.”
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
Delta Goodrem: Innocent Eyes
I heard about Delta Goodrem quite a long time ago as I’m really interested in the Australian music scene.
But other than her single “Born To Try”, I didn’t really get to hear much of stuff.
Anyway, I changed that this weekend by buying her album “Innocent Eyes”.
It’s always a risk when you buy an album and all you’ve heard is one single off it. But here’s a rule I have, if it’s someone from Australia, Ireland or Sweden, just go on and buy the album, it’ll be great for sure.
And well, my rule worked again 🙂
The album is one of the greatest I’ve heard lately.
This girl is truly talented, her voice is amazing and the songs she has chosen for her debut album are beautiful both lyrics-wise and music-wise.
My favourite songs after the first hear are: “Innocent Eyes”, “Not Me, Not I” and “Throw It Away”.
I truly recommend this cd to anyone who enjoys really good music.
Israeli exports to Arab states up by 68%
Israeli exports to Arab states reached $85 million in the first half of 2004 , up 68%, compared with the corresponding period last year, official Israeli data indicated.
Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute said the growth in exports to Arab countries was due mostly to increased exports to Jordan and Egypt and of course the opening of the Iraqi market.
The figures did not include $6 million in indirect exports to Arab countries through third parties, as part of joint projects between Israeli and Arab companies.
Shame on you Arabs, shame on you!
[Via: Al Bawaba]
Beheading Internet Hoax
Benjamin Vanderford, 22, faked his own beheading!
He he posted the 55-second clip, which shows a knife sawing against his neck, on an online file-sharing network in May. It circulated in cyberspace before crossing over to major media, airing on television.
The tape, which carried an Arabic title that translates as “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Slaughters an American,” shows Vanderford sitting on a chair, his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth.
The tape then shows a hand with a knife cutting at the motionless man’s neck, but it did not show any militants.
It’s unbelievable how someone can go on and make a joke out of something like this. It’s totally disgusting.
But if goes to prove anything, it proves how easy it is to make up this stuff and fake it and that we shouldn’t believe stuff like this without it being researched and proven.
[Via ABC News, Al Jazeera]
Help Make Blogs More Visible!
There are by some estimates more than a million weblogs. But most of them get no visibility in search engines. Only a few “A-List” blogs get into the top search engine results for a given topic, while the majority of blogs just don’t get noticed. The reason is that the smaller blogs don’t have enough links pointing to them. But this posting could solve that. Let’s help the smaller blogs get more visibility!
This posting is GoMeme 4.0. It is part of an experiment to see if we can create a blog posting that helps 1000’s of blogs get higher rankings in Google. So far we have tried 3 earlier variations. Our first test, GoMeme 1.0, spread to nearly 740 blogs in 2.5 days. This new version 4.0 is shorter, simpler, and fits more easily into your blog.
Why are we doing this? We want to help thousands of blogs get more visibility in Google and other search engines. How does it work? Just follow the instructions below to re-post this meme in your blog and add your URL to the end of the Path List below. As the meme spreads onwards from your blog, so will your URL. Later, when your blog is indexed by search engines, they will see the links pointing to your blog from all the downstream blogs that got this via you, which will cause them to rank your blog higher in search results. Everyone in the Path List below benefits in a similar way as this meme spreads. Try it!
Instructions: Just copy this entire post and paste it into your blog. Then add your URL to the end of the path list below, and pass it on! (Make sure you add your URLs as live links or HTML code to the Path List below.)
Path List
1. Minding the Planet
2. Luke Hutteman’s public virtual MemoryStream
3. Subzero Blue
4. (your URL goes here! But first, please copy this line and move it down to the next line for the next person).
(NOTE: Be sure you paste live links for the Path List or use HTML code.)
Amr Diab Concert
We just got back home after a wonderful night out.
We attended the Amr Diab concert in the Festival of Carthage.
It’s been a long time ever since I went to a concert in the great Carthage amphitheatre, maybe ever since my childhood actually. And as for my wife, this is her first time there.
It’s also the first time I attend an Amr Diab concert, my wife’s second time.
And well, to say the truth, even though I love the guy’s songs, I wasn’t expecting much because of all the bad stuff I’ve heard about him performing live. According to what everyone says, I went in expecting some great songs but a really bad live voice.
And well, fortunately, my expectations were wrong.
The guy rocked live! Yes, he truly and absolutely rocked.
He truly out-did himself and I loved the songs even more than from the album.
The selection of songs for the concert was perfect, although I wish he would have just added “Awwedoony” to the list, one of my faves.
He sang, played the piano, played the keyboards, some percussion instruments and simply was great.
The climax of the concert came when he launched into his new single “Leeli Nhari”. Everyone went mad, and it seemed everyone but my wife and I knew all the lyrics.
Amr Diab was the only Arab singer I used to listen to and buy albums for. His stuff is really good, he’s an artist, and very professional.
And today after being at a concert of his, I’m more a fan than ever before.
I really enjoyed the concert a lot. It was so much fun.
After the concert, we were starving, so we thought we’d pass by this new place called Abu El Abed, a Lebanese fast food restaurant in Les Berges du Lac. We had some shawarmas which had this special middle eastern taste to them and which were really good.
After that, it was time for us to get home, and for me to get on here to write about it all 🙂