Once upon a pond...

I am who I am... because I was given iced blue glasses to look at ducks with love... and to understand what it means to be free...

For that... I will always be thankful...

100 Days of Solitude and Gratitude...

100 days are almost left before one of the biggest steps I'll ever take in my life..
A step that will make me leave my family, my friends, my job and my city... and for the rest of my life... leave my solitude....

My plan for these coming days is to [try to] cherish every moment of my solitary life and to be grateful for all the wonders and miracles my family, my friends, my job and my city had brought to my life..

Change is always good. And when you have a great [for-ever] companion waiting for you then the good becomes the best...

Happy Eid...

Tomorrow Most Muslims around the world will be celebrating their Eid... and for all of those who managed to live Ramadan truly... I say Happy Eid... and May you be showered with more of God's grace, love, peace and blessings...




And yeah... Enjoy the ma3mool season... =)

Ramadan 2010

More of these stunning photos here at the Boston Globe

hat tip to Shabana...

Eat, Pray, Love

Yesterday I finished reading in one of New York Times bestsellers novel! [Eat, Pray, Love]... Was I blown away by it? No. Is it a good book? Yes.
The novel is an autobiography of a woman who is searching for inner peace after going through an ugly divorce, a broken heart and so on... in her quest she goes to Italy to eat... to India to pray and to Indonesia to find balance [and fall in love]... The novel is based on the novelist [Elizabeth Gilbert] own true story.
There is a sense of humor in Gilbert's style which brings you closer to the characters and the story feels more true. Her depiction of the feelings that go inside her is authentic and you can feel her pain especially at the beginning of the novel [the part in Italy]...
But as we move to India and the stories about spirituality come flying in... her words feels exaggerated and at some points pretentious. I'm not a pure spiritual person yet I do believe in spirituality. Still the experiences she wrote about is hard for me to fathom as real. Also at this point she started to contradict herself I think because she was trying to exaggerate!!! So at some point she would say she had never understood how meditation is and how hard and impossible for her to feel anything but then she would tell you that once before she had an out-of-this-world experience with the Divine while mediating!! For me this was a bit confusing and unbelievable.
In the last part where she moves to Indonesia... she starts with a positive attitude toward the place and all of people and customs but then her American attitude creeps in and you start feeling that she is becoming a wee bit condensing... but this is how I felt and not necessarily true for all.
And of course the part where she falls in love is not very strong or convincing. 

This novel is going to be a movie soon... with Julia Roberts playing Gilbert. I wonder how the movie will be? Since the director will only choose what he thinks will appeal to the masses!

On a final note... today marks the beginning of the month of Ramadan for Muslims. So for those who fast during it... I wish you will eat, pray and love.... and may Peace and Blessings of the Divine sweep through your hearts and bring you more love and serenity.

تفاحة مكزوزة

قبل قليل كانت ابنت اختي مريم و البالغة من العمر سنتان و نصف تخبرنا بالتالي:
ماما راح تشتريلي كمبيوطل عليه تفاحة مكزوزة زي تاع اوسيله

=)

Lab Tajribi... another step

Lab Tajribi | Experimental Expressions is a non-physical art atelier for experimental art and forms of expression. Currently the lab is mine... but hopefully it will attract other experimental artists in the near future....

I'm still moving in there so visit us again...

Go Down the Capitalism

Lab Tajribi...

Flyvertising!!!

I honestly don't know how to feel about this new technique of advertising... No doubt it is shocking and had an impact on people inducing them to interact... so I think it was a success...
I guess I like it after all...



Source

Thanks Dana for sharing it with me...

Mohammad Walks!

	Lupe Fiasco .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Mohammad Walks, Lupe Fiasco

One Tree

[[When Thomas brought the news that the house I was born in no longer exists. Neither the lane nor the park sloping to the river nothing. I had a dream of return... multicolored joyous... I was able to fly...& the trees were even higher than in childhood because they had been growing. During all the years they had been cut down..] Czesław Miłosz


In a Memory of my Good Tree... With Love!...

Nakba!

May the dream of return come true...

Movie Review: Ajami عجمي

Ajami is an 2010 Oscar nominated Foreign Film. The Movie is directed by an Arab Israeli and an Israeli Directors. The movie was representing Israel at the Academy Awards and that was on the reasons I didn't wish it will win.... I know what some of you might think. But yes! I don't recognize Israel. And no! I'm not an anti-Semite. The other reason I didn't wish it to win is that I was rooting for the movie that actually won [El Secreto De Sus Ojos] and I do believe it deserved the winning.

Ajami is the name of a neighborhood in Jaffa where Muslim and Christian Palestinians live. The movie traces down the lives of several people living there including a storyline about a Jewish family who lost their son in  ambiguous circumstances.

The movie is one of the best I've seen this year. It is emotionally intense and keeps your heart beating quickly all through the way.
The directing of the movie is amazing. The angles that the camera were moving in is superb with the variation between intimate close ups and drowsy landscapes. 
The sounds in the movie played a vital role in creating the environment and the feeling of the story.
Music when played were an integral part of the scene creating an invisible character rather than an add-on effect.
The movie consists of several chapters.  Each chapter reveal one part of the storyline. But then repetitions of certain events happen,  though in each chapter it is shown from a different perspective and through the lives of different people. Part of the enchantment of this movie is realizing how the world is a small place and how the lives of strangers are still connected on different levels. And how at the end of the day the lives of strangers around us are the lives of ourselves too.

Another important element of this movie is the fact that most of the actors and actresses in this movie are normal people with no experience in acting what so ever. This fact gave the movie a more realistic feeling and at some points you might think it is a documentary and not a fiction.

There are parts of the storyline that I didn't like as a Palestinian myself. But from an artistic point of view away from my direct emotional attachments this movie is a great one!

One of the things that usually draw me to any movie is how human it is... this movie is very humane... dealing with human feelings of family bonds, motherhood, brotherhood and love. These feelings are recurring events in the lives of the different characters. This as well shock you as to how our lives are still similar.
On of the feelings being portrayed was the feeling of sudden shock of sadness.

== Spoiler Alert ==

This happened first for a Jewish policeman who was looking for his missing brother. When the army found the body of his brother he ran to see it. Of course the Israeli soldiers tried to stop him from approaching the discovery scene and then you see a fight between a man desperate to see his lost brother and the army who needs to keep everything in order.
Later on the movie a Palestinian guy is notified that his best friend was found dead in his apartment. The same way, he runs to his friend's place just to see him and maybe understand how come his friend is dead. But again a fight between him and the Israeli Police happens where they try to stop him and he on the other hand fight to get to the crime scene.  The sad part is, not only he was kept away from his friend's body but was then sent to jail for assaulting the police.

== End of Spoiler ==

The last scene of the movie is a masterpiece.  Sounds were the master of that scene. The shock you'll get is something that you'll have to carry with you for a while... until you'll be able to understand how can life go on for the people in the movie after that. And in a deeper sense to yourself too.

All in all [Ajami] is a movie I would surely recommend for anyone to see... a masterpiece by two young directors.

The Arab Facade

In our Arab societies we still suffer from hypocrisy. The way they solve problems is by covering them and pretending they don't exist....
This is highly used in architecture for example. I remember in one of my jury session for my graduation project. An architect working with GAM made a comment which illustrate that.
In my project I designed a bridge between my project and a refugee camp just across the road from my site. She didn't like that. And told me that usually we should hide unpleasant scenes by creating walls and paint them nicely... !!!

Hide them and pretend they don't exist!!

How many times have you been confronted for being honest and not hiding your true feelings behind the screen of politeness...
You see around you smiling faces that will diss you the minute you turn your back...

All hiding behind the perfect Arab facade...

Communication Theory Assignment

This semester I'm teaching a course titled [Communication Theory] for Design and Visual Communication students. This course addresses several issues dealing with Media, Society, Mass Communication, Message Production and so on.
So for their Mid term I decided to put the theories to test by proposing an online assignment.
I asked my students to answer certain questions through creating a video response to a video I posted on our GJU.Design Channel on Ikbis....
The questions were:
Do New Media give people their Freedom or do  it control them?
Do New Media create equality or division between people?
And this is my Assignment Video... 
 



My students did very well... and they have responded in many different ways to the video. Some did Animation, stop motion, video montage and video logs...

Ikbis and other online sharing sites are usually and sadly banned in educational institutions in Jordan... but I wanted to defy even this reality and make others understand the power that is given [for free] to people... normal people... who have valuable things to share...
I'm really glad about my students interactions... they did engage themselves and used the new media beautifully.  Here are some samples of their work...

The rest can be seen here...


By Faris Baidon


By Rania Ghariabeh


By Natalie Beiruti


By Saja Muzaini


By Yasmin Juma'a


By Jude Kawwa


By Lian Saifi

Please complete the power of the new media by going there and commenting on their works...

Spread the love and share the power... =)


Originally posted on SABE Reconnaissance

Crazy?

Me: I'm crazy! Soph, Do you think I'm crazy?
Sophie: Of course you are. But Craziness is the best thing in the world.

Movie Review | Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is probably one of my best novels of all times... I always felt enchanted by the characters... by the grinning cat... the mad hatter and by the hooka smoking caterpillar...
I was inspired by Alice... to be like her falling down a rabbit hole... to make others feel like she did as she stepped into the Looking Glass...

I was Alice's invisible companion in all her adventures...

So... When Tim Burton said he'll make a movie about Alice... I couldn't wait... till it was released...

But.. unfortunately... The unpredictable Burton... was very expected... And produced what I think was a hiccup in his career....

== Spoilers Warning!==

The Plot... was naive... with some characters removed... some characters gaining more importance than others like the Mad Hatter [played by Johnny Depp].
Burton made it like a sequel to the most beloved books by Lewis Carroll... but it ended up being a cliche plot where the young unorthodox girl is being forced to marry Mr. Mom-Thinks-You-Are-Perfect... just like her sister who pretends to be happy... and then the girl... against all odds... refuses the guy and decide to start a career...
Seriously!!!

== End of Spoilers ==


But if the movie is more concerned with the adventures rather than the ending... then other flaws begin to appear...

The setting and the looks of the characters are all too dark for a wonderland and wonderland inhabitants... even Alice has black halos around her eyes... almost looking sick and displeased... in fact you don't get the feeling that Alice is enjoying her being in Wonderland... which at some point in the movie is actually being called "Underland"!!!!!


The Mad Hatter looks funny but again... excessive makeup that for me didn't do the trick...


The Red Queen as she is being called instead of [Queen of Hearts]... is the only thing that I have no comment about... I loved her character... her temper... her makeup... Helena Bonham-Carter did a great job!


The White Queen on the other hand... I couldn't understand... she is white... and moves swiftly like the wind.... but then she wears very dark lipstick and finger nails... giving her more a ghostly presence... which I couldn't relate to...


The Wonderland as well... is a bit dark reminding me of Fleet Street from Burton's Sweeny Todd...


There is a sense of agony and trouble all during the movie which for me contradicts with the fluttering of my soul when I ever think of Alice's Wonderland...

In the novels by Lewis Carroll... you find passages and conversations which leaves you puzzled... and makes you read more about your own life and being... These stimulating simple conversations are missing from the movie...

Burton has put a lot of effort in the visual making of the movie than the conceptual one... and I think this is where he failed...

Would I recommend any to watch this movie...? Yes I would...
This wasn't a movie done hastily... and even if it failed to meet with my expectations... I'm sure there are things in the movie which you can't miss out on...

Mixed feelings

[The sun just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.] Emily Dickinson






The dust's only virtue was making the sun look like a moon...



Even when all hopes seem to die... I still hope...



It is a choice I make...



[I don't explain, I explore] Marshall McLuhan

The Narratives* | 24

24

The little child was looking up the red apples tree...
Holding in her hand a glossy red apple...
He has given her that apple...

But all she was thinking of... was whether she can climb up that tree!

Present.
Past.

.... Future.

* The Narratives: stories, events, and scenes that happen[ed] inside and around my head…