According to this article in Al-Akhbar, Ziad Rahbani is making an appearance on Al Mayadeen TV tomorrow night with Ghassan Ben Jeddo to express his opinion about the Arab Spring, talk about Assi El Rahbani and Fayrouz, and finally announce a surprise to his fans.
I personally don’t care about his political opinion, I just hope he’ll be announcing a concert/play anytime soon!
Anyway, if you’re a fan of Ziad, make sure to mark your calendar tomorrow at 9:30PM.
You can find more images of the mass here at the BBC News.
You can of course follow the Pope in Lebanon on all Lebanese TV station during his 3 days visit here, but when you’re on the move you can download this iPhone application called “LB PAPAL Visit” developed by Born Interactive to get the latest news.
Pope Benedict XVI is due to visit Lebanon for the first time ever during his 7 year pontificate.
On the occasion of His apostolic Visit to Lebanon, lbpapalvisit was created! It is an app that provides you with an inside look into the historic visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon on the 14th, 15th and the 16th of September 2012.
This app is a must-have if you wish to receive an updated schedule of the Papal visit, as well as news updates and notifications regarding his visit sent directly to your phone.
lbpapalvisit also allows you to:
– Gain access to Pope Benedict XVI’s biography
– Read the latest news regarding the Papal visit
– Browse through the picture gallery
– Read the memorable speeches
The visit’s program is also available here.
As for the road that will be closed during these 3 days, you can download this Internal Security Forces communiqué in relation with closed roads, or simply check Abir’s post about that matter.
You probably have heard about Angelina Jolie’s visit to Jordan yesterday to meet with the Syrian refugees who are currently living on Jordan-Syria border in order to help focus international attention on them and possibly attract more funding to help them (more here). It turned out that her plans also include visiting the refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq during the rest of her trip to the region.
Unfortunately no photos/videos have yet surfaced of her visit to the refugees here. The below 2 photos however are of Jolie at the Grand Serail in Beirut as she was addressing the journalists.
Thanks to both of @maytham11 & @ivysblog
Update:
At the Grand Serail.
Looks like someone who’s disgusted of the armed clashes around the country (just like the majority of us) is putting up “No fire arms” signs around Dekweneh, but it seems like the municipal police there is unsurprisingly taking them down.
I believe there should be more of these signs nowadays in Tripoli and Al-Mikdad street in Dahyeh!
via Beirut with funk
A Chilean artist called “INTI” who’s a member of “White Wall” drew this awesomely massive graffiti on a building in Hamra street!
WHITE WALL, organized at Beirut Art Center in association with Fondation Saradar and a team of three curators, is an exhibition in which one of the main objectives is to give new impetus to the Lebanese graffiti scene. Fourteen international artists, from Europe, North America, South America, together with artists from Egypt and Tunisia, with diverse visions an
d street art practices, have been invited to share their passion and expertise. Beirut Art Center will host an exhibition, while the show will also spread over the streets of Beirut, creating a dynamic interaction between the exhibition’s venue and the city.Nineteen Lebanon-based artists- the figureheads of the Lebanese street art and graffiti scene- will participate in the various WHITE WALL activities and outdoor interventions throughout Beirut.Since the Civil War, public space in Lebanon had been occupied by inscriptions and stencils related to war and sectarian politics. Western-style graffiti appeared infrequently as of the mid-1990s. It was not until 2005 that a new scene emerged, taking on the task to create a uniquely Lebanese style of this art
form. This scene is now burgeoning and the streets of Beirut have witnessed the birth of new artists mixing caustic stencils, western influences and Arabic graffiti. These interventions contrasted with public expectations, since they promoted unity over division and maintained a humorous and often critical look at Lebanese society.One of the key issues raised by this event is to understand how it is possible to bring an inherently outdoor and accessible art to an indoor space like Beirut Art Center, without betraying the idiosyncrasy of this art. While the first graffiti exhibition was already held in 1976 in New York City, this remains a challenge until today. The title, WHITE WALL, confronts the white walls of the galleries with
the streets of the city, a challenging prospect for a street artist.
In the early 60′s, during the cold war and the apex of Pan Arabism, a group of students and researchers enters the race to space and create the Lebanese Rocket Society. Sometimes, and specially nowadays, dreams can overtake a tormented history…
You can check more about the film on its Facebook Page and official website.
You probably have all heard about the closure of the Fiat bridge a couple of weeks ago due to a defect in its structure causing some massive traffic jam for a few days.
Shortly after restoring it the bridge was reopened again with a genius solution to prevent crossing trucks from crossing it, two huge and dangerous concrete separators were put at each of the two entries of the bridge, and they’re BARELY visible at night that I almost crashed my car into one of them a few days ago!
So next time you’re at Corniche El-Nahr, just be careful when you’re about to cross the Fiat bridge.
Lebanese tobacco control law number 174 which prohibits people from smoking in all enclosed public spaces went into effect as of today but cafe owners are as expected protesting against this law and calling for exceptions to be made!
Those cafe owners had more than a year to adapt to this law, yet they chose to wait till the last day to express their concerns about it claiming that it puts their business at risk and might force them to fire a lot of their employees.
What I believe these businessmen are missing is that the main reason for people go to coffee places for is basically to socialize, gathering around an arguileh is of course a reason, but I highly doubt people will stop going to restaurants if arguileh is banned as they will still need to get together over a lunch, dinner, dessert, or even a cup of coffee…
Second, what I recently have noticed is that most of the people are missing the definition of an “enclosed public space” according to law 174. Here’s how the law puts, and below is an illustration of it.
Enclosed public places include any of the aforementioned places that is covered by a ceiling and bounded by more than two walls, regardless of the type of materials used for the construction of the ceiling or the walls, and regardless of whether the construction was permanent or temporary. Source
Taken from Smoke Free Lebanon FB page
Now don’t tell me it was hard to get around that… I’m pretty sure cafe owners were generating enough profit to carry out a redecoration to remove some walls, install curtain glass instead, and leave them open during summer season.
But NO, we love to make a drama out of everything!
Group photography and big photo gear seem to frighten the government!
According to this article from SK Eyes, a group of photographers were approached by police officers at Ain El-Mrayseh few days ago, and were forced to stop taking photos because they did not have a permission to do so from the authorities! One of the officers later explained that the governor of Beirut has forbidden taking photos in the area of Ain El-Mrayseh because big photo gear can frighten people.
Burning tires and kidnapping people in broad daylight on the other hand don’t seem like they worry people that much for the governor of police officers to take any action about them…
