Tag Archives | lebanese

Why is Lebanon Acting Schizophrenic About Gal Gadot?

By Rami on December 11, 2017 in Movies

People at the censorship bureau don’t seem to be able to make up their mind about Gal Godot. Few years ago they had no problem with her appearing in movies like Fast & Furious, Batman v Superman, and Keeping up with the Joneses, until they suddenly decided to ban Wonder Woman back in May because she had the lead role in it.

Fast forward to nowadays, just as several magazines chose Godot to be on their cover for their December issues, the much anticipated “Justice League” also got banned two weeks ago because she was among its cast. I took the above photo for example at Librarie Antoine a few days ago and it’s obvious the authorities did not find anything wrong with a magazine having Gal Gadot as its main subject, so why not allow a movie starring her as well?

DVD rips of banned movies eventually end up flooding the market and it isn’t like superhero movie fans are going to miss seeing them, so it’s definitely about time the censorship bureau reconsider their role and the decisions they take.

The Only Lebanese Fashionista Worth Following on Instagram

By Rami on December 5, 2017 in Funny

Just like almost everyone else, I spend my fair share of time on Instagram everyday and I come across all kind of “influencers” in my feed. From entrepreneurs with inspirational quotes on every photo, to gym rats, foodies, and fashionistas who are the worst of them all! And I simply hate the latters because of their artificial photos and all the fake stories they try to create around them.

Forget all about their sponsored posts because we all whore ourselves nowadays, but some of the posts are just unbelievable. Breakfast in bed? Wine in the bathtub? Joyful 9 months pregnancy shots? Happy family photos with 2 years old babies standing still? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

Neither breakfast in bed nor wine in the bathtub are actually possible, chances are you will have breadcrumbs all over the bed sheets and soapy water in your wine glass… And don’t get me started about pregnancy and kids, the last couple of months during pregnancy are not all glam and glitter for women, and those family photos with happy toddlers in them are just a myth. Trust me, I’m a father of two little boys…

Thank u @dr_roy_moutran for always making me look beautiful ! You Rock !!! 🤜🏻

A post shared by Jenn Zee (@bloggerwanabe) on Nov 25, 2017 at 12:17am PST

So with all these “influencing fashionistas” around, I recently stumbled upon @BloggerWanaBe on Instagram which is a satirical account by Sara Zeaiter (AKA Jenn Zee) that aims to poke fun at all those fake photos and videos on Instagram. Some of her posts are actually quite hilarious and make you really wonder how much effort is put by other influencers into creating those “natural” photos and videos.

Judging by her posts and stories so far she seems pretty cool, and funnily enough she has all it takes to become yet another fashionista with a followers count that just keeps increasing… so I guess it will be hard for her to turn down sponsored deals in the near future! 😉

Anyway, make sure to follow her account @BloggerWanaBe because she seriously is the only fashionista worth following nowadays in Lebanon!

9 Lebanese Startups Among The Arab World’s Top 100

By Rami on October 3, 2017 in Lebanon

Forbes Middle East released its list of the top 100 startups in the Arab World and Lebanon earned 9 spots with Anghami coming 2nd in the overall ranking thanks to $29M in funding. UAE based startup Fetchr was ranked 1st with a funding of $52M.

Here’s a list of the Lebanese startups that were mentioned (Full list available here):

#2 Anghami – Music streaming platform
#23 Scriptr – IoT application platform
#25 Falafel Games – Develops and publishes massively multiplayer online games
#31 Sqwirl Lab – Startup studio
#39 Energy24 – Alternative Energy storage and generator
#65 Blink My Car – Car care app
#72 Risk+ Solutions – Financial intelligence and risk management solutions
#77 Loop – Electric scooter sharing technology
#85 Myki – Cybersecurity

With the all the telecom infrastructure upgrades we are promised, I hope we get to see even more Lebanese projects and startups in the coming years.

On the other hand, a similar list was also compiled by Forbes for the top 100 Arab companies and 4 Lebanese banks made it to the list (Bank Audi, BLOM Bank, Byblos Bank, and Bank of Beirut).

Banque Libano-Française New Mobile App Commercial

By Rami on September 30, 2017 in Ads

It’s not everyday that Lebanese banks make funny commercials. This one was made for Banque Libano-Française’s new Mobile app (MyBLF 2.0) and the actress portraying the client is absolutely hilarious!

Make sure to watch the video till the end.

Wissam Kamal to Host “Ridiculousness Arabia” on Comedy Central

By Rami on August 31, 2017 in Television

I’ve been following Wissam Kamal on YouTube since the early days of his channel and have always loved the series he does such as “Lebanese Father and Son” and “Lebanese Ads: F**k Logic”. The guy solely relies on conveying fun messages instead of clowning around to make us laugh at him like Lebanese TV comedians do, hence why I have always wished to see him running his own show.

Earlier this year he earned some exposure when he appeared with on a hilarious ad for Datsun, and Comedy Central Arabia recently seems to have given him what he deserves by getting him on-board season 2 of “Ridiculousness Arabia”, which makes him the first Lebanese comedian to host a show on this international channel.

The show features viral videos from the internet that are usually failed do-it-yourself attempts at stunts, to which the hosts add their own mock commentary. It will start airing on September 3rd on Comedy Central Arabia which is part of OSN in our region so make sure to tune in!

You can follow Wissam on both YouTube and Facebook for new videos and updates about his work. Also, check the below interview with him and his dad on Min El Ekhir 2 days ago.

Things to Do This Week in Lebanon – August 9th 2017

By Rami on August 9, 2017 in Events

Here are my picks from Lebtivity for the 2 coming weeks. Plenty of events are taking place all around the country as almost every town is hosting its own festival this year.

Make sure to check Lebtivity.com for much more options.

Not Every Occasion Calls for Witty Slogans

By Rami on August 7, 2017 in Ads

It was cool around 2009 and 2010 when Almaza used to advertise witty phrases and taglines on holidays and special occasions, but it became really annoying nowadays with every single brand in the Lebanese market attempt to do the same. To be fair some are coming up with creative stuff, but the majority end up appearing like an assignment done at the last minute.

Below are some example (read disasters*) that were done on the occasion of Army Day last week and did absolutely nothing to convince me spend a lira on the advertised goods.

Lebanese Identified as The Modern-Day Descendants of Canaanites

By Rami on July 28, 2017 in History

A paper published in the American Journal of Human Genetics yesterday revealed that more than 90 percent of the genetic ancestry of modern Lebanese is derived from ancient Canaanites.

This revelation is quite intriguing now since historical records about the Canaanites are relatively limited. What we know about them from the Bible is that they were annihilated, and most facts about their community are written by their enemies (ancient Romans, Greeks and Israelites) while their origin and fate remain mysterious.

Researchers were able to sequence the Canaanite genome from the remains of five individuals buried in the ancient city of Sidon (Saida nowadays) around 4,000 years ago, and analysed the genetic relationship between the ancient Canaanites and modern Lebanese by sequencing the genome of 99 modern-day Lebanese.

It’s worth noting though that some historians consider the Phoenicians a sub-group of the Canaanites, but a study earlier in 2016 concluded that we are not related to them… I have no idea how can one interpret this.

Anyway, you can read more about this interesting study here and here.

Photo via National Geographic

Fayrouz Drops a New Single Inspired by John Lennon’s Imagine

By Rami on July 14, 2017 in Music

Earlier in June Fayrouz released a new single titled “Lameen” from her upcoming album Bebalee, and just last night her daughter Reema Rahbany posted about a second single titled “Yemken” and this time it was inspired by Jon Lennon’s Imagine.

You can get it from iTune here or just wait a few hours until some people rip it and post it everywhere on Facebook and YouTube.

Now as much as I love Fayrouz, I’m honestly having mixed feelings about these adapted songs… I am by no means a music critic let alone evaluate a piece by Fayrouz, but both of the two singles sounded a bit off to me. It could be that I was expecting something in the same spirit of the music that her son Ziad used to arrange for her, or it could simply be that the original songs were seriously good and therefore it’s unfair to make a comparison with the recent singles given the age of Fayrouz and how she’s performing now… Either ways, I hope the rest of the album capture our hearts just like all her songs did before.

Things to Do This Week in Lebanon – July 5th 2017

By Rami on July 5, 2017 in Events

Here are my picks from Lebtivity for the 2 coming weeks. Plenty of things are going around town and these suggestions are guaranteed to inspire your plans!

Make sure to check Lebtivity.com for much more options.

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