The Lebanese Rocket Society: Watch it!

I've had the chance to watch the 'avant premiere' of the documentary "Lebanese Rocket Society" at Metropolis Sofil - Ashrafieh 2 weeks ago. The official release date is 11 April 2013.

Joana hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige did a great job to gather all information about what seemed to be a vague story, something people has forgot. They succeeded to get photos, newspapers and even good quality videos.
At first, you'd think that a documentary will be boring but I have to say that it was pretty interesting and inspiring!
It shows in details how it all started as a science project at Haigazian university with Mr Manoug Manougian and his students, what was the idea, and how far they went with their rockets construction.
After explaining the ugly truth behind the stoppage of this research, the movie shows an animated projection of the year 2030 assuming that the project never stopped and the Lebanese Rocket Society 'LRS' is today's NASA.
It is a beautifully done documentary that I recommend watching for it makes all Lebanese, especially Lebanese Armenians, proud and inspired.
And I think all schools should take their students to watch 'The Lebanese Rocket Society'.

Metropolis Sofil (@Metropolislb) will be the only movie theater showing it, others, till now, think it won't be a good deal.
Maybe with all this buzz, and some conscience, they will change their minds and forget a bit about the money.
You can show your support by adding a Spacetronaut twibbon to your Facebook's profile pic, or your Twitter's avatar.
Don't forget it will be released on 11th of April.

Below is the official Trailer with Arabic subtitles:


For more details/reviews:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2361348/
http://www.abboutproductions.com/released.php?id=52
http://hadjithomasjoreige.com/wide_posts/the-lebanese-rocket-society/
http://ritakml.info/2013/03/20/best-documentary-the-lebanese-rocket-society/

Like them on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/LebaneseRocketSociety

And check out those cool t-shirts on Antoine Online:
http://www.antoineonline.com/LebaneseRocketSociety

The General Situation

It's been a while!
This is my first post in 2013, and unfortunately, the only thing I'm thinking about is how we are surviving this situation. Elderlies, who lived and participated in the Lebanese war, say that surviving nowadays is harder than during war.

The Situation:

1. Most of the public sector (including teachers), except public authorities and judges, are protesting to get their new grades/salaries lists.
   The schools' parents committee refuses the teachers' protest, and threatens to stop paying to the schools.
   And students turned to vacation mode.
   In my humble opinion, only teachers deserve that raise. Most of the state employees do absolutely nothing at work, and they all leave at 2h00 PM max.
2. Many restaurants and hotels, in and around Beirut closed or will be closing soon. Zaytouna Bay, Kaslik and Broumana had their shares. And Maameltein is a disaster (not its usual kind of disaster).
3. Airport is empty, except for Syrian refugees, who are all over the country (Syrians now make up 10% of the Lebanese population).
4. Gas oil prices are unbelievable.
5. Real estate prices are ridiculous.
6. Those public authorities (Politicians) are still living their war dreams, making all the state institutions their own properties!
   Electricity, Communications, gas oil, tobaccos, ADSL, port... and each and every big project (no matter how insane it is to invest in Lebanon these days) has to have a 51% ownership to one of those warlords, depending on the location.
   There must be a map somewhere that shows under which influence each zone falls,  for example:
   Zgharta, Chouf, Batroun, Aakkar, Tripoli, Saida... (All of them are Beiks and Cheikhs of course)
7. People are being kidnapped everywhere, and the process is well-known now. Kidnappers demand a ransom (1 million dollars usually), the kidnapped's relatives try negotiating a bit, and then give them the amount agreed upon. This process is free of any government/Security Forces intervention, even after freeing the hostage. The same guy will be threatened again in a week or two since kidnappers knew that "2araybino daffi3a".
8. Crazy drivers, angry valet parking, outraged neighbors...
9. Al Assir! (No explanation needed)

And the list goes on and on.

The Solution:

None. The country is so corrupted that I don't believe there is a clear solution anymore.
The solution should start by changing how the public authorities think and how state employees work. Job descriptions can do the job!
And of course those responsible must be held accountable, no matter how equipped they were.
Not voting for the same people, trying to breathe before talking to anyone, and get a gutty minister of interior, not an "Abou Melhem" are some useful ideas too.
Note for Abou Melhem: A law is a law, even if it makes some people sad, or unsatisfied! Being a minister of interior requires making some people, especially criminals, sad sometimes!

And for some reason, it's still hard to leave this country.

The Huge Dispute with Ziad Rahbani

Ziad Rahbani had a concert on the 20th, 21st and the 22nd of December in Event Hill Dbayeh.
I attended the first day, and actually it was a good jazzy show.
A couple of things were a bit annoying but we, or at least I, understand some of those.

Timing:
The concert was scheduled to start at 9h00 pm, but it started at 10h50!
The 20th was a very very rainy day, parking was a nightmare, and everyone was late. So somehow people expected a delay, but i can say, not that much. Ziad apologized at the end of the concert.
Things went totally wrong, when they did the same delay on Saturday, when there weren't any excuses for that, and a huge dispute went on between Ziad and some of the attendees.
You can check that in the YouTube video below:

I'm not saying they have the right to do that, but somehow I agree that someone should have pointed that out. It was pretty impressive how he stayed calm, but waiting for everyone to come for 1 hr 20 mins isn't that justifying argument.

Politics:

A couple of articles were read between the songs, one was criticizing Amine and Samy Gemayel, another one justifying Michel Aoun's alliance, and another describing how God doesn't answer people's prayers.

I disagree with most of his articles, but again, It's Ziad.

Jokes

Three 30 seconds sketches were also performed by three artists. Those guys were part of Ziad's old plays (Nazl El Sourour...). The jokes were either not funny or déjà vus. It is probably because of Facebook.

Music

What made the concert beautiful was the amazing music Ziad played with 10 other musicians, and the nice artists who sang. There was English and Portuguese songs, with some of his known songs now and then, but he barely included his voice in one or two songs.

All in all, the concert was good, but you can expect more from Ziad Rahbani.

Update

Oh and Merry Christmas! Have a great one! :D

Beirut Scary Drive

While driving to work a couple of days ago, a super black tinted BMW with a 4 numbers plate (of course!) passed by, driving insanely in traffic. So I thought:
What if that car  just exploded next to me?
What if that driver was another Wissam El Hassan (may his soul rest in peace)?
What if I was one of the other 9 persons that died in the latest explosion in Ashrafieh?
How can we still drive to Beirut everyday just like nothing happened or might happen?
Is it all about receiving that salary at the end of the month to keep on surviving?
Is it what our life in Lebanon should be about?
Did we become emotionless zombies?
Scary...

Moral Economy

I was thinking about blogging the same thing, when ToomExtra had the job done!

And this doesn't stop here, this continues when this same guy (mentioned in ToomExtra's post), after finding an 800$ job and while eating a 12,000 LBP tuna sandwich in a casual diner, thinks about getting married!
You'll get a shock when knowing that a "regular" wedding in Lebanon costs nowadays between 30,000$ and 50,000$!
A wedding dinner costs around 30,000$ if you have some acquaintances! And if you do the same reservation without saying that it's for a wedding, it will cost you 10,000$!
"Monsieur, if you want a plexiglass dance floor, it will cost you an extra 4$ per person" knowing that both wood and  plexiglass dance floors are in the same freaking basement.
I know a couple of girls who do their Hair, manicure, pedicure and make-up for 50,000 LL just because they didn't mention that they are getting married, or else it will cost them around 1,000$ for the same "shit"!

The prices will stay high as long as all these restaurants / hotels / hair stylists are fully booked, and those F&B suppliers overloaded.

Anyways, like ToomExtra said, something has to change, as long as we're going with the flow, nothing will.

The Lebanese Minimum Charge

(I'm back. My last post was back in May, I won't say I didn't have time, i did, but had no mood! hope you still remember me!)

Ever heard of a minimum charge rule elsewhere in the world?
If so, although I never did, we have some very unique standards here in Lebanon.
This happened a couple of weeks ago, but it usually has the same template whenever reserving in almost any restaurant/pub/lounge/night-club in Lebanon:

Them: Sir, each reservation that exceeds 15 persons has to be enrolled in a 35$ formula that includes shared cheese platters and salads (of course in tiny portions) or a 30$ minimum charge.
We require a down payment 48 hours before the reservation and an exact number of attendees a couple of hours before.
Me: What if I reserve twice for 14 persons using two different names?
Them: Hein?!


On a later stage, they informed us that they might reserve a couple of tables in our corner for other clients depending on the number of attendees.
The ridiculous thing is that this happened with a new local lounge in town, and when I went there for the first time, a week before my expected reservation, it was hardly 50% full.
It is not a very well-known fully booked place that can put any boundaries and still be over crowded (I can understand SKYBAR doing that) and it seems it will never be!

My point of view:
Shouldn't they encourage people to come and discover the place before putting some conditions?
Shouldn't they consider that this potential client might bring in 30 others, and that their feedback should be a good marketing tool?! (= more exposure = more clients = more money)
Even if you trained well your bartenders, and mixed some good cocktails, people won't know about it unless they come and enjoy their night. I can develop the best iPhone application ever, but without marketing, especially with a fresh portfolio, my app is worth nothing.

On the other side, Lebanon is suffering one of its worst summer seasons since ever! Protests, electricity cuts, internet issues, phone network issues, lawlessness, tourism failure, high cost of living, weapons, drugs… Instead of making things easier for themselves and for those who can still buy a drink, they double the restrictions!
This country is going down. Prove me wrong.

Boycott Tannoura Maxi

"A priest dreaming of having sex with a young lady in a church?!

Sex scenes on bell sounds?!

Ladies trying to seduce the priest during a mass inside the church?!

During war, the Christian community was busy getting drunk and enjoying harlotry..."

I heard lots of complaints about Tannoura Maxi, but I thought they were exaggerating; it seems they are not.

The director Mr. Joe Bou Eid (Director of the movie) said that they showed the movie script to a couple of priests for approval before production.
But it is also true that they didn’t put every single detail in that script.

So, there is a big difference between a priest dreaming about being with a lady, and dreaming of wild sex with her inside the church!

In his defense, Mr. Bou Eid declared that the movie reflects the true story of his father, who was a deacon (شدياق) when he fell in love with his mother.
But, in the movie, the claimed deacon wears a priest outfit (Which should not happen), and they call him “Father” (أبونا).

For those who don’t know, deacons can get married, but once declared priests, the laws of the church don't accept their marriage anymore.

To break the boringness of his father’s love story, he decided to put all this disrespectful scenes all over the movie.

Something has to change; people should wake up, because this has gone beyond “Freedom”.

Should it always be about war and religion? Should we always abuse every little space of liberty?

If we really want to change the Lebanese cinema producers' mentality, we need to tell them that this is not the only type of movies that sells in Lebanon.

And to do that, we should boycott that movie, and that’s what I’m going to do.

Watch the trailer below carefully and let me know what you think.