If Hell was a blues bar, I'd gladly be a sinner!

Last night was my induction into the shady swanky smoky (even with the smoking ban, if you get my drift) world of the blues, courtesy of some good friends from SOAS (thank ye, James). We sat at a table right next to the stage, and therefore got the full brunt of the music - not that I'm complaining. The early evening saw the crowd serenaded by two men with guitar, singing everything from Dylan to Lennon. As it got later, and the lights got dimmer, the small stage was compacted rather ingeniously with a full set of drums, a double bass, audio boxes of some sort, and of course the West Weston lads with their harmonicas and blues charm. When they began, the evening truly did too. Everyone was moving to the beat and for one moment, all seemed just fine with the world. And with the blues, all will be taken in our stride.

All in all, a good evening. And lastly and most importantly, thank you Art Mitchells-Urwin (the person, the idiom and the concept rolled into one person), for reminding me that there is still much humanity and respect in this world.

West Weston, play me the blues, boys.

Ending 2008 with Bombs and Blood

So much for the promise of change, peace and a better world. 

Israel opened the borders to Gaza. Supplies were needed. A humanitarian crisis of inhuman proportions. Only to begin an air strike (with "surgical precision") that has left 271 Palestinians dead. No New Year's Eve for them - their fireworks are way too real. 

I was at the protest today outside the Israeli Embassy. There was a great turnout and the crowds were waving the flag high, shouting chants of Free Free Palestine. The cause will never be short of its supporters and the shouts of protest will never cease as long as the occupation continues. 

As John and Yoko said all those years ago (their relevance will transcend time), War Is Over. If you want it.

 

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday dear cousin Fairuz.
On this day yourself you must amuse.
Sing in the streets, dance in puddles.
On this day you have no chagrin or no troubles.

Happy birthday and enjoy your day.
Have some cake, balloons and happiness.
All on a glittering and blinding tray.
It's a day of fun and laughter and fanciness.

Tricks, Plates and Turkish Delights.

Tricks are those you play on me.
Plates are what we eat on.
Turkish Delights are what we eat.

The Ottoman Sultan is on his throne.
Under his turban, all you see is his beard and two feet.
He is smoking a pipe and drinking mint tea.

The Grand Vizier is contemplating his fate.
He's writing policies and is not alone
In his room, the lights are luminated low, breeze from the Bosphorous sea.

Tricks and kings and desire and affairs of state and evening twlight.
Miniature paintings and capitulations and my heart's on a throne
Whenever I am eating Turkish Delights.

Freedom, definition

freedom |ˈfrēdəm|

noun

ORIGIN Old English frēo (adjective), frēon (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vrij and German frei.

. the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. 

I'd really like to take this opportunity to show my appreciation for the support of the general public for their kind wishes, friends from school and those I have been fortunate to meet along the way, and most importantly, family because without them, there is no us. 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

This should not be taken as an opportunity to speculate or continue on with the vicious rumours. It is simply a celebration of my father's release from prison. I would appreciate it if we could be left to pick up and regain the last two years we have lost. Thank you. 

The Disability of Language

This is going to be a difficult post to write, as the title suggests and as you can imagine. Words can be as beautiful as they are disabling. Do we always mean what we say? Do we say things to hide what we really mean? Do we mean I love you when we say I love you or do we indeed actually very really mean something completely different?

I've been thinking about this for some time now and I've been trying to figure it all out and I may have come to the simple conclusion that words do not always express how we truly feel. Books and books, words after words, blogs beyond blogs, speeches spoken speeches - are we saying what can't be said with just wondrous words?

In art - no matter the medium - could it be possible that feeling and emotion is expressed more clearly? Colour, shapes, paint, plaster - a potpourri of possible intentions. But they could mean so many things, there is no definite meaning. As such, it is only words that can decide what it is we mean something that we want to reveal, or hide. Which then makes me wonder, are words there to hide what we mean or to attempt to explain what we do indeed want to say?

The debate I suppose continues. Language is a beautiful phenomenon and words are like confetti. But what on earth do I mean by that, right?

Her Name was Carol

The year is 1950-something. New York city. The scene is the toy department of Frankenberg's. Therese Belivet is staring into space, her toe is bleeding, her career in stage designing is nowhere near Broadway, she is not in love with her boyfriend, she has no family. Then she meets the completely mesmerising Mrs H. F. Aird, first name Carol, a customer looking at dolls as a present for her daughter. Therese attends her with as much professionalism as she can muster, but her heart is lost and when the woman has disappeared behind closed lift doors, she takes a chance and writes a Christmas card. Carol calls her to say thank you then proceeds to invite the impressionable Therese for lunch.

What happens next is a true adventure of the heart. It is as much as a growing up tale, as it is a love story. Carol is the divorced older woman who is given a chance to completely break free and throw caution to the wind. Therese is the young girl who has no real past but chances for an uncertain future with what may possibly be true love. Together, they give in to their desires: they answer the questions of their heart fully and unashamedly. But all is not well, and the fragility of love is put through the test of seperation and persecution.

The novel, initially published as A Price of Salt in 1951, is an undeniable read. In my opinion, it's a beautiful book to read on a rainy day, curled up in bed. It's carless and passionate. There's an amazing trip taken into the American heartland. It calls out to the adventurer and lover in us all. Give it a chance and take the trip down the heady and bubbly road of what we dare call love.

History Hysteria: the Middle East

I am often greeted by raised eyebrows and awkward silences when I tell people that I study history. The reaction is even more astute when I tell them that I actually do like it. But history is the ultimate window in to the history and conscience of humankind. It is both a science and a humanity - its methodology is precise yet its analysis is wonderfully broad.

But more to the point. The Middle East. My interests were tweaked when I started reading A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Otoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle east, written by David Fromkin. Allow me to highly recommend it. It has opened my eyes and deepened my understanding on how such a complex and exotic region became so absorbed in political chaos. The book questions (and partly answers) the actions of European politicians and how they grossly misinterperated a region they knew too little about. The book also highlights a Middle East that was a museum in a 20th Century development buzz. Politically backward with wazirs and tarbushed figures who had little appreciation or understanding for the renaissance of Europe, nor the political flair of the West.

The Ottoman Empire, a giant with a malignant malaise, beautifully disillusioned to the end. Young patriots who through inexperience and desperation, led the Ottomans to their defeat. Sharp politicians who knew so much about too little. Lobbyists, supporters, campaigners, experts. The heroic and foolish. The romantic and false. All heroes and cowards alike.

The Middle East, as we know it today, was the creation of Arabs, Jews, Muslim, Christian, Turkish, British, French - all with their own ideals, their own borders, their own tactics, their own divisions, their own answers to the ultimte question: what to give to whom? The culmination of many many many factors, which miraculously and fatefully created one of the most, if not the most, volatile region in this already unstable world we live in.

To the historian, it is a true wonder. To the human being, we can only hope for the best and pray for the ultimate solution.

General Allenby enters Jerusalem, tactfully on foot.

To be a Pierced Deer

Frida Kahlo.

I believe she's one of the most exquisite painters I can claim to know. Her art is provocative. There's an air of danger to them. Her paintings are like dares : I dare you to feel my pain, I dare you to be loved and hurt, I dare you to fall from dizzying heights, I dare you to look beauty straight in the eye and bite your thumb at her.

But she was more than a painter, and more than life too. She was larger than life, though not in the sense her husband Diego Riviera was larger than life. With her exotic background (her mother was Mexican while her father was German) and her long skirts, she was a painting all by herself; and in fact, she mostly painted self-portraits. She would depict her lifelong physical pain (she was in a horrific accident in her youth) and emotional suffering (she could never have children), yet at the same time there is much beauty in the pain. Her art was encouraged by her husband, also a famous and well-credited muralist. She began painting on her back (the accident broke her spine) and she went on to paint life.

I had the good fortune to see an exhibition of her work. It was in 2005, at the Tate Modern in London. I remember begging my father to bring me and, bless him, he relented, and we went. It was an amazing experience to see her work face to face. I got the feeling of being completely naked while in such presence. It was as if the paintings were judging, taunting, tempting me. She truly is a genius on canvas.

She was portrayed in the film Frida by Salma Hayek, and it's worth a watch if you're interested in knowing a little more about this amazing woman. It's a very good film based on the biography of her by Hayden Herrera, which I also recommend.

Et voila.