Tag: twentytwenty

by jad

Kuwait: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 10

Part 1: Growing Up For the longest time, I’d dream in distinct phases. In college, my dreams were populated by people from high school; in high school, my dreams featured my friends from Kuwait. That pattern has since abated; today, my memories of Q8, as we called it, are still vivid, but the details are hazy & more dreamlike than ever before. Kuwait is where my sister was born; it’s where I heard Pretty Fly for a White Guy on the US Armed Forces Radio—you had to turn the dial to the very edge of the spectrum, in one corner … Continue reading “Kuwait: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 10” →

by jad

Syria: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 9

Part 1: The Citadel Al a’aqel zeena. “The mind is decoration”—or the mind is what makes one beautiful. I didn’t know it at the time, but those words on that shirt referencing a wartime radio play by the Lebanese artist I was about to see performing at the Damascus Citadel would perfectly summarize my sense of Syria for years to come. I’ve only ever had pleasant feelings in Syria, a place so close yet so distant, so foreign. I grew up in a country where you learned very quickly to stiffen up when a Syrian soldier was addressing you. My … Continue reading “Syria: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 9” →

by jad

Creative Clusters: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 8

Part 1: Artpop, Inc. I’ve been listening to a lot of Lady Gaga since she popped up on my playlist on Valentine’s Day. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to anything as infectiously positive and carefree; I’m especially aware of this because, two days prior, I attended an art-based workshop where they asked us to share a song that we turned to when we wanted to lift our spirits; I couldn’t think of any. There was a time when it was strangely meaningful to think that Lady Gaga and I are the same age. Looking back, I now feel … Continue reading “Creative Clusters: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 8” →

by jad

NYC: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 7

Part 1: The Grid “Nature is man’s inorganic body, that is to say nature in so far as it is not the human body. Man lives from nature, i.e. nature is his body, and he must maintain a continuing dialogue with it if he is not to die. To say that man’s physical and mental life is linked to nature simply means that nature is linked to itself, for man is part of nature.” (Marx) When I first arrived in NYC, I didn’t even know what a “block” was. I’d heard it used in dialogue in movies and such, but … Continue reading “NYC: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 7” →

by jad

The Ex: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 6

Part 1: Difference Today I want to talk about hummus. That’s not hummus in my photo, that’s mtabbal, aka baba ghannouj. I don’t want to talk about mtabbal at all. I took that photo years ago to talk about “my” culture. I want to talk about chocolate–flavored hummus. Rick Flair-endorsed, BDS-listed #SuperBowl ‘mmus. I want to talk about how my views have both changed and remained the same when it comes to this amorphous cellular cake of matter and meaning we call human culture. I didn’t think much about hummus before I started leaving Lebanon; that’s when it stopped being … Continue reading “The Ex: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 6” →

by jad

Storytelling Strategies: Quote & By-Line

I’d like to interrupt this storytelling exercise I’ve been engaging in for the last few weeks to share an interesting convergence of narrative arcs in my life. This, here’s an article by @sarahngu, who graciously found space for my oddball story in her long-read on Christians who turned to socialism; if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know my arc was more of a loop-the-loop. I connected with Sarah through the DSA’s Religious Socialism mailing-list, and though I’ve found myself much less involved with that organization than I’d hoped, way back, two Advents ago, I really appreciated our … Continue reading “Storytelling Strategies: Quote & By-Line” →

by jad

The Family Tree: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 5

Part 1: Oummi I’m looking at a NYT article from 1984. The story goes like this: “The United States battleship New Jersey bombarded Druse & Syrian gun batteries in Lebanon for more than nine hours today in the heaviest and most sustained American military action since the Marines arrived here 16 months ago. The gunfire was directed at targets ”in Syrian-controlled Lebanon which have been firing on the city of Beirut,” a Marine spokesman, Maj. Dennis Brooks, said. The shells fired into the capital had landed in Christian-dominated East Beirut, several miles from the Marine compound at Beirut International Airport.” … Continue reading “The Family Tree: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 5” →

by jad

The Music Scene: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 4

Part 1: El Hal Romancy Let’s talk about a concert in Byblos. Yeah, that concert; the one where Lebanon’s biggest indie band, Mashrou’ Leila, was banned from performing for a meme—for basically nothing. That episode seems almost comical now, with all that’s happened in Lebanon since. Here they are playing at the original T-Marbouta in 2008. Is it too hipster to say that I remember them when they were nervous boys playing their butts off for free? With every album drop & NPR Tiny Desk performance, it’s easy to forget how unlikely this band’s success was; how prophetic they sounded; … Continue reading “The Music Scene: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 4” →

by jad

Beirut: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 3

Part 1: The Writers This is ‘Floating Woman’ by Joe Nix. As soon as I stepped into Jupiter and saw this on the wall, I thought: “It’s Raneem!” I even said it out loud. The resemblance would have been shocking if I hadn’t seen it before; there’s a mural in Gemmeyze that also looks just like her. “Apparently, Raneem-looking people are muses.” Christine should know; she’s painted her too. Raneem and I first met when we were both searching for inspiration. She had a blog & so did I; we left a comment or two, exchanged messages, & agreed to … Continue reading “Beirut: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 3” →

by jad

Edinburgh: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 2

Part 1: Nemo me impune lacessit On Christmas Eve, someone asked if I miss living in Edinburgh, & my response reflected the ambivalence of my experience there. I certainly missed my favorite haunts in Scotland’s ghostly capital—Dagda Bar, The Mash Tun, Snax Café, Yococo, Turquaz, Balkanarama. I miss the feel of my different neighborhoods—The Royal Mile, Easter Road, Buccleuch Street. I even miss Drummond. I miss our student union building & the special serendipitous place that its Library Bar will always have in my life—indeed, I miss those irreproducible moments the most—celebrating the actual end of the world in 2012, … Continue reading “Edinburgh: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 2” →