What goes on and off, from the set of bulbs in my brain. Some are colored, some are broken, and some are dim. Sharing the experience of living in UK, insights on Pop culture, Art, Social Middle Eastern matters and more.
about
Name: Omar
Location(s): + London, UK
+ Amman, Jordan
Age: 21
Nationality: Arabic
Interests: Arabism, Arabic Art, Graphic Design, Illustrations, Art Direction,
Stop-Motion,Video Art, Motion Graphics, Experimental Art & Design, Arabic Typography,
Poster Design, Book Art & Design, Vintage Art (40s, 50s, 60s, 80s), Vintage Egyptian Film Posters,
Photography, Lomography, Arabic Calligraphy, Ink Drawings, Arabic Comics, Japanese
Horror, White Socks, Experimental Music, Electronic Music, Portfolios, Old Arabic Shop signs, Packaging, CMYK
and Cats that look like they don't like you (i.e. Exotic Short-hair)
Films: Ringu, Ringu, Amélie, Prozac Nation, Caramel, REC, Hard Candy, Superstar, The Fall, Living Dolls, Paprika, James and the Giant Peach, Sakebi, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Others, Devdas, Welcome To The Dollhouse, La Môme, Shafiqa w Metwalli, Toot Toot, La Chaise, La Cité Des Enfants Perdus, Fargo, Sleepy Hollow, Ghost World, Let The Right One In, Art School Confidential, Requiem For A Dream, Monster, The Syrian Bride, Paradise Now
ok, a big fat question that I've been trying to find an answer for...
if the birth of Baby Jesus brought the beginning of the Anno Domini to this world, why are tinsel and mince pies shoved in your face on the 25th of December?
I didn't just ask the question, ever since the days I was happily the Coca-Cola mascot in my school... (Being fat gives me privileges, kids)
Anyhoo, Merry Christmas عيد ميلاد مجيد (Glorious Birthday)
But now it's taking another turn. Shoes are becoming a statement, and lately protests against apartheid in Palestine are replacing stones with shoes. So does that mean that the term "اطفال الحجارة" is no longer in and updated? Should it be replaced by "اطفال الكنادر"? Even Islamists are calling out Arabs to hit Israel with Gaza siege-breaking shoes - now these are the kind of shoes I want to wear.
What fascinates me is that how we got to witness a lot of things that became hyped up and staples in popular culture. I'm sure the number of references to it will surpass the amount of the video uploads of it on the net by at least mid 2009. Let's just sit back and watch another trick to become the essence of the morning chat.
Shoes on the other hand, have a very profound existence in media, here are few of them:
and of course...
But my favourite, is definitely the remix that mashes up the last one mentioned above (Kelly's Shoes) and the Bush incident:
I came to a dead end, to a place I no longer realise what should I do with my life or which path I should be taking. I had a lot of dreams, but they were dying slowly with my forcing myself into something I'm not into.
In the summer, Tyra made it clear that anybody who got their dreams come true should thank a talk-show mogul (or just a mogul) for inspiration, and inside your guts wish for their death for your reign over American television. But you also have to thank your mothers for their sweating and excreting salty fluids from their bodies, don't forget boys and girls - it's all about your mama's sweat that will get you to places.
Plus, Tyra educates me of the different kinds of asses:
A spamward from "Blaza Abu Shehab", and I swear I'm NOT misquoting!
I mean, who could be annoyed of such nostalgic comeback of the "tob" quality candy that have a very high probablity of making you lose your jaw control. Good stuff, why don't you support them and get your self a 'tin' of it - I mean, it does look like a white cheese tin? sa7?
Cynthia M. and Jo B. are the cutest thing you can bump into. They're cuter than a cupcake, wrapped in felt polka-dot tissues, placed in a box with little drawings of chicks on it, with a fur ribbon and offered to you by a kitten. Yeah-ha, that's how cute they are! AND, they're the coolest thing you'll ever want to be and the creators of possibly the best Moleskinism out there.
The two of them happen to come to study in London after I got the great chance of meeting them back in Beirut, and as I saw the following work in person - I would like to show you some of the great pages that got my jaw dropping - it's chemistry, on paper, with pencils and acrylics.
The artwork done on a Japanese book (folded paper) Moleskine notebook that marks the sequence of their lives, and interestingly shows major happenings such as when Jo met Cynthia and going on to moving to London and so. Amazingly interesting, colourful, playful and of course - cute!
On October 26th, the news of 8 people dying in Syria due to US air raid shocked me as hell. I was extremely upset, and I expected a sense of reaction, not from a lot of news outlets but at least from the Arab blogosphere and their aggregators.
So upon my shock when I heard the news, I visited those aggregators and to my surprise (not a very pleasant one) I only found a blog or two that mentioned it. Maybe I have not done my research of the number of blogs that posted about it, because I stormed off being more upset than I was before. I mean, it's ok, Syria can lose a man, his four children, and a married couple today, there's more important shit going on! Like Mission Fashion for example!
Steering the media was never a thing that I chose to discuss earlier, it will just be another Arab blabbering his jaw off, ranting how hypnotised the audience to the American and West media can be, forgetting about the trouble going next door.
Barrack Obama won the 2008 US Presidential elections, I also chose never to blog about him or other presidential candidates, why? I'm not very fond of campaigns and pep talk. I visit a number of the Arab blogosphere aggregators this morning, just to find this intense craze about Obama winning - it's definitely a virtue to be knowlegable and aware of what's happening in the world, but I expected a lot of them to be a lot smarter to know not to follow the media hype.
I'm happy for America, a nation that chose to re-elect Bush as a president for 4 more years after the big fat mistake that they didn't learn from the first time. I hope Obama does bring change and NOT just by the fact that he is the first African-American candidate...
Not trying to be cynical or anything, but I'll be waiting for the day Iraq will be cleared of US military, and hopefully fulfillment of what he promised in the following video:
Religion and their art always fascinated me, especially those with mythological characters that have interesting stories. What's always more interesting is the amount of effort the artists that work on the artworks put in order to achieve what can be referred to as "iconography".
Here are my favourite four, that seriously sparked my interest:
Nataraja
In Hinduism, Nataraja is not a deity by himself, but he's rather the dancing status of Shiva. Nataraja is the Lord of Dance. Not just any dance, but a dance where he performs a divine purpose in constructing and destructing. Shiva is usually the main god followed by those of the Shiva tradition in Hinduism.
Zoroaster
Zoroaster is an ancient Persian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism. He still recommended the followers to try to know the creator of the earth and heaven and adopt good manner, on the basis of their wisdom. Most importantly, he preached about Monotheism. To Zoroastrians, Fire is holy. It's so intriguing how much the above depiction of Zoroaster resembles the common visualisations of Jesus.
Nut
Nut (or Neuth) in Egyptian Mythology is simply the goddess of the sky. She holds every thousands of souls, protects the earth and said to have a body encrusted in stars. The sun is believed to be swallowed at night, and travels through her body, to be reborn again from Nut's uterus at dawn. As shown in the image above, Nut was believed to be arching over the earth in that manner, and the stars on her body are the ones in the sky. The ancient Egyptians also believed that her feet and hands touched the cardinal points (North, South, East & West).
Tawûsê Melek
Although this might be a contemporary visualisation of Tawûsê Mele, and possibly this could be a more correct and common one, yet it's used for illustrative purposes. Tawûsê Melek is the main deity in Yazidi religion of Kurdish populations. Melek Tawus is considered the leader of archangels God created. He was the one that refused to bow for Adam, who is believed to be made from the Earth's dust. In Islam, the refusal of Iblis (Tawuse Melek) upset Allah and he fells from grace. Yet in Yazidism, the refusal was praised by God and he rewarded to be the representative of God on Earth.
omar | blog
