Picture of the Day: Beirut, Lebanon. Protesters burn tires and boxes in a demonstration against the kidnapping by the Syrian rebels of a dozen or more Lebanese Shi’a pilgrims in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Credit: Wael Hamzeh/EPA. Via.
(Source: notaqueensphotoblog)
Informed by meetings with top physicists and cosmologists at MIT and Cornell University, “Dark Matter” is intended to be the first in a series of albums that GZA—born Gary Grice in Brooklyn in 1966—will put out in the next few years, several of which are designed to get a wide audience hooked on science.
“Dark Matter” is scheduled for a fall release. Another album will focus on the life aquatic, a subject he’s fleshing out with visits to the labs of marine biologists and researchers, as well as meetings with the likes of Philippe Cousteau.
“After ‘Dark Matter,’ he said, “we’ll be back on earth, but in the ocean.”
wu-tang is for the children.
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The Arabic word za’tar (zaah-tar) means two things: It is the name of a herb that grows primarily in the hills of the eastern Mediterranean and, more importantly, it is the name of a mixture of that herb blended with sesame seeds and other spices—a blend made by mixing nostalgia with necessity. Eaten as a dip with olive oil, za’tar is a ubiquitous staple on breakfast tables in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine. “We had nothing to eat but za’tar and olive oil” is an expression meaning, “We had only our staples.” Today, za’tar is also loaded with symbolism and identity, appearing in art and music, such as poet Mahmoud Darwish and composer Marcel Khalife’s collaboration “Ahmed Al Arabi,” in which za’tar stands for inner strength and home.
from an excellent article about za’atar via my mom. also, i resoundingly concur with THIS…
“Za’tar can be a very personal thing… I have my own stash.“
“In Harlem, a Senegalese-owned store stocks cassettes with movies from the expanding African film industry, and at least two shops in Queens, one owned by a Pakistani and the other by a Bangladeshi, supply Bollywood films on videocassette to the borough’s large South Asian population. Latinos with a lingering preference for the format shop at a Peruvian-owned store in Jackson Heights.” — For Some New York Immigrants, VHS Is King for Movie Rentals - NYTimes.com
(via rubenfeld)
(Source: notaqueensphotoblog)
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Lebanon is always on the verge of civil war, but this status does not always mean that civil war is necessarily around the corner.
It may happen tomorrow, or Lebanese may find a way to postpone its eruption, but civil war is inevitable. Something is in the air in Lebanon and it reminds people of my generation of the atmosphere that preceded the civil war of 1975. But there are some differences.
The Phalanges Party and the various pro-Israeli militias have been defeated. The Palestinian armed presence is not a powerful factor in Lebanese politics. There is no major party in Lebanon which is eager to instigate a civil war as the Phalanges were at the behest of Israel and the CIA back in 1975. Finally, there is no military balance of forces in the country (Hezbollah can easily prevail in any internal conflict).
But there are also similarities. There is a multiplicity of external powers intervening in Lebanon today. Socio-economic injustices are very acute. Regional developments are weighing heavily over Lebanon. The split in the ruling class is very pronounced. And sectarian tensions are worse than they were in 1975.
Picture of the Day: Beirut, Lebanon. Protesters burn tires and boxes in a demonstration against the kidnapping by the Syrian rebels of a dozen or more Lebanese Shi’a pilgrims in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Credit: Wael Hamzeh/EPA. Via.
As a culture we are seemingly obsessed with authenticity, but it’s not clear what an authentic hologram could actually be. In his prescient 1985 novel White Noise, Don DeLillo wrote, We’re not here to capture an image, we’re here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it? An accumulation of nameless energies. We are only projecting meaning and memories onto Holopac, onto this swirl of light waves and dust particles. But what are we even cheering when we clap for Holopac? Who reaps our catharsis, our collective suspension of disbelief? Bring the house lights up, and all we are left with is an empty stage, no true symbiosis between artist and fan. Holopac only lets us reinforce the aura of our youth, he is a collision of time standing still with technology unfathomably speeding up. Perhaps we are so obsessed with authenticity because the distinction between real and simulated has become so bizarrely blurred, in a way DeLillo only vaguely anticipated.
“I’ll do anything to make money… except sell a document to an Arab.”
(Source: notaqueensphotoblog)
A unique oracle hog, a real Ukrainian pig and a psychic which knows the mysteries of football…