Whitney Houston was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel yesterday. Reasons of her death are still unclear.

I am not a big fan of the singer, but I remember very well the big fuss her song “I will always love you” did in Lebanon back in the 1990s. Back then, we had no internet, no “Dish” and had only LBC, TL, C33 and MTV channels to watch. The Bodyguard was one of the few famous movies LBCI decided to broadcast and almost everyone in Lebanon saw it.

It became a bit like Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise that was played in almost every wedding or any occasion in Lebanon during the 1990s and is still popular these days.

Magnetic Valentine? Eau de Parfum at a jewelry store? Is that the best they can come up with?

PS: I don’t know why I get SMSes from Zoughaib as I never bought anything from them.

Half of the Jal el Dib Bridge has been taken down and the rest is on its way. Things are going quickly surprisingly and I noticed there are also works on the maritime road facing the bridge where an old building has been taken down. Not sure if they are related though.

Traffic-wise, things have become worse for people coming down to Beirut from Jounieh or Mount Lebanon, but on the other hand, traffic on the way back from Beirut has dramatically decreased.

Lebanon’s “super nightclubs” straddle the line between brothel and strip club.

An interesting article on the Foreign Policy website. [Link]

Putting modesty aside for a moment, we say someone is Arab and not Arabic from what I know. Arabic is the language.

Second of all, who proclaimed him the No.1 Arab legend?

After setting a new Guinness record for the world’s longest bar, Jounieh has succeeded yet again in entering the Guinness book of records by scoring the highest number of electricity cuts in one hour.

The previous score was held by Jdeideh and consisted of 140 cuts. Jounieh’s score was 143.

To read more about this exciting event, click [Here].

I was in London last week when I decided to pass by the very popular Tate Modern Museum of Art. I’m not a big fan of museums but I went there hoping to see if the installation for the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was still on display. The original installation was removed but they had a smaller version in one of the rooms upstairs which was still cool to see. After leaving that room and I was wondering around slightly bored when suddenly I spotted a black plastic watch with a picture of General Aoun on display. I froze and was like WTF? And then I looked at the tag underneath it and read Omar Boustany which is a friend of mine and I just cracked up. If you knew my friend you would understand why it was funny to see his name under this object but I was still bewildered to what my friend and this General Aoun watch were doing at Tate.

Turns out I walked into a room where Lebanese artist Lamia Joreige was exhibiting her work on the Lebanese war and “how memory and trauma can be embodied in personal objects”. Walking around the exhibit I saw various objects ranging from obvious war related ones like radios, flash lights and empty plastic gallons to more personal items like a book or a key. It was pretty interesting to check out.

I left the room and continued walking around the gallery when I spotted some interesting black and white photos on the room. The one that grabbed my attention specifically was of “abou 3adal”. So I checked the description on the wall and it turned out to be a room full of photos by a Lebanese photographer called Hashem el Madani. Hashem was a studio portrait photographer who began working in Saida back in 1948. The photos were chosen and taken from his studio by Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari. There were some really great shots which you could check out on the Tate website [Here]

Two rooms full of Lebanese work at the Tate. That’s a pretty cool accomplishment.

So my apartment in Lebanon is nearly done and I’m at a stage where I have to choose wall heaters. So I got a few catalogs and was going through them when I spotted the above. One of the catalogs has a woman with her boob sticking out breast feeding a kid on the cover. I thought that was just so random since I can’t seem to figure out what a breast feeding woman has to do with heaters.

The treatment of animals is a reflection of how we treat ourselves and each other. There’s a lack of awareness in Lebanon on how to treat animals and endangered species and there’s an imminent need for a National animal protection and welfare legislation.

This is where Animals Lebanon have been doing an incredible job over the past two years and have finally managed to prepare and present a draft animal welfare and protection law to the Minister of Agriculture and all parliamentarians on November 24th. [Link]

In order for that law to become a reality, Animals Lebanon needs to secure 25,000 signatures and meet individually with Parliamentarians, while cooperating with the Ministry of Agriculture to see the draft proceed as quickly as possible.

There are 6317 signature so far, so I ask you all to spread the message and sign the online petition [Here].

[CNN]

The prison year in Lebanon has become officially 9 months as of yesterday. I don’t understand the logic behind such a decision. If a guy is sentenced for 20 prison years, he gets 15 effectively?

If our prisons are in a bad shape and over-crowded, we build new ones, we don’t free criminals earlier!!

This has to be the smartest idea anyone has ever come with in Lebanon. M3allem.com is an online directory for craftsmen so if you’re looking for a painter or electrician for example you can just visit the website, choose what you’re looking for and then search for contacts. But what I found great is the ability to come back later and review the person!

From personal experience I need a website like this. I’ve been working on my apartment for what seems like forever. It was originally scheduled to be finished last August, then November, then by Christmas, then by end of January and now I honestly have no idea when it’s going to be completed. My biggest problem is the suppliers who are unreliable, are liars, are untrustworthy about don’t stick to deadlines. So if I had chosen my suppliers from M3allem.com I would have gone back and given them all low ratings and let people know to stay away from these people. On the other hand my metal guy has been really great and trustworthy so I would have given him a positive review and recommended people use him.

According to the website over 500 craftsmen have signed up already but I really hope people take time once the job is completed to come back and leave a review. Check out the website [Here]

Thanks Sarah

I finally went to visit Stone restaurant after hearing so much about it, and one thing’s for sure that looks can be deceiving. The place is beautiful from the outside but the food is average and the service is slow.

The place was almost empty when we got there, probably because it was a Sunday night, but still there was no one at the entrance to welcome us in. The restaurant is beautiful from the inside, with the chimney, stone walls and lighting, yet it’s not as big as it appears and barely fits 150 people.

The menu is international but not that rich, and has some spelling mistakes. I know it’s not a big deal but it’s a major turnoff for me especially when the restaurant is supposed to be a fancy one.

Nevertheless, we ordered an appetizer, a goat cheese sandwich, a chicken platter and two pizzas. The appetizer was tiny but ok, the goat cheese sandwich was good but the pizzas and the chicken platter were bad (Chicken tasted funny). Pizzas were supposedly made Italian-style but are crap when compared to Olio, La Piazza, Marguerita pizzas for example. Pizzas might not be Stone’s specialty, but salads and main dishes were also not appealing.

One last thing that caught my attention was the spot dedicated to the Tenor Eliya Francis who performs there every Thursday. It’s right next to the chimney and very close to the tables which is pretty inconvenient for the audience.

In all, the restaurant has a great location, a great interior and a beautiful view, but average food. I think they should make better pizzas, enhance their menu by adding some Cheese & Wine formula, or maybe Fondue For Two and a salad bar.

I thought they were trying to be funny at first but now that one of the ZWZ valet parking dudes physically assaulted a customer, I guess we better stay on alert and keep guns in the car when visiting ZWZ branches.

On another note, I truly hope ZWZ management fixes this problem soon because it’s reflecting badly on their reputation.

Am I missing something? Why is there a dog wearing sunglasses in this Valentine ad?

Something’s wrong with this guy.