Directed by Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis, The Syrian Bride tells the story of a Druze woman, Mona, living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The film chronicles a single day- the day she is to be married to a Druze man who lives in Syria. The central conflict is that once she crosses the border into [...]
Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
19 Mar
I’ll take potent potables for $600
It’s not exactly a well-kept secret that I adore Jeopardy!, the Merv Griffin invented game show. It airs in my area at 7:30 every night, and if dinner interferes, I’ve been known to get a little…edgy. I’m a big enough fan that I’ve watched Jeopardy: An Inside Look at America’s Favorite Guiz Show. It’s that [...]
18 Mar
Egypt’s most famous pop star
Amr Diab is an extremely famous Eygptian singer whose musical hits span many albums. He was one of the first Arabic musicians I listened to, and I continue to be a huge fan of the album Aktar Wahed. He has a new album coming out sometime this year. (As a side note, I actually would [...]
13 Mar
Yet another Friday the thirteenth
Last month there was a Friday the thirteenth. This month there is a Friday the thirteenth. Spooks! Omens! Ghouls!
شؤم shu’m
:calamity, bad luck, misfortune; evil omen
اشأم ash’am
:ominous, sinister; calamitous, unfortunate, fatal
تشاؤم tasha’um
:pessimism
عدد مشؤوم ‘adad mash’um
:unlucky number
نحس nahas
:to make unlucky, bring bad luck; to be unlucky
نحس nahs
:unlucky, luckless, ominous, ill-starred
6 Mar
Hey you guys!
When I was ten years old, someone very cool had the forward thinking idea of exposing me to the Goonies, a mid-1980s Steven Spielberg flick about a group of kids who find themselves on a quest to discover the hidden treasure left on the pirate ship of One-Eyed Willy. To this day, it continues to [...]
23 Feb
Would you be my neighbor?
You may have already noticed, but one of the neatest things about Arabic is that the three letter root system means that words with the same three letters relate to each other. What I like about today’s post is that the root ج و ر (j w r) means to be a neighbor, and also [...]
9 Feb
House MD: meanest doctor on the planet
Monday nights in our family are House, MD nights. (It used to be Tuesday nights, but Fox had to change things around. Sad times.) Dr. Gregory House, played by the British Hugh Laurie, is simultaneously the most brilliant and most offensive doctor in the fictional Plainsboro Teaching Hospital somewhere in New Jersey. Each week, his [...]
21 Jan
My baby just cares for me
The namesake of today’s post is the title to one of Nina Simone’s most famous songs. Nina Simone, born in North Carolina (my home state!) in 1933, is easily one of my all time favorite singers. Her voice is rich, deep, and profoundly emotive. Her music is a mixture of standards (think “I Loves You [...]
15 Jan
Lucky Strikes and lemons
Last weekend, J and I, with the company of our friend B, started watching AMC’s show, Mad Men. Set in 1960, it is a show about the advertising executives dubbed “Mad Men” because they worked on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. It also chronicles the lives of women who work in the office and the wife [...]
6 Jan
In every generation there is a chosen one
J and I have been watching an inordinate number of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes. I didn’t really follow the show when it was on, so it is both an enjoyable dabble into the otherwise unknown world (unknown to me) of sci-fi television and a trip down memory lane to the 90s. You don’t judge [...]
