Back and out.

Hello readers. I am back to my old Beirut life, and I decided to keep this blog running, but it won't be about Warsaw any longer. I won't go in details about what happened.
Beirut as charming as it is, it has always been a constant state of nostalgic utopia.
I am back to the same endless problems, we sit and talk about them in torino express, in Demo cafe, and sometimes just while walking around with friends and we are constantly annoyed how ugly the new buildings look, and ask ourselves when we will be able to do anything to change something, and that reminds me of the saying" somebody said someone has to do something about anything". Yet we all know that if it means walking the walk, it is fairly a direct truth to say that we only talk the talk.
What can we achieve in a place where possibilities to solve problems are nothing more than dreams of the impossible.
I am hurt and I will reflect my feeling on my city, that it made me do what I did, now it is time to kill it. I mean artistically. In the process of trying to make my first short film, I am trying hard to fall in the vicious cycle of depressed souls smashing their creativity because they rather belief that they are worthless. I see people and friends, they are talking and talking, and I am talking, however, the air above is polluted with our negativity, it 's not raining, the sky is weeping over the wasted talent of the city. One day we will choke in our own dreams, there will be no exit to freedom, only through the corrupt universe of the new Lebanese model which makes human beings slaves to a few dollars, I imagine that a decent life will be a privilege only affordable to those with money. It is a shame that we too have reached this stage, but not only did we reach it it has become the only reality in this country, that a decent life is not a one lead by morality and common sense, but it is a life of roaming savages who believe that to each his own.

1920

When you walk in the heart of the city center of warsaw, you will wind up on Krakowskie Przedmieście. It is a nice street near the old town that was rebuilt after WWII, when the Nazis destroyed about 97% of all the buildings in Warsaw. What rings a bell for me, is the Beirut so called (Downtown) reconstructed after the civil war by the private Solidere company, but unlike Beirut the old town in Warsaw still got character due to the many citizens who lived there after the war, therefore creating much more dynamic streets with small local businesses and tourists attractions at the same time. We lost that battle in Beirut's newly reconstructed illusionary view of the downtown where houses( I am talking huge houses) were sold to the wealthy ( Needless to say that mostly Gulf wealth) who brought nothing more than a heavily secured streets and buildings, a bunch of exclusive restaurants, hotels, and a newly finished shopping center called Beirut souks.( I am not downsizing downtown, but if people want to feel proud of something meaningful to their original culture, old photographs of the real life in the pre-war Beirut souks would be the only consolation for pride and innocence) . Far from the reality of Downtown Beirut, what is usually impressive about cultures is their ability to bring much of the painful past to the midst of modernity, because as they say " you cannot go into the future if you don't look into your past". So recurrent historic themes that make up the bulk of intellectual consciousness of much of the art scenes all over the world usually take place in restored places where wars have ravaged and killed. Therefore I bring the next example only to highlight the obvious, yet I feel it is necessary not to compromise modernity for the sake of History or the other way around, but some compromises are worth doing on both sides ( I am talking about one significant civil war memorial to be allowed in the heart of the glitzy downtown. And let's forget about the martyr square because it has really lost its meaning). In Warsaw there are currently a load of exhibitions, events, and countless other activities aimed at cementing the public absolute brave" fights" and "battles" they went through to defeat the communists, and the Nazis. Particularly the movement called Solidarność. But way before that in 1920 there was a different kind of battle going on in the spring and summer aimed by Lenin to conquer Poland by way of drowning it in the Bolshevik wave, hoping to get into Germany and the rest of Europe. Lenin failed and so the relevance of the street mentioned above comes into the picture. The man in the picture is Piłsudzki the man who is given much of the credit for the way the Poles conducted their war, and won. It is a huge image of this man, and on the other side of the street is also a huge one of Lenin. The contrast may be a cliche, but it is important for the tourists to see, and the locals alike. So I am thinking that it is great to be able to have a portrait of a man who can be attributed to the salvation of not only a nation, but the European continent (even if only for the 25 years following the 1920 defeat of the Ruskis). So let me think who of our Lebanese politician we can commemorate in such an honorable portrait? Well we can put many portraits of those who actually destroyed not only Beirut but the rest of the country, yet I dare we find one man who defeated one national threat. ( Now look at that portrait, I am not sure if it is the mustache or the cigarette, but they defiantly go well together).

Dice game concert?

What do you do when you get to the entrance door to a free concert? Well normally you enter- except last night's outdoor "free" concert had a pleasant surprise for us. The story went like this: A polish singer named Timon is singing a free concert near the river. I thought well Polish music concert? Why not, I may not understand a word but it's cool to go to an outdoor event. In Beirut unfortunately most events are indoors, and the summer festival well are summer, and that means you are exposed to sometimes 30 degrees at night with up to 95% HUMIDITY. I had had enough of being in the smokey bar scene in Beirut, so I went. As we got to the door,( well it was more like a fence) ,two girls asked us to toss a dice. The lower you score the better; because it is simply how much you would pay. So the dilemma was that if in general you are an unlucky person, then you know at this particular game you will actually score as high as the max 12 points, and then you will pay 12zł the equivalent of 4$. Which is fair if you thought about the nice spot, and the music. But what itches you is the fact that you were told that it is a free concert. After not having much choice in the matter, and holding the line in front of about 17 Polish people. I tossed the dice on the tiny slippery table where they also had 2 plastic cups one for change and the other had paper money, a piece of paper on which they wrote the score which translated to money, but the dice fell straight to the floor. I go into this to explain that it is not like you are actually gambling on a nice green velour casino table. The next toss I score 3. "HIHAAAAAAAAAA". I pay 1$ for my entrance. Dominika was much luckier, she scored 12, and unfortunately payed the max amount the dice obligated of 12 big ones ( well it was 4 dollars).
Anyhow lovely experience, only to top it with a cherry, the band's van broke down 30-km outside Warsaw. So we waited in the cold for a good 2 hours. By that time the band showed up, quickly unloaded all their instruments, and the concert kicked off, with very little enthusiasm I am afraid. Thinking back about this situation, I believe it is really a great concept to gamble your way in for a concert which the artist is unknown to you, for once if the music was good, and your dice was bad, then it would have been a truly thrilling hand.

The chairman of Centrum.

Warsaw street musicians are not abundant in my opinion, but they are special. There are a few that have their usual spots- for instance there is an old men group who play old polish tunes and they are usually on Nowy swiat street where there are a bunch of tourists , also there is the guy who sits facing the palace who plays the tuba,and he blows fire from the top of its hole, yet none of them are as special as the "chairman" who plays percussion on the main centrum exit of the metro line. The reason this dude is special ,I think, is not because he does not really make any real percussion, or because he does not seem to enjoy what he is doing, but for the very fact that he is constantly coming up with new broken chairs.Why is that special? well I think it's an original kind of recycling, but also a decent way to earn money for someone who I assume is not a musician ( I mean really the guy does not make beats that make you groove). But let me explain for those who never been to Warsaw about this dude. This is a man who so far has not missed a day standing there beating the chair in front of him making some kind of noise to attract people. He is there for hours just beating on the chair. Man it cracks me up. Not that I intend to make fun of this man, it's just that the simple idea of that chair makes it funny. Imagine that this guy keeps beating on a chair until it brakes, because he then gets a new chair from who knows where. So the special part for me is that a chair that's been dumped is no longer an object used and thrown away. It has become a part of the act performed by this man. The chair then is abused by the man's arms for hours before it being replaced by another one. I am not sure why I find this so fascinating, maybe because I once saw a man in New York beating on some plastic pots, and containers, and this guy made amazing music. I mean there are musicians who can make nice sounds out of everything, but our dear chairman's redeemable value in my opinion is that he brings, without intention I assume, an irony to the meaning of a chair. I elect him the chairman of centrum.

Birds to watch dreams go by.

It was my first day back in Warsaw. I am lying in bed sick and tired. The amount of party, little hours of sleep, one meal a day, and the change of weather, have all finally caught up with me. Beirut can be a really exhausting vacation. Ironically the weather in Warsaw smells like autumn already. You can see tree leafs dead, and yellow blown in many directions by the wind. What I saw from our bed through the window, while half dreaming half awake, were the birds. They are flying back into the city. Dominika says she is never sure they ever left the city. The crows are back, and with them I imagine the months coming. However, I do not fear their arrival this time, nor my sickness, for to me it only means that the cycle is functioning. It reassures me even to fantasize that my health and the weather may have seasonal agreements.
Today,however I felt much better. I went to the center.My mind has not switched between the two cities yet. I like the fact that I feel at home now in Beirut, and Warsaw. Yet, with each step into familiar direction in Warsaw, my mind raced to the next without really being in the moment. For instance everything is there but to me it seemed more like I am watching through memory rather than consciousness. It feels good in a way because it is inspiring.
I always liked a record called " music to watch girls go by", I won't claim to be a music except, neither that I actually recognize all the tracks on this album. I liked it for its name. I've probably used the name in alteration before, but it is the first time when I felt it fits this piece. As the dreams go back to nocturnal stages, and the birds soar over the streets, watching anything at all may be what's real.

Welcoooooooooome:)

To those of you familiar with Le chef in Gemayzeh, I am sure you know charbel and his iconic WELCOME. I just got back from Beirut, where I felt truly welcomed again with all the friends and family. Now, I know this blog had been idle for sometime, but here I am back with energy and fresh new look I hope on warsaw.

Global trap!

About 6 or 7 years ago I got myself into reading a book about the dangers of globalization. It's the kind of books everyone with green conscious, and a big heart must read. There is no fiction story in the book, only a lot of points about why it is bad to be living in a global economy, and how things really work now. It turns out that we don't own much of the choices in our own lives anymore. Also if wealthy men in suits "FART" let's say somewhere in China, their wind will globally cross its way to Alaska, and somehow affecting things there ( this is not in the book). I could not finish reading, nevertheless I was depressed all the same, and ever since I became very confused whether I fully hated globalization, or just a bit. Today I must admit to like it with the same confusion, or even worst I feel trapped. Think of the fresh daily flowers delivered from Amsterdam to London in few hours. Think of traveling inside of schengen european states without borders. Think of something you like from back home and if it wasn't for globalization you won't have it somewhere else in the world ( I am not defending globalization, but why denying some of the good commodities, even for a pessimistic guy like me), long ago trade consisted of basic stuff, now you can buy the same brand all over the world. So what's the point of all of this? The story is that a few months ago I found myself staring at a container of Lebanese made "Tahini"( a very heavy sesame oily paste) on the shelf of Bomi ( A supermarket here in Warsaw). I was impressed to see that a seemingly insignificant product in the daily life of the Lebanese people back home, a Tahini container still manages to sit here "overpriced", and looking awkwardly funny among the coconut milk cans,teriyaki sauce, and other products in the exotic food section. . Now, 3 months ago, I did not buy it. However, as the home sickness increased, and the taste of a good plate of "hummus" lingered on the back of my tongue, I decided to get one today. So now I am thinking that this absolutely necessary ingredient in the making of hummus is available here in Poland, I am off to the next level. I am making my own Hummus. Wow, I wonder what else globalization can permit me to have. Now, I am still confused about the bad things globalization is causing like wars, poverty, starvation and etc, but damn it I got " THE HUMMUS" the most controversial plate on the menu lately between Israel and Lebanon, also I think Hizbullah's weapons is on that same menu, but they seem to have been placed in the desert section. ( The original creators of hummus are yet to be finalized between the two countries, there was even a competition to win the guinness book of world records for the biggest Hummus plate. Honestly, I am not sure how such a stupid controversy can even exist). So I finally understood that trade nowadays is not only with goods, but with cultures. I found the solution for the confusion. If will eat my hummus, and I will not feel guilty.

The power of laptop

There are many places in warsaw where you can sit outside on a sunny day. The place where I am sitting now is called "Plan B" ( yes! just like this new film out there). Plan B is a place that reminds me of torino express in Beirut. Why? Well it is a place with a kind of service that may seem unpleasant for those who are not regulars, but also because it really seems like the staff and some of the regulars are one big family. I am not a regular here, but I have been frequenting this bar since my first early visits to Poland. What makes today special is that I am sitting on a table outside. Outside means you are on a 1 square meter(roughly), and around you will be a round about. The round about is home to many trams that connect the city from south to north, east to west. We live south of here, and it is a nice walking distance on a warm day. what's more special is that its Friday, which means the day of week when you are almost certain that the week is over. Only since I am not working I have to pretend that Fridays are really special for me. It's only 5 p.m. but I am here anyway. The beer is cold, the sun is shinning and the traffic is irregular. Earlier I was watching the trams go by. It's funny when I am usually going home in one of the trams I get a few seconds to look over to where I am sitting now, but now I have much more time from where I am sitting to carefully inspect the trams. They are indeed a great invention. Just think of having to drive, or be in a car all the time to connect from A to B. Later I was looking at the sky. There were occasionally a few white clouds that hid the intensity of the sun every once in a while, but my skin stayed constantly warm which was and still is great. I am here then, but what is really special besides all the above, is that I have a lap top. So I am playing my own playlist from itunes. I am getting a kick of the music because I am the one man Dj in this square. ( off course only for myself) but hell man that is freedom. That alone can defeat the Idea of communism in a place that may have been only 20 years ago just a normal boring square with no Plan B, cafe Karma, or the many Warsaw youth on their bicycles locking them anywhere they can to gather and talk around this favorite square of mine. But I only mention communism because ironically there is a big white church to which the square " Zbawiciela" takes its name, and just down the street is "plac konstytucji"( constitution square) which was built as I understood by the russians. If you look carefully to one of the statues engraved in one of the buildings, you will see a typical socialist looking worker(Iron forger) with early decades' primitive industrial tools. In a way it will look now like a vintage revolutionary socialist poster. So the connection with torino express is a remote one since I don't know anyone here, but playing my music does make me feel like the many days and nights I stood behind the red glowing sign of torino and played for hours from bags of exhausted CDs.

PS: The picture was taken from wikipedia. The file is licensed under wikicommons.

Babie lato.

Babie lato(pronounced Babyeh-Lato) in Polish are the white puffs that come flying in the air in before the arrival of Summer. They are one of the signs that warmth has arrived, along with birds, and eventually the sunny days which so far have not been many here. However,what I wanted to talk about is in my mind clearly not an environmental subject, I rather call it a first time experience. This may sound ridiculous to people who live around here, and are used walking into clouds of Babie lato. Believe me, not all places have these beautiful things that come flying into rooms without invitation, and brushing our faces like a flirt with a complete stranger(On the fast sidewalk of distant modern life emotion, people tend to connect with the natural elements, animals, and coincidence more than with other people). In the picture you may be unable to guess right away what they are, but I will explain how it felt for me being inside of them.

For once these things from the kitchen window yesterday seemed like snow. The air blew them in all direction,and in corners they gathered forming white patches like clouds, and when the wind was favorable for a twister(small one off course) these white puffs twirled around in a funny little tornado. When I was a kid we went to our occupied village in south of Lebanon,whenever we could go there off course. Around the summer one of my favorite activities was finding these plants with the white cottony heads and blowing them with my breath, and seeing the puffs fly in all directions. Today as I walked through hundreds of them on a Warsaw side walk, I had a piece of childhood. The sentimentality in this story is worth telling for an obvious reason. I am enjoying in Warsaw whatever it is that has become exotic to me, certainly opposed to Beirut where the nearest so-called forests are far,and scarce enough not to carry any white puffs in the polluted city air. I leave you with a recommendation of a film by Federico Fellini called "Amarcord", and it starts with these white funny things, and in the film the kids declare that the winter is over.

Locked bike Kidnapped!!!!

Today I woke up to Dominika asking me where I had parked her bicycle. She seemed sad but with a little suspicious hope in her voice, like when you would know that the answer to a doubtful question is all but not a happy one, yet you still ask in case a miracle shall occur, long after miracles ceased from being all together credible ( we can't say, however, that Santa does not exist even if in a few years his home in the pole will be less white if the global warming keeps fast at work). The last time Dominika rode her bicycle was on Sunday, today is wednesday and that means it has been 3 days since we both last seen it, and I personally securely locked it to the heating pipe . We usually park it and lock it on the staircase between the 2nd and 3rd floors of our building. So my positive answer was as suspicious as any hope we both might have had, and even though I was still half asleep, I knew that the so much loved, e-bay great deal, Dominika's light green and cute and girly bike with the installable basket in the front was not on the stair case, but had been stolen who knows when, by who knows who, in the period between Sunday afternoon and wednesday morning. This was a sad wake up call by all means, and both our hearts sank in the mourning of the bike, I naturally was mad and started an investigation silently in my head to catch the thief( or thieves) and bring them to justice( whatever that means). In Warsaw like many other places,many people ride bicycles, and like many other places many eager thieves can thrive, and happily cease unwatched bicycles. Yet,how the hell can 2 bicycles disappear from inside of the building, where only residents have the key to get in and out. I say 2 bikes because there was another bicycle stolen in that same period. This brings to my mind the Italian film "bicycle thief" , although in the film the theft is almost pardonable if you follow carefully the protagonist's journey, I can't help but wonder about the person who stole the 2 bikes here. Anyway, in a sense you can't help but lose trust in locks, security, and law, when a thief must be living with you. UNFORTUNATELY THERE ARE NO PHOTOS OF THE BIKE:(

Music and grey clouds

There can be only some desperate measures to consider linking some happy tunes with grey clouds. The sun was hiding from the city of warsaw for many many many days, but finally today it shyly appeared and people rejoiced , well not literally, but you can see more flesh when the sun is out, the lush green parks are filled with white enthusiastic half naked people looking like shiny white spots from a distance, hoping to catch some tan, or stock up on some vitamin D that the sun helps provide. I am not sure what it is with the bad weather in this country but it sure does last for a long time, long enough over the decades that someone suggested that polish people would have been much nicer had they been gifted with a nicer weather( I agree, but I think of other cold dark places, and wonder if some eskimos are as rude as some polish people, because they are surrounded by snow a lot, or if some lebanese people are so friendly(mainly to tourists off course) because they are over exposed to the sunshine). However valid the debate may be,it is besides the point, the point is that I am becoming less attentive to the surrounding in cold weather, maybe with time I will change from the cheerful tourist with a camera, to a cold long faced citizen of warsaw, but until that happens I would like to find a way to keep this blog alive, since I noticed that the worst my condition in relativity to the weather, the less I tell stories of daily life in here. So what's the outcome? I am not sure, but one sure thing is that live music can sure break up cloudy weather. Just How? Well as the picture depicts, this man seen from our balcony amused us on this very grey weekend ( a few days ago) with his penetrating cheerful version of Besa me mucho. I had just come out of the shower, and the music filled the house, now I call that a good hang over treat. Hey mister accordion man play a song for warsaw.... Cheers Bob no one will sing it better:)

Mysterious Pigeons????

It's about time I spoke to those who don't live in Warsaw (like my friends in Beirut who don't have that many)about them. Yes these grey colored birds, with their particular noise(cooing) that are everywhere in Warszawa, along with the hundreds of Crows( but I will talk about the crows in the winter since they depress the shit out of me). They are "The pigeons"and, they are so many(too many perhaps) and they are not shy, or scared, and if you sit on a bench they are most likely able to approach you with their funny walk thinking that you may throw them something, so in the city they have developed a habit of being around us for obvious reasons. Yet so many seem to think that they are a real bother.For example the one you see in the picture, is one of many that land on our balcony early in the morning and coo croo(cooing cooing) until Dominika has to get up and shou them away. I was not aware of myself being uncomfortable with Pigeons since they are a kind of an attraction-where I come from, but that started to change since I moved here, many times pigeons flew right in my face and i had to duck at the very last second avoiding being (hit by a pigeon). In Lebanon people have them in cages on the roof, and they set them free several times each day to soar high above the city sky, in fact they are the only free flyers in the country and over the city(since we shot most of the birds, and have very few trees, so we ain't got no birds, or ducks, or anything better to fly above our heads, off course not counting the thousands bullets when we have any kind of celebration, or funerals, elections, football games in Kurdistan, come to think of it people shoot their guns in the air for so many reasons, it's hard to keep track). If you were to watch Beirut from far off, you would see different flocks of pigeons in different sides over the buildings going in circles. People who raise them hope to score,each time they fly, one new pigeon (female) from neighboring flying pigeons. The reason is the owners will buy a good looking male pigeon that has a certain qualities that make the other flying female pigeons from rivaling neighborhood follow him to his owners cage, and therefore gaining a free pigeon(off course easier said then done, since chances are not always good since both sides are trying the same thing). And there are these little wars all the time between the pigeon raisers, where the ones who lost a pigeon often will try to recover it by same method, or just showing up at the door where they know their pigeon is. One more thing that is silly I think is a certain Law in Lebanon that forbids pigeon raisers from witnessing in court for a crime, because they are always looking up, and the argument is that they could not have seen the crime. So anyhow, the pigeons in Warsaw are like in other places just grey and are out to eat, shit, and reproduce every chance they get and they sure are not locked in cages on the roofs of bulidings. I made a little research and would like to share this link with ( http://ehrweb.aaas.org/ehr/parents/Pigeons!.html ) you that will show us that what's known about pigeons is little and apparently these "mysterious" birds because of their abundance in the cities scientists have studied them less than other bird species (Ps. I am not sure how old the information on the link are). So in case you are fed up with the cooing you may look up this link and see what good these pigeons are good for, or just to learn some information about them. One info I can share is that " They have only 37 taste buds, while you have 9,000".

Po Polsku.

Yesterday I had my first real conversation in Polish.

Well maybe not in real Polish, but I used all the words I know and somehow it worked. I was waiting for a tram, and there was an old lady sitting there at the tram stop. She started talking to me and from what I gathered was that she was asking if I can check the tram schedule for her, I noticed she used a cane and I did not reply for the fear of exposing my bad Polish. It was a Sunday so trams don't run frequently.As I started looking at the schedule hanging on the display of the tram stop booth, I began thinking of my dilemma "how the hell do I tell the lady the actual time of the next tram in Polish" (by the way numbers are so far very hard to pronounce and memorized for me), "and even worst" I thought "how do I ask which tram she wanted to take because there were three of them?". So I submitted to failure and told the lady that I really didn't speak Polish sufficiently to help her (which luckily is a sentence you lear in language school, I think to save you from making a fool of yourself). She seemed a bit disappointed but she asked where I am from, and to my surprise remembering my classes well, I understood and answered her, and then my broken conversation started, she would asked a long question, and I would reply with very few words, eventually I was able to understand that she was waiting for number 18, and I said that it is coming TERAZ(which means NOW in Polish). The tram soon arrived and the lady got up, and before hoping in she said "Do widzenia" which is a Polish way of saying goodbye and it literally translates to " see you later". So I guess for the first time I noticed that this Language that used to sound very strange a month ago, is becoming more and more familiar. I won't get ahead of myself, but I am encouraged to start finally ordering my HERBATA(TEA) in Polish.

URBANISMOS!!!!

Around each corner we may find a happy picture in a sad moment,a great moment in a weird corner. Warsaw connects with buses, trams and one tube(subway) line. People seem, like in other big URBANISMOS(or cities), very focused on getting to where ever they are heading without looking left or right. I hate the rush. Sometimes I am late for my Polish class and I feel just like a machine, I function like one. My route becomes a series of making my way in the dark, or sniffing my pace in the wood like a bloodhound, at one point as a photographer I hate it, I feel like a sponge in the middle of the mad 5 p.m. rush hour. Because our job as photographers,I think, is to be very distant and engaged at once, but not trapped with the same rhythm, so I tell myself that the driving force in the human nature has to be a one way street to the center of an infinite circular repetitious daily life. So Warsaw's daily life can be like New York, or Delhi for all I care. That is off course looking from inside the transportation web. The life of people here have all the stories that have been shaping human existence for centuries, the times might have changed, but the emotions remain. Those annoying teens, lovers, bums, grandmas, corporate,aristocrats,beggars,losers,winners,sex in the city,artists,thieves,merchants,stores,sellers,brands,chains,McDonald,coffee heaven,corner-shops,dairy products,fresh veggies,tulips,soda can collectors,drunks,junkies,skate borders,and nerds, all the walks of life can be found here. I decided to tell from now on stories on this blog and also some observations , that can reveal a bit of the average situational comedy or disaster in the daily life of people or just mine. Like once I was in the tube and a guy eating a huge Kebab sandwich(Kebab places are very popular, cheap and common in Poland) he was standing up near the subway door, devouring the kebab like a beast, then a piece of meat comes out his sandwich and lands on a guy sitting on a bench next to him, the sitting man looked up thinking it was raining kebab, then realized that cheap lunch in public places can be shared:). Now I leave the photo this time to your imagination. That was funny. YOU GOTTA LOVE URBANISMOS(THE ART OF LIVING IN THE BIG URBANISMO).

Places, traces, and a few lost faces.

I am not inspired to write, I am wondering if it is the weather? I thought it was spring time, but it turns out that today(for example) it was really close to snowing. I am not nagging for I know that the people here have suffered almost 6 long dreadful cold and grey months. However, it feels a bit embarassing when you don't know what to wear when you are leaving the house. Have you ever anticipated a wrong tempreture and gone out dressed like a stuffed teddy bear ? Anyhow It is not really what I want to write about. I found this picture that I snapped a few weeks ago, and I love these faces looking at the lady, when in reality they are actors, and this mural is near a theater here in warsaw. But think about it for a moment. I am also a face in the crowd here. I know about 6 people including Dominika. It has been great to walk and feel free, but after a while it gets to you that if you are not made out of stone, then people can be a bit friendlier. But again I am told it is just the Polish way of doing things, being not so friendly. So I put that behind me and I bake really good Oat meal and raisins cookies. Hoping to seduce the neighbors with the smell. So far no one came knocking:))) I will see you on a brighter day.

Don't eat your fingers!!

We have a Lebanese saying that goes like this: " it's so good you will eat your fingers when you are done". That is just the metaphor about how good a dish is, mainly I am guessing it started as a trick for mom's to convince their kids to eat that green stuff they never like, or husbands to satisfy their wives, or it is just true. In warsaw and for totally different reasons, there is a restaurant that serves food in edible plates( yeah! really the food does come in plates made out of some kind of wheat, that you can eat). As usual I am the last to understand things here since it always has to be translated, and it took a while for me to get it(really). Dominika did explain that the plate was made out of dry stuff that you could eat. So I looked at it and it had the texture of wood, then I took a little piece, and I chewed on it, but it was terribly dry, the kind of things that you would give for a horse, or a cow, unless you let it sit over night in tea or water. The food on the other hand was good, but the plate business I think was a bit extreme for my taste. The good thing about the restaurant is that it is an environmentally friendly place, and so not wasting water and soap on washing dishes is good for nature, maybe next time I take my edible plate to the park and feed it to the pigeons, they seem to eat anything. In the end I got to thinking that maybe eating your fingers after a good meal,would not be tastier than the edible plate either. In any case, I am keeping my fingers, and won't chew on edible plates again. SAVE THE PLANET EAT ALIENS:)

No baking soda no baking good!

So welcome back readers(in case anyone is there), I hope that the absence of a few posts from the Libanski blog were not the only cravings you had in the past couple of days. Well talking about the cravings, I am very decided on becoming a good pastries maker; which means by valentine next year i hope to be inventing my own new kind of red saucy cup cake with hearts on it(you know in case that works). I know you are wondering where does that relate to observations on the Warsaw life). Well it doesn't except that since I got so much free time making meals seems like the logical stuff to do. Anyway I am a big believer in home cooked meals unless you really have no time to cook, then fast food is just fine(kebab may be as well, since you can't help it in warsaw but KEBAB places are everywhere and open 24h. I am not sure if you can call that food exotic anymore). So after I think i passed on being an okay cook, it is time to hit the desert scene. My first banana bread was terrible, I had no baking soda, so I figured come on many times you are cooking and you have something missing and things turn out just fine. Only when you are baking a cake, bread, muffin,pies and whatever it is, you need goddamn baking soda. So the bread came out looking like a bread but no fluff inside. The photo with the light color bread is that first experiment. Today I went crazy and made a banana bread, but melted a whole bunch of dark chocolate in it(and sure enough baking soda), and well it swelled and it does taste and feel more like a cake than a bread, still it is much better than the first time(the dark one in the photo). So hey I will let you know what the result will be by the time that lover day thing is around the corner. But you know what they say" JUST BUY IT AT THE BAKERY KID".

National death

The tragedy of today requires no comment or images from Libanski blog. Condolences to all Polish People. Will be back in another suitable day.

Swords, ball games, testosterone, and Lebanese leaders.

I come from a place where if you are not politically affiliated, then you are most likely marginalized or even worst yet;" ignored, ridiculed and told off".(which is fine by me). Lebanese believe in their leaders' honest lies (and they admit that they know it's bull crap, but hey no one knows better than a leader: he's the LEADER god dammit). Here in Poland leaders don't seem to matter to anyone (not a single photo I've seen on telephone booths, street lamp poles and etc... Not even the president. What exist must be something else I am not sure what it is yet. However I could not help, when taking the photo, thinking that whatever it is that nations follow, or worship, and mainly I am concerned with men, it must be related to the amount of testosterone men are able to produce as instant gratification from whatever it is they worship ( man, machine, or else). I mean when I think of a football game (what is that), isn't about defeating the enemy, just like apparently the two men in the statue are out doing. To me they seem to be out defending Warsaw from intruders, with the sword and the arrow pointing both to the front, in a very distinct (deja vue brave heart) kind of way. If you ever been to Lebanon and happened to get engaged in some political rally, or watched the news, and wondered why the hell do our politician seem angry all the time for? The answer is testosterone. In a country(Lebanon) where sport is not professional, and most certainly absent from our culture, where statues of warriors have been replaced by modern political figures, the only game worth watching is the never ending political production. Poland so far is a great place to live for many reasons. To name one that is relevant to the topic, well I am glad not to be reading stupid signs hanging from one side of the street to the other with stuff written on them that is supposed to fuel instantly your testosterone; Not me misters, I'll be saving mine for a better cause. Vive la testosterone.

Back on the stove.

I hope you all enjoyed the easter.

I sure did(although I did not get to break eggs?), the Polish have a habit on easter morning. They cut an egg (or a few eggs) into small long pieces, then they put them in a plate(depending on the number of people having breakfast) and then each will get one piece of egg, they stand next to each other then they make wishes. They have the same costume for X-mass, although they use the kind of dough priests give after the mass(what's it called?). Anyhow, we spent a lot of time eating great food, and i got to learn a new word for male sheep(in english it is a ram) in Polish it's baranek(Cute no!) AHHHH. Also apparently in Polish "No means Yes"... Really you hear them say no, no , no and they means yes yes yes. Well go figure.

Anyway you will be wondering by now what does the stove have to do with anything. It is certainly nice when people like us(a couple) or for singles living far away from what you consider a real family home, with the tea cups and their saucers, the spoons, and the tea jug all matching, stuff like that. Mothers you know, and all their things they like to collect for their kitchen, and dinner tables. Anyhow the point is waking up and smelling a good breakfast, is much better than having to make one daily, and lunch, and dinner. There is a great joy in cooking to your lover, and friends if they are there. Yet it's much better if you do the eating part for the most part of the year. Hey what can I say, we are also vegetarians and we find ourselves narrowing down our options on the food chain. For now cereal for breakfast with soy milk is just fine. Smacznego(Polish for Bon appetit).

Go break some eggs

Hello:) Libanski will be gone for easter, he's got a lot of painting to do. New post on Tuesday about the trip to west of Poland to a place called Poznan(it's a city that I used to call village).

Happy easter.

Google, or an excuse to write another post.

I was never a big fan of the internet (except for skype and email, i am much of a retard compared to people who spend hours), but since I moved to warsaw my eyes are starting to hurt from spending longer hour surfing the net. What in the world will be looking for? I started recently by discovering google maps, with its help i have been able to understand more or less the directions in the city ( I am still getting lost, but only at night it seems). I went for a walk last night,after a not so great chinese diner, so the whole time i am walking and thinking i am heading back to our street, only to find myself at a Metro station south of here. Boy I went for a walk and took the metro back home. Anyhow to say the least about the useful stuff you find on the net, I have been trying to dig all sort of articles about Warsaw. Only after 4 days now I am giving up on one simple search that is photographic by nature and technical in aspects. Google could not find me one single darkroom for rent in Warsaw ( Darkroom is a place where you can manually develop your own photographs), help please if anyone know of such a place. The good news is anytime there are the words (dark) ROOM... and RENT...google is sure to find you a million rooms to rent(as to sleep), so i am becoming more or less familiar with the prices of rent in the city, but still i am unable to rent a darkroom. However, I do feel grateful to whoever wrote this google sign on this wall, because thanks to you and the help of a Dominika's digital camera, in a way we have been able to reverse my curse. I FOUND GOOGLE AND DID NOT NEED A DARKROOM TO POST IT ON THIS BLOG.

NB: It is real:)

No one fooled me today!

It's April 1st. Zapraszam(and that would mean Welcome), if you happen to go to Le chef in Gemmayzeh, Beirut, well ask Charbel "how to say welcome in polish"? and he will scream Azpraszzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaam:) What does this have to do with April's fools day? (Nothing i guess).

I am dedicating this post to Dominika since it was for her that i moved here. Not like in a sentimental way anyhow(but can't help; it it is romantic), it's just that i would never have imagined ( i mean ever, ever ever, never ever: got it it's this song or something like it) coming to live in Poland of all the places. When i was young i had a fantasy to marry a French girl and go living in sweden, it turns out that none of that was good enough of a fantasy any how, except that the freezing temperatures and great summers are something Poland and Sweden do have in common. To make a story short, there is a point in our adventures in life when someone will ask you if you would eat raw monkey fleece, and you would say never, only you may not count how many you would eventually eat, when the right moment comes. YES! it is this strange thing called life. We live and we fall in love and we do things without thinking, but with a bit of planning ( that won't make sense) but again life does not really. Yet somehow people put all these rules to life, do this, don't say that (TAKE A WALK) as if things were predictable. So i guess what is nice about an April's fool day joke? It is unpredictable. There you go a little lie, turn to joke, and things are a bit different. What are we to think when a fish hangs on our back?

What color am I?

Today i called my mom all the way to Beirut via Skype. Such a happy blue invention(now isn't it?), seriously i mean she was concern about the snow in warsaw. After i assured her that so far it looks like spring is here, i got to thinking. I thought that instead of going out today to make random walks i am going to go to this cafe i like that used to be a train stop( it has such a hard name, i will ask Dominika for it later). They converted this station into a real nice place. But that's not the story, really, i mean getting there was the difficult part, but on my way it seemed that Warsaw today was colorful again:) Happy days with a bit of sun bring those colorful clothes out of the closets, i saw a lot of pink and violet, blue and red and green, all matching from different labels, and latest displays. I think Warszawans ( i am not sure what they call people from Warsaw, I imagine it is Warsawians, if i am wrong and you know correct me please), have a great sense of style, somewhere on the edge of fashion with a touch of resentment to tradition and posture. I love it. So i am walking to this cafe( and you can be sure i am as lost as a blind man driving in Tokyo), and i am starting to look around and the more i looked the less i felt being there(physically, but not to the point where i could fly or disappear or any of that stuff). I started thinking about the diversity in this city, perhaps it is not a large cosmopolitan area with China town, and little Italy, and what have you. But in a sense who cares, slowly there will be all kind of people. I am sure all urban brands are there,( i even saw a restaurant called Don Corleone, and damn it we have it in Beirut) so in a sense the major labels are here, but not nationalities, so i got to thinking what does Warsaw need to offer to attract foreign life? I am not sure since the language is a big barrier. Not to say that foreigners don't live here(hey I am here). Anyhow, to make this short( i don't really know the answer anymore) I can only say: "Mom don't worry there is warmth in Warsaw, if not from the sunny sky, it will be from lovely people you meet along the way." In the end I just have to know what color am I?

Along came Leopold

(This is a rewrite)I wrote the post then erased it thinking that it was a bunch of nonsense. Anyhow the main points about the next few sentences are white mushrooms, and one banana. Mushrooms in Poland can be found in any veggie store, they are also cheap, and taste great. I am starting to learn the many possibilities they can be cooked. Our friend Ewa taught me a recipe, and it's good and simple, the mushrooms come out brown and delicious. I kind of forgot how it is done now, but I can assure you(100%) that we had them at her house last Dec and they were great. So if you like mushrooms, Poland can deliver a lot of those. Why the one banana??? Well it is a cultural thing. You see no one where i came from will buy one banana, or even think about buying one as a snack. Snacks are different where i came from. However, today i was walking somewhere in Warsaw when i saw a green truck and a lot of fresh nice looking veggies laid out next to it on the side walk. The bananas looked super yellow under today's sun, like kids colored them excessively on their way to school. I bought one and ate it, it felt great and energizing. I know it seems like one hell of a silly pleasure, but i guess that what makes a difference for me, that i spontaneously was able to accommodate myself to one simple yellow fruit effortlessly. I have done it in Beirut but was never able to escape the deranged look on the sellers face. Buying one banana in beirut can be as ridiculous as flashing a bunch of nuns.

The real treat of the day was even simpler. I was having a tea and reading "Generation X" ( A strangely good book and strange enough), sitting outside in this cafe on a big intersection where trams are regular, and also old ladies on their canes. A big old dog came along strolling near my table sniffing around, and then sat down very close to me as if posing and asking to be photographed. Since he looked like the Royal type of dogs, and even though his owner gave him a cherished name, I named him Leopold.

A walk in "A" Park.

Warsaw has many parks, therefore the title "A". I could not name any yet. Believe me there are plenty of them, the size of many blocks in Beirut. Not to compare, it just is a real treat to be here if you like a walk in the park on a moderately nice day. I was told to wait a bit longer(the coming weeks i guess) and the spring will be here(for real). That means my friends if you happen to be here, you will see nothing in those parks but big old green trees, birds, ducks, and people. When i came to warsaw the first time i did not understand anything. When i came back in december for the third time, i still did not understand much. Except that as far as the weather went, you did not really care to look around much in the grey capital. Now i can say that i understand a bit the importance of good weather for people in this city. It makes them smile, put on less clothes, walk more instead of jamming along each other in crowded public transportation. So yes parks will have people when the weather is nice. I decided today(Monday) to get lost in the city. I started walking and then i got to "A" park, as i am walking i decided to share this observation with you, not sure why or whether i could make it a generalization;however my friends, i saw a bunch of grandmothers either sitting there alone, or with their dogs, and a few were pushing their nieces and nephews in strollers around, while crows(famous in this city) flew over with their shrieking high pitch cries. It seemed to me that while the city outside the park seem to have its own reality, the life of those i saw inside revolves around the trees and benches.

Why Libanski?

I just moved to warsaw with my girlfriend Dominika. This blog for me is an alternative from facebook, since i am asking my friends in Beirut to be reading the blog instead of poking, tagging, and inviting. Anyhow i hope for those of you who would like to follow some observations of a Beiruti( A person from Beirut) in warsaw, will find the posts informational.

As for the name Libanski, well it originated in Beirut by a friend who goes by the name Nanou. She calls me Libanski and my girlfriend Polska.

Soon i hope i will start with a photo and an observation. I am not sure that this blog will be a daily thing, since i am know for being lazy, but who knows maybe it would be better to let it happen when observations are worth being shared.