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?