other lives.

Just discovered this band a couple of weeks ago. They are just perfect. Judge for yourself.

the book.

Last Sunday, I launched the Our Man in Beirut book. The launch party was a huge success thanks to all the amazing people who showed up, my publishers at Turning Point Books, the great setting at Secteur 75 and the vodka offered by Russian Standard Lebanon which kept everyone chatting and mingling. I’ll write a ...

the impossibility of pride.

This was originally published on my blog, Our Man in Beirut. Sometimes it’s tough to figure out how you’re supposed to feel about being Lebanese. I got called unpatriotic for not getting behind the Vote for Jeita campaign. Apparently, I had to blindly support something purely on the basis that it was something everyone in ...

on the telly again.

Had a great time at Men El Ekhir with Pierre Rabbat and the panelists. Probably the best show on Lebanese TV.

the loneliness of the blackberry user.

I wrote a lil’ sutin’ over at keeward.com about how lonely it feels to be a Blackberry user these days. “When the world of Blackberry collapsed in October during a widespread 3 day service disruption, there was a hilarious tweet that went something along the lines: the worst part of the Blackberry outage is that I have to admit ...

something meaningful on a post-it.

    Write something pseudo-meaningful on a Post-It. Take a Hipstamatic photo of it. Post to Facebook.

music, books and the future of consumption.

I wrote a lil’ something over at the keeward website. I work at keeward as a media and publishing consultant, which means I get to work on lots of interesting projects and think about things like the future of digital creativity. “Living in Beirut has its advantages, the main one being 300 days of sunshine ...

frieze art.

Spotted this at Frieze Art in London last Saturday. Didn’t bother to check who the artist was (I may have been a little sleepy). Any ideas?

five zippers.

tasty music.

Oh Land- Wolf & I (Live) from Oh Land Music on Vimeo.

nation blanding: hedonism and the underselling of beirut.

This post was originally published here.  There’s a video currently making the rounds, featuring an over-excited Richard Quest extolling the virtues of Lebanon’s hedonism and joie de vivre, while he prances around its handful of rooftop clubs dressed like that weird uncle in your family no one talks to, who hits on 16 year olds ...

on the telly.

I recently made a quick TV appearance on LBC’s Helwe w Murra with the lovely Carla to promote my blog and upcoming book. I was sandwiched between a segment about how to wear the right skirt and a Paul Smith runway show, which is odd yet lovely.

interview in L’Officiel

So I got interviewed by L’Officiel Levant’s Medea Azouri about my blog and upcoming book. I tried to sound smart in French, but came off sounding mostly pretentious and slapable. Which is appropriately French, I guess.

XI.

Check out my photo series taken around the 11th arrondissement in Paris, here.

the week of commenting dangerously.

The last week has been what you would call the opposite of a slow news week. It started off last Friday when a delusional terrorist (is there any other kind?) decided to take the lives of 68 innocent people in Oslo. The following day Amy Winehouse was found dead in her apartment at the age ...

a novel.

“Darren Booth, a typographer and illustrator in Canada, creates gorgeous illustrations and type designs. He forms many of his designs manually and then pieces them together digitally, like the cover he crafted for Steve Martin’s, An Object of Beauty. He drafted letters by hand, painted his swatches and combined everything on the computer (and it’s wonderful ...

switch off.

via http://thisisnthappiness.com/

life in beirut: public parks, dolph lundgren, greek mythology and misleading titles.

This post was originally published at Our Man in Beirut. Anyone who’s ever met me knows I’m pretty obsessive compulsive. I arrange everything in a neat grid system on my desk in what can only be described as a veritable orgy of parallels and perpendiculars. I fluff up the cushions on my couch the second ...

we have aliens, you don’t.

Check out more here.

the fog of war.

This post was originally published at my blog, Our Man in Beirut. “Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known.” – Antoine De Saint-Exupery So it would seem we’re in for another few months of what foreign media outlets will inevitably euphemistically call turmoil. Last ...