A Thousand Farewells

A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed is an interesting book that depicts her time spent growing up in a refugee camp, and later years as a reporter in the Middle East.

Ayed was born in Winnipeg, and moved to Amman, Jordan when she was six as her parents feared their children were losing touch with their culture.

Nahlah vividly describes the culture shock and unfamiliar social customs that she was forced into while in Jordan. I found the book to be absorbing, and with subject matter that is quite complex (don’t ask me the difference between Sunni and Shias), Ayed wrote clearly and made difficult concepts easy to understand.

I appreciated her insights, and thought her voice was honest and credible. She does not appear to have any intentions to glamourize the Middle East or make it seem “scary” or inferior to Canada. It is a unique place, and you feel as if you are in her shoes while you read the book.

What Kind of Bird Are You?

Moonrise Kingdom is such a beautiful movie. Highly recommend it.

Serbians

Photo from: http://www.julia.blogg.se

A real life example of love at first sight? As far as I know, it’s a true story. The Serbian beauty Ana Kraš married Devendra Banhart, and the two now live together in L.A.

The two are equally interesting.

I can’t stop looking at her photography.

I can’t stop listening to his music.

Her websites:

1) http://www.anakras.com/design/bonbon/

2)http://www.ikebana-albums.com/main.php

3) http://pingpongggg.tumblr.com

Photo from: http://preetandpoor.wordpress.com

Banhart is an unreal musician. He has different, catchy songs.

(He also dated Natalie Portman a few years ago who stars in his video Carmensita.)

Good Songs:

1) Feel Just Like A Child

2) Santa Maria De Feira

3) Never Seen Such Good Things

4) Bad Girl

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“To create Breathing In/Breathing Out the two artists devised a piece in which they connected their mouths and took in each other’s exhaled breaths until they had used up all of the available oxygen. Seventeen minutes after the beginning of the performance they both fell to the floor unconscious, their lungs having filled with carbon dioxide. This personal piece explored the idea of an individual’s ability to absorb the life of another person, exchanging and destroying it.”

– Wikipedia

Marina Abramović and Ulay Laysiepen are both Serbian artists who did some interesting performance art, of an experimental nature in the 70’s. Some other performaces similar to the above example can be found on YouTube. An interesting one is where they both stand naked in a doorway and see which direction strangers choose to face as they walk through.

Abramovićs most recent project is ‘The Artist is Present”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcmcEZxdlv4

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