thanksgiving, Gemayel, Borat, Achrifiyeh, Beirut
So the last few days have been pretty uneventful here in the 'Root. From all sides of the political divides I've heard rumors that an act of destruction sometime this weekend was eminent, but other than the flurry of thinly veiled accusations from the Maronite Patriarch Sfeir there's been nothing. Last night Marina and I stepped down the steps of the ABC mall in Achrifiyeh into the cooling winter air after watching Borat in the theater with a crowd of Lebanese who I'm pretty sure, the majority of whom, thought that the movie was a shot at the people of Kazakhstan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_fzdEk0r8
My girl and I were so deeply entrenched in our conversation on the subtleties of the film, either the audience missed entire jokes or just didn't find funny, that I almost jumped right in front of the first comouflage tank in a line of ten army vehicles bullying up the street, heading for the "'round about" at the center of this afluent Christian neighborhood. For a second we thought we had been laughing our asses off in a dark movie theater and missed the predicted attack, but it was nothing, just the usual show of force parading through the christian parts of town meant to calm the tensions of those who feel they've been targetted more than the muslims in these assassinations, and it's true they have.
The night after the assassination, my favorite hang-out spot, Gemayze in East Beirut, was completely shut down. People burned tires in the streets and attacked a few of the unfortunate Syrian taxi drivers, so damn easy to spot, All of them driving canary yellow Caprice's from the 70's.
We remained home that night and opted for the thanksgiving night to test the waters in that part of town. It was a vacuum, sprinkled with the foreigners I am occasionally desperate to find. A Ukrainian woman lectured me on the importance of spending top dollar on DJ equipment, her rig costing her upwards of 7,000 dollars, when just a moment before she saw my eyes coveting the 1500 dollar piece of equipment our friend Patrick was using to mix music at a little bar called Bulldog. Later, I ran into a trio of British Indian girls when I mistook one of their purses for a napkin with food wrapped in it. Asking her what was wrapped in that napkin she replied, "it's not a napkin, it's my piece."
"what?" I responded.
"my piece, my piece."
"ooohhhhh, your purse!"
She was quiet for a second, studying my face in an attempt to figure what I was ethnically perhaps, when she said, "Why are you so hungry anyhow?"
"It's Thanksgiving!" I came back.
"Oh, your mexican american!"
Finally. Someone understood. I shook hands with these fish outta' water and jumped into our cab that was already a bit impatient waiting for me.
This next week in the city should be an interesting one. Hezbollah still plans to hold it's "unity government" marches even though the Phalange has said that it's youth groups (modeled after the Nazi Youth) are still planning "actions" for this week. ...and on top of that, there are already conflicting reports about what happened before, during, and after the assassination making everything as messy as an Agathie Christie novel. Good thing it just came out that a street camera actually recorded the whole thing, but I'm sure it'll turn up missing or some such bullshit.
signing out.
Migaldo Rivera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_fzdEk0r8
My girl and I were so deeply entrenched in our conversation on the subtleties of the film, either the audience missed entire jokes or just didn't find funny, that I almost jumped right in front of the first comouflage tank in a line of ten army vehicles bullying up the street, heading for the "'round about" at the center of this afluent Christian neighborhood. For a second we thought we had been laughing our asses off in a dark movie theater and missed the predicted attack, but it was nothing, just the usual show of force parading through the christian parts of town meant to calm the tensions of those who feel they've been targetted more than the muslims in these assassinations, and it's true they have.
The night after the assassination, my favorite hang-out spot, Gemayze in East Beirut, was completely shut down. People burned tires in the streets and attacked a few of the unfortunate Syrian taxi drivers, so damn easy to spot, All of them driving canary yellow Caprice's from the 70's.
We remained home that night and opted for the thanksgiving night to test the waters in that part of town. It was a vacuum, sprinkled with the foreigners I am occasionally desperate to find. A Ukrainian woman lectured me on the importance of spending top dollar on DJ equipment, her rig costing her upwards of 7,000 dollars, when just a moment before she saw my eyes coveting the 1500 dollar piece of equipment our friend Patrick was using to mix music at a little bar called Bulldog. Later, I ran into a trio of British Indian girls when I mistook one of their purses for a napkin with food wrapped in it. Asking her what was wrapped in that napkin she replied, "it's not a napkin, it's my piece."
"what?" I responded.
"my piece, my piece."
"ooohhhhh, your purse!"
She was quiet for a second, studying my face in an attempt to figure what I was ethnically perhaps, when she said, "Why are you so hungry anyhow?"
"It's Thanksgiving!" I came back.
"Oh, your mexican american!"
Finally. Someone understood. I shook hands with these fish outta' water and jumped into our cab that was already a bit impatient waiting for me.
This next week in the city should be an interesting one. Hezbollah still plans to hold it's "unity government" marches even though the Phalange has said that it's youth groups (modeled after the Nazi Youth) are still planning "actions" for this week. ...and on top of that, there are already conflicting reports about what happened before, during, and after the assassination making everything as messy as an Agathie Christie novel. Good thing it just came out that a street camera actually recorded the whole thing, but I'm sure it'll turn up missing or some such bullshit.
signing out.
Migaldo Rivera
posted by miguella guerilla at 5:26 PM
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