Miscellaneous

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October 4, 2011

Qifa Nabki Turns Three, Plus a New Blog on Egypt

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Miscellaneous | Tags: , |
[36] Comments 

This blog began life three years ago with a “conspiracy chronicles” post that seems awfully relevant today. Four hundred posts later (we aim for concision) and with over 22,000 comments (our readers aim for prolixity), things remain interesting, so perhaps I won’t make good on my threat to shut it all down and retire to a life of greater productivity.

To celebrate QN’s toddlerhood, I thought I’d draw your attention to a noteworthy newborn, a blog about Egypt by a friend of mine living in Cairo. Margaret Litvin is a professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at Boston University, and the author of a new book about Arab readings of Hamlet (forthcoming from Princeton University Press next month). She’s in Egypt this fall with her husband and two kids, starting a new book project and blogging about Egyptian politics and culture on the side. I highly recommend you check out her blog, Send Down the Basket.

Those of you waiting for my follow-up post to the Arab revolutions debate we’ve been having, it’s on its way later today or tomorrow. Sharpen your knives.
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May 30, 2010

Reza Aslan Annoyed by Knowledge

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Miscellaneous | Tags: , |
[18] Comments 

A friend forwarded me the below excerpt with the subject heading: “Reza Aslan is insulting YOU!”

I won’t lie to you: until I got to the third or fourth line and realized that he wasn’t actually talking about me (but rather, my carrelmate) I couldn’t help but wonder: “What have I done to offend Reza Aslan?” Judge for yourselves:

Q: How do you think scholars can learn to take part in broader conversations?

Aslan: It’s often a total waste of time. You can’t be trained to speak to the media in a weekend seminar before going on Anderson Cooper. You have to be immersed in the kind of world in which there is no division between the academic and the popular. I honestly think that the best hope that we have is to foster a new kind of student, one who doesn’t spend eight years in the basement of Widener Library at Harvard poring over a thirteenth-century manuscript and writing a dissertation on the changes in the vowel markings of a sentence. That kind of scholarship has a very small role in the world we live in now. We need scholars who understand that there is no division between the world of academia and the popular world. Trying to take staid academics and teach them to use words with fewer syllables is not the way to break that wall down. (Keep reading)

I’m not sure I remember the last time I saw Anderson Cooper interview someone who even knew what an Arabic vowel marking was, let alone one who’d written a dissertation on the subject. And is Aslan seriously arguing that the current commentariat of “experts” on the Muslim world is overly dominated by linguistically-savvy philologists and historians of Islam who have the ability to study medieval manuscripts?

If you ask me, it’s the factually-stunted but media-friendly types who seem to be in such ready supply these days.

But these are surely just the grumblings of a sun-starved stacks rat who is heartbroken that he will never get the chance to meet Anderson Cooper.

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March 22, 2010

Slim Gaillard and his Mysterious Stuffed Grape Leaves

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Miscellaneous | Tags: , , , , |
[31] Comments 

Joshua Landis sent me a 1945 recording of the famous American jazz musician, Slim Gaillard, singing a tune entitled “Yep-Roc Heresay”, the lyrics of which are almost entirely in Arabic. Take a listen below and see if you can make out what he’s saying.

That’s right, he’s singing about food: yabra (i.e. stuffed graped leaves), harisseh (a semolina dessert), kibbeh bi-siniyyeh (a dish of meat and bulgur), lahm mishweh (grilled meat), etc.

A great tune. So what’s the back-story? I’ve been able to dig up various bits and pieces, but perhaps one of the readers can help out. The Wikipedia page on Gaillard suggests that he was reading from an Arabic menu, while this page claims that it was an Armenian menu, and that the song was actually “banned on at least two Los Angeles radio stations for its suspicious lyric references to drugs and crime…” (!)

The song has since become something of a standard, as evidenced by this rendition by what looks like some kind of wedding band. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so hysterical. Who knew that Levantine cooking lent itself so well to vocalese?)

One other question I had about this song was its title: Yep-Roc Heresay. After puzzling over it for a moment, I realized that it was a botched transliteration of the first two words of the song: “Yabra… Harisseh…” I can’t really tell if Gaillard’s own pronunciation is wrong or whether some record company executive couldn’t figure out what he was saying.

What’s interesting about this little error is that it has taken on a life of its own. There is a record company based in North Carolina called Yep-Roc Records, whose owners named it after the Slim Gaillard tune. I intend to send them a link to this post, suggesting that they rename their company “Yabra Harisseh Records” for the sake of authenticity.

In the meantime, I’ve come across another tune (“Arabian Boogie”) where Slim sings in Arabic; you can listen to it below.
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November 11, 2009

Middle East International Re-Launches

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Elections, Lebanon, Miscellaneous | Tags: , , , |
[2] Comments 

MEIvol2iss1_cov_cartoonThe fortnightly Middle East International has just been re-launched, under the stewardship of some very able editors and advisors. Some of you may recall the highly-regarded magazine during its first run from the early 1970′s up until 2005. Well, it’s back, and I have to say that it looks very good.

The first issue is available for free download on the website. Beginning next week, you’ll have to pay for a subscription. I wager that it will be well worth it, judging from the quality of the contributions. (There are pieces by several very smart journalists and analysts, including Jim Muir, Omayma Abdel-Latif, Graham Usher, Nick Blanford, Abigail Fielding-Smith, and others.)

Back to the cabinet issue…

There is still no news on the Kata’eb’s decision to resign from the cabinet; it looks like they’re weighing their options.

Otherwise, check out a list of all the new ministers’ CVs (in Arabic), courtesy of the good folks in the Orange Room.

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August 25, 2009

Back to the Mines

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Miscellaneous
[9] Comments 

Widener LibraryWell, I’m heading back to Cambridge tomorrow, after a wonderful year away. There will be spotty internet access for the next few days as we move into our new place, and shortly thereafter I’ll be back in the regular grind of dissertation research, conference papers, grant applications, and teaching.

What this means is that blogging will probably slow down for a while, which is a real shame because the money is so good. Alas, it’s not quite as good as being a graduate student in the humanities…

In the meantime, here is some reading:

  1. Lebanese villagers apparently don’t like Hizbullah;
  2. Lebanese villagers apparently like Snoop Dogg;
  3. A television show along the lines of what I proposed in yesterday’s post is apparently already on LBC, but it stars children;
  4. Michael Young does not believe that Bassil is the real obstacle to the cabinet formation;
  5. Ms. Tee explains the three theories as to why there is no cabinet yet in Lebanon;
  6. Laura Rozen gives us a peek at Obama’s long-awaited Mideast peace strategy (a so-called “Madrid Plus“)
  7. The Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP) reports fire in the party founder’s tree house. (Read the comments, they’re hilarious)

Someone send me an email when Lebanon has a government. Thanks!

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August 21, 2009

Amuk in AfPak

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Miscellaneous | Tags: , , |
[7] Comments 

So apparently there was an entirely inconsequential election in Afghanistan yesterday. Helena Cobban’s got a roundup of the story, and Registan has been great all week.

My only contribution to the coverage is a plea for abbreviational evenhandedness. As long as people are too lazy to say or write “Afghanistan and Pakistan,” lumping them together under the vaguely intergalactic-sounding acronym “Afpak”,  I propose that we do the same to refer to the two principal nations behind the war effort.

“Amuk” has a nice ring to it, wouldn’t you say?

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February 18, 2009

A MasterCard for the Financial Crisis

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Miscellaneous | Tags: , , |
1 Comment 

mastercard-logoI thought of a worthy new MasterCard advertisement.

Here goes:

Tax credits: $115,000,000,000

State medicaid programs: $87,000,000,000

Refurbishment of the electrical grid: $30,000,000,000

Other stimulus bill expenditures: $557,000,000,000

Using taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street and avoid the greatest economic disaster in the history of the United States: Priceless.

 

December 17, 2008

Beirut in the Rearview Mirror

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Miscellaneous
[17] Comments 

Dear friends, apologies for the scattershot postings these days. I’ve just embarked upon my winter holidays and am now looking forward to the perspective (and broadband connection) that comes with leaving Beirut for a few weeks. All this is to say that my inexpert musings over the next month or so will not even be possessed of their solitary virtue, namely proximity to the theatre of operations.

A belated Eid Adha Mubarak to all of you and a merry Christmas.

 

November 28, 2008

Ahmed Matar & Obama

Posted by Qifa Nabki under Miscellaneous | Tags: |
[5] Comments 

Ms. Tee over at B-side Beirut has a post about Ahmad Matar’s most recent poem, entitled “From Obama”, which has apparently been making the email rounds. The appearance of this poem may explain the strange incident I experienced yesterday. I was visiting my favorite bookshop in Hamra, and someone came in and asked K. — the bookseller — if  he had any copies of Ahmad Matar’s diwan. He replied, uncharacteristically, with a simple: “No.”

About fifteen minutes later, someone else walked in — a woman with a Gulfi accent wearing a niqab – and asked the same question. Again, K. simply shook his head. When she asked him where she could find it, he said he didn’t know. She asked him if it was only available on the Internet, and he replied that it was in print. Ten minutes later someone else came in and asked for the diwan and K. suggested that they go to al-Dahiyeh and find it there. When I asked K. about what was going on, he said that Ahmad Matar had a new collection out, but it was published against his wishes.

“Against his wishes? What do you mean?”

“I mean, they published it in a very bad way. He had no say over it.”

I asked K. to elaborate but he simply shook his head.

Has anyone seen a copy of the work?
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