things I dream about

Some of her most celebrated songs spanning many decades and musical directions. It’s about range. 

قديش كان في ناس  

(Album: The Very Best of Fairuz, Vol. 1)

Her very first song composed by her son, the then-very-young Ziad Rahbani. It’s said that he also wrote the lyrics of the first verse, but his father and uncle, i.e. the Rahbani Brothers, took over the rest.

نسم علينا الهوا

 (Album: Safarbarlek/Bint El-Hariss, Film: Bint El-Hariss)

The ultimate song on the Arab exile. From my favorite film of hers.

نطرونا كتير

 (Album/Play: Loulou)

From one of her later plays, Loulou, in which she played a woman who, well, lost her time.

كيفك انت 

(Album: Kifak Inta)

One of her modern hits and signature songs. The lyrics are poignant and beautifully playful, but a bit remorseful if you look deep enough.

 

آخر ايام الصيفية

 (Album/Play: Mais Elreem)

Speaking of playful.. From Mais Elreem, one of her most memorable, fun, and popular plays.

يللا تنام ريما 

(Album: Safarbarlek/Bint El-Hariss, Film: Bint El-Hariss)

A chills-inducing lullaby, sang as an almost-acapella. Rima is her daughter (and also a character in the film in which this song was sang).

شتي يا دنيي 

(Album: The Very Best of Fairuz, Vol. 2) 

A classic song of hers whose melody many people came to know from a 90s commercial that shall remain unmentioned.

 

سألوني الناس 

(Album/Play: Al-Mahatta)

This song was written by her son Ziad, and composed by his uncle Mansour. It was written about her husband, Assi (the second half of the Rahbani Brothers) who was hospitalized then. One of her most highly-regarded songs.

اذكريني 

(Album: Immortal Songs)

If this is not romanticism, I don’t know what is. Anecdote: when I first listened to this song, I literally felt pain. I like to think it was the pain of ecstasy.

نحن و القمر جيران

(Album: Reminiscing with Fairuz) 

Fairuz’s historical career spanned many decades, styles, and hits, but nothing was able to replace this song as her ultimate signature song. It’s also the origin of her most well-known honorary “title,” the Neighbor of the Moon. To me, this song is a Fairuzian symbol.

سنرجع 

(Album: Jerusalem in My Heart)

 If the Palestinian cause had a poetic voice, it’d be that of Fairuz. But to me, this song is about much more than that. It’s about the hope and promise to one day return to where you always wanted to be.

1. After listening to Merlin Mann’s interview with Seth Godin and listening to parts of his new book (Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?), I keep thinking of the concept of the Resistance (capitalized to give its faceless nature a distinctive identity). Basically, what keeps us from “shipping”, i.e. releasing creations to the world, is an inherent resistance. To me, the Resistance encapsulates fear of sucking (perfectionism), fear of realizing that what I’m doing is not the thing, fear of getting stuck with having to do it for eternity, and fear of not enjoying it enough (usually because I’m tired). It’s nice to personify this bundle of fears. Makes it easier to cut their crap.

2. I’m pretty certain that 90% of my Blackberry web usage involves searches that include the words “idiom” or “synonym”.

3. While I found the first quarter of Sir Ken Robinson’s The Element to be wishy-washy, the last few chapters I’ve read were unexpectedly eye-opening. The chapter on the importance of finding one’s “tribe”, i.e. the set of people, regardless of proximity or even aliveness, who share your view of the world is in particular enticing.

4. Finally got to watch the first episode of Mad Men. Pretty damn impressive. I pretty much had an orgasm after every scene. It’s like every line was meticulously crafted, which is fitting as the show revolves around creating attractive ads, including coming up with great copy.

5. I’m all about signage systems at the moment.

6. Studying for my Economics exam got me thinking about how much better text books would be once they are fully digitized. Imagine how easier examples revolving around changes in supply and demand graphs (or any graph depicting multivariate data for that matter) would be if they can be animated by a button click. I am given the shivers.