Lebanese Christmas with no Arabic at Zaitunay Bay

if Zaitunay Bay wanted to add some Lebanese soul to the Christmas Market, shouldn't they have considered making a bilingual poster in Arabic as well ? 

A good reason to leave your car at home

Today's Car free day in Tripoli.
http://carfreetripoli.org/
It's a great initiative and hopefully we can see it organized in Beirut as well.

One (out of many!!) of the good reasons to leave your cars at home ?
We're starting to run out of spaces to park in the city! So choose to leave the stress at home for a day or two..

Cadavre Exquis I

This is a first in a series of exquisite corpse games from the streets.
This one was collected from a walk from Gouraud Street (Gemmayzé) to Charles Malek Avenue (Sofil).

Beirut Cement Gardens

I was walking in downtown Beirut the other day, and I noticed the building site next to Virgin megastore: Beirut Gardens.

My face only lit up for half a second before i looked again and saw the large photographs of gym equipment and quickly realized that it was yet another luxurious residential complex in the city.

In the next two days, I started looking around and noted a trend: Noor Gardens in downtown as well , Eva gardens in Sofil area, Woodhill residence and Hamra gardens; all of them luxurious residential complexes.

The copywriters for these projects specifically chose names that revolve around greenery and gardens because they know that they are addressing a society deprived from public green spaces. They're using the lack of the urban green as a selling point to attract possibles investors and buyers to be wowed by the concept.

What horrifies me the most isn't just the way these towers are popping up like mushrooms with no control or urban planning (that's without even mentioning the number of beautiful old buildings getting erased on the way), but it's mostly the ironic way the've been tagged with green names. A portion of these spaces should be allocated to parks instead of being buildings. Well, at least they got the names right.

Beirut, Hamra and Eva Gardens, how about some real gardens ?

Woodhills residence, how about some real hills ?

On the Ministry of Environment website, their monthly poll question is: [Are you for the increase of forest spaces in Lebanon? yes. no. I don't know]

Well, i really don't know anymore. Usually, it would be ridiculous to even ask that question, but seeing how things are evolving in Beirut, maybe the ministry truly wants to know the answer ! It seems that not everybody understands the must to have green spaces in a city. It affects stress level and mental health and is a great way to relax in town in a public space ! Public green spaces are a right for us as citizens, not a privilege !

There should be a law that protects certain spaces, allocating them for public good.

If all spaces are being sold for more profit making buildings and complexes, where will we end up ?

I ask you now, where is our public space in Beirut today ?

So I'm inviting you now to join me on Saturday June 4th 2011, the weekend of World Environment Day, for a public street intervention: Green the Grey. We need public green spaces in Beirut.

We are going to take over Sassine Square at 4:30pm and make it our public green space for the day, to protest the lack of green and public spaces in Beirut. We will bring real grass, and other typical features of a park.

So come and enjoy the afternoon in our pop-up park, to voice that public green spaces are our right !

More details here. Hope to see you there !

No parking here Range !

aha ! These two cannot exist together !

The bulky metal structures on the sidewalks scream: do-not-park-here.

Yet, these Range Rovers didn't seem to understand what they were, and totally disregarded them on Tabaris Square this afternoon by parking there. Perhaps authorities should seek alternative additional signage and write : NO PARKING on them just like this person who wrote on the One way street sign ?

Save me a seat !

This "save-a-parking-spot" is a common phenomenon in very crowded Beiruti areas, where parking spots have become rare and precious. People save each spots by placing whatever they have in front of their shops: chairs, cardboard boxes, etc... But today was too funny not to document: three spots saved in a row, on Chouf street.




Sometimes it lasts 5mn, sometimes more than half an hour.. Until the shop owner arrives and parks right in front of his shop. Red stool saves a parking spot for the red car.

Anger brings redundancy: A funny Beiruti street intervention

I would really like to know who wrote this !
This sign on Sassine square in Beirut, has Arabic written on it: "one way street".
This person hilariously thought that people must be more familiar with words than with road signs, or he might be simply expressing his anger by redundantly underlining the obvious to make people respect it more !

Plagiarism.org

Librairie Sayah in Batroun (North Lebanon) found it appropriate to steal the logo of the Lebanese newspaper "An Nahar" and make it its own !

No two ways about it !

This minute-long video resumes a 15mn long scene I was lucky to witness: a one way street, two stubborn drivers, only one of them for a good cause.

Refusing to let the car go the wrong way down this street, the driver didn't move until everything was back in order !

He/or she even got a round of applause when the goal was accomplished !

Enjoy your green space

One of the things i feel most frustrated about in Beirut is the lack of green spaces. The urban planning of the city includes very little accommodation of public green spaces where you can relax and chill.

I especially felt this lack after living in Paris for a while. So when the time came, Nadine Feghaly and I collaborated on this public intervention to express our disagreement with the lack of the "urban-green" !

The public intervention was up since 6am this morning, on friday june 4th 2010, for World's Environment Day. In 9 spots around Beirut, the installations shout our call for change.

Check it out for yourself ! Here's a map of the 9 spots in Beirut.

Lebanese elections v/s Traffic rules

The elections are apparently more important than traffic rules !

It's fair, more than 50% of the sign is still visible !

Lebanese Laique Pride

She might be little aware of the importance of the message she's holding at the moment, but she will grow into it and learn how to embrace it and fight for it.

At the Laique Pride march on sunday April 25th 2010, this little girl represented hope !

Digital Love

He chose to tell Nady he loved her in a very secret and coded way.

The "<" sign and the "3" next to it, are used online, especially on facebook or blogs to illustrate the heart sign (as seen below).

While this romantic person could have drawn a real heart shape, he chose to give his emotions virtual codes !!

S, M, XXL

The municipality must have noticed that multiplying road signs or even writing SPEED LIMIT on them didn't make Lebanese drivers more sensitive and aware on the road.

So they decided on the highway before Dora (Lebanon) to blow the signs up and make them almost twice larger!!! ((new size on the right in the picture).
The signs desperately scream: Hey you blind driver ! notice me ! I'm in your face now !


Will size matter now?

Font from the streets

On the streets.
I went looking for the whole alphabet. Found letters in the pavement, on shop signs, on doors, until i made my collection and vectorized it !
This is my fun font from my day on the streets !
( don't forget to click on the images to view them larger !)

Play on words II !

Easy one !
To the Parisians, where can you find this bar ? On which avenue ?

Balconies in town

Some already have the decorative balcony while others get the curtains or even draw it !


(don't forget that you can always click on the images to see them bigger)

Happy Graffiti

Last time i checked, Graffitis were more violent and less festive about life and love !
It was refreshing to find these messages on the wall and pavement while walking !

Croissant

After a long day of fasting, you long to have a delicious croissant !
In the heart of the 2nd district, la rue des jeuneurs ( the Fasters ) is right next to rue du croissant!
Is the origin of the name related to the pastry or the crescent ?

Business pedestrians

Notice the difference between the pedestrian signs in the residential 15th district (no pictogram) and the busy business area in the 9th district !