Thursday, April 30, 2009

Saturday!




Jameelah's coming on Saturday yayyyyyy!!!




Get ready for deep inner mind conversations till 3am! woohoo...AND pigging out till 4am yippiee!!!






Afghani man tortured by UAE royal

This is so disgusting and heartbreaking. Watch the video here of this horrendous act. I hope those involved in the torture get what they deserve, whether in this life or the next. Insh'Allah!
Read more about this here.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Musings of My Beloved

My beloved has incredible musings, musings so awe-inspiring I forget to breathe. And though musings isn't the correct word for this particular example of his incredible, awe-inspiring statement, I will still use it. Because in honor of my beloved whom is most beloved to me I present a new series: "Musings of my beloved."


So the first musing to incredibly awe-inspire you is:


Last week we began to watch the "Earth" series that my beloved gifted me as part of my many birthday presents (that's right, PART of my MANY presents (that's right, be jealous (oh, you say you don't care for material goods and one present is good enough for you? (you're just saying that cause your beloved aint buyin u no mo' than one presENT (oh yes, I DID go there) ) ) ) ). And just on a sidenote: you totally have to watch the Earth series, it's AWESOME!

Ok, so one of the segments was about animals that migrate towards water blah blah and an animal was filmed which my beloved so excitedly and without hesitation pointed out as:


Pocahontas!


He even lifted his arm and pointed at the animal in the movie. What was this animal my beloved pointed out as Pocahontas?















El Hippopotamus

Friday, April 24, 2009

Rachel Getting Married


Alright so, has anyone ever heard of RedBox? It's like a vending machine for DVDs and they usually have them in grocery stores and walgreens. Anyways, the rental is $1 a day and if you sign up for their mailing list they give you a passcode for free rentals on a specific day. So, me (wanting to save a dollar) decided I would rent Rachel Getting Married for free.


I thought the movie would be great since I heard/read a lot of good reviews for it. Boy o boy o boy. The first 1/3 of the movie was good, it had some artsy flair to it and I thought Anne Hathaway's acting was phenomenal. The next 1/3 was aiiiiite. I was really hoping for something to happen...just happen! Something! PLEASE!! Then the last 1/3 was HORRIBLE. I FASTFORWARDED THE LAST THIRD OF THE MOVIE! it was THAT horrible. I literally...I kid you not....I literally fastforwarded the last third of the movie. YAWN........


Btw, as someone from a non-white background, I find it absolutely HILLARIOUS that these people in the movie wanted a "desi" wedding. THERE WEREN'T EVEN ANY DESIS IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE. But all the girls were in saris including the bride. And all the groomsmen whatever were in sherwanis. It was the stereotypical hippy middle class white people scenario. Except the groom was black but whatever, he's still white when I'm talking about things like this.


Has anyone else seen this movie?

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque


The Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi is absolutely beautiful. It's like someone built the sultan from Aladdin's palace in real life.
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque has broken some world records: it has the largest carpet in the world and the largest chandelier in the world.
Here are some pictures of the new mosque which isn't complete yet:





And here you can read more about the mosque.

Have a Laugh 2

I remember this show from way before on MTV. Apparently they had a second season I wasn't aware of.




I wish such commercials actually existed!

Congratulations!


Congratulations to my cousin in Toronto who gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday, April 19th.

He who shows no mercy...shall find none.

This short video has three "ads" that were aired in Saudia. It's been used as a reminder to Muslims about the treatment of those who work for them. Many times I've heard of horrible stories of maltreatment that workers endure in the Arab countries, so I guess this is at least one step forward towards abolishing horrible treatment.


Friday, April 17, 2009

Songs that get stuck in your head : Maza aa gaya

So a couple of months ago I heard a song on a desi music station on my XM radio that went like this "maza aa gaya re maza aa gaya." There's no good translation I can think of for it but kinda like "that was awesome I enjoyed it" kinda. So when I first heard the song I thought it was a joke, like one of those Weird Al Yankovick (sp?) songs but Indian of course. Then, a couple of days after that, I was watching this Indian channel we used to have and the video for the song came on. So now I knew it wasnt a joke. But just a really really weird song.
So even though I've begun a new adventure to cut down music in my life, this song came up today! How? Well I was telling my other half online that I just had an amazing lunch (biryani and fried chicken) and I said "maza aa gaya." And then the song started playing in my head (tears.) So now I've decided to start a series of "songs that get stuck in your head."
So I present to you the first installment: MAZA AA GAYA
This is a really long song actually, but here's a one minute clip from youtube:

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Hajj

A couple days ago Carlos and I were talking about the Hajj and so these videos are for you buddy:

This first one is Michael Wolfe's journey to Mecca to perform the Hajj. I remember watching it many years ago and happened to find it on youtube. This is the first of three parts.

Next is a more detailed description of the Hajj and there's many parts to it but here is the first video:




I hope you enjoy it and see that "we" have nothing to hide :-D

Note to Self:

Two bowls of hot fudge sundaes, one cheeseburger, and fried chicken accompanied with Bravo's A-List Awards may seem like a good idea at midnight, but a really bad idea four hours later after massive heartburn and gas that won't seem to exit and is instead stuck in your head causing your head, neck, and shoulders to ache.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Have a Laugh

This is a cute video of Hugh Jackman on a Spanish show.

Pretendiendo


A couple days ago I saw a Chilean movie, "Pretendiendo" also known as "Ugly Me." It stars the beautiful Barbara Mori, a Mexican actress.

At first, I was hesitant to sit through an English subtitled movie. I do normally watch Bollywood movies with English subtitles but with those at least I can pay attention to the actual movie without constantly looking at the subtitles. So, boredome led to deciding to watch a movie with subtitles. And I really liked it.

It's about a beautiful and successful woman who catches her boyfriend cheating on her with her best friend and then she decides to move to another city and disguises herself as a not-so-pretty woman so her abilities as a successful career woman shine through. In the meantime, she decides to use her new "ugly" appearance to teach a playboy coworker a lesson (a lesson she feels all men need to learn since her experience with her ex-boyfriend.)

It's one of those movies where the viewer can assume what will happen next, but you still want to watch. And more than the main character, I was interested in the playboy coworker's transformation.

Anyways, a good movie. Worth a watch.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Aqim Salatak

I found these short videos to be very inspirational. You can watch them on youtube by typing in aqim salatak or take the more confusing route (cuz it's in Arabic) of going to their website aqimsalatak.com
Here's one youtube user's list of videos and it includes subtitles. This is the intro video:

Friday, April 10, 2009

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency


So when Big Love's season ended a couple of weeks ago, I was devastated. My whole week revolved around waiting for Sunday night to come so I could find out what's going on in Salt Lake City and Juniper Creek.

However, HBO has uplifted my spirits once again and now I'm waiting all week to find out what's going on in Botswana! Yes, Botswana, the setting for "The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency."

I like the show so far, I think it's actually very good. But what makes it very good is Jill Scott. I love her! I never really was a fan of her music or anything, but when you see her in this show you can't help but want to be her best friend and tag along with her on her cases.

She's always having tea, more specifically, bush tea. I wonder what it is and what it tastes like. Her motto is:"There is no problem so great it cannot be solved by a cup of bush tea."

And the best part? She's a big girl who loves sweets. Already in the two episodes they've aired on HBO, she's seen at least twice sitting in her car eating cupcakes or other sweets while on a stakeout. Gotta love someone like that.

So Jill Scott's character is Precious Ramotswe who is the lady detective. Since she was a kid, her father would teach her many things in life that would help her in her adventures as a detective. Her father died leaving her with hundreds of cattle, so she sold the cattle and opened up her own detective agency wanting to help the people of her beautiful country of Botswana.


BK is a moderately flamboyant hairdresser who owns a salon (the Last Chance Hair Salon) next door to Precious's detective agency. He's one of the first people to befriend Precious and helps out when he can.

JLB Matekoni is a car mechanic and owns his own garage. He also befriended Precious early in her career and helps her when he can. We, the viewers, know he likes (loves) Precious and he's such a nice guy type of guy, but we also know that Precious is just at a different point in her life right now.

Grace Makutsi is Precious's secretary. She's very very very "efficient." If by efficient one means anal, annoying, smarty-pants, over-achiever, and curraAazee.

And some language viewers can pick up from the show:
dumela (sounds kinda like jumela to me) and means hello
rra is sir
mma is madam and often used as a prefix when addressing a woman or just used by itself
so altogether now: dumela mma! = hello madam!



And finally here's a trailer for the show.

New Muslim Cool

I can't wait for this to come out. Seems like a powerful documentary. Check out their site


IDF Gone Wild

I'm not going to write anything about this, I'll just post some pictures and post the link to it. Formulate your own opinions.

the link

"the smaller, the harder"


"better use durex"



"1 shot, 2 kills"

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

A French Cat in Miami (Part Une)

Bonjour peoples of Amareeca. I am uh vat you say a pussycat. Some of you may know my great grandfather, Le Chat botté. For you Amareecaan peoples who do not know of ze great and legendary Le Chat botté, then tu es completement debile!

After you are done crying from fear, let me know and I will continue the… uh how do you say the …ah yes, the introduction. Here, here is a tissue for your papa issue.

Prepare selfish greedy Amareecaans and behold mon magnificence. My name is Mango von Pierre. You killed my father. Prepare to die. Désolé, désolé. Sometimes I …how do you Amareecaans say…I…ah yes, I get carried away. I forget zat I am speaking to Amareecaans, a peoples who do not have emotions and …ah yes, lack ze capacity to understand.

Anneeways, here are my fabuleux pictures. Enjoy them and know zat you cannot have a the Mango. So move on with your life and do not cry.




Sunday, April 5, 2009

April Snow in Chicago

This video was taken on April 5th, 2009 at 9:30 pm by yours truly... from my apartment.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Different Hairstyles in Miami

By Carlos


So, the other day I was hanging out with a friend of mine, looking at people’s photos online, when we came across this hideous photo of this guy who looked like he could be a female impersonator. Being that my friend is a graphic designer, we had some fun photoshopping it to make the poor guy in the photo look like a drag queen. He was adding a big up-do with curly-cue sideburns when he said “let’s add Nicaraguan hilights”. I was cracking up for a good 20 minutes.

Well, this got me to thinking about the rich ethnic variety that we have in Miami. I’m sorry, but rich ethnic variety I mean Latin American ethnic variety. I realized that a lot of people not only bring food, music, and traditions from their countries, but also fashion sense and hairstyles. It was this realization that brought me to the idea of cataloging the different hairstyles found in Miami.

So, without further ado, I present to you

MIAMI HAIRSTYLES!!!!!!




THE ARGENTINE MULLET
Apparently, this hair issue is so prevalent that you find entire articles online about the mullet epidemic in Argentina. I was even able to find a lot of photos (as pictured above). The first one is at a River Plate soccer match, and the one on the right is probably a soccer player. I guess they copied it from Italian soccer players, who do the same stupidity. Argentines, being that they’re always right and everyone “loves Argentina”, are not keen on assimilating to life in the United States, so they still think the hairstyle looks hot….maybe if they try really hard it will be hot one day, but for the time being they should try something else

THE COLOMBIAN FAUX-HAWK
You can usually spot a Colombian guy without hearing him speak by several signs: the 90’s grunge rock get up, the 80’s era death metal tee shirt, the ridiculous amount of bracelets on both arms (I’m talking rajastani style), the coffee picker shoulder bag, and the Colombian faux-hawk. Basically, the Colombian faux-hawk is like any faux-hawk – a tamer, less ballsy version of the Mohawk. The difference is that Colombian guys usually have coarse, jet black hair that is pin-straight. In effect, the faux-hawk makes their heads a dangerous weapon that can be used to spear fish, or wild boar, or something. Additionally, a faux-hawk is something that is best achieved by professional, high-end stylists. Being that many Colombians who sport the faux-hawk are newly arrived immigrants with little money, they go to a cheap “salon de belleza” in some Latin ghetto that’s owned by their sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s sister-in-law, who doesn’t even have an operating license. The results are sometimes frightening…..sometimes looking like a staggered roof on top of their heads.

NICARAGUAN HIGHLIGHTS
This is, admittedly, probably one of the funniest hairstyles. Basically, the vast majority of Nicaraguans who come to Miami are of indigenous descent, which means they’re short and dark with squinty eyes. Additionally, like the Colombians mentioned above, they have very black, very coarse, very straight hair. So, to make them not look so “Indian” (which is looked down upon by many Latin Americans), many Nicaraguan women get what is known as Nicaraguan highlights. Now, naturally a person with very dark hair who is considering highlights would go for one or two shades darker. Not Nicaraguan women! They go all the way so that basically you get women with jet black hair and stripes of platinum blonde that look like someone took a Clorox bleach pen to their head. Nicaraguan highlights are also commonly used by Hondurans, Salvadorans, and some Peruvians and Mexicans. Some will go even further by dying their hair completely platinum blonde.

CUBAN EGGPLANT
This, for some crazy reason, has become the preferred hair color of choice for many newly arrived Cuban women. It is only matched by bleach blonde with black roots (it’s purposefully done that way). Against pale olive skin, it makes many women who sport this color look other-worldly…..like an Alien or something. What has only made things worse is that celebrity hair fag specialist, Sammy, has made it his signature color. At $150 and up for hair color and cut, Cuban eggplant has now moved up the rungs of the social ladder and has become something of a status symbol. Regardless, it still looks like something out of a sci-fi horror movie.


There are many more styles, but I don’t want to write an encyclopedia. Other hair styles to look into are Venezuelan black-on-black, Haitian corn rows, Haitian Aunt Jemima, Dominican blow dry, Salvadoran bowl-cut, Hialeah slick, chonga bun, Jewish plastic wigs, and the Pan-Latin flat iron