> Al Musiqa at the Paris Philharmonie

Music has always been at the heart of my life since the very beginning: as a toddler dancing with my dad to the sound of his vinyls, as a teenager fascinated by indie rock & new wave, and then as an inspiration for photo shoots, slogans, captions... I truly believe Music has saved the planet from going totally mad...till now ;-)
Let's celebrate it together with my review of the wonderful exhibition currently held at the Philharmonie de Paris.
Watch for more!

> ALWAYS ROCK ON!

As part of my collaboration with Kerkor Jewelry and Imad Elkhoury this year, i worked on two projects:
The Spirit of Seasons launched at the Malt Gallery during Beirut Design Week, of which I will reveal to you a piece each month of the coming year...

And Rock On! Which was their annual Christmas celebration:

For this, inspired by Heavy Metal concerts and Rock festivals, we actually shot Elissar's hands many times with front and back lights;
front like a music stage and back to shine on the jewelry pieces... And we layered them altogether as you can see.

The best part of all this was the active participation of every guest in the event, from the youngest to the oldest, and from the most traditional to the craziest one (me?) (!) So cheers to the Lebanese people, you surely know how to party!!!

Our annual Christmas event

A post shared by Kerkor Jewelry (@kerkorjewelry) on Dec 15, 2017 at 4:23am PST

> The Young Pope & other delicacies

Forgive me Father for I have sinned, I lust after Jude Law in fabulous new series The Young Pope !

An excellent venture between Canal, HBO & Sky, The Young Pope, directed by my favorite "regista", Paolo Sorrentino of infamous "La Grande Bellezza" and "Youth", gathers an impressive cast of creme de la creme actors from France and Belgium (Cecile de France, Ludivine Sagnier) Italy (Silvio Orlando) the US (Diane Keaton, James Cromwell)...

 ...and Her Majesty's very own Jude Law, although he plays the  first American and youngest pope! He is so much into his role that you almost forget he ever was British! (Remember my guest post about Brits invading Hollywood?)

Now what would you expect this series to be? A mix of Moretti's Habemus Papam and House of cards? Well yes and no, or rather just a teeny weeny bit. The truth is that it is the most refreshing work I've seen in a movie or TV series in the past 5 years or more!

The amazing contradictory devilish-yet-pristine half-god-half-human played by Jude Law is so intense and palpable in just a silence, a look, or an unpredictable riposte; the various complex characters are divinely played as well and the writing of Sorrentino is simply top notch. Eye/Ear candy I tell you...

And did I mention the music is to die for?

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Let's make this post a "café gourmand" now shall we?
I'll share two other must-see series, and I've really chosen for you ones that have only a few episodes ;-)

Now I do not have an accent fetish, don't worry, i am actually more of a sapiosexual, hence.. Season 4 of the amazing Sherlock, starring 
my other favorite Brit, Benedict Cumberbatch. Oh we did not define sapiosexual? Why, aroused by wit of course! Or should i say elementary? BBC One's finest :

Last but not least, the most ironic one of all: 
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: a hilarious series about a hot shot lawyer from NYC who goes back to nowhere, i.e. West Covina CA, chasing after her long lost teenage boyfriend... With parody songs that put every insane situation into notes and lyrics, curvy Rachel Bloom will make you cry of laughter ;-)

So there you go! Now you know what to do if you don't want to stroll on the corniche or hit those white slopes...

Addiction risk, beware...

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> Why Titanium SIA sang only 1 hour in BYBLOS

SIA is a millennial artist: being an introvert, she still managed to reach massive stardom at 40, hidden behind her wigs! And contrary to most of you might think, yesterday's show was not a concert or a simple live gig! SIA's show was a LIVE ART PERFORMANCE with sensational actors and dancers on stage moving their EVERY MUSCLE, FACIAL EXPRESSION and EMOTION!

SIA was telling us, throughout this #NostalgicForThePresent one hour show, the universal story of our anxious generation, paranoid about our puppet masters, with our fear of rejection and our fear of commitment.. And when we finally find the one, how our relationships morph into monstrous connections.

 

Now the answer to your question: Because SIA knows how much we the viewers value our live streaming, our addiction to video and everything visual, instead of simply putting live cams to transmit what was happening on stage to the LED screens left and right, SHE ACTUALLY FILMED THE WHOLE SHOW PRIOR to the real one. This way, you can have many cameras, traveling smoothly, showing you every bit of Ryan Heffington's choreography, every move, every tear, so you DO NOT MISS anything. 
Now can you imagine how difficult it is to synchronize a one hour video art with everything happening on stage, right up to the nano second?
It is practically almost impossible for more than a few minutes. Artists do it in 3-4 minute chunks like Pet Shop Boys or Stromae at Byblos before, but what SIA, the amazing 14 years old Maddie Ziegler and their fellow artists have done here is PURE ART my friends, the kind that should be in Museums...


Last but not least, I think that SIA might have had prepared an "encore", but because we the Lebanese audience are so lazy, she did not understand that we really appreciate her... For God's sake, what happened to APPLAUDING? This is how you show your respect in a concert! Is it too much physical trouble? The nanny is not here to do it for you? Ok shouting is cool too, but applause is contagious and it should be, like SIA, UNSTOPPABLE!


 

Paradis retrouvé(e): the muse of Biolay

Don't get me wrong, I was one of many to be disappointed by Depp & Paradis' break up two years ago... However at that same period I had a kind of premonition when I first saw this beautiful clip by Benjamin Biolay "Aime mon amour"; Somehow I found in the sensual Karole Rocher (actor and director of this clip) a very "troublante"resemblance with Vanessa Paradis:

Biolay, who looks a lot like Benicio Del Toro but with an amazing sexy voice,  has aways been on my "cream of the crop"... (here with Julie Gayet (currently at l'Elysée, which is funny since the rumor says he also was with Bruni after Chiara Mastroianni) )



He also has an incredible and immense talent as a singer and writer and he did work previously with Paradis. But when she launched the "Love songs" album and tour, their collaboration was sky rocketing and it was obvious there was a lot more going on... that they did confirm recently.

Which bring us to what I wanted to say, Vanessa is now a 40 something woman, but in my eyes she is now hotter than ever, hotter that than she was with Depp, hotter than when she was with Lenny Kravitz , and somehow "la boucle est bouclée" since at the very beginning of her career Gainsbourg wrote for her, and now she is the muse of Biolay, the "digne" successor of Gainsbourg...

Just have a look and judge by yourselves:

I finish off with eye & ear candy; their sensuous latest single "Pas besoin de permis", enjoyyyy....

> Born & Raised in Lebanon!

I'm very happy to share with you those latest commercials I created and directed for RECTANGLE JAUNE as they really convey all the dynamism and passion of my funky city, Beirut.
They were filmed with the stop motion technique, each requiring 165 photos for the 15 seconds.
It was very delicate to keep the model at the same place while handing him the clothes to change, and keeping a link in the wardrobe.
The idea was to show the clothing items that RJ created chronologically: in 1988 the shirt and boxer, in 1990 the pants etc... till the swimwear created last season. We are aware that this does not really show, but it was our "fil directeur".
What we wanted to show on the other hand was all the dynamism of this 25 years old brand, and the attachment that the lebanese, locally and abroad, have for it. So we asked the talented Jean-Marie Riachi to compose for us a pop rock variation of our National Anthem, and at the same time, we did not want it to be very obvious. I think he did a great job, don't you?
Once again huge thanks to Imad El Khoury, my super photographer, Julien Abboud my inspiring stylist, and all the RJ & RJmag team: you guys really rock!!!

> Superb art direction: Suit & Tie, Justin Timberlake & Jay Z

Well I thought we start the week end in style!
Two weeks ago, Timberlake released this beautiful work...
Now I may not be a fan, but regardless of the music, this is what i call a perfect art direction job...
The subtle lighting, the choreography,  the little details, and of course the clothes.
And guess who's behind this, I've just been researching: well it is none other than Mr Tom Ford, whom else?

Well Bravo, very stylish Monsieur Timberlake, Monsieur Ford et Monsieur Jay Z!

Reminds me of our photoshoot from last year, check the images below & the full post: here.

>GeekFest Beirut: Register now!

You don't want to miss this! Geekfest 5 is all about fashion & music!
It's going to be at The Alleyway, Gemmayze and there will be great talks by Tony Yammine, Hind Hobeika, Besr Kayyali, Loryne Atoui ...& me ;-)
(Le Geek c'est Chic!) as well as a super fashion show, great music and much more...
Register online here, it's free but mandatory... SEE U ALL THERE!

> Beirut Gems

It's been a while that I didn't share with you my latest finds... Enough work, time for leisure!
3 finds on our list today: to read, to eat and to stay up beat!

To read: FIMP mag
Remember my (Ex!) students that we covered in RJmag?
Well, here they are all grown up with the guts to put on the market a magazine that needed to exist, a magazine that showcases young talents in all fields. Inspired, fresh, well designed... Pure awesomness!

Kisses and congrats to all the team! And here's where you can find FIMP...
And here's the May/June mixtape.
One little note though (can't help it, it's the ex-teacher in me!): 
A lot of people mistook the cover story title for the mag name, because of the choice and size of font... 
And the contributers/credits page could've been a little sexier compared to rest of the mag!

To eat: Yazhou by J & L Pourcel

This has opened a while ago in Abd el Wahab street but I just had the chance to taste it...

Mmmm... Pure awesomness to your palate.

Also, all the walls are covered by Jean Marc Nahas drawings, mega effect!

To stay up beat: B. boutique

This is right under my nose, two meters away from my house! But since I leave very early and come back very late from work I couldn't take a sneak peek... Last saturday I went right in and ... oh joy! Great jewelry designed by Ibrahim elZein, perfect choice of clothes, the place to go if you want to shop for you or a gift to remember...

Voilà! That's all for today's tips... Hope you try them!

>Gaga de GLEE? je le suis moi aussi...

What can I say? I love this series!! Great music, stunning performances, fantastic art direction, funny scripts, interesting characters... The Musicals lover that i am is completely thrilled. I wanted to post you about it for quite some time now, but this freshly published article in ELLE France urged me to do it now.. For more info click here.

>great video!

A parody of karaoke songs... released a few months ago but i thought i'd make you smile this morning! click here...

>Pet Shop Boys go graphic

One of my all time favorite bands' new video. Refreshing and fun.. You can watch it here but since it's animation, a higher resolution is more appropriate, do you watch MTV?

>morning poetry

a perfect little jewel to watch...

>les clips bien sapés!

Like one of my favorite blogs, café mode who has a section called "les films bien sapés" featuring the best dressed movies, i would like to show you some of the best dressed videoclips!
My pick of the day is Elli Medeiros' toi mon toit, not only great 80ies kitsch but also great rhythm! So where's the party?
nb: the quality of the video is not great so does anyone have another link?

>want inspiration? watch this!

click here and enjoy...

>a little kitsch never harmed anyone...

Okay politics sucks. That's what you've all said.
So enough with the bad news and let's put some stardust in our lives...
If you haven't already, run ( or fly :) ) to the Hotel de Ville in Paris and discover all about the sparkling diva, Dalida!
More details here.

(photo: poster detail)

>mika rocks!!!!

What?? You haven't heard of Mika?? Of course you have! The voice of this Beirut-born prodigy is simply unforgettable!!!
'Grace Kelly', 'Love today', 'Relax' are the ones you know, but logon to mikasounds.com to check 'Lollipop' or 'Billy Brown' and browse through the wonderful world of Mika.
I simply cannot stop listening to his album...
(image from mikasounds.com)