Friday, September 30, 2016

Media Roots Radio – Abby Goes to Palestine

Media Roots Radio – Abby Goes to Palestine



Recently I traveled for two weeks through the West Bank in Palestine. Despite all the things I’ve read and seen, nothing could have prepared me for what it was like on the ground.

The entire West Bank is under martial law style occupation, where Israeli forces brutalize and harass Palestinians on a daily basis. For just traveling with Palestinians we had M16s pointed in our faces several times. A man almost got executed just feet from us. It’s a war zone–except only one side has military might. 
One of the most underreported realities is that Israel is becoming a fascist theocracy, with every administration becoming more fanatical than the last. From life inside the refugee camps to under occupation and settler terror, I give a first-hand account of the real Israel/Palestine on a special two hour edition of Media Roots Radio.
Watch the first segment of The Empire Files’ Palestine series that covers the history of Zionism and brutally honest root of what is behind the so-called “Israel-Palestine conflict.”
Listen to all previous episodes of Media Roots Radio on soundcloud.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Deaths in Sports



In the past week, two very large American sports figures passed away somewhat suddenly. Despite drastically different circumstances, the reaction to the two deaths reminded us all of how human we are, and how quickly life can be taken away. And, when you’ve spent most of your life in the public spotlight, how fond memories, quiet reminiscence and archived footage can be the sole purveyor of what was a lifetime of inspiration gone in a flash.

On Sunday, the world lost two enormous sports figures in Jose Fernandez and Arnold Palmer. Understandably, the sports world grieved the loss of two beloved figures–a young and already dominant Major League Baseball pitcher who perished in a boating accident, and man known as
The King, one of the best golfers in the history of the sport. In the midst of the disbelief and grieving process, however, there is more than just grief and tragedy. There is a sense of bonding as human beings and a sense of togetherness when people in such high stature are taken from us.

Death in absolutely any capacity whatsoever is a tragic circumstance. A life ended becomes a life remembered rather than one experienced or interacted with. When the death happens in the public eye, the number of mourners goes from hundreds to potentially millions. No longer is it friends, family and coworkers who are bowing their heads in utter despair–it’s fans, it’s teammates, it’s countries–it’s humans.

These deaths can bind us as fans, and as empathetic human beings. When Fernandez passed away at the age of 24, his team, the Miami Marlins, canceled their game that afternoon. Other teams around the country honored him with moments of silence–articles about his personality as well as athletic talents began popping up left and right, as did stories of Fernandez the man. The New York Mets–the team Fernandez was set to face on Monday–hung a jersey in the dugout in his honor. Despite being bitter rivals, people everywhere came together to recognize tragedy, and remember who he was and what he contributed to the world.

This isn’t to say that any one death is more tragic than any other–the deaths of Fernandez, Palmer, Prince, Elvis or anyone else in the public eye aren’t inherently more heartbreaking than the death of your cousin or your neighbor. But they do help us understand more about the recovery process and how we, as human beings can sympathize and empathize even with people whom we aren’t acquainted. When Fernandez and Palmer passed away, many people who had never met either of them undoubtedly stepped away to shed tears. These are our heros–these are people whom we look to to distract ourselves in times of dire sadness. They are human beings who are gone before we know it, and leave the Earth without truly grasping the effect that they had.

I am reminded similarly of the piece I wrote on my website just a little bit ago on the power of the Olympics binding us together as national fans. It is a bittersweet feeling to recognize the power of death to do the same. No one in their right mind would say that the deaths of Fernandez, Palmer, or any of the thousands of other deaths that undoubtedly occurred across the world on Sunday were beneficial. But we can say for certain that we as mourners, as sports fans, and most of all as humans, can be brought together through tragedy.

Friday, September 23, 2016

VALENTIN DE BOULOGNE




Journal de Montréal, VENDREDI 23 SEPTEMBRE 2016 20H08


            5 expos à voir pour la rentrée.




Valentin de Boulogne, dit le Valentin (1591-1632), de son vrai nom Jean Valentin, est un peintre français, un des plus talentueux et des plus illustres représentants du courant des caravagesques.
Jean Valentin est le fils d'un peintre verrier dont la famille était originaire de Coulommiers, depuis 1489. Le nom de famille fait référence à la ville de Boulogne-sur-Mer, au xviiie siècle il est identifié sous le nom de Moïse (ou Moyse) Valentin, ainsi que Valentin de Coulommier. Il existe une confusion sur la date de naissance, dans l'acte de décès il est mentionné être mort à l'âge de 38 ans mais son acte de baptême a disparu.

Il est présumé que Valentin s'est formé à la peinture dans l'atelier de son père avant de se rendre à Paris ou Fontainebleau et suivit l'enseignement de Simon Vouet, qu'il admirait et dont il s'inspira. Il partit ensuite pour l'Italie.

La première trace de la présence de Valentin en Italie est mentionnée dans le stati d'anime de 1620, alors qu'il vit dans la paroisse de Santa Maria del Popolo. Avant cette date on ne peut que spéculer sur ses déplacements et ses activités.

Tout en étudiant en Italie, Valentin fut sous l'influence du Caravage et de Bartolomeo Manfredi. Peintre de scènes de genre et de tableau religieux, il fera sa carrière essentiellement à Rome.
Courtesy of wikipedia
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_de_Boulogne?veaction=edit

Le caravagisme, ou école caravagesque, est un courant pictural de la première moitié du xviie siècle.
Apparu à la suite du travail du Caravage à la fin du xvie siècle, le caravagisme est parfois assimilé à une forme de baroque romain face au classicisme des Carrache. Cette idée est cependant à nuancer en raison des nombreuses similitudes qui rapprochent ces deux écoles romaine et bolonaise. Ce courant ne doit pas être décrit comme un groupe ou comme une école, car il ne constituait pas un mouvement structuré, mais tout au plus une imitation, une influence de l’Italie. Cette évolution intellectuelle se situe à mi-chemin entre l’opposition à la rhétorique classique des Académies d’une part, et le brillant enthousiasme illusionniste du baroque d’autre part.

Caractérisé par la prédominance de scènes aux puissants contrastes de lumière et d'ombre transcendées par la maîtrise virtuose du clair-obscur, il se constitue autour du style du Caravage et de ses plus proches suiveurs, tel Bartolomeo Manfredi. L’école caravagesque d'Utrecht constitue, quant à elle, un groupe séparé

Courtesy of wikipedia
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravagisme


Œuvres



Valentin de Boulogne (before 3 January 1591 – 19 August 1632), sometimes referred to as Le Valentin, was a French painter in the tenebrist style.

Valentin was born in Coulommiers, France, where he was baptised in the parish of Saint-Denys on 3 January 1591, making 1590 his likely year of birth. The family name, also spelled Boullogne and Boulongne, appears to originate from Boulogne-sur-Mer, a city in northern France in the colony of Pas-de-Calais, though the family had dwelt at Coulommiers since at least 1489. His father, also named Valentin, and his uncle Jean were both painters.
It can be presumed that Valentin would have first started painting in his father's studio prior to moving to Paris or Fontainebleau, and before leaving for Italy. The first specific mention of Valentin's being in Italy is in the stati d'anime for 1620, when he was living in the parish of Santa Maria del Popolo. Prior to that date his whereabouts and activities are unknown.
While studying in Italy under Simon Vouet, Valentin was under the influence of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Bartolomeo Manfredi.

Caravaggio used a "bold, naturalistic style, which emphasized the common humanity of the apostles and martyrs, flattered the aspirations of the Counter-Reformation Church, while his vivid chiaroscuro enhanced both three-dimensionality and drama, as well as evoking the mystery of the faith." Caravaggio "followed a militantly realist agenda, rejecting both Mannerism and the classicizing naturalism" and "in the first 30 years of the 17th century his naturalistic ambitions and revolutionary artistic procedures attracted a large following from all over Europe.

Manfredi, also an Italian painter, was known throughout Italy and beyond as Caravaggio's closest follower. In the dramatically lit canvases of his later period Manfredi adopted a common theme from Caravaggio—the tavern scene featuring ordinary people, even religious subjects, whose figures are depicted close to the surface of the picture to involve the viewer in the action.

While Caravaggio and Manfredi may have influenced the style and themes that would become common in Valentin's work, Valentin would study under Simon Vouet, a Frenchman. In his time, Vouet was considered a leading French painter. Vouet's earliest work show the influence of Caravaggio, and use dramatic contrasts of light with a restricted palette of blacks, browns whites.

Valentin had success with a type of composition invented by Caravaggio in which fortune tellers, drinkers, or gamblers are grouped around a table. Valentin himself was fond of carousing and fine wine; it is thought that he died from a chill caught after bathing in a fountain following an evening of smoking and drinking.[citation needed] His surviving body of work is made up of around seventy-five paintings. Valentin's genius shows in the subtleness of psychological expression and interplay among his characters, as well as in the refinement and finesse of his painting technique.

Valentin's painting Fortune Teller with Soldiers depicts a group of young soldiers, one of whom is mesmerized by the fortune teller who is reading his palm. Behind the gypsy a shadowy figure looks at the viewer with his finger to his lips in a conspiratorial gesture as he steals the fortune teller's purse from her pocket. A small child is seen returning the favor by picking his pockets. While one person's fortune is told, another's is being stolen; and one thief falls victim to another.

Courtesy of wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_de_Boulogne






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Monday, September 19, 2016

Bill Evans - In Memory of his Father



Bill Evans at Town Hall is a live album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans and his Trio, released in 1966.
Writing for Allmusic, music critic Scott Yanow called the album: "... a superior effort by Bill Evans and his trio in early 1966... this live set features the group mostly performing lyrical and thoughtful standards... However the most memorable piece is the 13½-minute "Solo - In Memory of His Father," an extensive unaccompanied exploration by Evans that partly uses a theme that became "Turn Out the Stars."
Track listing

"I Should Care" (Sammy Cahn, Axel Stordahl, Paul Weston) – 5:30
"Spring Is Here" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 5:00
"Who Can I Turn To" (Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley) – 6:17
"Make Someone Happy" (Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Jule Styne) – 4:45
"In Memory of His Father Harry L. (Prologue/Story Line/Turn Out the Stars/Epilogue)" (Evans) – 13:40
"Beautiful Love" (Haven Gillespie, Wayne King, Egbert Van Alstyne, Victor Young) – 6:56
"My Foolish Heart" (Ned Washington, Victor Young) – 4:51
"One for Helen" (Evans) – 5:51
Personnel
Bill Evans - piano
Chuck Israels – bass
Arnold Wise – drums

Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org




Sunday, September 18, 2016

KIND of BLUE





Kind of Blue est entièrement basé sur l'approche modale contrairement aux précédents travaux de Davis au style davantage orienté hard bop et sa progression d'accords complexes et basé sur l'improvisation. L'album est composé comme une série d'« esquisses modales », dans lesquelles chaque musicien a reçu un ensemble de gammes qui indiquent les principales caractéristiques de l'improvisation et du style. Ce style contraste avec les méthodes traditionnelles de composition, consistant à fournir aux musiciens les partitions complètes ou bien en apportant aux musiciens une progression d'accords comme c'est souvent le cas pour le jazz d'improvisation.

Une approche modale de ce type n'est pas propre à cet album. Miles Davis avait déjà utilisé cette méthode sur ses albums Milestones et Porgy and Bess, sur lesquels il exploite les influences modales pour des compositions de son collaborateur Gil Evans. À l'origine cette approche originale est développée en 1953 par le pianiste et écrivain George Russell. Davis voit dans les méthodes de composition de Russell un moyen de s'écarter des compositions souvent denses de cette époque, que Davis nomme « épaisses ». La composition modale avec sa dépendance aux gammes et aux modes, représente comme le rappelle Davis « un retour à la mélodie ». Davis a perfectionné cette forme de composition contrairement à la progression d'accords simple qui prédomine dans le bebop. Dans un entretien en 1958 avec le critique musical Nat Hentoff de The Jazz Review, il déclare : « Absence d'accord... vous donne beaucoup plus de liberté et d'espace pour entendre des choses. Lorsque l'on va dans cette direction, on peut y aller pour toujours. On n'a pas à se soucier des changements et on peut faire plus avec la ligne [mélodique]. Cela devient un défi pour voir à quel point on peut être innovant dans la mélodie. Quand on se base sur les accords, on sait à la fin des 32 mesures que les accords sont terminés et il n'y a rien d'autre à faire que de répéter ce que l'on vient de faire - avec des variations. Je pense qu'un mouvement en jazz commence loin de la série classique des accords... il y aura moins d'accords mais des possibilités infinies à n'en savoir que faire ».

À propos des instructions donné par Miles aux musiciens, Bill Evans écrit sur le liner notes du LP : « Miles a conçu ces paramètres seulement quelques heures avant les dates d'enregistrement. » et ajoute « tu entendras donc quelque chose proche de la pure spontanéité dans ces interprétations ». Evans poursuit avec une introduction sur les modes utilisés dans chacune des compositions de l'album.

Le morceau So What se compose d'un mode basé sur deux gammes : seize mesures sur la première suivies de huit mesures sur la deuxième, puis à nouveau huit sur la première3. Le thème de 32 mesures (8 x 2 sur un accord de ré mineur 7e - un pont de 8 mesures sur mi b mineur 7e - 8 sur ré mineur 7e) qui se prête bien à l'improvisation modale. La composition Impressions de John Coltrane est construite sur la même grille harmonique. Selon George Russell, l'improvisation de Miles Davis sur ce morceau est l'une des plus parfaites de l'histoire du jazz. Russell a d'ailleurs écrit un arrangement pour big band de ce solo qu'il a enregistré à plusieurs reprises avec le Living Time Orchestra.

Le titre suivant, Freddie Freeloader est un standard blues en Si bémol sur 12 mesures où les deux dernières mesures varient une fois sur deux, la première étant un La bémol et la seconde le Si bémol.

Blue in Green se compose d'une boucle de dix mesures après une courte introduction de quatre mesures3.

All Blues est un blues en sol de douze mesures en 6/8.

Le dernier titre Flamenco Sketches regroupe une série de cinq gammes qui sont chacune jouées « aussi longtemps que le soliste le souhaite jusqu'à ce qu'il ait achevé la série ». Le morceau est fortement inspiré par Peace piece (album Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Riverside, 1958), un morceau de Bill Evans qui repose sur deux accords répétés en boucle. Evans avait d'ailleurs utilisé cette « boucle d'accords » comme introduction pour la composition de Leonard Bernstein Some other time (morceau non publié sur l'album de 58, mais disponible sur des rééditions du disque).

Le liner notes mentionne que Davis est l'auteur de toutes les compositions de l'album, mais des spécialistes prétendent que Bill Evans a composé une partie ou l'ensemble des morceaux Blue in Green et Flamenco Sketches. Bill Evans est donné comme coauteur avec Miles Davis du morceau Blue in Green qu'il enregistre sur son album Portrait in Jazz. La paternité de Bill Evans sur ce sujet est reconnue en 2002. La pratique consistant pour le leader d'un groupe à s'approprier la paternité d'un morceau écrit par un sideman se présente souvent dans le monde du jazz. Ce fut le cas notamment avec le célèbre saxophoniste Charlie Parker avec Miles Davis lorsque Parker s'est attribué l'écriture du morceau Donna Lee, écrit par Davis alors qu'il était employé en tant que sideman dans le quintet de Charlie Parker dans les années 1940. Le morceau est devenu plus tard un standard de jazz populaire. Un autre exemple est l'introduction de So What, attribuée à Gil Evans et qui est étroitement basée sur les mesures de l'ouverture Voiles (1910) du compositeur Claude Debussy, le second prélude de son premier recueil de préludesa .





By late 1958, Davis employed one of the most acclaimed and profitable working bands pursuing the hard bop style. His personnel had become stable: alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Bill Evans, long-serving bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. His band played a mixture of pop standards and bebop originals by Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Tadd Dameron. As with all bebop-based jazz, Davis's groups improvised on the chord changes of a given song. Davis was one of many jazz musicians growing dissatisfied with bebop, and saw its increasingly complex chord changes as hindering creativity.

In 1953, the pianist George Russell published his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, which offered an alternative to the practice of improvisation based on chords and chord changes. Abandoning the traditional major and minor key relationships, the Lydian Chromatic Concept introduced the idea of chord/scale unity and was the first theory to explore the vertical relationship between chords and scales, as well as the only original theory to come from jazz. This approach led the way to "modal" in jazz.  Influenced by Russell's ideas, Davis implemented his first modal composition with the title track of his studio album Milestones (1958). Satisfied with the results, Davis prepared an entire album based on modality. Pianist Bill Evans, who had studied with Russell but recently departed from Davis's sextet to pursue his own career, was drafted back into the new recording project, the sessions that would become Kind of Blue.

Kind of Blue was recorded on three-track tape in two sessions at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City. On March 2, 1959, the tracks "So What", "Freddie Freeloader", and "Blue in Green" were recorded for side one of the original LP, and on April 22 the tracks "All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches" were recorded, making up side two. Production was handled by Teo Macero, who had produced Davis's previous two LPs, and Irving Townsend.

As was Davis's penchant, he called for almost no rehearsal and the musicians had little idea what they were to record. As described in the original liner notes by pianist Bill Evans, Davis had only given the band sketches of scales and melody lines on which to improvise.[7] Once the musicians were assembled, Davis gave brief instructions for each piece and then set to taping the sextet in studio. While the results were impressive with so little preparation, the persistent legend that the entire album was recorded in one pass is untrue.  Only "Flamenco Sketches" yielded a complete take on the first try. That take, not the master, was issued in 1997 as a bonus alternate take.  The five master takes issued, however, were the only other complete takes; an insert for the ending to "Freddie Freeloader" was recorded, but was not used for release or on the issues of Kind of Blue prior to the 1997 reissue. Pianist Wynton Kelly may not have been happy to see the man he replaced, Bill Evans, back in his old seat. Perhaps to assuage the pianist's feelings, Davis had Kelly play instead of Evans on the album's most blues-oriented number, "Freddie Freeloader".  The live album Miles Davis at Newport 1958 documents this band. However, the Newport Jazz Festival recording on July 3, 1958, reflects the band in its hard bop conception, the presence of Bill Evans only six weeks into his brief tenure in the Davis band notwithstanding, rather than the modal approach of Kind of Blue.
Kind of Blue is based entirely on modality in contrast to Davis's earlier work with the hard bop style of jazz and its complex chord progression and improvisation. The entire album was composed as a series of modal sketches, in which each performer was given a set of scales that defined the parameters of their improvisation and style.  This style was in contrast to more typical means of composing, such as providing musicians with a complete score or, as was more common for improvisational jazz, providing the musicians with a chord progression or series of harmonies.

Modal jazz of this type was not unique to this album. Davis himself had previously used the same method on his 1958 Milestones album, the '58 Sessions, and Porgy and Bess (1958), on which he used modal influences for collaborator Gil Evans's third stream compositions.  Also, the original concept and method had been developed in 1953 by pianist and writer George Russell. Davis saw Russell's methods of composition as a means of getting away from the dense chord-laden compositions of his time, which Davis had labeled "thick." Modal composition, with its reliance on scales and modes, represented, as Davis called it, "a return to melody." In a 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff of The Jazz Review, Davis elaborated on this form of composition in contrast to the chord progression predominant in bebop, stating "No chords ... gives you a lot more freedom and space to hear things. When you go this way, you can go on forever. You don't have to worry about changes and you can do more with the [melody] line. It becomes a challenge to see how melodically innovative you can be. When you're based on chords, you know at the end of 32 bars that the chords have run out and there's nothing to do but repeat what you've just done—with variations. I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords... there will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them."

As noted by Bill Evans in the LP liner notes, "Miles conceived these settings only hours before the recording dates." Evans continued with an introduction concerning the modes used in each composition on the album. "So What" consists of two modes: sixteen measures of the first, followed by eight measures of the second, and then eight again of the first. "Freddie Freeloader" is a standard twelve-bar blues form. "Blue in Green" consists of a ten-measure cycle following a short four-measure introduction.  "All Blues" is a twelve-bar blues form in 6/8 time. "Flamenco Sketches" consists of five scales, which are each played "as long as the soloist wishes until he has completed the series".

Liner notes list Davis as writer of all compositions, but many scholars and fans believe that Bill Evans wrote part or the whole of "Blue in Green" and "Flamenco Sketches". Bill Evans assumed co-credit with Davis for "Blue in Green" when recording it on his Portrait in Jazz album. The Davis estate acknowledged Evans' authorship in 2002. The practice of a band leader's appropriating authorship of a song written by a sideman occurred frequently in the jazz world, as legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker did so to Davis when Parker took a songwriting credit for the tune "Donna Lee", written by Davis while employed as a sideman in Charlie Parker's quintet in the late 1940s.  The composition later became a popular jazz standard. Another example is the introduction to "So What", attributed to Gil Evans, which is closely based on the opening measures of French composer Claude Debussy's Voiles (1910), the second prelude from his first collection of preludes.

 Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_of_Blue



Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Monday, September 12, 2016

Walif Chbeir: A Tour of Lebanon



Morceau de paradis entre ciel et terre dans la region du mont liban qui résume quelque peu la géographie et l’histoire libanaise : Proximité du ciel, de la terre et de la mer. Lieu de pélerinage et de tourisme. 

Harissa (en arabe:حريصا) est un village et localité du district de Kesrouan. Bien que situé à 20 kilomètres au nord de Beyrouth et proche de la mer Méditerranée il s’élève sur une colline de 650-700 mètres, d’où la Statue de Notre Dame du Liban contemple à l’ouest la baie de Jounieh , la chaine du Mont-Liban (Nord-Est et Sud-est) et la ville de Beyrouth (sud et sud-ouest). Harissa est reliée en 15 minutes à la ville côtière de Jounieh par une route et par un téléphérique.

Le Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Liban (en arabe (سيدة حريصا في لبنان) ) est un édifice religieux catholique - de l’Église maronite - et lieu de pèlerinage dédié à la Vierge Marie. Il consiste en deux bâtiments proches mais séparés: la chapelle originale édifiée en 1908 qui est surmontée de la statue monumentale de Notre-Dame du Liban et l’église moderne de grande dimension édifiée dans les années 1980 et élevée au rang de basilique mineure. Depuis 1908 les services pastoraux y sont assurés par des prêtres de la congrégation des missionnaires libanais.

La Cathédrale Saint-Paul

C’est la Cathédrale des missionnaires de St. Paul – Harissa de l’église Grecque Melkite Catholique. Congrégation fondée en 1903 et dont la première pierre de son église fut posée la même année. C’est pour favoriser un climat d’union et de rencontre entre les chrétiens et instaurer un dialogue fraternelle entre chrétiens et musulmans que le fondateur avait choisi Harissa, dans le voisinage de Notre-Dame du Liban, comme centre de recherches et de prières œcuméniques. La construction a débuté en 1947, l'église est un joyau d’art byzantin, à l'architecture soignée surmontée de coupoles et de demi coupoles et dont l'intérieur est orné de magnifiques mosaïques dans le pur style byzantin. L'unité des chrétiens étant le but de l'édification de cette Cathédrale, c'est pourquoi, on s'est efforcé de reproduire côte à côte les principaux représentants des Eglises Orthodoxes et catholiques, et de plusieurs cultures Occidentales et Orientales. Sur fond doré, ces mosaïques représentent le Christ Pantocrator, la Vierge au signe portant le Christ Emmanuel dans un médaillon sur son sein, la communion des Apôtres, les Pères de l'Eglise et des épisodes de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testaments.
Par ailleurs, Harissa est généreusement parsemé de lieux de cultes chrétien à dominance de communautés catholiques.

Jounieh

Jounieh (arabe : جونيه) est une ville côtière du Liban, située à 20 km au nord de Beyrouth. Elle s'étale autour d'une baie de 4 km sous la colline de Harissa. Malheureusement la mer comme autour de la plupart des grandes villes libanaises est très pollués et même contaminée par le déversement des égouts ménagers non traités et par une urbanisation agressive.
On peut retenir dans cette ville et face à face le Casino du liban, de réputation internationale au nord, etau sud un port de plaisance privé réservé à une clientèle aisée.


Ghosta
Est mon village natale au Nord Est et non loin de Harissa, située à une altitude de 900m. Elle est composée de 3 collines disposées en forme de «U » autour d’une vallée qui habrite un vieux monatère et tournée à l’ouest vers le nord de la baie de Jounieh sous une multitude de magnifiques angles de vue. Ce village habrite aussi comme d’ailleurs le reste du Mont Liban plusieurs monastères et églises de sorte que cette région est devenu une destination prisée du tourisme religieux, des retraites spirituelles et un lieu de pélerinage.

WALIF CHBEIR




Sunday, September 4, 2016

Bill Evans - You Must Believe In Spring(1977)

https://youtu.be/uTTlaM4VNNY?list=PLG3YYuCf5g7PNwVFPN_c0tlJF_Hy453Ge

You Must Believe in Spring is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded by Evans, bassist Eddie Gómez, and drummer  Eliot Zigmund  in August 1977 and released after Evans' death in September 1980. It was Evans's last recording sessions done with Gomez on bass, who left after eleven years with Evans to pursue other musical projects. Evans also recorded the title song as a duet with jazz vocalist Tony Bennett on their second album of duets titled Together Again (1977)







Track listing

1."B Minor Waltz (For Ellaine)" (Evans) - 0:00
2."You Must Believe in Spring" (Michel Legrand) - 3:18
3."Gary's Theme" (Gary McFarland) - 9:04
4."We Will Meet Again (For Harry)" (Evans) - 13:27
5."The Peacocks" (Jimmy Rowles) - 17:32
6."Sometime Ago" (Sergio Mihanovich) - 23:35
7."Theme from M*A*S*H(Suicide Is Painless)"(Mike Altman)- 28:15
8."Without a Song" (Edward Eliscu) - 34:18
9."Freddie Freeloader" (Miles Davis) - 42:28
10."All of You" (Cole Porter) - 50:06


Bill Evans Is a genius jazz pianist. its multiple inspiration, in particularly classic, is based on a deeply touching and colorful melodic improvisation. His keyboard touch is wonderfully modeled, harmonies deep and rich, his rhythmic phrasing of subtle elegance and melodies of extreme sensitivity. His music speaks literally to listener . 

This Album is just wonderful...profoundly sad. After
listening we must only die.

WALIF CHBEIR

                     










Saturday, September 3, 2016

Le chemin de Damas, les ruines, le sang et les larmes



madaniya.info publie cette étude à l’occasion de la dernière conférence des Ambassadeurs de France du quinquennat de François Hollande; une étude qui constitue un bilan des dégâts de la politique initiée par le gaullo-atlantiste Nicolas Sarkozy et le socialo-philosioniste François Hollande en direction de la rive méridionale de la Méditerranée.