qana / beirut

2000 years ago, in qana, jesus transformed water into wine.

today, in qana, the israeli air force transformed kids into ashes.

today, in beirut, i am not able to transform this page into a drawing.

canned food - no expiry date

qana

day 19

after 19
days
i started
to cry

my life?

and my life tomorrow?
and after tomorrow?
and after after tomorrow?
and after after after tomorrow?
and etc?
and after etc?
and after?

black. always.

the black mediterranean sea

15.000 tons of oil on the lebanese shores.

the biggest ecological disaster in the mediterranean sea

a new world record for lebanon

hurray

touristic advertising

boxes

LIFE
of the city of tyr today:

40 wooden numbered boxes to move home from the city of tyr to under the city of tyr.
40.

and my life today

AND MY LIFE TODAY

walid
evan
racha
antoine
laure
makram
raed
lynn
tala
and me
and a kite

a normal day

MY LIFE TODAY

phone (a lot)

music

table tennis

moujaddara and cabbage salad
at my parents

drawing (not much)

cigarettes and beers

television

LIKE EVERY DAY

The world is sleeping

a nice chat

re-charging needed soon

thursday 27 of july 2006

"i am still functional"

until when?

petition

dreams

"i am sorry to decline your proposition"

stop!
that's it!
i can't anymore!
nein!
please do not contact me for any interview anymore.
i am beginning to freak out repeating 5 times a day the same things. if your interested in what i am doing, please write yourself a story about it (it's easy, you'll see).
anyways, everything i am asked is already on the blog. or worst, on tv.
i should by the way keep record of these interviews, some are incredible. i was asked twice so far: "don't you think that your piece of music and bombs is of a bad taste?
i answered twice: "do you think that it is of a good taste to throw a bomb on a bus with civilians escaping their village?"
it is incredible that some people, listening to this piece in their living room in london or in paris, ask themselves if they like it or not. i think that some people should never stop seeing cnn and fox news. it is made for them. it is "good taste" news.

also, for the new comers on this blog, i repeat my now famous sentence (a sort of personal "to be or not to be" kind of stuff):
PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY POLITICAL COMMENT ON THIS BLOG.
THIS IS BLOG DEDICATED TO ART.
AND AS SUCH, IT VOMITS ON ANYTHING CALLED POLITICS.
thank you to follow this simple rule (it's easy, you'll see), knowing that i have no scruple to erase whatever doesn't please me. yeah, it sounds rude, but you're not in the "real" disneyland here.

finally, a kind message to all the people posting comments on this blog:
thank you for your support and for spreading the message. keep doing so please. with a little bit of luck it will end up on condoleeza rice's desktop. i know it won't stop the war, but i am sure at least that she'll ask me to do her portrait.
i am sorry not answering the comments (and a big part of the emails) i am receiving. it's being tougher and tougher to keep all this going on. on the mental level it's staying cool, but on the physical one i look more and more like nosferatu.
i should get some rest.
when all this shit is over.
(hahahaha).

it's 3 am. i'll try not to stay late tonight.

antoine

the voice of wisdom

"i do not understand, the united nations, they are united with whom and against whom?"

my father today.

birds of prey

"night of 26 to 27 july.
the israeli aviation is flying over beirut."

"and i am going to sleep."

music always

26 july 2006 - rome's conference

rome's conference resolves the problem

after an emergency meeting of 18 nations to find a solution to the crisis, kofi annan and condoleeza rice declare:

"the situation in lebanon is critic. we have to open humanitarian roads"

and the reader translates:
israel has the right to continue it's war on lebanon but they have to ensure that the besieged will receive the elementary needs before bombing them.

black

how can i show what i feel?

how can i know what i feel?

change

i am beginning to change...

yesterday night

25 july 2006

yesterday's night was a night of happiness and worries.

diane called me at 4 am. the french embassy called her to say that "her" boat is leaving at 10 am.

she refused to go. she's staying in the mountain with evan. hurray diane.

i am relieved. finally. i am worried but relieved.

freedom flag

i am beginning to get tired

faulse alert

ok, ok. i should calm down. i know.
i can see the blog again sometimes and sometimes not. must be a connection problem. but it is the second internet problem i have in a week. last week i stayed for 12 hours not receiving emails! not even on the webmail. a friend said that it is because my mailbox and sites are totally overloaded.
i am really becoming too paranoiac. it's crazy.

am i dead?

i am becoming very paranoiac. maybe it is a side effect of the war.
i can not access kerblog anymore. there is only a blank page.
i received two emails so far reporting the same problem.
am i being stopped?
if this problem remains, it would mean that my blog has been stopped by "somebody".
could "somebody" be afraid of what i am doing? it would be great!
anyways, if you can read this post it means i still can post. so i'll continue it "blind".

we did it

we did it

and:
boom

"what should we do"

"we continue!"

and we'll continue continuing.

can euronews be funny?

real news from beirut / fourth issue

23 july 2006 - BLUE

of paris i said that it doesn't have a sky but rather a neutral grey stain.

and of the new yorkers that they cannot see the sky because of the heighth of their ambition.

and of london's sky that it is manufactured from flying cotton.


where are you blue sky of beirut?

black

w
e
---
a
r
e
--
t
o
m
o
r
r
o
w'
s
---
d
e
a
d
---
.
.
.

different wars

5.19 am

ok, i think it calmed down for tonight.
i'll try to sleep a bit. my blog and laure's one are going smooth. i'll have two blogs to update daily. i want also to create a third one (a second kerblog), but i'll talk about it when it's ready.
keep posted people, we need you more than ever. keep forwarding this blog and others to as much people as you can and don't forget to ask them to send it to as much people as they can, asking them to send it...

war flipper

terrorism is a funny word

lebanon is being sold for the price of a word:


TERRORISM


------------------------
what a bad joke!!!

coffee and brain 3

coffee and brain 2

coffee and brain

coffins on tv

raed yassin is nabil fawzi and bechir remains bechir

i finished finally setting up two new blogs tonight, my mother's one (see last post) and fellow musician/actor/dance raed yassin who is starting a blog to document the war via words + old comics pages and polaroids. here's his address: www.raedyassin.blogspot.com

more and more resistants!

another fellow musician from beirut, bechir saadeh, is pursuing his blog started a while ago with more political content. check at: www.remarkze.blogspot.com/

no drawings tonight. didn;t have time and it's already 5am.
the birds are waking up and everything is strangely calm. this awful calm i always try to describe. the one that you know won't last. and you ask yourself indefinitely: what and when is next?

LAURE GHORAYEB JOINED THE RESISTANCE

As of today, laure ghorayeb began the resistance on www.laureghorayeb.blogspot.com

And who is laure ghorayeb might ask most of my international readers (and a lot of the lebanese one I presume)?


LAURE GHORAYEB attempt for an objective biography

laure ghorayeb is a lebanese visual artist/poet born in 1931. after publishing 2 books of poems, she slowly stop writing to consecrate herself tothe unique style of painting she developed over the years. this style, melting words, drawings and signs together could arguably be described as abstract/poetic comics (it is at least my opinion).

she did many solo exhibits and hundred of collective ones. she is holder of an award of distinction from the paris biennale (1967) and won the first award of the alexandria biennal in the category of drawing (1997). she also participated in the international forum of art "europ’art 2003" in geneva.

during the 15 years of the civil war, laure ghorayeb never stopped drawing. a selection of these drawings, directly connected to the war, were published in a limited edition book titled “témoignage” (testimony) in 1985.
it seems sadly that art cannot fight war. here she is today starting a new series of her marvelously depressing war drawings in a blog titled “witnessing (again)”.
laure ghorayeb is also an art critic for the lebanese newspaper an nahar.


LAURE GHORAYEB a subjective biography

laure ghorayeb is my mom and she’s the greatest.

59

58

bombs
pass
and we
bark

57

21 july 2006

i am at home in sin el fil

thinking of evan

prisonner in a house

playing playstation all day long

alon

and asking everyday: why can't i go see
farid / yasmina / simon / etc.

what can i answer?

to all the lebanese bloggers

i am receiving a lot of links but i am not finding any time to go check all the blogs. i am really sorry, but you know the time it takes to keep a blog going.
i am creating this post for you to add all your links on it in the comments section. maybe you can add a quick description if you like. i know it is not much but it is the only way for me to spread the word about all the lebanese blogs going around thes days.
i hope you'll see this post and send all the other lebanese bloggers.

keep it going. and encourage everybody you know to start a blog. your mom, dad, friends, family. everybody. we are writing our future's collective memory.

fuck interviews

i did today another interview with a swedish radio about my music in general and about the "starry night" piece. it was good to talk about music for a while.

i am receiving a lot of propositions for other interviews.
i hate to do that. especially in theses times.
i feel that the attention my work is given is somehow unjustified. in normal times, i would have sent my blog address to my mailing list (around 400 people), and would have got some 1000 people visiting after 2 or 3 years. today, it went pretty fast out of control. in 4 days there was already more than 1000 readers. god knows how much there is now. i hope a lot. and i hope that others are coming.
the thing is that today i feel a sort of responsibility, and it is like i have to make my voice heard to continue the job i am already doing on the blog. i am doing it and will still do it. but it put me in the position of a sort of hero defending the lebanese citizens with my art, while the sad reality is that i can do nothing to even protect myself. people are dying under the bombs and i am giving interviews!!!
anyways, i'll continue drawing, fraking out, playing music and blogging (i hate this word) until i find something more intelligent/helpful to do.

56

20 july 2006

in the bad times, like in the good times, raed and i are chatting in a café

"art / music / war / trumpet / beer / recording / massacre / double-bass / dance / exodus / sound / destruction / laughs / drawing / death / blood / tyr / coffee"

i's weird, there is words we are not used to use.

etc. etc.

55

54

53

52

51

50

evan is 5 years old and didn't live any war.

"we play karate?"

49'

my mom was 10 years old during world war II.
and 45 in the 1975 civil war.

today, she's 75.

"do you think i'll catch up one more war?"

49

i slept at 6

i woke up at 10

they bombed 400 meters from my parent's place in ashrafieh

i am not going.

and each time we'll sleep
we'll wake up.

48

47

my life in a bag

each time i leave my flat, i take with me:

my passport and evan's one
a mini-disc recorder + microphone
2 t-shirts
2 underwear
2 pairs of socks
a notebook and pens
my trumpet
binoculars
a book
tobacco
a small camera
a lighter
a usb key
a toothbrush
4 batteries