Work=Craziness

What a relief to get back to my blog and post something. I have been quite busy recently and i have a new job and i also took a quick vacation. Three days ago i got back to Los Angeles after spendning a week in Elon, and right now i am at long beach airport, enjoying free wi-fi before i board for my 5 hour flight to Washington D.C.

I finished cutting the documentary on Arab women, and we have sent it to the Dubai Film Festival, and hopefully we will know if we got in towards the end of October. The company enjoyed my work and felt they get more out of me so i was hired as the creative director for KidzOnline-Middle East North Africa. My job is to help in the company's expansion to the middle east, which is quite exciting that i will be part of all this.

It was great to be back at Elon where i got to see some friends, attend home comming, and be interviewed for the school's new admissions video.

Now I head to DC for some meetings and such.

الله يوفقنا اجمعين

Family quote of the decade

"العقب عندهم يركظوا، و احنا إنقول لعيالنا اقعدوا"

الحاج عناد دليوان المجالي بعد زيارته لبريطانيا

" Kids there run around, while we tell ours to sit"

My grandfather after returning from London

Wijeh il Boxeh?

I just found these pics on PETRA and I was wondering if this is Wijeh il Boxeh "face of the box :)" for Jordan?

Ba3dein meen hal 3ayel? Ibn Leiman?

"The Constant Gardner" Meirelles keeping it constant

"The Constant Gardner" I have been waiting for this film to come out for while now, since I am a huge fan of City of God, Fernando Meirelles's previous work, i was wondering what he was going to provide us with next, and i have to say he delivered well.

The film is based on on John La Carre's novel with the same name, and deals with love, deception, sacrifice and for us jordanians, something we always love, global conspiracy.

The cinematography is top notch, delivering a wide pallete of colors, tones and hues. The choice to defriniate between flashbacks and locations with the use of different camera techniques and an eye for the epic make it very pleasing to watch.

Music blends between African traditonal music and a thriller theme, which worked well for me.

More importantly the film delivers a message, its not much about the thriller its been portrayed as, but more of a film that brings out the extremes that humans can go to, to achieve what suits them best.

I could go on about this film, but I think you need to check it out for yourselves. It rare to see an audience sit and actually watch the end credits, and that's what happened yesterday. Tells you something about it.

I finally did it !

New Comp
Originally uploaded by Fata Al-Janoob.

The thought has been lingering in the back of my head for a while now, i had wrestled with it for a month or so, trying to decide if i needed a new computer or not. Since coming to the US five years ago i have bought one computer, and was given a laptop for free, my decision today to buy a new system makes it the second system I buy here, and the first from money i have made through my own work.

Five years ago i bought a compaq desktop and it worked well for the first year, after that it started giving me problems, up until last year when i was saved by being given a semi dead apple laptop from school as a loan. The reason why they gave it to me was because of the state the screen was in. Some professor had dropped it and transformed the screen into what looks now like a prison window. They found out that it would have been more expensive to just fix the screen than getting the proffesor a new one, so i ended up getting it, I also had to use some gaff tape to hold its side from falling. not to mention also, the battery lasts 2 minutes ( i have tried many batteries, seems to be a problem with the power board)

So I gathered up some courage and went to the Apple store and bought a 12 inch Power book, i was tempted to get the 15inch model but i decided against that as i am considering to get a decked out G5 system soon. ( I also ended up getting an Ipod for dirt cheap because of a Student promotion they have :) )

I have to say that i was AMAZED at the ease of moving all what i needed from the old laptop to the new one.

Over 2500 emails, 400 contacts, 4108 songs, 2083 pictures, migrated from the old computer to the new one seamlessly, withuot a glitch. I am wondering how much trouble all of this would have been if i was on a pc.

So Steve jobs, you have done it again, and i feel that i have renewed my vows to Apple.

The other side of me : Where it all started

I have been meaning to write this post for a while, but I have been quite lazy in scanning some pictures that would serve as an addition to this post.

Many of you who have gotten to know me recently through my writings on this blog, know me as an editor. The back story of how I became an editor is what many may not know.

For the longest time my dream was to enter the army, the Royal Guards in particular, everyone knew that I was going to end up leading the security detail of the King one day. I planned to go to WestPoint Military academy, one of the most prestigious in the world and I would have had to serve for 16 years in the Jordanian army. This was my dream, this was what I only saw.

Well the saying in Arabic goes, t'aty al-riah bima la tashtahi al sufun ( the winds come contrary to the wishes of the ships) and things didn't work out as planned. My scholarship to WestPoint was gone. Gladly i had always had a plan B, and that was to get into acting or something related to media or film. That's what happened, and today I can say that i am a professional editor.

As for the acting part, that was where my creative output started. Since I was about 5 I would perform imitations of family members and I would entertain all our guests. As soon as I started school, I was in a play after another, playing many various roles over the years. I became known for my comedy, and in particular my skills in impersonations.

The list of the people I impersonated started with the late king Hussein, which I studies for about a year, listening to many of his speeches, observing the way he interacted with people in different situations, it was a detailed study that no one knew about except my cousin who helped me out and critiqued me. One day, I did it in front of my parents and they were blown away. I knew I had it down when I had both Prince Hashem and Princess Iman acknowledge the fact that I sounded like the late King Hussein.

TV presenter Omar Al-Khateeb, George Wassouf, Mu'amar al Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Abu Baker Salem, Nabil Shuail, Yasser Arafat and Prince Hassan , where all some of the voices i did. The list goes on to include many of my own hybrid characters such as Abu Sinno, and others.

I got my first professional acting gig with Nabil Sawalha in 2 plays, and since then I have been waiting for my next chance, which if all goes well could be sometime in the first quarter of next year, Inshallah.

I also want to say that there are people I need to thank who have helped me develop as an actor over the years, starting with Miss Hala Khoury, Ustaz Saad Abbas ( Nu3man from Ifta7 ya SimSim) Mrs. Lee Sibley, Nabil Sawalha, Abu Madda7, my good friend and acting collegue Jamil Zraikat, and of course the parents.

Here are some pics of my impersonations.

From Left to Right:
Row 1: Late king Hussein ( i was in 9th grade, no comments) Saddam Hussein, Omar Al-Khateeb , Yasser Arafat

Row 2: George Wassouf, Ustath Al-Riyada Imad Zaza, Alife Doolitle ( from My Fair Lady) and Faraj ( the hariseh seller) from the old Tv show Al-3ilmo Nooron

BREAKING NEWS: THE JORDANIAN GOVT. USES CHAMPAGNE TO INCREASE AWARENESS

Our official News Agency, PETRA, is just driving me crazy with their amazing work.

I never knew that our government uses Champagne to increase awareness on food and medicine....I must have missed something along the way.

Please check the comment on the 8th and 9th pictures

I just had 5 min of free time so i decided to show you the other pic ( with the help of photoshop i made sure that the comment was correct) Notice how the second guy from the right is looking at the bottle