I watched the documentary Food Inc and was this close to turning into a vegetarian. I am not a “meat” person, I am not in love with burgers although I will get a burger craving every once in a while but this documentary made me decide never to eat a fast food burger or any kind of meat of unknown origin again.
I never really thought about where the meat came from, because ground beef comes from cows right. In my imagination it came from one happy cow that munched on green grass somewhere with blue skies and maybe a fresh water stream in the background.
Wrong! It come from cows in these extremely highly packed feeding areas and one burger can come from literally thousands of cows. There was a part about a mom turned food activist because her 5 year old son ate a burger and contracted E.Coli then passed away 12 days later. That wasn’t what scared me the most. It was the bit where she described how his kidneys had failed and he would beg for water. I am not a particularly healthy eater ( I’d be very happy to live on pizza, brownies and diet pepsi if I could get away with it) but this isn’t about healthy eating or not. This is about the fact that even the food that you might assume to be healthy or hygenic could be the exact opposite.
How about fruits and vegetables. Do you have any idea what has been done to them to make them season less? No wonder everything tastes like cucumbers and cucumbers taste like cardboard. A couple of weeks ago my husband bought some kiwis. I love kiwis, but they tasted like pipes. They were so metallic in their taste that we forced ourselves to eat them.
Any way, this started the search for the best homemade burger recipe. We made burgers twice (from beef, ground before my eyes from a trusted butcher), they were good but not perfect yet. It took us over six months (26 thursdays) to get our pizza the way we wanted, so we are not in a hurry.
I just realized that it takes the same amount of time to make burgers that it takes to order them, although if you order them you get to sit on your butt for 30 minutes and don’t have to wash any dishes.
Or the chicken, eeeewwwwwww. I am not eating chicken unless it is free range. Gross how they have re engineered chicken.
One of the other interesting facts was how the food industry has always fought labeling.
This is a movie that you really should see. Just make sure you are not eating dinner (or have plans to).
I watched Mecano last weekend with my husband and loved it. It was heart warming and moving or maybe I was in an emotional mood.
If you haven’t watched the movie and don’t want a spoiler than go check out another post and come back when you have seen it. It really is a great movie worth watching.
In 2 minutes the movie is :
Khaled is a freelance architect who creates amazing work and also had a tumor removed from his brain and keeps losing his memory. Waleed is his brother who helps him out. Amira is a marketing guru and is marketing the project Khaled designs. Amira meets Khaled, they fall in love, he tells her, her ex-husband wants her back, he finds out about Khaled, tells the owner of the company Waleed works for, gets them fired, Khaled loses his memory, Amira decides to stay.
To keep a secret, you must not tell anyone
Seriously, if you don’t want people to know stuff don’t tell anyone. Just because you told your friend who promised she would not tell anyone does not necessarily mean she won’t. Amira confided in her friend because she trusted her and her friend went and told Amira’s ex-husband about Khaled’s condition thinking she was doing the right thing.
People are fickle
You might be indispensable now but if people think you are a threat to their well being they will drop you like hot coal. Even though Khaled’s designs were fantastic, the boss didn’t want to loose his credibility if the world found out about his condition so he fired Khaled and Waleed.
The trailer is not the movie
Just because you have seen a trailer doesn’t mean you have seen the movie. The same goes for people, just because you have met someone once or twice does not really mean that you know them.
Blood is thicker than water
Waleed, Khaled’s brother chose to stand by him because that is what family does. Be grateful for your family.
Even the toughest people need breaks
Waleed rode his bike every night to take a break from the stress. We all need a hobby or some sort of interest that can take us away from the daily grind so we can keep going.
Sometime, you need to choose to make tea
Nearing the end of the movie, Khaled chose to be honest with Amira, Amira chose to stay with him and Waleed chose to make tea. Sometimes you need to let people make their own decisions even if you disagree with them. We can not control every aspect of life and we can not believe that we can tell people what the right thing for them is, everyone has to make that choice on their own and bear the consequences.
Random thoughts:
Nour and Tayem Hassan are non Egyptians playing the leading roles in an Egyptian movie. It is nice to see this kind of collaboration in the movie industry.
It is cool to see ‘freelancer’ being used in a movie.
I thought the building blocks he used were generic Legos why does he call them Mecano?
Spicy popcorn is awesome.
Caramel popcorn is even more awesome.
A smart lady buys lots of pop corn just in case.
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فيلم إجتماعي فلسفي يدور حول “علي” وهو مواطن سكندري يعمل في محلج للقطن ودائم التمرد على وظيفته لكنه يحب صيد اليمام فهو دائماً يحمل بندقيته كي يصطاد حتى انه ترك عمله في المحلج من اجل هوايته هذه لكن حياته تتغير بعد مشادة مع زوجته يخرج على اثرها ليقابل شخصيات عدة فيشعر ان حياته الفوضوية التي كانت تسير دونما تخطيط او تقويم كانت نوعاً من العبث. From Mashy.com
I watched this movie with my husband a couple of Thursdays ago and was touched. It is a philosophical and symbolic movie more than anything else. A simple journey of one man in a single day intertwined with his life long journey told simply with amazing music. Perhaps the soundtrack was the best thing about the movie. Most of the songs are sung by Nihal Nabil, I have no idea who she is but her voice is remarkable. You can download the ost album here. It is also kind of strange seeing Ashraf Abdel Ba2i in a movie that is not a comedy. The sombre character he plays is kind of weird but at the same time understandable as the movie progresses. The pace of the movie isn’t slow but kind of lazy and relaxed. It felt more like a book than a movie. Overall I liked it. If you are in a life questioning mood this movie is definitely a good idea. Just beware it’s a sad movie.
A couple of weekends ago I watched “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with my husband. He totally surprised me and liked the movie. The guy surprised me even more the week before when he didn’t enjoy “Wanted”. Guns, car chases, lots of action and Angelina Jolie in theory should make a great movie, but apparently he thought it was too surreal. So I thought he would find BB boring or not interesting. He actually liked it and so did I.
I don’t want to spoil the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, but consider the idea of growing younger. What if insteaf physically growing older you became younger, which is the whole idea behind the movie? I keep thinking about it and realize it doesn’t make much difference. It is just a matter of perception, we are born weak and unable to physically do the same things older people can not do.
I had this post all outlined in my head and had thought of all the things I wanted to write but now everything has totally gone. Basically the movie was so human, a woman who could not have children finds a very strange newborn at her doorstep and decides to raise him. She needed him as much as she needed her. Life is like that, by helping others we sometimes end up helping ourselves.
The old people in the home accept him as one of their own (he looks older than they are at the begining). He blends in and stands out at the same time. That is another thing about life. Sometimes we look like everyone else but don’t share any common ideas, beliefs, hopes or dreams. Some people learn to blend in and change their views while others, take a leap of faith and find other people to surround themselves with. Either way ignoring the problem does not work.
Living with older people also helped him learn from their mistakes and aqcuire wisdom he otherwise wouldn’t have gained. This is why people who have older relatives like grandparents or aunts and uncles can be wiser. If you have someone close to you from an older generation learn from them, they are not going to be around forever. If you learn to get past the war stories and “this country used to be great” stories there is alot to learn. They know more about human nature because they have been around humans far longer than us and they know more about life because they have lived longer than us.
BB childlike honesty, curiousity and interest in everything around him were probably the most touching things in the movie. He wanted to learn and explore everything. Just because you think you are too young or too old to be doing something doesn’t mean that it is true. Get out there and experience everything.
The love story was simple but very complicated because of the age thing. He stood by the woman he loved even after she had pushed him away once and then he decided he had to leave her to spare her the pain of having to raise him and their daughter at the same time. At first I thought it was a silly thing to do and then I realized that it was probably the best thing to do. Daisy eventually did stay by his side until he passed away. She cared for him while he regressed into an infant when he needed her the most probably because she was not to drained by having to deal with the years in between.
BB kept a journal which told his story. We all have a story to tell, writing it down even if it will never be read might be an interesting and rewarding exercise.
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Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite childhood authors. The silly rhymes and weird looking creatures created funny and interesting worlds for children and adults alike. Each story always had a couple of lessons to be learned. Yesterday my daughter and I watched Horton Hears a Who, well actually I wanted to watch and she happily chewed on our new bean bag. Did I tell you I bought a huge bright orange bean bag? I did, it’s for extra seating and to block her pathway to the TV table and well honestly, I’ve always wanted one, I just needed a valid reason for getting one.
Back to the movie, I loved it. My husband came home after it had just started and actually watched it with us (he’s Mr. I don’t watch a movie if it doesn’t have action scenes) and liked it too. Colorful and vibrant, the movie stays true to the book and Dr Seuss’s style.
There are several morals in this movie and I think that when Lulu is a little bit older we can watch it and discuss them together (another excuse for me to watch this movie again).
If you can’t see, hear or feel something it doesn’t exist.
Actually this is not true and the story proves that even though the animals in the jungle couldn’t see the Whos, they did exist. It takes faith to believe in things we can not see, touch or hear.
A person’s a person no matter how small.
This in my view is a composite lesson. It teaches respect, compassion, tolerance and acceptance. If someone is weaker or different than us that does not give us the right to be mean or offensive to them. The stronger and bigger you are the more compassionate you should be. Learning to accept that other people are different is probably one of the most important lessons children need to learn. After that they need to learn that these differences can be very beautiful and they need to be respected.
I meant what I said, and I said what I meant.
Horton promised the mayor that he would save Whoville and even when things got really difficult he chose to keep his promise instead of saving himself or taking the easy way out.
I am as light as a feather, I am as light as air.
This is a slightly advanced concept but I am guessing children can understand it in a simplified concept. Horton has to cross a very precarious and delicate looking bridge. He decides to pretend to be as light as air because air is so light and it will be easier to cross the bridge. It’s like a positive imagery 101 and a fake it till you make it attitude rolled into one sweet, simple and very effective lesson.
Team spirit.
All of the Whos worked together to save Whoville. Everyone made noise and chanted “we are here”. Sometimes the only way something can happen is that if everyone works together.
Forgiveness
Horton forgave Jane the obnoxious kangaroo even though she put him through hell. Forgiveness is a skill that you need to learn. We are born with a very limited ability to forgive and we need to practice forgiveness in order to do it more often.
Party Poopers
Party poopers exist everywhere in many different forms. Jane Kangaroo just couldn’t let Horton be and had to meddle and poke her nose into his affairs with her negative and disbeleiving views. In life there will always be someone who wants to rain on you parade, learn early on how to deal with them, by standing up for yourself, ignoring them or exposing them to the world.
If you were watching this movie with a child what would you discuss?
I am not a romantic movie fan in general, I find them soppy, sappy and boring and it usuall has an unbelievably happy ending. That said I watched Le3bet el 7ob, starring Khaled Abou El-Naga and Hend Sabry a couple of days ago and I liked it. Since I am not going to spoil it for you I’m not going to tell you what happens, but I did like how they depicted marriage for the new age Egyptian couple.
In one scene Khaled Abo El-Naga goes home turns on the lights and throws his jacket on the chair in the hallway, his wife immedeatly calls out to him telling him (in a very annoyed voice) to switch off the lights and not to leave his jacket on the chair because that’s not where it should be.
It was one of those “Aha” moments as Oprah calls them. This kind of behavior is what gets you in marriage rut. In every marriage there are those annoying things that each spouse does and it gets on the other person’s nerves. I know firsthand because we have that same “turn off the light” conversation most days, my husband likes the lights really bright and I don’t. There’s also “why can’t you pick up your dirty clothes” talk everyday. A few months back I decided to totally drop these little nags and just do the things myself without feeling angry or petty. The interesting thing was that the pesky socks eventually learned to find their way to the laundry basket on their own and the lights are at medium brightness most of the time.
Along the way we forget what brought us together and remember only the small annoying little things, we stop looking at our spouse as a partner, a friend, a confidant and an amazing person and we see a husband and a father. I think that is what turns many marriages sour. If there are things that bug you, talk to your other or should I say better half nicely, explain why this thing bothers you and tell him clearly what you would prefer he or she do without being accusatory or aggressive, then drop it. If this thing is one of those little things don’t nag, eventually it will fix itself.
Nagging just annoys the person being nagged, they feel belittled and usually get on the defensive or passive aggressive side. For every bad habit your partner has thing of 2 good ones and you will definitely realize that they are just great and your need to nag will go away, so will your feeling of martyrdom too.
Enjoy your relationship instead of focusing on the flaws and it will all work itself out.
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Ahmad Ezz El Deen (El-Feshawi) is a rich kid, convicted of killing both his parents and is sent to a mental institute for 45 days to confirm the state of his mental health. I am not a fan of Arabic movies in general. I don’t like silly comedies (El Limby style) but sometimes watch out of sheer boredom when there is nothing useful to do. But everyonce in a while an Egyptian movie truly impresses me. This was one of those times. The story was strong and deep. The characters were real and portrayed superbly by the actors. The direction of the whole thing was the cherry on top of the cake.
As the story progresses the boy tells his story to his doctor (Hesham Selim) who is having problems of his own in his personal life. As he flashes back to times of abuse and turmoil, you can not but help feel sympathetic towards this alleged murderer, angry towards his abusive violent father and frustrated with the passive mother.
It is a complex story told very beautifuly and simply and the ending was a huge surprise. I was half expecting a cheesy cliche ending and was surprised when it wasn’t there.
I am not sure why the movie didn’t do so well in box office terms but I think it was bad timing or maybe just that the general Egyptian population does not enjoy movies like this. It is a shame because we really do need better movies. Movies are entertainment but are also part of our culture and heritage and are a reflection of societies. Apparently we are a Limby society and will be for some time to come.
45 days, On the motor bike
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I watched The Incredibles a while back and really enjoyed it but I had never thought about it deeply or about what underlying message it might be trying to convey. This review points out lots of points which I had previously missed such as recognizing the stay at home mom who left behind a life of super heroism and the dad who leaves the limelight to work in a miserable cubicle. Perhaps I never gave it second thought because at the time I was single and watched it for the entertainment value (which was super) and today I am married and expecting my first child and already trying to figure out what are the kind of movies I want my kid to watch and which I want to filter to make sure she is only exposed to positive influences.
This is an old song (came out in the 90s) by Des’ree which has this upbeat, “life is good” feel to it. Please enjoy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhpZfltbnAQ&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1]
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Too much, seriously 8 movies is too much in a day and a half. We were bored, Thursday night, and the weather was not exactly helping and since in Kuwait your going out options are quite limited we decided to stay in and watch a movie, the only problem is my husband got 8, and the plan was to watch 2 or 3 and keep the rest for the next weekend.
We started off with Katkoot, I don’t like Mohamed Sa3d at all, his voice is seriously creepy and annoying to me but hubby thinks he’s funny so I thought let’s get rid of this one to watch the more interesting movies later. Then we moved on to 3omaret Ya3kubian, I had already read the book and thought it was an interesting how he built the characters and lives of these people around one building, describing the changes that occurred in Egypt over 50 years with a simple metaphor, the movie in comparison sucks. Yes, it is an all-star cast but there was nothing there, it was just a regular Egyptian movie, good vs evil bla bla bla. It lost the real flavor and there were lots of parts that were missing in the movie that explained more about the story that were just cut out. Next we popped in 7arb Italia, we managed to fall asleep half way thru it, so we turned it off and started it later on Friday. This one was interesting, the storyline more entertaining although a bit unreal for Egypt and lacked better scenery in Rome.
The Arabic movies were finished finally and we could move on to more interesting English movies.
Wesley Snipes was next in The Contractor, I didn’t like this one at all, set in London about a CIA agent who is basically an assasin, it was too I dunno, it just wasn’t my kind of thriller or action move. The next movie was one I wanted to watch, Die Hard 4.0., I have to confess I am a Die Hard fan, I just like them, I enjoy Bruce Willis being John McLane, and this one sure didn’t disapoint me. Virtual terrorists are having a go at the US of A and are shutting down transportation, Utilities and connectivity, John has to save the country again by killing helicopters with cars and pushing people down elevator shafts. Pretty awesome effects and the plot itself was pretty convincing. On a different summery note, Surf’s up was next, this is a lovely movie, slightly childish but very inspiring and cute is the word that keeps popping into my head, those little penguins were sooooo cute. Back to the cruel world, and the story of a Norse boy left in North America eons ago when it was only inhabited by the Red Indians and how they brought him up as one of their own and his story of finding his path when the Vikings return to kill more Indians, “The PathFinder”. This one reminded me of Apocalypto but it was an ok movie overall.
And finally the one we were all waiting for Pirates of the Caribbean At Worlds End, yes I think Johny Depp is cute but the movie is funny and actiony and lots of things all at once.
I don’t recommend doing this, because you can OD on movies but it was fun, you also have to add pizza, ice cream and loads of chocolate sauce.
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