MBAs, Media & the Middle East.

musical zeroes.

noughties music.

The Day Pop Died?

Michael Jackson passes. Reflections on Pop.

Motown is 50.

What’s with the sudden press love? 7 Days have a silly quote from me on the seminal Motown label turning 50. Satyen Choksi and Neil DJ Solo are far more eloquent.

alt.MiddleEast.

Ruba Saqr writes excitedly about INCOGNITO a recently launched website that seeks to promote alternative arts in the Middle East. I applaud the initiative but am amazed that the site still seems to be focused on pedaling CDs and books rather than streaming music, selling downloads, building a community etc. This seems especially pointless in the Middle East where both e-commerce and physical content sales have never amounted to much.

Creativeconomy – Ahmed Fahmy.

Driving back to the suburbs from an interesting meeting with Will Ward, editor of Arab Media & Society I was tuned in to the dependably entertaining company of the Erin and Zack show on Nile FM who were promoting a DJ Fido hip hop album launch party taking place at Al Sawy Culturewheel right as I was driving by it in Zamalek so I stopped to check it out.

The venue was a real find. It’s built into the foot of a Zamalek bridge underneath one of the city’s primary elevated traffic arteries. There’s an outdoor garden and two auditoriums and the eclectic programming (experimental theater, comedy, music) is on the alternative side.

Bill Grueskin welcomes the incoming Columbia J-School class.

Bill Grueskin, former deputy managing editor for news at The Wall Street Journal, where he oversaw the development of the Journal’s wsj.com welcomed the incoming Columbia J-School class as the newly appointed Academic Dean. He discusses RSS readers and the increasingly pull-environment of news intake, engagement in a digital world and signs off with a [...]

MTV Arabia.

Dana El Bataji writing for Arab Media & Society believes that: MTV Arabia “has not only translated a western medium to suit an Arab audience; it has also translated the western definition of what is and isn’t cool and made it pertinent to the region. That is, by all accounts, a laudable feat, especially given the cultural, social and political divides between the west and the Arab world.”

Wow. Really?

Film in Lebanon.

Reviews of three Lebanese films: Caramel, West Beyrouth and A Perfect Day.
Not unexpectedly (Beirut has been a vital cultural force in the Middle East for a long time), the films suggest that Lebanon has much to offer the Middle Eastern film oeuvre.
All the filmmakers share an evident and pronounced love for their city (and Beirut, so very lovable, is particularly photogenic, cinematic and receptive in this regard).

ouds and grass-roots in abu dhabi.

Sana Munasifi touches on a great point in her recent review of the Fifth Annual Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival. She highlights the recently opened Abu Dhabi branch of the Arabian Oud House as an example of the type of grass-roots, ground-up, regionally relevant and contextual initiative (= investment) that may ultimately produce results [...]