Romance of the Despot

As you get older it seems that years just wisk by leaving you to wonder how a year seemed to drag on when one is a child or teenager, but once you pass 30 or 40 how it just seems without explanation to speed up. Well, one year ago one of the most blustering and dramatic of the world's strongmen was executed: Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti.

Saddam Hussein, "The Butcher of Baghdad," "The New Nasser," "Liberator of Palestine," "The Godfather," "The Anointed," "Great Uncle," along with other titles he probably reveled in and loathed, really had an amazing career which was Romantic by its' rise from the dirt and desolation of the Iraqi village of al-Ouja to "great" Arab lion and leader with over 30 palaces scattered throughout Iraq to the gallows of one of his former prisons. Saddam's story was definitely one of the poor boy who makes good, but his own pride and miscalculations along with the pride and miscalculations of others led to the suffering of millions of Iraqi innocents. There has been much written about Saddam, much of which is only rumor, speculation, and sensationalism. Feelings about him run from passionately for him to passionately against him. Just look at YouTube in the last year where there are more and more videos put on in honor of the man. The comments about him after these videos run the gamut from calling him a saint and martyr to a dog and bastard. Some think he is either in Heaven or Muslim Paradise and others think he is burning in Hell with his two sons Uday and Qusay who preceded him in death. Rarely is there a middle ground reached where Saddam is concerned.

Today in Tikrit which is basically Saddam's hometown (al-Ouja is where he was born and apparently in close proximity) he was honored with songs and chants by children, many of whom are so young they don't remember him. There were also fiery speeches. Saddam was loved and hated by many. When he was executed last year, demonstrations broke in of all places, India. India has the largest Muslim population of an country on earth even though the chief religion is Hinduism, but for some reason there was a lot of outrage there on December 30th last year. Some of it was certainly because Saddam was executed on the first day of

Eid, but Saddam has also been rumored to have given aid to India in the past. The reason why Indian demonstrated may have been because his personal physician is said to have been Indian. Saddam was also said to be generous to those whom he felt honored or liked him. Here is a photo of him back in the 1970s on a visit to India when he was vice president of Iraq.That is Indira Gandhi, the prime minister of India, beside him. Like her counterpart in Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, who died on Thursday, Indira met a tragic end. Bhutto's father who was president and prime minister was executed by hanging like Saddam. The real relationship between Saddam and the Indians is unknown to me. I do know that over the years, Saddam actively courted friendships with some countries in Africa. He was a friend of Castro and Qaddafi, and near the end of his rule was visited by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela as this photo attests.

Saddam was a Romantic Despot and once the special glowing friend of the US in the region. At one point, before Iraq entered the war with Iran in 1980, Iraq was the most advanced nation of the region with a highly literate population, many of whom had university educations. Saddam, himself, always aspired to the best. He listed himself as both a lawyer and a general, but both titles were false. As a young man, Saddam allowed his penchant for politics to interfere with his quest to become an attorney. He tried to get into the military academy in Baghdad, but he was rejected. Being a tall man at 6'2" who at different periods of his life was strikingly handsome, he might have done his country a better service if he had become an actor. Saddam loved to dress up and would don the robes of the Bedouin chieftain, the general, or the look of the 1930s style gangster. He was a family man who loved to swim and play with his children, or at least he created this image for the public.His youngest daughter Hala was his favorite and was often seen with him even at political meetings when she was a little girl. She is reputed to have been a very sweet girl who loved Iraq and the Iraqi people, even stealing money and jewelry from her parents to hand out to poor people. Here is Saddam playing with Hala.

Here is Saddam sewing the sleeve on the dress of his eldest daughter Raghad, but it may possibly be Hala.


Here is Saddam and family in an old photo from the 1970s or 80s. The little girl beside him sucking her thumb is Hala.Saddam was said to have been married possibly 4 times. The photo above is with his first wife Sajida, who was also his cousin. She is the blonde lady. Saddam's and Sajida's marriage was arranged when he was only 3 years old. They met when he was about 10 and had run away from home to be with Sajida's family where he would be allowed to go to school, Sajida's father being a school teacher. Saddam's stepfather was totally against him receiving an education, beat and abused him, and felt Saddam should only aspire to be a farmer. Saddam obviously thought otherwise and hit the road to find his destiny.

Saddam Hussein saw himself as a Renaissance man, a throwback to leaders of old like Nebuchadnezzar and Saladin. Like Old King Neb, Saddam promoted colossal building programs for his country with many monuments to himself also thrown in. When he began modernizing his country while still vice president, he had electricity put in place throughout Iraq, plus he also made sure that every family received a television set and a refrigerator. More darkly, Saddam also got ideas from Joseph Stalin to whom he bore a slight physical resemblance. Saddam had the ancient city of Babylon reconstructed. He claimed to be a direct descendent of the prophet Muhammad. He was a patron of the arts with artists constantly using him in their subject matter as the "New Saladin" on a white horse leading Arab armies into victory or dressed in the garb of a Babylonian or Assyrian warrior in a chariot firing arrows. Saddam forged and forced a common identity on Iraq, a country pieced togther and created by the British. Out of Sunni, Shiites, Christians, Bedouins, Yazidis, Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Persians, Turkmen, Syriacs, Chaldeans, and even Jews Saddam demanded that they all see themselves as not just inheritors of an Arab state, but as descendants of the ancient empires of the Babylonians and Assyrians.

Saddam saw himself as a poet and also as a novelist, writing about 5 Romantic novels with political and allegorical themes. One of his first was Zabibah and the King. Even in his second and final imprisonment, Saddam was writing poetry.

Over the years we have heard mostly about the very bad Saddam Hussein, a man viewed by many as a brutal criminal, but don't we all have our faults, some of us with small and others with gargantuan. Saddam was a big promoter of the importance of education and pushed for women all across Iraq to be educated. All of his supposed wives were educated women. Under Saddam, the Christian community of Iraq was protected, but now they are threated and persecuted. One of Saddam's highest ranking officials was Tariq Aziz, a Catholic, who is still imprisoned by US forces. In the documentary Uncle Saddam, Saddam is shown as a man who saw himself as a father figure to his nation, encouraging people in the basics of just taking baths everyday in his regular TV announcements. When all hell broke loss in Iraq, some people lamented that perhaps Saddam knew what he was doing by keeping his foot on the necks of the Iraqis. He obviously was more well versed in Iraq than we Americans were.

Saddam's rise and fall were dramatic. When he was found in a hole in December 2003, he showed the world that the old adage, "the bigger they are the harder they fall" is very true. Saddam had gone from gangster to dishoveled Santa Claus. As my pastor said, "That was a SAD end."Saddam's destiny ran full circle in December 30, 2006. After the embarassment of being shown to the world as a poor old man pulled out of a hole and living in a two room filthy hut just across the river from one of his palaces, Saddam redeemed himself on the gallows. He died bravely and with dignity, praying the prayer which Muslims say before they die. The world's reactions were mixed. I was in Turkey at the time, and one of my colleagues who was Australian told another one of my American colleagues, "That was WRONG what the Americans did to Saddam Hussein. There is going to be hell to pay for this." Even the Vatican condemned the execution as morally wrong and said that modern nations do not engage in conduct such as hanging.
Though the world now does not seem to have the time or the common sense to learn and remember tough lessons, the life of Saddam Hussein is a lesson which many of us could benefit from by learning about.

To wrap this post up, here is a very well done tribute to Saddam Hussein. There are many on YouTube using Arabic songs, rap tunes by Tupac Shakur, and I even found one with a Hallelujah tune. The song in this video is sung by Hussein Al Jasmi.

The Romance of Cinderella 1997

After the shock and sadness of Benazir's Bhutto's death and how it will certainly impact and have tough consequences for Pakistan and I believe the entire planet, I need to go back to the realm of the Romantic and the beautiful. Leave politics to bloggers who obsess about politics and current affairs a little too much, some who have no new ideas or expertise.

In the realm of the Romantic is the story of Cinderella. Most people are probably familar with the story of the beautiful girl who is ill treated by her stepmother and sisters, forced to be their servant, is rescued by a fairy god mother who sends her to the prince's ball, has to leave before the strike of the clock at 12 midnight, loses her glass slipper, and is finally reunited with the prince after his great search with the slipper, marries him and lives happily ever after. There have been several film versions and stage musicals of the fairy tale adapted from what is a folk tale/myth found in a number of cultures.

Ten years ago, Disney presented Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella which was very unique because the cast was multi-racial. The African-American singer actress Brandy Norwood plays the title role. A Filipino actor, Paolo Montalban, is the prince. Whoopi Goldberg is the prince's mother. A white actor, Victor Garber, plays the king. Bernadette Peters plays Cinderella's evil stepmother. And Whitney Houston is Cinderella's fairy god mother. The production was Emmy award winning despite its' very innovative casting. I was fortunate to see it when it was first presented on Disney, and felt that if I were a movie producer I would cast parts not according to race, but by talent.

Look at this scene when Cinderella comes to ball and the prince sees her. Pure Romance!



I was amazed that Disney took this chance with the casting. Most comments about this production on YouTube site are very favorable, with many saying they just love Paolo Montalban as the prince and how he had done Asians proud. He has a very good voice which shows training unlike Brandy's which is good, but does not indicate professional coaching. Just like the song "Ten Minutes Ago," "Do I Want You Because You're Wonderful" is also another one of my favorites in the film.



I have Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in my collection. It can be bought here at Amazon. For Romantics who are either children, adolescents, or adults, this version of Cinderella is a feast, a miletone, and a unique treat.

She Looked So Happy

Though I was not surprised by the terrible and tragic news of Benazir Bhutto's assassination yesterday, I am still very shaken and sadden by the event as also my parents are. My parents admired her too. Yesterday morning my dad admitted that he had long felt great admiration for Bhutto because of her beauty and intellect. Last night when I arrived home from my part time evening job, my mother had apparently been standing in front of the television in our den for a long time time avidly watching news reports on several channels about Bhutto's death. Mom told me that Bill O'Reilly of FOX NEWS had been ranting as usual, but this time about how they had in his words, "killed that beautiful woman." Though she was long past the slim college student or the stately leader, Bhutto was still beautiful even though she had put on weight in these last years and looked matronly. Here she is less than a minute before the attack. Indeed she looked so happy. So unsuspecting that so much horror was about to happen to her and some of her supporters.

Today it was reported that Bhutto did not die from bullets to the neck and chest as previously thought. She apparently was critically injured when the suicide bomber who shot at her detonated his bomb, the force of which threw her up against her vehicle's sunroof's lever and fractured her skull. Here are more photos of before and the aftermath of the shooting and the bombing.

Today Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest beside her father. Her dramatic and epic life is over and now she is a figure of history. In a interview not too long ago, she revealed that even though she believed she must go back to Pakistan to carry on her life's mission, she was afraid. Several weeks ago when I went to see the movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age, there was a scene in which Queen Elizabeth I expresses a degree of fear when she learns that her ex-brother-in-law, Philip II of Spain, has sent the Spanish Armada to attack England. She knows that if England is defeated, she will probably be captured, imprisoned, and perhaps executed as a heretic. I was surprised that mighty and iron Elizabeth I would have a moment of weakness, but she was human and so was Bhutto. Aren't we all, but those who are special and who impact lives are able to reach a point that is larger than life and defeat their internal fears and weaknesses. Bhutto must have done this. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in one of his last speeches that he was not afraid or worried because he had "been to the mountain top and seen the promised land." When people learn to believe and care about something bigger than themselves they can attain this level of courage.

In a society and world that is fast becoming desensitived to happenings like Benazir Bhutto's death, what I write here is meaningless and irrelevant to too many. The attitude seems to be to just to live, sit back, self indulge, and willingly accept the next batch of carnage, devastation, trivia, and degradation; accept the next batch of lies.

Fearsome times are coming, I believe. Only those with spirits like Dr. King, Bhutto, Mother Teresa, and the other greats and Romantics will truly see the promised land. The rest will be swept away.

A Romantic Dies

I had no intention to write today because blogging for me, who plan to be a serious writer and who have had some things printed in newspapers in my town, is rather like junk food and other forms of instant gratificaton. But the news I woke up to this morning was both a shock and not a surprise. I could only feel a surge of intense sadness and lament the viciousness and chaos that this world is descending into day by day, week by week, and year by year.

After receiving a phone call from my former hairdresser, my mother told me, "Someone over there has been killed."

"Who?" I asked wondering just exactly where over there is.

Mom said, "Someone in Pakistan."

"Who! Musharraf?!"

"Benazir Bhutto."

"Well, didn't we both say a few weeks ago that they are going to kill her?"

We did predict it just weeks ago, and now less than three months after her return from a 8 year exile in Dubai Benazir Bhutto the former two time prime minister of Pakistan, daughter of one of Pakistan's most influential families, offspring of former president and prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was cut down today shortly after a rally by bullets and possibly a bomb in the city of Rawalpindi, Pakistan . She was only 54. Two years ago on the same date, December 27th, my grandmother also died.

In our society we talk too often and place too much importance on role models. Often the role models youngsters hail as their's are not people to be admired for any significant reason. However, despite her flaws, Bhutto was a person to be emulated for her courage, tenacity, brilliance, vision, grace, and spunk. After looking at her official website site shortly before her homecoming on which a suicide bomber targeted her and narrowly missed, I had planned to write to her and tell her how I really admired her for her courage. Her life was epic in proportion. Her father had been tried and hanged, betrayed by a man who had been his friend. She spent close to 7 years in prison under both house arrest and in a jail cell. One of her brothers died under mysterious circumstances in France. Just a few years ago, her other brother died in a shoot out. Her own mother blamed her for the death of her second son, but later they were reconciled.

Bhutto was the first elected female head of state of a Muslim country. I marvel at how in America where women have independence, a woman has still not been elected president, and probably will not be for years to come. We have no real power houses with such credentials like Bhutto here. Oxford and Harvard educated, Benazir Bhutto was both charismatic and beautiful. She is a modern day Romantic heroine akin to Joan of Arc, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Elizabeth I of England, and Queen Marie of Romania.

To many of us who did not know her, to have left the safety and calm of Dubai for the vicious climate of unrest in Pakistan may have seemed like pure recklessness on Bhutto's part. She has left behind children who are teenagers, a husband, and a sick mother. Why did she go back there from self imposed exile to her death which came in just a few short weeks? From here on the outside, I can only say she did so because she felt she had a mission, and somehow and someway that mission must be comsummated in her troubled homeland even if she had to shed her own blood. There were probably other myriad reasons why she returned, but I do know that some of us realize we have a purpose and a destiny that go beyond ourselves.

Already Pakistan is on red alert because some of her supporters have vowed revenge. Would Bhutto have liked this? I doubt it since she seemed to stand for peaceful change, but at the same time she knew she was up against the tiger which if cornered would lash out mercilessly. I hope that her supporters will not forget so quickly what she symbolized. So much in this world seems to be ruled by the law of the jungle nowadays. When one more personage of bravery is gone like Bhutto, the world continues to descend into a more dark and dangerous place, and like we predicted her death, I predict that the world will continue to swirl into a more ugly, scary, and terrible phase.

Good night Sweet Princess.

Santa Claus, who is St. Nicholas

Another Christmas has come and gone and as usual the true meaning of Christmas has been nearly totally missed by the people who should most be concerned about its' meaning and also that that meaning be preserved. Each year I shake my head about what has happened to the meaning of Christmas in my country. This Santa which I saw in a catalog at my job over a week before Christmas got me to thinking.
Dressed like a Russian boyar, I found him highly appealing because I love traditional Russian arts, crafts, and architecture. I own two matryoshka or nesting dolls, one which is traditional with the doll-like face, and another which my Russian friend sent as a Christmas present several years ago and which begins with Lenin (he is the baby on the inside) and ends with Putin. Santa here is hand carved, painted in Russia and sold by a company called Lenox.

Boyar Santa is so delightful that if I owned him, I would not want to stash him away all year to only bring him out for display a few weeks at the finale of the year. He is more than an ornament, but a work of art.

Christmas also should not be an exercise or ritual we do which culminates on December 25th. Also the "Christ" in Christmas should not be replaced by some dull, lifeless, generic "X." Christ was the ultimate giver in world history. Also Santa Claus who is really St. Nicholas was a giver, a real person, and a Christian. Cute and sweet as Boyar Santa is, if there must be a Santa at Christmas time, his true story should be known.

St. Nicholas, or as we have reduced him into Santa Claus, was a 3rd century saint who suffered, was imprisoned, and survived the last and one of most ferocious of the Roman persecutions against the early Christian church. Last year, EWTN or Eternal World Television Network aired a cartoon about St. Nicholas which was extremely moving even though it was for children. It showed Nicholas, a man dedicated to Christ, who patiently suffered for it, and eventually triumphed.

I hate to see Christmas progressively and systematically being denigrated by so many. We in America who are Christian whether Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox have helped in our own way either by greed, ignorance, or silence to allow the religious and very Christian message of Christmas and Santa Claus be slowly erased. Nativity scenes are seen by some as politically incorrect and offensive. Now people who really do not know Christianity are assigning meanings to Christmas which are dangerously flawed. Some of these people have good but misguided intentions, and others have intentions which are highly sinister.

I see days approaching when we may have to face what St. Nicholas did in the 3rd century; maybe then will the message of what December 25th originally stood for be recovered and celebrated in our hearts and minds. It may end up being the only two places where it will be celebrated.

The Saint Nicholas Center is a website which contains a wealth of information on Santa Claus/St. Nicholas and the true meaning of Christmas. View it here.

The Romance of It's A Wonderful Life

The Romantic clip above is from the movie It's A Wonderful Life. This 1946 classic was a regular fixture on American television each Christmas season during the 1980s. At Christmas it was not unusual during that decade for the movie to be playing every evening on several TV channels sometimes at once. The showing of the film was eventually reduced because of copyright laws, and today if the the film is shown at all, only NBC is licenced to present it once a year mainly on Christmas eve.

The idea for me to write this post was actually e-mailed to me by Ardent of Ardent Observations which came at a very timely time since this is the Christmas season and little did she know It's A Wonderful Life is one of my all time favorite films and Jimmy Stewart, who plays the main character, is one of my favorite old actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. During the heyday of its' frequent showings, I actually watched It's Wonderful Life at least 20 times. A few years ago I purchased the the film on VHS, but by that time I had overdosed on so many viewings of it on the tube, I actually have never viewed the video. It lies in storage with some of my other videos and DVDs. However, before New Year's has come and gone I hope to set aside time to watch it. And guess what?! Wonder of wonders, I have actually found the entire full length film online which can be watched here entirely free. But before watching it, get a taste by viewing the clip.

When It's A Wonderful Life was released, it was one of the few Capra films that was a box office flop. It was not until the 1980s that it actually became a Christmas cult favorite. I remember being hardly able to wait for each Christmas season to come so I could watch the movie over and over again. In the 1980s I had passed the age of waiting for Santa to bring me the latest neat toys, so It's Wonderful Life was the treat I anxiously waited to behold. The main character George Bailey stood for everything I believed in and still believe a person should be. He was generous, honest, and selfless. George Bailey grows up and lives his life in the small American town of Bedford Falls. It is a bittersweet tale with a shade of Dickens about a regular goodhearted guy with big dreams, but because of various unforseen circumstances, he cannot live out the life he plans. Nevertheless, his life impacts many people around him in a positive way over the years. It is only when George is about to toss it all alway that an angel from heaven is sent down because of the prayers of family and friends. The angel Clarence who is trying to earn his wings shows George what the world would be like it he had never been born. In the end, George comes to realize that despite the disappointments and setbacks, he is not a failure, but has actually had a "wonderful life."

There are many messages in It's A Wonderful Life which makes it still very relevant even today over 60 years after its' making. The importance of sincerity, family, community, giving, self sacrifice, are all messages that are as timeless as the reason for the season. George Bailey may not be or will ever become a rich man like the vindictive and dishonest Mr. Potter who is the town millionaire and who really cares for no one but himself and his riches, but George has more: a big heart. Today in a world where so many care only for themselves (even when they pretend not to), and when so many lack a word or transparency, It's Wonderful Life's message is one that is more important than ever. The qualities of George Bailey which I cited above is very much a part of the many qualities which I feel define a "Romantic:" uniqueness, uprightness, vision, selflessness, openness, imagination, courage.

Kissing by Valentino

Last week I posted a video of the Latin Lover and silent screen superstar Rudolph Valentino in action. Valentino was a true artist, not like many in Hollywood today who have devalued the term art by calling themselves artists. Being in the era before sound, Valentino was adept at expressing emotions through his facial expressions. He was also the master when it came to kissing. In this video clip (the link is below) Rudy does the hand kiss which is almost a lost art.

In the country of Turkey, hand kissing is still done sometimes as a gesture of respect. A young person may go up to an older person, take their hand, kiss it, and then after kissing the hand of the older person, the younger person will take the older person's hand and touch their forehead with it. Before I got worn out with trying to exist in Turkey after living there twice briefly, I had become slightly acculturated. Several times I have done this gesture to older people I met there. Most accepted the gesture reluctantly out of humbleness, I believe. One of my friend's mischievous nephews who was about 8 even kissed my hand this way one time.

Like the previous Valentino clip that I posted last week, the producer of it has disabled embedding, so you can see the Master by clicking here.

A Poem By An Iraqi

I live in Georgia, and our state "Georgia On My Mind" was made famous by Ray Charles. For me, however, I could re-word the lyrics and make it "Iraq On My Mind" since that country has continuously been in my thoughts almost every day since the war started. Please bear with me if I tend to post here regularly something pertaining to Iraq, but this is my blog and like the old song said, "It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to." It's my blog... :)

Back in the spring while looking for a magazine on freelance writing at Borders Bookstore, I ran across the spring and summer edition of Atlanta Review magazine which is a periodical featuring contemporary poetry not only by Americans, but my poets in other countries. The edition I found was labeled in red "Iraq" and contained poems by Iraqis translated from the original Arabic. I am going to post here a poem by an Iraqi which is in the magazine.

The Heart of a Woman

The heart of a woman is the only country
That I can enter without a passport.
Where no policeman
Asks me for my card
Or searches my suitcase
Full of contraband joys
Forbidden poems
And delicious sorrows.
The heart of a woman is the only country
That does not heap up heavy weapons
Nor force its citizens to fight its wars.

By Lateef Helmet
translated by Soheil Najm

Imperial Venus

Film is one source where Romance can be studied and emulated. I will start regularly posting here movies which I feel are the epitome of Romance. The honored first will be Imperial Venus which is a Franco-Italian endeavor produced in 1963. Its' original name is Venere Imperiale, and on this Italian link some photos and short information about the film are presented.

Imperial Venus starred Gina Lollobridgida (the second in the pair of Italian bombshells the other of whom was Sophia Loren) and Stephen Boyd, an Irish actor who is best remembered as Massala in the Academy Award winning Biblical epic Ben Hur. Imperial Venus is the story of Napoleon Bonaparte's younger and favorite sister Pauline. Pauline was one the great beauties of her day. She was also greatly known for her love affairs and extravagant, nonconformist behavior. Napoleon loved her dearly, but he like many men of his generation and culture believed in a double standard. He could conduct affairs, but he was scandalized by his sister's behavior and tried to get her to tone down and stop making so much noise.

Pauline was married twice. Being the rebel, she scandalized her second husband Camillo Borghese , an Italian prince, and society by having two nearly nude statues of herself made by the sculptor Antonio Canova.

Canova's stature of Pauline as Venus Victrix (Venus the Conqueror)

Unlike the other hanger-ons around Napoleon during his glory days which included his other brothers and sisters, Pauline turned out to be one of the few who stood by Napoleon after his downfall. She even stayed with him during his first exile on the island of Elba and helped to run his court there. Pauline died four years after Napoleon at the age of 44 of cancer, the same disease that carried him away. She was a mass of contradictions: beautiful, erotic, rebellious, selfish, generous, unfaithful, child-like, flamboyant, and loyal. She was a true Romantic.

Gina Lollobridgida plays Pauline in Imperial Venus. The movie is not an excellent film, but it has some unique moments and dialogue. The costuming is beautiful and authentic. The film begins in Marseille, France where Pauline and her family are living as poor Corsican exiles. Napoleon Bonaparte and his family were not French, but Corsicans whose first language was Italian. Pauline is already showing her rebellious, adventurous streak as a teenager which a mature Lollobrigida plays and tries hard to pull off. But enter Napoleon who already at 25 is a general in the French army. He has plans for France AND his entire family even though he is not the eldest. He usurps his elder brother Joseph's role as head of the family. A man whom Pauline wants to marry is deemed not good enough by Napoleon for his sister who must rise up along with the rest of the family to create the dynasty which Napoleon already envisions. The film stops just before Napoleon gets ready to go into his first exile on Elba. The final scene of the movie shows Pauline holding and comforting her elder brother, the once great Emperor of the French and master of Europe.

Imperial Venus was created in response to French and Italian audiences who viewed with distaste the New Wave movement in film in France and of the time. These people obviously had a Romantic spirit and did not really care for excessive, stark, and bleak realism. They loved refinement and escape, like myself.

Though not a Romantic masterpiece, Imperial Venus is escapism on a good level. I was able to locate it on Google Video last year and paid $3.99 to download it. I looked for it yesterday, but I could not find it. I loved the movie's score so much that I bought the soundtrack from Amazon. Click on this link to listen to excepts from the soundtrack.

Gina Lollobridgida is lovely as Pauline, and Stephen Boyd is handsome and playful as Jules de Canouville, her lover and an officer whom once again Napoleon does not allow her to marry.

Imperial Venus is well worth watching with someone you love.

An Expat Romantic Artist

Ali "Lee" Shahroudi is an Iranian American artist who currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey. He is also a friend and a former colleague having taught English as a second language with me at the now defunct Interlang language school which was located on Istiklal Caddesi ("caddesi" is Turkish for "street") in Istanbul. A Turkish journalist wrote about Istiklal in this rather morbid but true post in his blog last week: The Avenue of Chaos and Life .

But getting back to my friend Lee. I did not know that Lee was an artist until an evening in mid-March when I was about leave Istanbul to come back to the states. While we teachers were hanging out at the school waiting to collect our pay, I learned from Lee that not only had he majored in art, but he has also had some work on exhibit in Europe. The picture above was taken while we were waiting around at Interlang. Lee mentioned Germany in particular as a place where his work has been exhibited. I was very surprised by Lee's revelation because I had minored in drawing and painting at The University of Georgia in the 1980s. I did not develop my talent like Lee has done, but I still draw from time to time. Nevertheless, the desire to paint and draw is buried inside me waiting to come out in full bloom if I can ever get into the right relaxed mood and in a beautiful enough location that can inspire me. Places like Europe are excellent for writing and art.

A couple days before Thanksgiving, Lee e-mailed me with his new website showcasing some of his art: Expromantic. Lee says that his art is a combination of the Romantic and Expressionistic styles. Much of the painting I did as a university student was Expressionistic too. I used to love using very bright and lively colors. I had not taken up a paint brush in years until 2005 when my both my grandmother and her son, my uncle, were dying. I decided to relax my mind and try to escape for a few hours by taking a painting class.

I really like Lee's work. When I learned that he was an artist, I was very curious to know what kind of painting he did. When he sent me his website, I was honored that he thought enough of me to share his talent. His work is indeed Romantic and Expressionistic.

Love In the Time of the War on Terror

In the last four years despite everything the second war in Iraq has not stopped the innate need by the people there to seek love and Romance. Marriages are still conducted there regularly unlike here where marriage and Romance in some quarters have basically died. At the present time, the slaughter has slowed down perhaps because of the surge or maybe the desire for and enjoyment of killing has wound down somewhat. Let's hope that things continue to simmer down, and Iraq can right itself.

During the bloodiest phase of the war, I marvelled at stories of Iraqis trying to conduct their lives with as much normalcy as possible. Back in the spring, CNN presented a news story one afternoon about young Iraqi students at the University of Baghdad who spoke of their dreams of becoming professors, diplomats, or doctors even though the bombs were falling in the background, even though some of their professors, friends, and family had perished in the charnal house that Iraq had become. These young people who dressed so well and looked so cute and scrubbed, went to class each day unsure if they might be killed on their way to school or coming back. Some of them said they felt extreme worry for their homes and family whenever they heard bombs and mortars in the distance. What might they find when they arrived home?

I was aspired to become a blogger because of an Iraqi blogger whose pseudonym is Riverbend and whose blog Baghdad Burning has won awards and been published in two volumes which can be purchased on Amazon. This year Riverbend joined the mass of over 2 million Iraqi refugees who have fled to Syria and Jordan. She and her family now live in Syria. I have silently wept for the Iraqi people since the war began, and for the terrible injustice done to them. On my fourth excursion to Turkey, I was befriended by a young Iraqi woman and her family who were taking Turkish classes along with me. Their mother was Turkish and lived with them in Istanbul, but their Iraqi father was still in Baghdad. I have prayed for the innocents over there to be vindicated some how and that someday Riverbend and many others can come back to the country they love and miss so much.

Last summer I found a touching article on Time.com about an Iraqi couple who met and fell in love. Their love story is unusual in the tragedy of Iraq, a once great and proud country that over the centuries has repeatedly been eyed and invaded because of its' location and resources. This year, Iraqis have faced cholera, so for those looking for love or already in love, it has become love in the time of cholera too. But love is a very strong emotion. Where ever there is Romance, lets hope that the old adage can still apply that love conquers all. Read Romance, Baghdad Style .

One of the Ultimate Romantic Gestures: The Kiss! No. 2

Instead of posting a written kissing technique, I decided to present a visual post of Romantic smooching techniques by The Master. The silent screen star and the world's first sex symbol Rudolph Valentino was the sex god of 1920s Hollywood. He was The Latin Lover, the erotic and the exotic. Without disrobing and actually making love onscreen, the man's movements and behavior set the sexually repressed American female's imagination of the time on fire. Even today over 80 years after his death he still can light a few fires. How Valentino danced, moved, and kissed was tantament to actual sex for many fans. His tango dance moves were considered indecent by some. Rudy's actual love life was really not as steamy as that depicted by his characters on film. He was rejected by both of his two wives. He never saw himself as a real sex symbol or as being extraordinarily handsome as his female fans viewed him. About his appeal he once said:

"Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams."

Poor Rudy! So desired by millions of female fans he did not know, but so unlucky in love in his own personal life. His first wife locked him out their bedroom on their wedding night! Valentino did not know that she was a lesbian. His second wife left him weeping at the pier!

Embedding was not allowed on this of Valentino, so here is the link:
Rudolph Valentino--Tango Kisses

There is no French kissing here, but I think Rudy's kisses is rather more Romantic and erotic than that sort of lip locking. Look, listen, and learn from The Master!

Oh! If you look closely, at times his hand does slip. However, the object of his kisses and embrace does not flinch. I wouldn't either. ;)

Starved For Romance

This post is not about blaming American society fully for why a group of women have allowed themselves to be starved for Romance. This post is meant to give a solution for a situation that has gone on far too long. This post is about African American women and our inability or failure to have men in our lives.

African American women have made great strides in small numbers in the last 3 decades. One of the wealthiest and most influential women on earth is Oprah Winfrey. When Oprah talks, not everyone, but certainly many listen. When I was in Turkey a couple of months ago, I felt a small surge of pride when I saw an article abouther featured in a major Turkish newspaper. Still Oprah is only one successful African American woman with a supposedly loyal male companion who has supported her for well over 20 years.

The majority of African American women don't have financial security or a man in their life like Oprah They are forgotten and doomed. For about 2 decades now, there has been warfare between African American men and women that is known in the black community and which has been occasionally addressed in black magazines like Ebony, but in the larger society this war is not well known. American society knows that young black males are very prone to being shallowed up by the criminal justice system. Just last week the nation witnessed the tragedy of the murder of NFL player Sean Taylor who at 24 had had his own run in with the law and was finally cut down by 4 young black men who were attempting to burglarize his home. He and his killers became another statistic in the constant bad news emanating from the black community, another story of a group of young black male lives wasted in a when there are no more places left where it can be afforded for more black lives to be destroyed. A generation of black males are lost in America; this must be faced. A generation of black females are lost in America too because they have become mothers at young ages relegating them mainly to the poverty and imprisonment of the ghetto. A new report came out this week that paints another grim statistic for black teenage girls. This year the rate of teenage pregancy rose for the first time in nearly 17 years. The jump was notedly sharp among young black females.

In the war and battles between African American men and women a strange situation has actually cropped up unlike perhaps in any other group on the face of the earth. More and more African American men have actually grown to despise their female counterparts and now date, cohabit with, or marry only white women. The reasons cited for this is that some black men see having a relationship with a white woman as a way as avenging themselves against white men. Black women had always been easy prey for white men during slavery. Up until the late 1960s, it could actually mean death for a black man, especially in the south, to try and have a relationship with a white woman. In 1955 a black teenager named Emmett Till was murdered by a group of white men for allegedly whistling at a white woman. After the ban on mixed marriages was lifted, more and more black men turned to white women, not only to tweak the nose of white men, but also to deliberately enrage black women as well since many feel that black women were too harsh, strong, and greedy for money.

While black men turned to white female lovers, black women were left deprived. Occasional black men are often in and out of the lives of black women in the ghettos, leaving them with their offspring, but never them. For the educated black woman it is even more stark with relationships few and far between. The complaint has long been that if a black woman gets an education, meeting a black man on her level will be like finding a needle in haystack. This is very true. Over the years some have even advocated that educated black women take black men far beneath their educational and economic stations in order not to be alone. But if you have a Ph.D. how can you reach common ground with a guy who is just a truck driver? How can something as basic as things to talk about be found? Also black men are often intimidated by women who are far more educated than themselves. How can these obstacles be overcome?

I think all the issues about Romance and relationships for educated African American women and our "aloneness" in America can be overcome by more black women deciding to broaden our horizons and date and marry men who are not African American. This is not about something as infantile as tweaking the noses of black men, but about possible self preservation in the long run.

I have long been attracted to men who are not African American, particularly to men of southern European, African, and Middle Eastern origin. I have never felt pressure from my family to not became interested in someone who was not of my "race." My parents like me, feel that color should not get in the way of people loving one another. My mother has even joked that she would like to have a Jewish son-in-law because in the recent past if a black woman married a white man (ie. Alice Walker or Diana Ross) it tended to be a Jew. During the Civil Rights Movement and up until Jesse Jackson's infamous "Hymie Town" remark, African Americans and Jews had in some quarters enjoyed close relationships because both groups found common ground in the sufferings both had endured over the centuries.

Over the years I have admired the daring of women like Diana Ross, Whoopie Goldberg, and Donna Summer who were criticized mightily by blacks when they repeatedly dated and married white men. These black women lived and worked in a majority white industry where opportunities for meeting compatible black men are often slim. Would it have made sense for they have to deprived themselves and perhaps wait for nothing?

When I read that Halle Berry had started dating a white man I thought, "More power to you girl." Why not try something new? Several years back when my friend Mitzi, who had been an odd egg like me being among the tiny minority of blacks to attend The University of Georgia, married an Asian guy and had a child that looked more Asian than black, I was so happy for her. Mitzi did not sit back and wait for nothing. For me these good feelings were not about getting revenge against black men for their inadequecies, disrespect, and insecurities, it was about black women deciding to take control of their lives and seek happiness no matter what the black community or society at large thought.

I strongly advocate that African American women stop limiting their lives on all levels educationally, financially, AND Romantically. In the blog Interracial Dating Blog, the sad plight of African American women in the marriage arena is mentioned:

Many people will agree that the gender disparity in education and business among African-Americans has a spill over effect on relationships that African American women have. And like I said above, big mama taught women to move on with their lives even without a husband. According to some, these implications have redefined Black America's family and social structure. The percentage of African American women between 25-54 who have never been married has doubled over the fifty years, from 20% to 40%. This is more than that of white women (16%).

We must ignore the "big mama's" of the world who say that, "You can do bad by yourself, honey" because I believe that loneliness is killing African American women. After black men who have the lowest life expectancy rate in the country, we are next in line for the funeral dirge to be sung over.

Humans are made to be social. Only a chosen few have the gift of celibacy. African American women must stop speaking the language of white supremacists and saying that it is Biblically wrong to marry outside the race. This view is also talked in Should Races Mix? also in Interracial Blog. In the Bible, race is never once mentioned because over the centuries when it was penned, there was no concept of race. Ideas to divide humanity into racial groups is a western European construct. The concept is foreign to the Bible.

In my life time I have had both whites and blacks propose marriage to me. The two men I have loved intensely were an African from Zambia and a Turk. My first real boyfriend was from the African nation of Somalia. I have had my lonely times like most African American women, but I have never turned down a man's attention because he was not of my "race." I have never felt compelled to limit myself.

I wish more African American women would forget the restrictions put on them early on and decide to open themselves to possibilities in Romance no matter if the man is English, Indian, Arab, Chinese, etc. There is a big world out there, and it is time we became a part of it.

Russia's Romantic: Alexander Pushkin

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837) was a figure in the Romantic Movement or Romanticism of the late 18th and early 19th century. Unlike the best known of the Romantics in western Europe like Byron, Keats, and Shelley who all died young, Pushkin lived in Tsarist Russia. He is the literary giant of Russia, and with him Russian literature began.

Pushkin's origins are as Romantic and colorful on his maternal side as his writings. Both of his parents were of the lesser nobility. His father Sergei's family had been boyars, and his mother Nadezhda's grandfather had been an African slave first placed in the court of the Turkish Ottoman sultan and then purchased by Tsar Peter the Great. Peter freed Pushkin's great grandfather Abraham Hannibal and adopted him as his son. Abraham was educated in Europe and became a military engineer. His exact origins in Africa are not clearly unknown, but it is believed that he may have been from what is now either Ethiopia, Chad, or Eritrea.

Alexander Pushkin was born in Moscow. Because of his privileged background he attended the Imperial Lyceum near St. Petersburg. At 14 his first poem was published. Throughout his short life Pushkin wrote hundreds of poems both short and epic and even short stories. He wrote a short story about his great grandfather which is entitled The Negro of Peter the Great. His poetry is so rich and the language so diverse, that in translation it is nearly impossible to capture the complete flavor of his writings. Pushkin aided in revolutionizing the Russian language and the art of poetic writing. His poems contained themes of Romance, adventure, fantasy, and satire. The satirical element in his writings caused him to get into trouble several times with the Russian authorities. He was exiled to the Caucasus, the Crimea, and to his family's estates for upsetting the Tsar with his writings.

Pushkin was a favorite of the ladies, and had numerous love affairs with women who ranged from peasants to the upper crust. Eventually after sowing his wild oats for a number of years Pushkin married a very beautiful young woman named Natalya Goncharova. He once again regained favor and was admitted back into the Russian court, but he was highly suspicious of this suddent return to good feelings toward him. He believed that his wife's beauty was the magnet that was drawing him back into semi-favor, particularly when the Tsar showed his true colors and appointed Pushkin to the lowest post at court. By now nearly drowning in debt, and enraged by all the attention his wife was getting from the men including the Tsar. He soon began to believe rumors that his wife was having an affair with a French emigre. He challenged the man to a duel in which both were wounded, but Pushkin was hurt mortally dying two days later. He was only 37, and like the chief Romantics of England (Byron, Shelly, and Keats) he was dead before age 40. Like Byron and other young men of his generation, he was inspired by the Greek struggle for freedom from the Ottoman Turks, keeping a meticulous diary of the uprising. Even though his marriage was turbulent, Pushkin and Natalya had four children together.

Today in Russia, Pushkin's memory lives on in the names of streets, institutions, and monuments. His poems and stories were fertile ground for usage by Russian composers like Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Pushkin's use of language actually helped enrich the Russian lexicon. His love for the common people helped him to retain appeal even during Communist times in Russia.

In 1999 a stature of Pushkin was erected at George Washington University in Washington, DC. I have been an admirer of Pushkin for a long time because of his dynamic and Romantic life and also for his black heritage. Most Americans have probably never heard of him. How amazed they would be if they knew that Russia's greatest poet and the inaugurator of Russia's golden age of literature was what some people in America would call a black man.

Link: Some poems by Alexander Pushkin

A Romantic Pick From Turkey: Winter 2004-2005

I have traveled to the country of Turkey five times. Thrice I have resided there and worked as an English teacher teaching the language as a second language. When I tell people that I have lived and worked in Turkey as an English teacher, some ask me what language do the citizens of Turkey speak. Most have never heard of the Turkish language.

I had an intense love affair with the country from 2003 until this year. I never thought my love could be so fickle, but it receded into the mists. Now I have just both fond, perplexed, and exasperated feelings for the place.

When I was working in Turkey's largest city Istanbul, during the winter of 2004-2005, the school where I was employed had put me up in a cheap but clean hotel. Often my room's heater did not give out enough heat, so on the two days when I was not working and the weather was too bad to go out I would look at a music video station named KRAL. Kral in Turkish means "king." This video by Cuneyt Tek is called 'Gidersen' which means "If you go..." I would sit in my hotel room or lie in bed and wait for it to come on. The hotel where I stayed for 3 months only carried about eight television stations, all of which were in Turkish. Since at the time I knew almost no Turkish, I would watch KRAL since "music," as someone once said "is the universal language." Later when I bought Tek's CD containing the song, "Gidersen" I played it for my best friend Hanife, and using the liner notes containing the lyrics, we sang the song together one day during my one of my breaks. Hanife told me that "Gidersen" is a love song which I had already gathered from the video. She also told me that she thinks Cuneyt Tek is very cute. He is, and rather remains me of a very young, teenage Burt Reynolds. I also knew that the word, "askim" means "my love," a word that the song contains.

When I watched this video that winter on TV I was really touched by how Romantic it was. The story that the video tells of a boy and a girl falling in love as children and going through life together is what many of us would like even if we have too much pride to admit it. I had one student, Aylin, who married her sweet heart from middle school, but she divorced her husband while I was her teacher in Turkey because he came over to America and abandoned her for another much older woman with kids, so Aylin's love story went awry. I wish it could have ended differently. She recently wrote me that she still is alone. I learned from her experience and from my own there that love and Romance is just as uneasy in Turkey as here and everywhere else. Wouldn't it be nice if it were easy?

Enjoy "Gidersen." :))

A Romantic Piece of Equipment

Last summer I decided to invest in this stereo system that is a piece of nostalgia and Romance. I can almost hear the 'R' in Romance rolling when I think of this prize. This pre-modern stereo console sits in my bedroom with my AM/FM cathedral radio on top of it. Both are reproductions of entertainment equipment from a much earlier time period.

My stereo console is from Seventh Avenue , a company whose catalogue I have been receiving for several years now. Seventh Avenue sells all kinds of items for the home ranging from furniture, accents like grandfather clocks, toys, housewares, electronics, jewelry, collectibles, and even fitness machines. I really love this company for their furniture items that are a throw back to earlier eras. My console has a turn table that plays records of all speeds, a cassette player, an AM/FM radio, and a CD player. It even has a remote control devise.

Shortly after I was born in the early 1960s, my dad bought a stereo console from Philco. It's cabinet was made of pure walnut veneer, and he was extremely proud of it. It was one of the most expensive pieces of furniture that my parent's owned at the time. It had a turn table and an AM/FM radio. We still have it even though neither the radio nor the turntable functions anymore. Throughout my childhood it was a mainstay in our home with my dad playing his jazz records on nearly full blast many evenings, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" Speech became ingrained in my mind because dad would play it over and over. When the Philco stereo was first purchased it came with a shiny, silver colored label sitting regally on its' left speaker. Being curious even then, I quickly peeled it off one day when my parents were not looking. My dad later said he was so hurt when he saw how I had sneaked and defaced his most prized possession at the time.

Now this year I have my own Romantic looking console. It is not made of the sturdy stuff of which my dad's is made, but I think it is far more beautiful. It harkens back to a time before my dad's piece. It looks rather Victorian whereas dad's looks more 1960s-ish, last elaborate and more direct.

I still have some LPs (Long Playing records) of my own that I bought when I was a university student, all of Culture Club, a couple of Gino Vannelli albums, Dionne Warwick, Mario Lanza, Chopin. What's left of my dad's old jazz collection is still here too, Thelonius Monk, Ahmed Jamal, Miles Davis, Dakota Staton, Nina Simone, some Leonard Bernstein, even the "I Have Dream" speech is still around. This is what I cut my cultural teeth on. What and whom I listened to over the years has been a subliminal influence on why I am a very unique and Romantic individual.

Like my dad was, I am very proud to own the above piece.

Native American Romance

Lee Bogle is an American artist who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He was formerly a teacher, but when his artwork gained great demand, he left the profession to go into painting and drawing full-time.

The subject matter of a lot of his work deals with nature. My favorites are his Native American pieces.

When I fill out an application that asks for race, I list myself as black or African-American which is a limited picture of my heritage. I am actually of mixed heritage being of African, European, and Native American descent. I have Native American blood on both sides of my family.

Subject matter on Native Americans holds a certain fascination for me. When I first discovered Lee Bogle's work I was immediately drawn to its' beauty and Romance. His Native American lovers have a quiet Romance and innocence, even a degree of eroticism about them.

Bogle says of his work, " I try to convey a spirituality in my art that the viewer must interpret for himself. I want my paintings to show a peaceful comtemplation and express a depth of serenity that comes only with quiet inner peace."

One of the Ultimate Romantic Gestures: The Kiss! No. 1

I will admit it...I like to kiss. For someone who likes to kiss, I should allow myself to be kissed more. However, I am very picky about who gets the privilege though, perhaps too picky. I liked being kissed on the lips like most people, but I also love being kissed on the hand equally. To be kissed on my hand I actually had to travel to Botswana and Turkey before I met men who had enough class to realize that the act should not be permitted to die out even though it is a European courtly gesture from centuries previous to this one.

Today my friend Metin who has his blog Talk Turkey wrote an entry about male and female attitudes about kissing. Since he and I seem to be on the same wave length occasionally strangely I happened to be thinking about writing a post here a few days ago about kissing.

About a year or so ago while looking for romantic Victorian e-cards, I ran across a site that listed 365 ways to kiss. I have been looking for it this evening while writing this, but I cannot find it. I am really disappointed that I haven't been able to locate it because the techiques were not only erotic but were also Romantic. Of course, aspects of Romance does include eroticism. So I have decided in the midst of this to list a different way of kissing each week.

This one is a rather aggressive kiss which probably comes from or is inspired by the Kama Sutra.

---While kissing your partner, gently bite down on the lower lip (women love it ) and then start sucking on the bottom lip to give them a great sensation.

TO BE CONTINUED

The Cardinal: A Bird of Romance

The northern cardinal or redbird is in my opinion one of the Romantics of wildlife. Here is why. Cardinals like a number of other birds mate for life, but watching them is to notice how Romantic their nature truly is.

If you live in the eastern half of the US, you will probably see cardinals in your backyard, if you have a backyard. Put out some sunflower seeds or cracked corn in the winter. They will come to it. Once the cardinals come you may notice sometimes that they will come in pairs. One will be bright red and the other may be a sort of tan color with some red on the crown of it's head and plumage. The bright red is the male, and its' faded counterpart is the female. Sometimes the male gather seeds in his mouth and feeds them to the female. I have actually seen a male feed two females at a time. Sometimes during the feeding a pair will touch beaks briefly as if they are kissing. This is all a part of the courtship ritual which I when I first saw it seemed like a highly Romantic gesture.

The cardinal is thought to have been given its' name because the male's feathers are a brilliant red like the robes and caps of the cardinals of the Catholic church. During the 1800s a popular trade in cardinals as cage birds began. The cardinals were prized for the their beautiful color and song, so they were trapped and sold in the northern US and in Europe. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 halted in the trade in these loveable birds. Today the cardinal is the most popular choice for state birds than any other bird.

During courtship the male and female cardinal will sing a duet. Cardinals build their nests which are round and bowl shaped in thick foliage. The female usually lays from 3 to 5 eggs, and since male cardinals are fiercely territorial they will chase alway any birds who who come near the nest. Male cardinals are so suspicious of other males that if one sees his own reflection, he will try to fight it off for hours! Mated cardinals often travel together. Once baby cardinals are hatched, the father does all the hunting for food while the mother stays with the babies.

At Christmas time in the US, cardinals are often the subject of Christmas artwork. They are seen on greeting cards, plates, and in ornaments like wreaths.

In this era when it is difficult for so many human couples to bond peacefully and joyfully, it is so nice to know there are species of animals like the dainty little cardinal who remain devoted unselfishly to one another for life. Cardinals, a Romantic little creature.

Is It Me? But Isn't This Video Romantic?

I know only two words in Arabic. They are 'hello' (marhaba) and 'beloved' (habibi). Habibi can also mean 'I love you' or 'darling.' Since I am a Romantic you may have noticed that unlike some I have learned pleasantries not vulgarities first. Really I am not interested in vulgarities since even in my native tongue English, I rarely use bad words:)

Due to the fact that my Arabic is almost nil, I do not understand it even though I enjoy listening to Arabic music immensely. I adore Arabic pop music particularly. My favorite Arabic singers are Amr Diab, Asala, Tamer Hosni, Wama, Hussein alJasmi, Mustafa Amar, Khaled, Cheb Mami, and Faudel. I used to wonder if I was a little strange when I began to gravitate towards listening to music in languages I did not understand. Then I learned that many people in other societies do the same since in most countries listeners are exposed to American pop music. Many of these listeners do not know English.

During my recent journey to Turkey, where I tried to be a live-in English tutor to a rather dyfunctional Turkish family, they hired a young housekeeper from the country of Georgia. Her name was Kate, and she loved people like Sean Kingston, Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, and Beyonce. She would sing right along with Sean Kingston singing his hit Beautiful Girls, but she had no idea what the words meant since the languages she knew best were Georgian, Russian, and Turkish. There are many others worldwide who love music which languages they don't understand, but the sound captures their imaginations, transports them, or just creates relaxation.

This video is by the Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram. I had heard the song on the Arabic music website Alaghany.com and loved it. It is not one of favorite Arab pop tunes however, but when I finally ran across the video for the song, I was captived. Is it just me, but isn't this video romantic? Enjoy!

How To Make Your Facebook Profile More Romantic

When I first heard of Facebook, I was sceptical to say the least about its' usefulness. I had heard a lot about the dangers of sites like MySpace through the news media. Since Facebook was similar I really was not interested in getting involved in it.

It was through reading the comments of a blogger who is a Facebook enthusiast, on another blogger's site that I decided to do a little investigating. I did not feel that Facebook could be intellectually challenging or stimulating. Finally I set up a Facebook account, and deleted it about 5 times until now.

During Thanksgiving vacation I discovered a number of interesting applications on the site that are both rather stimulating intellectually and aesthetically. I think of them as Romance features. They are quizzes like "What Les Miserables Character are You?" "How Romantic are You?" "What Music Instrument are You?" quotes by famous people like Martin Luther King, Marilyn Monroe, or Che Guevara, and the photo and art applications.

I am very proud to say that my Facebook profile is not a hodge podge of silly applications like the Vampire games (I do have the feature from the invitation of a dear friend, however) but my profile has lovely photos, quotes, videos and a border on the left hand side of vintage, photographic and classic art. My art gallery contains works from artists as diverse as Van Gogh to Andy Warhol. There is an Russian iconic painting. The vintage posters are everything from old movie, US military recruitment, travel, and advertisement posters to notices for artists like Billie Holiday and Thelonious Monk

I wish I could share my profile here, but one has to have a Facebook account to access it. If you have an account and want to peek at mine, my profile is Sincerae Bonita Smith. Check it out and if you have similar interests to mine and if you are also a Romantic, add me as a friend:) Then maybe you would like to go on and make your Facebook profile interesting and romantic too.

A Very Romantic Song

While at the "ancestral" home on Thursday, which is the home of my deceased grandparents inherited by my aunt, after the Thanksgiving meal I overheard one of my all time favorite old songs playing on the television. I was in my aunt's room on my laptop, so I didn't see the singer of the song. The song is Our Love Is Here to Stay by George and Ira Gerswhin (1938). It was a very popular song and jazz standard which has been rendered by such singers as Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Nate King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Diana Ross. Played sometimes with a big band sound, I get goose bumps whenever I hear it and have visions of 1940s style lovers. I cannot vouch for the younger generation in other countries, but rarely are genuine love songs produced in America anymore. Sex, not love and Romance sells sadly enough. At 45 I feel a little pre-historic sometimes in my outlook about Romance. Oh, well!

They don't make 'em like they used to. Here are the lyrics to Our Love Is Here to Stay, and also here is the song being sung by Lea Salonga.



It's very clear
Our love is here to stay
Not for a year ;
But ever and a day.

The radio and the telephone
And the movies that we know
May just be passing fancies,
And in time may go !

But, oh my dear,
Our love is here to stay.
Together we're
Going a long, long way.

In time the Rockies may crumble,
Gibralter may tumble,
They're only made of clay,
But our love is here to stay.

In the Beginning There Was Romance

In the beginning there was Romance.... Well, not really, but God did create man and woman and from them came the idea of romance. What is Romance? Is Romance a rose, a poem, a work of art, a look, a touch, a kiss, a beautiful garment and how it is draped, an attitude, a way of perceiving the world, a fairy tale? Does Romance exist today in what is a very unromantic and cynical world? Is Romance still possible? Is Romance an anachronism, so therefore very dated? I hope to answer all of the above questions here and more.

I would define myself as a romantic. I relate more to the world previous to World War I better than I do to the present. I have long been a lover of history. When I was in elementary school and the teacher would take us to the weekly excursion to the school library, I would always approach the librarian with the request, "Do you have any more fairy tale books I can check out?"

I love the romantic ways of some of the people of history. There was the period of courtly love in the Middle Ages. There were many great and romantic figures bred especially in the middle 18th to early 19th centuries in Europe which influenced so much of western civilization through their artistry and lives, people like Lord Byron, Napoleon and his empress Josephine, and Jane Austen among others. I admire all of these because they epitomized in their own way the ideas of romanticism and romance. Along with love, conservation, and preservation this post modern age also is dying for romance, but the inhabitants of this age know it? Of course some people have a caveman and woman mentality and aren't interested.

This blog is going to be about romance not only in the past, but how to recapture romance and beauty in this time period. People have to be taught and exposed to romance in all its' forms. We learn romance by instinct like a bird learns to fly or a baby sea turtle knows within itself to head for the sea once it is hatched.

When I write about romance here, I will not only talk about romantic love, but also romance which encompasses a way of carrying oneself and viewing the world. Romance is the ultimate form of class. So lets begin exploring and learning about the concept of romance.