Wednesday, November 28, 2007

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!


Tuesday, November 27, 2007

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.
Sincerae Bonita Smith's Facebook profile