Things are heating up.... lots of papers and exams and presentations next week. The Cairo International Film Festival has been distracting me a lot because I want to see everything. So far I'm seen an Estonian film (I came in late so I don't know the name) a Syrian film called "Under the Ceiling" and a French film called "Lila Says." I now want to travel in Estonia, eat in Damascus, and work with Arab immigrants to France. After reading articles for my refugee class last night I also decided to go to Tanzania to work on refugee-governmental relations and then an article later to head over to Latin America. Oh, Helen.
One thing is sure, though, that I am excited about. I applied at WUOG (UGA radio station) to create a specialty show on Middle-Eastern music and got accepted! I don't know what time yet or what day, but it will be streaming on the internet so if you are interested you'll be able to listen. I've been trying to come up with a good title for it; I don't want anything that sounds Orientalist- no references to women in harems, etc.- Jayanthi's proposal of Aladdin-themed "A Whole New World" does make me laugh a lot, though. The best I can come up with is A Thousand and One Nights. Suggestions are always welcome. The Arabic translation of the book is "Alf Layla wa Layla" and I love how that sounds, but I don't think an Arabic title would be good.
posted by Helen @ 1:44 AM
4 Comments:
I had Moroccan food for lunch today and thought of you.
I read about Lila Says in San Francisco (but have seen no sign of it here in France.) It looked appealing, I want more details!
Why not an Arabic title? I say don't leave it out of the running as long as it's not too complicated.
Arabic is pretty.
Yeah Moroccan food! I'll send you an email with mas detalles. Arabic is pretty and I love you for that. Oh! Lars is really interested in Indonesian/gamelan music. Do you have anything with you?
Hey Helen! It's Liz --I don't know how to sign on to this, so it'll appear as anonymous...
OK, I'm going to be a pain here. You should name your show alf leyla wa leyla (I have the Umm Kulthum CD of it I could burn for for), or have you heard of the book/documentary of Umm Kulthum, "the Voice of Egypt"? You could use that or some variant. The thing is, 1000 and 1 nights has Orientalist connotations (if that's what you're trying to stay away from...) b/c it was compiled by Europeans!
OK -
Thanks Liz, that's a good point. It's pretty staggering how all imagery I can come up with for the Middle East (that people are familiar with) is, essentially, Orientalist and even the least Orientalist thing I could come up with is still Orientalist : ) hee hee. I do have the Umm Kulthum recording, but that's the only one I have of hers, so far. We talked about "The Voice of Egypt" I still haven't seen it and I guess you still haven't been successful at getting a copy of it. Boo.
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