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September 2022

"And do not spend wastefully. Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils." [Quran 17:26-27] When they ask how I used my father's money to buy [      ],I will say: daughter is a synonym for regret. We were sincere college girls, exhaling the after-morning muskof our jilted mistakes. We fucked up. What else can I say? We kissed everything with a knife's heat.The poetry was supposed to be about the snow dust on the windowsill of the studio apartment where I practicedgenerosity with other sweat-stained bodies. Yes, me and my derelict girls. We hardly got a text back and

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*After What Women Want by Kim Addonizio Dear Readers,  It's done, and so I want a red dress to walk around on the arm of a woman. I want it cheap so that its peeling hurts. Tight, so I wear it and in a fit tear it, or someone tears it off my chest. I want it careless and backless and like my back, backless so they wonder, what. the. hell. is. going on, underneath. I want to knock around crossroads until my heels break, buy berries, buy everything I never needed. Pass past the cowhide market, they're filthy as fuck, slinging

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لا أزال أذكر أول عضّة كلب وأول قصة حب في المدرسة وأول تحية إيطالية تعلمتها: «فا فنكولو». اكتشفت فيما بعد أنها تعني: «روح نيّك». حدث ذلك كلّه خلال صيف 1994. غالبني النوم بشكلٍ مفاجئ خلال مباراة إيطاليا والبرازيل في نهائي كأس العالم تلك السنة. بوسعي أن أحزر أنه منتصف الشوط الثاني. ظلّت تصويبة ماورو سيلفا عالقةً بذهني، ليس بسبب اصطدامها بالقائم بعد اضطراب باليوكا الذي أفلت الكرة من يده وقبّل القائم متنفّسًا الصعداء، لكن بسبب عمّي، المناصر لإيطاليا، الذي نطق بكلمة «فافنكولو» مغتاظًا. أدمنتُ استعمال الكلمة كتحيّة صباحيّة بعدما أخبرني عمّي بأنّها مرادف شوارعيّ لكلمة «يعطيك الصحة»، أي «أحسنت»،

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Dear Editor,  Sky's without a pore tonight, it cannot sweat and all the slums of Cairo have lost to dust as far as the eye can see I see nothing, only the then in now, yet there is all but out of sight Dust is skin, they say dead-once mouth to mouth breasts, bellies, legs spooned on brass beds gathering hands together wrapped past houseboats on the Nile, or did we not, once? Dust is a whore I loved and she's everywhere the cabarets on Haram Street pumping heat into men spinning her long hair like a fan lapping cash on sweaty chest and in this dust on my mirror I run my index finger down to see is a sliver of me, clearly the rest

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December 3, 2020 | $1= 8,225 L.L. | 4,46 Paracetamol Tablets July 1, 2020 | $1= 9,200 L.L. | 400g Lebanese Bread July 15, 2020 | $1= 8,500 L.L. | 143g Somali Banana May 12, 2021 | $1= 12,750 L.L. | Menstrual Pad

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"Tariq Keblaoui" by Tariq Keblaoui

Q & A with Tariq Keblaoui on “Lamb House”

 

1. What was the motivation behind this photograph?

Well, I took my camera out for a late night walk with my dog, Margo, around 1:00 am, and decided to take a seaside route that I take less frequently with my flatmates. Eventually, walking up near Lamb House, I stood right about where I took the photo, and while looking at it, I thought “Hey, that kind of looks like that one Edward Hopper painting.” So I ended up quickly taking the photo with that in mind and just continued my walk. After putting it through a little color grade and posting it online, I remember thinking that maybe some people will notice the reference to the Edward Hopper painting. But then, I started to realize that a lot of people were immediately noticing the similarity to Nighthawks. I looked up the painting again myself and was shocked by the similarity. I definitely can’t say it was calculated to be so strikingly similar, I just took the photo with the painting as a reference from memory.

 

2. There is something melancholic, almost eerie, about the colors and the texture of the photograph. Can you speak more about that?

I think the main thing about the colors that might resonate with people is that there is a contrast between the warm, closed interior of Lamb House and the cold, dark and empty exterior of the streets. Like Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, the contrast helps portray a lonely and cold urban image.

 

3. How is the particularity of the Lamb House essential to this work?

One of the main reasons I suspect why people like the photo to begin with is because it gives people an immediate sense of familiarity. First of all, they might notice the resemblance to Nighthawks, a familiar popular painting. Then they might recognize a sentimental landmark, Lamb House, which in a way represents a longlasting gem that survived through a long period of Lebanon’s troubled recent history. So I think the photo wouldn’t have been so well-received if it weren’t for those two main aspects.

 

4. Do you see this work as a product of a particularly troubled moment in Lebanon?

I don’t see it as a product of the crisis we’re all going through in Lebanon, per se, but I think it maybe succeeds in capturing the lonely, dark cityscape that Lebanon has become– with so many people having left the country with a city left behind covered in darkness from the electricity crisis.

 

5. When you say, "I definitely can’t say it was calculated to be so strikingly similar, I just took the photo with the painting as a reference from memory,” how does this idea play out in your other work as, for example, a filmmaker/videographer who uses similar faculties/skills in capturing images within a frame? In other words, perhaps you can tell us more about these subconscious referencing and framing choices. And hence, how might the "cinematic" play a role in your photography?

I'm not too sure if there is a unique correlation that my cinematographic background has in photography compared to how other photographers approach their work, but generally whenever I take an image, my main objective is to try and capture some sort of story– whether it's a moment with some character or a scene that carries a mood. I admit that I generally find photography more difficult than video since you don't have the luxury of movement and time to make your image engaging, but it poses a nice challenge, nonetheless.