The Grand Factory family really is like family to me. I’m pretty sure I see them more often than my actual family.
Many people think it’s just a place to club, dance, get drunk and celebrate stuff. It’s a lot more than that though, and whenever I try to raise the issue of how powerful an impact places like TGF can have on Lebanon’s social and economic dire situation, the naysayers do nothing but criticize and demean our lifestyle choices which don’t include arguilehs and discriminating against others based on gender, sect, race, sexual preference and other issues that sadly many of Lebanon’s youth are still not over.
The most recent initiative by The Grand Factory is in partnership with an amazing NGO which I used to volunteer with back in my scouts days: Arcenciel.
The video below illustrates the idea beautifully, but in short, it’s trying to have a positive impact on Lebanese people’s alleged unwillingness to sort garbage to recycle it.
We keep hearing our politicians dismiss garbage sorting from the source as mythical and impossible. That’s because they would prefer a much worse solution so they can get contracts to line their pockets, while filling our landfills and doing nothing to stop the environmental calamity plaguing our country since 2015.
TGF figured out a way to make sorting fun, and made special vintage-video-game-like bins for plastic cups they serve alcohol in. The bins have sensors in them, and digital counters that display how many people have sorted their cups so far each night. When the counter reaches the desired target number, a surprise happens (like free pizza for everyone there!).
This is awesome, and thousands of cups are being sorted to go get recycled at Arcenciel each week. However, when I’m at TGF, I sometimes notice some clubbers aren’t even aware of this initiative, and just leave their cups on tables, or worse, throw them on the floor. So, please, this week when you’re at The Grand Factory, make sure you sort your plastic cups, and help Arcencial in their noble mission.
Change starts with each one of us. Whining that nothing will ever change doesn’t help. Waiting for the government to do what’s right will never help. Start with sorting when you club, maybe next where you live, study and work. We cannot keep drowning in garbage waiting for ministers to cut deals.
OllieDaze is baaaaaaaackkkkkkk!!!! Fuck yes! We’ve seen a lot of new clones spring up around the country, but no one comes close to the epic weekends OllieDaze throws in some of the sickest locations, be it on the beach or up in the mountains.
This weekend’s location is beautiful, and includes a pool, a beach, lots of grass and a brand new blob! Music, camping, dancing, extreme sports or just chilling out on a hammock with friends. This is one event you do not want to miss this weekend, whether its both days or just one. Also, this event will feature my first ever jump on a blob, so, you’re in for a show and a big splash!
Just when I start to miss Berlin too much, one of our beloved Beirut friends flies in our Berlin sweethearts to give us a taste of the city we love, in the city we call home. This Friday, Off and On are on the Skin City rooftop with a Katermukke Showcase that includes: Dirty Doering, Kollektiv Ost and Niconé. Expect me in my KaterBlau outift (which isn’t all black :P) Entrance is free before 8.30PM!
There’s a fresh new party crew in town, and Techno is their focus, but not just the music. On their event page, they have: “music lovers only. No clothes restrictions, come as you are. See you there foaks” which I loved. I love that the times when bouncers and door people could profile you for how you dress and look are long gone in most places Beirut.
The lineup features Rafael Cerato and Lunar Plane, with Gunther and Zad supporting the visitors from overseas. It’s happening at Concrete 1994 and damage is 30$.
If you’re up for trying something new this weekend, then RSVP here
Electric Sundown are back, in a different venue this time and a kick-ass lineup! Satori is coming back to Beirut to do his live thing we all go crazy for, but this time with Davi and Eduardo Castillo and Tia helping him throw it down. Just look what Satori posted, in Arabic, yesterday!
The summer Friday ritual is back at Sporting Club Beach this Friday, with Eton Messy and Nvoy! Decks needs no introduction by now, so see you on the dance floor with one of my favorite crowds in Beirut! ❤
My Berlin homesickness is finally paying off, cause another German heavyweight will grace the decks for a live show on Saturday with A Tribe Called Tribe! The venue is a delightful one in Mansourieh, and feels more like an epic house party at a villa than a club. So, you will feel right at home with like-minded people as you enjoy Ion Ludwig’s live show, and 3LIAS, Rolbac, Monokultur and Siboul for a night of sexy, yummy Techno ❤
This Saturday is a bit different at The Grand Factory. RY X will be performing live, and if you’ve seen his performance with Ame at a chapel somewhere, then you must have gotten goosebumps mixed with spine-tingling anticipation. The performance isn’t all though, Armen Miran will be spinning after the RY X show, making it one of the dreamiest, most haunting nights at The Grand Factory this summer ❤
It’s the second edition of the awesome pool party on the Smallville Hotel’s rooftop! BBQ, pizza, pool lounging and lots of dancing awaits you on Sunday starting 2PM. If you wanna unwind a little after a heavy weekend, then this is definitely one for you, right in the heart of the city with beautiful views of Beirut all around!
Bloomberg published their Global Health Index, which categorizes 163 countries based on how healthy their population is. Italy came out on top worldwide.
Lebanon faired pretty well too, being the highest-ranked Arab country at 32nd healthiest country worldwide (two spots ahead of the USA). Other Arab states in the top 50 included Qatar at 36, Bahrain at 40, the UAE at 43 and Oman at 48.
I guess our Mediterranean cuisine might be part of why we aren’t as bad as other Arab countries, as well as our great healthcare institutions (despite the lack of oversight and guarantee of patient rights in some cases). However, countries just a stone’s throw away like Cyprus (18) Greece (20) did even better, even though we have somewhat similar diets. So, it’s obviously a lot more than just the diet that contributes to this healthiness, as suggested in the WEF article about the index.
It sucks that we’re that far behind Israel though, which ranked in at 9. However, for once, we’re on a list that doesn’t make us look terrible like the “most dangerous” countries to visit. So, bravo for being healthy guys ❤
Oh, the burkini stuff again. Took us a while, but Lebanon is finally having a fit about burkinis.
What Happened
A woman and her family booked an expensive $250-a-night room at a resort in Tripoli. She broke out her most fashionable burkini and went down to the beach for her son’s first swim. The lifeguard came and told her she can’t swim there with her clothes on. Next someone higher up the chain of command. Then someone higher. In the end, they agreed to get reimbursed and leave the private resort’s part of a public beach.
Why People Are Defending the Resort
Bikini advocates don’t see what the big problem is. After all, the burkini-loving crew aren’t big on freedom of choice stuff. “Women’s Only Beaches” much?
In other words, religious conservatives hate anyone who isn’t like them. They harass, condemn, threaten even. Just look at the disgusting slime that is hay2at el 3olama2 el muslimin and other similar ISIS-sympathizing groups.
So, it’s only normal to want to give them a taste of their own medicine. I wouldn’t be surprised if a “Phoenician” said the timeless “they can build mosques near the Vatican, but a Christiancan’t go into Mecca!”
But then, what would the difference between you and them be exactly?
The Religious Conservatives are Hypocrites. You Shouldn’t Be.
Of course someone who thinks they have the right to tell a woman what she can and cannot wear is going to be a hypocrite. What did you expect? But what’s sadder, is that you’re kinda doing it too by vehemently defending the position the resort took.
It’s no one’s business what a woman wears, or doesn’t. Even if you think the woman’s decision to cover up isn’t one based on true volition, or influenced by social and religious pressures, it’s still their decision to make, not yours. Many women decide to take off their veil on their own accord, others decide to wear them after not being veiled. The problem is when other people want to dictate that outright.
Now, religious people do that. They make you cover up to go into a place of worship that they appropriated from pagans who used to have drunken orgies in it. It’s how they roll. Their concept of freedom of choice only includes their choices, not other people’s. Like the fuss when someone has to cover up to meet a religious figure.
The nice thing about us though, is we don’t force anyone to behave or dress in a certain way to meet and greet us. That’s why we’re better than intolerant religious conservatives. That’s why more and more people grow farther apart from their faiths and sects with each passing day.
You Only Make Them Stronger
If you want to fight a brute, but you’re a pacifist, you’re probably gonna lose. Religious conservatives strive and live off their intolerance and hatred. You don’t. So hating on a woman for wanting to wear a burkini, isn’t gonna be as good as when the cons remove an ad cause it has a bikini in it, or threaten a gay pride event. They created that shit, and it’s what they’re best at. Don’t stoop to their level.
Just look at that electric cable incident in a mosque in Tripoli a few weeks ago. One of the religious fundamentalists cut the electricity to the speakers of the mosque. He then proceeded to accuse the cafe across the street that opens and serves food and drink in Ramadan, of cutting that cable as an “assault on Islam”. It sparked a huge fuss and the religious fundies had their undies up in a bunch. When the police investigated, it turned out they did it themselves to try and violently shut down the cafe. That’s the kind of people the pro-burkini people are. That’s not the kind of people the pro-choice (whether burkini or bikini) people are.
It’s hilariously painful to see the same people who want to force you to fast in Ramadan, who want women to cover up, who censor ads that offend their “sensibilities”, are suddenly crying for individual freedoms and freedom to choose. Then again, people like that aren’t exactly known for their strengths when it comes to critical thinking. So, let them be the hateful hypocrites they are, within bounds of course and as long as it isn’t affecting you or other people who don’t share their conservatism.
At the end of the day, in Lebanon, you can wear whatever the fuck you want. And if a private place has a dress code, whether it’s a club which wants you to dress up, or a place or worship that wants to wrap you with a blanket, avoid them. Fuck them, why go there and spend your money and time? Go somewhere more inclusive. The best way of making something fail, while something better succeed, is by choosing where to throw your money (keyword: choice, not forced, to the pro-banning culture and arts people). That’s why big clubs today in Lebanon no longer have strict dress codes, and the ones of yesteryear that did, are long gone.
In Short
Don’t be like the religious. They ban, censor, oppress, threaten and are petty. We shouldn’t be. If that poor mother really wants to wear her burkini while paying 250$ to take her kid swimming, she should be able to, if not at that resort, at another one. This isn’t Saudi Arabia or Iran. And even though it might make you furious that they enforce things on people you are against, remember, that’s why they suck, and other places don’t.
Discrimination is a thing reserved for religious conservatives, and even though your beastly instinct encourages you to treat them the same, you’re better than that, and you know it.
This week, an abandoned shelter housing more than 100 dogs was finally broken into to help save the hungry, thirsty, infested and sick dogs and puppies.
The person who used to take care of the shelter in Zahrani, in Lebanon’s south, was forced to abandon it due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control. However, animal rights groups like APAF, BETA and Animals Lebanon were able to secure permission from local authorities to gain access into the shelter and provide immediate relief, like food and water and life-saving medication to more than 100 dogs stuck their for days, under the sun.
We all need your help, no matter how minimal it is, and here’s what you can do:
Donate money. If you don’t have the time to go down and volunteer, or materials needed, help those who are get what they need to save the dogs. You can call Hussein Hamzeh on 78872507 or contact APAF, BETA or Animals Lebanon (BETA and Animals Lebanon have a donate button on Facebook, if you can’t go yourself)
Adopt. 15 puppies were rescued from the shelter, and are currently being fostered for. If you want a beautiful bundle of joy, who will always be grateful for a loving forever home, then please adopt a puppy or dog by getting in touch with APAF or any of the other organizations working on this.
Donate materials. Tragically, several dogs have already died due to dehydration and sickness. The rest are in dire need of better conditions, especially shade. If you have anything that can help make some shade in this heat, like large FLEX materials (the ones ads are printed on), wood, metal structures, etc. Please contact Mr Hussein on 78872507 or APAF so you can coordinate and give them the materials, or better yet go down and help build it (if you’re in a scouts group or other social movement, this would be an amazing service you can do!)
We are lucky to have NGOs like APAF, BETA and Animals Lebanon, as well as amazing human beings like Hussein, Kim and everyone else giving their time and energy to help rescue these defenesless dogs. Thankfully, food and medication has been generously donated by them, but they will always need more food, volunteers, medicine and funds.
Please, take some time to help, adopt one of the puppies, foster some of the dogs, go down and volunteer and help make the shelter more liveable so that no more innocent dogs die for no reason.
This is a large-scale crisis, and every little bit helps.
The country has been buzzing with the arrest of Egypt-based Syrian singer Asala at the airport for possession of drugs this week. I will not go into the details of what happened, I don’t even know who she is or that she’s famous.
What happened is that she was arrested at the airport for possession of drugs. A few hours later, she was released from custody at the airport after police from the Hbeich precinct interrogated her, and the online Lebanese community went haywire with conspiracy theories.
This is How the Law Should Work
In Lebanon, drug users that are arrested can ask for treatment at the police precinct. The ISF then has to immediately refer them to something called the Addiction Committee. This committee then assesses each case and decides the appropriate treatment. Some people might go get a detox center, others to out-patient rehab centers like Skoun, or to in-patient ones like Oum El Nour.
The point is, those that want to seek treatment are no longer arrested, and released from custody. Asala got that. The other 3599 people that will be arrested this year, probably won’t.
This “wasta” for a star showed us how the law should actually work. However, if you’re a university student caught smoking a joint, or just arousing suspicion you might smoke, you would spend days and weeks before seeing a judge in sub-human detention conditions.
Status of the Addiction Committee
In 2013, the committee was finally appointed, years after the Lebanese parliament ratified the law. Since then, it meets monthly and studies cases. Several people since 2013 have been released from custody, and their records were kept clean after showing intent to get treated.
However, only 3% of total arrests since 2013 actually got to the Addictions Committee. It’s partly because most people don’t even know that’s their right. Another major reason is that most judges outside of Beirut and Mount Lebanon don’t agree on transferring cases of drug users to the committee, which is a shame on Lebanon’s human rights record.
This is unacceptable, yet understandable in Lebanon. The business of catching pot smokers and blackmailing them with bribes is a lucrative one, and one few people dare speak out against.
There is no denying it is a major issue, especially for Lebanon’s youth, who spend years in court for a victimless act, that is not really a crime, while violent thugs roam the streets unchecked, and instead of doing something about it, the Lebanese government just encourages reinstating the death penalty… As if they’d let their own thugs get executed, the same thugs that never go to jail, pay a fine or register their cars. Please…
It’s Time for Change
It’s 2017. I partnered up with Skoun for their #SupportDontPunish campaign. It’s time for change, especially since elections are coming up. There is absolutely no excuse to keep drug policies that are exponentially worse than the adverse effects of addiction. Drugs are a public health issue, not a criminal one. The ones in jail should be the killers of people like Eliane Safatly, who escaped jail because of negligence (or was it?) by the security forces overseeing his arrest and loopholes in our ancient judicial system that relies on faxes and snail mail. The ones in jail shouldn’t be 3500+ young men and women every year. Khlosna ba2a.
Help Skoun advocate for policy change, and help those who need treatment to overcome their addictions.
Dbayeh in the past couple of years has really started to pick up. If you ask me, I think it’s because of the permanent state of traffic, that clubs are opening up shop closer to heavily residential areas, not just in the heat of Beirut anymore.
Anyway, this summer, several rooftop clubs are opening adjacent to the stretch of highway that spans from Spinneys all the way to Le Royal.
The highest opens officially tomorrow night, on Saturday June 24, 2017. It’s called Ôrēent (pronounced like “Orient”) and it’s on the 11th floor rooftop of the building with the large Galaxy S8 ad you’ve stared at the past few weeks while stuck in traffic.
Here’s a first look at the club:
The music selection will be diverse at Ôrēent and includes RnB nights, Oldies and French nights, Said Mrad on Wednesdays and Jack Sleiman on Thursdays, with a mix of musical genres the rest of the week.
I passed by the new Sayf February 30 venue on the way to the office today, and I got a little sneak peek at their absolutely awesome new venue right behind the Bus Station in Mar Mikhael.
The pathway towards the venue, which lights up at night
The Beloved Weird Items from February 30 are Back
Many of the items and pieces of furniture that made the Hamra February 30 awesome, are back! The chairs made out of pressure cookers, car parts, even the upside down furniture (which has been expanded upon). There’s plenty of new quirky stuff too, all designed and made locally.
Something to look at when you look up
A Hot-Air Balloon DJ Booth, and Mobile Stage
The new DJ booth looks like a hot air balloon, but the really awesome new addition is a stage that was built on an old wagon on the steel railroad. At certain times in the evening, the crossroads will close, and the stage will roll in on the tracks into the main venue, which I think is a really cool way of integrating the history of the place, along with the current use it’s serving.
The tracks with the mobile stage on them
Restored the old Wagons
What’s nice is that the new occupants have done what the government has failed to (despite our taxes paying them to do so). They’ve restored several of the wagons left abandoned there, as well as the tracks which have been incorporated into the place’s design, without damaging them (under glass boxes that are well-lit).
Sayf February 30 opens starting tomorrow, and this is the schedule they’ve posted on their Facebook page.
So, I love doing these lists every week, and this one is extra special given the extra-long weekend, Fete de la Musique and summer being in full-swing.
C U NXT SAT and B 018 team up for another epic night, this time at B018. They’re setting up a special structure this week, so it should be something super cool, fitting for an act as beloved as Mind Against ❤
This Friday, Room 162 will finally see the light of day after 8 years in the making. Anthony Geara and William Mahfoud will showcase their fusion of dark atmospherics, fat synths, and rolling basslines for the first time, and in Beirut! Damage is just 10$ for something you’ve never heard anything like before ❤
Afterprties at Playroom are off the hook. This Saturday, Brian Cid is flying in to Beirut, supported by Rabih Rizk, Fady Ferraye and Pablo. So, if you have an appetite for partying way, way past your bedtime, then enjoy the summer sun when you leave, then check it out if you still haven’t!
Sometimes, you just miss the tracks you used to download illegally on Limewire. Those 90s and 00s tracks we all grew up listening to on first gen iPods (or Zune if you were a hipster back then). It’s happening again, at Backdoor in Mar Mikhael (used to be Behind the Green Door). Damage is just 20,000 LBP
Last year’s Zahle edition of Fete de la Musique was insane. This year, thousands of people are expected to show up and enjoy the music in Zahle’s delightful, gorgeous traditional streets. Check out the international and local lineup, and RSVP here
This is a yearly event I really look forward to. It happens in the super-chill Camping Amchit, and it never fails to disappoint. It’s basically how I know it’s summer, with a dip in the beautiful sea in between sets on the famous fruit-cart-DJ-booth. The party lasts for 18 hours, with more than 10 local heavyweights we love playing from noon till the next morning!
This is the first edition of Poolside Sessions at Skin City (the rooftop pool area above Pre). On the ticket are Jade, Wass, 3LIAS, Etienne and 2third. Party starts at noon, till after midnight.
Dotheart by the Sea have got you set for your Monday off at the Kempinski Summerland Hotel. Miss Melera, Artbat, Sarkis Mikael, Maga and Loopstache and Friends will be “doing art by the sea”.
February 30 is coming back, and this time at the Mar Mikhael Bus Station. February 30 was one of my favorite places, and I can’t wait to see the outdoor, summer version of the Hamra venue that was a favorite during our uni days!
If you need to unwind and detox from all the partying, then check out what my dear friend Serah’s doing every Saturday evening in the beautiful area of Naas right above Bikfaya. Practice yoga with Serah, then enjoy detox drinks and fruits with like-minded folks while being serenaded with live music and epic views and weather.
It’s no secret that during holiday seasons, many of us feel the urge to help those in need. Maybe because celebrating with loved ones makes us realize that so many, unfortunately, aren’t as lucky. The problem is, many folks don’t know what they can do to help, or where they can go to donate.
This Ramadan, Uber has made it a lot easier to donate your gently used clothes that are just sitting their in your closets. All you need to do is:
Request “UberCOMFORT” any day during Ramadan from 5PM till 10PM
Bag your clothes (Uber drivers can’t accept the clothes if they’re not bagged)
Meet your Uber drivers and hand them your bags
The clothes will go to Comfort and SOS Children’s Villages
There’s no excuse not to help, and this takes out all the hassle you might have been worried up. Just order your UberCOMFORT from your app, and they’ll collect your clothes and get them to Comfort and SOS, free of charge.
This Eid, if you’re an expat coming home to celebrate with loved ones, you also get a 20% discount on your trip from the airport by using the promo code: “EidLeb17”
If it’s your first time using Uber, make sure you punch in “prnib”, so that you get 5$ off your first ride, and I get 5$ credit too ❤
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