Monday, January 28, 2008

Local Food Biz Alert

The Fresh Choice in Colma serves tabouleh! It's not terrible, either; it did not drive me into the neighboring BevMo in search of something tastier with which to wash it down. It could use way more lemon juice, and some more mint, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised. Kudos, Fresh Choice! Now, reinstate your AAA discount. 10% is nothing to sneeze at, and we immigrants/first generation Americans are proud to be cheap bastards. We also like to pretend that we eat healthy at a salad bar when all we do is eat 47 pieces of bread and pizza, and also say things like, "I'm going to pass on the brownie for dessert," then slop about 1.5 lbs of hot fudge and rainbow sprinkles all over the "healthy" frozen yogurt dessert...

"Fear lulls our minds to sleep"


WMEG went to see Persepolis last week. We loved it! If for some strange reason you have yet to see this film, do yourself a favor, and get your butt in the theatre.

While the film is almost exclusively in black-and-white, you won't even notice. Satrapi's narrative infuses the film with all the color and vibrancy necessary. It's accessible enough to a wide range of audiences so that just about everybody can derive the right mix of laughter, knowledge, and analysis from the story (and is that not the point of film itself?). Fun fact side facts: Anoush (Marjane's radical uncle) is an Armenian name. And with that not-entirely-vital bit of Armenian pride, we have now officially become either our Armenia-radical grandmother or the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Everything is Armenian (or Greek, or Arab, or whatever you like). Just look harder. And put some Windex. Anyway!

Even though WMEG saw this film at San Francisco's Embarcadero Landmark Theatre, allegedly a prime choice for educated city folk (read: white liberal people who donate to Greenpeace and HRC), we could still discern faint head-scratching among our fellow theatre-goers. The mental wheel-turning surfaced: "Oh! Those Iranians didn't all like the shah?" "The British tried to meddle in Iran? And the Iranians didn't like that either?" "There were communists in Iran?!" "People in Iran listen to Iron Maiden and do aerobics?!!!!" Hah! We hope that this film reaches as many people as possible in the "West." It is exactly this type of humanizing, via a fairly universal and popular medium, which can derail Orientalism.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Project Rami! Week 8

Welcome to this week's installment of Project Rami, in which we analyze the latest episode of Project Runway with a focus on Rami Kashou, hunky and talented Palestinian designer with a fondness for draping...

Rami, Rami, Rami. What can we say? He's a great designer, but we fear he may have a bit of the Midde Eastern Male Syndrome. Now, here's a disclaimer: we love many of our Middle Eastern brothers, and fathers and grandfathers and cousins and uncles and other numerous relatives and friends, but our experience in this area-- and we have a lot-- backs us up on the following claim. Have you, fellow wayward Middle Easterners, ever been in a situation in which you are a part of a household which has been invited somewhere, and there is a male family member involved-- particularly, at the helm? Well, then you are familiar with this syndrome, in which the male figure begins exclaiming about thirty minutes before it is actually necessary to leave the house, "Yalla , we're going to be late!" Now, some of us WMEGs of the lady-gendered variety have many things to do before presenting ourselves to others (and especially to other Middle Easterners), including hairstyle, impeccible outfitting, perfect eyeliner, and removal of all excess body hair. As you know, this takes time-- you may know it as being on Arab/Persian/Armenian/etc. Time. Thus, it is never possible to leave for an event any earlier than ten minutes after the scheduled time of departure -- all the while being verbally hassled by the aforementioned male(s) regarding tardiness, leading to his eventual exasperation and decision to wait in the car while muttering to himself and anyone within earshot, listening to Abdel Halim on full blast, and frantically manipulating his worry beads. That, my friends, is a symptom of Middle Eastern Male Syndrome, and while it is generally harmless (as many of our lovely men are), it is there. Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about!

Anyway, we're thinking that perhaps Rami showed a little of that this week. The challenge: work in teams of two to create an avant-garde look based on the model's hairstyle (and later, to create a ready-to-wear look that echoes the previous in sensibility). Now, we know working in teams can be the kiss of death even for the most talented on this show, and while Rami runs circles around Sweet P as a designer (though we have been known to be fond of her, with the tattoos and the biker past and the baffling name), we thought perhaps he was a bit heavy-handed with the leadership. His ideas were great, as always, but we couldn't help but think that, hey, some of Sweet P's were good too: we personally LOVED the bustle idea! There are never enough bustles on the runway! That would have made for something a little more edgy. And the ready-to-wear dress she made (below) was really quite lovely. Perhaps if Rami sat down, listened to some Fairuz, and played with his worry beads, he would have seen the situation with a little more clarity and realized that, even though she is a crazy ol' white lady (and we say this fondly), maybe she just needed to do things on Crazy Ol' White Lady Time, and things would have been cool. Like when your carful of family members gets to your host's house and you realize you aren't really that late because there is ALWAYS some other family who suffers even worse from time issues and gets there like two hours late. You know?

Well in this week's challenge that was Kit and Ricky. We'll be damned if Ricky isn't the luckiest hambal on this show. We're not sure how he ends up surviving each week, with the crying and complaining and the not-very-interesting designs, but he does. He's like a cockroach! Anyway, we were very sad to see Kit go, because she has consistently been our next favorite after Rami, and she's done some beautiful stuff. We would have loved to see her compete in the finale. Unfortunately this week's design was not one of her best pieces, though the idea sounded really cool. The winning Team Fierce-- Chris and Christian-- totally deserved it, if nothing but for the total outrageousness of the piece, and the ready-to-wear was very cute. Although that coat made by the Sullen Sisters (Victorya and Jillian) was, admittedly, quite ferocious... check it all out for yourselves here.

Oh, Rami. We are very, very glad you didn't leave this week, because it would have been completely unfair, and we know you have a whole lot of gorgeousness in store for us-- a look at your website promises that. But maybe a little compromise isn't always so bad, aiwa? At least next time, consider the bustle! And, um, less draping. We love you, bro.

Peace out, readers. xo

Friday, January 11, 2008

the bread of life

As I ate my proper breakfast of barbari with too-strong coffee this morning, I reflected upon a time last year involving a clueless WASP-y cyclist and me.

On a lovely warm Saturday afternoon, I visited Parkside Farmer's Market on Taraval Street. I purchased my usual items: pastries, yogurt, bread, nuts, veggies, and the like. I parked my car on Page and Scott, near my former residence in the Lower Haight. As I gathered my groceries from my backseat, a bicyclist braked and stopped near me.

"Hi!" friendly white male bicyclist says.

"Uh, hi," I suspiciously respond. My hands are full of groceries. Too full, because I would rather limp down 2 blocks carrying more than I should than make another trip to my car. What does this man intend to do? Steal my food? Give me religious material? I'm hungry and want to run inside my house for a snack, not talk to strangers.

"I was just wondering where you got that giant focaccia bread," he says.

"Focaccia?!" I spit back. I am not carrying focaccia.

Then I realize what he means. This man thinks my
barbari is focaccia!

For inexplicable reasons, I do not fold my
barbari in half while in the store, like most people do, and I squeal with audible distress if the grocery clerk attempts to do so. I was carrying 3 plastic bags in my right hand and dangling my precious barbari, long and unfolded and glorious and uncracked in its natural state, in my left. I must hold it high in the air, as it is nearly as tall as my shoulder (which is admittedly not very tall). And that's what caught his attention as he barreled down the bike path on Page.

I struggle to come up with a response. Inside, I practice, "Asshat. This is not focaccia. This is
nan-e barbari, bread of kings and queens, breakfast of my people for thousands of years! The true breakfast of champions! Recant, lest I smite you!"

Of course, I am a discreetly socialized woman, regardless of how many times I am mistakenly referred to as "sir." So I stammer, annoyed: "This is not focaccia. This is
barbari. It's Iranian bread."

"Oh! Cool! Eye-ranian bread!" he replies. He's interested in more information. Great. "Where did you get it from?"

I kill him with my bulging almond eyes. Does he think I flew it into the US, on a stealth mission? Or better yet, that it's available on some secret shelf at Safeway? Maybe in the "Oriental" foods aisle next to the "Hispanic condiments" section? I'll show him. Politely. "From Parkside Farmer's Market, nowhere near here. It's very dangerous to bike there from here, and I don't recommend it."

"Thank you! That's very helpful! Have a nice day!" He yells this to my swiftly-turned back. I do not turn back around to see him put his yuppie biking safety gear back on and continue his journey.

I wonder if he wound up going to Parkside and inquired about the focaccia-like bread.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Occupation!

Well, well, our dear President's postcolonial vocabulary is recently expanded! Or, shall we say, his speech writer's vocabulary has expanded. (Quotations taken from the BBC.)

"There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967," Mr Bush told reporters.

"Now is the time to make difficult choices..The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people."
Holy hell! Vay mama jan! Yamma! The world leader against terr-ah
actually knows how to pronounce "occupation?" And, as some other quotations imply, does this mean a return to pre-1967 borders? Is our dear Edward Said (we don't often invoke God, but God bless his soul) having a mini-revolt 'n' party in Heaven? Is Orientalism finally turned on its head?

Why is this happening, anyway? Has the Bush regime somehow deduced that an increased support of Palestine will somehow translate into "success" in Iraq?

For additional reference, check out this picture, courtesy of MSNBC. Dare we say: does America stand with Palestine? What other conclusion can we draw from this display of our great patriotism (aka our butt-ugly flag) aligned with the same display (albeit NOT butt-ugly) from Palestine? Please discuss in the comments, if you like.


WMEG has a member in Ramallah conducting some research for her UC Berkeley undergraduate thesis. We'll be able to include more from-the-homeland reactions and feedback in the next few weeks. For now, color us cautiously optimistic. These statements do not reveal a sudden abandonment of America's fetishism of Zionism. But could these public statements - from the leader of the most vocal supporter of Zionism - possibly lead to action? Let's see!

Project Rami! Weeks 6 and 7

This is a little late in the game, we know-- but we ARE on Middle Eastern time, after all...

Welcome to Project Rami, a weekly feature in which we discuss every wayward Middle Eastern girl's favorite Project Runway designer and Pali boy wonder, Rami Kashou.

Aside from being gorgeous, amicable, and an incredibly talented designer (he's done red carpet fashions, y'all), Rami openly discusses being Palestinian and from Ramallah/Jerusalem, stating "Ramallah, Palestine" as his hometown on his MySpace page. We love how he proudly represents. Plus, he apparently got his start designing for his mom and the other ultra-fashionable ladies of Ramallah-- that's how it do! Check out Bravo's profile of Rami here and his website here.

On to recent events in Project Runway-land... last week, Rami won the judges (and us) over with his flashy-fab future-forward response to the challenge of making an outfit out of items found at the giant Hershey's store (yes, candy) in Times Square. While we initially were really skeptical of the challenge, the designers came out with some cute, fun, and inspiring looks, led by our boy who won the challenge (and immunity for this week) with the sweetness seen at left.

This week Rami didn't fare as well by the judges' often boring and arbitrary standards. The challenge: to create a prom dress for a New Jersey teenager. While there weren't any Aqua-Netted 'do's and three-inch acrylic nails in sight like we'd hoped (really), the contestants came up with some pretty good stuff. While Rami's drapey green modern-goddess dress (seen at right) didn't wow the judges (and actually had him placed among their least favorites), we thought it was glam and unique while still being totally appropriate. We did kinda wish it were a more vibrant green, though, and with a shorter skirt, only because his client is young and fun and can totally get away with it. But we're not complaining! Rami is still our number one. In other news, Sweet P totally should have kicked Victorya's ass (her dress did, at least), and Kit really should have won the entire challenge, but that's another story...

Check back next week for the next installment of Project Rami!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

"Queer" as a Tool of Colonial Oppression

This ZNet article by a highly intelligent librarian of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies, Blair Kuntz, discusses Israel's claim that lack of queer rights is just one more reason that Palestinians require suppression (and oppression), while themselves taking a hypocritical anti-queer stance in policies and attitudes-- oh, and the whole blackmailing and exploitation of gay Palestinians thing.

There are definitely issues with queer acceptance in Palestine, but clearly Palestinians have other more immediate concerns on their mind-- survival, for example? Using the queer card to further decry a people when you don't have the means to back it up is ludicrous, and in doing so, you insult queers as well. Haven't Palestinians been mistreated enough?

Read the article!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

introduction

Welcome to the WMEG blog! Some of you may have seen our illustrious MySpace profile (check our links if not). Because we are bookish, scholarly, and creative ladies and ladysirs with delightfully useless degrees in literature, we are expanding our internet terrorism to the blogsphere.

In honor of our colonizers, the British, I thought it appropriate to cite the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of wayward:

wayward

adjective self-willed and unpredictable; perverse.

Sounds about right, OED!