Weam Namou's Blog, page 7
July 15, 2020
A Day in Little Baghdad – فطور – Breakfast
Iraqi breakfasts often consist of coffee or tea, of course, and a variation of cheeses or egg recipes. Eggs with date syrup, or fried tomatoes, or potatoes, or beef, or parsley, or onions, or kufta… the list goes on. With it, we serve a flat bread known as khubez or a diamond-shaped bread called samoon. The bread is sometimes stuffed with Spanish cheese or dipped in sesame paste, yogurt with olive oil, or gaymar (clotted cream) and date syrup or homemade apricot jam.
Kahi, a breakfast dish of Jewish Babylonian descent, is also a favorite but not served as often – usually on special occasions such when one has guests or the morning after a wedding. That’s when the mother brings her newly-married daughter a tray of kahi for breakfast. Kahi contains a lot of delicious and fattening ingredients which include folded layers of filo-style dough that’s baked and soaked with honey or on top of all that, a sugar syrup called sheera.
In the northern and central parts of Iraq, bagila, broad beans, is a popular breakfast dish. The bagila is placed in water overnight, boiled, and then blended with olive oil and served with bread at the bottom and fried eggs on top.
When I visited Iraq in the year 2000, I was served the most elaborate breakfasts that consisted of homemade yogurt, cheese, clotted cream, pasties, and of course, various egg omelettes. Here in America, we don’t usually make such fancy breakfasts. In my case, I don’t even have breakfast until lunchtime.
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A Day in Little Baghdad – Day 4 – فطور – Breakfast
Iraqi breakfasts often consist of coffee or tea, of course, and a variation of cheeses or egg recipes. Eggs with date syrup, or fried tomatoes, or potatoes, or beef, or parsley, or onions, or kufta… the list goes on. With it, we serve a flat bread known as khubez or a diamond-shaped bread called samoon. The bread is sometimes stuffed with Spanish cheese or dipped in sesame paste, yogurt with olive oil, or gaymar (clotted cream) and date syrup or homemade apricot jam.
Kahi, a breakfast dish of Jewish Babylonian descent, is also a favorite but not served as often – usually on special occasions such when one has guests or the morning after a wedding. That’s when the mother brings her newly-married daughter a tray of kahi for breakfast. Kahi contains a lot of delicious and fattening ingredients which include folded layers of filo-style dough that’s baked and soaked with honey or on top of all that, a sugar syrup called sheera.
In the northern and central parts of Iraq, bagila, broad beans, is a popular breakfast dish. The bagila is placed in water overnight, boiled, and then blended with olive oil and served with bread at the bottom and fried eggs on top.
When I visited Iraq in the year 2000, I was served the most elaborate breakfasts that consisted of homemade yogurt, cheese, clotted cream, pasties, and of course, various egg omelettes. Here in America, we don’t usually make such fancy breakfasts. In my case, I don’t even have breakfast until lunchtime.
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July 14, 2020
A Day in Little Baghdad – كلب لطيف – Cute Dog
Dogs in ancient Mesopotamia were considered powerful and healing. Gula, the patroness of herbs, healing, and life, was a Sumerian deity, known as goddess of dogs. Gula’s cylinder seals portray her always with a dog, sometimes seated, and surrounded by stars.
Dog figurines dedicated to the goddess were found in the Kassite temple at Isin and in temples at other Babylonian sites. People noticed that when dogs licked their sores, they seemed to heal faster, and so dogs became associated with healing and Bau transformed into a healing deity.
A collection of dogs were found at the city of Nineveh in the 19th century CE by the famous archaeologist Austen Henry Layard. Ishtar, also known as Inanna, was shown with her dogs held on leashes. They were her companions and protectors.
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A Day in Little Baghdad – Day 3 – كلب لطيف – Cute Dog
Dogs in ancient Mesopotamia were considered powerful and healing. Gula, the patroness of herbs, healing, and life, was a Sumerian deity, known as goddess of dogs. Gula’s cylinder seals portray her always with a dog, sometimes seated, and surrounded by stars.
Dog figurines dedicated to the goddess were found in the Kassite temple at Isin and in temples at other Babylonian sites. People noticed that when dogs licked their sores, they seemed to heal faster, and so dogs became associated with healing and Bau transformed into a healing deity.
A collection of dogs were found at the city of Nineveh in the 19th century CE by the famous archaeologist Austen Henry Layard. Ishtar, also known as Inanna, was shown with her dogs held on leashes. They were her companions and protectors.
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July 13, 2020
A Day in Little Baghdad – حديقة جميلة – Beautiful Garden
My grandparents had farms in the once Chaldean village of Telkaif in the northern part of Iraq. In the winter, they planted wheat and barley. In the summer, they planted cantaloupes and cucumber. This supplied the daily needs of their households and the crops was sold for income as well. Anything they needed could be picked up and eaten, with no chemicals involved.
A lot of Iraqi Americans today, including myself and my cousins, have created beautiful kitchen gardens where they grow vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, cucumber, pepper, garlic, peppermint leaves, grapes, and many other fruits and vegetables.
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A Day in Little Baghdad – Day 2 – حديقة جميلة – Beautiful Garden
My grandparents had farms in the once Chaldean village of Telkaif in the northern part of Iraq. In the winter, they planted wheat and barley. In the summer, they planted cantaloupes and cucumber. This supplied the daily needs of their households and the crops was sold for income as well. Anything they needed could be picked up and eaten, with no chemicals involved.
A lot of Iraqi Americans today, including myself and my cousins, have created beautiful kitchen gardens where they grow vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, cucumber, pepper, garlic, peppermint leaves, grapes, and many other fruits and vegetables.
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A Day in Little Baghdad – عصرونية – Teatime
The world has changed a great deal in the last four months, but it does not mean that we can’t keep shining our love and light into the world. We are all able to access higher consciousness during these troubling times, to see the beauty surrounding us, and to spread light, peace, truth, and forgiveness by utilizing our skills and talents.
My space continues to be embroidered with words, stories, and visual work. My desire to share stories privately and in public continues as well, and after taking some time to adjust to the new way of life and catch up on major projects I’m working on behind the scenes, it’s now time to bring my blog back to life, mostly as a vlog. I’m starting with a series called A Day in Little Baghdad where, through my regular routines, you’ll get a glimpse of the Chaldean and Arab culture.
The first post is called عصرونية – Teatime, which the women in my family enjoyed a few days ago at a cousin’s house. It’s also known as merienda, a light meal in southern Europe as well as Hispanic America, the Philippines, and Brazil, usually taken in the afternoon or for brunch, and filling in the meal gap between the noontime meal and the evening meal, being the equivalent of afternoon tea in the English-speaking world.
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A Day in Little Baghdad – Day 1 – عصرونية – Teatime
The world has changed a great deal in the last four months, but it does not mean that we can’t keep shining our love and light into the world. We are all able to access higher consciousness during these troubling times, to see the beauty surrounding us, and to spread light, peace, truth, and forgiveness by utilizing our skills and talents.
My space continues to be embroidered with words, stories, and visual work. My desire to share stories privately and in public continues as well, and after taking some time to adjust to the new way of life and catch up on major projects I’m working on behind the scenes, it’s now time to bring my blog back to life, mostly as a vlog. I’m starting with a series called A Day in Little Baghdad where, through my regular routines, you’ll get a glimpse of the Chaldean and Arab culture.
The first post is called عصرونية – Teatime, which the women in my family enjoyed a few days ago at a cousin’s house. It’s also known as merienda, a light meal in southern Europe as well as Hispanic America, the Philippines, and Brazil, usually taken in the afternoon or for brunch, and filling in the meal gap between the noontime meal and the evening meal, being the equivalent of afternoon tea in the English-speaking world.
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April 24, 2020
Bridging Cultures with Music
Luti Erbeznik began his music career as a 15-year old by playing drums and singing in a band. A few years later, he was the lead singer and drummer in Angled Projectile, a regionally acclaimed rock band. He taught himself to play acoustic guitar and began writing songs. In college, Luti left the band and focused on his college education, eventually earning a Fulbright Scholarship for graduate studies in the United States. After earning a Ph.D. in molecular biology, Luti spent a decade in postdoctoral research and teaching at liberal arts colleges. All the while, he kept playing guitar, mostly for himself, and mostly for solace … an aspiring immigrant trying to live the American Dream.
Luti bridges cultures with music. His mixed ethnicity (Slovene/Macedonian/Greek), his childhood immersion in folk music from the many ethnic groups coexisting in the former Yugoslavia, combined with exposure to melodic rock (Wishbone Ash, Styx, Queen) and classical music, helped forge his eclectic songwriting style.
Watch Luti’s half-hour interview, read his interview, and visit his website to enjoy more of his music http://www.lutimusic.com/
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When and how did you begin your music career?
I began my music career when I was about 15 years old. My buddies and I began picking up songs of our favorite rock bands, and practicing them on the instruments we had. I was raised by a single mom, and we were quite poor. At the time, she could not afford to buy me a drum kit (I was the drummer in the band), so I was borrowing drum kits from other older boys who had their own. We would perform at school venues for our peers, and we were very well received. I was the lead vocalist as well. Within a year or so, my mom took a loan and bought me a drum kit, so I was able to practice and perform on my own drums.
As time went on, we started writing our own original music, which was also very well received by the audience at our performances.
How has your background, where and how you were raised, affect your music?
In our country which used to be called Yugoslavia we were exposed to all sorts of music! Ours was a multi-ethnic society with more than 20 different nationalities living together, and so we enjoyed a variety of music from different heritage lines. The republic in which we lived ( Serbia) had its own rock and pop bands, which drew the inspiration for their opus mostly from the Western counterparts. That is to say, under our leader Josip Broz Tito, we were an independent multi-ethnic nation, not oppressed by the Soviet Union (like our neighboring countries Romania, Hungary, etc), and, as such we had open access to Western (American and Western European movies, music and other cultural aspects). So, our music was largely influenced by the music of the American and British rock and pop scene.
How did your career in music develop?
As our musicianship developed further, our songwriting became more sophisticated, and our songs became more complex. Ours was a five-piece band: a lead guitarist, a rhythm guitarist, a bass player, a keyboardist and me on the drums. Everyone but the keyboard player (who at the time was a 12-year old prodigious sister of our lead guitarist) sang, and, as I mentioned before, I was the lead vocalist. At one point, we went to a studio, and had three of our songs professionally recorded. Unfortunately, the people on the radio were not too keen on playing our music. Our songs required close listening, and were not simple three-chord ditties which one could hear on radio stations at the time. We were not too discouraged, though, and we kept playing for the fun of it. Those were some of the very best times of my youth.
What’s your daytime job, or the job that supports you, and how did you get involved in it?
While in my rock band, I, of course, continued my education, which involved completion of the undergraduate degree in Biology and a Master’s Degree in Taxonomy (a special discipline within biology). Simultaneously, I was doing research at my university in
the Microbiology lab starting as a sophomore. After coauthoring several articles in peer-reviewed science journals and having presented research results at multiple national and international conferences, and having earned a high GPA in my coursework, I received Fulbright Scholarship in 1987 to pursue graduate studies in the USA. So, I came here and earned my PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. After three productive postdoctoral stints and several adjunct teaching engagements, I landed a permanent teaching career in higher education. For the past 15 years I have been teaching as a full time faculty member Microbiology and Human Anatomy and Physiology at Oakland Community College in Waterford, MI. That’s my day job.
How would you describe the music that you normally create?
Musically, I would say it is a bit of a blend of rock, pop and folk, with some influence from the music of the Balkan Peninsula where I grew up. Lyrically, I am interested in delving into the social issues and bringing the elements of human condition that corrupt the possibilities of understanding, harmony, acceptance and mutualism in a society. Some of the themes evident in my songs include greed, racism, police brutality, abuse of women, homelessness and destruction of the environment. I am not shy to sing about these and, by doing so, implicitly ask my audience to think about these issues and contemplate how each of them can make this world a better place.
What is your creative process like?
Usually, I come up with a melody first. To me, a song is not a song unless it has a melody that is catchy and pleasant to the listening ear. Then, I decide what the song ought to be about. Next, I write any thoughts, lines, ideas, images that may come to my head – uncensored by my internal editor. Then, I begin to figure out how these writings — that are seemingly random, but all connected in some way—can be converted into the lines of the song. It helps if the lines rhyme, so I use a rhyming dictionary and also a thesaurus.
Which famous musicians do you admire and why?
There are too many to count. I’ve always loved music by ABBA as their songs are so beautiful and memorable. Of course, there are the timeless Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel and hundreds of others such as the late Paco de Lucia, and a living legend of the Macedonian rock scene, an amazing guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski. Every one of them is a hard worker, passionate about their music, immensely creative and dedicated. I am also a huge fan of Jethro Tull and their leader Ian Anderson, and also of the British band Wishbone Ash. Both of those bands have had remarkably strong influence on my music writing.
What has been the biggest struggle you experienced in your music career?
I guess just finding enough time to pursue music, when at the same time I want to give the best of myself to my students and my family.
What is the best advice you’ve been given?
Just keep doing what you’re doing.
What advice would you give someone starting out as a musician or struggling as an established one?
Enjoy every moment of music and try to find enough time for songwriting, as songwriting takes time.
What’s next for you?
I currently play in three different bands — The Whistleblowers, Eastward Bound and The Byrds Tribute Band. I also perform in a duo form with my friends Bobby Pennock and Dan Hazlett. Once Covid-19 pandemic is fully brought to control, I will resume performing with those people as it gives me immense joy and happiness. I will also continue to give my students the best education I can to help prepare the for their further endeavors in health care.
[image error]Photo by Paul Manoian, who was voted #1 Best Portrait Photography in the Detroit, Michigan area.
March 22, 2020
The Royal Starr Arts Institute
As an author and filmmaker, I’ve been quite productive because I dedicate a lot of attention and work hours into my field. I also connect with communities who support my type of work, in order to learn more and network. For filmmaking, this is particularly important as, unlike with writing, making films requires a team – oftentimes a huge one. Just take a look at the credits at the end of any movie.
Sometimes, the work dynamics are not apparent right away. For instance, today I’m working on my feature film with Dr. Stan Williams, a veteran award-winning filmmaker who taught screenwriting and directing at the Motion Picture Institute of Michigan which I attended over a decade ago. You never know how the people you meet will team up with you in the future.
That’s why communities like the Royal Starr Arts Institute are vital to a career in film. They offer you the opportunity to associate with like-minded, like-spirited people where you can share your talents, learn about the talents of others, and possibly find a team for your current or next project. Last month, I interviewed Luke Castle, the president of Royal Starr Arts Institute, which has a free mixer every month and a film festival every year in September.
Be sure to check out the half-hour TV-interview in the youtube video. And check their website for updates given the current situation. https://www.royalstarr.org/
What’s the story behind the Royal Starr Arts Institute? Why and how was it started?
The Royal Starr mission was to celebrate the art of film through the curation and exhibition of works from all over the world, the United States and right here in Michigan. Eighteen months before the first 2016 Royal Starr Film Festival a group of gentlemen met to talk about starting a Film Festival in their community in Royal Oak, MI. After a few months of meeting,they had a name. Royal Starr. “Royal” to pay homage to the community that they made home. “Starr” to honor Orson Starr’s Family, the first manufacturer in Royal Oak. The Starrs made cowbells and bricks, helping create jobs and an economy back in 1840’s. Along with finding a name, the group of gentlemen found their very first Partnership with Paul Glantz and the luxury theaters of Emagine.
What’s your personal background in film and how does that help the Institute?
I studied film at Full Sail University, but I wanted to stay here in Michigan to help other filmmakers; I believe in Michigan talent. I was a member of the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival before this and wanted to explore my passion for modern creative arts. Thus, Royal Starr was created.
What role does the Institute play in the filmmaking community?
We are rebuilding the fragmented Michigan filmmaker community after the withdrawal of the Michigan film incentives with consistency, communication, partnerships.
In 2018 we started the Michigan Filmmaker Community Mixer. Knowing consistency would be key to building the trust of the already fragmented community. With the belief that community thrives on face to face interaction to encourage better communication between the fragments of the community, we would hold a open and free event every second Tuesday of the month.
How has your organization made a difference in Michigan’s filmmaking community? Do you have any examples to share?
We understood we had to be more than just a networking event. We had to create viable and real opportunities. From the beginning we offered tables at the event for members to highlight themselves, for casting roles, filling crew positions, and sharing their projects. Driven by our second belief, we are here to create a viable film economy. So we made sure that whoever had a table and were recruiting for a project had to be offering some sort of monetary compensation for the roles or crew positions they were offering.
You have a yearly festival. What are the dates for 2020 and what are some of the things filmmakers should know about the festival?
The 2020 Royal Starr Film festival will be held from September 11th- 20th at Emagine Theatres in Royal Oak, featuring films from Michigan and all around the world. We love to celebrate with our guests afterward.
What advice would you give filmmakers just starting out? Or those trying to hone their craft?
Every project you work on is a learning experience and grows your skill set.
Where do you see the institute five years from now?
I see Royal Starr expanding and offering more learning initiatives, especially during our Film and Digital Media Expo (FANME). In past years, we offered editing, acting, writing, and lighting workshops with leaders in the film industry.
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