Wednesday, July 26, 2006

"i am sorry to decline your proposition"

stop!
that's it!
i can't anymore!
nein!
please do not contact me for any interview anymore.
i am beginning to freak out repeating 5 times a day the same things. if your interested in what i am doing, please write yourself a story about it (it's easy, you'll see).
anyways, everything i am asked is already on the blog. or worst, on tv.
i should by the way keep record of these interviews, some are incredible. i was asked twice so far: "don't you think that your piece of music and bombs is of a bad taste?
i answered twice: "do you think that it is of a good taste to throw a bomb on a bus with civilians escaping their village?"
it is incredible that some people, listening to this piece in their living room in london or in paris, ask themselves if they like it or not. i think that some people should never stop seeing cnn and fox news. it is made for them. it is "good taste" news.

also, for the new comers on this blog, i repeat my now famous sentence (a sort of personal "to be or not to be" kind of stuff):
PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY POLITICAL COMMENT ON THIS BLOG.
THIS IS BLOG DEDICATED TO ART.
AND AS SUCH, IT VOMITS ON ANYTHING CALLED POLITICS.
thank you to follow this simple rule (it's easy, you'll see), knowing that i have no scruple to erase whatever doesn't please me. yeah, it sounds rude, but you're not in the "real" disneyland here.

finally, a kind message to all the people posting comments on this blog:
thank you for your support and for spreading the message. keep doing so please. with a little bit of luck it will end up on condoleeza rice's desktop. i know it won't stop the war, but i am sure at least that she'll ask me to do her portrait.
i am sorry not answering the comments (and a big part of the emails) i am receiving. it's being tougher and tougher to keep all this going on. on the mental level it's staying cool, but on the physical one i look more and more like nosferatu.
i should get some rest.
when all this shit is over.
(hahahaha).

it's 3 am. i'll try not to stay late tonight.

30 comments:

  1. Here I sit, comfortable in Florida. I read the stories, I see your work, my heart bleeds. What does it take to stop these never ending examples of man's inhumanity to man?

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  2. mazen, i thought about writing you direct, but i agree that this blog is better now! i really think the piece you played with the israeli army is the best piece of art i've heard or thought about in such a long time!

    i wish you somuch strenght and power to get through this time, and i hope we have a chance to see eachother soon there after (wich should even withouth thereafter be very soon!)

    keep up the blog i trust it more than any news on tv!

    PEACE!

    martin

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  3. Yes,

    Just keep doing the art, it is very good - I think its strength lies in the simple honesty that is in it.

    Take care of your own psyche rather than catering to the interviewers. Take care of your family from afar. Try to find one thing per day to laugh at even if there are thousands to cry about.

    Hanna

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  4. Yes,

    Just keep doing the art, it is very good - I think its strength lies in the simple honesty that is in it.

    Take care of your own psyche rather than catering to the interviewers. Take care of your family from afar. Try to find one thing per day to laugh at even if there are thousands to cry about.

    Hanna

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  5. Mazen,
    Thank you for your images, words, and sounds. You have awakened something inside of me.

    Be strong. Be safe. But most of all, Be you. If your heart says stay: stay. But if something inside of you tells you to get out: for life's sake, get out.

    I have added you to the list of blogs which are related to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict on Wikipedia. Hopefully this will help spread yoru word even wider. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict#Lebanese_blogs)

    Thank you for allowing us to see and understand the crisis from within. Your drawings, music and words are windows of your soul and allow us to see from inside of you out.

    Love and peace,

    Noelle.
    Brisbane, Australia

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  6. Your art fills me with deep sadness for the Lebanese people stuck in the middle of this mess. You didn't ask for this and you were powerless to stop it.

    I also see there's a lot of anti-American sentiment being expressed by your readers. But which nation is it that's sending its Foreign Minister (Secretary of State) to try to seek a solution? Is it a European nation? Is it a Moslem nation? Russia? China?Historically, there's only been one nation that has consistently stepped forward to help, without obligation, whether in time of strife or natural disaster. If I had to choose between the USA, which tries to do the right thing yet sometimes fails, and other countries who just stand on the sidelines, I know where I'd go.

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  7. i love the piece you posted. one should not burden oneself w/ assessing value judgment of aural documents. it speaks for itself. the truncated mournful cry against the ruptures (and implications of such) of what should be normal life. a truly weepworthy piece, thanks for sharing.

    -aaron

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  8. "The Art of War."
    Your art is very,very good,powerful and intense(also political).
    We are all feeling the intensity of this crisis.
    Millions of people all over the world are doing what they can to support peace and in all different ways.


    Draw on the strength of what people have given to you...personally...


    Stay...Well.

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  9. dear mazen
    your art seeps politics.

    love
    hatem

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  10. I think your art work is beautiful and inspires a lot of people around the world that are looking for the same thing; justice.

    Hang on, many kisses from Argentina.

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  11. I agree with Hatem but do not like the one who managed to sneak in a flagrant political statement knowing that no one will answer..
    Mazen
    I have left Lebanon in 1984
    I did not know your art
    I am just going to dig in the web to find more about you [although I am very distressed about relatives lives in the deep south]
    do not even bother to answer those silly blood hungry journalists
    There are many people around who refuse to watch their sensational media
    Love

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  12. If the problem about leaving is to find a place to stay (In Europe or wherever) just say that. A solution can be found. Im sure Im not the only one. Other people around the world can help you also. I will not insist any more about the subject.
    Finally, one more comment about being political or not political. The blog is totally political, like this war. Arguments and thinking are fundamental, and the only way in my opinion, in situations like this, to understand what happens, and then to generate solidarity, and concrete response. Other people from Libanon are giving fundamental explanations about what happens there. And it helps a lot.
    Information is being given in a complete strange and violent way.You are informing the world also with this blog in your way. We are following it throught intimacy, how a person lives it everyday, which is really important. But I think that to say that the blog is not political, and not to allow "political" comments, is a political decision. Any of our comments sound in any case ridiculous and banal considering the situation that you are living there. I can understand the need to creat a space where explicit political thinkings do not take the main place, in your position. But, do you really think that this can be really possible? Maybe what should be taken off from the blog is any manifestation of violence, or agression. But I do not think that real political thinking and information can be bad.
    Maybe this blog, becomming bigger and bigger, can become a concrete way to offer help to people that need it. To creat solidarity. You can do it outside Libanon. To creat a web throught this.
    I will not folllow the blog anymore. Its my way to support you leaving Libanon, which I radically think is the best. All these journalists calling you and the " we support you" comments from Disneyworld are only pushing you to risk your life and other people ´s life around you. You can make a fantastic next step work outside Libanon, explaning the world what you saw. The blog will not die if you leave. You have been there for enough time and your explanations will be usefull and creative.The Rome conference was an incredible shame. A demostration of impunity. A "Kill them all" written in front of our faces. 4 United Nations guys have been killed recently . Nothing and nobody is safe there. Take care.

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  13. Hi Mazen
    Don't let the bastards grind you down.
    For some people aesthetics is a way of distancing the world, for you and many others it is a way of engaging with it.
    Tis blog is important as resistance and as art.
    I hope I have your courage.
    Paul

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  14. every day i wake up, find your blog, read the truth. Later the newspaper comes. I read it shaking my head. How can the world go on like nothing is happening?
    Your blog keeps this war personal and real, reminds us that every war has a real face .. a face that looks and feels like our own.

    We send you all the strength and hope we can muster together.

    keep telling us the truth we will not hear anywhere else.

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  15. A friend of mine introduced me to your blog and I am amazed. Excellent and very strong pieces of art and thoughts!
    Wish I could draw a smile....

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  16. Hey Paul man. Sorry but I just gave a point of view. I think its not the point to call bastard somone who has a different opinion. Basic non agression. come on.

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  17. Thank you for your humanity and your art.

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  18. I understand, I love reading your stuff, interviews can just wait.

    And I would LOVE to see a Condi series. I'm sure she's smart and all but diplomacy apparently isn't her strong suit (if we judge by pure results, glancing at a map)

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  19. dear kpc,
    just a final note to explain it better: i am BY NO WAY staying here to continure my blog. i do to stay here one second to be able to write about this shit. i lived it all my life already and have enough material to make a 10.000 pages book.
    as for the political aspect, i insist that this blog is not political. which means it is not open at all to political discussions. now if my drawings are political, this is my decision. it is somehow an artistic blog representing ONLY my humble point of view and experience. i can INSULT the whole world, but i do not want people to insult each others here. there is a lot of other places to do this.
    my political decision to cut the political comments is somehow dictatorial i know.
    but i like it :)

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  20. Ok Mazen. Deep thanks for your work and going really for it. Very best wishes.

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  21. Amazing Blog! Can't say more

    Naj

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  22. Mazen this is in response to that fuckwitted yank that thinks they screw up some of the time, It is quite obvious whos side that food trollop is on. The art is great. keep it up, survive just so that we may all be happier.

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  23. I listened to your interview with the BBC in my bedroom in London and it gave me strength (not that I need it as much as you do).

    The inane questions of BBC interviewers are, well just inane.

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  24. Mazen Kerbal portraitiste officiel de la maison blanche !!! Oh putain comme il me tarde de voir ça !!!!!!

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  25. I love 2006, www rules. Thank u for for the way u speak and show!!I wish u all the best and i hope for the day u show orangejuicemaking. But in meanwhile, show life

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  26. Dear Mazen,

    As a fellow musician I wanted to let you know that I wrote and recorded a song called "Red Mud" earlier this week, and that even though the "western" governments seem completely impotent in helping the Lebanese people, we are many here who are so sad and angry about the crimes Israel is committing. I sit here in England (I am Swedish) seeing little glimpses of the horror on my computer screen. I don't know anything I could say to ease the pain... Listen to my song if you want at myspace:

    http://www.myspace.com/fredkinbom

    "Red Mud", it's the one on the top.

    May peace come to you soon. Thank you for your artistic expression of what is going on down there.

    Sad greetings,

    Fred.

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  27. Mazen,

    Here are the lyrics to my song:

    "RED MUD"

    17" window to the war
    Its ugly face so clear
    Twisted shapes reach for the core
    Will they never get enough of this?

    Has the earth got such a thirst?
    And is the soil do dry?
    No, it doesn't matter who was first
    No one's claim is worth an ounce of this
    Red mud
    Enough of this

    To pull the plug would be easy
    For those who promised this land
    But for supply and demand

    And the earth prefers the rain
    To this shameful flood
    While something unspoilt still remains
    Let it flow instead of all this blood
    Enough, enough red mud.

    (c) F. Kinbom, 2006.

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  28. This site is one of the best I have ever seen, wish I had one like this.
    »

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  29. I dont know how i found ur blog. But i just want to say that i'd apreciated it so much. keep on with ur art. keep on living. i'll keep on praying for that mess to end.

    kisses

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