Cinema is one of those things you can always enjoy. There’s the stale-in-the-mouth popcorn that you wish you’d never bought, the seat with three or four pieces of chewing gum glued to the underside – reluctantly discovered by an overcurious hand, the floors imbibed with sodas spilled through the decades that you can peel your […]
Amman
One Man in Amman – Ghost Snows
I would have liked to write about snow for this article. That’s what I had been promised when I came to Jordan. It’s what I had planned for this article – the oddity of snow in the desert. The past few years have seen heavy snowfall in Amman, it has become the norm. Yet there […]
A music man in Amman: Souad Massi
Algerian chanteuse Souad Massi is not your average singer-songwriter from the Arab world. For one, her music seems uncommonly palatable to a western ear. This is by no means a result of her conscientiously distancing herself from the Arab music world. Her 2015 album, Al-Mutakallimun (“Masters of the World”), is an intriguing and refreshing examination […]
Sandstorms and the balcony bunch
Here, in Jordan, I’ve discovered a new hobby in the balcony. There is this indescribable feeling, found only when sitting on the grimy plastic of a weak-legged chair and surrounded by your housemates’ damp underwear left to dry under the Jordanian desert-sun. I like staring at the same bit of road below for hours on end. I […]
A music man in Amman: Mashrou’ Leila
Now stop me if I’m wrong, but the quaint cobbled streets of Exeter aren’t often graced with the strange blend of music that is Arab Pop. From the Old Firehouse to Cavern (and everything in between), you get to hear a lot of music if you keep your ear to the ground, but rarely will […]
One Man in Amman – Expats of Jordan
In just a few days, I leave for Jordan. So starts my year abroad. It’s kind of a big deal. I study Arabic here in Exeter. It’s a degree I am forever trying to explain, in a slurry kind of way in a quiet corner of a club over a double mixer with vodka, […]