ETERNAL EGYPT

Beginning today, The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto has an exhibition of masterworks of ancient art from the British Museum.

Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from The British Museum, February 28, 2004 until June 6, 2004


Check out some of the programs being held on the exhibition.

Or take a virtual tour.

I'll be in Toronto in a few weeks. Perfect. :)

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

Although this article doesn't relate to Egypt directly, the commentary by Nahid Mozaffari, a scholar and editor specializing in literature from Iran, called the implications staggering. "A story, a poem, an article on history, archaeology, linguistics, engineering, physics, mathematics, or any other area of knowledge cannot be translated, and even if submitted in English, cannot be edited in the U.S.," she said.

"This means that the publication of the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Persian Literature that I have been editing for the last three years," she said, "would constitute aiding and abetting the enemy."

(from the article mentioned above.)

This really bothers me as a writer and as a librarian. I mean really. So the government considers the "service" of editing or translation as breaking trade embargos...

This and The US Patriot Act could be construed by some as continual chipping away at the tenets of intellectual freedom in the US.

Naguib Mahfouz

Nice background article on this Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author here.

And many more links to information and resources here.

I am intrigued of course. He was born the same year as my grandmother. She is a fellow lover of the word.

DOWNLOADING

I tried to listen to some music at Mazika this afternoon, and it was a somewhat frustrating experience. It is called "dial-up."

Every three seconds or so, the song I wanted to listen to would cut out for another 2 or 3 seconds. So I heard the pulsating percussive intro, then nothing. Swell of strings and lighter drumbeat, then nothing. And this continued until I got frustrated.

The funny thing was, even when I closed that window, I could still hear the music playing and cutting out in my headphones.

Apparently I will need to put my librarian research skills to better use in finding actual hard copies of the Egyptian and Arabic singers music that I want to hear.

VALENTINE'S DAY ARTICLE...OR MAYBE NOT

Azmi Bishara has a few words to say about Valentine's Day...I really appreciated this article. Not only does Bishara make important points about the globalization of holidays in general...but the article also makes a great statement about so-called "free press" Al-Hurra.

Good food for thought people.

CSO

The Cairo Symphony Orchestra is presenting Mozart Mass in C-Major this March.

The A Cappella Choir will be performing with them for this piece. The equivalent of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus (of which I am a member). Independent choral partner of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO).

The BPO is putting on Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, “Eroica” this March, among other things.

EGYPT BLOG

Ah ha...found an Egyptian Blog here.

Loads of current headlines..this one is courtesy of cairolive.com.

SMUGGLED ARTIFACTS

Big article in the NYTimes about the path out of Egypt of a particular smuggled artifact, called a stele.