The Yacoubian Building Live and in Living Color

The Yacoubian Building Live and in Living Color

Finally, the film adaptation of Ala'a al-Aswany's smash-hit novel, The Yacoubian Building, has been released in Egypt. Based on an assortment of characters living in a gracefully crumbling apartment building in downtown Cairo, the film is a scathing indictment of Egypt's political and social fall from grace as well as a bittersweet tribute to a city loved by millions.

People have been flocking to the theaters here like I have never seen before - we barely managed to get tickets to a 7pm showing on a Wednesday. Hard to say what public reaction has been - while the English press has been laudatory (the film won several prizes at the Tribeca Film Festival this year), word is that public reaction in the Arabic media has been less than kind due to the scandalous nature of its subjects.

As far as I know, no release date has been set for the US, but it is well worth seeking out if and when it comes. In the meanwhile, NPR had an interesting piece on the film which you can find here.

Pittsburgh is Not the Pits

Pittsburgh is Not the Pits

Stop #3 on my whirlwind "vacation" (a word normally not synonymous with taking eight flights across three continents in the span of two weeks) in the states was glorious Pittsburgh, where Blake, had been visiting with his parents and getting more dental work done in two weeks than I've seen in 28 years.

Now, as someone who was born and raised in Chicago and worked and studied at various points in my life in Boston, New York and Paris, Pittsburgh has never exactly registered on my radar as a place I need to see before I die. But I have to say, the city really grew on me after a few days. You just have to ignore a lot of hideous crapitecture to see that it is a city with a whole lot of character and beautiful landscapes, from its bridges to its historic buildings to its surprisingly green, grassy parks. It reminded me of Chicago in a lot of ways - the various immigrant communities, the industrial feel, the artery-clogging food - and made me think that Pittsburgh could have become a mini Windy City if its industrial bottom hadn't fallen out.