Turns out that the video I posted yesterday features Oshri Cohen. (It’s written in the info with the clip but I wasn’t paying attention.) Oshri is an Israeli TV and movie star. I recently saw him in Beaufort. I’ll write more about that later…
In a sad post-script to my “Don’t Look” entry two days ago, I just learned that the ultra-popular Facebook site has caved in from the pressure of some Arab governments and banned a growing “GLBT Arab” group on the site. According to a Facebook administrator, “we received an official complaint from the Saudi government, the Egyptian government and other Arab governments that do not want to be mentioned”—and those countries threatened to block Facebook entirely if their demands weren’t met.
At the end of the day, capitalism trumped freedom of speech, as well as the right of GLBT individuals of all nationalities to build community - even in cyberspace.
Has Israel been blamed yet?
The other day I was complaining to a friend about my measurements. I don’t even know what mine are exactly but I am not happy about them. See, I have been searching craigslist M4M listings doing “research” for Mideast Piece. These guys all list their stats - height, weight, - and other, um, measurements. Anyway, I guess I was having a low self esteem day and was feeling down about my body. I am what you’d call a twink. I’ve got a “swimmers body” - but at 5′6″ (on a good day) combined with my boy-ish looks betray my very, very late twenties chronological age. It’s a good thing, I think.
I was sharing this with a friend of mine that I think is just HOT. In a super kind and gentle voice he said, “It’s not that your body is so small, it’s just that your head is so big.” He might not have said “so big” but rather “big” - but either way I felt like some kind of Cirque de Soleil freak puppet. I’ve searched the internet for head shrinking devices with no success at all. Damn, internets. So the only alternative is to make the other parts of my body bigger. Believe me, some parts need no enhancement however. I am sure that I’ll give this up in a few days because I have the discipline of a mutt puppy (although I don’t diddle on the floor anymore unless it’s that kind of party).
Speaking of big heads, Mideast Piece was recently featured in Haaretz. Haaretz is the New York Times of Israel. It doesn’t have the biggest readership, but it’s the most respected newspaper in Israel. You can read the article here. The print article had a super cute picture of me and my big head. I should have made them put my phone number in the paper too. Alas. I went to a party last night at the home of a correspondent for the BBC. Three people in this high brow crowd independently said that they saw my picture in the paper. I felt like a star and I even have the big head to prove it!
Our friend Simon in Bahrain recently wrote an entry called “a closet of my own” that I enjoyed:
Almost all homosexual beings have a dark closet where they had once hid themselves from the world, away from people and away from their true nature. I myself had hid behind such closet, well mine has the strobe lights, Madonna Music and Mirrors inside and a plush velvet chair for the long wait before I came out ehehhehee.
Most homosexual boys and homosexual girls realize that they are different from the rest around the time of 8 years old and above when the level of understanding of kids are developing, and from there, the understanding comes and eventually its either they stay in the closet or come out of it without fear and a heavy heart and just embrace the moment of freedom from the shackles of the unknown and just be wrapped up in love and self worth. Its breaking every gative aspect that the world had created to shame, destroy or belittle people who are homosexuals.
Read the rest here (April 28 entry).
Mideast Piece has been nominated for a Jewish and Israeli Blog Award (I guess b/c Matt’s Jewish and we blog from Israel.). I haven’t kept track with how those awards work because I really don’t care. But it’s nice to be recognized nonetheless. We received two highly-coveted nominations, one for “Best New Blog” and the other for “Best Left-Wing Political Blog.”
As far as I am concerned the 1000s of folks that visit this blog every week is proof that we’re doing something right. If you love Mideast Piece, what we’d really love for you to do is volunteer and link to us from your own website.
And of course, you can vote for us in the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards. We all know that winning is so much better than just being nominated, right?
Today we’re introducing Simon, a new Mideast Piece partner living in Bahrain originally from the Philipines. According to Simon, the show TV show “Ally McBeal” changed his life and set him on the road to post-closet life (am I the only one who stayed in the closet because of that show?). True to Ally form, Simon describes himself as “poetic, cynical, paranoid, psychotic, a dreamer, depressed, and a wishful thinker.”
From time to time we will run his content about life (including gay life) in Bahrain. For starters, I liked his friend’s insight on those first few minutes after waking up, published in an entry called “Reboot:”
Ever wonder why when you wake up in the morning you just can’t seem to talk… That you’re so silent for more than 10 minutes…. I have this arab acquaintance that gave a very stupid explanation.
” habibi (my friend) , the morning when you wake up then you no talk at all, thats your brain rebooting, just like computer la? (Yes?)”
Kindda makes sense but still stupid, its like reset but on a much complicated system, but come to think of it, wouldn’t it be great when you could just reboot when you’re having a breakdown, you know, delete some bad memories here and there, then defrag for faster performance.
hmmm
As you can see from our “In the News” section, Mideast Piece has received a fair share of media attention in recent weeks. To keep moving forward we are looking for volunteers to help drive traffic to our site and conduct Internet outreach.
(Note to our friends in the US - National Volunteer Week just ended, so if you feel guilty for not doing anything, this is your chance!)
There are a number of projects we have in mind, and any amount of time you are willing to donate is of tremendous help. Whether you’d like to help us as a one-shot deal for two hours next Saturday, or take hold of an ongoing project, we hope you will join us in working toward our mission.
Please contact us at mideastpiece[at]gmail[dot]com to let us know you’d like to help, and we will promptly reply with a list of projects for you to choose from, all of them Internet-based. For your help, you have our eternal gratitude and the satisfaction of knowing you helped “seed” the Net for a good cause!
All of Matt’s talk of Middle Eastern food reminded me to share with you about our feeds. You can syndicate Mideast Piece or add us to your feed reader so that you won’t miss a thing! If you have no idea what I am talking about, that’s ok. Just keep coming back!
Our Feeds:
RSS 2.0 Feed: http://www.mideastpiece.com/?feed=rss2
Today Mideast Piece scored another big media hit, a lengthy write-up on Israel21C, an organization focused on placing media stories about Israel “beyond the conflict.”
As the article explains, we’re not content to sit back as the hits role in; instead, we’re striving to build a grassroots movement of gay men throughout the region to work toward community-building, increased tolerance and - of course - peace.
Please help us in one of more of the following ways:
- Make a small donation to our cause
- Send our link to friends and contacts you think would be interested in our content
- Help us identify gay Arab bloggers to partner with, and GLBT content in general
- Write to us with publicity and community-building ideas at mideastpiece[at]gmail[dot]com
With your help, we will continue to grow and build support around the world.
We recently received this Email from a new Israeli fan. Please weigh in on what has become “The Great Piece Battle.” (Note: the piece pictured below is actor Yehuda Levi)
Hi Guys,
Love your blog which I just discovered today.
I was reading it together with my boyfriend who is American and wanted to know why you refer to guys as “Pieces” he thought it sounded derogatory. Like you see men as a “piece of meat” and not as humans.
I am a Hebrew speaker and I guess you are making a direct translation from the slang word “Hatih”. I explained it to him, but he still thought that calling a beautiful man a “Piece” has a demeaning connotation in English.
I love the concept of your blog and would hate to think you are not getting your message across because you are turning your readers off with words that may be perceived as sexist towards men..
Best wishes,
Eran
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