Photos from Last Week

This is Tanya's house, the AUC professor who invited us all over for Thanksgiving.  Not only was it complete with turkey, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes - but it included ham!!! It was a great time.

Afterward, Mallory and I headed over to the ultra hip restraunt/club/lounge called Sequoia.  Even though we didn't have a reservation, they somehow let us in anyway.  It is the sort of place where ultra-trendy Egyptians like to 'see and be seen.'  We stayed for a couple hours, soaking up the ambience.

These are photos from the Unigunz video shoot on last tuesday.  Although Hakim's sunglasses are a bit much, I think the guys look rather good here.  I look forward to seeing the final product for the video in a few weeks.

Happy ThanksGiving Y'all !!!

My favorite holiday is here!  Unfortunately, it doesn't recieve any attention in Egypt, but today is on the brink of being great anyway.  My friends and I were planning on having a big bash of our own, but this has since been cancelled as a professor within the department of International Human Rights Law has offered an invitation to all IHRL students.  Although I'm within Forced Migration, and not Human Rights, I'm allowed to come too as all of my friends are human rights students.  Dinner is in a couple hours.  I'm excited!!!

I'm 27 and still have hair... for now.

My birthday was rather awesome.  I was tempted to throw a party, but that just isn't my style, so my original intentions were to just avoid any sort of celebration. However I acquiesced to the continual demands of freinds to do 'something - and am quite pleased to have done so. 

Throughout the day I recieved multiple emails from friends and family wishing a happy birthday, which ultimately made me feel quite fantastic to hear from so many people. 

Mallory baked a pumpkin pie cheeesecake (substituting sweet potato for pumpkin), and later that night a bunch of friends and I went out to the luxurious City Stars Mall to eat mexican food at On The Border - an American Tex-Mex chain.  I ate a massive burrito (my first in Eypt), and was given a really hip looking shirt from H&M by Nezia.  

The most crazy part is when the entire staff of the restuarant came out singing a crazy rendition of Happy Birthday with a candle situated in a giant mass of ice cream, positioned on top of a massive chocolate brownie.  The song was quite hilarious because it involved chanting "On The Border, O.T.B. Birthday," followed by "Happy Birthday Mitchell!"  This was just absurd because every time the staff of Egyptian waiters in a Mexican restaurant would yell "Mitchell!" it would come out differently.  Sometimes I was called "Missile," or other variations such as: Mishel, Micheal, Mitszle, Mizzchool, and Mish-chel.  Considering that arabic doesn't have the letter "P" it was a good thing they didn't need to pronounce my last name!

After eating mexican, we all wandered toward a Starbucks, did a little shopping, and investigated going to a movie - but at that point it was 11:30 at night and the next movie didn't play until 1 am.  The mall doesn't actually close until 1, but I was worn out and ready to go home. 

Overall it was a really good day, and I want to thank everyone that sent me a note in the last few days. 

I always enjoy hearing from family and friends back home, and I hope you all continue to write me in the future.  For now I'm going to jump into that massive, coma inducing, pumpkin pie, ahem -sweet potato, cheesecake.

The Life of Slim J

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I just returned home from Ain Shemz, where I brought my friend David to meet with Unigunz about recording a music video.  We are going to shoot it next tuesday.  Of course, I will need to finish the song with them on monday before we can make that happen.

I'm sure some of you are wondering about what this music project sounds like. I am therefore posting a small sample of the recordings.   I have been working very hard to write the music and record these tracks.  I leave it to the rappers to write their own lyrics, but I work with them to make sure the content of the song and the construction of the music is synonymous.  I also work hard to structure the composition to bring out the best in each rapper, and to create a meaningful experience for these guys so that the creative process is a tool for reflection, growth, and engagement. 

Please leave me comments on what you think of these songs.  The hard thing about writing music is that you never know how others will recieve the work.   I spend many many hours every week working with these guys and others to craft this project, so I am very interested in recieving any feedback. 

With the way things are going now, I expect the Unigunz album to be available on itunes in February.




The first is a sample of 'Africa Unite.'  Each guy in this track is from a different part of Africa, and all of them have been forced from their homelands by war and violence.  Consequently, this song is about their desire for people to quit dividing themselves over tribalism, and to simply embrace the good things they have available.



This other is a remix of The Life of Slim J.  The remix is very much my own aesthetic, as I'm not sure how many people appreciate discordant piano playing, but I think this song is just fantastic.  Jallo, the rapper, is in this song relocated to Cairo from Sierra Leone about 6 years ago.  He is now, within a matter of weeks, going to return home where his family has been recently reunited.  The first verse talks about his past in Sierra Leone, while the second the prospects of a hopeful future, and the third about his own need to reconcile these divergent experiences.

Paradigm Shifts

Yesterday was a rather fantastic day.  I had a class early in the morning on saturday, which had me out of bed to enjoy the warm weather and bright sunlight.  The crazy thing is that while coming back home, I was walking down the street and suddenly heard from nowhere "What?! Mitch Sipus!"   I looked up to see my former UC classmate Chris Coleeza emerging out the crowd!  He and I both studied international development planning at UC and I was quite surpised to see him, as he is presently in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia.  It turns out that he and his wife came to Cairo for a week vacation, and we just happened to cross paths about 3 hours after he arrived here.  The incredible thing is that I live within a city of 30 million people, so the stastical odds of he and I running into eachother is really beyond belief!

Otherwise I've been working hard writing beats and recording hip hop in the hood.  Writing some papers and looking into changing my situation here in Cairo.  I am now moving to a different apartment in a few weeks.   The best part is that I will be able to walk to school and the subway, so I won't need to take a taxi all the time like I now as living on an island in the Nile is nice, but it is sometimes quite frustrating. The apartment I will be moving to is located closer to school, and is sufficiently cheaper than my current place.  It is also significantly smaller, but I look forward to the change of pace.

I will make sure to post some music and photos in the next few days.  Later!
 

Ain Shemz

 just spent the last 8 hours doing hip-hop production in Ain Shemz.  I really like doing this sort of work, as it is very interdisciplinary and has great potential for the participants.  The gang members are very enthusiastic about the project.  The album production that I've been doing with Unigunz is really coming along.  I'm finding that making music is becoming rather therapeutic for some of the guys, and it is definitely becoming a means for self empowerment. 

I made a little sample of one of the songs in production, I'll have that up shortly.

Yes We Can!

Still warm with the Obama glow?  I know I am.  I've never felt so excited or optimistic about America!  It feels so good now, to be American, and to be in Cairo.  For the last 5 years that I've been going in and out of other countries, it was always such a difficult question when people would ask "where are you from."  Yet for the first time, I have little reason to hesitate.  

Everything is definately going wonderfully.  I feel healthy again, school has gotten a little more enjoyable, and the hardest parts of being here have in many ways subsided.  Most importantly, I feel that my involvment with the gangs is about to make a step forward.  Some of the guys have a show tomorrow night, and I've been spending a lot of time on the side trying to learn better music writing techniques.  Tonight we are going to start laying down some 'final' vocal tracks, and I expect to have a few polished songs recorded within the next few days.

As for the moment, I have a lot of reading to do for class tonight, so I'll catch up with y'all later.

The Greatest Weekend Ever?

Wow have I been sick!  I'm fine now, but last couple days were absolutely wretched. Somewhat comparable to India with the high fever, spasmadic shaking, constant runs to the bathroom, and the onslaught of totally bizarre vivid dreams.   Sounds like a fantastic time right!   Needless to say, I didn't go to Alexandria on the Fulbright trip.  Yesterday I was able get some cipro however and am now able to actually function again.  Too bad the internet is not working at my house again.  I can't write much at the moment as my International Refugee Law midterm is due tomorrow and thanks to the untimely delay, I'm just now getting started!