Thursday:
I drove home from San Antonio and met my dad at his work in Katy; from there we drove straight to the El Dorado Ballroom (during the trip I managed to get my dad into one of my favorite rap groups, Black Star) for the opening night of the Houston Palestinian Film Festival where we saw three amazing slam poetry performances; one was by a woman named Empress, the next was by a man whose name I've forgotten :( and the final, headlining performance was by an amazing poet named Suheir Hammad whom I later found out would be the lead actress in the headlining film of the festival. We were able to meet up with Suheir afterwards and talk. She is an amazing Brooklyn-born, Palesitnian poet and actress. Her thoughts are in the right place and, might I say, she is beautiful! More on that later...
Friday:
It was quite rainy that day, yet I still spent the day doing errands. I got my oil changed, my tires rotated, my amp fixed, and my dash panel radio repaired. And, on top of all that, I got my iPhone replaced and my mother bought me an amazing iPhone case!
Friday night would be the screening of Annemarie Jacir's amazing movie, Salt of This Sea, at the HPFF (which was held at Rice University). The movie was amazing, that's all I can say...Suheir gave an amazing performance, and Annemarie's script was beautifully written and shot. The film was Palestine's submission for Best Foreign Language Film. Why it didn't receive at least a nomination, I don't know. If you ever get the chance to see it, I strongly encourage you to do so. I'm sure it will eventually make it to DVD, so you have no excuse for not seeing it!
After the movie was over, there was a reception in the adjacent room; Friday evening, the picture I took with Suheir was less than stellar...so I had been hoping to get a better picture with her the following evening. When I finally made my way over to find her, I swear to you she remembered my name! She told me I better have a good excuse for saying that the picture didn't turn out so well, and then after we took the picture she told me I looked cute :)
Friday evening, my crush on Suheir was reinforced and I found a new Love: Common's album "Electric Circus." I'm still jammin' it this week, it's just so abstract and eccentric. I love the sound.
Saturday was a boring day of studying, but Saturday evening was nice because Zach came and surprised me with his friends Matt and James. Also, Jill came and hung out with us at Zach's place. It was great to see my best friend Zach :)
Sunday, Sunday was another positive day. I worked on homework for most of the day, and visited my friend Khaled's family with my family in the evening. Khaled wasn't there, but I got to hang out with Khaled's sisters Jawaher and Summer, they are awesome!
Monday, as I drove back to San Antonio, I received a text from Jill saying that her brother's project (which I directed) had been a huge success! His group received one of the few 100s, and apparently his teacher cried (I'm guessing out of laughter?) when watching the movie.
Thanks for reading :)
Peace and Love,
Sama'an
