Author: Chitra Kalyani

Few events do justice to a venue as awe-inspiring as the Pyramids of Giza. Yet, two historic wonders were met when Mustafa Erdogan and his dance group Fire of Anatolia had the 3,000-year old story of “Troy regaled at the foot of the Egyptian monuments.

“More important than Madison Square Garden or Chicago Theater, director Erdogan called the setting in Cairo “the most important part of the world for him. The Fire of Anatolia is the holder of two Guinness Records, among them the fastest dance performance for 241 steps per minute, and another for hosting the largest audience comprising of 400,000 people in Eregli, in Turkey’s Black Sea region. Erdogan conducted folk dance studies at Bilkent University where the idea of his first group Sultans of Dreams was born in 1999. The troupe, consisting of 90 dancers, grew to 120 members and was renamed Fire of Anatolia. The main concept behind the project was to present Anatolian dances, mixed with modern dance and ballet. Echoing Erdogan s thoughts on the venue, choreographer Emre Çelik told Daily News Egypt, “It’s magical, mythological, fantastic. The same could be said for the onstage adaptation of the Homeric tale. “Troy, said the director, originated in Anatolia, the region that is now largely comprised of modern-day Turkey. Homer himself was an Anatolian poet. Based on Homer’s “Iliad, the story of “Troy recounts the tragedy that befalls the land as it enters into battle despite the warnings of the seer, Cassandra. Hector, prince of Troy, defends his brother Paris, who has brought home the beautiful Helen, and death and destruction in their tail. The screen where the script is projected was largely invisible except to LE 300-seaters, making it difficult to follow the story. But the visual delights – when we got used to the light stands going across our view – were sufficient to hold audience’s interest. Ninety dancers in multi-colored regalia produced alternating moods of war and festivity in a mix of ballet, folk and modern dance traditions. An army of varied plumage is gathered from the different parts of Anatolia to defend Troy against the advances of the Aegean army. The unmoving Sphinx overhead set off the dancers leaping and swiveling with energy as they proudly marched to war. The women warriors with sturdy thighs also carried the same warlike enthusiasm. On the other hand, in color and festivity, dancers undulated their bodies, demonstrating their mastery of belly-dancing. “In general, it was very difficult to produce this scale of a show, said the director, “because it’s a historical story with lots of characters. The swords, Çelik told Daily News Egypt, are real. Producing the war using authentic swords, metal, and accessories was among the most challenging parts, said Erdogan. Two-and-a-half thousand kilograms worth of material comprising the set, costumes, and accessories was brought to Cairo, after being shipped to Alexandria. It will take the same route back to Turkey, said Çelik. Light was craftily used to silhouette moments against the background, or to heighten the ambience – especially in the eerie moments of Cassandra’s foretelling, and the zar-like funeral procession given to Hector. The Trojan horse revealed at the end of the stage crowned the production, as the audience wondered where the wily Greeks were hidden in the eight-meter structure. The story ended on a note of Anatolian victory, as Paris avenged Hector’s death by slaying Achilles. Anatolia, or “the land where the sun rises, is also the place where stories began, and from where the stories will be told, over and over again. “We are repossessing one of the most important mythological stories of the world, said Erdogan. “It’s a classical story. “We always listen to the story which was interpreted by the West. Now we say, “This story actually belongs to the Anatolian people. So it is our time to talk, and with our language, we are interpreting Troy again. “Troy will continue at the Sound & Light venue at the Pyramids until April 16. Ticket prices are LE 200, 250, 300 and 400. Ticketing office: 2739 0114. For more information on “Troy visit http://www.troiadance.com/. For more information on the dance group visit http://www.fireofanatolia.com/.

The stalls on your right – once gift shops bearing copies of famous Egyptian paintings – would probably go unnoticed on the walk up to the Manesterly Palace gate located at the southern tip of Al-Rodha Island in Cairo.

On Thursday night, the storage space outside, now the Um Kolthoum Museum, was transformed into a walk-through cinema featuring 11 short animated films participating in an art project titled “Roto.

Using “rotoscoping, an animation technique where artists trace and manipulate live-action film images frame-by-frame, the artists used scenes from late Egyptian director Youssef Chahine’s classic film “Al-Ikhtiyar (The Choice, 1972) as their primary material.

Half of the 11 participants had never made a video before. The project began in December last year with workshops given by curators Nagla Samir and Ahmed Foula.

Participants were introduced to rotoscoping through video screenings following discussions of the technique.

Screenings included Beatles’ music videos such as “Yellow Submarine and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – the latter inspired Sherine Baroudy’s colorful production “At Lunch.

Movies such as “A Scanner Darkly by rotoscoping pioneer Richard Linklater and “The Five Obstructions by Lars Von Trier and Jørgen Leth were also screened.

When it came to choosing primary material, Chahine’s film “fit all the criteria, curator Ahmed Foula told Daily News Egypt.

“A common reference for all participants, Chahine’s film, co-scripted by Naguib Mahfouz, was also “a rich visual movie with a lot of actors, a lot of locations, and with the story we can deconstruct.

Featuring an avant-garde style and themes pertaining to philosophical and political themes regarding choice, sexuality and love, the film criticizes the gulf between the thoughts and the actions of Egyptian intellectuals.

Once the film was chosen, participants worked with filmmaker Sherif Azma to analyze its elements and “gaze at the process of filmmaking said Foula.

“Then we put film away and got Sherine [Al-Ansari], said Foula.

Al-Ansari, a story-teller whose work is rooted in oral tradition, worked with the group, starting with simple movement exercises.

Each week built on simple exercises with each participant building on or reacting to the “performance of the one before.

Foula said the final product was not the focus, “It’s not what the 11th person does; it’s how they build the story; it’s the movement. It’s not tracing . and collecting the cadre.

Each movement now became significant and important, so that a film, a collection of 70,000 photos, became a rich source of information.

“Making a first move, getting rid of all the other photos, said Foula, was the hardest part. “Because the film is very rich, it’s hard to deconstruct.

Some like Baroudy, director of “At Lunch, knew what final product they wanted to use, and were determined to follow through.

Participants then went into production where “they cooperated with each other to fill the gap in the other one, said Foula.

“Some of them had technique, some of them had software, some of them were good in voiceover, and had sound equipment. The eventual product was, as with Ansari’s exercise, a product of skills built upon layers of others skills.

Movies then underwent a feedback stage, where 30-second animations were viewed by guests and friends.

Foula appears proud of his participants; he mentions the punctuality and curiosity of Amr Thabit, the determination of Sherine Baroudy, and the poetry in Ahmed Sabry’s work.

Thabit, a commerce student, appeared hesitant about his choice of video. After many revisions, he finally produced his first video “Platform, a “film about the forbidden desires in which a female figure holding a balloon walks along a platform.

As a painter, Baroudy was able to bring colors into her work, and knew from the very start what her product would look like.

Sabry’s “By the River and the film it was paired with – Mohamed Abdelkarim’s “Erotic Product – were perhaps the most daring thematically.

“You can hear sound somehow without hearing sound in this film especially. The figure of a woman in the original picture is at various points in the rotoscoping version, clad with a burqa.

Guards at the Manesterly helped Foula paint the walls the night before from its original olive to white for projection purposes.

At the odd hour of 4 am when all is silent along the Nile, “you can’t see this fake layer of ‘Why you do this?’ said Foula. “When you see [the movie] in silence you can see the poetry in it. Even if you’re not from the artsy-fartsy community.

As for “Erotic Product by Abdelkarim, Foula explained to the guards that the director wanted people to think about censorship by overturning the norm. Thus the black stripes framing, rather than censoring or covering, the breasts. “Erotic stood also as the opposite of “River, where a veiled woman is unveiled.

Although they seemed to appreciate the explanation, the guards thought it was just so much “takhareef (silliness). It’s just oh-so-cliché in cinema to focus on Souad Hosni’s breasts.

The “Roto exhibition will continue at the Manesterly Palace, 1 Al-Malek El-Salah St., Al-Rodha until Thursday, April 9. Tel: 3338 9720.

When the US ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey says a band has a “nice mojo, you better take her word for it.

When blues artist Billy Gibson repeatedly sang “I like my mojo, pushing Scobey throughout the evening to dance, the American ambassador finally relented with the compliment at the evening’s finale.

A collection of blues award nominees from Memphis were presented last Friday at the packed open-air theater at the Cairo Opera House under the umbrella of “Bluzapalooza III.

“I choreograph them so that the energy keeps building, said producer Steve Simon, who sported a maroon suit with a diamond-studded “BLUES lapel-pin.

Simon, who also performed on the clarinet, told Daily News Egypt that the line-up intended to “honor the fact that [ambassador Scobey] was born and raised in Memphis.

Presented by the Armed Forces Entertainment, an agency of the American Defense Department that provides entertainment to overseas US military personnel, the performance was customized to the taste of the self-confessed “bluesaholic ambassador to Egypt.

“Blues began in the Mississippi Delta as an American form of music, the ambassador said, “but derives from the religious and spiritual music of Africa. Memphis, Tennessee, and Beale Street especially, remains a center for the blues.

Hitting the right notes from the get-go, the band Delta Highway set the vibe for an energetic evening.

Opening with a bang, upbeat numbers and wah-wah harmonica and guitar, the four-piece band performed songs like “The Devil Had a Woman (That Looked a Lot Like You) and “23 Hours, to the beat of Keven Eddy’s drums.

Delivered with the deep toned harmonica and vocals of Brandon Santini, alongside the skillful guitar solos of Justin Sulek – the two original founders of the band, Delta Highway also featured a mean-looking, chapeau-toting bassist Paul Chase who kept tempo with the smooth side-to-side motion of his head.

“The songs are all formatted, but solos are all improv, Sulek told Daily News Egypt. “Depending on what kind of crowd you have, what kind of feeling you get, you do different things. So tonight was a good one.

“If you enjoy it, said Sulek, who has played the guitar for an umpteen number of years, performing on your instrument is “pretty much vacation.

Eden Brent then struck down on her piano, the expressions on her face showing puzzlement then delight as she improvised on both her music and her lyrics. Her boogie-woogie number thus became a dedication to her teacher – “I’m crazy about Bugaloo Ames, she said – while the Nile River ran through another song lyric.

While “Fried Chicken brought home the “most delightful, quite exciteful, very inviteful food, her sing-along Ray Charles’ number was not much success, and the audience didn’t have much to return to her “What do you say? call.

Harmonica artist Billy Gibson was the incontestable show-stealer, pumping an upbeat, staccato and fast-paced harmonica and singing naughtily and earnestly into the microphone.

Known as the “Prince of Beale Street, the street where blues is said to be born, Gibson said he thinks it was the harmonica that chose him.

The Beale Street Entertainer of the Year, who has been “carrying the harmonica around since he was eight, said he carried it with “no expectations, no weight. It was just fun. I just enjoyed playing. And then I’ve just been playing ever since.

“To be able to come all this way, and share music “is wonderful, but that is where the work comes in. “The work is not in the performance, not in the playing. One of the larger challenges was travel.

“What people see at the concert is just the result of a lot of people coming together to make something great happen. This is the work, he says, pointing at people moving equipment.

“I thought there was a lot of joy in the room, said Gibson about the revelry that broke out as the audience willingly danced and sang along to “Why Don’t You Love Everybody? or the repeated “I like my mojo.

“Most of the time I kind of get lost, said Gibson about his best moments, “The best times are just when I let myself go.

“The music fills me, fills the house, fills everybody else, he said, noting reverberation of enthusiasm as young and old danced uninhibitedly.

“I felt so much joy and energy. I got fired up. Then the band got fired up. And then, said Gibson, “the house was on fire.

But then Beale Street and Memphis Bluesapalooza blues could – and did – really set the Nile on fire.

There’s always a key to unlocking a character, celebrated British cartoonist Steve Bell said.

Margaret Thatcher’s “mad left eye, for instance, was Bell’s key to depicting the former British prime minister. “I unlocked it, says the bushy bearded Bell, whose work is published at The Guardian UK under the title “If .

A freelance cartoonist since 1971, the award-winning Bell was listed by The Observer among the 50 funniest acts in UK alongside famous comedians such as The Office’s Ricky Gervais and Mr Bean’s Rowan Atkinson.

An evidently exhausted Bell spoke to Daily News Egypt last Friday following his trips to Jordan and Palestine, where he toured with the “Lighting Lamps exhibition and conducted workshops with local cartoonists.

Sponsored by the British Council, the “Lighting Lamps, which showcases the works of some of the leading cartoonists in the Arab world, opened at Cairo’s Journalists’ Syndicate on Saturday.

Thanking the British Council and the syndicate for the project, Bell made his stance clear while responding to audience queries.

Asked why Palestinian caricaturist Naji El-Ali, killed for his political cartoons in 1987, was not honored at the exhibition, Bell said, “Because the British Council is the British Council, said Bell, “it’s not going to make a political statement.

“The British government is funding their agenda, but it’s not my agenda, said Bell.

Funny Politicians

It is no surprise that the cartoonist known for lampooning British politicians would say so. “Politicians are funny, said Bell.

“It’s strange these little details that you pick up, he said, recounting many years of having sketched Thatcher, even before she came into office.

“It takes a while to establish the character, to get to grips with the character, and that [mad left eye] was my key to her. Tony Blair seems to inherit the trait, Bell said, and his caricatures testify the same.

His caricature of John Major sporting underpants over his clothes depicts him as a “useless Superman.

“When you draw a cartoon, it’s never entirely finished until you see it on the page, said Bell, adding that cartoons did work in an interactive context. “It’s not a particularly hard and fast rule. You test things out.

“Most of the times, you try something and nothing happens, Bell says about the creative process. But sometimes, you strike gold, as when Bell stumbled upon the simian Bush.

In a cartoon about Bush’s election, titled “Bigtime for Bonzo (inspired by the 50s’ film comedy “Bedtime for Bonzo starring Ronald Reagan), Bell portrayed him as Reagan’s chimp. “The moment I drew it, I knew I was on to something, said Bell holding an invisible key in his hands.

Receiving the British Press Gazette award for Best Cartoonist in 2004, Bell famously thanked Bush “for looking like a monkey, walking like a monkey, and talking like a monkey.

Bell’s “Apes of Wrath carries cartoons portraying the former US president as a chimp in a bomber jacket with a Darth Vader obsession.

Not surprisingly, the cartoonist rated Bush as the most fun to draw, although not as fun to live with. “It’s a bit unfair to chimps, said Bell about the comparison, “because chimps aren’t that stupid.

Prominent local cartoonist Gomaa Farahat, seated next to Bell, said cartoonists worldwide “share the same soul. In keeping with Egyptian timing, said Farahat, they “paint at the very last moment.

Bell, whose strips at The Guardian have been republished in a series of “If paperbacks, e-mails his strip last-minute from his house in Brighton.

Bell upped this as good practice, “because if you give it early, they’ll have the time to find something wrong with it. And they always will.

On the journalism front

“The fundamental principal of journalism is to tell the truth, Bell told the audience. Bell who says he faces little censorship, said “cartoons do it in a way that journalism can’t.

“Strip cartoon is never going to go away, he said, noting the current growing interest in graphic novels. Bell believes the same is true of newspapers, “There’s an important element of touch about it.

Bell said the profession of a cartoonist – unfortunately one that doesn’t come with a “cartoonist wanted sign – was one that required the development of two key ingredients: knowledge and attitude.

“It’s a way of arguing really, Bell told Daily News Egypt, “because you can’t really do this job unless you’ve got some views you’ve got to express.

“It’s also fun, he added.

“There’s nothing political in here, he said, revealing a notebook with a collection of color drawings. “When you’re drawing cartoons day in, day out, you’re dragging it out of yourself. Sometimes it’s nice to put it back in.

Responding to a request for tips from a female Egyptian cartoonist, Bell suggested firstly to keep drawing. “Above that, said Bell, “is to enjoy what you do.

“Keep the search, said Bell, “keep an appetite, a lust for the truth.

Follow Steve Bell at http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/stevebell. Catch the “Lighting Lamps on exhibit at Zamalek’s Sawy Culture Wheel till April 10, and then at Agouza’s British Council on April 15-30. For more information on the exhibit, visit http://www.britishcouncil.org/egypt-society-media-programme-lamps.htm.

Adam Miller croons into the microphone at the Imperial Boat in Zamalek on Saturday, punctuating phases in jazz history with chosen songs. The audience – a modest group of guitarists, jazz and music enthusiasts – is in turn moved and entertained by the depth and variety offered at the workshop.

Part of the four-day jazz festival that kicked off last Friday at the Sawy Culture Wheel, Miller’s presentation punctuated the long history jazz carries with songs. Festival organizer Amro Salah said the event was meant to bring jazz to the masses. And judging by the numbers that showed up, a mass event it was indeed.

“Jazz is a cultural phenomenon. It doesn’t exist in a bubble. It’s an expression of how we feel, said Miller, revealing how influences of rock-and-roll, funk and soul were all eventually incorporated into contemporary jazz.

As for its oriental expression, bassist Samer George says, “Try it if you like it. If you don’t like it; don’t try to classify it, just buy another CD.

Intelligently organized to pull crowds with popular local bands, the event also introduced the masses to international bands in each day’s line-up. Egypt’s popular swing outfit Riff Band performed on the first day, before the sassy, sexy Thomas Motter and the Moon Base took center stage.

Hailing from Germany, the funk/electronic/fusion band had crowds uninhibitedly dancing to their whim as the Cameroonian Menoosha Susungi talk-sang to the audience and had them perform a hip-grooving dance with her, while guitarist Danny Martinez-Labana had them sing along to the groovy lyrics of “Balialo Mulata. Many gathered around the stage, turning the riverside hall into a music ghetto.

At the other venue of the fest, the Cairo Jazz Club, the band got wilder with numbers such as “Do Me like a Lion, complimented by the animated performance of the elfin Turkish vocalist Fatma Tazegul.

Among the other activities organized by the festival was a vocals and guitar workshop on Imperial. Registrants received the workshop for free, mostly hearing about it through Facebook advertisements, where the event logo sported a pharaoh with a sax.

Egyptian jazz pioneer Yehia Khalil was given a lifetime achievement award on the opening day. The first session of the fest was dedicated to musician Salah Bahgat.

The Latin sounds of Cocoon enchanted the audience on Saturday, followed by a flute performance by Grammy-award winning Bulgarian musician Theodossi Spassova.

Line-ups also included Grammy award winner Fathy Salama. The concert featured a ney (flute) player that “took too much money, said Salama to the crowd’s amusement.

Alongside the event comes the creation of a “Jazz Society of Egypt, again free and open to all, with an intention of preserving the genre and attracting more audiences.

“Jazz is building itself from simple things, Rashad Faheem said in the “Piano Clinic workshop, limiting himself to playing only white notes on the piano. Slowly, he introduced one black key after another, and then suddenly white and black were jazzed up together.

Perhaps the most technical understanding of jazz was offered by bassist and engineering student Shaheer Sherif.

“Jazz is the evolution of blues, says Sherif, “if you add two notes (one flat or one sharp) to the (minor) pentatonic scale, it becomes the blues scale.

Oriental music, in Sherif’s opinion, is characterized by the use of the quarter of a note, (and sometimes eighth of a note) that instruments like the ney, qanun (stringed-instrument like a zither), or oud (lute) produce.

Jazz represents a freedom beset by boundaries, originating slave songs in the paddies with a mock-play on Western instruments, to breaking out of classical conventions by adding dissonant notes that create euphonic melodies.

“Jazz happens in the moment and it’s different every time, said Miller, echoing a sentiment that jazz musicians frequently ascribe to their form.

With moments varying from the almost smart experimental jazz of Salama, the gypsy forms of Spassov, to the raunchy Thomas Motter, and the perhaps anachronistic innocence of vocals of Riff Band and Adam Miller, jazz had many a moment at the festival. Closing with Eftikasat and the ever-popular Wust El-Balad, the event could not have hoped for a better assembly. And it is only the first year.

With many freebies and crowd-pullers booming under the bridge, the event did far more than deliver musical moments to the ripples on the Nile.

By the shores of Lake Qarun in Fayoum, a bus full of artists, journalists, and fans arrived from Cairo to attend the opening of Egypt and the Arab World’s first Caricature Museum.

Painter Mohamed Abla’s old dream of establishing this museum, which he started to put into action earlier this year, finally materialized on schedule on March 1.

Abla is a long-time collector of caricatures. The sketches that adorned the museum – comprising a collection of clay huts – come from his private collection of over 300 pieces of acquisitions in addition to donations from writers, caricaturists and their families.

From the early works of Saeed Rifky and Santis to contemporary artists including Doaa El-Adl, the museum serves as a sanctuary for the often-overlooked art of caricature.

Notable caricaturists, including George Bahgoury, Gomaa Farahat and Taha Hussein, were present among others to inaugurate the museum which is dedicated to the spirit of artist Zohdi El-Adawi, who was among the first to have envisioned its creation.

“It is an honor to have them here, said Abla, noting that their presence proved that the idea was attractive to the artists, and also inspired him to work harder to develop it.

Abla noted that the museum was the first of its kind in the entire Arab world. “Because it is new and it is unique, it has a lot of power.

Fayoum Governor Dr Galal M. Said later arrived, after the ceremonies had taken place and was given a tour of the museum.

“A museum is a kind of school, said Abla. He calls it a place “that opens the mind.

“With a museum you’re opening ideas, opening avenues for participation, said the painter.

No doubt the open air of Fayoum serves as an ideal location. “It’s quiet, it’s beautiful, and I have enough space, says Abla, “It’s my space and I don’t rent, I don’t pay.

Abla founded the Fayoum Arts Center in December 2006 to form “an oasis of creativity and a meeting point for dialogue between artists.

“My hope is to have a museum with digital archives, says Abla, “That’s the only thing which if I reach I will be successful.

The prominence of caricature in Egyptian life “is so neglected, says Abla, noting that the museum is only one attempt to give it its due acknowledgment.

Cartoonists express the complications of Egyptian life in the characteristic Egyptian satire, says Abla. They are “following problems and conflicts day by day.

Musing upon their daily documentation of political and social life, Abla said, “Yes, they are journalists.

The museum catalog states the purpose and the importance of the art of caricature: “In order to understand [Egyptians’] reactions, outer appearance, interests and relationship with the outside world, there cannot be a more truthful depiction than the one found in Egyptian satire.

One of Abla’s personal favorites is a sketch drawn by esteemed artist Makhlouf who depicts a child saluting an Egyptian flag with an old eagle and a younger one on it, instead of the customary eagle.

“And this is saying a lot, says Abla.

The painter admires the fact that cartoonists are “working hard to express their opinion everyday. This daily active participation in civic life is “something which I cannot do, says Abla, adding “I appreciate what they’re doing.

Remarking on works of cartoonists like Hassan Hakim, Amr Selim, Samir Abdel Ghani, and Salah Jahin, Abla said “When I look at their work, I get a lot of ideas.

Abla also announced the George Bahgoury Award for Caricature, entries for which would be welcomed by May. Like Bahgoury, the award is meant to inspire artists to sketch “the soul of a person.

Present caricaturists were invited to sign a large white board at the entry of the museum.

Cartoons have been an instrument for change and recognizing their place marks a milestone in Egypt, according to Mohamed Effat Ismail, freelance cartoonist and president of the Federation of Cartoonists Organization of Egypt.

Ismail considers the founding of the museum to be the first actual revolution since 1952 “because we need it the most.

Saeed Badawi, who has worked with Al-Ahram for 37 years and is also a caricaturist, was elated and said it seemed that “all the artists were dreaming of such a home.

“It came true, said a grateful Badawi.

For more information visit http://www.ablamuseum.com/

As they continue marching steadily against the flow, the Alexandria-based band Massar Egbari knows how to take you with them.

The progressive rock group derives its name from the road sign (Massar Egbari means compulsory detour), mocking Egyptian society’s conforming rules that force the average citizen to stray from his/her own purposes and follow the norms.

By enterprising in music, Massar have “created their own compulsory detour, drummer Tamer “Toussy Atallah told Daily News Egypt.

Members of Massar first met as part of Nabil El-Bakly’s band, El-Hobb Was-Salaam (Love and Peace). Massar Egbari spun off six years ago, when Bakli passed away.

Both the band and its members have scooped many awards in their tours between Italy, Malta, Turkey and Egypt. In 2006, they won the Best Band Performing Original Songs award in Arabic at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s (Bib Alex) first International Occidental Music Competition.

Massar also won the Special Award in two consecutive years at the Other Songs Contest organized by Euromed Café in 2005 and 2006 for the songs “Kol El-Khal and “Taam El-Beyout (Taste of Houses), respectively.

While the subject of love is not their main concern, playing last week at Sawy Culture Wheel’s Wisdom Hall, the six-member band accorded Valentine’s eve with two numbers.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Hany El-Dakkak’s mellow voice crooned Sayed Darwish’s “Ana Haweet (When I Fell) and their original “Reihtik Ma’aya (Your Scent Stays with Me).

These aren’t your regular fare of “commercial love songs, says Toussy. Massar’s music, on the other hand, is new and groundbreaking. Yet it manages to touch a chord few others do.

“Everyone has their own tempo, says Toussy, speaking the language of his instrument, “to catch people, you have to make a parallel with their tempo.

Sure enough, even with more complex rhythms, Massar had the audience enraptured beat for beat, clapping along or swaying, complementing the music.

Seated at the front row at Sawy, Macedonian Ambassador Verka Mitanoska was one of the many audience members cheering for the band.

Massar members had participated in Seven Gates Music Workshop in Skopje, Macedonia, along with musicians from Bosnia, Herzegovina, Turkey and Italy. The collaboration will continue, it is hoped, in next April’s World Music Festival in Alexandria, with a workshop and visiting artists from Macedonia.

Being “in tune is how bassist Ahmed Hafez describes the congruence between audience and musicians.

The songs and their themes are familiar. “Ghammad Eineek (Close Your Eyes) is a philosophical contemplation from late Egyptian contemporary poet Salah Jahin’s famous “Rubaiyat (Quatrains).

Many of Massar’s covers of Darwish’s speak of ordinary life. Their finale swing number “E’era El-Khabar (Read the News), for example, paints an image of a group of employees talking to themselves. The jaunty music gives a taste of the regular, timed, but fast-paced life.

Momentarily dipping into a slow tempo, the song then escalates into frenzy. The audience drives the song along with their clapping which, too, escalates into applause.

“You try to make a mélange between their way of life – their tempo – and pure music, said Toussy about the audience, “We have to entertain them.

Massar credits the likes of Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, and Pink Floyd among their influences. Locally, they hark back to Sayed Darwish, Fairouz, and Ziad Rahbani for inspiration.

When it comes to love songs, “we are not convinced by anything but [Mohamed] Mounir, said Hafez, referring to the esteemed Egyptian singer. Yet the band does enjoy Cairo’s Wust El-Balad and Eftekesat, and jams with other bands in Alexandria.

Many of Massar’s works are collaborative. “Ta’am El-Beyout, which continues to be one of the most popular songs at the Euromed café website, was made with French musicians.

In fact the band has its own studio. Set up in 2004 for private rehearsals, the Hi Hat Studio soon found itself jamming with local and visiting bands.

“Then we realized that we are the best jamming space in Alex, said keyboardist Ayman Massoud, “maybe because the place is good, and we are musicians used to helping younger musicians.

Hi Hat has also conducted workshops, including sound engineering with a Swedish engineer, and music production and management with an Australian partner.

Despite the large following they amassed over the years, the band members also have more traditional jobs, and a few work at Bibliotheca.

There is a wide-spread expectation in Egypt that the concept of a band is to play “baladi music for people to dance, claims the drummer. But the road is far too beaten for the revolutionary likes of Massar, who want to make a “difference with what you play.

Toussy is positive. “You can change things with music, adding that like anything in life, music and artists influence people.

“Think about yourself, he says. “You are influenced by artists. Music is like anything in life. You can find your own tempo, your melody. Catch Massar Egbari at the SOS Festival at Bib Alex on February 21, at 8 pm. For more information, visit http://www.myspace.com/massaregbari.

Writing is hard work, acclaimed British writer James Meek assures me.

A journalist of 20 years, and a writer with two short story collections and four novels to his credit, Meek has won awards in both journalism and literature. That’s why it’s hard to buy that a writer of his caliber would struggle with words, but he would beg to differ.

Presented as an “occasional journalist at the literary café at Cairo’s 41st International Book Fair, the British writer has covered several events and wars, including the war in Iraq, the Chechen conflict, Guantanamo Bay prison camp practices and tax-evasion by wealthy individuals in the United Kingdom. Meek was also on staff in The Guardian until 2005.

“I always wanted to be a writer, Meek told Khaled Alkhamissi, Egyptian author of “Taxi at the discussion. “I knew if I wanted to be a writer, I had to get a typewriter.

Thus, 12-year-old Meek struck a bargain with his mother, “I would wash a window every week for three months, if I got a typewriter.

While he may not have kept his end of the bargain, by the age of 17, Meek had made good use of the typewriter and sent out his first novel, written from his home in Dundee, Scotland, about Afghanistan, to several publishers.

“Thank goodness they rejected it, said Meek about his first oeuvre, “It was very bad.

Last year, he won the Prince Maurice prize for his latest novel “We Are Now Beginning Our Descent.

Being published is a thrill, Meek says. He describes the excitement of receiving the box of books with one’s name, of seeing his books on a bookshelf. “But it is not everything, he asserts.

Waiting for the next book to be published is even arduous than the first. “It begins as hope. Then, it becomes stubbornness, until eventually Meek found he “became a mad writer that won’t give up.

“Descent found Meek writing about the country he imagined from his typewriter in Dundee.

Arriving in Afghanistan to research his novel was like being in medieval Europe. Not simply due to the architecture, or ordinary tools, or absence of literature, Meek said. “It was just people’s faces; the way people look at you makes you think people can write their own religion in ice.

“Like this, he says, chiseling his palm.

Like most ordinary westerns arriving in a third-world nation for the first time, Meek was initially seeking the “exotic and exciting. He found that in the subsequent stage in his travels he saw “deeper patterns in human behavior; the same patterns of struggle and honesty, generosity and corruption.

The final stage is the journey back, says the author who now lives in London, when you realize “how little you know of your own country, of how complex the everyday life actually is.

“I think that Britain is very strange and exotic, he says in a humor becoming signature, “more than Egypt. You’re very normal here.

While journalistic pursuits have driven him to many a shore – Meek refers to war as God’s way of teaching America geography – his novels are not about places.

His novel “The People’s Act of Love is a tome on people, Meek insists, not on Russia. Winner of the Ondaatje Prize and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award, “Love was also long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

“Why 1919? Alkhamissi asked him in the café, “Why Siberia?

The simple questions lay open a very interesting answer.

“Three amazing situations generated the characters, which then generated the story.

“The stories are mine; I made them up, says the writer, but the situations are real.

One of the plotlines involves a Christian fundamentalist cult that believed sex was so bad, said the author, that the only means of purifying oneself was castration.

A second one centers on the practice of taking “a naïve companion as food along Siberia; the idea being that when food ran out, this person would have served as a “walking lunch.

Another peculiar situation that amazed the author was that of the lost army of Czechoslovakia who found themselves stranded in Siberia, before crossing over to the Atlantic and finally reaching home.

“I knew I’d only write one novel on Russia, Meek said, “and the only place these situations crossed was in Siberia, in 1919. So it had to be then, it had to be there.

To much hum-haw at the café, Meek declared, “I do as little research as possible.

“I don’t like to think of it as a necessary part. Novelists make it sound like an essential stage.

A novel is a mix of research and experience, of getting answers to questions one did not ask, says Meek.

“It is about putting oneself in the way of information rather than letting it get in the way, said the author.

The self is one of the primary tools that informs the imagination, “use your own experience to inform your imagined characters.

On further advice to budding authors, Meek provided “Read. Read. Read.

“If you read a book and think I can do better than that, then that’s the wrong book, he says, “but if you read a book and think I cannot do better – then read that.