Monday, March 06, 2006
Good Morning Egypt!
Yesterday the girls arrived! Natalia got nice introduction to Egypt. Shortly after her arrival, our Boab knocked on our door and told us that he was having a party in his apartment and that they would love us to play for them. So we went upstairs to a small room on the roof with about fifteen people stuffed inside and played a few songs. On the Egyptian songs they all sang along – it was very sweet.
Then we had to go to the old market area to approve the new Raquy and the Cavemen galabias! They are gorgeous! “Raquy and the Cavemen” and a picture of a tabla are stitched into the back in gold thread!
Afterwards we saw the huge crowds of people in the market and thought to ourselves, “this would be a good place to promote our show” so we took out the drums and started playing Nubian. while Rami’s cousin Karime handed out fliers for the show. About half way into the song the police had to come to disperse the crowd of people that had gathered around to see us play!
The next morning we had to wake up very early to go play on Sabah al Khir, Ya Missr! (Good Morning, Egypt). It was a little nervewracking to be filmed, knowing that it was being screened LIVE both on channel 1 Egypt and on satellite TV!
Morning Talk Show, Good Morning Egypt (Sabah al Khiir, Ya Missr)!
But it went very well. We started out playing the Nubian, then we were interviewed, then we played Farid Al Atrash then Dust. We had the whole camera crew dancing! There was a simultaneous interpreter available throughout the interview, but I actually spoke in Arabic the whole time!
When we arrived back to our neighborhood, our friends were very excited that they had just seen us on TV!
For the rest of the day were entertaining people in our apartment. It’s amazing in this country how we can have people coming over all day without actually inviting anyone! Among the people over were:
Tonight we have a rehearsal on a falooka for our concert at Sawy which is tomorrow!
Then we had to go to the old market area to approve the new Raquy and the Cavemen galabias! They are gorgeous! “Raquy and the Cavemen” and a picture of a tabla are stitched into the back in gold thread!
Afterwards we saw the huge crowds of people in the market and thought to ourselves, “this would be a good place to promote our show” so we took out the drums and started playing Nubian. while Rami’s cousin Karime handed out fliers for the show. About half way into the song the police had to come to disperse the crowd of people that had gathered around to see us play!
The next morning we had to wake up very early to go play on Sabah al Khir, Ya Missr! (Good Morning, Egypt). It was a little nervewracking to be filmed, knowing that it was being screened LIVE both on channel 1 Egypt and on satellite TV!
Morning Talk Show, Good Morning Egypt (Sabah al Khiir, Ya Missr)!
But it went very well. We started out playing the Nubian, then we were interviewed, then we played Farid Al Atrash then Dust. We had the whole camera crew dancing! There was a simultaneous interpreter available throughout the interview, but I actually spoke in Arabic the whole time!
When we arrived back to our neighborhood, our friends were very excited that they had just seen us on TV!
For the rest of the day were entertaining people in our apartment. It’s amazing in this country how we can have people coming over all day without actually inviting anyone! Among the people over were:
- A beautiful woman named Fatima from Hungary who’s a dumbek player! We picked her up on the street while we were handing out fliers.
- Osama’s mother and brother who came from Damanhoor to visit and brought a box full of sweets that I could barely lift.
- Marjory came to rehearse for the show.
- Haytham (my Arabic teacher)’s brother who’s an actor and friend who we played for and are now trying to get us on another TV show.
- Ustaz Henkish came over to rehearse with us and brought some guy named Christian from Hungary.
- In the middle of the rehearsal a group of furious neighbors, the boab and the landlord came by to have a big argument about the noise.
- We had a late night visit from the Andrea, Amy and Mariah!
Tonight we have a rehearsal on a falooka for our concert at Sawy which is tomorrow!
# posted by Scott Dexter @ 10:37 AM 
