Art and Other Matters

I'm traveling to Syria, or at least I'm trying to (turned back at the border late last night because of visa problems) which is a shame since I'm missing out on a week of art openings and cultural happenings. It's always pretty eye-opening how many talented and creative people there are in Lebanon, despite (or because of?) all the crap that happens here.

Still, the past weighs heavily on the exhibitions I've seen so far: an archive of beautiful and disturbing militia posters from the civil war era; a display honoring a Palestinian poet killed by Israeli operatives in Rome in the 1970's that includes a copy of A Thousand and One Nights scarred by the bullets that killed him; and in a vacant lot downtown, rows upon rows of toilet seats, a reference to the days when bathrooms served as emergency bomb shelters. "Haven't 15 years of hiding in the toilets been enough?" signs say.

Let's hope the country doesn't go further down the, um, tubes.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut