Haitham Issam Journal http://www.haithamissam.com/blog Mon, 15 Feb 2016 18:51:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.2 I Should, And I Will http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/02/15/i-should-and-i-will/ Mon, 15 Feb 2016 18:36:33 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1171 Funny that I asked the question “Should I?” and to my surprise, Squarespace have a marketing theme that runs on “You Should.” It seems I will. It’s time any way, It’s been 10 years since this website has been up, almost 8 with this look (and I still like it). But, the world today is different from the world back in 2006, there was no iPhone, and by extension, no scalable websites and Flash was so in. Poor Flash, you had to fight the iPhone didn’t you? Oh, And back in 2006, we had a new Tool album, and I’m still quietly and eagerly and gracefully waiting.

I’m going to learn from Flash’s demise and I’m going to Squarespace. Farah believes I should go white: “Every cool and modern website is white, it’s time you lightened up and became cool like the rest of the modern world!”. Should I?

]]> Should I? http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/02/15/should-i/ Mon, 15 Feb 2016 16:03:37 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1169 I might Squarespace, should I? This space is falling apart I know, but should every corner of the digital world be perfect?

]]> While On Guitars http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/02/05/while-on-guitars/ Fri, 05 Feb 2016 18:23:19 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1156 If St. Vincent’s Music Man guitar is important because it’s women’s first contribution in the machismo-dominated guitar world, I’m now going to talk about insanity. Rick Toone is the mad scientist of luthiers.

There is no restraint here, or preconceptions. The thing that gets to me about musicians, is that they are irrational individuals. Instruments can be beaten, burnt, swamped in a flood, and still there’s a musician out there who will play one and say it sounds magical. Rick Toone’s instruments are not traditional and they don’t try to be. The necks are made of aluminum and they are headless, two features that aren’t unheard of in the world of guitars, but the way he creates one-off instruments that are tailored to one’s torso all while looking pretty primitive and rough is out of this world engineering and luthiery; 21st century instruments.

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Note the dual plane control.

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They were originally headless but the newly released Spearfish model brings headstocks to Rick Toone land.

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These side dot markers are beautiful. The overlap of the fretboard over the dot shows a lot of product design sensibility.

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PHOTO: Rick Toone

 

]]> St Vincent Signature Guitar http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/01/30/st-vincent-signature-guitar/ Sat, 30 Jan 2016 12:16:20 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1151 This is an important guitar, as I think it is the first guitar in history designed by a woman and the first signature model guitar for a female artist. Designed by St. Vincent and the innovative people at Music Man, with a colour actually mixed by her, we finally see the influence of women on this male-dominated world. We need more elegance like this. it feels like a woman and it looks like a woman but it isn’t the stereotype lady’s guitar which is why it looks so beautiful.

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PHOTO: Ernie Ball Music Man

]]> While On The Pritzker http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/01/27/while-on-the-pritzker/ Wed, 27 Jan 2016 04:40:21 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1149 Back in ’91, Robert Venturi was the Pritzker Prize Laureate. There is still credit to be given though to his practice partner and wife Denise Scott Brown by being recognized as a joint receiver of this honorable award, which she was denied. In 2010, SANAA partners were jointly awarded, and Denise deserves to be awarded the top medal in her lifetime.

SIGN THIS PETITION to right this wrong.

 

]]> And the ’16 Pritzker Laureate Is… http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/01/26/and-the-16-pritzker-laureate-is/ Tue, 26 Jan 2016 05:02:26 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1146 Alejandro Aravena

  

]]> The View Dilemma http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/01/19/the-view-dilemma/ Tue, 19 Jan 2016 11:45:10 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1143 In a hypothetical situation, where a woman/man and a woman/man are eternally and inescapably attached, one of them is ultimately beautiful and the other ultimately ugly, which one of them would you be?

]]> Blindfold مغمضين http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/01/16/blindfold-%d9%85%d8%ba%d9%85%d8%b6%d9%8a%d9%86/ Sat, 16 Jan 2016 16:50:18 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1133 Last night Farah Chamma, Molham Makki, and myself did an improv night jam that we recorded and released under the title of a new poem Farah has written called Blindfold.

 

جلسة ارتجال مع فرح شما وملهم مكي تحت عنوان قصيدة جديدة كتبتها فرح بعنوان مغمضين.

 

 

Farah Chamma: Spoken Word

Molham Makki: Electro/Recording & Mixing

Haitham Issam: Guitar

 

We are going to perform this sometime in the near future, and I’ll write here again when we have a confirmed date.

]]> First Encounter http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/2016/01/11/first-encounter/ Mon, 11 Jan 2016 08:33:44 +0000 http://www.haithamissam.com/blog/?p=1124 This photo released on July 15 1965, when my parents where teenagers, is humanity’s first closeup encounter with another planet, 50 years ago. And which planet do we opt to greet first? Mars. I just found out about this photo, and it is the stuff of magic, similar to our first encounter with the “rubber duck” Comet 67P.

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