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Video Grabs from Hometown Baghdad
Before our webisodes premiere on Monday, I thought I might share a couple of video grabs from the series. I hope that these give a taste of what’s to come. I keep thinking to myself, “The everyday life of regular Iraqis is the great untold story of the Iraq War.” We as Americans know so little about what a 23 year old student does when they get up in the morning. What do laugh at? What are they afraid of? Hopefully, this series will tell these stories. So enjoy the pictures and come back on Monday to hear these Iraqi voices.
Update: At the genius advice of Tish over at Ugotrade, I’ve added an audio clip of the song that is being played in the third video grab down. Click on the picture to hear what has happening when that frame was being captured by our cameras.
Click on the picture to hear the song!
Tags: iraq, baghdad, iraqis, photos, vlog
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March 17th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Nice photo….Saif had we noticed that we were under spy camera????? lol …which song we were playing Saif?
March 17th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
OMG, I didn’t think the song will be great like this …
March 17th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Lak Nice recording ….i guess my voice was a little bit abnormal coz i had flu ….but saif really nice playing we ve made …..
March 17th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Hi guys,
This is Saifedean, I am a Palestinian in New York, and I did the translation for some of those parts. That song was amazing, I was replaying it and watching it over and over again. You sing it much much better than Ilham el-Madfai!
Best of luck with everything,
Saif
March 17th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Thanks Saif Al Deen for the complement….I still remember that day cause when I went back Iraq it was so scary to go out and visit my friends , thats why when I went to Saif’s house we used our time till then end with much activities …..Thank god to have a brother like Saif and others ….
Regards to my Star ( Kenny Rogers ) the king of country music .
March 18th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Hey Zaid , We should send them a song for Kenny Rogers, We should that. But DAMN We cann’t meet eachother. Anyway We’ll try it online …. lol …
March 18th, 2007 at 8:57 am
How about the Gambler ???
March 18th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Nice song guys.
Saif is a cool man but he sucks in word racer.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Yeah Hussien you are right.
I cann’t win you more than 1000 points.
March 18th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Hi Saif
I will never forget the day that we met for the first time in Amman then we traveled to Baghdad, You knew that you had an uncle who had been living in England,since long before you were born but you had never seen him, that was due to the travel restrictions in Iraq.
During my visit to Baghdad in Aug 2003 life was very uncomfortable for my liking, murders and kidnappers were everywhere so after visiting most of my family and my parents grave I decided to leave Baghdad especially when I got to know that a one of my relatives had been kidnapped.
Also I had left my wife and my two boys in England.
So saif I am very proud that you have graduated from Baghdad University (Nice photo and I really enjoyed the song )
Uncle
Issa
March 18th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Hi Saif
i am so glad by seeing u singin the ELHAM ALMADFAI song mit was so nice to hear it from u guys and i was going through this site and i founded so interseting for iraqi our age to have such a good site ,so keep it up cousin and inshllah ill try 2 c u this summer,salam 2 ur family ,wife and all da relatives
Mustafa,
March 18th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Hi Saif
I see this interseting site and I want to tell you congratulation, good job, and the song is so cool.
March 18th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Let me tell you about the weather that we have made that song in ………………. its was ( On warm summer’s evening and the shooting heared from evrywhere , I met up with Saif and we were both too happy to sing….so we got those two guitars at the window at the darkness ..and the pepsi they brought us and saif begun to speak …he said lets play the gambler i said if you dont mind my saying i can sing the gambler after taste your pepsi and I’ll give you some song cords…..so he handed me his botel and I drank down his last swallow then he bumbed the cigaret and asked me for the light !!! said if you gonna play the song boy ..you gut to play it right … YOU GOT KNOW WHEN TO HOLD ‘EM KNOW WHEN TO WALK AWAY KNOW WHEN TO RUN…….WE NEVER COUNTED OUR TIME WHEN WE ‘RE SITTIN ON THAT TABLE THERE WAS NO TIME ENOUGH FOR SINGING WHEN THE DAYS WAS DONE ) ………………………………………………….
lol that was the lyrics of the song ( The Gambler ) by the great star ( Kenny Rogers ) ….but really there was no power so Saif has turned the generator on so as to get light as well as simple fan i was HOT SUMMER’S evening. lol .
Cheers guys …
March 18th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
OMG, You are amazing dude, that was very very nice and fresh.
March 18th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
hi saif i would liek to say that me & saif are brother & sister i knew him since i was 15 years old & i didnt knwo how important having a brother & freinds liek saif till i left baghdad & i recognized taht life without him & his family is empty & dont mean anything i swear i allways remember when we used to sit in there house & he start singing & playing on his guitar he is an immazing brother , freind & guitar player & he hae a realy nice voice buit saif i cant hear your voice in this song ????? anyways i realy liek it & i was o happy to see ur pic I WOULD LIEK TO TELL EVRYONE HE IS OEN OF TEH BEST PEOPLE I EVEN MET IN MY WHOLE LIFE & I KNWO I WOULD NEVER MEET PEOPLE LIEK HIM 7 HIS GREAT FAMILY BY TEH WAY SAIF IM REALY SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORY COZ I DIDNT CALL & GONGRATS YOU FOR YOUR WEDDING SO ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLF MBROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK & INSHALA YOU MAKE ALL YOUR WISHED COME TRUE WITH TEH LOVE OF YOUR LIFE MAY GOD BLESS YOU BOTH & WE STAY FREINDS FOREVER .
YOUR SISTER
HALA
March 19th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Thank you Hala that was too much for me. Thank you dear. I miss you …
March 19th, 2007 at 11:42 am
I agree with Saifedean; you guys sound fantastic! You should record the whole song and put it on youtube
March 19th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Karenne - from the Chat the Planet staff here … just to say that I will always think of you all when I hear Kenny Roger’s The Gambler. We listened to it so often while the tapes were being edited. I heard it just the other night at a bar in NYC!
March 19th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Hey Karenne…….thanks , Invite me so as to listen with you……
Kenny Rogers is my Best Star .
One of my important wishes is to See Kenny Rogers and tell him how great you are…………………………
by the way we play (me and SAIF) many songs for Kenny Rogers and I really Feel happy when I sing his songs ….
My Yahoo ID contains the word ( GAMBLER ) just becuz I love that great Kenny and hi song (the Gambler) .
Cheers guys
March 19th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Z - Kate is working on getting you in with Kenny. She knows all the famous people. ;0)
March 19th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………. realllllllllllllly ????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KARENNE and KATE ….I dono what to say or write ….. I swear if I would see him and then die I willbe happyyyyyyyyyy even if i die after spending 5 minutes with him ………………….. THANKKKK YOU THANK YOU SOOO MUCH …
NOW am chatting with Saif by voice on yahoo and he and his family are loughing on my voice tone ………I AM HAPPY ………
HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
March 19th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Yeah He is really happy…
March 19th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Ahlan, ya jama3a,
As a singer and guitarist, I’ve gotta say that song sounded amazing–especially under the conditions!
Sending you all the good energy I can muster–
ma3-ssalame,
noam
March 20th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Hi, I think the whole thing is more than amazing. Nice work everyone.
March 20th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Hey Nuomann …. how are you ? miss you man ,
Its really nice for many many reasons…..(( Collecting people from different cultures and communities especially when there are much people dont know such life details about who live in the other bank…and knowing it by highest level of humanity , friendly and modern way never been used before ….and talking in universall taste about evryting in life , for sure that will break all borders and long way distances between people who want to share life and peace with eachother so as to make a Move step towards the right way of life in peacefull way )).
By the way the sweetest thing is watching this site growing up and am sure that it would get much people more that we might imagine ..
Cheers
March 27th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
[...] it, check out this song from Saif and his friends that I posted a while ago. Read the full post here. Posted by [...]
March 27th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Good Job everyone, I liked the music u made guys… keep up the good work… and let’s hear more
March 27th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
good song dear guys …well really i enjoyed it
keep on the good work…
April 2nd, 2007 at 2:24 am
I am really enjoying your episodes and looking forward to more. I play a little bit of Flamenco guitar and I love the stuff you play. Good soloist too.
We are watching you from Miami Beach, FL where it can get really hot too! When we have Hurricanes the electricity gets cut off fro days sometimes and it is hell. I cannot even beging to imagine what you are going through but I try. We send you lot of love from here and apologies for the Fiasco our government unfolded upon you.
Shalom
April 2nd, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Notice that wonderful second voice tone who was singing with me …..He is Ahmed Naji.
Best Regards for him (khali Mahmood)
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Hi,
I’m watching from Edmonton, Canada. I’m an elementary school teacher and a musician myself. I listened to your song 5 times since first cueing it up a few minutes ago. It’s fantastic. Please keep writing and posting more. I think it’s wonderful what you’re doing with your videos. No one gets a true idea of what’s going on in your country in North America. I’ll share this website with my friends and students to help educate more people.
Peace and light
April 6th, 2007 at 3:45 am
All the way from Canada, keep it up guys, wish u all the best, your brother Mohammad
April 6th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
From London with brotherly love,
will keep you in my prayers (all 5 a day!)
April 7th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
I was listening to deepak chopra on sirius satellite radio tonight and he mentioned this website so here I am. I play guitar, and I think it would be cool to make music together over the internet. I enjoy writing gutar leads for acoustic or rock songs. http://www.navigationpod.com is one of my websites. I will soon be adding links like this one to the pages.
Drop me a line
April 21st, 2007 at 4:08 pm
hey boys im from germany and i dont understand a single word of that song but i really like it a lot !
i would like to have it as a mp3 file couldnt you put it in somewhere???
by the way i really love your episodes i would say that i enjoy them but this would be a bit sarcastic wouldnt it ?
you’re showin all the pain and fear going on over there but nevertheless there is a big warmth of your people’s heart and mentality which is perfectly shown in your videos … keep it up guys and although i dont have the slighthest idea about what youre going through i would say that your friendships will help you going through this horrible time…
May 10th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
[...] before we began releasing our videos on March 19th, I posted an mp3 on this blog of Saif and his friends Zaid and Ahmed playing an Iraqi folk song. That post [...]
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:28 am
You guys sing really well. Why haven’t I seen this before?!!
June 3rd, 2007 at 2:04 am
Lelly!!! What have you been doing? Have you listened to Adel’s song, too? Also, check out Ibrahim Al Madfai (please Iraqis - help me with the spelling here…)….Saif sent me a CD of his and it is AMAZING.
June 4th, 2007 at 10:30 am
The Tenth Planet: A Single Life in Baghdad…
The Tenth Planet: A Single Life in Baghdad…