Rabih Alameddine
Rabih Alameddine
Rabih Alameddineis a Lebanese-American painter and writer. He was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents. He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left at age 17 to live first in England and then in California. A lover of mathematics, he earned a degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angelesand a Master of Business in San Francisco. He began his career as an engineer, then moved to writing and painting. The author of...
NationalityLebanese
ProfessionArtist
CountryLebanon
paragraph
I started writing half a paragraph of a mystery novel, half a paragraph there, and they were terrible.
finding francisco pickup problem san sure teams
I've never had a problem finding a team, a league, or a pickup game. Actually, I'm not sure I want soccer to get bigger. We have so many teams in San Francisco that there aren't enough fields.
britain english european fondness history invaded languages perhaps recorded speakers spot
English has always had a special fondness for other European languages, a neighborly soft spot - perhaps because Britain has been invaded by speakers of those languages from the onset of its recorded history.
arabic looked
As teenagers, a lot of us just did not want much to do with Arabic culture - we looked to the West.
began organized since teams
I was gay before I began to play soccer over 40 years ago. It's been 28 years since a friend and I organized one of the first gay soccer teams in the world.
people playing united
I think I'm being conservative when I say there are more people playing soccer in the United States than in 90% of the world's other countries, probably 95%.
english hunted moscow parade public school seals
I stuck out more in an English public school than I would have had I marched in a May Day parade with the Red Army in Moscow or sashayed the Yves St. Laurent catwalk with supermodels or hunted seals with the Inuit or - well, you get the idea.
basically exaggerate lebanese means somebody tales tells
'Harat' is actually - it's a Lebanese dialect word. It comes from 'the mapmaker,' somebody who makes a map. And it basically means somebody who tells fibs or exaggerate tales a little bit.
easily hold time
I can easily hold two opposing beliefs at the same time without any problem, which I find - well, mind-expanding, really.
calls though
Nobody ever calls me a soccer-playing writer, even though I play soccer and it's part of who I am.
course cup gel watching
One of the things I enjoy most during the World Cup is watching a team improve, mature, and gel during the course of the tournament.
reminded
No one needs to be reminded of racism in soccer: the xenophobia, the nativism and, yes, nationalism.
against diehard germany hated rooted
My father loved Brazilian football, a diehard follower, so of course, he hated Germany and always rooted against them, always.
both enemy eye growing rarely saw share trenches
My father and I rarely saw eye to eye when I was growing up. We saw the world differently. It was only when we were both adults that we were able to share spectacles. However, football, and particularly the World Cup, was when we, enemy combatants, could traverse trenches and be together.