No, this is not about the indie faux-“world music” band, but from the city of 3-million-plus in Lebanon, currently getting the shit bombed out of it. Mazen Kerbaj, an improv trumpeter and illustrationist, has been updating his amazing blog – KERBLOG – since the beginning of the conflict last week (incidentally on the same day I got my promotion – way to make a guy feel bad). Additionally, he has recorded what I believe to be a genuine first: a “duet” of sorts with the airplanes and bombs of the Israeli Defence Forces. “Starry Night,” a six-minute excerpt of some two hours of, uh, jamming, is available at the following sources:

http://www.thewire.co.uk/web/mp3specials.php
http://www.l-m-c.org.uk/audio/mazen.html
http://www.dasmollschegesetz.de/beirut.htm
http://www.muniak.com/mazenkerbaj.html
http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/mazen_kerbaj-starry_night.mp3
http://www.nonstuff.com/mazen_kerbaj-starry_night.mp3

The mp3 is an amazing document of something most of us – in the United States anyway – will hopefully never experience. The blog is full of passionately angry, yet funny and sympathetic writings and drawings. Both are well worth much of your time.