PraiaGrande

Cannaletto

2010-11-08T09:26:00.001+01:00

When a Lisbon street becomes a Venitian canal...

Cartoon

2010-10-06T14:45:00.000+02:00

Stereotypes

In a recent exibition at the Museu Berardo in Sintra, Portugal one could see this curious depiction of the political map of Asia at the beginning of the XIX century...

Ekaterina ftaroi

2010-07-27T13:40:00.001+02:00

"Tsaritsa" at the Bolshoi,

Last Wednesday

Georges Sand

2010-02-24T14:34:00.000+01:00

A young woman near Qalandia check-point (Palestine)

A contribution to the discussion on the use of veil ...

Barclay de Tolly

2010-01-25T22:17:00.000+01:00

Logistics were paramount. Feeding the horses turned out to be the crucial strategic skill....

Unknown Artist (tbc)

2010-01-17T10:17:00.002+01:00

Narguileh Den...

A smoking establishment in Jaffa. The contacts of the artist were promised for next Saturday...

Prince Piotr Bagration

2010-01-17T09:13:00.001+01:00

The battles around Borodino

I had to find a Russian coffee-table book on "Bá-rá-di-nô " to get some diagrams of the battles to make sense of the otherwise excellent book by Dominic Lieven "Russia against Napoleon"...

David Lynch

2010-01-15T14:20:00.002+01:00

CSI Jerusalem...

A car slices a curve, control is lost and accident follows. Pilot and second passenger look fishy. Cars passing by don't stop. Half a hour later suspects leave and nothing could have make us imagine something had happened. Point is the Blogger turned into paparazzi cum private investigator and took photos. Creepy like a David Lynch film...

Fausto Zonaro

2010-01-15T10:55:00.001+01:00

ORIENTALIST STREET PAINTING

The outside wall of a bakery in Jaffa in 2010। Refusing the all pervasive neon lights, the owner resorted to old style advertising। Does not the Right Honourable Read share with this Blogger of Yours that the colours and the composition evoke the technique of orientalist paintings (like Zonaro) ? ...

Orlando Figes

2010-01-11T10:04:00.001+01:00

Night Life in Beirute...

Some photos taken with a NOKIA E-71 during incursions into the BO18 and the MusicHall... Reminded one of Moscow nights, maybe the blend of "East" and "West", but from distinct approach angles. Moscovites are Westerners influenced by the (Central Asian)East, Beyrouthins are (Middle)Easterners influenced by the West.

Samir Kassir

2009-11-27T21:34:00.001+01:00

Historiography of Beirut

I believe what separates somewhat frivolous current upper class tourism, with travel-for-travel-sake four times a year journeys, from serious traveling is the careful research and the "further readings". Here's my direct bibliography for the recent hop into Lebanon:

Nicolas Sursock

2009-11-27T06:01:00.000+01:00

Shaker Abtissi

2009-11-25T17:00:00.001+01:00

Grozny-like devastation ...

Nahr El Bared ( Northeast Lebanon) still a desolate monument to asymmetrical warfare.

Nahr El Bared

2009-11-25T16:55:00.000+01:00

A Grozni-like desolation...

(text to follow soon)

Alfred Sursock

2009-11-24T23:09:00.000+01:00

Mahatma Gandhi

2009-11-05T06:34:00.000+01:00

Bi'lin (West Bank, Palestine)

Will non-violent resistance prove itself a shorter way to end the ocupation? Most of us keep our fingers crossed.

Adam Thirlwell

2009-10-19T09:16:00.000+02:00

Indeed "one of the funniest, most stylish and utterly original debuts in years". Threesome sex, bits of Jewish North London, hints of Stalin's relations with selected Russian writers (Mandelstam, Bulgakov), Bauhaus architecture as source of metaphors and aforisms - all very Kunderesque. But above all one is impressed with the "voice" of the writer. Quite something.

Mikhail Lermontov

2009-10-02T07:20:00.001+02:00

Recent readings.

Russia wins.

Tarek Al-Ghoussein

2009-09-24T08:52:00.000+02:00

At Al-Ma'mal (Old City) an exhibition of photographs by Tarek Al-Ghoussein

At Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, New Gate, Old City, Jerusalem a exhibition by Palestinian-Kuwaiti photographer Tarek Al-Ghoussein titled "In Absentia". The show represents an interesting glimpse on how Contemporary Art in East Jerusalem can be sponsored. Instead of relying on the budgets for cultural activities of local Western diplomatic missions, this time you have 'The Third Line", a Dubai gallery, the Sharjah Foundation (UAE) and ( ok, it weakens my argument) Ford Foundation.

As the leaflet of Al-Ma'mal points out: "Tarek Al-Ghoussein's work exposes an identity shaped by a context of inaccessibility and loss, his fabricated landscapes providing a foil for the experience of exile. In many of his works the artist is dwarfed by a vast desert landscape, reconstructing allegories for the obstacles, barricades and walls erected in the Occupied Territories."

Tracey Emin

2009-09-24T08:00:00.001+02:00

Personal life archeology. Changing the focus from the bedroom to the office room so to speak...

Anwar Sadat

2009-09-24T07:58:00.003+02:00

"Homonym" (Sadat's " Visit) 2009, Mixed media,

by Ruti Sela, Boaz Arad, Doron Rabina and Guy Ben-Ner,

A grounded airplane (made of clay) from which a small figure emerges at the top of the stairs of the front exit, just like Heads of State, or other important visitors do... The rapid decaying material, the fact the plane looks it endured a crash landing, the figure who evokes a alien-who-visits-planet-Earth - there's a sense of doom, a feeling of tragic events, like a near-miss catastrophe. Is it a requiem for Peace (that Sadat symbolically inaugurated with his historical visit when he landed at Ben Gurion) ?

A very powerful work in "The Side Show" , the small companion to the main event, during the ArtTLV biennale.

Mikhail Sakashvili

2009-09-21T22:18:00.000+02:00

Nanushka, a Georgia-inspired restaurant off Allenby Street, TA, where you can have a decent "katchapury" ( filopastry with cheese filling) although not as yummy as the glorious ones I ate at Sandonovosky banya, in Moscow, with endorphins at an all time high...

Natalia Voidianova

2009-09-20T21:05:00.000+02:00

When does a Russian film director (or a non-Russian for that matter) understands that this one-in-a-generation face has to be used for the adaptation to cinema of one of the immortal heroines in Russian literature, Tatyana, Natasha, Sonitchka, you name it...

( With compliments to Vogue UK and Vogue Russia.)

Fiodor Dostoevsky

2009-09-19T14:32:00.000+02:00

A jewel of a book on the gambling trip of Fiodor D. and his recently-wed to 19 years old stenograph...

Siksik family

2009-09-19T13:09:00.000+02:00

The imam in charge of Siksik mosque explains to our guide (who's finishing a doctorate thesis on Jaffa at Tel Aviv University) that the renovation works are almost over and the re-opening of a mosque closed in 1948 was going to take place very soon (see BBC article below)

Mosque Reopens in Jaffa

BBC- Arabic

Presenter, Woman # 1
Muslims in Jaffa reopened Siksik Mosque after 61 years of closure. The Siksik family built the Mosque in 1838, and made it available to all Muslims in the city. However, Israel confiscated all Islamic common properties such as cemeteries and Mosques and forced the people to leave in 1948 when Israel was established.

Reporter, Man # 1
This Mosque has a long history. It was built by the Siksik family in Jaffa at the end of the 19TH century. In 1948, the Mosque was confiscated by the Israelis who used it for storing products for years. Then it was closed and neglected and eventually became a hang out place for drug addicts and gamblers just like many Muslim religious buildings in Historical Palestine.

Guest, Man # 2
Islamic common properties were desecrated for the past 60 years since the establishment of Israel. Regrettably Islamic common properties were desecrated in cities that have both Jewish and Palestinian population such as Haifa, Jaffa, Lidda, and Bir Al Sabe’ in the south. This was a dangerous assault not only on the identity of the land and buildings, but also on the right to worship. It was an attack on Muslims’ rights to have their own Mosques and to regularly worship God.

Reporter, Man # 1
However, the family of Siksik and the rest of the Muslims who remained in Jaffa kept demanding their right to reopen the Mosque for the past 60 years. Although the Israeli authorities rejected their repeated demands, Muslims decided to take the unprecedented measure of renovating the Mosque and reopening it for worshippers.

Guest, Man # 3
Reopening the Mosque is a historical event. This important event moved the residents of Jaffa and other Muslims wherever they are. We believe that this is a historical event, because this is the first Mosque that is liberated after 60 years.

Reporter, man # 1
The Siksik Mosque was officially reopened by the former Mufti of Palestine, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri and other Islamic figures in the presence of dozens of Muslims from the city. They demanded their right to open the many Mosques that have been confiscated by Israel for decades.

Guest, Man # 3
I think that all Muslims agree that they should exert more effort to reopen the confiscated Mosques. This is part of regaining our rights. I hope that Israel changes its mentality towards this issue so we can achieve justice. This is a fundamental part of human rights.

Siksik Mosque (II)

2009-09-19T01:11:00.000+02:00

The well.

Louis Ferdinand Céline

2009-09-18T14:28:00.000+02:00

It gives one a special pleasure to possess all Céline's biographies published in the last twenty years... To read Céline in the original French is still, for me, the standart to evaluate anybody's skills in the language of Rimbaud... Isn't that so, Marta dear?

Natalia Jukova

2009-09-17T14:15:00.000+02:00

Rummaging through Moscow files I found the original photo Natalia offered me. It looks good next to "Red October" piano...

abdul hamid

2009-08-10T13:12:00.000+02:00

Mr. Rover

2009-08-05T00:10:00.000+02:00

A Jeep of the Presidential Guard, Bethlehem 4.08.2009

Abu Amar

2009-08-05T00:05:00.000+02:00

Fatah Conference, Bethlehem, on the Anniversary of the Death of Abu Amar

Mohamed Dahlan

2009-08-04T23:59:00.000+02:00

"Scenes from the Sixth Conference"
(Fatah's effort today, in Bethlehem)

Galinha-da-India

2009-08-04T00:02:00.000+02:00

Some of my stuffed friends, restless, move into the Drawing Room...

NOKIA E71 (VII)

2009-08-03T01:10:00.001+02:00

Wedding Cake with Young Girl (detail)

NOKIA E71 ( VI )

2009-08-03T01:07:00.001+02:00

Abu Gosh: a Crusader monastery with a special mood...

NOKIA E71 ( V )

2009-08-03T01:05:00.002+02:00

A mobile phone snapshot of hanging suits at a Wedding (edited )

Untitled

2009-08-03T00:47:00.000+02:00

Rusty door at the Old Port of Jaffa

Galina Belyayeva

2009-08-03T00:43:00.002+02:00

Emil Loteanu's film " My Sweet and Tender Beast" based on the short story "Drama at the Hunt" by Anton Chekhov with the incredibly poetic beauty of Galina Belyayeva has to be, for sure, among the Russian films one must bring to the proverbial trip to a deserted island.

Arafat, Barghouty, Darwish

2009-08-03T00:37:00.000+02:00

Street Art at Qalandia checkpoint

Ali Romeu & Fatima Juliet

2009-07-29T17:54:00.001+02:00

A wedding in East Jerusalem with so many cameras filming that it felt like a TV reality show...

NOKIA E71 (IV)

2009-07-29T11:29:00.001+02:00

Yellow buses having a deserved siesta,
in the backyard of the Hananina & Kharaz Center, Ramallah

Lady with a lapdog

2009-07-25T15:39:00.002+02:00

Yelena Sofonova in Nikita Mikhalkov's film "Dark Eyes" (Otchi Tchiorny) inspired in Anton Chekhov's short story "Dama i sabatchka" I have just re-read in the compilation "Historias Russas" after reading Rosamund Bartlett's biography "Chekhov Scenes from a Life".

NOKIA E71 (III)

2009-07-23T08:32:00.000+02:00

National Day of Egypt, Ramallah
The guests clapped with emotion at the first mention of Gamal Abdel Nasser in the Presidential speech ...

post-Gipsy Kings

2009-07-22T08:59:00.000+02:00

Last Monday, a concert by Chico and the Gypsies at the "Tombe des Rois", East Jerusalem

Savile Row

2009-07-21T21:25:00.000+02:00

A tailor in the Old City of Jerusalem kept British Mandate fashion traditions...

NOKIA E71 (II)

2009-07-18T09:40:00.000+02:00

Ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) semi-rioting in Jerusalem road n. 1, last Thursday

Nokia E71 (I)

2009-07-17T21:33:00.000+02:00

"Nigeria" in afrobeat mood at the Music Box, Lisbon, 9 July 2009

Lucas K R T P

2009-07-16T13:36:00.000+02:00

A personal post in this blog can be justified out of something extra-ordinary.
The most recent child of this Blogger of Yours was born about two weeks a go.
There, the six of them: Matty, Marta, Freddy, Timmy, Mishka and now Lucas

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

2009-05-27T09:41:00.002+02:00

Prisons as Art...

The exhibition "Liquid Modernity" (OREL ART UK, 7 Howick Place, London) of the latest works of Andrei Molodkin (who will represent Russia in the 2009 Venice Biennale) was very illuminating. There is a long tradition of Russian art originated from a stay in a camp or a prison (Dostoievsky, Soljenitisine...). This time it's a look from the outside in more meanings than one. Inside the prison bars oil is flowing...

Cristiano Messi

2009-05-27T09:33:00.000+02:00

Pane et circensis...

The bookmakers in London were on fire with the Rome fight between soccer-gladiators from Britannia and Hispania!

Ray Bradbury

2009-03-17T22:27:00.001+01:00

Al Kamandijati in Jenin

A Farenheit 451 situation, only now they burn ouds not books...

Julien Schnabel

2009-03-16T21:34:00.002+01:00

Julians's Pajamas caught on camera at the American Colony Hotel, East Jerusalem

Alix de Meauny

2009-03-16T21:32:00.001+01:00

Singing like a pro at the Legacy Hotel, East Jerusalem, last Friday.

A Brit-Frenchy Edith Piaf was born...

Silvester Stalone

2009-03-15T22:15:00.000+01:00

Jericho Training Facility. last Sunday

The Presidential Guard (Palestinian Authority), in their macho black uniforms,

when deciding what colour to use for fumes went for pink...

Almost a Karl Lagerfeld fashion choice...

Michael Hendrickx

2009-03-15T21:38:00.000+01:00

Drummin' on at the Legacy Hotel, East Jerusalem

Philip Barrett

2009-03-09T10:07:00.000+01:00

Last Friday at Zan's, inspired gig from the Ramallah Jazz Squad ( Philip Barrett, trumpet, Christoph Schult, piano, Mike Hendrickx, drums, Oystein Bru Frantzen, bass plus a sax player I can't find his name). A young Palestinian tells me the story of when, drunk and fearless, he decided to fulfill his dream of finally seeing the Sea, and up he went, no ID, nothing, on his way to Jaffa. The Gods granted him his wish (in the form of a breach of security at a check point) but he almost had to pay the feared 12 days in an Israeli prison for a West-Banker found in the wrong side of the Green Line without a proper permit. He confesses to have been overwhelmed by the experience of being close to the Sea. Someone told me that it might be as high as 90% the figure of West-Bankers that never saw the Mediterranean, although it's never more than 50 km away... For a native of Lisbon, used to the companionship of the ocean, that statistic is horrifying...

Hani Amra

2009-03-02T09:56:00.000+01:00

An exibition of Modern photography in Ramallah, where I found these impressive works by Hani Amra.

André Aciman

2009-03-02T09:37:00.001+01:00

Another book-piece for the puzzling memoirs of Alexandria between Rommel and Nasser...

Michael Ondaatje

2009-02-03T19:38:00.003+01:00

Some of the writing reminds us of the bon mot from JL Borges about his hope, on contemplating his oeuvre, that he had at least written in the end a couple of rather acceptable paragraphs... The 'acceptable paragraph' one spots in this novel with intimidating frequency shows Ondaatje, like Borges, attaining near-perfection, literature-wise... Simplicity, light deepness and an almost-poetical sense of rhythm ... As a bonus the best card table scene I've ever read with an unforgettable introduction to poker "mechanics" ...

Ytzhak Shamir

2009-02-03T19:32:00.000+01:00

Approaching Jericho, on the desert road towards the Monastery of St George, one spots the essence of what settling is all about. A defiance, an arrogance but also a sense of romantic doom like the Fort of "Beau Geste"... The winter desert light is photovoltaic white... Who would live there but for the grand gesture?...

Gemael & al

2009-02-02T10:00:00.001+01:00

Café Blanc in Beirut. Neo-Orientalist style...

A trip to Beirute

2008-12-11T13:04:00.001+01:00

My impressions of Lebanon (to be continued)

Tyre

2008-12-11T10:59:00.002+01:00

Tyre, one of the Phoenician cities whose names we learned by heart at high school, offered apparently some resistance to the great army of Alexander...

Rafik Hariri

2008-12-11T10:58:00.001+01:00

One can show their patriotic pride in quite fashionable accessorizing...

Desirée Sadek

2008-12-11T10:39:00.004+01:00

The New Orientalism is everywhere in smart Beirut... People there know t the secret of blending East and West with the daring that it's needed but without falling into the kitsch caricature one tends to find -unfortunately - in other azimuths... A new Byzance indeed...

Shatilla 2

2008-12-11T10:35:00.001+01:00

Palestine refugee camp of Shatilla (November 2008)

Michel Suleiman

2008-12-11T10:22:00.002+01:00

The Lebanese army, on the eve of Independence Day, was very on the edge... These innocent photos almost derailed a smoothly planned trip aboard a UN-marked bus...

Yvonne Sursock

2008-12-11T10:15:00.003+01:00

Imagine the structure of an Andalusian grand house with a central patio as big as a pracieta and then convert the patio into the the floor of the central room and put a proper ceiling above everything... A Palace that counters years of bad press on the subject of Beirut... The "chatelaine" talks charmingly about Chomski amidst all the fluffy evidence of the discrete charm of the haute lebanese bourgeoisie ...

Leila Barakat

2008-12-11T09:53:00.001+01:00

An evening out in Beirute...

Nedjma

2008-12-11T09:11:00.002+01:00

A Muslim female friend first told me about this book... Frank self-awareness of sexuality in an autobiographical book by a Muslim female author must be rather difficult to swallow in some a-tolerant quarters...

Ron Pundak

2008-12-10T08:11:00.001+01:00

The new HQ of the Peres Centre for Peace at the beach in Jaffa this blogger of yours used to consider his. The modern building, although beautiful in itself, invades the traditional architectural features of the decaying houses surrounding the beach like a Barbarian who nobody has invited for dinner. Reminds one of the Carlos V Palace in the Alhambra. Heavy-boots subtlety, if The Right Honourable Reader understands what I mean...

Constantin Cavafy

2008-12-01T17:52:00.002+01:00

Che fece… il gran rifiuto

Pour certains hommes, il vient un jour
où il faut dire le grand OUI ou le grand
NON.
Celui qui l’a prêt en soi, ce OUI,
se manifeste tout de suite ; en le disant,
il progresse dans l’estime d’autrui
et selon ses propres lois.

Celui qui a refusé ne regrette rien : si on
l’interrogeait de nouveau, il répéterait
NON
-et cependant ce NON, ce juste NON,
l’accable pendant toute sa vie.

Constantin Cavafy
Poèmes traduits par Marguerite Yourcenar
Poésie / Gallimard

Avraham Burg

2008-11-30T20:03:00.002+01:00

The launching of the English edition of a controversial book, at the Pasha Room in the American Colony Hotel. This blogger of yours has read half the book already and keeps thinking "If only 51% of the Israeli electorate would share the insights of Mr Burg the prospects for Peace in the area would be brighter indeed".

Ibrahim Zegharia

2008-11-30T20:00:00.001+01:00

The very best bartender East of the Jordan River and who does the most alcohol-efficient Gin & Tonics ever tasted by this blogger of Yours. A pillar of the American Colony Hotel, East Jerusalem

Simon Sebag Montefiore

2008-11-27T11:36:00.001+01:00

How a serious historian who has accumulated data - and published a good book or two about Stalin -one day decides he can't stand it anymore and let his novelist's persona come to the fore. Will he be taken seriously next time he writes Historiography? I doubt it.

Mohamed Hassanein Heikal

2008-11-27T11:22:00.011+01:00

Hotel sign in Saladin Street in East Jerusalem

Made me thought of the legendary Cairo newspaper, and of the times of its formidable Editor-in-Chief, Mohamed Heikal, who performed a kind of double act with President Nasser in articulating the thoughts of the then new Egypt.

Jesus of Nazareth

2008-11-27T11:22:00.005+01:00

Along the Via Dolorosa. The image of pilgrims bearing crosses is somewhat awkward and disneylands the whole thing.

Webster

2008-11-27T11:21:00.002+01:00

Creative phonetical transcription of English words like "battery" and "mobile". One wonders about laughable mistakes we must be making all the time when trying to bring Arabic words into our texts...

Leonardo di Caprio

2008-11-27T11:19:00.002+01:00

A post-modern side-effect of the Titanic craze. Off Saladin Street, East Jerusalem

Andreas Palladio

2008-11-27T11:16:00.001+01:00

A "gathering" of Palestine refugees in South Lebanon. 'Gatherings' in UN slang are something in between aleatory shelter and a proper UNRWA-managed refugee camp. In the outskirts of Tyre. The housing was rather poor but the mosque was quite solid. "First things first" - said my neighbour when I pointed him the contrast between civil and religious architecture...

Arik Sharon

2008-11-27T11:14:00.001+01:00

An narrow alley at the Shatila refugee camp in Beirute. One shivers...

Joseph Brody

2008-11-27T11:12:00.005+01:00

"Aqua Alta" at the Burj el-Baraneh refugee camp in Beirute.

Max Fridman

2008-11-14T11:52:00.004+01:00

Just finnished the fourth installment of Giardino's tetralogy on the Spanish Civil War. Darker, less romantic than his previous works. Full of the politically correct assumptions about Rojos and Nacionales.

Jesus Christ

2008-11-14T11:52:00.003+01:00

A square in Ramallah. As far as artistic statement goes, it's a bit too much in your face ...

Michel Sabah

2008-11-14T11:49:00.001+01:00

A Award-cerimony gala in Ramallah... The former Latin Patriarch still has enough charisma in him...

Mahmoud Darwish

2008-11-14T11:47:00.001+01:00

Ramallah Cultural Palace: everybody pays tribute to the Palestinian Neruda...

Sadam Hussein

2008-11-14T11:46:00.001+01:00

The Baghdad shop in central Ramallah...

William Shakespeare

2008-11-14T11:44:00.001+01:00

"Henry V" played in Jerusalem, in English with Hebrew accent, at "The Lab"...

John Lennon

2008-11-14T11:40:00.001+01:00

With a child in the picture, Love is always a possibility...

Bruno Coquatrix

2008-11-14T11:39:00.002+01:00

It looks like a Music-Hall in the provinces circa 1970, but the MC is in fact a muezzim, who is about to chant a sura...

Yasser Arafat

2008-11-14T11:38:00.001+01:00

Ramallah Cultural Palace: a clever and multimedia tribute to the late Abu Amar...

Abu Amar

2008-11-14T11:36:00.001+01:00

A photo exibition in Ramallah on the anniversary of the death of the Palestinian national leader....

Abraham, Rachel, Jacob

2008-11-14T11:35:00.003+01:00

Close to the Tombs of the Patriarchs in Al~Khalil. Hardware of crowd control, depressing Ocupation tools...

Riad al-Malki

2008-11-14T11:32:00.001+01:00

A visit to Hebron with the Foreign Minister himself is disrupted...

Adam Smith

2008-11-14T11:30:00.001+01:00

The visible hands of market forces... Hebron Chamber of Commrerce

Baruch Goldstein

2008-11-14T11:28:00.001+01:00

Conspiracy theorists and practicioners everywhere... Hebron setllers are on a class of their own...

Magav

2008-11-14T11:25:00.001+01:00

Friendly warning from the Israeli police in the H2 area of Hebron/Al~Khalil...

Mary Cassath

2008-10-21T16:04:00.002+02:00

Arabesque graffiiti on the human skin...

Richard Attenborough

2008-10-21T16:02:00.002+02:00

A victory march like Arab revoltniks entering Damascus via Aqaba...

Teodosius

2008-10-21T15:58:00.003+02:00

Nablus: a portrait of a severe Greek Orthodox priest who seems to remind us that life in that particular spot has not been easy in the last half a a century...