AUC Press revolution works, festival prompt some skepticism

AUC Press revolution works, festival prompt some skepticism

I don't appreciate what seems like AUC's and AUC Press's appropriation of a revolution for commercial purposes, but I also believe that they were between a rock and a hard place: after all, at the time when the new AUC campus was inaugurated Suzanne Mubarak was the First Lady of Egypt, so it was not inappropriate for them to invite her to serve in this capacity. On the other hand, many of AUC's actions during the revolution were, in my opinion, indefensible.

Another Battle for Tahrir

Check out this link:
http://bambuser.com/channel/sherifboraie/broadcast/1778383
It's happening right now!
Here's more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/egypt-protesters-tahrir-square_n_886559.html?ref=fb&src=sp
and
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/472461

More on Desroches Noblecourt

A very nice article from AP as published in the Contra Costa Times:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nation-world/ci_18357245?

I particularly like this bit about her involvement with the French Resistance and her arrest:
"During World War II, Desroches frequented some members of the French Resistance and was arrested in December 1940. 'I thought I was done for,' she told Le Monde. 'I told them what I thought of them, and I don't know why, they let me go after two days.'"

French Egyptologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt dies

One of the many articles about this amazing woman published on the occasion of her death at the age of 97: http://networkedblogs.com/jCTMc The world owes her a debt of gratitude for the development of the campaign to salvage many of the monuments which would have been swallowed up by the waters of Lake Nasser back in the 1960s when the Aswan Dam was built. She will be missed!

Chuffed!

Yes, I'm feeling rather chuffed today. I just got word from the advertising agency that has been working on the new "Egypt Tourism Authority" website that it was finally up and running. They had contacted me before the revolution about using this Ramesseum photo I had taken several years ago to illustrate that page. I had completely forgotten about it until I received the email today. I think it looks rather nice!

Egypt Tourism Authority - Egypt: Where it all begins - Ramesseum: Ramses II's Mortuary Temple

Not Egypt - Amsterdam Building "Art"

These photos were all taken on one street in Amsterdam during my April visit:

Ancient Egypt follows me to Amsterdam!

Cats too!

Love this reflection of the building across the street (see next)

Not Egypt - Leiden by Night

A couple of "reflection" photos I took at night in Leiden during my visit in April:

The old market over the Rhine

Not Egypt--The Tulip Fields of Holland

On my way back from Luxor in April I spent just over three days in Amsterdam and Leiden. It was a wonderful visit and I took these shots of fields of tulips from my train back to Paris via Rotterdam. Enjoy!

"Egipte, panorama des rives du Nil"

An interesting 49-second film from the Lumière brothers in 1895:

The Doors of Luxor

Click here to view this photo book larger

End of the Library Season...

The library was inundated on Friday, April 8. Not surprising, since it was the last day of our season! Everyone will now have to wait for late October to come and see us... You can see part of the crowd in this photo:

And on Saturday morning, I was faced with the task of re-shelving the hundreds (well...233 to be precise!) items used. "Before":

And "After":

I must admit that I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I had finished! But sorting, counting, organizing and shelving only took an hour and three quarters, about 15 minutes longer than I had predicted. Forty-two years (I started working as a "shelver" for the El Cerrito (CA) Library in April 1969) of experience paid off!!

Tut! Tut!

Courtesy of Photos of Princess Beatrice's ridiculous Royal Wedding Hat

Can Egypt Protect Its Ancient Monuments? - Newsweek

Words of wisdom from Dr. Kent Weeks. Will anyone heed them?

Can Egypt Protect Its Ancient Monuments? - Newsweek

Glorious...

Last Thursday from the roof. No words needed, I think!

Cairo: Day 1 - Tentmakers

As evening fell in Islamic Cairo, we finally arrived at Tentmakers' Street (souk/bazaar/khan). Until I read an entry on Jenny Bowker's blog "Postcards from Cairo" I did not know that this covered street was built in 1647 for shoemakers. The fact that it is a covered street lined on both sides with narrow shops lends the shopping experience there a kind of intimacy. And the prices are certainly much more reasonable than if you were purchasing these same items in the Khan el-Khalili or in a shop in Luxor!

Khan Khayamiya (Tentmakers) at night

I was heading to see my friend Ayman Molokhya, from whom I had purchased three wonderful pieces last March--and I just realized that I never posted those pictures:

I couldn't quite remember where Ayman was located, just that his shop was on the right as one headed south along the street, so I ended up stopping to visit with, and eventually buy from, a lovely older gentleman, Ashraf Hashem. He was able to show me some new product lines: dervishes with skirts of silk and appliquéd canvas bags. Of course, we had to drink. This is an important part of any visit in Egypt. This evening we opted for hot karkaday (hibiscus). While I looked and we visited, Ashraf asked me my name and proceeded to draw it in calligraphic shapes: a bird, a fish, a mandolin and a teardrop!

Delightful! And here are my purchases from this shop:

As we were leaving and heading out of Tentmakers, we saw Ayman outside his shop. He recognized me and we stopped to chat and admire his work. But both Andy and I were too exhausted to do any serious shopping at this point. So I gave him the photo we had had taken last time:

And I promised him I would return. Which I did, but that's the subject of another post...

Cairo: Day 1 (March 18)

Andy and I got a bit of a late start on Friday, since my last-plane-of-the-day from Luxor didn't get in to Cairo until 1:05 a.m.! So we stopped for lunch at CityStars, a huge shopping mall in Heliopolis. I'd never been there before--it was a real eye-opener! I believe there are at least three Starbucks! By the way, we had Mexican food. ;]

From there we took a taxi to Bab al-Futuh (Open Gate), which is where, long ago, the annual pilgrim caravan used to enter Cairo on its return from Mecca.

Walking south through the heart of Islamic Cairo along Sharia el-Muizz is an adventure. You are surrounded by a vast assortment of mosques, mausolea, wikalas (formerly bonded warehouses with rooms for merchants upstairs), maristans (a medieval term for public hospitals), madrassas (a designation for theological schools), sabils (public fountains or water cisterns--sometimes quite elaborate structures), kuttabs (Koranic schools, usually for boys or orphans), khanqahs (monasteries) and combinations thereof. I had visited many of these during my visits in March and April of 2010, so I chose to visit only one this time: the Mosque of al-Aqmar.

"Al-ahmar" means "the moonlit" and the mosque gets its name from the way its masonry glitters under the moon's light.

Along this street you will find shopping galore. Here's a small sample:

The "Parisian" flair displayed here caught my eye! ;]

Some shopping experiences are very basic. Witness this balady (country) bread for sale:

Directly across the street from the Madrassa & Mausoleum of Barquq is the new Egyptian Textile Museum, housed in a sabil built by order of Mohammed Ali Pasha to commemorate his son Ismail who died in the Sudan in 1822. No photos allowed inside, and I managed to forget to take a photo of the exterior! A nicely laid out museum with excellent and informative signage, it presents a journey through the history of fabric from Pharaonic (Tutankhamun's loin-cloth, for example) to Coptic and including every Islamic era. An astonishing piece can be found almost at the end of the tour. Cairo 360 says this about it: "A room towards the end of the museum features a massive Kiswab. From early on in Islamic history until the 20 century, the banners hanging over the Kaaba in Mecca were made right here in Egypt. With thick golden thread embellishing the calligraphy over a black backdrop, this is one of the most stunning pieces in the museum." For more info, check out this link: Egyptian Textile Museum.

Just outside the museum we ran into a party! Lots of young people listening to music and obviously enjoying themselves. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with the revolution, but it was great fun.

And here's a short video:

There are many interesting architectural features and nooks and crannies in this part of Cairo. Here are just a few that we saw this day:

Mashrabiyas

More mashrabiyas

We decided that when we reached the pedestrian overpass at Sharia al-Azhar it would be a good idea to shoot a video of Cairo traffic:

At one point you hear me saying something about "empty spaces". It's pretty astonishing to see any gaps between vehicles in Cairo traffic!

And this is what pedestrian traffic looked like on our way to Bab Zuweyla and beyond:

We felt a little, well, actually a lot, like salmon swimming upstream! Here are some new friends we made on our trek:

And, finally for this post, here is a theme which kept recurring throughout my visit to Cairo--garlic! Garlic, garlic everywhere:

Even when we were stuck in traffic on the ring road and rolled down the car window, garlic fumes would waft in from trucks carrying enormous loads. No vampires here!

NEXT POST: My first Tentmakers' Street experience of the visit.