Gas Station's Flower Vase - Damascus Road

Romanticism in a plastic water bottle at a gas station in Lebanon.


*updated: added white frame for the black from the open door escapes and makes the composition heavy on one side. that's balance in context of a website with a black background.

*update 2: changed the background of the blog to Grey.

Play - since you like to play - and don't loose that play liking habit.

At around 11am, I was driving somewhere between St. Nicholas and Sofil.
I saw her, but I do not have a photo.

She was skipping rope, jumping one jump after the other, playing alone, between 2 cars parked on the side road park-meter.

She is one of those kids who annoy you when you are already annoyed by the traffic jam, one of those kids, who at 11am are not at a school. One, of those kids like all kids, who likes to play.

This capacity children have to stop everything, forget everything and play is amazing; forget the traffic, the money, the work, the sun, the shoe, the people and... jump.

Jump, play, dream. I want to too. (just playing with the "too to" sound)

Shop Nothing - Ashrafieh, Beirut.

A Shop from"Back-in-the-time-when-I-was-your-age, Beirut was different" daddy says.

One of the many shops in Geitawi, Ashrafieh area, open daily and selling barely nothing.
As the area is getting more and more attention from real estate gurus, old rental contracts, are hopefully wishing they will be "thrown out" ( اخلاء ) at a higher price when keeping a business; even if the business is a few shoes dating from the 80's where you get the dust for free, if you ever consider the bargain.

Meanwhile, the shop owner, was eating "Banadoura Baladi" (local tomatoes) with labneh at the front desk!

Guest post : Hala Dabaji - TERRORISM or the Beirut Building Boom

Hala Dabaji, an artist with a keen urban eye, located this mutating graffiti. You can see some of her work on her website.

"Series of panels at the entrance of a building site, next to my studio.

The construction workers move the panels each time they open / close the entrance to the site

They are definitely not playing standard scrabble. They say these are the Beirut Building Boom vocabulary" Hala Dabaji

(The last couple of year, everyday a historical building goes down, everyday a sky scraper is born. In addition to artists' reaction, activists, creating a facebook group Save Beirut Heritage, reacted last month with a demonstration. Many are furious but not much is changing.)