The "drawing" of the neighborhood girls - رسم بنات الحارة

These are more amazing photos I found in the "photo archive box" of E.S., {see previous entry here} , shot in a studio in Zahlé, thought I'd share...

The text in Arabic says: 

"Dear Joseph, 

Here I send you an 'imprint' (or a 'drawing') of the girls of the Harra (small closed neighborhood) with the dearest René" ; dated 1947 and mentioning the names of the 4 women.

it seems as if the sender is actually presenting studio shot portraits of young women eligible to marry for the bachelor to "have a look". 


Some of the women, appear in this other photo (with no text or date), wonder if the 2nd photo was sent to another bachelor after Joseph answered whom he would like to meet (and mary?), also a younger girl is introduced to the group, maybe she just turned to that age when she is "eligible to marry", she does look younger than 18, maybe a 16 year old? 
whom would you pick gentlemen to be with you for the rest of your life, ...based on a photo?


Social media, referral and communication at its beginning. Lovely! (or not).

All-Blue tinted Laundry - Ashrafieh Streets

Traditional Beiruty home, with green plants very well taken care of and very neatly hanged laundry on the front porch...(now about why they are all blue, I've made a hundred stories in my head: a superhero lives there, this is part of his costume, it's a magical tint that her grandma told her keeps the underwear fresh and soft for her man, there are dark ones and light ones, she hangs them approximately from older to newer? or next week, if i pass the street again, will it be all green tint?...) ; while contemplating... that's gonna soon be replaced with all-polished towers with curtain glass balconies were no sun reaches the ground floor, but thankfully you can hear the drying machine. That's evolution.

"A" Sukleen Story

 That's the old Sukleen green bin with the S we all know...
(this photo is from their website, since they did rebrand the whole city but not the website yet)







For 2 weeks, we had beautiful colorful bins with the new logo - a kind of a walking 'A' for Averda, the mother company, according to their website. (I thought they were compensating for the missing flowers in Beirut)











...But now, we are back to the green garbage bins, only using the new logo.
Does this mean that the colorful bins where just a tactic communication practice to get the new logo noticed?











Conclusion ; the new logo got noticed, not sure I like it, but I appreciated the colorful bins, and would have preferred if they stayed longer on the streets... And, I am still calling them (= the bins, the guys, the company, the green!) Sukleen _ till now, it's Sukleen with the 'A' logo.

I Met This Man

I met this man one week ago, in his 110 year old traditional house and terrace, where he invited me for lunch. (Well not just myself, but also my brother, newly wed to his granddaughter and the two families.) He still has that charming way of his in starring directly into your eyes and telling you stories. Not any fairy tale, but real life stories from back in the days and up till yesterday: he is a recording memory of all the story of his life and parallel events and an analyst of all of these combined; he's well experienced in other words. though this 93 year old man is now living alone in Zahlé with a house keeper and his daughters pay him a visit every day or two, he likes telling stories of his travels all around the globe from Russia to Brazil to any listening ear willing to pay attention.
His charm and acuity while telling a story is just surprising. When I told him that I just love this photo of his (it somehow reminds me of beautiful roman man and actors in fellini's Satyricon) and might want to use it somewhere, maybe on the net, he replied: take it, and take more of my photos, what does a man my age needs them for now? and I've got plenty: 93 years of photos, spread them around and talk about me, also maybe I would still interest some woman, who knows.