cycling- a photo an hour on Lebanon’s coast

 

 

 

in 2013 with my colleague at the time, Maria and i choose to take on the challenge of running the 10k once again but this time not stopping once throughout the entire “race”. then i decided to take a photograph a minute between strides which resulted in some, if even, average  images. if you insist you can see them in an earlier blog post.
now after a few years of having the desire to, i’ve embarked on a Lebanese coastal cycling trip. along with two other friends, Eliesh and Ibrahim. riding north from Saida to Tripoli in 3 days and 2 nights via Beirut & Batroun. some said but you can do that in a few hours or in a day or 2 max, why are you taking so much time?
for the adventure and pleasure of it. to discover to experience to learn. so, on this trip i’ve chosen to take a photograph each hour of our 70 hour (or so) journey.
i hope you’ll agree with me that these have come out better this time around than the bumpy ride of the 10k experiment 5 years ago. surely, if nothing else the photos are more stable. running on foot is far less smooth than this, cycling on a paved road. though most of the images were taken off of the bicycle.
i hope that through these images you’ll get a sense of the joy that we experienced in these three days.

 

 

speaking hands

the hands are an instrument of our mind. – Maria Montessori

Sally- flight attendant

Sebastian- doctor

Emily- sales representative

Natalie- flight attendant

Rawan- secretary

Miguel- art gallery owner

Enrique- restaurant business owner

Hugo- chef

Eugina- baker, cook

Miguel- chauffeur

Ricardo- waiter

Mario- chaufer

Grecia- student

Leo- sales personnel

Omar- tour guide

Mike- sales personnel

Suleiman- manager

Maryam- professor, activist

Mimo & Semo- the raison d’etre for the adventure and vacation

Sheryl- baker, sales personnel

Fernando- baker

Nicolas- sales personnel

Kamir- sales personnel

Steve- sales personnel

Jannai- hiker, business owner

Manuel- hiker, waiter, restaurant worker

Doug- waiter

Diego- waiter/barista

Bryn- museum attendant/guide

Katie- manager

Heather- yoga instructor & studio owner

Jumana- urban planner

Daniel- waiter

Michel- consultant

Andrew- ice cream server

Sitto- teta, home maker

Jacqueline- student, activist

Amelia- ceramist, designer

Jackie- ice cream server

Ty- dancer, educator, activist,

Ahimsa- artist

Beatrice- waitress

Leena- advocate, activist

Mehdi- student

Eric- cook

Zeinab- researcher

Rana- musician

Stan- retired writer

Nancy- retired

Cathy- sales personel

Evan- museum attendant

Melissa- artist, educator

Hannah- designer, student

Jane- clinical psychologist

Lucy- landscape designer, gardner

Puy- actress, activist, writer

Jill- flight attendant

Claudia- flight attendant

Francois- travel clerk

 

in the summer of 2015 i recorder the hands of most of the people whom i interacted with and came across over a 6 week period in the US and Mexico.

hands can sometimes mesmerize me. they accomplish so much yet those who do not have any fascinated us by their ability to find alternate ways of achieving what we take for granted on a daily basis. hands are beautiful and telling of many things perhaps.

rLOVEution

wOw where to begin?!? it’s easy to say that this is a dream come true!!! here we are ya sabaya ou shabab (girls & boys) after 20 years of being on the streets pumping my fist throughout the world i never could have thought about all of what happened last night in a single event here in Beirut. we have a lot of hard work to do now ya helwin (lovelies) BUT may our fists always be stronger than their bullets, chemical tear gas, water trucks and batons. WE WILL ALWAYS BE ONE IN OUR HEARTS. this is our chance to prove it to ourselves first then the rest of the world. #takeittothestreets #nevergiveup #REVOLUTION #revolutionbeirut #Paolofreire #LaoTzu Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step…from caring comes courage.
– Lao Tzu

#‎surrounded‬ #police ‪#‎ammunitions ‪#‎teargas‬ ‪#‎escalation‬ ‪#‎trash‬ ‪#‎waste‬ ‪#‎garbage‬ ‪#‎trashcoveredcar‬ ‪#‎gemayze‬ ‪#‎tfou‬! ‪#‎REVOLUTION‬ ‪#‎revolutionbeirut‬ ‪#‎historyinthemaking‬ ‪#‎enoughisenough‬ #meanstreetsbeirut

#طلعت_ريحتكم

cover up…

https://www.facebook.com/events/397270657128578/

drape me in jasmine vines in this crescent city swoon. i’ve got the flavor baby you just give me the time. ain’t no misbehaving i got your best interest in mind… – Rising Appalachia

 

Share this:

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

– Maya Angelou

december 27th, 2013

what happens when someone you know dies?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated and you watch his son whom you’ve been friends with for a decade mourn?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated and you watch his son whom you’ve been friends with for a decade mourn and your parents who were friends with him for over twenty years in pain?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated and you watch his son whom you’ve been friends with for a decade mourn and your parents who were friends with him for over twenty years in pain and it happened four blocks from your workplace and three blocks from your parents home?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated and you watch his son whom you’ve been friends with for a decade mourn and your parents who were friends with him for over twenty years in pain and it happened four blocks from your workplace and three blocks from your parents home on the corner of the building where you used to work?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated and you watch his son whom you’ve been friends with for a decade mourn and your parents who were friends with him for over twenty years in pain and it happened four blocks from your workplace and three blocks from your parents home on the corner of the building where you used to work and you heard the explosion?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated and you watch his son whom you’ve been friends with for a decade mourn and your parents who were friends with him for over twenty years in pain and it happened four blocks from your workplace and three blocks from your parents home on the corner of the building where you used to work and you heard the explosion and the story makes international headlines?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated and you watch his son whom you’ve been friends with for a decade mourn and your parents who were friends with him for over twenty years in pain and it happened four blocks from your workplace and three blocks from your parents home on the corner of the building where you used to work and you heard the explosion and the story makes international headlines and two others you loved died in the same week?

what happens when someone you know and cared for dies suddenly because they were assassinated and you watch his son whom you’ve been friends with for a decade mourn and your parents who were friends with him for over twenty years in pain and it happened four blocks from your workplace and three blocks from your parents home on the corner of the building where you used to work and you heard the explosion and the story makes international headlines and two others you loved died in the same week?

i continued to breath!

as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. Nelson Mandela

as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
Nelson Mandela

i have the need to say something very precise, but i don’t need to say it in a precise way…i have to be clear in my intentions, not in my words… – Etel Adnan

for the first time ever i ran a 10k “marathon” yesterday and chose to take ONE PHOTOGRAPH A MINUTE on the way throughout the entire path… this is what my eyes saw. i’d to share Beirut like this with you.

advertising signs that con you into thinking you’re the one that can do what’s never been done that can win what’s never been won. Bob Dylan

if the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears ― Mahmoud Darwish

a movie & the moon

clouds bring the F-stop blues – Jack Johnson

the best invention of the 21st century (maybe after the 3d printer)

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/enfojer-portable-smartphone-photographic-enlarger

the best invention of the 21st century (maybe after the 3d printer)

the best invention of the 21st century (maybe after the 3d printer)

little boys leave smudges on your heart. – unknown

when life gives you lemons make grape juice and sit back and watch the world ask how you did it ― Tori Truax

skiddy bi bap scooby doo we love you – Sugarhill Gang

 

 

 

 

somehow life has been teaching me that the less i expect the more joyful it is to exist

if you have three dreams to pursue be sure to realize two and keep one for the sake of keep on keeping on (transliterated) – Sabrina Hamoud

I cut so much you thought I was a DJ… so don’t change the dizzle, turn it up a little – Snoop Dogg

if a building looks better under construction than it does when finished, then it’s a failure. Doug Coupland

europe and the rest of us

today i received an email from George Soros the founder and Chairman of the SOROS foundation. this is a seldom occurrence so i was very curious towards its content and it’s brevity made me even more attracted. so i read a call for “Solidarity with Europe”. http://www.solidaritynow.org/en/?utm_source=gs_all&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=gs_all_030413&utm_content=text_link3 the situation in Europe is disheartening and an inevitable one ever since the fall of the US’ economy since a few greedy Americans saw an incredible loss to their system and subsequently that of the rest of the world’s, not to mention many bad decisions made within Europe and short comings of various Europeans snowballing the negative effect of our entire world’s economy.

i was very touched and i am easily when any call to humanity is made for the sake of our fellow humans. however, the other side of me was shocked. after watching the video i was in awe in fact. i could barely stop thinking about it throughout the day and i felt continuously saddened and very sorrowful, not to mention angry as well due to feelings of frustration.

i thought immediately, before i even finished reading the short SOROS email, about the rest of the world. the majority of the world. the part that has been left neglected for SO long. why should we care now that Europe is falling? why should things matter now all of a sudden when they haven’t mattered enough in Uganda and Zambia, or El Salvador and Argentina. Why should i choose Europe and Europeans over South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, or Central America and their residents? They too are our fellow inhabitors of this place. no? But, i have never once received a call by email in solidarity with any of these other continents or other parts of the world. i really don’t feel like getting into an even seemingly academic, post imperialist or anti-colonial discourse here by any means, though it could have otherwise been an appropriate time to do so. all of that’s no the only point. but i find it insensitive that after countless decades and centuries of the third world being raped by Europe that now we should all find the compassion and the place in our hearts for a continent that rarely had any for the rest of the world to begin with. you say balance of power and yade yade yadi YAH. i say to hell with all of that old school history lesson. when i see a headline in my inbox that reads “Time for Solidarity in Europe” i can’t help but remember when there was not enough solidarity towards the invasion of Iraq or the wars in Rwanda, Afghanistan, Palestine or Syria. there people were dying due to an oppressive system not just a faulty economy. it’s true that such debilitating economies are like a disease that slowly eats away at a persons moral but does that mean that we leave aside the sudden blows, accidents and serious knocks on the head that occur in our lives?

i have never felt injustice run so deep and so vain.

as a citizen of the world (and it took me years to be able to identify as that without feeling elitist) i am honestly just not able to distinguish between the economic suffering of the Nicosians or Barcelonans over that of the average citizen of Baghdad or Damascus. Why should we value one so much more than the other? Why am I expected to care more for Europe? Damn it.

i want to see another president B4 i die – grafitti on the walls of Cairo 24/2/2011