Hanging On

Look at this photo. It's bold, structural. It's got great lines, straight and not so straight. The shadows add a lot, doubling the left-over awning's impact. In the background, the sky is my favorite kind of Beirut Blue.

I'm also struck by the fragility of this place. So many parts of it look like they're barely holding together, barely hanging on.  So much of it looks ready to fall over or get blown away by the next stiff wind.

Delight

I happened to pass this place recently.

Such a delightful collection of planes, shadows, directional lines, intersections, angles. I'm glad I found it.

Cut Vines

I posted a picture of this building once before. I said I'd return to take a picture of it when the vines became leafy again.

I came back, but the vines didn't. Someone is fighting back. Someone is trying to conquer them and it looks like they will.

Mouth Full

It's risky to publish pictures of things you can't read. I might end up being quite sorry I did.

Even though I'm Arabic-illiterate I like it. It's well done, it's comic, it's entertaining to look at. Who is this funny bald guy with crazy eyes, wearing a straight-jacket? The look of it makes me want to understand it.

Sunshine

I used to love the rain. Puddles and rainbows and umbrellas; they're so much fun. Plus, rainy days were sort of rare when I was a kid. Rare things are easier to adore than common ones.

Living in Germany changed things. Going for more than a month without seeing the sun even one time . . . that undid my ever-since-I-was-little preference for cloudy, rainy gray.

These days, I don't love rainy days more or less than their sunny opposites. They just are what they are and they're both good.

Got a Lot to Say

Graffiti. Today's the day for it at City Daily Photo. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Typical graffiti in Beirut near AUB. Don't really read Arabic, myself. But the boycott stuff is something I've been hearing a lot about lately. Burger King, Gloria Jeans, H&M are all targets of consumer boycotts because they have opened stores in Israel's illegal settlements. The idea is that global consumer pressure will lead to political changes that will improve the situation of Palestinians.

It's a long shot.

Good Intentions

I meant to post this last night. I meant to do it before I got distracted by other things.

It's one of those pictures that seems simultaneously open and closed.

Step Out

Here's a tiny balcony that I admire every time I see it. Look how small it is. It's just big enough to host a small gathering of plants, just big enough for the lucky resident to throw open the shutters and step out into the sun.

Charmed

I saw this amazing place while I was walking the other day.

There's a lot to love here, a lot to comment on. But the only thing that I'm going to say anything about is that absolutely perfect teardrop shaped window. It's baffling but also completely charming.

Wheels

One morning, I passed this odd set of wheels on the sidewalk. The crates had been bound together. The bases of the two on top had been cut out, so all together they made one really tall jumbo-crate.

I haven't seen it since that day. It hasn't been there. I guess that's what they call serendipity.