“When I was 15 I did an internship in a museum and a cinema (where the first film ever was shot) and I went to the projectionist booth and learned how to roll a film, a “tangible” film that is, how to cut and tape both ends of a reel etc. I found this fascinating, to manipulate the actual object “film”. To have in your hands the images that will move in front of the audience eyes. And now I’m thinking of someone who edits film. How irreversible cutting into the roll must be. How necessarily bold it makes you in your choices.”

— An excerpt from au musée by my friend Alexia.

(via )

•  18 February 2013

Photograph, Cygnes, août 2009 — roseamer, by roseamer.

•  30 December 2012

“Sometimes I feel like the whole world is polarised by inferiority and superiority complexes, battles taking place in each one of us, and between us. I feel that every single argument in the world could be polarised between these two contradicting, yet indivisible forces. How tiring must it be, how tiring it is, to live, waging war to one own’s ego when all you’re tempted to do is waging it against everyone else’s.”

— Rose Amer 

•  30 December 2012

Photograph by Dhiyanah Abul Hassan 

P.S Background to the story behind me posting this beautiful photograph can be read here. Rim.

•  29 December 2012

Drawing by Dhiyanah Abul Hassan

P.S Background to the story behind me posting this drawing can be read here. Rim.

•  29 December 2012

Boats!!

I’ve been wanting and longing for nothing but…! During the weekend I followed my family on a trip to my father’s hometown. I spent most of my time looking at the ocean. I grew up near a beach but I haven’t really been to one in years. My sister ran around the sand collecting shells and broken things to show me. I stayed rooted to a rock or the ground, desperately clinging to my sketchbook and pencil, as if without them I’d be… ? (something, I don’t know). I managed to find some movement through them, though -  by frantically sketching as much as I could, as fast or slow as I could. There were boats! I sketched the boats. I can’t find the right words to describe what standing and watching the waves, the boats, feeling the highly-missed saltiness in the air… all that felt like. So I am sending a photograph, which is the view from where I stood while my sister went running around (there’s a fisherman digging the sand in the shot), and one of the spreads from my sketchbook drawn right after I took the photo. 

I too wish you all the boats you may need, literal and metaphorical ones - you couldn’t have said it better when you used the word ‘euphorically.’ I mean, honestly, what could be happier than having a boat, a vehicle that gives you license to roam the waters that move like they were made for dreams? To go onboard and move with them? Boats for all! Merry Christmas, Rima! I hope you’re having a wonderful day, and that you’re soon getting settled from your travels. Thank you so much for sending the meme, the message, the reference to boats.

Dhiyanah Abul Hassan

•  29 December 2012

I would love a boat. Most days there is so much I want to sail away from, from the minutiae detail that crowds and jostles in my head, to the wider despair of our fellow beings and the witnessing of us tearing ourselves and our precious planet apart. 

From my boat, I would be able to see the sea every day and I would be reminded of how fragile we are. I would feel the force of all that will remain forever a mystery and know the soothe and sedation of mists over a milky calm ocean. 

Imagined worlds would exist beneath me and unimagined above me. I would see the moon and stars mirrored in the Black Sea at night and clouds would ride on the backs of the rolling white horses in the day.

I would clean my deck and fish from the side of the boat and each day I would sing every song I have collected in my heart like a giant bucket of shells. I would have a telescope and seed for the migrating birds who would perch along the edge and rest.

You could not wish me more than a boat. Not ever. I hope the Christmas holiday is happy for you Rima, however you celebrate and whatever you do. I hope there is a lot of love around you. Peace and all blessing.

N.D

This beautiful letter was written by @sisika_ 

•  29 December 2012

roseamer: Je fais un métier vraiment très très intéressant. (Vous noterez le pseudo qui a laissé l’annonce.)

Moi: J’ai bien noté et je suis morte de rire. Toute l’annonce est comédie burlesque. Divin bordel ne fait pas dans la dentelle, divin bordel brode le tissu pailleté avec les sequins-paillettes rondes et phosphorescentes.  Merci d’envoyer CV et photos.

•  19 December 2012

I wrote it on twitter ten days ago perhaps, and I will write it again here to reach our tumblr friends. I love reading Caitlin ’s writing. She’s someone I’d like one day to welcome at Beirut’s airport and invite her to a Lebanese brunch and journey. You can follow her on her tumblr, and read her writing here and on her own personal site. Her writing is generous, authentic and brave. Her writing narrates various possibilities and nurtures our inner feminine voice. Rim.

(Source: rimeswriting)

•  10 December 2012

An excerpt from roseamer’s post. (Click on the link above to read the whole post).

I wonder how many people in western countries know about drones. I don’t own a TV and I don’t really follow the french media, and tend to rely on the internet to get news from around the world, so I don’t know if it’s something that is often discussed. I know for example that french military…

•  8 December 2012

Another awesome diptyque by roseamer :

Diptyque #101

* Ghazia Sadid, 26, a patient suffering from depression, pauses during an interview with Reuters at a mental hospital in Kabul, on November 14, 2012 — Reuters/Adnan Abidi via yanorayanora 

* Flying Birthday Origamis — Rima Dadenji
via rimeswriting 

•  7 December 2012

roseamer wrote : My progress in arabic is ridiculous but I quite like saying out loud nonsensical sentences. Obviously, I’m not going anywhere now, it’s almost 11 and the supermarket is closed.Might as well put it down in a few minutes, parce que le ridicule ne tue pas mais faut pas dèc.

I don’t know why I can’t watch it. I tried many times on my new MacBook Pro and on the iPad so it must be the shitty internet. I will try from another connection asap. Rim. (I couldn’t watch your latest vid either)

P.S This video is related to Alexia learning and speaking Arabic. 

•  13 October 2012

The last time I saw my dear friend Alexia was in March. We had sandwiches with goat cheese and honey and foie gras in a nice bobo-place, lots of gnocchi, way too many laughter, violet, orange blossom and jasmine ice cream from Terre Adélice in rue de Saint Jean in the Vieux Lyon (seriously it’s the best ice cream in the entire world), we sniffed perfumes chez Goutal, I added another vetiver to my collection and we created a new private joke, we watched a beautiful film (Argentinean?) about little fates at the cinema (refresh* my memory Alexia, I forgot the title and I can’t find my moleskine agenda) and we had several quirky adventures in Lyon but that is not the subject of my post. Alexia taught me about the bee propolis and the echinacea (I finally stopped taking antibiotics and surprise surprise I never got an ear inflammation nor severe tonsillitis since then) and I taught her about one of my very favorite Egyptian expressions ya batta. 

I remember we talked a lot about languages, about Arabic, Yiddish, about Italian and French grammar, about faith, about Islam, Judaism, and about atheism. Most of our talks were revolving around our multi-cultural identities and pluri-geo-roots and our mutual wit.

During our conversations, Alexia would use some Arabic words and expressions (she should in fact write a post about all the Arabic words and expressions she already knows) and I would open my eyes big and shriek Oh my God you’re pronouncing it so well ! Tu prononces mieux que moi ! She did. For real.Not for fiction.

While listening to the song she posted on her tumblr blog and reading her reminiscence, I experienced a beautiful Oh!  I knew she travelled half the world with her choir (she even went to China and to Russia!) but I had no idea she sang in Arabic. I know there is a strong link between singing and languages. Many studies have proven that children who learn how to sing in school or who are fond of singing are more apt to learn languages later on. The learning process becomes smooth and malleable like water. This explains in part (only in part) why Alexia pronounces the Arabic words and expressions so well.

I listened to the song again and tried writing down the words. I wrote the first verses.

عليك مني سلام يا أرض أجدادي

ففيك طاب المقام  وطاب إنـشادي

أحبـبـت فـيـك السهر  وبهجة النادي

أحبـبـت ضوء القمر والكوكب الهادي

والليل لما اعتكر  والنهر والوادي

والفجر لما انتشر  في أرض أجدادي

أهوى عيون العسل أهوى سواقـيها

أهوى ثلوج الجبل  ذابت لآنيها

Rendez vous sur skype afin de les lire et de décortiquer les racines ensemble ya batta.

Rim.

*Addendum: Alexia just refreshed my memory on twitter, so the film we watched was “Un Cuento Chino, with the actor who has the most sea-like eyes ever.”

(Source: rimeswriting)

•  2 October 2012

roseamer wrote: Alayki mini salam — Chœur des jeunes de Casablanca. I learnt this song when I was a kid, and forgot about it until today. I remembered the first words so I googled it and luckily found this. This song has always moved me deeply, even though as a kid I didn’t know what it meant, and this video brings so many memories back (if you’ve ever been part of a choir, I think you’ll understand). At 4’23” the director turns around and asks the audience to sing along, and even if the quality of the singing is far from being perfect, it is truly moving. With thanks to roseamer.

•  2 October 2012

Another Awesome Diptyque by roseamer: 

Diptyque #95

* Familiar — Alex Cretey Systermans
via systermans 

* Self portrait — Murab
via murab 

Nota Bene. I am so happy I have the best hashtags/sections on my tumblr blog for this awesome diptyque. ( Ha! , My Friends Are Awesome , Photography and …. Fog , re-Ha! ) By the way Alexia has decided - two weeks ago- to take off the hyphen from her tumblr blog url. So currently everything authored by her and featured on my own blog is broken linked ( more or less, unless it’s within those two weeks) I corrected some past ones, but correcting all will take time as I don’t have an archive button. So this is the link to her same blog but sans hyphen.  Rim.

•  30 September 2012