NYC: Autumn

posted by Jamila

When I picked up Vanity Fair in its plastic covering off the ground in front of the door, two brown leaves were stuck to it. Slightly wet with rain, the leaf filth delighted, really. Jazz notes slipping out of the saxophone across the street, & the smell of charcoal... Little spiders here & there, everywhere, warming their awful little feet on my walls. I leave the window open & pull on a sweater. What a luxury.

Firenze, Italy: A bit voyeuristic

posted by Jamila




When I lived in Florence, my window looked out upon a small street whose name I forget. Across the street was another apartment building, and there was a particular apartment whose windows were often open. Into those windows I would watch. No people ever entered the scene; it was as if no one lived there. But somebody worked there. Somebody read and wrote in that apartment, and I enviously would stare at their large desk full of books and papers. In the movie version of my life, I would have sent a paper airplane with a note flying over.


Neighbor,
Tell me, what do you ponder here at this desk?
Yours!,
Lady J, across the way


(That doesn't sound too desperate, does it?)

BH.net & Brooklyn: Jamila goes to church

posted by Jamila

While Border Hopping.net is a-building, take some time to view a recent project of mine: Jamila Goes To Church: going to her Sunday Mass, Jamila in the heart & soul of Brooklyn. Just another Church day in Bed-Stuy, one of the few places left on Earth where "Sunday Best" is very real.

Morocco: Journey into the Desert (part i)

To reach the sands of the Sahara = their ambition.

So in a rickety van they entered the Atlas Mountains early in the morning.



There were many roads to choose.... or.... just one that curved every which way as it snaked around the mountainsides.



Around noon they paused to visit a small casbah, one that supposedly served as the location for a scene in the film Gladiator. But there were no movie stars there on this particular day...



A donkey ride led them across the river...



So they could stalk the interior of the small medieval city, old as stone.



Back on their journey, they watched the landscape change, from barren and windswept...



To rich and green...



They drove; others walked. It was a long journey into the desert, it was...



To be continued...


photos by Jamila & Brett