Sabri Header1 Sabri Hakim: September 2005

Friday, September 30, 2005

"Have you seen the keys anywhere?"


Mercedes Benz, Ghargoor, held the launch of the S Class 2006 in the Four Seasons Hotel, Nancy Ajram was there but she was insignificant to what I saw outside, it was 2 days ago, I passed by the hotel on my way back home, the SLR Mercedes Benz was parked outside and thought it would be a great opportunity to pull a joke, I walked towards it pretending to be in search of its keys, and asked the guy guarding it, "Have you seen the keys anywhere?" I know its another lame joke of mine but I really felt the urge, he said surprisingly not upset by the joke "Maybe you left them at home!" and looked away, I thought to my self if I can pull this off! No I didn’t think that. I asked about the car and about a few of its specs and found out that it's around JD 750,000. I thought maybe if I nag on him enough he will let me have it, but the car behind mine beeped at me and gave me a look, so I went home.

"3amo, ano jareede hay?"


A flying bubble gum came through the window of my car and landed on my right thigh, I told the boy I don't have any change on me, he saw that a camera was attached to my neck and a tripod was laying on the passenger seat next to me, he asked with his face about an inch from mine "3amo, ano jareede hay" (which newspaper) "I told him khalas 3aib 3amo sit down!" heheh, don't ask me why, guess I was afraid of pointing the camera from so close and risking him harming it in any way, when he sat I told him "You want your picture taken?", he nodded I snapped the frame, the traffic light turned green and I had to move. I thought a lot about posting this or not but thought if he didn't mind it being in a newspaper, he sure wouldn't mind it being in a blog! I wish life wasn't as complicated as it is for these kids, as a child I always thought that when I grew up I would go out one, day search for homeless boys, bring them back home, give them a shower and have my wife and I cook them a good meal (with soup of course) and then putting them to bed early. Now I grew up and still want to do the same.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Winter is here and I have proof




















First Visible Daylight Raindrop

Apple ZZzzZzZZZzzZZzzzZ


Its Wednesday night and the whole family decides they want to do something together, I'm not taking father mother and brothers, I mean the whole family, you must know I come from a big family and we are close to one another, with over 20 cousins in one age group you can't imagine how we mingle, anyhow they were hungry and Applebee's seemed it would serve the purpose right, we got there each one arriving a minute or two apart making a period of 40 minutes between the first and the last to arrive. It's nice to see that Applebee's has opened here; I kept making these lame jokes "So are you going back to the hotel after this?" It really felt like you were out of the country, the design of the place and food quantities all distributed to the atmosphere of an American diner, aside from the crying baby next our table, the late food, the wrong bill, the pixilated Arabic logo on your menu, the uncomfortable chairs, the lack of ventilation, the breaking of glasses around, the constant back and forth questioning of the waiters "Did you like your plate?" and the 4 times I asked for butter and mustard but didn't get it, the restaurant is a alright 7/10! for one they have a smoking and nonsmoking section (you don’t want to know what I have to say after going to the Ousra). I would say it would serve you best on weekdays and to a crew of no more than 3-5 people, the food was good the average price of a plate is JD7-9 ++. If you’re a dessert person I recommend the Oreo. fattening like all good things are.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

"Green apples, anyone, I beg you?"


Happy little kids selling green apples in Downtown Amman for a second it made me smile, in a previous post you saw the pictures of the same boys giggling and laughing that's because of a smart joke I memorized, the more time I spent with these boys the harder reality stroke, older men passing by slapping and verbally abusing them, in the picture below you can see the physical scars on one of the boys faces, never mind the emotional ones I'll convince my self there aren’t any.

Faces of The Balad, pictures I took last week

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Shooting on a friends fuel tank


Myth Busted, shooting on a friends fuel tank will not cause their car to explode think of other practical jokes! This was revealed on one of the recent episodes of Myth Busters, Shooting targets in the head is seems to do the job better or so it suggests, also hiding behind the doors of your cars can't protect you! Bullets will actually go through the door in the car and out the other side. If you are planning a gun fight Bullet Proof Cars seems to be the safest way to go.

Scooter in my hometown


5 or 6 of us out on a Friday afternoon cruising around Amman on our scooter, not wearing helmets drinking from our water bottles, stopping to refuel, seems like a Cypress vacation, that is now reality, (I still didn't read the article everyone's been talking about can't find it on Jordan times, but this is commenting on what I heard) I see how allowing scooters in Amman eases the whole oil price increase scenario, but it is just unreasonable allowing the public starting at 18 years of age to ride 250cc scooters, these can go up to speeds of over 150km/h that is faster than most Sunny Taxi's, a few days back I was watching professionals race on 125cc bikes on Euro Sports and they seemed too fast. This is way too dangerous for our crazy youth, it should be rather introduced to the public for those above 21 and no more than 100cc's and increase the cc's annually. (Again I'm not sure of the exact laws and regulations)

Monday, September 26, 2005

The New Civic

Honda has redesigned its most popular car The Great Civic I call it, although it seems too modern and too high tech for what the average Civic driver is asking for. They should have created a new product line kept the production of the old Civic in progress, there is a reason it was the number one selling car in the world and that was not because of its looks. Civic and mid-size Accord models account for almost half of Honda's U.S. sales, and since its sales have dropped in the past few years they believe this new model will revive its sales once again, bearing in mind that this new model is 30-40% more expensive than the old models. It will be selling in Amman for around JD 24,000 where as the 2005 models used to sell at JD15-17,000 this might pretty much take out middle class drivers and offer the new Civic experience to a different target market.

The Start

Good day to you all, this is just the start of my blog, thanks to tahboub who inspired me to do so, I will be posting my new photo shoots as well as some of my poetry and at a later stage discussions and thoughts. Feel free to comment

Ghost Factory

Ghost Factory by Ghaith Al-Lawzi.

Just finished reading this book 2 weeks back and felt I must recommend, the author is Jordanian, the story feels close to home, and the constant stream of thoughts and remarks made by the main character provided constant imagery that lead the reader on a journey through the eyes and in the mind of a young rich and maybe spoiled Arab experiencing the high life of an Egyptian, shining more light on what seems bright to others.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Street, taken on the 6th circle near KFC

Friday, September 23, 2005

(lets, just us two) my latest poem

Let's, just us two

I transfer thoughts through verbal means to communicate to you,
It's all over compromised I have gotten confused too,
I have found a stream with no barriers its one just for two
Let me run to take away me and you,
On a large body of water I will float
Come travel on brownish blackish wood gathered for you
Blue vibrant liquids we can cross come in, it can only lift two
Let's cross oceans and break up gathering bubbles in our way,
Let's hold hands and make them two,
Let's take grip of one another, until I confuse my prints with you,
Let's recreate a smiling face,
I will reconstruct your cheek bones to make them look like you want them to,
We will arrive, on land meeting ocean
I will build a bed of delicate fish bones
Today we are light travelers
Tonight we will be too excited to sleep
Let's burn a flame and create warmth that challenges ours and laugh at its defeat,
Nothing can harm you here,
Smell, breath, love, scream its all for you
I see a coconut next to pink mocking bird on top of a well fed deer.
Our meal is here,
Let the mixture of flesh reach harmony without subsidized herbs,
Tonight you and I will feast.
I love you,
Let's be thank full, for we need the grace of god,
Tomorrow is a new day; we have to discover more lands ones that suits us two
I have built the bed just right so our feet can't feel lost or insecure.
Tomorrow I will build another one, for now its time to sleep,

Awaken, you’re a body of inspiration that without I cannot do,
You’re a greek goddess with an Indian smile.
You're extravagant and will shine in the outside dew
You're me and I am you.
Its year one and today is just number two,
Let's meet the founding fathers of all nations,
Let's meet their thoughts and unalike ado,
Bright greens & dark reds on top of moisturized browns under water colored blue,
Walk with me; I can lead the way,
I'm the eyes of an African,
The heart of a dead soldier,
I'm the fingernails of every Caucasian, ones that you can see the dirt through
I'm the labor force,
Let's re-simplify life to the simple minded
I'm a male and you are a blinding female
This now is our land; let's tell the animals what to do,
My existence is entitled to no reduction or askew.
Don’t mind the screeching tigers,
Let anything bother and I die for you.
Don’t be afraid of a ghost that wears gold watches and speaks German
No one can hurt us, not even if they wanted to.
Sit aside; watch me build you a house for two,
I feel like a Danish boy with two sticks,
I own five fingers on each hand; there is only so much I can do,
On this hill I will celebrate you
On any mountain you choose I will carve your name onto
But first my love is to you,
Our house is a land mark; it's where black has met the whites of blue.
This is authenticity for you
Come in I say, it's almost dinner time and we have no stew.
Look what I have for you,
I have made a trombone and a violin too,
Let's sit on our porch now,
Here I have made us a swing and one there just for two
I’d be well dressed if I needed to,
Play for me and the listening part of the woods
Play for all children with musical ears
We're now part of new phyla within a phylum coexisting without rationality
We are any lost content in our spacious world
We abandoned by our will
Go mad,
Scream while you play,
Let's play together, all the songs we never knew,
Lets play god damn it, for no one can boo
I can see the reflection of three moons on my trombone,
In your face deep within your flickering eyes
I can see the light of many more heavens to come every second or two,
Don’t close your eyes
I want to watch you cook
I want to watch you write a 4000 page book.
Am I a foresighted beast?
The world has made me doubt even my inner esteem
I like it here and I know you do,
Were privileged to be appreciative
Tomorrow I will write out a new dictionary to constitute
It will be full of one letter words maybe even two
Tomorrow I will carry navy steel
The day after I will break a bone just to do
Need not worry I'm only twenty two
Who needs a fucking machine?
I can build a ladder and climb it too
I want my feet to rip inside out,
I want to crack every bone in back
This way I will get a feel that it's true,

Sabri Hakim

Thursday, September 22, 2005

boy amused by my lens