Tololy's Box

Chemistry

• S: (v) ask (direct or put; seek an answer to) “ask a question”
• How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
• S: (n) visual perception, beholding, seeing (perception by means of the eyes)
• S: (n) talk, talking (an exchange of ideas via conversation) “let’s have more work and less talk around here”

• S: (n) chemistry, interpersonal chemistry, alchemy (the way two individuals relate to each other) “their chemistry was wrong from the beginning — they hated each other”; “a mysterious alchemy brought them together”
• S: (v) go steady, go out, date, see (date regularly; have a steady relationship with) “Did you know that she is seeing an older man?”; “He is dating his former wife again!”
• S: (n) fight, fighting, combat, scrap (the act of fighting; any contest or struggle) “a fight broke out at the hockey game”; “there was fighting in the streets”; “the unhappy couple got into a terrible scrap”
• S: (n) yelling, shouting (uttering a loud inarticulate cry as of pain or excitement)
• S: (n) pause, intermission, break, interruption, suspension (a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something)
• S: (v) reconcile, patch up, make up, conciliate, settle (come to terms) “After some discussion we finally made up”
• S: (n) sexual love, lovemaking, making love, love, love life (sexual activities (often including sexual intercourse) between two people) “his lovemaking disgusted her”; “he hadn’t had any love in months”; “he has a very complicated love life”
• S: (v) laugh, express joy, express mirth (produce laughter)
• S: (n) closeness, intimacy (a feeling of being intimate and belonging together) “their closeness grew as the night wore on”
• S: (n) life (the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living) “he hoped for a new life in Australia”; “he wanted to live his own life without interference from others”
• S: (n) fight, fighting, combat, scrap (the act of fighting; any contest or struggle) “a fight broke out at the hockey game”; “there was fighting in the streets”; “the unhappy couple got into a terrible scrap”
• S: (n) crying, weeping, tears (the process of shedding tears (usually accompanied by sobs or other inarticulate sounds)) “I hate to hear the crying of a child”; “she was in tears”
• S: (adj) aloof, distant, upstage (remote in manner) “stood apart with aloof dignity”; “a distant smile”; “he was upstage with strangers”
• S: (n) termination, ending, conclusion (the act of ending something) “the termination of the agreement”
• S: (n) forlornness, loneliness, desolation (sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned)
• S: (v) overcome, get over, subdue, surmount, master (get on top of; deal with successfully) “He overcame his shyness”
• S: (n) encore (an extra or repeated performance; usually given in response to audience demand)
• S: (n) death, decease, expiry (the event of dying or departure from life) “her death came as a terrible shock”; “upon your decease the capital will pass to your grandchildren”
• And, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

Crazy Cat Lady

In another attempt at therapy, I decided to look at objects that please me. While on my online journey from one vintage clothes shop to another, I randomly came across “Europe’s Premier Antiquarian Booksite.”

The session backfired, leaving me craving old objects and fantasizing about a small, dimly lit, box-like apartment crowded with books and antiques and other trifles nobody appreciates but me, while I look for a place to sit amidst the things. In the dream, I live with a shiny black cat like the one I once had.

Quills

One of my favorite people gave me the movie Quills to watch, simply saying “I know you will love it.” He was right, I loved it to the marrow of my bones.

The movie revolves around the Marquis de Sade, an aristocratic French writer whose name and philosophy gave birth to the term sadism:

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, Marquis de Sade (June 2, 1740 – December 2, 1814) was a French aristocrat, revolutionary and writer of philosophy-laden and often violent pornography. He was a philosopher of extreme freedom (or at least licentiousness), unrestrained by morality, religion or law, with the pursuit of personal pleasure being the highest principle. Sade was incarcerated in various prisons and in an insane asylum for about 32 years of his life; eleven years in Paris (10 of which were spent in the Bastille) a month in Conciergerie, 2 years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, 3 years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie, and 13 years in the Charenton insane asylum. Much of his writing was done during his imprisonment. The term “sadism” is derived from his name.

Joaquin Phoenix, Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, and Michael Caine star in the movie with such stellar performances which are matched only by the carefully-crafted plot and the intoxicating screenplay, to make for a sublimely engaging story.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u--PYnIYewE&hl=en&fs=1]

Quills is now easily one of my favorite movies of all time. Watch it, I dare you.

Thanks, Human Mom

The kids as they get a treat for being brave enough to eat out of my hand…

Jongar..

Hazza3..

Thanks, human mom, they tell me with their eyes.

Tmptd

Im tmptd to do ths agn. Also knwn as asylm hair…its the bst.

An Immodest Indulgence: Book Orgy

If you have not yet been to the Amman Book Fair, you must go as soon as possible. The event ends on the 25th, and it is hosted at the Arab Society College on a hilltop opposite the Jordan University campus. Make sure to get cold water with you when you go because it is hot there, and dress lightly. There is a designated parking space outside the premises, and the fair is very organized like the previous one, but on a larger scale.

Ah. How I love books! I had a terrific time this morning when I went to the Amman Book Fair with my sisters, bookish women like me, and we spent whatever was left of our salaries on books, sweet seductive books! There were awesome deals in the UBCC stand, the Ahliyya stand, and MES Publishing stand; the three houses where we splurged the most.

I couldn’t get every book I wanted but I got a handsome portion of what I liked. My selections ranged from Orhan Pamuk to Nawal Sadaawi to Ibsen to Nietzsche to Son’allah Ibrahim. I am going again next week, and then I plan to buy works by Freud, Darwin, Spinoza, Marx, and Edgar Allan Poe, among others.

I was delighted today to realize that I am not starting with nothing in my ongoing library-building endeavors, that I actually have a respectable collection in my library and my mind so I do not have to start from scratch. That I found out by the number of books I snubbed because I have already read. Chasing knowledge is a fool’s occupation, true, but it’s an honorable martyrdom. My problem now is that there is not enough space in my room to hold the results of my bibliophilia.

Addendum: The prices at the three stands I mentioned were the best. At UBCC there are books for one-two-three JDs only, at Ahliyya I bought all of the Arabic titles for half the price written on the cover, and at MES (Al Nothom Al Haditha) I bought all the blue-covers for a little less than the cover price, and in all cases you find books for less than you would if you are going to buy them from regular bookshops. I can’t say the same about other stands though, at Collins books were more expensive than at Prime Mega Store, so you need to have an idea about prices before fishing for your wallet.

Spettacolo Religioso

I like religious art mostly because the European visual arts were the interpretation of Christian thought in the periods which I value the most: from the Renaissance to the 19th century. I also like Islamic arts by the way, particularly calligraphy and tile work, although I must admit I regret their general lack of human figures for religious purposes, but I equally appreciate their luxurious attention to detail. It’s eye-opening to observe how the various religions promoted and prohibited the arts.

On that, a Jesuit church in Rome now features a dazzling show of light, sound, and a mechanical introduction of a Baroque masterpiece, all to delight the believers. I am in love with the idea:

Every afternoon at 5:30 sharp, the “ta-da” moment arrives at the Chiesa del Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuit order.

As choral music fills the church, a meticulously choreographed light show begins in the left transept of the Chapel of St. Ignatius of Loyola. During the startling crescendo, a painted altarpiece descends slowly, exposing a deep niche in which a majestic silver statue depicts St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, jetting into heaven.

The spectacle does not actually end with the unveiling of the statue. The show goes on, ultimately illuminating the entire nave of the church, where St. Ignatius is welcomed into an illusionistic vision of heaven where figures spill out onto stucco clouds painted by G. B. Gaulli, known as Baciccia, and then into the church’s dome, where he is united with God.

Source

The reaction of the people present when the show takes place must be similar to that of peasants in Renaissance Italy upon entering a small church on a Sunday, to be met by a colorful altarpiece, in trivial occasions concealed, depicting a religious episode (and yet featuring the rich patrons of the church as characters). I imagine it must be very profound and awe-inspiring to see God or his work presented thus.

This is what I like to call The Art of Belief. It is the use of arts to inspire faith, a clever tool and one I personally am grateful for since it has helped the arts more than it has hindered them (at least in the past). I would love to see that Jesuit spectacle, as I am sure I would appreciate the marriage of art, faith, and mechanics in a holy place. If stained-glass church windows impressed me, this would send me into a trance.

Free to Read

One thing I appreciate about my parents, among many others, is their general self-restraint when it comes to my reading materials. They know that I read questionable materials, but they never try to prevent me from doing so. From literature to political theory to religious debate, I am free to read whatever I like — although if my tastes were more to their liking they would have appreciated them more, of course.

The most laudable aspect about their behavior is that they know for a fact that I derive much of my attitude and a good bulk of my opinions from the books I read. Both of these things (my attitude and my opinions) clash severely with their own, and cause conflict and overall unease at home. I suppose the easy route for any parents would have been banning these books of “useless knowledge” as the good hadith tradition put it, yet my parents never considered that as an option. I really respect that, precisely because it is the road less traveled and it’s more sensible than trying to cut off the Hydra’s head.

This brings me to yesterday’s trip downtown with my mother, during which I bought all three parts of Nawal El Saadawi’s autobiography from a small bookshop right off Al Husseini mosque square. This place had over 30 of her works, so I plan to go back and buy some more after I’ve acquainted myself with her life first.

My mother doesn’t like Saadawi, and she likes her thought a lot less, but she waited in that bookshop with me for about 15 minutes while the shop boy fetched the three volumes. She also endured the questions the shop owner asked about me as I was taking pictures outside, and she answered him with such pride despite our differences. Now that’s special.

Daily Wish

I wish I was this man, except still a woman.

Lovetime

This is my heart-shaped clock. I bought it a long time ago, and discovered it recently still unused and in its package. It makes a loud ticking sound which I love, but I don’t love ‘time’ itself. Since the clock is heart-shaped, you get the irony. Nevertheless, it goes really well with some quotes on love and time, and my mood today.

I cannot promise very much.
I give you the images I know.
Lie still with me and watch.
We laugh and we touch.
I promise you love. Time will not take that away.

- Anne Sexton

From Visual Compen…

Love vanquishes time. To lovers, a moment can be eternity, eternity can be the tick of a clock.

- Mary Parrish