Is it the salesman or the merchandise that makes the trade?

there’s a dream worth a –dreamin’
And you want to see that dream come true
There’ll be plenty people talkin’,
Say forget all about it
Say it isn’t worth all the trouble,
All the trouble that you’re goin’ through
Well, what can you do?

You can’t take no for an answer
You can’t take no for an answer
You can’t take no for an answer
No, no, no!

Whatcha gonna do when the times get tough,
And the world’s treatin’ you unkind?
You’ve got to hang on to your optimistic outlook
And keep possession of your positive state of mind.

-Dr. Teeth

Moloch

Moloch whose eyes are a thousand bind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovahs! Moloch whose factories dream and creak in the fog! Moloch whose smokestacks and antennae crown the cities Moloch whose…
Howel, by Allen Ginsberg

I am aware that Mr. Ginsberg never wanted his poems reduced to sound bites, and forced publishers to publish his pomes in whole. But I am not Mr. Ginsberg and this is my favorite bite. In addition, wouldn’t it be in the spirit of Allen to go against what one of authority desires? This section of Howel bewitched me, perhaps it is its reference to the built environment, or perhaps it is just Mr. Ginsberg’s love of words and the imagery that they construct.

A New Hope

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
The Fellowship of the Ring, by JRR Tolkien

It is ludicrous to simplify civilizations to black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, 0’s and 1’s. We are all humans, with traditions, and customs, philosophies and opinions. The more one learns about others, the more we will learn about ourselves. Understanding leads to open-mindedness that leads to acceptance.

The Dirham

How can you get very far,
If you don’t know Who You Are?
How can you do what you ought,
If you don’t know What You’ve Got?
And if you don’t know Which To Do
Of all the things in front of you,
Then what you’ll have when you are through
Is just a mess with out a clue
Of all the best that can come true
If you know What and Which and Who.
The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff p.58

Prospect

We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill...

Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding...
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach

This image embodies the future of Morocco.
This is a group of young men that were playing football in the streets of Fez.

Uncharted

Sooner or later this happens to every dedicated tourist: he ventures beyond the guidebook itinerary and discovers that the workday surrounding world reminds him of the art-historical world of the gallery; he looks out of the train window and discovers to his surprise that the countryside shares many of the traits of the city – the parish church, the layout of the fields, the glare of the sun in a village street are recognizable variations on their city counterparts; city and country belong together in a unique landscape, and this newly discovered entity seems far older, far more venerable than the oldest monument.
The Necessity For Ruins and other Topics, by J.B. Jackson p. 9

The Traveler - Part 2

And after years the boy came back, both of them were old."I really cannot help you if you ask for another gift.""I’m nothing but an old stump now. I’m sorry but I’ve nothing more to give""I do not need very much now, just a quiet place to rest," The boy, he whispered, with a weary smile."Well", said the tree, "An old stump is still good for that.""Come, boy", he said, "Sit down, sit down and rest a while."And so he did and Oh, the trees was happy. Oh, the tree was glad.
The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
(Transcript of Reading)

Correction: This gentleman is an inhabitant of Sefrou, Morocco.
“Yet I am sure he is dreaming of the port in Mogador (Essaouira)”
see ‘The Traveler’

A Moment

The creatures who act as though they belong to the world follow the peace-keeping law, and because they follow that law, they give the creatures around them a chance to grow toward whatever it’s possible for them to become.
Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn p.245

The most enjoyable accounts is when I have the opportunity to sit down at a ‘salon de tea’ or café, or coffee bar - take off all my filters and just observe - soaking in with my senses everything that one moment in time has to give to me.

Moroccan Road

Something, someone, some spirit was pursuing all of us across the desert of life and was bound to catch us before we reached heaven. Naturally, now that I look back on it, this is only death: death will overtake us before heaven. The one thing that we yearn for in our living days, that makes us sigh and groan and undergo sweet nauseas of all kinds, is the remembrance of some lost bliss that was probably experienced in the womb and can only be replaced (though we hate to admit it) in death.
-On The Road, by Jack Kerouac p. 124

Perhaps this photo is excessively literal.
Nevertheless – These photos are moments which I have bare witness to Morocco’s frayed edges which have so much to tell us.
It is the frayed edges that are the edges of substance for us all to learn from.

The Traveler

He did not think of himself as a tourist; He was a traveler. The Difference is partly one of time, he would explain. Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over a periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. In deed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived….
-The Sheltering Sky, by Paul Bowels p. 14

This gentlemen is an inhabitant of Mogador, Morocco.

Casablanca, Morocco

Everything has its personal legend, but one day that personal legend will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new personal legend, until, someday, the soul of the world becomes one thing only.
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho p.151

This is a photo taken in Casablanca, Morocco at the Mosque of Hassan II.
When I look at this photo, I always wonder what this man is pondering.
His memories, his life, his family, perhaps where he left his keys.

Day One:

DAY ONE:

This is my diary about my life in and my opinion of architecture and urban design – local, regional, national and global. It is also my forum to express my opinions.

There was an era not to long ago, which people wrote down, every night, the daily activities of their life. What they ate, what they experienced, who they meet and their opinions about that person. Today, some of these diaries are great mechanisms to another time. A dear friend of mine is writing a book on the architect Jacob Wrey Mould. She has read countless diaries of Mould’s acquaintances. We don’t write the mundane day to day activities of our lives.

-A Diary of the Mundane
-An Opinion on Architecture and Urban Design
-One Voice