First impressions second time around

Yes, friends, I am back in Saudi Arabia. The forces of the universe seem to have conspired to bring me back here for more...

I was just innocently sitting in the cozy living room of my cottage by the sea, in Brittany, one evening, when I had the thought, "I should probably go back to Saudi and work some more. My finances need the boost."

I didn't act on the thought but 2 weeks later I was contacted by a recruiter who wanted permission to present my CV for a post in Riyadh. I agreed.

And lo and behold, here I am!

I am now the manager of the Architecture group of Dar Al Riyadh, one of the largest Saudi owned Architecture/Engineering firms.

Be careful what you wish for!

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Things here in Riyadh seem a tad bit looser than when I left here 2 years ago. In the shopping malls I see more women, and more of them are not wearing the full face coverings. Women from the large expat community, ranging from Philippines to USA and Australia rarely cover their hair. In the past, there was strict separation between "Family" areas and "Single Men" areas in restaurants. The clear division seems to be fading. There are still areas reserved for families and groups of women. The single men don't go in these sections. But the families and groups of women are free to sit in the "single men" area without question. It seems to be the norm. So, Saudi women who may still be uncomfortable being in public in the presence of men they don't know still have the option of a "safe" place to go, while also having the option to go anywhere else too. It's a significant change, a small step, but in the right direction (in my humble opinion).

Traffic is still nuts ... but perhaps not quite so crazy as before. When I left 2 years ago the city was just beginning to install speed cameras. Now they are everywhere on the main roads and people seem to be calming down.

We're on the road to nowhere

A group of us at work did an overnight trip to our branch office in Al Khobar. This meant a 4.5 hour drive across the desert to the east coast. Here are a few images from the car window. At a truck stop along the way I saw these neat clay pots. Next time we do this trip I'll probably buy a few...

Things I didn't capture with my camera -

a tree, yes, a single tree growing out there, in the middle of nowhere with nothing around it, the only tree I saw except for a couple of small groves that were obviously planned and irrigated -

the burned out hulk of an SUV half submerged in the shifting sands, 100 feet off the side of the road, couldn't help wondering what the story was there. As far as I could see there was no skeleton inside -

speed demons by the handful driving at least 120 mph along the highway, using the shoulder to pass the people like us who were poking along at 90.

Cottage by the sea - painting the exterior

In the breaks between the rain I'm repainting the exterior.
First step, remove all the shutters and restore them. I can do that indoors on rainy days. I'll post that separately.

Here are photos of the original state.

View from the south-east, with 27 in the foreground and 27bis at the right, behind

The "courette" on the south side. The tanks are the gas supply.

The north wall of the bis

North and West walls of the bis.

Isn't it lovely? I just love the multi-colored streaks. The garden belongs to the neighbor and the bis abuts it on the property line.

Bis bedroom dormer. I've already begun restoring these windows. The shutters are beyond repair and I've removed the shutters on the left.

House windows, living room below, main bedroom above

Entry door below, small bedroom above

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In the first half of January, over the course of 3 days, using my trusty Karcher pressure washer I got all the dirt and loose paint off the exterior. In some places the paint came off down to the original cement plaster. I used a chlorine based solution first, let it rest for 10-20 minutes, then did the pressure washing. This kills the fungi, mosses and other micro-organisms that typically grow on the surfaces of the houses around here. I used a very dilute, weak solution because I didn't want to flood the surrounding environment with chlorine. But this treatment, along with proper maintenance in the future should keep it from looking as it did before.

Next step, patch a few small holes in the surface and start priming.
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Cottage by the Sea - Restoring the Exterior - Windows

Hi to everybody. This note comes to you from Rancho Escargot. Rancher Tony waving a howdy to y'all.

I thought I'd keep track of the various house restoration projects here on my 1001 Arabian Nights blog. So here goes it.

The main thing on the agenda at the moment is to get the outside cleaned up and restored, so that it looks good for the neighbors. In December I had a fellow come around and he washed the roof with some kind of anti-fungal treatment, to get rid of the various mosses and fungi that are growing on the slate shingles. Over the course of the winter they'll die off and the rain will wash them away, leaving a clean and fresh looking roof.

In the last few weeks I've been working on the windows of the cottage, stripping off all the old paint and removing the old putty, then repainting and puttying. I'm part way through that. The windows are made of some very hard, solid, straight grained wood. I think perhaps it's larch. Anyhow, they're in excellent shape. There isn't a sign of rot anywhere in the wood. I'll be repainting the outside white but may strip the inside to bare wood and varnish them if the grain looks good.

Here are some before photos of the cottage bedroom, BEFORE.

IN PROGRESS, old putty removed and new putty going in.

Sunset Murder Case - 1938 - an Art Deco mystery burlesque fest

Here's another little treat from Archive.org
https://archive.org/details/SunsetMurderCase

It's no masterpiece but it's a cultural relic that we're very lucky to have. It stars the ephemeral Sally Rand. She was a precocious girl from Missouri with big ideas. At 13 she was dancing in the chorus of a local show and a few years later made her way to Hollywood where she was quickly noticed. Dancing was her natural talent and not being of a shy nature, she gave full expression to her creativity through the sensuality of her body.

You may not have heard of Sally Rand. But you have most likely heard of her most famous creation, the "Bubble Dance".

The Sunset Murder Case treats us to a beautifully filmed record of her famous bubble dance early in the story. She's a "good girl", daughter of a murdered policeman, who infiltrates into the nightclub owned by the man she believes is responsible for her father's death.

The club's interior is a classic bit of Art Deco design and another treat in this filmic box of chocolates.

This was back in the days when men wore tuxedos, women wore beautiful gowns and everyone knew how to dance.

More stills from the bubble dance...

Isadora Duncan's influence is highly visible throughout, in both the asymmetrical movements and tunic of draped fabric, elements of Ancient Greek art that inspired Duncan. The Duncan connection is no surprise. Aside from the fact that she was already world famous, Duncan was a native of San Francisco and Sally Rand spent many critical years in her career working in San Francisco. For much of the 1930s she owned The Music Box, a burlesque theater that later became The Great American Music Hall. She was also a hugely popular and notorious performer at the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939 (subject of a Charlie Chan film I'll write about soon).

We're treated to her bubble dance and also her "fan dance", something she may not have invented but she certainly perfected. The fan, in fact, was an array of which peacock feathers, or more accurately, lyre bird feathers. The lyre bird is a naturally white peacock. Her stately dance, imitating the strut of the peacock, starts with a group of woman wearing Erte inspired gowns drifting around the stage, setting the mood.

 Finally they wander off and the peacock is left alone. She does her thing, making the most of the stairs, wandering in circles as peacocks are inclined to do, spreading her feathers out in a beautiful display, or letting them trail behind like the train of a gown. 

 The dance reaches its climax as the peacock twirls in excitement, its feathers spiraling around itself. Then gradually she comes to rest in the calm attitude of supremely confident beauty.

 I wish we could have had a closeup of the final pose. But it's a miracle this movie made it past the censors at all. The Hays Code was at its peak when this movie was made. In fact the censors insisted the original title "The Sunset Strip Murder Case" be changed and the "Strip" dropped. Clearly these dances were far more sensual than the Code would allow. In fact, based on Sally Rand's reputation alone, there were many movie theaters that refused to show the movie, and the city of Boston banned its appearance.

In addition to this priceless record of Sally Rand's work the movie provides a lot of delightful Art Deco design and atmosphere. It also provides, for comic relief, 2 charming characters, male and female sidekicks to the leads. Here they are the first time they meet. You might have guessed the girl's first impression isn't entirely favorable, although we learn that in fact she's quite smitten but hiding it well. They have some very punny dialogue. The girl, I'm guessing, was one of Sally Rand's compatriots in Burlesque, someone who appeared in only a very few movies, sometimes as uncredited extras and who is credited in this movie as Sugar Kane. Turns out she has a "real" name though, Kathryn ... Kathryn Kane. I think I prefer "Sugar". Aside from the few movies listed on IMDB and a few studio portraits listed for sale on eBay I can find no other record of her existence on the internet. Her romantic interest and comic foil is Dennis Moore, a fellow with a long career ahead of him in westerns but who makes a passable newspaper reporter in this movie.

 Here's Sugar Kane singing her number in the nightclub. I wonder what ever happened to her. The movie was made in 1938 and if she was in her early 20s at the time and were alive today she would be in her 90s. Not likely but possible. Did she make hay while the sun shone and then marry some nice young banker that came to her burlesque shows? Were there children and grandchildren? I wonder if someone points to her in this movie today and says, "She's my Grandma."

If I didn't write much about the men in this movie its because they didn't have a chance. These two beautiful ladies, Sally Rand, one of the great burlesque stars and a creative artist, and Sugar Kane, someone who seems to have been forgotten to history, both stole the show.

If you're looking to pass an hour watching this movie is certainly one of the most pleasant ways to do it.

Dick Tracy Detective - 1945

As I'm not in the Middle East for the time being I thought I'd use the blog to share impressions of the fun old movies I've been watching lately. These all come from the great website Archive.org. a really excellent source for public domain movies that you can watch for free.

Tonight's movie is Dick Tracy Detective.
Morgan Conway as Dick Tracy
Anne Jeffreys and Tess Trueheart
Mike Mazurki as Splitface
Jane Greer as Judith Owens

The opening image, classic film noir, the night, a vacant storefront, high contrasts, long shadows, distorted perspectives. Dick Tracy's got it all and more, taking it from the level of style to the next level, a world all its own. The mysterious figure in black, as you will find out in moments, is the mysterious "Splitface" and he is on a rampage of unexplained, seemingly disconnected murders. We don't see him, only his silhouette...

 Dick Tracy himself, the man in charge, rock hewn jaw, eyes as cool as blued steel, a man's man.

And then, of course, there's Tess Trueheart, Dick's love interest, ever patient in her satin negligee and curls. She's no wimp though. She may be patient but she let's him know about it. And she's not about to be left behind when the chase for the villain gets hot. She's a real man's man's woman.

In Dick Tracy's world evil has an ugly face... in this case, Splitface... From behind the window he sees without being seen, but the window mullions not only frame him, they cage him. Evil is its own prison.

The set design is spartan. Like a cartoon strip there is no excess in the image. Here we are on a roof top, guarded by a metal barrier. There's no clutter. In the background are only just enough lights to suggest the skyline at night.

Vertiginous perspective, another hallmark of the style. Splitface watches from above, unseen. The strong horizontal light places him above the lit action, where he can watch in safety.

The undertaker, it's always convenient to have one around, if for no other reason than to have the hero walk through a room full of caskets. This man's balding head suggests an overactive intelligence, his beady eyes, a cunning mind, and his weak mouth and chin, a weak moral character. The slashing shadows behind him create an atmosphere of chaos and torment. All this is accentuated when in motion. That is part of the art of the "motion" picture.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Good triumphs over evil.

My stuff and other nonsense

Most of you reading this will already know that I've left the job in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and I'm back in my home in Brittany, France. I made the move at the end of November but haven't kept up the blog since then. I'll try to make up for that with a few short posts outlining my interim adventures but today I'd like to skip the intervening months and write about this morning.

First, though, here's a photo for those of you who are more visually inclined. It's me with river Goyen behind me. Here in Plouhinec we have a lovely 19th century chateau that has been converted into apartments. That's it behind me.

A few days ago I got a call from the moving company, saying I could expect my stuff to arrive on Friday. I've spent the last few days madly cleaning up some space in the cottage so that I'd have some place to put it. Yesterday I got the back area on the ground floor broom clean and did the same for the attic bedroom. I was planning to go over the bedroom space with a damp towel today, to get the fine plaster dust that kicks up when I sweep. That was my plan for today. But fate had something else in store.

I was lying in bed at 8:30, groggy eyed and thick headed, trying to decide whether to get up or roll over and go back to sleep when the doorbell startled me up. I clambered out of bed, into the next room to open the window and look down in the driveway and what do you suppose I saw? The top of a moving van and the top of the head of a prematurely balding muscular fellow.

He looked up at me and I realized the decision had already been made, by forces greater than me. I was getting up.

My stuff had arrived! One day early.

Anyhow, I changed from my pyjamas and we got to work hauling 3 palettes of stuff. By 10:15am it was all done.

Everything seems to have arrived safely and undamaged, though I haven't opened every box. I pulled out a very small stack of books and my paintings, so that I could enjoy a little reunion with my stuff.

In think I'm going to take the rest of today off and relax. Maybe I'll paint.

love to all my family and friends

And a big THANK YOU to Tristan and Tina for doing all that hard work at the Concord end to get my stuff moved.