(My name is Hov', OH,
H-to-the-O-V
I used to move snowflakes by the O-Z)
I used to move snowflakes by the O-Z)
If this just rang through your head right now…......................Nice!!!
On the real though, this blog has been
dead. Dead dead dead. The reasons for this are wild and vast. I mean we started
this blog as unemployed graduates with a lot of time to indulge in our obscure,
alternative thoughts and hang out on coffee shops fantasizing about life. Oh
wait, we still subscribe to the latter, but now we have less time to mess around
and pursue what we really want to. Ah the corporate life! Aslam, co-blogger and
homie, in a bold move (great for him, but horrible for me), moved to Sharjah to
teach English for almost a year now and is probably going to keep going on
world adventures. I, on the other hand, have missed my friend A LOT, but I’ve
also somehow become a workaholic type and this has pretty much killed my
creative drive. NOT ON. NEED THAT.
This blog was started by us as outlet the
share our thoughts, critiques, tastes and ideas on everything that we love and
are inspired by. These are not always common or mainstream, but they are real
and affect us in a real way. I must say though that, for me, it is very
frustrating having all these ideas about the world I live in and not always
being able to share it with people who relate and who essentially ‘feel’ me.
This is one of the reasons I wanted to be part of a blog - a space that is
mine, where I can share the things in my mind with more people than in real
life. We’re not up in this blog game to get more followers, or be invited to
the cool parties, or to win any popularity contests. No. The Rebel and The
Urban Edge represents a place for us to share our honest, sometimes outlandish
contemplations, and to share what keeps inspired, interested, bothered. It’s a
space for authentic, original and fearless thought that will maybe inspire,
maybe present new perspectives, maybe just be fun, hopefully all of these! Or
none. Deuces!
I’m so grateful for this space! I literally
dream of things to write. I am constantly jotting down and I am so driven by
this blog! I’ve sat down a million times to write, but honestly it hasn’t just
been time constrained. Things like being uninspired, distracted and fearful all
got in my way. But ain’t nobody got time for that! So we're back in
the game. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to visit this blog and
read our stuff. It makes my heart happy! Plus, today I saw that had over
10 000 views. Good Lawwd! OK fine, 5000 of those views were probably me,
but still! Me and Aslam are on it now! Please come back for more!
In our attempt to
re-invigorate the blog, we have a shiny new banner! These pics were taken in
December of last year, when I hung with Aslam-guy in his new hometown. We work
up early, hustled from taxi to taxi to metro in search for a true gem in the
heart of plastic Dubai – a place called The Archive in Safa Park. The Archive
is essentially a coffee shop in a park attached to an even cooler modern library that
boasts the most impressive collection of Islamic and Middle Eastern arts and
culture books that I’ve ever seen or probably ever will see. I read so many
different, amazing things – a photo diary documenting Hajj in 1939/1940 (my
fave), a book on all of Azzedine Alaïa's work in the 21st
century, a book explaining the history and types of Graffiti work and their
meanings in Palestine, an entire collection of poetry from Khalil Gibrain, a
book documenting and explaining every single high rise building built in Dubai
up to a few years ago, Zaha Hadid’s entire architecture portfolio, history
books of the Arab dynasty, books on Arabic calligraphy, art work of Al Ghazali
philosophy, just to name a few. Needless to say, we were
joyfully lost in those books for hours. Literally. For breakfast, brunch, lunch
and afternoon tea. We indulged and we found our happy place. Oh! How can I
forget! We also got to see a mural that graf artist El Seed, who we love, did
just a few days before at The Archive. It was a great day indeed.
So welcome back again and see you soon?
Peace and love,
Nafeesa