A Revolutionary Anniversary in Tahrir Square, Cairo

Dahab Chill

In Dahab this week, there are about 1/20th the usual number of tourists, it’s half the temperature it was last time I was here, and there are at least twice as many cats.

It’s cold in Dahab. Colder than average this time of year. Too chilly to scuba dive (at least for me). So I’ve been chillaxing.

I read a Norwegian mystery novel about a serial killer (The Leopard by Jo Nesbø), using the Anderson Cooper book mark I got at the airport book store.

The Dazzling Uncertainty of Egypt

It’s funny what you remember instantly when all your senses are engaged.

The central statue in Cairo's Talaat Harb square

Four and a half years after leaving Cairo (where I spent a year as Knight Fellow and first began this blog) so much had faded from memory. But it all comes back as I see and smell and taste and feel this wonderful mess of a city again.

Minding my step on the sidewalks—which can drop off suddenly or catch you in one of the ankle-wrenching holes—the motion memory kicks in. You recall the rhythm of crossing the ridiculously trafficked streets. The smell of the shisha from cafes and the desert dust in the nostrils sparks thoughts of evenings out. The taste of the Nile in the air near the corniche, and the foul medames (fava beans) and tameya (falafel) and hibiscus tea at breakfast, all trigger their own images.

Even the Arabic words (kalimat) come back when you hear the music of the oud or the play-by-play of the Zamalek or Ahly football games on the scratchy AM radio in a taxi.

These are clichés, I know. But all that surface stuff can lead you to deeper places.

Professor

That’ll be me. Professor Craig Duff.  It’s now official. I’m heading to Evanston, Illinois.(According to the Sacramento Bee)

The Making of ‘The Protester’ Portfolio

Here is a piece I produced with TIME international photo editor Patrick Witty, who followed photographer Peter Hapak as he created portraits of dozens of protesters in locations around the world (Spain, Greece, Egypt, Tunisia, India, Mexico and the U.S.) for TIME’s Person of the Year issue.

Self Portrait at Melbourne Beach

Me at the beach on Christmas day in Melbourne Beach, Florida

And a couple of lizards at the Brevard County Zoo

Crispy Columbia and Troll Carol

Carol the Troll. You may know her as Troll "The Ancient Yuletide" Carol

Misty Radio City

As much as I dislike the crowds coming to gawk at leggy rockettes and see the tree at Rock Center, the neighborhood where I work has its charms this time of year… especially on a misty evening like last night.

In the Paris Metro

Grammy on the Gowanus

Happy to report that my neighbor has been nominated for a Grammy award. Gowanus-dweller Eric Epstein directed and post-produced a music video for the New Jersey band Memory Tapes, whose new album was released in July. For the track “Yes I Know,” Epstein shot scenes in our neighborhood, and enlisted my President street neighbor Ben Aufill to play the role of “the guy.” It’s up for the Grammy award for best short form music video, along with videos for songs by Adele, OK Go, Skrillex, Radiohead and [ahem] “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Epstein is incredibly gifted at computer generated imagery (CGI), and in this black and white video he turns Ben’s “guy” into an elastic figure, playing literally off the song lyric: “out of everything you’ve ever seen is so much less now.” What begins with the guy revealing see-thru parts — peering through a hole in his hand — builds to disappearing and stretching flesh and ends with him dancing in the kitchen as a corpus of rubbery bands. You can see how he did it here.

Best of luck at the Grammys in February, Eric. Hope you bring home that gramophone. Will be good to see more major award bling in the hood.