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A few good books (and one less so)
I’ve been remiss in posting my usual book reviews, so I’m going to briefly recap a few of the books I’ve plowed through this summer:
Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran (Elaine Sciolino): An excellent account of post-Revolution Iran by a New York Times writer who was actually on the famous Air France 747 that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini back from exile in 1979! This was a true page-turner: I couldn’t put it down and ended up reading it in only a few sittings. A fascinating look at Iran by someone who spent the better part of the last 30 years living there.
Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Secret Saudi-U.S. Connection (Gerald Posner): What an awful book! I’m obsessed with Saudi Arabia and am well aware how bizarre the kingdom may be, but this book was over-the-top one-sided. In fact, it seemed so overwhelmingly biased, I actually felt bad for the House of Saud — an amazing feat by the author!
A History of Jordan (Philip Robins): A simple title and a boring academic-looking volume, but an excellent overview of Jordan — from the Ottoman and British Mandate days, through the period when the country was known as Transjordan to the present Hashemite Kingdom. Jordan is a fascinating place carved out of the Middle Eastern desert (like so many nations) and this easy read explains its evolution, the complexity of its relations with neighboring states, the roots of its liberal streak, and the unusual cast of characters who’ve played a hand in its development.
Zamalek: The Changing Life Of A Cairo Elite, 1850-1945 (Chafika Hamamsy): With the complexity of the Arab names that run throughout this book, Zamalek can be a bit of a slog. After visiting Cairo this spring and staying in the Zamalek neighborhood, I became obsessed with the place. (In fact, I picked up this book at Diwan, an excellent local bookseller in Zamalek!) The title is fairly self-explanatory; the book traces the changing mores and culture of Cairo’s upper-crust in the years when British and French influence were at their zenith. Like I said, it’s a slog, but interesting.
Brendan Burke
“If we don’t fight hard for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we really don’t stand for them.” – Brendan Burke
I had no idea about the story of Brendan Burke until just this week! The gay hockey player, whose dad is general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, died in a car crash earlier this year, just two months after coming out in an ESPN.com article. Now this week his brother has penned an excellent piece that appears on my friend Cyd’s site, OutSports, about Brendan’s life and his family’s experience with his coming out. I actually teared up a bit reading it…and you will too!
Jon and Zack’s big gay wedding
All my friends are getting married, it seems. This week I went to my third same-sex wedding (and my second this year), between my old friend Jon and his now-husband Zack. At least my friends have great taste: they hosted their ceremony at Stonehurst, the estate of Robert Treat Paine just outside Boston. With its gorgeous landscaping and shingles as far the eye could see, the estate screamed Henry Hobson Richardson and Frederick Law Olmsted (and it turns out, they DID, in fact, design it).
It was a great ceremony, with lots of good friends turning out for Jon and Zack…definitely the kind of wedding everyone wants (well, if they want a wedding!). I love them both and am incredibly happy for them, but I have to admit, the highlight was meeting one of the other guests, who grew up in Vancouver — we compared notes and Sun Run times over red wine well into the night!
Seen around North Haven
In was another great kickoff to summer this week on North Haven…a few snaps:
At Calderwood Hall:
On the Thoroughfare:
Memorial Fountain:
The famous peace sign at Waterman’s:
Main Street flowers:
Hotel Maya
After JetPride we all stayed at the awesome Hotel Maya in Long Beach. Very secluded spot, just across the water from downtown. Very stylish and very friendly…huge recommendation for it.
The Queen Mary, now a floating hotel, is very close by…
JetPride
Spent Friday afternoon with Pam Ann aboard JetBlue’s JetPride flight from San Francisco to Long Beach. To say that it was the best flight of my life would be an understatement…more to come!
Quotable:
“5A and B. Yeah, you’ve got a good view of the engine. And you can see the volcano when we go over it.”
“OK, we’re going to be boarding from Rows 1A to 1C. And I’ll have the gays wearing Armani and Abercrombie Fitch first.”
“We’re currently flying at 35,000 feet. For those of you on the left if you look outside you can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge. For those on the right, you can see Islamabad.”
My new K-Way
Sometimes in life you see something and just have to have it. Such was the case the other day in Vancouver. I popped into Holt Renfrew’s gorgeous Pacific Center store and as soon as I spotted this French drapeau-inspired K-Way creation, I couldn’t keep my eyes off it. I kept trying it on and walking away from it, thinking that it was a bit frivolous of a purchase. So off I went to roam Vancouver, but thoughts of this beauty kept swirling in my head. So two hours later I returned and snagged the only one on the rack! (Of course that night I was told by a local that they used to buy K-Way at Wal-Mart…and hear I was being duped into buying mine at Holt’s.)
Vancouver Sun Run
Another year, another long night out with friends in Vancouver before the Sun Run! This week was my fifth Sun Run, and like I’ve done each of those years, I once again outdid myself on the Davie Street bar circuit before doing the race circuit a few hours later. But I survived, and that’s all that matters. The Sun Run is truly the best race around: a 10-km course that wends its way from West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver through Stanley Park, along the beach, over the bridge to Kitsilano, and then over False Creek to a high-energy finish at BC Place. With nearly 60,000 runners and countless spectators lining every inch of the course it is a true community race that is simply awesome.
One damn good beer!
I don’t usually write about beer, but… The other day I flew Virgin America from San Francisco to New York, and tapped (literally) into RED, their seatback ordering system, for a beer on my afternoon flight. The variety I wanted wasn’t available, so the flight attendant substituted with Black Star Beer. I was disappointed that my choice wasn’t available until I cracked open the can — it turned out to be a truly fabulous brew from Montana. Highly recommend it! Four cans later…I was home.
Chris and Brian’s wedding
I usually dread weddings, but not my first same-sex wedding! I was thrilled for my BFF Chris and his boyfriend Brian for officially (and legally) tying the knot yesterday in Connecticut before having a fantastic party with hundreds of friends back in New York. Chris was my first new friend when I moved to New York more than four years ago, and I love him to death — so glad to see him finally hitched!
With Andy:
With Kenneth in the 212:
With Andy and Chris:
With Yosbel and Drew:
Broadway Beauty Pageant
I can’t say enough good things about New York’s Ali Forney Center, the largest shelter for homeless gay kids in America (an estimated 40% of homeless youth in America are gay). The other night was one of their many annual fun fundraising events, the 2010 Broadway Beauty Pageant.
Five Broadway performers vied for the title of Mr Broadway in talent, interview, and swimwear competitions before host Tovah Feldshuh (who managed to scandalize the audience with some hilarious banter about the Polish presidential plane crash) and a panel of judges that included the riotous Michael Musto and Christine Ebersole (who seemed to have downed an entire bottle of some sort of pill before taking the stage). Their commentary helped make the show was absolutely riotous.
Charlie Williams, from “Memphis,” was ultimately crowned the winner through audience voting after an impressive talent performance that showed his range — he effortlessly switched from a hilarious and very butch rap to a bit of sparkly ballet — before taking his clothes off and revealing the body of a god. (As Next magazine described it, he has “Herculean thighs that could crack walnuts.”)
The Egyptian Museum
Cairo’s most famous cultural institution, the Egyptian Museum, is a must-see. The place is filled chockablock with every imaginable Egyptian antiquity. With its crammed displays and somewhat dingy interior, it feels like you’re exploring a dusty old attic. No cameras inside, though!
Simonds
All the guidebooks on Cairo seemed to recommend Simonds, a European-style cafe on Sharia 26 July in Zamalek, so I went there each morning for croissants, cappuccinos, and French-language newspapers. The place didn’t disappoint: the ancient, olive-skinned baristas were incredibly friendly, effortlessly going back and forth between Arabic and French as so many in Cairo do.
The “no smoking” signs were clearly being disregarded, despite there being seven of them in the tiny cafe. Every patron was smoking like a chimney.
Cairo Tower
Every city of a certain size boasts a large phallic structure, and Cairo Tower is it in this town. Soaring more than 600 feet into the sky from the middle of the Nile, Cairo Tower, the tallest structure in Egypt, offers an incredible vantage point for all of the city’s vastness.
The view from the top, looking north:
And looking south:
Cairo Marriott Zamalek
In Cairo, I stayed at the Marriott in Zamalek, the upscale neighborhood on an island in the Nile. The hotel centers on the 1869-era Gezira Palace built for Empress Eugenie of France and other dignitaries when they came to Egypt to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. While I’m sure there is a range of rooms, I was lucky to land a “Diplomatic Suite” on the 16th floor with two (!) balconies looking north and south down the Nile. At $125 a night, the price couldn’t be beat. I was super excited when a waiter in the fabulous garden courtyard told me, “Your Arabic is very good.” I clearly fooled him: it pays to know four or five words in any local language…like na’am (yes), laa (no), shokran (thanks) and insha’allah (god willing!).
The hotel entrance:
My Diplomatic Suite:
The view from my room, looking across the Nile:
Cairo
I made it to my fifth continent this week (Australia and Antarctica remain) as I flew from Istanbul to Cairo for a few days of exploring the largest city in Africa and the Arab world (estimates peg it at nearly 20 million)!
I worried that Cairo would be so big and chaotic that I would feel tense and unsafe and unable to relax, even with my trusty travel companion, Mr. Xanax! A friend in Istanbul said that if I thought that city was chaotic, I hadn’t seen anything yet. But Cairo ended up feeling surprisingly relaxed, completely safe and very friendly. Coming from Istanbul, where the streets are littered with beggars (many of them children from eastern Europe, my friend lamented) and many streets are so deserted at night that they can feel a little sinister, the constant bustle and relatively hassle-free nature of Cairo was actually refreshing.
Cairo seemed incredibly civilized: on numerous occasions, I saw police sipping tea and noshing on croissants while they stood guard on street corners (OK, so in America they eat donuts and eat coffee, but this just seemed so much classier…). Newsstands were everywhere, and everywhere people were reading the papers — whether Arabic- or French-language. Each morning I’d pick up Le Monde from an affable Arabic and French-speaking vendor on Sharia 26 July, his cigarette struggling to stay in his mouth as he mumbled up a storm. One time, when I walked past him later in the day without my paper, he remembered me and asked me where it went (I’d long since read it and tossed it)! And he made a strong sales pitch for other French publications he thought I might like. Caireans try to separate you from your money in many charming ways.
I stayed at the historic palace Cairo Marriott Hotel and spent a lot of time wandering Zamalek, the neighborhood surrounding it (on an island in the Nile) that has long been home to Cairo’s diplomatic corps and many of its wealthy residents. The winding streets were filled with surprises at every turn: big old homes, many dusty, decaying and falling down on themselves but all clearly with good bones, plus the Embassies of Brunei, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and more (none of which I could photograph, thanks to Egypt’s rigid policy of no-photo-taking of any government buildings). There was even a Fauchon outlet next to the Embassy of France! Cafes and tiny bookstores dot the side streets of Zamalek, giving the place a sophisticated (while still very dusty and decaying) feel.
I also did the pyramids, which I’m glad I did so that on future trips to Cairo I can skip Giza entirely and concentrate on exploring the vast city itself. That said, they were impressive and HUGE — but overrun with tourists. If you think the pyramids are out in the middle of nowhere, think again. Photos of them are smartly taken to avoid including the encroaching city and suburbs, which butt up against the Giza Plateau on which the three Great Pyramids and the Sphinx stand. (Impressively, the pyramids can also be seen from downtown towers, in the distance on the city’s western outskirts.) We had a bit of excitement on our day at the pyramids: a man managed to climb all the way up to the top of the second largest pyramid (which has had its top lopped off), and could be seen pacing on top. My guide said a military helicopter would come and whisk the man away (presumably to some not nice jail).
Downtown Cairo was very neat and incredibly European in style. Many streets could pass for Paris, if they weren’t so dusty and grubby (most development and cash in recent years has flowed to newly built sections of Cairo, further from the city center). It makes sense: the Europeans had an enormous influence on the development of the city. Ismail the Magnificent also played a hand in its development, ordering the building of a European-style modern downtown. But interestingly, many streets, with their Art Deco architecture, look like South Beach instead of the Middle East.
As you can imagine, in such a huge city, the streets are lively and interesting with coffee shops and shisha houses doing a brisk business at all hours:
Cairo traffic is the worst I have seen anywhere on the planet. There are no traffic lights (or if they are, they are disregarded) and there certainly aren’t any traffic cops or crosswalks. Crossing any street in Cairo requires one to contemplate his life ending. I didn’t take cabs at all — I walked everywhere — because I was so scarred from the ride into town from the airport. The ride out was even worse: the driver sped through city streets at speeds in excess of 120 kilometers per hour, weaving across many lanes of traffic (but somehow never needing to use his brakes) all while pointing out various sights along the way (“There’s Hosni Mubarak’s house!” / “There’s the October War exhibition.”) I vowed that if I survived, I would never return to Cairo because I really pushed my luck on that ride.
Related: Photos on Flickr
Turkish Airlines IST-CAI
The bright and airy Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge in Istanbul is one of the best airline lounges around. Check out how spectacularly they light the art!
My flight on the Turkish A321 was great. I’m always impressed by how European airlines still offer a full meal service (in all classes) even on short hops like our 90-minute flight across the Mediterranean. I was in their short-haul business class, which like most European airlines does not offer a larger seat or more legroom but simply offers a blocked middle seat. At least the food service is still unique to business class! The food was quite tasty on this sector:
Crossing the mountainous southern shore of Turkey:
Cutting the flat northern coast of Africa:
Approaching Cairo:
Seen around Istanbul
The view from 360 — a trendy restaurant on the top of an apartment building on Istiklal Caddesi:
The view from the Galata Tower on a drizzly night:
Cats…they are everywhere in Istanbul. This one looks very regal outside the Lycée de Galatasaray.
The Yeni Mosque (New Mosque):
At the bazaar:
At Balik Pasaji (fish passage):
Fine old architecture along Bankalar Caddesi in Beyoglu:
On the ferry from the Asian to European side of Istanbul:
