This morning Martin and I did an excursion to a nileometer and museum--both located on one of the three islands in the Nile in Cairo. Nileometers were used for thousands of years (by Egyptians and subsequent occupiers) to mark the height of the annual floods. Based on the height they could determine the size of the upcoming harvest, and most importantly (don't cha know) set the appropriate taxes. This one was built in 861 and the column was made of alabaster. There were steps lining the walls of the square-shaped shaft which lead down to the bottom of the column. Standing at the top and looking down it almost looked like an Escher sketch.
The museum was one of particular interest to me. It was dedicated to the life of the queen of Arabic singing, Egyptian-born diva Um Kalthoum. I first discovered her music when we were here in January. I bought a lot of it to bring home with me and I've become almost addicted to her voice. She's an Arabic cultural phenomenon and her weekly radio concerts united the entire Arab world as entire families all over Arabia would be glued to radios to listen to her sing. There was a video in the museum and tens of thousands of people who took to the streets during her funeral was amazing! Martin didn't seem all that excited about it. I told him I was impressed he did so well considering there were no guns, spears, bow and arrows, chariots or other weapons of war! He laughed! :-)I tried to upload a photo, but the card reader isn't working for some reason. I hope to get this resolved so I can share some images with you. We'll see.
Thanks again for visiting and I hope you come back soon. Also, please let me know if there's anything that you'd like for me to write about. Thanks! Otherwise, you'll be stuck with my stream of consciousness reliving of the highlights of my day, and you might find that boring.
Thanks and love from Cairo!
Stuart
Hi, Stuart,
ReplyDeleteI'd heard a bit about Um Kalthoum, that her voice was captivating. Have heard a couple of recordings ofher and agree with this description. Poor Martin! What a trooper. :->
You asked for ideas to write about. How about more on the music...are there aspects of the music there that you think relate to the music your band plays, especially with George's Arabic tunes? Just a thought.
Dear Angela,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting. I'll try to write about the music some, but please understand my knowledge is extremely limited.
I'm surprised that you know of Um Kalthoum! Not many people outside Arabia know of her. She wanted to keep all western influences out of her music and movies (yes, she did 6 movies that were apparently all pretty bad--worse than Elvis' according to our guide!) :-) Because of that, she wasn't a crossover artist at all. In fact, I have about 30 of her songs on my ipod and they are all at least 40-minutes each--that's just one song! So, when you hear George playing a 5-minute Oud solo in our band you understand that he considers it a very short one! LOL!
I'm on the look out for other singers that I like. So far, I've not run across any that captivate me like Soma (Um Kalthoum's nickname). I hope to find male singer from her era to listen to to compare. There was a male singer whose name I can't remember (Basem said he would write it down for me) who was a contemporary of Soma and he introduced a 3 to 4-minute song length. Um Kalthoum was really unique. I'll write more later. Lea's now ready for breakfast.
Please give our love to everyone there.
Thanks and Love,
Stuart
p.s. I really miss my raw food diet!
Hi Stuart, (Frank and Lea)
ReplyDeleteA lot of travelers are taking to the air today for Egypt. We had a large group at toning last night. So you will be surrounded soon by lots of friends!
Thanks for showing us your photos. I loved the Escher nielometer photo. Right on description of the Escher like feel of it!
Seeing these photos reminded me of the heat of Egypt. I hope all of you are adapting easily to it.
I love keeping up with you on the trip this way.
Love,
Lillibeth