We BE Fresh
Fun, Exciting, Experimental, Innovative, Artistic, Lively, Journeyous, Creative, Crazy = Fresh
Give it up to Talib Kweli for his resilience — for even when faced
with confusion and obstacles, he stood tall and pressed forward.
On May 4, 2011 Kweli was scheduled to rock a show at Club Sonar. But
to everyone’s surprise, sources say Sonar was forced to close due to a
delinquent liquor license. Instead of Kweli moving on to his next
destination and giving up on the crowd (one that was expected to be
large enough to exceed a sold-out show) he took to Twitter and let the
world know he still wanted the show to go on— “Sonar was going to be
sold out tonight. We disappointed. But if u promote a club in Bmore,
we will come, drink, perform & perform on the bar”.
And just like any idea thrown out for the world to receive
and help bring to fruition, his was most certainly nurtured into
being! Talib Kweli locked in a last-minute deal with Bourbon Street, a
venue located only across the street from Club Sonar. The show was
thrown together - but was still full of energy and quite an awesome
experience. I have a huge appreciation for those that push forward no
matter what and Talib Kweli seemed to show that he was not one to be
easily detoured. Cheers. - ABT (Photograpy by Aidah Rasheed)
Short. I love this place. I am happy to come home. I am sad to leave. Here, a few pics from today, I’ve been spending a lot of time in Bur Dubai these past couple days. It’s most interesting to me, most unfamiliar, and its not as touristy and “X-pat’ty” as the other parts (not that there is anything wrong with the other places, just saying). Headed out for an exciting fish dinner with friends to climax this wonderful trip, so I have to roll but, enjoy the pics. Salaam. Cheers. - ABT
Pool play. This video is from last week, it was our first hotel with a pool. The hotel was CityMax, located across the street from The Mall of the Emirates. The pool was on the roof the 10 story hotel, it was not too crazy, but it was definitely good times. Enjoy. Cheers. Salaam. -ABT
Imagine you are in the middle of the desert, and you’ve been there for days, walking, searching for shelter, you are tired, and hot, and just wish you could find water and shade in the shadows. You are ready to give up and then, suddenly, a camel walks by, you see roads, houses, and buildings, but higher than everything you see in the foreground, in the distance you see skyscrapers grabbing the clouds, their metals glistening from the vicious sun rays, and towering over all the small buildings around them. They are not just your typical Skyscrapers, they seem to defy what you thoughts skyscrapers architecturally could achieve, they have layers built into there designs like you couldn’t have imagined, their silhouettes are beautiful and interesting, they have negative space, panels and colors layered like you have never seen built before. You start to question your mind, “is this real?”. You start to wonder if this is a mirage, “I mean arn’t I in the desert?”. “Am …. I … in… the … future..? you ask yourself. Then they start zooming past you, wind blasts upon you as they race at high speeds on inches away from you, they are red, they are blue, white, back, yellow… they are machines of speed, crazy ones, new ones, ones that are built to combine with the wind rather then be hindered by it… they are cars, ones of the highest caliber that mankind has achieved. Wow is there a lot of them! You realize that you are in the present and not the future (necessarily) but in the midst of a kind of energy that has been harnessed and used to create these innovative images you are seeing with your eyes, you realize you are in Dubai, a city in the middle of the desert, a city that strives to create what the imagination can conjure up rather than what regulations will allow.
Dubai is currently the most constructed city in the world, everywhere there is construction happening, new things being built, metro train rails being expanded, roads being paved, land being prepped, cranes chill amongst the city with a population number that could rival the population of people. Its quite and experience to see what the city is currently and to think of what it will be in the future (I use that word a lot huh). Often I am walking the streets with my camera, taking video, and photos, people are intrigued and in wonder as I take pictures of them, documenting life, I guess I am the man with the man movie camera.. lol. Enjoy these few shots. Video soon, forgot USB cord at home, what? Don’t judge me.. Go eat a pet monster shotglass haha. Cheers. Salaam. -ABT
It’s quite an interesting experience to travel so far and connect with people on such a deep, joyful, and sincere level. The friends I have made out here (and ofcourse my wonderful peoples at home) are some of the most genuine people I have ever meet in my life, I can tell they are people I plan to have around for a long long time, definitely. Meeting people like the people I have meet out here has been a gentle reminder that we are all connected in so many ways. It is amazing how the act of saying hello to someone can lead to a connection that can have such a significant tangible durability, and I am not just talking about the people that I meet here, I am talking about worldwide. I realize now the power in the relationships that I have everywhere, the fact that the meeting of one person is the start of a snowball effect, a seed in a tree of relationships that can infact grow eternally (insight from my new friend Fitri). Be genuine, open, and positive, and you will always find yourself in the company of great minds. I thank this trip to the U.A.E for providing me with continued knowledge to be patient, eager, and open hearted to the wonderful people around me, to embrace them with great light, for the light we shine when combined can open the mind in the most peaceful beautiful way. I am no longer the man I used to be, I am new, I am fresh, we be fresh [[:P
So yea… no pictures, just raw thought at 3:am in the morning after a great and fun Sunday night. Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up with good energy and post up some unadulterated media from that past couple days. Salaam. Cheers. - ABT
(Before I go into writing about Abu Dhabi, allow me to express U.A.E in general first.) This trip thus far has been completely out of this world! Let’s see, how can I explain this without sounding completely dorky? Nope, there is only one way to explain this experience, being here in the UAE has been a complete out of this world experience, there is so much variety in culture and people’s backgrounds, I am meeting people from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Austraila, England, Philippines, Netherlands, Morocco, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ecuador, and the list goes on! The architecture is amazing in everyway, it feels like the architects have battles of who can design the craziest most innovative buildings. Everything is constantly being cleaned, I mean it’s like serious extreme measures that are taken to keep the sand from taking over the city, lol. Workers, people work hard out here! From the business man to the teacher, to the builder, to the Restaurant busboy, people are focused. There is always someone ready to help and assist you and get paid at every turn, taxis, servers, information people, there are dudes the mall employs to wipe the sand off of cars while people are in the mall. You can not be in Dubai unless you are working, there are no homeless people, if you are not working then you have to leave the entire U.A.E. People get paid and paid well and they party super hard. Cars… did I say cars? Serious, there are so many luxury sports cars around that I don’t even think of them as novel anymore … Lamborghinis, Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette, Maybach, Benz etc etc etc, blah blah blah, you name it people have it here (except for Vipers.. haven’t seen any of those yet hehe), its like the first thing people do when they get here is buy the most expensive car possible. Things are not overwhelmingly expensive here btw, the currency used here is called a “dearham” (spelling) aka Dhs, 1 US Dollar = 3.50 Dhs so for every 1000 Dhs spent I am really only spending around 275.00 US dollars. With that said, some things are cheap like a fruit drink will cost 2 Dhs which is less than 1 US dollar and then full scale delicious dinner will cost 200 Dhs which really only equals around 56 Dollars etc etc. Taxis are super inexpensive, and you use them quite often, for like a 50 Kilometer ride in a taxi, it will only cost you 60 dhs which is around 15 US dollars, crazy huh, yes gas is very very very inexpensive, like less than 1 dollar a gallon. It’s an interesting experience calculating the Dhs vs US dollars thing through out the day. EVERYTHING IS SO DIFFERENT!!
Okay, so let me tell you about Abu Dhabi. Yesterday (Friday) we were in Abu Dhabi. Our hotel was crazy epic, Toren is a hotel finding genius. He found us this awesome 5 star hotel for only 80 US dollars a night (what!?) Yea, freaking 80 bucks and we were chillen in a palace…. dang! I’ve never experienced anything like it before, the room was insane, futuristic styles and such. Here is a picture of the exterior, when we first drove up I didnt even realize it was our hotel, I was actually shoting some video of the building because the architecture was really cool, I thought it was an embassy building or something… till our cab driver drove up, Toren and I just looked at each other in amazement, lol.
While in Abu Dhabi we checked out Ferrari world, Masdar city, the Royal Emirate Palace, and the great Mosque. Everything was of massive epic proportion, built with the most esteem of structural polish and execution. It all felt so much like a sci fi movie, like as if we were 30 years in the future or something, I mean seriously, they just don’t build stuff like this in the US.
This trip is an eye opening experience. I feel like I see the world from a completely different perspective now, I am so inspired in so many ways, I am no longer the same person, I think completely differently now, I feel challenged to create in new ways, new things. I will invent, innovate, and demand excellence from myself in everyway I can think of. The way things are created here, the achievements that have been made, and the way they seem to reach for the sky is here is simply awe inspiring …
Okay so its 4am in the morning and I feel more than half way out of my mind but I really wanted to drop an update here tonight. I hope you enjoy the pics and story. Salaam. -ABT
The Hotel - Park Rotana 5star
Ferrari World Theme Park
More Ferrari World
A Machine that gathers wind and gnerates massive amounts of energy @ Masdar City
A Driverless Taxi in Masdar City - The car is electric and is guided by GPS and Magnets there is no human operator for this car
The Palace of the Emirates
Across the street from the palace is these futuristic buildings in progres reaching for the sky
The Great Mosque = Epic!
Toren had to cover up when he entered the mosque because he was wearing shorts. Haha!
Last but not least, here is a worker taking a break from building, it was 48c thats over a 100 hundred degrees that day in Abu Dhabi, so he keeps cool with this cold towel wrap. Gangsta!
Hallah everyone, Its about 2pm Thursday afternoon, we have checked out of our hotel and are about to begin our Abu Dhabi journey, via Bus, at some bus station… somewhere? Haha… yea. Today will be an adventure, it’s like we have a bunch of puzzle pieces to a picture and we have only constructed the sides but the middle is still empty with random pieces scrambled all over the place. To be honest I like the randomness, it leaves room for variety and the discovery of things unthought of. I am confident we will build the picture and find ourselves in Abu Dhabi in good time. When we get there we are going to explore the city, it’s the main Emirate city of all the U.A.E., so it should be interesting. We have read that it has some awesome palaces, epic mosques, Ferrari world, and a place I am most exciting to experience is called Masdar City (look it up, its an epic project of earth saving proportions [[:-) …). So, no pictures right now, just the small update as we head out of here. I will post some photos and videos soon Insha’Allah :-) Salaam. Y’Allahz! -ABT
Officially tonight is night 5 and wow has it all been quite amazing. I often get quite and just stare… its like a dream, I think to myself, I am I really here? Is this really happening? What does this all mean? What will this all add up to? I know … weird little thought process I have… but really that’s the way my mind works. It’s 3am right now and I am giving it to you raw unadulterated … Enjoy? haha.
Anyway. Today we went to the highest building in the world
… it was super high (pics will show).
THen we went to the “Palm” man-made island, yea it’s real, and yea, you’d never believe it’s man-made, stuff is crazy here. There are like no street addresses.. lol… and there are so many cultures of people living so many different types of lifestyles… it’s interesting, to say the least. Below is a pic from the PALM as we drove back to the mainland.
When we came back from the Palm Islands, we meet with a new friend, and were taken to a pretty cool place to eat and hang out as we killed a little time before we went to a live show on the roof top of some random hotel (there are a ton of hotels here, the hotels are places where people party, chill, drink and relax) it was great. After that we found ourselves at some dubstep club.
Good times. Now it’s 3 am and I am going to get rest. Will let the pics do the rest of the talking. Yallah. Sallam- ABT
“H’Allah’” (think that’s how you spell it) is a way of saying hello in Arabic, “Y’Allah” - is a saying for goodbye in Arabic. “Insha’Allah” means “God willing” in Arabic. All three are very common phrases here in Dubai. So H’Allah everyone, today has been pretty nuts! But before I delve too deeply into today I would like to show you what it was like to go Sand Dune riding with us yesterday haha. It’s short, straight to the point, and I meant to update it yesterday but Tumblr.com was giving me hella problems with uploading more than one video, hopefully it will be more cooperative with me tonight, because there are a few videos I would like to share. Anywho. Enjoy! Yallah. -ABT
