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Showing posts from 2017

Doha 2017-Happy Last Year

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Happy Last Year · 2017 · Doha, Qatar The Power of Yet A year at The Pearl, a Raytheon assignment, desert roads, falcons, Red Arrows, impossible hotels and one stubborn idea: becoming is better than being. Doha Year The Pearl Long Game Experiences Over Things Archive Through 2018 See Full Image Show Story A year only makes sense after it stops happening. Life is lived forward and understood backward. So this is 2017 in reverse focus: not a list of possessions, but a record of people, places, posts and the unfinished work of becoming. I spent the year living in Doha, Qatar. The surface story was easy to photograph—sports cars, yachts, hotels, marinas and desert light. The deeper story was harder to see. It was about refusing the tyranny of NOW and making room for the power of YET . Chronology note: this page is Doha 2017 only. Material from 2018 may appear only as archival context. Kabul begins in 2019 and is intentionally...

Welcome To Muscat

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The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is the main mosque in the Sultanate of Oman. It is in the capital city of Muscat. I am glad I was able to pay a visit to this magnificent building that dominates the Muscat skyline. The dome and the main minaret are the sites chief visual features. So are the varied gardens--- including these happy marigolds.  The chandelier above the praying hall, 14 meters tall,  is  bellissimo;  made in Italy by Faustig. It is the worlds largest chandelier. The prayer carpet  covers the floor of the prayer hall. It contains, 1,700,000,000 knots, weighs 21 tonnes and took four years to produce, and brings together the classical Persian Tabriz, Kashan and Isfahan design traditions. 28 colors in varying shades were used, the majority obtained from traditional vegetable dyes.  It is the second largest single piece carpet in the world. This hand-woven carpet was produced by Iran Carpet Company (ICC) at the order of ...

Qatar National Day Parade

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Qatar National Day 2017 Timeline Qatar National Day 2017 Celebrating Heritage, Tradition & Vision 🇶🇦 National Day Preparations Begin The largest national march in Qatar's history begins preparations along the Corniche, setting the stage for an unprecedented celebration of national identity and heritage. 🚁 Apache Helicopter Flyover Apache helicopters make spectacular passes along the main grandstand Corniche, demonstrating Qatar's milit...

Top Guns Enjoy The Ride

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The celebration leading up to the Qatar National Day on December 18th, kicked off  this weekend  at Darb El Saai. Here is complimentary ticket to cool with complementary  mojo on take off: Demonstrating the benign Classroom and Simulator training on Boeing's AH-64 Apache Helicopter and F-16QA Fighting Falcon. This leads to the Live Action Follow-On training  in The United States.

Crystal Cruises Docks in Doha Port

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Doha Port / November 24, 2017 Our Ship Has Come In Crystal Symphony arrives in Doha, and one afternoon at the port opens a passage back to Sarah and Ed’s 110-day world cruise. See Full Image Show Text Arrival Maiden Doha Call World Cruise Memory The Pearl Chapter 01 / Port of Call Crystal Symphony in Doha One of the first cruise ships to reach Qatar and add Doha to its itinerary for the 2017–18 Arabian Gulf season was Crystal Symphony. For most people on the waterfront, it was a new arrival. For Sarah and me, it was a return. The ship was docked in front of us, but the real voyage ran backward—to 2011, eight voyage segments, and 110 days of world cruise daze. Doha Port, November 24, 2017 Crystal Symphony adds Doha to the map—and brings an older map back to life. Port of Call Today A luxury ...

Doha-They Fedex Horses Don't They

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Qatar / 2017 / Field Archive Horses, Hardware & High Design Seven chapters from one asymmetrical year in Qatar: show jumping, simulators, National Day air power, a gold-elevator hotel, a library built for making, classic cars, and the shifting logic of the dunes. See Full Image Show Text 01 · Flying Horses 02 · From Simulator to Live Action 03 · The National Day Airspace 04 · Doha Does Rich 05 · A Library Built for More Than Books 06 · Machines That Remember 07 · The Duneeverse Opening Field Note Qatar Builds in Contrasts In 2017, Qatar kept changing scale. One weekend: horses clearing fences under arena lights. Another: fighter simulators and National Day flyovers. Then a library where instruments could be checked out, a hotel designed like a lucid dream, a warehouse of classic cars, and a desert where the road disappeared beneath the wheels. The connecting idea was not luxury alone. It was orchestration—the ability to move people, animals, machines, ...

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