Saturday, May 21, 2011

News Coverage of Elder Holland's 2011 Visit to the Middle East


Here is a link to a report about Elder Holland's visit to the Middle East this last April.  Jeffery R. Holland is one of the twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, someone Mormons revere and love as an ordained witness of Jesus Christ.  He has been here twice now since we have lived here - once before in 2009.  Last time Sister Holland came with him and the Relief Society sisters enjoyed a shopping trip to the old souq with her.  The Middle East political situation has changed a lot since that visit, so she didn't come this time.  Or maybe she didn't come because she was spending time with grandchildren.  Who knows?

It is amazing to know that the church is growing even here in a Muslim country where we cannot do missionary work.  It is a great comfort to know that our prophet and the apostles know how much we need their support and encouragement here and come in spite of the risks.  Elder Holland spent his time meeting with saints and building bridges with leaders and the communities here.  The three meetings I was a part of with Elder Holland were very uplifting and I had about twelve pages of notes after I typed them all up.  Again we got to shake his hand as we left the Doha meeting and thank him for coming and that was great.  I never know what to say when I meet someone I admire and look up to.  My tongue and personality get all goofy and I feel like a doofus when it is over.  Oh well, I hope he has the gift of tongues so he could translate my blather into coherent thanks and gratitude.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Dutch Paintings Visit the Museum of Islamic Art


Brett and I visited the Museum of Islamic Art last week and relished the temporary exhibit there, "Golden Age of Dutch Painting.  Masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum."  I guess the very title of this museum creates a scarcity of exquisite artwork.  Yes, they have a lot of astrolabes, rugs, ceramics, jewelry, and ornamental doors, but they do not have paintings of the human figure.  I don't think the Renaissance ever reached the Muslim world, so the individual is underrepresented in this museum. 


There is nothing like seeing a Rembrandt in person, only inches away from the cracked layers of century-filled brush strokes.  The smirk on his self-portrait as the Apostle Paul (1661) captures his impish ego perfectly.  There are more than 40 known painted self-portraits by him as well as dozens more works on paper.  Either he was cheap and didn't want to waste money on models or he had a great admiration for his face in the mirror and didn't mind gazing at it for hours on end.


 There are a few pieces by Frans Hals (portraits), Balthasar van der Ast and Adriaen van Utrecht (amazing still lifes - complete with animal life), Johannes Vermeer (The Love Letter) and Jan Steen (fun, action shots).  Make sure you catch this exhibit before it leaves Doha on June 6.  Oh, and if you go on a Monday, entrance to the exhibit is free!

Adriaen van Utrecht's "Still Life, 1644" 

Balthasar van der Ast's "Still Life with Flowers"

Jan Steen's "The Merry Family" 

Johannes Vermeer's "The Love Letter"

Make Way for Dohaland


This massive demolition going on in downtown Doha is bringing about Dohaland.  It sounds like an amusement park, I know, but really it is the redevelopment of the heart of the city into a modern, multi-functional environment.  The link I have provided is not from the official Dohaland website because the project has now changed its name to Msheireb Properties and that is a mouthful.  Besides, the official website is not quickly informative like the Qatar Living entry I found.  I am the first one to say that Doha needs many facelifts, but seeing this kind of destruction, and knowing what havoc it is creating in the lives of many residents and businesses here, makes these photos somewhat somber.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra

Last week Brett and I had the best date we have ever had in this country.  We went to the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Katara and it was heavenly.  Maybe I am just starved for culture after living here for this long and not wanting to go out at night to avoid the awful traffic, or maybe it was just really good music.  Whatever it was, I felt transported to a better world by the surroundings, the music, and of course, the company.

Katara is a cultural village that was built to preserve the old Qatari culture.  I would say it is a cleaned up, way more expensive, luxurious version of their past.  Just driving into the complex is a sensory experience.  The water and beach are there ushering visitors into a more peacful setting from the noise of the city.  The bricked walkways have colored lights paved right into the ground making it appear to be a bedouin fairy path.  The concert was held in the beautiful Drama Theater, which seemed very small for an orchestra concert, but the audience didn't even fill up the seats sadly.  The ceiling of the theater is covered with small lights and painted to look like the night sky, so we got the feel of being under the desert stars without all the blowing sand and hot temperatures.  There were nibbles and drinks before the concert started and during intermission, so we felt very pampered with the Perrier water and salmon hors d'oeuvres.

As I looked through the concert program before the performance I got a little nervous because the first selection for the night was composed by an Arabic artist.  I didn't think I could sit through a night of the whiny, screeching music that I have come to know as Arabic music.  I had no need to worry though, because as the concert started, the musical gifts of the composer Marcel Khalife quickly woke up my senses to a new meaning of Arabic melodies.  It was called Concerto for Rababa and Orchestra and it was divine.  This is what Khalife wrote about his creation:

"For the rababa and the orchestra, I wrote music that slips out of its jealously guarded chamber at night, carrying songs that Arabs have long sung as they wandered between sand dunes and verdant oases - a spirit moved by trains of melody and rhythm.  The rababa resonates with the rhythms of galloping purebreds, evoking the spirit's eternal hum.  The rababa to the desert is like water to gazelles . . . . As if voyaging through desert vistas, I used the tradtional meters of Arabic poetry as rhythmic patterns to provide a measured form for the voice that wells up from the cauldron of passionate love.  In doing so, and to help restore the glory of the rababa, I opened a doorway to the impossible, to a madness that reason woujld accept, lawlessness that morality does not abhor, a touch of chaos that can fit within an ordered structure, a sense of adventure that wisdom would tolerate, and a sense of delirium induced by melody."

He wrote a lot more about his piece, but as you can tell, he is quite a poet as well as a composer.  His music really touched me, but the musicians made it really come alive.  The guest soloist Hassan Moataz Al Molla played the rababa through the whole first half of the concert.  Now what is a rababa, you ask?  Well I didn't know what it was either until seeing for myself.  You can see for yourself here from a recording of the concerto at Qatar National Day in December 2010.  Do yourself a favor and watch - you won't be disappointed.  Not only was his music haunting and magical that night, his performance was filled with pleasure and joyful connections with the other musicians.  His eye contact with certain violinists, cellists, and the conductor communicated a rare gratitude and commraderie and it was obvious that he loves what he does.  I loved what he did too.

After the posh intermission, when Brett got Marcel Khalife's autograph and we had some more fancy snacks, the orchestra continued with some Tchaikovsky, a movement from a Qatari composer called "Doha Secrets Symphony", some Khachaturian, a composition from the conductor called "Nile Bride", and then ended with a piece from Stravinsky.  My favorite part of the second half was the piece by the conductor.  I think it is rare to see a composer conduct his own creation but we did.  Nader Abbassi is someone who makes his work look as easy as breathing in and out.  He seems to pull the music from the orchestra with instinctual movements and gestures.  His fluidity with his own music was especially impressive.  Unfortunately Mr. Abbassi looked a lot like Dracula that night in his tux and tails, but his musical abilities made up for his vampire-like exterior.


The whole evening had been floaty and relaxing as we walked to our car, which is not easily done in a city like Doha, so I savoured it.  It made me so happy and appreciative of other people's gifts and talents and thankful about how they are generous in sharing them with the parched souls of those of us sojourning in this desert wilderness.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Does Qatar Hold Elections?


A couple of weeks ago these signs started showing up all over the city and created some curiosity in the expat community.  People started making guesses about what they could mean.  My favorite guess was a group of women who half jokingly said the signs were memorials for people who had died in car accidents in the roundabouts where they were posted.  When they started seeing the same signs all over the city though, that kind of blew that theory out of the water.  So what could they be?  No English is included on any of the signs so the wondering continued until we could talk to a reliable Arabic speaker.


My reliable source told me that they are election signs for Doha City Council.  Who knew there were ever elections in Qatar?  I surely didn't.  Other expat theories proposed that maybe this was a PR campaign for Qatar so that the world could see evidence of some democratic activity going on, something to stave off Qatar's own civil unrest, but since the citizens of Qatar are very happy to receive and spend their millions of riyals they receive from the government, there really are no worries here about protests from Qatari nationals.  BUT if it was a PR campaign a few of us imagined that the emir would call in a few favorable people who were on his good side and tell them that they were going to run for office; then he would tell them if they were going to win and by how much.  This is what some of us imagine democracy to be like under a Middle Eastern monarch, but then again, I haven't researched the government workings of Qatar so I am by no means an expert.  I am very interested though, especially considering there is an abaya clad woman running for office, so I did a little research and found this.

Apparently there have been three elections in Qatar and the last one was in 2007 - that is why I have never seen campaign signs like these here before.  As I researched the issue though I found out that this election is going to be more interesting, with a predicted higher voter turnout, than the previous ones.  Because of the political climate in the Middle East these days, this new council to be elected will receive more power and legislative authority than ever before.  So hooray for the democratic process taking place here in little old Qatar!  Oh, and if you look closely under the sign with the woman candidate you will see a very smashed car - a perfect example of what this new Doha City Council can use its power to change!

Professor Brett


Today marks the third VCUQ graduation that Brett has been involved in, but for the first time today, I finally got some photos of him in his fancy graduation duds ready for the big shindig.  I had to coax him into letting me take pictures before he left for the Ritz Carlton this morning.  Graduation is a very exclusive event here, only for graduates, their families, and VCUQ faculty and staff, so I haven't been on site to snap photos of Brett marching into commencement looking all knowledgeable and wise and stuff, so these shots at home will have to do.  The fancy piece hanging around his neck is called a hood and the colors represent the university from which he graduated (University of Utah - red and white) and the degree he received (Master of Architecture - purple).  Even though he was all decked out in his official academic regalia he couldn't put on a serious face to save his life, so enjoy the entertaining poses with Professor Brett and his trusty sidekick dog Fanny Freckles.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

VCUQ Student Fashion Show 2011

A few weeks ago I took my friend Rhonda to the annual VCUQ Student Fashion Show.  This is always an interesting evening, one that I try not to miss.  The first year I went was quite surprising because the guest fashion designer brought her collection of outfits that was created from cast off umbrellas (not my favorite) and the student collections were only slightly less eccentric.  Last year I was in Utah for BYU Women's Conference and couldn't attend, so my friend Monique got to take a friend and see the spectacle without me. 

My favorite part of the show is being able to be there on Ladies Only Night when some of the Arabic women let their carefully guarded beauty be seen by everyone there, including western women like me.  The first year I went was almost too much to comprehend.  There were an unbelieveable amount of sequins, cleavage, make-up, and hair-sprayed hair sculptures.  I thought I had walked into a convention of . . . well, there is no way to put it delicately, so I won't.  I have heard that the Qatari weddings are similar only on a grander scale with women dressed to impress each other, and the display of immodesty is almost shocking.  I guess they look at these functions as their only public opportunity to "let it all hang out" and everything certainly does.  I guess that is why the security for the evening was very over-the-top and our mobile phones and cameras were confiscated as we entered the door.  My purse was searched more thoroughly there than at any airport I have been through!

At the beginning of the 2009 show it was announced that there were a few male models that would be coming out during the evening.  The audience groaned with disapproval.  Everyone was told that there would be fair warning and they would let us know before each section to give the ladies time to cover up.  When it happened the first time there was a flurry of quick shayla and abaya placement before the male models made their entrances.  Then the announcer got careless in the next section and forgot to mention the entrance of two more male models.  You should have heard the gasps, small shrieks of surprise and horror as the Arabic women threw on their black coverings.  Some women were incensed, and I thought for a minute there would be a mass exodus out the door, but when the Fashion Design Department Chair Sandra Wilkins came out and apologized for the mishap, the ladies settled down enough to make it through the rest of the collections.

Well the 2011 show was very different because first, the side show was tame in comparison to that first year I attended.  Women took off their abayas but there was more modesty and more toned down outfits, hair, and make-up this time.  Arabic women are so beautiful and I have always thought it a shame that they seem so determined to cover their natural beauty up with products, but that night there were some real goddesses there.

Another change was the collections themselves.  The guest fashion designer was Bongiwe Walaza from South Africa and her collection was magnificent.  There were pieces that regular women might be able to wear, that is if we could afford them.  The guest model for the night was Tatum Keshwar, Miss South Africa 2008 and she was beautiful!

The student collections that followed were similarly appealing.  A lot of the pieces were relatively modest and somewhat conservative, in a flamboyant sort of way that is.  The fabrics were tailored, lacy, elegant, and glamorous.  Can you say shoulder embellishments?!  One designer, Khaltham Daham Al-Kuwari, designed for and dedicated her collection to Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser.  She said, "Her role as a strong and empowering first lady, especially when it comes to creativity and knowledge, has inspired me to push my innovative boundaries to create a wardrobe fit for a queen."

Some of Khaltham Daham Al-Kuwari's designs

Dana Elhaj Ahmad, one of Brett's former students, had a very nice collection too.  She based it on the suspenders and combined the opposites of structure and draping for her fashions.  Interesting.  Some items from the sophomore collection were downright laughable with hoodies for men made out of fake neon pink/yellow/green fur - icky!  I wish I had pictures of all the collections to show you but you can see some of them on the VCUQ link I have included above.

Rhonda and I had an entertaining evening and enjoyed the beautiful nibbles at the reception afterward.  We mingled with the models, designers, and VCUQ faculty like we were movie stars and even posed with one of the models for a picture outside the gigantic VCUQ main door.  I am hopeful that Rhonda will send me a copy of that because I would love a pictorial souvenir of our moment when we both felt fatter than fat standing next to a size 0 youngster like her.  Another adventurous part of our evening was when I got lost on the way home, but I will save that story for another post when I discuss aging related challenges.  Don't miss that one.  It is bound to be a snoozer!