Virtual Brush Box

Table of Contents for class posts plus tidbits that did not fit in elsewhere. Online class, UC Graham: From Istanbul to Cairo: The City in the Historical Novels of the Middle East.

Cairo Tidbits

The Taste of Egypt had a shirt that says, Welcome Thursday in Arabic. Took me a minute. Answer below.

BBC: The Private Lives of the Pyramid-builders, Tyldesley 2011.

The Brooke started in Cairo. TB: About, Our History. It is an animal rescue, so not all sunshine & rainbows.

Popular Science: Scientists recreate lost recipes for a 5,000-year-old Egyptian blue dye, The oldest synthetic pigment in human history comes in a variety of hues. Paul, Jun 2, 2025.

LEGO: Great Pyramid of Giza, The Brothers Brick: LEGO Architecture 21058 Great Pyramid of Giza: draw back the sands of time [Review]. Did I use this class as excuse to buy a LEGO set? It’s possible.

Cairo Posts

Fridays, Photography

[Bean Can, Food Photography] 11 April.

[Pyramids in Birmingham, The Concord Center, Architectural Photography] 18 April

[Messing With The Menus, Post-Processing Photography] 25 April, bean can photo used as base

Saturdays, Fiction & Non-Fiction

[The City In Five, Poetry Adjacent] 5 April, hieroglyph for city

[Cairo Travel, Lots of Links, Non-Fiction] 19 April

Sundays, Art, etc

[Your Name In Hieroglyphics, Art Links] 6 April

[Cairo Tiling, Math Art] 13 April

[Festival Cookies, Food] 20 April

Cairo Intro Links

YouTube: Downtown Cairo Egypt – 4K immersive morning walk. 12 April

Arch Daily: Cairo Architecture City Guide 18 April

Cairo Previous Posts

P. Djèlí Clark, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Haunting of Tram Car 015, & A Master of Djinn. [Quantum Truck II, Fiction] 21 Nov 2020 & [Trash Cans, Offered For Your Amusement] 11 June 2022

“The Cairo virtual tour looks interesting but that is 46 Miles / 75 KM.” [Walking Virtual Angkor Wat]

City Posts

Generalized city posts at start of class. Then class took a three-week break, so I switched back to generalized city posts. For the middle of the break, I switched to anniversary-related posts. More or less. #howthesausageismade.

Friday, Photography

[Pushing Buttons, Photography] 28 March, used city photo as base

[Transportation, Growing Up City, Non-Fiction Short] 10 May

[Scenes from a City Park, Photography] 30 May

Saturday, Fiction & Non Fiction

[Why Cities Have Tall Buildings, A Story] 29 March

[Knowing the Rules, Growing Up City, Non-Fiction Short] 26 April

[The Other Side of the Fishbowl, Non-Fiction Short] 24 May

Sunday, Art

[City Lettering, Graphic Art] 30 March

[The City Vertical, Graphic Art] 27 April

[Graffiti Logo, Graphic Art] 11 May

City Intro Links

The Guardian: The unexpected beauty of manhole covers around the world – in pictures 13 April

The Skyscraper Museum: Supertall! 27 April

Boundary Stones of the District of Columbia 10 May

Trust for Public Land: 2025 City Park Facts 30 May

City Previous Posts

So many for specific cities. Here’s a general city post.

“Gradually hero becomes becomes enchanted with big city values. Intellectual curiosity. Global viewpoints. Relentless energy. Meringue shops that are open late.” [Country Boy in The City, Plot for a Reverse Holiday Movie, Fiction] 24 December 2022

Istanbul Tidbits

Cathedral > Mosque > Museum > Mosque. “Turkey’s most famous author, Orhan Pamuk said the decision would take away the “pride” some Turks had in being a secular Muslim nation … There are millions of secular Turks like me who are crying against this but their voices are not heard,” he told the BBC.” BBC: Hagia Sophia: Turkey turns iconic Istanbul museum into mosque, Guerin 2020. Pamuk was the author of one of the books we read for class.

“”Blue is a popular color in Turkey. It impressed early French visitors enough for them to call it ‘the color of the Turks’…or turquoise.” Rick Steves: Istanbul, script.

LEGO Ideas: Istanbul, LI: Istanbul Landscape Architecture, TBB: Beautiful LEGO recreation of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia. None commercially available.

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Istanbul Posts

Friday, Photography

[Grub Gets a Glamour Shot, Photography] 6 June. Could equally be Egypt. The rest of the relevant Fridays were husband photography. Not sure what else I would have done for Istanbul photos.

Saturday, Fiction & Non Fiction

[Istanbul, Guest Photos] 17 May. Another not-going option, as with Alaska fiction [My Alaska-Flavored Adventure, Class Wrap-Up]

[Istanbul Travel, Lots of Links, Non-Fiction] 31 May

[City Class Final, List of Posts] 8 June, today

Sunday, Art

[Nazar Boncuğu, Glass Art] 18 May

[Making My Virtual Class More Touchable, Fabric Art] 25 May

[Making Miniatures, Graphic Art] 1 June

Istanbul Intro Links

Istanbul Modern 11 May

The Brothers Brick: Istanbul’s BlLI: Istanbul Landscape Architectureue Mosque looks magnificent in LEGO microscale 25 May

Big Think: It Works for the Turks: A Colour for Each Direction 1 June

Istanbul Previous Posts

None. Not under any of the city’s names. Weird.

Answer

Why “Welcome Thursday”? Geography Lists: Countries with days off from work besides Saturday and Sunday. Dated 2006, so specifics may have changed. General idea still relevant.

Onwards!
Katherine

Photography of the outside world. Are you old enough to remember when Glamour Shots was big? An undated website lists a store in Texas and one in New Jersey. Glamour Shots: Locations. “Glamour Shots® was considered the first in the industry showing customers their proofs on a monitor right after their session and allowing them to order their pictures instantaneously.” GS: About Us.

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Beef Shawarma Roll Up
Takeout
Mr. Shawarma
Birmingham AL
March 2025

“Mr. Shawarma brings you the authentic taste of Egyptian and Middle Eastern cuisine.” Mr. Shawarma.

Researching food history is either fun or frustrating, depending on my mood at the moment. Items and ideas wander about, adapt to local ingredients, and don’t get written up in formal records.

Theories abound. Shawarma is from Turkey. Shawarma originated in the Ottoman Empire. Shawarma is a food of the Levant. Or, perhaps, all of the theories are true.

In a Rick Steves video, they are talking about different food items, but it demonstrates similar international intermixing.
“Rick: Mmm-hmm! So fried eggplant and tahini, you find this in many countries in the Mediterranean.
Tarek: Absolutely, and each country would claim it’s ‘ours.'”
Rick Steves: Egypt’s Nile, Alexandria, and Luxor > Script

One source traces the roots of the shawarma to Basra, 158 km (approx. 100 miles) from Istanbul. “This döner kebab, or “rolled kebab,” was adopted in neighbouring countries: in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan it came to be known in Arabic as shawārmā, a loanword from the Turkish çevirme, or “turn,” and in Greece as gyro, with the same meaning.” Britannica: shawarma

“There are numerous regional and local variations; one kind of shawarma that is especially popular in Istanbul, Turkey, is made of mutton with grilled tomatoes.” ibid

Technical Details

Phone camera because dinner time. Fiddled with portrait mode, flash, and accidental zoom. None of which I normally use. I think this one is portrait & zoom. The flash looked great on the aluminum foil but made the food look weird.

I took this photo a while ago. The camera inadvertently switched to portrait, as it had done in the past, much to my annoyance. However, this time it worked out. Success here was what got me to try it for posts that appeared earlier. [Dandelion, Can]

Current online class, UC Graham: From Istanbul to Cairo: The City in the Historical Novels of the Middle East.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “When a neighbourhood mechanic was tagged, Griffin turned the mark into a jaunty blue horse.” CBC: Graffiti tags get art makeover. Hat tip to P.

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Looking at a dressage barn. Lessons would be a good refresher while we try to get on the right side of the horse distribution system.

I know of the person, but not much beyond a name. Not sure of the paradigm. The number of horses is big for a personal herd but small for a training barn.

Even if the person is a trainer, I don’t hold out much hope of them having a horse for me to ride. School horses for dressage are not common in the US, or at least anywhere I’ve ever lived.

First attempt. No one around. Will try again.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. amNY: Op-ed | Congestion pricing works, and NYC is not going back, Lieber, June 1, 2025.

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Both horses lunged over the weekend.

They sure move pretty.

Darn it.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Mad Barn: Equine Turnout Practices Research Study. I know nothing other than what is said on the page. Collaboration with the University of Guelph. Took survey. Seems harmless.

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Xray & consult last week. Bone mostly healed (95%). Cleared to wear real shoes & do whatever I want. They don’t need to see me again.

There’s more details of the rehab process and I may get into the weeds at some point, but for now, Yay foot!

[Foot archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Mud Island Park, Memphis TN, has a scale model of the Mississippi River, photo.

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Mud.

Wet mud.

Sticky mud.

Puddle mud.

Up to the fetlocks mud.

Wear your tall rubber boots mud.

Scrape off your shoes mud.

Sinking in the mud.

Sliding in the mud.

Still mud?

Mud.

Onwards, muddily!
Katherine

Colors of the outside world. Big Think: It Works for the Turks: A Colour for Each Direction, Jacobs 2016.

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Legend

Red. From book title, My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk.

Gold because book illustrators.

Spiral because murder mystery.

Insets from chapter titles.
I Am Called Black, C2,7,11,20,22,27, etc.
I Am A Dog, C3.
I Am A Tree, C10.
I Am Called Olive, C14, 43, 57.
I Am A Woman, C54. Yes, I have caved to the pink/blue hegemony. I needed a color.

Process Notes

E for Effort.

My Name is Red is one of the required books for my current online class, UC Graham: From Istanbul to Cairo: The City in the Historical Novels of the Middle East. The plot revolves around book illustrators.

Original plan was to bail. I can’t draw, much less draw clever, tiny slices of life. I would do a lettering project or geometric art, both within my wheelhouse. Then I decided I should at least try. I would take a stab at illustrating, regardless of how it turned out. Et voilà.

Went with computer art rather than hand-drawn because a) my digital design is marginally better than my manual talent & b) getting from paper to digital is problematic at the moment. My office is a scanner graveyard.

Chapter titles chosen for easy of design rather than narrative relevance. I went with the ones I could illustrate.

Onwards!
Katherine