The Black Market of Belleville...

... Illegal, yet so real :

It is a pretty wild and mobile market, generally displaying between the Ménilmontant
and the Belleville subway stations but, sometimes, it can unexpectedly spread until
the Place du Colonel Fabien.





Several hundred residents - exasperated by the noise, and the dirt that devastate the
boulevard when hawkers leave the ground - marched on May 21, between the subway's
stations of Couronnes and Belleville, to denounce the illegal market that plagues the
neighborhood.



Every day, a large number of hawkers settle on the pavement, deploying an incredible
array of items - recoverd from the trash as well as stolen - like secondhand shoes and
clothes, old transistors, pots and broken appliances, cell phones and computers...
and so on.


The City Council and the police headquarters didn't seem, for now, to have found a
solution to put an end, once for all, to the illegal occupation of the public space.

Then, the urban cleansing services... well, they keep cleaning.
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A Sunday like any other in Belleville...

I wanted to test a Sony H55, so I made a ride in Belleville...

[rue Dénoyez, aka 'Graffiti street']
For once during this rotten summer, there was the sun ... although it kept me from seeing
through the screen what I was shooting, never mind! The atmosphere of the neighborhood
is there and if I can make you feel it, my goal will be achieved.


[the 'Chinatown' area].



[Boulevard de Belleville].

[Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud - a curious look exchange]

The 'Cannibale Café', on my way back to Oberkampf.
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Strolling with Yellow Cats in the Goutte d'Or.

Yes, lots of yellow cats for a 3-hours walk in the streets of the Goutte d'Or.
Thoma Vuille, aka M. Chat, launched the invitation, but I chose not to go
because my presence would have been likely to cause too much confusion
and misunderstanding.

[2 other tours around the Goutte d'Or, with & without yellow cats, HERE and HERE].



[Photos by © Roswitha Guillemin] - See them all HERE.

http://www.monsieurchat.fr
http://www.ttoma.tv
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Suddenly, this summer, Le Mur began to knit...

Le M.U.R. - #101 - CollectifFranceTricot - July 16/2011
CFT - 5 knittopaths girls: Soso, Ema, Babooh, Quinc et Oury.

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A bunch of Le Mur artists celebrated the Bastille-day, in their own way...

[Photos: Bob Jeudy]
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Time Out for Bastille-day 2011...

Tonight and tomorrow, the Paris firefighters brigade,
which celebrate this year its 200th anniversary, organize
a dozen free balls in various 'casernes' all around the city...




... click on the map, check the addresses and make your choice!

* The Bals des Pompiers, hosted by bands and some DJ, will begin at 21 pm to close at 4 am.
As usual, admission is free, but you will find the traditional barrel at the entrance to collect
donations for the Association for the development of social work of Paris' firefighters.
* Several free Bals populaires are also provided tonight and tomorrow in the streets of Paris.
[check LeMonde.fr for details].



July 14 Défilé' : Fighter jets overflying Ieoh Ming Pei pyramid...

[Thomas Cox - AFP/Getty Images]

And later on, at night...

[sjangro] has caught the fireworks from the street level, which gives back a very Parisian
and almost confidential view of the final bouquet.
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New: a Beate Petersen & Nasseredin Mirza Video

A slice of the history of Persia in the second half of the 18th century in a beautiful and greatly
informative Beate Petersen's video - a clever montage of animation and Nasser al-Din's
daguerrotypes, depicting the life and some deadly intrigues at the court of the Shah, where
women have had a huge influence. His mother and two favorites among his 84 women, in
particular, have determined the major political turning points of that time.

"In 1842, a Persian delegation visited Queen Victoria,
in England. When they returned home, they brought
with them a Daguerrotype photographic camera, a gift
from the queen to the 11 year-old heir to the Persian
throne, Nasseredin Mirza. The young heir fell in love
with the magical contraption.
In the following decades, he documented his life,
revealing to the public eye what the public eye was
never supposed to see..."


ناصرالدین شاه و 84 زن او is the result of a brilliant combination:
the photographic documentation of Nasser al-Din through
Beate Petersen's magic looking glass... with the added charm
of Milad Movahedi's soundtrack.



Beate Petersen © 2011 - "Nasser al-Din Shah & His 84 Wives"


A few women of the Shah's harem - from private life straight to posterity.

From the 'shah's illness and the calico cat' episode - I couldn't resist to such a cat story.

"After Nasseredin Shah's death, the older and respected women remained in the harem.
The others were sent back to their relatives with yearly pensions or they moved to the holy
cities of Karbala and Najaf. Anis o-Dolch survived her husband by only a few months."

REFERENCES:
- The Diary of H.M. the Shah of Persia.
- Abbas Amanat, 'Pivot of the Universe, Nasir al-Din Shah and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896'.
- Taj al-Saltanah, 'Crowning Anguish, Memoirs of a Persian Princess'.
Afsaneh Najmabadi, 'Women with mustaches and Men without beards'.
- Nikki R. Keddif, 'Qajar, Iran and the Rise of Reza Khan'.
- Lois Beck, editor, 'Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic'.

Thanks to TehranBureau/FrontLine for pointing out
this video as well as for suggesting further reading
through the entries of the Encyclopædia Iranica:
- Harem: "Women played an important role in the life
of the Qajar monarchs. Fatḥ-'Ali Shah and Nāṣer-al-Din
Shah, in particular, kept a large harem", etc.

- Nasser al-Din Shah is also depicted in the movie Nassereddin Shah, Actor-e Cinema (Once
Upon a Time, Cinema) 1992, written and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
- He is the main character of the short story De koning, 2002, the novel De koning, 2011 and
by the Persian–Dutch writer Kader Abdolah. [Wikipedia].


VIDEO slideshow [Key1Cracker]

- Nāṣer al-Dīn Shāh on Encyclopædia Britannica.
- QAJAR PHOTO ALBUM
- QAJAR, pictory...



Somptuous and unconventional, this 1896 painting of the Shāh by the artist Kamal Al-Molk,
Mohammad Gaffari shows Nasser al-Din lost in a huge Hall of Mirrors [which is also the
painting title]. You can read Houman Harouni's post on TehranBureau.
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