Mechanical Tapestries
March 31, 2010 at 9:40 am 5 comments
I read my fortune on a truck the other day: “Look with your eyes, but forgive with your heart.” The Lebanese cultural equivalent of the Latin/South American chicken buses, painted trucks are a moving tapestry of self-expression here – and of a vernacular Arabic calligraphy.
The colors: primary. The advice: general (like fortune cookies). Most of all, the writing serves as a superstitious protector – for those inside and outside the truck.
On roads customarily loitered with shiny BMWs, convertibles and the rusty cabs, these trucks are one of the few things with real personality (though I wouldn’t say the same about the guys driving them).
Did the Middle East also inherit these trucks from elsewhere – as is the case with the chicken buses? Who picks the sayings and brushes the colors into them? Are new trucks still treated this way? Is it the same in other Arab countries?
So many questions that I doubt I’ll get the answers for just now!
Wherever the origin – the bright colors serve as an effective siren for other cars on the road dodging the trucks’ often-reckless moves, as well as leisure reading for when you’re stuck behind one in traffic. And maybe it’ll provoke a thought or too (even if that thought is more along the lines of “How corny!”)
Entry filed under: Floating. Tags: art, chicken buses, colors, fortune, Lebanon, paint, personality, sayings, streets, trucks, vernacular.
1.
Ramzi | March 31, 2010 at 11:06 am
i think it’s removed from the chicken buses
i remember trucks disguised as leopards and tigers back in cairo. and if the syrian trucks, that pass through lebanon, say anything it’s that a lot are treated the same… hmmm… road trip through arab countries for research?!
2.
mirellamccracken | March 31, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Lovely post Lorena and lovely pictures.
I want to add that the colors are even more beautiful and brighter in reality and under the Lebanese sun:)
Hey girl, where is the Tweet button? I was going to retweet your post. Please do add it.
Take care
Mirella
3.
mirellamccracken | March 31, 2010 at 12:21 pm
One more thing:
You definitely don’t want to be stuck behind these truck during traffic jam, they have the worse “echappment” LOL LOL
4.
Meedo | March 31, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I don’t know about you… but I find the snap shots annoying! Love, love , love the blog though!
5.
Lorena | April 1, 2010 at 6:37 am
Well Meedo, I took these while driving so didn’t have much time for creative composition
next time buddy 
Thanks Mirella! I put in the tweet code.. keep forgetting
You’re absolutely right about the echapment.. even passing by one of those monsters and your vision is clouded by all the smog! pfft! 
Benji: I’m in
Anything in the name of “research”