Posts tagged souvenirs
The Trendestrian
Spotting Unexpected Trends Around Me
A Tribe of T-Shirts.
Inspired by local Jordan culture and street slang, the Amman-based shop Jo Bedu sells t-shirts, pillows and bags with a pop culture edge. The majority of the expressions printed on the shirts are very specific to Jordanian culture and may not be so clear at first to non-locals, but that’s also their charm.
Once you grasp the ideas behind them, you’ll like them even more and may find yourself introducing them into your own vocabulary. Even English slang has found it’s way into Jordanian vocabulary with phrases like “يا الهي شو اني اوسوم” “My gosh I’m so awesome” where the word “awesome” is directly written as it sounds in arabic, no translation. Others are take a twist on Western pop culture, shirts like Rababa Hero (inspired by the game Guitar Hero), Campbell’s Adas Soup كامبلس عدس سوب and Yir7am Jiddak يرحم جدك (with the KFC icon).
Enough talking, check them out for yourself at their online store and tell us your faves!
A Battle Won! (but not for the souvenir industry)
Catalunya won its battle against bull-fighting yesterday as the government finally banned it. People have been rallying against it for a while. Just last week I saw this stand in Borne by the city hall building. This opposition to bull-fighting is one of the things that differs between this region of Spain and others.
As an outsider here, one question that popped to mind is what’s going to happen to all the bull-fighting souvernirs one sees displayed along the Ramblas? What was once a symbol of a cultural pastime is now only a memory. Who’ll buy a bull statue now that the story is lost? Or will it become a kitsch collector item - something that will get more valuable because it no longer exists?
