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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Design & Creativity
An interview with Cris Romento, visual storyteller, editor, filmmaker and founder of Big Aloha Pictures. We discuss the business of living as a creative, as well as the importance of telling genuine stories and amplifying BIPOC voices.
Cristina Romento, or simply Cris, is the founder and director of Big Aloha Pictures. Her production company develops doc-style creative videos and films telling authentic stories. She works with brands, non-profits, artists, musicians and other visionaries in various fields such as holistic health, yoga, conscious living and the environment.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Design & Creativity
An interview with Emmy Award-winning San Francisco-based motion graphics designer and illustrator Donavon Brutus.
Emmy-award-nominated Haitian-American artist Donavon Brutus is a motion design and illustration artist based in San Francisco, California. His wide-ranging professional experience includes working as an animator, illustrator and designer. He's used his award-winning motion graphics skills both through in-house studio settings and freelancing in various sectors such as education and science outreach.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Business
As in all major urban centres worldwide, Canada's largest city, home to 2.9 million people and representing an important economic engine for the entire nation, has been severely impacted by the necessary health-safety measures requiring restrictive stay-at-home orders and the extended shuttering of dining and retail spaces.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Northern Africa
Cairo greeted me with the same intensity I remembered—alive with history, movement, and meaning. Returning after 24 years, I stepped back into a city that shaped my youth and found it as captivating and multilayered as ever.
Cairo is a living museum—a sprawling metropolis where millennia-old monuments stand alongside modern high-rises, where the call to prayer echoes over honking traffic, and where every corner tells a story. My first encounter with this mesmerizing city was in 1993, when I spent a summer working at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) as a university student. That experience left an indelible mark, and though it took me 24 years to return, stepping back into Cairo’s vibrant streets felt like reconnecting with an old friend.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Festivals
Known as the “City of Roses,” Taif is a city located on the slopes of the Hejaz Mountains in Saudi Arabia's province of Makkah. The sixth most popular city in the Kingdom, Taif enjoys moderate weather throughout the year, even in summer — making it a popular summertime destination for Saudis to escape the scorching heat typically experienced in lower-lying regions elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Business
Ali Russell is the Chief Marketing Officer of Extreme E. The five-race global electric SUV off-road racing series aims to leverage the power and popularity of motorsports to raise awareness about climate change by holding races in extreme environments around the world which have already been damaged or affected by climate and environmental issues.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Innovation
The stunning desert landscapes of AlUla in Saudi Arabia make the perfect setting for the start of the inaugural FIA-backed Extreme E all-electric SUV racing season. The Desert X Prix will take place in AlUla between April 3-4, 2021. Following the Dakar Rally and Formula E, the Kingdom welcomes Extreme E. It's not only a prestigious motorsports event but also a natural partner for advancing the country's own Vision 2030 goals of promoting the renewable energy sector, fighting desertification, and placing a strong focus on sustainability.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Innovation
"If you want to do something, if you want to be a writer, you've got to write. If you want to be a filmmaker, you have to make films." - Spike Lee, during a talk delivered in San Francisco on June 8, 1996.
These words may seem entirely intuitive and straightforward, but it's funny how we can often lose sight of the truth of this statement.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Travel & Places
Julia Cosgrove is the award-winning Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at AFAR Media, based in San Francisco, which publishes the influential travel magazine AFAR and website. Born in New York and raised in Berkeley, she now lives in Oakland, California – where she's been sheltering in place since the pandemic.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Middle East
Ever since moving to Saudi Arabia, I've wanted to visit the enigmatic flower men living in the southern provinces of the country and extending into Yemen. They're the descendants of ancient Tihama and Asir tribes dating back two millennia who are known for wearing colourful and distinctive flower garlands on their heads. They also sport an ornate traditional curved dagger, called the jambiya, over a colourful and multi-patterned wrap-around male skirt known as a futa.
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- Written by: Meres J. Weche
- Category: Leisure
They say that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. Well, I recently had to cut short a planned 16-day self-drive tour of Saudi Arabia only on the fourth day due to coronavirus restrictions announced by the government. My original itinerary included mostly hotel stays during the first week and mainly camping on the second week – as I hoped to make my way around remote sites in Tabuk Province.
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About me
Meres J. Weche
Expat and digital maven with a passion for telling stories in words & images. Lived & worked on four continents.
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