The Aesthetes

August 1, 2014 5:52 AM

The Aesthetes - For the legendary expats of Tangier, a life devoted to beauty reaches full flower in this North African hothouse of history and hedonism.
posted by backseatpilot (4 comments total)

One would barely get the impression from reading this that there are any Moroccans living in Tangiers at all, other than maybe as a nebulous source of objets d'art for some rich and precious old white people to mix and match with George II wing chairs to achieve the full Wes Anderson set dressing look when they decorate their libraries. I guess Mohamed Hamri sort of gets honorable mention, but just as a stock Rudolph Valentino passionate sheik sweeping the white lady off her feet.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 7:04 AM on August 1, 2014 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I've got to say that if I had been born in Tangier, I would have moved out years ago to get away from these imperialist creeps.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:18 AM on August 1, 2014

INTERVIEWER

Why did you stop taking drugs?

BURROUGHS

I was living in Tangier in 1957, and I had spent a month in a tiny room in the Casbah staring at the toe of my foot. The room had filled up with empty Eukodol cartons; I suddenly realized I was not doing anything.
posted by bukvich at 7:29 AM on August 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's a completely fabulous article in you're in the mood for peacock lives & sumptuously camp quotes from the parade of expat aesthetes (& it's by a writer who clearly knows not to break a butterfly & all that)...

I loved this one:

‘If you’re furnishing a house in Tangier and you don’t bring your stuff from abroad, you can pretty well get anything you need here. It just takes time and a bit of an eye. Especially if some old expat dies or leaves town and there’s a house clearance. You get knocked over in the rush and people hoist their true competitive colors. ‘I saw it first!’ ‘He always said I could have that!’ ‘She said she would leave it to me!’ I’ve even seen people pull scrappy pieces of paper out of their pockets at funerals. ‘It is my wish that Alison have my Picasso behind the bedroom door, etc.’ Hilarious.”
posted by Jody Tresidder at 11:39 AM on August 1, 2014 [3 favorites]