Archive - Aug 2007

Ode to mid-summer

Waking to the sound of cicadas
Wrapped in the sweaty tulle of mid-summer
Every movement lingers: becomes sensual
The mind in a haze refuses to think: goes on strike >>>

The flux

What is happiness?
It is something
I hardly notice
Even when I am
Completely at ease >>>

Ahead

Our dark mahogany radio
like Karen Carpenter's,
often sang sad songs
in a foreign tongue.
>>>

غروب آبیدر

در دورانی که دانشجو بودم و به لطف معلم همشهری ام با او آشنا شدم. اوایل بهار 1377 بود . انسانی را دیدم شیک پوش و مودب و انگیزه دار.... جدای از مساله ایدئولوژی و تفکر سیاسی اش که شاید با ان سخت مخالف بودم و غوغای جوانی در سرم بود و او هم تبسمی می کرد که انگار می دانست روزی این باد و همهه و نشاط و ساده باوری و زود خیزی فرو خواهد نشست و بنا به تجربه اش اجازه کسب آزمون و خطا به من داد تا خود هم بسنجم . اما آن روز معنی آن حرف را نمی دانستم !>>>

Caught up in the mortgage mess

Lately, one cannot log on to the internet, turn on the television or open up the newspaper (people still read newspapers, don't they?) without being inundated with some kind of news, invariably bad, concerning the housing market, mortgage defaults and so on. It also seems that while the news entities focus on all of the losses, cable TV channels like TLC and Bravo are showing investors and speculators making healthy profits in less time than it takes to solve the latest crime on the newest CBS spinoff, CSI: Rasht. >>>

Backwards will always be backwards

Recently questioned whether the recent stoning of one person is backwards, when compared with the apparent progress made by the IRI since 1979. Yes, Dariush. It is by definition, backward. This is 2007 A.D., not 2007, B.C. Anyone who thinks this is acceptable in any society must be stoned (as in high) themselves. But let's not stop there. Let's address the rest, shall we?>>>

Interfering with play

One Sunday, I had the distinct hal-geery to attend a benefit screening of "Offside", the controversial and noted film by now-famed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon; The Circle, Crimson Gold). As advertised, the film is about 5 young women who try to sneak into the Azadi (Formerly Aryamehr) Stadium to watch the famous match between Iran and Bahrain that led to Iran qualifying for the 2006 World Cup. Resulting in a dismal first round elimination of Iran on the World Stage of Soccer, subsequently, summarily, forthwith, tout suite.>>>

Scott Baio is 45 and single

One of the many things you don’t know about me is this: Scott Baio was my first celebrity crush. Sure I have a very sophisticated list of male celebrity crushes today: from Jon Stewart to George Clooney to my latest delicious acquisition Jon Hamm (he of the excellent Mad Men on AMC), my fantasy life is filled with funny, good looking, and more importantly, highly talented celebrities. But I have to admit, it all started from Scott Baio. I do have an excuse for this seeming lapse of taste in my life: I was a newly arrived immigrant from Iran and had left a small nurturing school in Tehran for the large jungle otherwise known as the Los Angeles County Public School system.>>>

Knight in shining armour

Fascism can only do the one thing: exterminate what it doesn't like. Be that in the name of racism, nationalism, communism or Islamism. Sometimes it's the turn of the Jews, sometimes imperialists, sometimes Armenians, sometimes so-called unbelievers (atheists, Christians, Baha'i, gays, lesbians, adherents of free love etc.). And the masses just stand, stare and remain silent. History always repeats itself: today the grotesque setting is Iran and a grotesque silence prevails in Germany and Europe.>>>

Man Irooniam

Over the vast expanse of the universe, a vagrant seed of a concept drifts about and lands on fertile land and is nurtured into a tree by intense passion yet tender love. The ardent labor bears fruit that is satisfying not only to Masih, the creator, but also to those who share the great pleasure of savoring the delectable fruit of his exhilarating art. Masih comes from a family of highly-prized and respected tile artisans of Esfahan (Isfahan), whose magic creations of indigo, turquoise, and cobalt blues have adorned the mosques and historical monuments of the city of Esfahan for centuries. Holding a torch in hand and a palpitating hope in heart, he illuminates the path to mystical Persian calligraphy>>>

رویای ناممکن

در سالروز قتل دکتر شاپور بختیار، آخرین رییس دولت مشروطه ایران، برگردان های زیر ازانگلیسی از ترانه مشهور ((رویای ناممکن)) که بخش هایی از نمایش اپرای معروف ((مردی از لامانچا)) هستند، با یاد او، به همه جانباختگان و مبارزان داخل و بیرون از ایران که بیش از ٢٨سال است برای استقرار دموکراسی، حقوق بشرو جدایی دین از حکومت در ایرانی مستقل و مدرن تلاش می کنند، تقدیم می شود. >>>

Doesn't this make the CIA a terrorist organization?

If financing and helping terrorism around the world is sufficient to classify oneself as a terrorist organization despite that organization being an agent of a sovereign entity, then it seems also appropriate to classify Mossad and the CIA as terrorist organizations.>>>

Another step toward military confrontation

The unprecedented move by the United States to designate a branch of another sovereign nation's armed forces, in this case Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "terrorist" organization [1], is only the latest episode of a menacing plan that has taken years to implement. Most commonly accepted definition for "terrorism" is "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, civilian population, or any segment thereof, in order to achieve specific political, social, or economic objectives".>>>