PEOPLE
Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, northern California
by
kfravon >>>
VIEW
It is now painfully obvious that U.S. administration has given up on any chance of the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds ever burrying the hatchet(s) and settling in peace under the unbrella of one country (Iraq). Sadly, this may be the only viable way forward. Just as it was the case in the Balkans, the roots of hatred and mistrust go too deep to ever be resolved peacefully. This is not, however, a new option for Iraq. Many politicians, generals and pondits, including the Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, have advocated the "partitioning" of Iraq along the secterian and ethnic lines.
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ART
Hadi Tabatabai's show, San Francisco
by
Jahanshah Javid >>>
BOOK
Israelis and Iranians hold an exaggerated and almost mythical view of each other
As similar as Israelis and Iranians are, recent Iranian immigrants to Israel experience difficulty in overcoming the cultural shock. The contrast between the traditional values of Iranian society and the liberal currents of Israeli society -- defined by the norms and culture of its European immigrants rather than by its Middle Eastern geography--could not be greater. I once had a conversation with an elderly Iranian Jew whom I sat next to during the bus ride from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Ehsaq (Isaac), as he was called, spared no love for the clerics in Tehran, but he liked to reminisce about the country in which he had spent most of his life.
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POLITICS
Why former communists are attracted to the IRI
Of all the alternatives that are out there the one that has a special attraction to some diehard Communists-who by the way mostly like to be called Socialist nowadays- is of all things, militant Islam in general, and its poster boy Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) version of it in particular. Just to give some evidentiary weight to this proposition lets take the old axiom of birds of a feather flock together as a road map and see where it leads to. Students of Communism’s history know well that one of the initially widely appreciated arguments of that nascent ideology was its antagonism towards capitalism and the despicable exploitation of the workers, proletariats in Communist lingo, which in varying degree is part and parcel of it.
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QUESTION
وقتی کالیگولا به قتل رسید، سربازان "کلادیوس" را به عنوان بهترین گزینه برای حکومت در نظر گرفتند
هنگام خواندن صفحات زرین زندگی کالیگولا، بعضی تشبهاتِ او و دکترِ عزیزمان
احمدی نژاد، توجه ام را جلب نمود! هر دو مدت زمانی را در ارتش (سپاه)
گذراندند. هر دو در آغاز قدرت، قول رفاه و عدالت دادند. هر دو در آغاز
سخاوتمندی بسیاری (به خصوص به نیروهای نظامی) نشان دادند. هر دو بعد از
مدت کوتاهی، نشانه هایی از ضعف و عدم تعادل روانی نشان دادند (اعمالی که
به سادگی قابلِ توجیهِ منطقی نبود)! و بالاخره، به نظر می رسد که احمدی نژاد جان هم، مثل کالیگولا، فقط چهار
سال در قدرت بماند! جالب تر از همه اینکه، احمدی نژاد هم در تلاش دادن
درجۀ کنسول به اسبهاست
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POETRY
گاهی هجوم صبح
گاهی میان حادثه
گاهی من از فرط این همه راه
گاهی کنار ویرانه های گلدان
گاهی کنار چشمه های عسل
...
هنوز می بینم
کمی ترانه در باغ روییده است
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IDEAS
Anyone who has a child knows that you can never make a 4 year old do anything they don't want to. The best you can hope for is that they stop just long enough, to notice the example you have to set for them. So goes the war in Iraq now in it's 4th full year. Rather than set a proper example for this 4 year old 3rd world child to follow, the US and the greater Western 1st world is guilty of nothing short of child abuse and endangerment.
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POETRY
Hang in there, buddy
Swim on, no matter how much the river burns
People worshiped you for millenia
You were loved by old, young, strong and weak
But Three Gorges took over
It happens to the best of us.
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MUSIC
Kiosk’s concert in Toronto
At times, the crowd’s noise overwhelmed the huge amplifiers and the sound system. It was unbelievable! There was a lot of good energy but it seemed that Kiosk didn’t expect such an active crowd and lost focus here and there. Overall, they played very well and performed the songs different from their studio version. There were very good solo performances by almost all of the band members, especially Babak who knocked the socks off the crowd with his guitar solos.
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DRAMA
An ambitious international collaboration among artists from Iran, Israel and the United States
Only 72 hours before a scheduled US attack on Iran. Two estranged childhood friends, one Jewish and one Muslim, born in the same town in Iran, agree to a secret meeting in a Benedictine monastery in Rome to negotiate a price for safety and freedom. The above synopsis is the main plot for the upcoming play
Benedictus, an ambitious international collaboration between artists from Iran, Israel and the United States. The collaborators -- Motti Lerner, one of Israel's most provocative contemporary playwrights; Torange Yeghiazarian, Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco; Iranian-American director Mahmood Karimi-Hakak of Siena College...
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FASHION
Spring/Summer 2007 collection
by
Bahar_Shahpar >>>
FICTION
فکر کردم، راستی چرا نپرسیدم دلیل احضارم چیست؟
"....فردا ساعت هشت صبح باید دادگاه مستقر در زندان " اوین "
باشم. چند دقیقه پیش تلفنی اطلاع دادند. من تنها نمی روم. رئیس توئی،
تصمیم گیری های نهائی با توست. فردا با هم می رویم...."
مثل برق گرفته ها تکان خورد. رنگش پرید، و بر عکس همیشه که چکشی حرف می زد تقریبن با ناله گفت:
" ...من چرا؟ تو را احضار کرده اند. آمدن من کمکی نمی کند..."
حرفش را بُریدم...
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