DONKEY

Beh Name Khar

From the "Rajazzalin" album

14-Apr-2012 (13 comments)
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FOOTNOTE

Fiddler in the attic

Review of Asghar Farhadi's Oscar rival

13-Apr-2012 (3 comments)
I saw ‘Footnote’ with a dear friend of mine. Neither of us is Jewish, or speaks Hebrew. Nor has either of us seen an Israeli movie before. While still young at heart, neither of us has been exempt from the tyranny of time or biology. Our interest in seeing this film had more to do with the fact that (a), it did compete against ‘A Separation’ in the foreign language category of the 2012 Academy Awards, and (b), from what we had read about its plot here and there, it had a theme familiar to both of us>>>

THUMBS UP

The Unfilm

Jafar Panahi's "This Is Not a Film"

11-Apr-2012 (4 comments)
Pahani is a fighter who can dish it out as well as take it. Last year, while under house arrest waiting for the outcome of his appeal, he made a home video mocking the ban order on his filmmaking. Technically, the work is not a film, hence the title, This Is Not a Film. Trapped in his apartment, the director doesn’t have a wide choice of locations for his unfilm. There’s the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, and the balcony, with one intriguing dialog taking place in the building elevator >>>

TALENT

A Fusion of The Hearts

A Fusion of The Hearts

Introducing Parisa Vaaleh

by Nazy Kaviani
05-Apr-2012 (5 comments)

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IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism  (Part 6 - End)

Always addressing only men and ignoring women is certainly part of our culture

05-Apr-2012 (5 comments)
According to Balatarin website, “Abdolkarim Soroush, who had abandoned intellectual debates and entered the political arena, had been supporting Karroubi’s candidacy out of, in his own words, “reluctance and coercion”. As mentioned previously, Dowlat-Abadi supported Mir-Hossein Moussavi and, in his May 12, 2009 speech, spoke against the Cultural Revolution. In the same speech, he mentioned Abdolkarim Soroush as the instigator of the Cultural Revolution and the only instigator>>>

TARIYAK

 "رفیق بد" و بی تاثیر نبودن " ذغال خوب"

داش داش داشم من / نشئه خشخاشم من

05-Apr-2012 (2 comments)
 زمانی که در منطقه "انسینو" ی لوس آنجلس زندگی می کردم, به ورزشگاه "هالیدی اسپا" می رفتم، گاهی سری هم به "حمام بخار" می زدم,  چهره ها محو در بخار بود ولی صحبت بفارسی را می شنیدم. که بدون اشاره به "رفیق بد"، اشاراتی به " ذغال خوب" داشتند. دوستانی که بتازگی از ایران بازدید کرده بودند و داستانهایی شنیدنی برای همپالکی هایشان تعریف می کردند و صحبتهایشان همچون همان ذغال مطروحه "گل" می انداخت>>>

WAR HORSE

اسب  جنگ

مثل خوردن فنجان بزرگی قهوه تلخ است در صبحی زمستانی با آسمانی سربی

03-Apr-2012 (2 comments)
به قول اینشتین، برای دانش بشری و حماقت انسانی حد و مرزی وجود دارد و جنگ ترکیبی است از هردو خصیصه ناب انسانی یعنی حماقت و دانش. با وجود آنکه اسپیلبرگ در مصاحبه ای گفته است که فیلم "اسب جنگ" اساساً در باره جنگ نیست و بیشتر در خصوص سرنوشت اسبی است که نا خواسته درگیر جنگ شده، با اینحال حاصل کار نتیجه ای جز ارائه سندی در باره حماقت بشر نیست>>>

REALITY

Shash of Sunset

The Bahmani Review

01-Apr-2012 (6 comments)
You've all had your chances... Now it's my turn. SOS is a good moniker for the new Shah's of Sunset. But maybe we should modify it to SOSAS Because clearly, desperately, someone certainly needs to Save our Ship, and Souls to boot. In spite of everything that is wrong about it, the Shah's of Sunset is likely to stay. [Daram Cheshmesh Mizanam, beh Amrikai-ha Nagin!] The more we scream about it, the more everyone watches, and the more the producers are inclined to keep it going>>>

LIFE

Castle In The Sky

Why can’t life be as beautiful as what I experienced last night?

01-Apr-2012 (one comment)
Last night I had a fabulous dream, though it couldn’t have had a more bizarre setting. While the location seemed suitable for a wedding, I knew it was the San Diego Museum of Art, a magnificent building in a floral garden. However, unlike other times, on this visit only one section of the museum was open for viewing as the rest prepared to receive hundreds of guests. The entire event seemed to be about my homeland Iran, its glorious history, and even NoRooz>>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism (5)

Dowlat-Abadi’s statements are mostly progressive, but within IRI's limits

01-Apr-2012
“Dowlat-Abadi: No. Protesting censorship has its own form according to the circumstance. I protest in one way, another will protest in another way. But, in fact, censorship is not a matter to be solved by using the sword. We want the problem to be solved. We want to make it understood that censorship is an unnecessary matter; because in every society, there are a series of taboos, and our writers in Iran respect these taboos. Therefore, censorship can no more play the important role it has given itself.” What taboos is Dowlat-Abadi talking about?>>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism (4)

Keeping up appearances at any cost is Iran’s national lumpenist trait

28-Mar-2012
It is obvious that for Dowlat-Abadi, the origin of censorship by the “cultural management” is not its fundamentalist ideology and repressive attitude, but only its dogmatism. That’s why a few sentences ahead, he sympathized with the censors of the Ministry of Islamic Guidance as victims of their own actions. He said, “This discourse that they want to hear and hear it from the mouth of others, because they don’t hear it, they constantly repeat it themselves; what’s the use?">>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism (3)

The main force of fascist groups often used as toys

26-Mar-2012 (one comment)
Based on either conformism or ignorance, lumpens claim not to be interested in political activity They do not have any clear political beliefs, they lack mental stability and are confused about political matters. Dowlat-Abadi declared his non-involvement in politics in a December 2011 interview he had with Ali Shoroughi and Sheema Bahremand from Shargh Newspaper, entitled: “Mahmoud Dowlat-Abadi: We are people as well”>>>

REALITY

Get a freakin' life, people!

Don't be hating "Shahs of Sunset"

24-Mar-2012 (8 comments)
The problem with Iranians is, number one, that we are a very critical bunch. We're very quick to criticize one another and point out inadequacies and deficiencies. Secondly, we are so image conscious (and, frankly, pompous) that we think that a reality show about our community must necessarily feature doctors, lawyers, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. After all, we're one of the most highly educated and successful groups in the US>>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism (2)

Not an exception, but a norm in Iran

24-Mar-2012 (17 comments)
Considering how well Dowlat-Abadi is aware of the corruption of the intellectuals of the regime and the regime itself, one wonders why he is so adamant to support this regime and remain one of its lumpen intellectuals who is occasionally used and abused by other lumpen intellectuals. (Here, I remember the story of a famous female filmmaker who used a female writer’s scenario without her permission to make a film, and was sued by her)>>>

IDEAS

Cultural Lumpenism

Origins and beliefs (part 1)

22-Mar-2012 (14 comments)
In today’s under-developed societies such as Iran, the formation of this opportunistic group as a significant layer of society takes place when a rural /agricultural/non-industrial society is heading towards consumerism, industrialization and capitalism, with its lack of a definite assortment of classes, its class confusion, its chronic unemployment, its permanent tendency to increase the workers’ misery. Lumpens are the remnants of the pre-industrial and pre-capitalist society who cannot adapt themselves to this transformation>>>