Archive - Aug 27, 2007 - Article

Xerxes

Interestingly Hollywood may well discover a new and interesting version of the legendary tale of Xerxes and Esther thanks to a script written by a beautiful American actor/writer of Iraqi heritage: Ren A. Hakim. All the more interesting is that Hakim's script is titled Xerxes and tries to take a look at this story from the perspective of the King whose reign saw the expansion of the Persian Empire to its pinnacle and during which the Palace of Persepolis was to be completed as an architectural Imperial legacy for future generations before its fatal destruction and burning centuries later by Alexander the Great. >>>

Somebody is calling my name

I don’t know the meaning of my name. But I know one thing: my name is entirely what I am. Already, I’ve forgotten the name that’s given to me. Maybe if I think harder, I’ll remember it. Yet I feel no urge to look for it: it was like all those things that must have been lost, those that must have been gone and set free in formlessness. I shaped my new name on my own, though. First, it was simply an insignificant speck of pollen among thousands of other specks, drifting around in the air, searching for the pistil. I waved at that very spec and it floated toward me. “Just don’t forget to water me everyday,” it whispered.>>>

The first mammal

In moments of statistical introspection, I wonder if LA Dodgers fans are generally Pahlavi supporters. The occasional Shah picture posted on huge Westwood billboards, and the handful of TV stations time capsuling pre-revolution Tehran are tempting bits of data. San Francisco Giants fans, on the other hand, are likely pro-Mossadegh, though I lack the evidence of billboards. Needless to say, Giants rule and Dodgers suck, but it is nice occasionally to brawl with facts and reason. Two meticulously researched books by Oxford scholar Homa Katouzian hit the ball right out of the ballpark for the Giants.>>>

فرمودید کودتا یا قیام؟

از روزی که آخوندها در ایران به فکر تکیه زدن بر مسند قدرت افتادند من هم و غمم را متوجه مبارزه با آنها کردم و نیازی هم ندیدم که هر بار ابراز مخالفت با رژیم اسلامی را با زدن گریزی به گذشته همراه کنم و هر بار انتقاداتی که همیشه به دستگاه آریامهری – در زمان بیا برو اش – داشته ام مکرر نمایم. هرگز تصور نکردم که وقتی از روشنفکران ایراد می گیرم باید توضیح بدهم که این ایراد متوجه مخالفت آنها با حکومت استبدادی نیست که من با آن همصدا و یکدلم بلکه از این روست که آنها به وظیفه روشنفکری خود عمل نکرده اند ...>>>

What's gone wrong?

When my daughter’s friend told me a couple of weeks a go, that her socialist lesbian friend has a poster on her wall saying: “We are all Hezb’ Allah Now!” I said: “my God! (And I am an atheist) something has gone fundamentally wrong.” I asked myself, what are they trying to do, mocking socialists? Or, are they simply brainwashed? What is this world coming to? This young woman has all the necessary ingredients for fighting against political Islam and Hezb’ Allah. First of all she is a woman.>>>

Gastro-Geek

I spend a crazy amount of time watching cookery channels, reading food & culinary magazines, catching up on restaurant reviews and reading cookery books. And when I mean ‘Reading’ cookery books, I mean cover-to-cover… like normal people read novels. My friends and family know me so well that the safest bet for a Christmas/Birthday gift for me is a cookery book. Their only dilemma lies in how to find one that I don’t already own. I always tell them to look for the most random, weird & unique titles possible and avoid the more popular ‘Usual suspects’. As a result of this, I now own more than 220 carefully chosen food related books (or my bibles as I like to refer to them). >>>