Archive - Jun 2008 - Article

Fresh addiction

Last weekend I met two (wonderful) 127 band members Sohrab Mohebbi and Salmak Khaledi at the home of BeyondPersia.com's Lalé Welsh and Amir Salamat near San Francisco. We listened to their entire new album "Khal Punk" and I was quite devastated by their musical range (mixing rock, rap, jazz, Iranian... ) and powerful lyrics. Their songs are addictive, and smart, and fun, and full of energy and lots and lots of plain truth. Ladies and gentleman, we have another super band! >>>

Open intolerance

Considering Iran's clerical establishment believes the existence of religious minorities undermines official Shiite orthodoxy, these latest arrests are just another black mark on Iran's long and dismal record of protecting individual human rights and religious freedom.... The Ahmadinezhad government argues that according to the constitution, Bahaism is not recognized and therefore is not protected in Iran. The president's tougher stance toward Bahais is probably also motivated by his apocalyptic views and his special attachment to the idea of the Hidden Imam. Ahmadinezhad, who believes that his government is under the supervision of the Hidden Imam, cannot tolerate a religion that denies the Imam's existence, even as the Bahais keep out of politics. >>>

C’mon Senator Barack Hussein Obama

Dear Senator Obama, These are some of your quotes I have collected in my head on Iran. You see, I am a bit sensitive on Iran as my grandmother’s house is less than a block from what will probably be one of the first targets against the Iranian “nuclear facilities” in a precision targeted bombing attack, and seeing how imprecise some of them worked in Iraq, it worries me. It is actually just a university, but most of their research is done there and I really love my grandma. You have said: “[T]he big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these pressures [to stop its nuclear program], including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed if they do not cooperate, at what point, if any, are we going to take military action?” >>>

انتظار تا انتخابات

صرف نظر از اینکه کدام یک از نامزدهای باقی مانده در انتخابات ریاست جمهوری آمریکا در ماه نوامبر (آبان) به پیروزی برسد، سه موضوع محور سیاست ایالات متحده در مورد ایران خواهد بود. این سه موضوع عبارتند از: گزینه نظامی همچنان روی میز قرار خواهد داشت، ایران هسته ای تحمل نخواهد شد، و پیش از انتخابات ریاست جمهوری ایران هیچ گفت وگوی موثر و جامعی با مقامات این کشور صورت نخواهد گرفت."هنری وکسمن" رییس "کمیته نظارت و اصلاح دولت" یعنی اصلی ترین کمیته تحقیق و تفحص کنگره آمریکا، از افراد نزدیک به رهبری حزب دمکرات در کنگره به شمار می رود.>>>

سنجش در ظرف زمان خود

اگر از دو گانه "خوب/بد" ی که از دیرباز برای تعریف شخصیت افراد به کار رفته و می رود عبور کنیم می شود شخصیت امام را با دیدی نسبی نگرتر و واقعی تر نگاه کرد. امام هم چون هر رهبری سیاسی دیگر اشتباهاتی را در مسیر زندگی سیاسی خود انجام داد. از سویی شخصیت کاملا بدی که از سوی عده ای از گروههای سیاسی خارج از کشور از امام ارائه می شود نیز بی شک کمتر نشانه ای از حقیقت دارد. کلید اصلی به شناخت شخصیت امام کنار گذاشتن دیدگاههای سطحی نگر و متعصبانه ای است که بر بخش وسیعی از صاحب نظران ما سایه افکنده است. گرچه مقام فقهی امام بسیار در خور توجه است اما کمتر کسی این واقعیت را انکار می کند که امام به خاطر فعالیت های سیاسی خود بود که به "امام" تبدیل شد.>>>

تحسین زرنگی

از قدیم رسم بوده که وقتی صحبت از زرنگی و زبلی کسی میشه، میگن "زرنگ زنبوره که فلانش رو کیلویی چهارصد تومن میفروشه!" (خوب منظور همون عسل هست ولی بنده هنوز نمیدونم که عسل ترشح دهان – تف- زنبور خانه یا مدفوع – ان – ایشونه؟!) و البته قیمت کیلویی چهارصد تومن روهم برای مثال نوشتم! ایمیل نزنین اعتراض کنین که قیمت عسل در زمان فتحعلی فیلکوس رو نوشتی ها! اصلا نمیدونم عسل تو ایرون کیلویی چنده این روزها. ولی تو مملکتی که برنج قیمت یه کیلوش از پنج هزار تومن بالا بزنه، و گوشت گوسفند دو کیلوش با یه پیکان کار سال 50 برابری کنه،خوب حتما عسل هم یه کیلوعسلش کوهپایه سبلانش با قیمت یه گالون بنزین تو لوس آنجلس نباید زیاد اختلاف داشته باشه دیگه! >>>

Iranian neocons go after Obama

It deeply saddens me that two women from my native country of Iran have chosen to degrade feminism. Under the misconception that their gender will shield their hatred and deception, Manda Zand-Ervin & Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi hope that even with flawed logic they can dissuade you from seeking dialogue with Iran. Sir, I reach out to you not as a woman, but as one humanitarian to another with a common goal: the imperative for peace. I have to wonder if these hyphenated women and others like them who so loosely use the term ‘appeasement’ are sufficiently familiar with history, or is this a mindless repetition of a word ill-understood? Perhaps these two ought to seek education and reject propaganda>>>

Leave Lebanon to the Lebanese

Lebanon breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief last week with the long-awaited election to the presidential office of army Chief of Staff General Michel Suleiman. After a rapid series of diplomatic toing and froing in the Qatari capital of Doha, a number of commentators opined the Levant was saved from relapsing into the clutches of another devastating civil war by a meager hair’s breadth. In hindsight it doesn’t appear that another civil war was on the cards, the domestic balance of power stood overwhelmingly in Hizbullah’s favor, and therefore allowed the vast majority of conflict zones to be quickly subdued and handed back to the army>>>

The big cheese

As I enter the fifth week of my diet, I look back and chortle smugly to myself at how simple it has been and how I haven’t had a single craving since I started dieting. But true to form, my brain springs into action with a gentle reminder of the many occasions I have gazed longingly at the cheese sections of various supermarkets, reading and re-reading the labels to see which one has the least fat. Alas, I have come to the conclusion that there are no low-fat cheeses, it’s actually a contradiction in terms. And before I am inundated with comments from people telling me about any type of half-fat, low-fat or fat-free variety, I would like to just say “THAT IS NOT CHEESE!” >>>

Homeless in Venice

I am Hassan, the woodcutter
With the smiling sun on my shoulders
And the crying rain in my ears.
Running in the muddy alleys
I come from Isfahan
Barefoot and half-naked
With two dancing axes on my back >>>

بی خانه در ونیس

منم حسن تبری
با لبخند آفتاب بر دوش
و مویه ی باران در گوش.
از کوچه های گل آلود اصفهان
می آیم دوان، دوان
پابرهنه و نیمه عریان
با رقص دو تبر بر شانه
و شور یک دیوانه: >>>

Long awaited return

Fields of Change is also a definite change in direction from the last couple of albums which according to Sepehr were largely dominantly produced by the labels they used to be with. This effort is their first independent effort and the result of what they think sounds good to them, rather than a result of corporate marketing listener surveys from American-advertising fed New Age stations. Don't get me wrong, you will enjoy owning very single album you buy, the signature S&S sound is always tight, multi-layered, and an elegantly thoughtful, construct of harmonic sounds and encouraging and exotic beats woven together to bring about a convergence that is, in a word, pleasing.>>>

زیبای بی نام ونشان

رونا بالباسی که شبیه لباس کولی های دورگرد داره بغل ساحل ایستاده. اونوزاد یک ساله اش رادرون کوله پشتی که باپارچه ساده ای درست کرده درپشت خود قرارداده. رنگ لباس رونابارنگ خاکهای بغل ساحل تطبیق میده وچهره اورادرمقابل آفتاب داغی که همه فضارااحاطه کرده زیباترنشان میده. شنهای داغ زیر پای رونا اورابیاد فیلم ده فرمان میاندازه که آدمهاباپاهای برهنه توی بیابانها سرگردان بودند. آبهای آسمانی رنگ دریا بااینکه آرام آرام بهم برخورد میکنند نشان دهنده یک طوفان درونی است که درعمق دریا بطوردائم مسیری راطی میکند. سنگها وصخره های زیبا وشکست ناپذیرباعث تقویت قلب رونا میشوند.>>>

Maman jan

My mum has come to visit from the UK. [Brief description of my mum: a feisty lady whose age is a state secret - the very mention of it (or her height) will see her expression change to one of contempt. So nobody who knows her will ever go there. Except that is, my sister. My sister, Soheila, is fast turning into my mum. They share so many traits and similarities that they have been mistaken for sisters. Which has left my mum feeling elated and my sister staring daggers at the person who made the observation.]>>>

Dinosaurs & Religions

Religions obviously have created a niche for themselves and have survived and multiplied for millenia on earth. That brings up the analogy between religions and dinosaurs. Dinosaurs ruled the earth for millions of years and some biologists believe that they created an impasse for evolution. Meaning the meandering of the genes and random mutations took evolution on a path in the fitness landscape that was pretty much an impasse. Appearance of humans and intelligence would have been unlikely as long as this behemoths were ruling the earth.>>>