Arts and Literature

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The thing I love most about Kiosk, is their predictable unpredictability. Just when you think you have them pegged.To jump right in, the thing I love most about Kiosk, is their predictable unpredictability. Just when you think you have them pegged, that they are going to shift from what you know, they shift off into a different direction dragging you not so much as surprised, but gladly so behind them. You're like a late entry to a long conga line at a wedding and you only have enough time to ask the person in front of you, "Where the hell are we going?" Whether done on purpose, or merely a haphazard result of the free creative process, Kiosk's latest album, "Global Zoo" takes us on the wildest ride yet. Stretching our imagination over the span of rock, blues, tango, waltz, and dare I say country western, and urrrp the long thought dead Disco!>>>

هراس

گاهی اوقات
قطره های شک
می بارند بر زمین باورم
و گیاهان امیدم آفت می زنند
فکر می کنم
چه فایده داشت
اینهمه وجین کردن دل؟ >>>

دیوان پلید

بشنو از من تو این سخنان تنگ               که شد تنگ بر ما این سرای دِرَنگ

بعد ازآن حملهء پُر نهیب عرب                  کُل ایران تهی شد از اهورا و شد پُر ز رَب

همی گشت بر ما سالیانی دراز             بشد از رنج و سختی جهان پُر نیاز  

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Taming my Animus

Once upon a dream, a stream of senses surges in my bone
I feel a danger, a stranger chasing me in a forest unknown.
I waken and know it is you, my spirit, inner man
imprinted in my soul.
 
If possessed by you, your rigid voice of irrational lore
becomes the law of my world. Thus knowing you
and taming your bents is the key to my wholeness. >>>

The Newlyweds (15)

Dear Khaleh: I never thought in a million years that I would ever say this but you and my friend Maryam, or should I say Debbie the Persian Pop Princess, have one thing in common. You both think I should leave Shahab. Except that Maryam put it a little less politely than you did: “Dokhtar jan,” She exclaimed while puffing away on her Cartier cigarette, “Khosh-haal bash Green Card-etto gerefti, chon in martikeh toffam kaffe dasstet nemizaareh. Man agar jaye to boodam, mohkam mizadam dare kunesh, miraftam soraghe zendegim.” I admit it was tempting to imagine for one second that I too could be a carefree adventuress like Maryam, going along on my merry way, with no responsibilities other than to please myself.>>>

حساب "سرانگشتی"

با این حساب، از هر هفت نفر در دنیا، شش نفرشان جزو "هیات ابناء" و "جماعت فواحش" اند! یعنی چیزی حدود سه میلیارد ابنه ای و در همین حدود هم فاحشه روی زمین پلاس اند! چه گلستانی! تازه این به شرطی ست که تمامی یک میلیارد مسلمان روی زمین با بسم الله "دخول" کرده باشند! که این هم خودش اگر و مگر دارد ... خب، سوال است دیگر! مثلن خود بنده از کجا بدانم حضرت ابوی رحم الله علیه، با بسم الله "دخول" کرده؟ و در اولین قدم افتادن میان خشت، شیطان ولد الزنا انگشتی به حقیر نرسانده؟ کون که کنتر و کیلومتر شمار ندارد تا شماره بیاندازد، بله؟ اگرچه ما ناموسمان را دست نخورده و "آکبند" از آن جزیره بیرون کشیدیم و در غربت هم سال ها مثل شیر از بکارت خودمان دفاع کردیم. ولی همین چارسال پیارسالا دکترمان حدس زد که مشکل "پروستات" داریم و ما را فرستاد سراغ متخصص.>>>

Sherri's Story

Sherri's phone rings incessantly. She won't pick it up and she pretends like it isn't ringing. It rings five times and clicks over to her voice mail, and just when it seems like the caller has given up, it starts ringing again. It is driving me crazy. I say: "Maybe it's an emergency." She looks at the Caller ID and says: "No. It's Pedram." Pedram? The young chap Sherry has been seeing privately for the past six months? I thought she had said that little arrangement was going really well. My mind is full of questions. She finally says: "Let me unplug this phone and I will explain." My friend, Sherri, is beautiful. She is an athlete who has been running marathons since college. She is slim and petite, with beautiful long hair, huge eyes, and pouty lips. Married briefly and divorced, she never had any children and this is one part of her life with which she feels the most at peace>>>

The Newlyweds (14)

Dearest and kindest Payam, I know you are worried about me and rightly so. After all, it isn’t every day you receive an email from your little brother saying that he is in love with his wife’s sister. My words were clumsy. I didn’t think. I should have been more clear with you. I want to reaffirm to you here and now, on my honor, joone Pejman, that I have no intention to act upon my feelings. It just felt so good to say those words “I am in love with Kati” out loud (or rather, to have them typed quietly lol). It was a huge release to finally admit the truth to you but most of all to myself, after all these months of masking my true feelings. It is so funny to say but I actually feel much happier now than before, even though I know I will never fulfill my love for Kati other than in a platonic way. I don’t know how to say it other than I feel light, I feel… free>>>

تمام شب

تمام شب
در جستجوي ات بودم
تمام شب،
تا شايد فضايی
برای امکان ِ حادثه ای
هرچند "کوچک"
بسازيم.  >>>

Fareeb

Video>>>

Cordoba to Kurdistan via flamenco

Hamed Nikpay speaks Farsi the way he plays his music: rapid staccato syllables held together by slow melodic interludes. Maybe this is why he favors the setar when he speaks his heart. The instrument comes to life at the flick of the index finger over the strings, followed by a trilled sustain detailing the life of the tone. Nikpay’s new CD album, All Is Calm (Asoudeh) seems to follow the emotional biography of a young artist sparked to life by a devastating early romance whose lament still haunts him in the sustain. In the first track, Deceit, (Fareeb), he sings “You bestowed kisses from my lover’s lips to the other man.” I ducked the temptation to ask Nikpay who she was and what happened. Instead we chatted a little about the man who penned those lyrics >>>

The Italian Girl

She was American really, but she became a little more Italian after each drink, not in terms of how she talked or acted, but in terms of how she wanted him to see her, and after their third round, he'd told her about how a lot of Iranians liked to think they looked like Italians, and he tried to tell her with the right combination of flirtatiousness and Western beauty standards critique. You don't have to lay your whole heart on the table in order to have a good time, he thought. Anyway there's no time when you lay your whole heart on the table, because that would suggest that you understand the whole thing. It was a very sound conclusion to reach after three gin-and-tonics. She was quiet for a moment and then she said, "I don't like the way they protest against Columbus when we have the Italian Day parade in North Beach.">>>

The Newlyweds (13)

Dear Khaleh joon, You must be getting used to my confusion and distress by now. These are emotions that have filled the pages of my letters to you, now more than ever. I thought at the beginning of this month that some positive news would finally go your way for a change. Shahab had been in a chipper mood than usual. He kept telling me that business was “looking up” without elaborating, of course. Every time I ask him to give me details, he just waves me away laughing, saying “in maamele beyne mardha hasst, khanooma nabayad dekhalat konan.” Just like my father! Finally, one day, he took me out in a spanking new, convertible Mercedes-Benz, which he had again rented out for the week-end. He told me he had a big surprise for me. We kept going up twists and turns on a winding road that led us to the summit of one of Los Angeles’ many hills>>>

شاپرکم برگشته!

شاپرک تازه از ایران برگشته و تلفن زده تا خبر بازگشتش را بدهد. صدایش که مثل صدای زندگیست شادم کرد. پرسیدم: چه خبر؟.... باز از گرانی گفت و این که همه اش توی خانه بوده و در گرما جایی نمی رفته و آهان! که در اولین روز ورودش به ایران، توسط گشت توقیف شده!....
پرسیدم: چی؟ آخه واسه چی؟....
- به جرم بدحجابی دیگه!....
- مگه حجاب نداشتی؟....
- چرا! ولی ما فرق داریم!....
- یعنی چی؟....

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