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IDENTITY
07-Jun-2008 (10 comments)
One challenge I have faced, and I’m sure many others have as well, is my Name. After living for almost 22 years outside Iran, still saying my name and introducing myself to foreign audience is a challenge for me. Well, to be honest, it’s more than challenging, I’m actually fed up with my name. And to us, Iranians, I haven’t even got a very difficult name, but I’m still not comfortable with it. OK, by now you of course wonder what the hell is this guy’s name?? Well, my name is Homayun Mohasel Zadeh, as it is in my passport. So, let’s analyze this name first among Iranian names. >>>
HUMOR
07-Jun-2008 (4 comments)
"Excuse me," said the man, addressing the woman who obviously thought she was oh so beautiful, "you're not Sharon Stone, are you?"
"Well, no," said the woman flirtatiously, "but …"
"I thought so," the man interrupted her, "because …"
"But," said the woman, interrupting him, "everybody tells me I look like her a lot. Don't I?"
"Well, no," said the man firmly. "Everybody's wrong. Sharon Stone is a beautiful woman. You, I'm afraid, are not beautiful at all. That's why I thought you could not be Sharon Stone.">>>
"Well, no," said the woman flirtatiously, "but …"
"I thought so," the man interrupted her, "because …"
"But," said the woman, interrupting him, "everybody tells me I look like her a lot. Don't I?"
"Well, no," said the man firmly. "Everybody's wrong. Sharon Stone is a beautiful woman. You, I'm afraid, are not beautiful at all. That's why I thought you could not be Sharon Stone.">>>
MAN
07-Jun-2008 (5 comments)
الکساندر نه ربطی به اسکندر مقدونیه دارد و نه شبیه ریچارد برتون است. او هیچ ارتباطی به "اسکندرنامه" هم ندارد. الکساندر خوشگل نیست ولی جوان است و برومند و خیلی خوش مشرب و خوش تعریف. الکساندر همیشه در حال گفتگو با کسی است و همیشه موضوعی مناسب برای گفتگو پیدا می کند. من و الکساندر با هم فقط سلام و علیک داریم و هیچ چیز از هم نمی دانیم. ما حتا اسم یکدیگر را هم نمی دانیم. اولین باری که با هم سر کار حرف می زنیم و اسمم را می پرسد به شکل حیرت آوری متوجه می شوم که بلد است نامم را تلفظ کند؛ و "ه" را از توی اسمم حذف نکند. تعجبم را بیان می کنم: "فرانسوی ها بلد نیستند اسمم را تلفظ کنند، تو چطوری توانستی؟" >>>
MUSIC
05-Jun-2008 (10 comments)
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! >>>
HUMOR
04-Jun-2008 (5 comments)
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! >>>
POETRY
03-Jun-2008
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 >>>
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 >>>
POETRY
03-Jun-2008 (2 comments)
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: >>>
PLEASING
03-Jun-2008
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.>>>
STORY
03-Jun-2008 (3 comments)
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.>>>
STORY
02-Jun-2008
Neither of them were bums, first off, the black bum or the Mexican bum. They were men, and a world that had somehow decided that it was going to include bums had decided to include them, and it was very nice to think that their situation was fixable, that hard work and determination could lift them out of it, but none of that changed the fact that a man who was down on his luck for a day was a man who was down on his luck for a day, and a man who was down on his luck for years was a bum. The Mexican bum could do fine among the people of the Richmond District of San Francisco. He could smile with them and he could hold the door open for them outside Gordo's Taqueria on Geary Street, making sweeping chivalric gestures towards women>>>
INTERVIEW
30-May-2008 (16 comments)
Maestro Loris Tjeknavorian was a guest of Berkeley Persian Center in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. A suite from his opera, Rostam and Sohrab, was to be performed by East Bay Symphony Orchestra on March 14th at the Paramount Theatre. The weekend before the performance I had the great fortune of meeting the Maestro at Darvag Group’s play in Berkeley, where I tagged along with him and some other good friends to a restaurant in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto area. We had time for a brief chat, so I asked him what he would like to talk about, and he chose the subject of “love”! He also gave me the CD of his “Love Songs”, telling me stories about how he became inspired to write those melodies>>>
STIGMA
30-May-2008 (2 comments)
Some years ago, well before I began traveling regularly to Iran, I started to understand the disconnect between the way Iran was portrayed in the American news media and what I suspected the reality would be like. When I first went to Iran in 2001 it didn't take long to realize I was right, but it has taken all the years since to understand what was wrong and lacking from so much of that coverage, and still holes remain. Now the coverage always strikes me as simply one-dimensional representations; caricatures of a perceived reality>>>
STORY
30-May-2008 (2 comments)
باز یک همکار جدید! دختر جوانی است با چشمانی زیبا و شاد و قامتی رعنا. لباس پوشیدنش در عین کلاسیک بودن شیک است! بالاخره سر صحبت را باز می کنیم، خوش صحبت است و خندان، و برعکس من که چشمان غمگین و تیره ای دارم او چشمانی شاد و روشن دارد. موقع حرف زدن "ر" ها را بدجوری کش می دهد، هیچ نمی توانم لهجه اش را حدس بزنم، آخر سر ازش می پرسم: "کجایی هستی؟" با همان چشمان شوخ و شنگ پاسخم می دهد: "آمریکایی! ایالات متحده!" با حیرت نگاهش می کنم و آخرش به حرف می آیم و از او می پرسم: "ناراحت نمی شوی اگر به تو بگویم من ایرانی هستم! ... از پارس باستان!">>>
MEN
29-May-2008 (54 comments)
If a man tells his wife of 20 years that she should be aware that at any moment he can go back to Iran and marry a 25 year old; should the woman be offended/ threatened/ mad/ sad? I find myself to be obsessed with the issue, simply because lately, my husband has been saying that to me repeatedly. As you may guess, we are not in our honeymoon anymore, and we are not in our old age either. He is a very educated man; a prominent figure in our community and I am an educated and a professional woman. Yes, things are not going so well between us lately and we have had arguments>>>
FOR HILLARY
29-May-2008 (14 comments)
Twenty Years ago, when we first moved to St. Louis
I met this lively graduate student named Keiko
After twenty odd years, it is hard to recall details beyond her round face framed by short shiny black hair
But I remember the way she moved through the building with a combination
of agility and grace, in bursts of short successive moves -
much the way robins would explore a tree (without making noise or knocking anything down) >>>
I met this lively graduate student named Keiko
After twenty odd years, it is hard to recall details beyond her round face framed by short shiny black hair
But I remember the way she moved through the building with a combination
of agility and grace, in bursts of short successive moves -
much the way robins would explore a tree (without making noise or knocking anything down) >>>
IRANIANS
28-May-2008 (2 comments)
در کشورهای مردم سالار همه مردم قانونا برابرند و در ابراز اندیشه‌ها و احساسات خود آزاد. به همین دلیل در این سرزمینها«ملت» مفهومی‌ست که از هاله‌ی آرمانی درآمده و واقعیتی اجتماعی به خود گرفته است. اما در کشور ما ملت هنوز یک مفهوم آرمانی‌ست، زیرا یک گروه خاص(در گذشته سلطنت طلبان و امروزه ولایت فقیه گرایان) بر شهروندان ایرانی حکومت میکنند. تا هنگامی که ما ایرانیان نتوانسته‌ایم در پیشگاه قانون برابر باشیم و آزادانه نمایندگان خود را برای نهادهای تصمیم گیرنده انتخاب کنیم، هنوز ملتی«در خود» هستیم و نه «برای خود». چرا که اجازه نداریم آزادانه در تعیین سرنوشت خود تصمیم بگیریم و مجبوریم فرمانبردار گروهی خاص باشیم.
>>>
STORY
28-May-2008 (8 comments)
The carpet on my face is scratchy. It smells like dust and dead spider. I lift it to breathe. I crawl on my back and my head hits the leg of dining table. I drag myself toward the cold teapot. “Once the ceiling is lifted, we could get out of here,” Ahmad says. He is holding the fridge on his chest and its metallic bottom has set visible traces on his skin. “Once the walls are painted, we’ll take a few days off,” I say. “Do you like to have some coffee?” “Without sugar,” he says.>>>
RECENT COMMENTS
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| Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
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| گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
| Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
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| Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |