Arts and Literature

Young women...

Young vitalities
Making the incidents
Meeting the promises
Creating the opportunities
Avoiding disappointments
Through their young souls
Embracing the challenges
Resenting the old traditions >>>

Mom, I have dreamt his Release

Dreams were my passion, my solitude
Passing of the day was precious as it brought me glorious black
Has it been too long I wonder,
Will I ever return to that far away land?
Would I remember how to step off a window and not fall
But soar, so softly, so crisply…
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Donald Duck in Ancient Persia

Strangely "Donald Duck in Ancient Persia” grew out of interest in horror films. Though Disney illustrator Carl Barks was no great movie-goer, he saw several horror classics which contributed to the stories eerie atmosphere. A quest to raise the dead, spells muttered over a magic pool, a frustrated marriage, and honor slaked by death – these are all motifs from Boris Karloff’s classic Horror flick The Mummy (1933); and the spooky old mansion on the hill looks like The Old Dark House in another Karloff movie. Even the mad scientist, with his high forehead and deep-set eyes resembles that veteran horror actor. >>>

گرگ باران دیده

قطره ای از صخره های خاوران
در درون جان خود نوشید ه ام
خاک پای حافظی را بی دریغ
همره باران خود بوسیده ام
در خراسان در پی بز های خود
با دم کوبادها نالیده ام

>>>

Common humanity

Bam 6.6, a documentary about the Bam earthquake of 2003 in Iran, is finally readied for release on DVD. Here's an interview with the producer/director, Jahangir Golestanparast. The production chronicles the ordeal of American tourists Tobb Dell'Oro and his Jewish fiancée, Adele Freedman, after they are buried under the rubble. It highlights how grief-stricken Iranians make a special effort to treat the couple's injuries and comfort Adele afterwards. Mr. Golestanparast is scheduled to show and discuss his film at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC at 7 pm on January 9 >>>

Love and the Revolution

Ezzat! January 7th is your anniversary. Fifteen years ago your heart stopped beating. I felt it in my heart and the earth stopped moving for me. It was late afternoon. Inside a booth I put some coins in the phone and heard your dad's voice, "She called us. First a man asked my name and then she talked." He did not remember what you had said. I took a deep breath full of trucks' exhaust in Darvazeh Qazvin Street and said, "I already know. She is gone forever. Her heart doesn't beat anymore." Where did I go? I don't know. 'Two days later, I met with your father in the park next to the railroad station. We walked together. The sidewalk was full of war refugees with their big bundles. He handed me your vasiet-nameh (will), and I cried. >>>

Two thousand five hundred years old

The last time I saw Dr. Khanlari was in 1987 when he told me that studying literature belonged to another time. “It is a different world now,” he said. At the time I was a graduate student in literature and his advice to me was to start on a different path while I was still young. Parviz Natel Khanlari was a great man—so great, in fact, that a mere listing of his accomplishments does him no justice. People still argue whether his most important contribution was his journal Sokhan (unparalleled to this day in the talent and rigor it fostered), his country-wide literacy projects (leading to a considerable hike in literacy rates), his role in standardizing and producing text books (the accessibility and quality of which we all took for granted)...>>>

Who cares?

“I AM ANGRY?” Is it even important how I feel? What I want? What I write about? Does my anger even matter when Britney Spears’ 16-year-old sister is pregnant? Could I possibly have something provoking to say when Paris Hilton just lost all of her inheritance to charity? Can I possibly have something more enraging to be angry about when so and so just got engaged and the other couple from last year's wedding filed for a divorce? I mean who cares what I have to say? Everyone has so much to worry about already. JC Penny's “16-hour post holiday sale” is ticking down and Macy's has that “two days only end of the year, new year special” going on right now so why would anyone in their right mind be reading this instead?>>>

لفط الله

مش جواد را دیدم با نان سنگک بلند بالای دو آتشه ای که نوکش را گرفته بود تا همسایه ها بهتر بتوانند آن را ببینند، جلو رفتم و برای اینکه قد و بالا و صورتش را خوب بررسی کنم سلام کنان، نان را از دستش گرفتم و به دنبالش راه افتادم، و تا توی اتاقشان رفتم. انصافن فس فسی در او ندیدم. فکر کردم که حتمن عصمت خانم انتظارهای دیگری از او دارد. دلم می خواست نه از او، اما از عصمت خانم بپرسم، مردی به این سر حالی چرا " فس فس " می کند. ضمن اینکه درست نمی دانستم منظور از فس فس چیست.>>>

Unfinished story

Some time ago I saw an advertisement for a new album, of a new singer, on one of the Persian television channels in Los Angeles. Strangely, this time, there was neither any mention of 6/8 rhythms, nor was there a pick-up truck full of dancing girls behind the singer! As the singer sang calmly on the video, images of Persia and its people followed one another beautifully. The title of the album was "Neverending Story", better said "Unfinished Story" (Ghesse-ye Naatamaam), sung by Amir. This is his first album with cooperation of two significant figures in Persian pop music: Andranik and Shahyar Ghanbari. I became curious to hear the rest of the album but just as I had guessed, there was no sign of the CD in the Persian stores of Amsterdam.>>>

Hallucinations

- Like always you have forgotten to cook rice for dinner, no?
- Who cares? Don’t stress me out. I still have time.
It is nighttime. It is cold. All day I have wandered around the house. I counted all the pieces of furniture in the house: the brown coaches, our dining table, the Piano, our carpets, our phones, all those paintings and books, my desk, my bed, my parents’ bed, our lights…
- Are you crying?
- No, but I wish I could cry for hours. Have you ever been invaded by the flood of memories?>>>

نیاوران، فرمانیه و مادام ساعی

عاشق رانندگی در اتوبانهای شلوغ تهران بودم .ساعت یازده ی هر روز صبح دوباره به مادام ساعی زنگ می زدم تا از تو خبر بگیرم و تو همیشه به پای تلفن می آمدی و با صدای معصومت می گفتی هنوز ساعت دو نشده که تو بیایی ؟ این عقربه های ساعت هر روز دیر تکان می خورد و من در تب و تاب آمدن برای در آغوش کشیدنت پر و بال می زدم . >>>

چه بی نظیر بود

بی نظیر بودی تو در خاکِ پاک خویش
گناه تو بی نظیر بودن بود
زنِ لبخند به لبِ دمکراسی خواهِ امیدوار
در کشوری مسلمان
در کشور کودتا در کودتا
با کوههایی مأمن القاعده >>>

Sense of rebellion

A new generation of Iranian artists are striving for the mutation of our music. For those who have been waiting for a change, the time is now and there is a new wave of talented Rock and Hip-Hop artists reaching out to us. This goes a long way toward explaining the large majority of our Iranian pop music culture. However, every once in a while an album will make its way past reviewer after reviewer and deservedly earn high marks with nary a scratch. I believe this will be the story with Iran’s hip-hop messiah, Erfan, and his debut Album, “Az Khaneh ta Goor”>>>

فرهنگ شخصی : الف ـ پ

کلمات برای هر کسی معنای خود را دارند. من به شما فرهنگ ایرانی با اقطباس شخصی خودم را تقدیم میکنم. فعلأ سه حرف اگر خوشتان آمد بقیه را خواهم نوشت. الف:
* آرزو: چیزی که میخواهیم ولی میدانیم که بدست آوردنش سخت است: مثال آزادی در ایران
* آزادی : آرزوی قدیمی که تحمل نمیکنیم به مخالفان خود بدهیم
* آهنگر: شغلی که از بین میرود. مشهورترینشان کاوه نام داشت.یک درفش داشت که افتاد زمین. از آن موقع به بعد هیچکس جرات ندارد آن را بردارد چون ایرانیهای پشتیبانی بلد نیستند ولی پشت پا خوب میگیرند . همه نشسند منتظر امریکا یا مریخیها.

>>>

A visit to see Amma

Alexandra Palace in north London on a grey morning in December – a Thursday. An Indian-looking man in a bright orange parka is guarding the driveway to the grand Victorian exhibition centre at the top of Alexandra Park. A banner next to him announces the presence of Amma – born Mata Amritanandamayi – "The hugging saint." White women in white saris, men clad in white, wearing beards, smiles, or looks of utter seriousness, make their way in and out of the main hall which, as their feet testify, you can only enter in socks>>>

آهنگ تو

این آهنگ

مرا به یاد تو انداخت

چو غریزه حیوانی

این چند نت کوتاه

مرا به دام تو انداخت

>>>

Oh Beautiful

Oh Beautiful,

I've heard of you.

What could you do

to a man of science?

>>>