POETRY

Red earmuffs

For my son, Azad and in memory of my father, Abutorab Naficy (1914-2007)

05-Dec-2007 (3 comments)
My father brought them from America
They were soft and cozy
Red on the outside and white inside
With a green headpiece in between.
We were sitting in the "turret room".
Father wore a sheepskin Caucasian cap.
His eyes were opened wide
And his hands covered his ears
Looking like a wolf in the snow. >>>

VACATION

Hamsafar

Hamsafar

South Beach to Key West, Florida

by kfravon
04-Dec-2007 (2 comments)

>>>

SATRAPI

No-nonsense revolution

Precisely because "Persepolis" is world-class art, it has set off political bickering, and triggered ideological opportunism

04-Dec-2007 (3 comments)
The graphic novels, Persepolis and Persepolis 2, now combined into a movie, do not look back to the classics. Satrapi’s self mocking style is ultra-modern. It combines a Disneyesque cuteness with the author’s Hedayat-like anguish. At first the work appears to lack subtlety, protesting the Islamic Regime’s repressions too directly. Later we realize this straight shooting is just another manifestation of the no-nonsense way in which the artist conducts her life. Satrapi’s uninhibited tendency to speak her primal mind has been the driving force in the events of her life.>>>

SMILE

عمه , عمو , دايي , خاله

داشتن يك عمو ي پولدار خيلي خوب است

04-Dec-2007 (one comment)

 خاله
------

معناي لغوي : خواهر مادر
معناي استعاره اي: هر زني كه با مادر رابطه ي گرم و صميمي داشته باشد .
نقش سمبليك : يك خانم مهربان و دوست داشتني كه خيلي شبيه مادر است و هميشه براي شما آبنبات و لباس مي خرد .
غذاي مورد علاقه: آش كشك .
ضرب المثل : خاله را ميخواهند براي درز ودوز و گرنه چه خاله چه يوز. خاله ام زائيده، خاله زام هو كشيده. وقت خوردن خاله خواهرزاده رو نمي شناسه. اگه خاله ام ريش داشت، آقا داييم بود .

>>>

CARS

Parked in time

Parked in time

Photo essay: Old cars in Iran

by Mehrdad Naraghi
03-Dec-2007 (9 comments)

>>>

BOOK

The very last straw

News & excerpt from "Sons and other Flammable Objects"

03-Dec-2007
Another in the long line of misunderstandings in their shared history, what caused Xerxes and Darius Adam to vow never to speak again, really began with a misplaced anecdote, specifically an incident that happened many years before in the summer of Xerxes's twelfth year, known always in the Adam household as "the summer when Darius Adam began terrorizing, the neighbors' cats," known privately to Xerxes's future self as "the summer in which I realized something was very wrong with my father, something that would cause us to never have a normal father-son bond-the summer, years later, accidentally triggering the very last straw that would cause us to never communicate again." Ever? "Well, wishful thinking, for starters.">>>

E-BOOK

The Story of the Men of Sialk Hills

From my new e-book "Men from Various Civilizations"

03-Dec-2007
The Sialk Hills civilization had many members. One of these was a man who played the tar and loved his profession very much. This man’s house was located on the western side of the hill. To the right of it was the house of a bearded man. And to the left of his house lived a man who shaved his beard. They were not friends, but they always greeted each other when they met on the street. The tar player had a girlfriend who always reminded him that she was a decent girl. The tar player knew that she was a decent girl, too. That is why he had decided to marry her one of these days>>>

POETRY

Genesis' days

Translation of Hafez #145

02-Dec-2007
When my beloved takes a goblet,
Even the clerics want to rob it.

Crying, I'm at the feet of her.
She only asks, "What shoes should I wear?"

With a fish's mind I dreamt of the sea
So my love might try catching me.
>>>

POETRY

A chair

Sanctuary of memories

30-Nov-2007 (2 comments)
A chair is not only
Recipient of exhaustion
It is not a decorative ornament
And not only a sitting requirement

A chair is a station for a tryst
A relieve for fatigue
Receive secret or open mission
For exhausted feet to revive and regain
>>>

ART

Travel diary

Travel diary

Paintings exhibited in Finalnd

by Gizella Varga Sinai
29-Nov-2007 (2 comments)

>>>

ART

Passages

Passages

Installations and wall pieces

by Taraneh Mozafarian
28-Nov-2007 (3 comments)

>>>

MUSICAL

Phantom unmasked

Ramin Karimloo speaks on his lead role in “Phantom of the Opera”

28-Nov-2007 (2 comments)
I have always greatly admired Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Musical shows, From Jesus Christ SuperStar, Evita to Cats all have been great international success’ for more than three decades running regularly on the London Stage and elsewhere worldwide. Ramin Karimloo has been performing Phantom of the Opera's title role since September 10, 2007, and this year will also mark the Phantom's 21st anniversary in London's West End. I was happy to interview Karimloo on his new challenge in a demanding yet rewarding role of The Phantom of the Opera. >>>

ADMIRER

Salaaam Iran

A story was told of a land filled with gold

28-Nov-2007 (30 comments)
My road to Iran began with the flames of September 11 and led me two years later to Forough's poem on light. And so it has been a road suffused in light, albeit two different kinds of light. The history of Iran has been suffused in light but it has also been veiled in darkness. I am an Eastern European Jew so I know well the ways of both darkness and light, and still I believe that Light will find the way >>>

LOVE

رنگ آمیزی چشمان تو

ابر و باد لباس های زمینی مان را از تنمان بیرون می آورد

28-Nov-2007
آرام از کنار خانه ی تو گذشتم بی آنکه درش را بزنم .آرام بی آنکه حتی گل های آفتابگردان سرشان را بگردانند و نیم نگاهی به رد پای من بکنند .از کنار نرده های خانه ات که می گذشتم به رنگ آمیزی در و دیوار نگاه کردم و به یاد آن روزی افتادم که برای نقاشی صدایم کرده بودی . ساعت نه صبح بود که زنگ خانه ام را زدی .تازه میز صبحانه را جمع کرده بودم ، فنجان قهوه به دست در را باز کردم .با کلاه حصیری قهوه ای رنگ و لباس کار ایستاده بودی .دوچرخه ات را به نرده خانه تکیه داده بودی باصدای نرمت گفتی هنوز آماده نشده ای ؟>>>

ANNAPOLIS

You give, we take

You give, we take

Photo essay: Middle East peace talks – again!

by Asgharagha
27-Nov-2007 (27 comments)

>>>

BEAUTY

For you

For you

Photo essy: Flowers in Iran

by Khashayar Dabestani
27-Nov-2007 (4 comments)

>>>

AUTHOR

The nature of freedom

A conversation with Manoucher Parvin on his latest novel, "Alethophobia"

27-Nov-2007 (2 comments)

Recently Dr. Parvin sent me a copy of his just-published novel, Alethophobia. Before reading it, I always assumed that the ultimate sanctuary of truth is the world of academia. Apparently this is not always so. The main character in Alethophobia, Professor Pirooz, tells how the fear of truth (alethophobia) affected the lives of a nexus of students, faculty and administrators on the seemingly serene campus of a midwestern university in the 1980’s, and how it threatened to compromise academic freedom as well as his own career. I offered to interview Dr. Parvin about the book, and he agreed. Since we have not yet met in person, this conversation was carried out via phone and email

>>>

POETRY

Fal-e-Ghahveh
27-Nov-2007 (3 comments)
Why are you scared of me?
You say it is my eyes
But my darling, my eyes are only a reflection of yours
Why will you no longer hold me?
You say it is my pain
But what pain I have, you have given me
It dripped from you and I drank it up
It sustains me
And as I look down into the cup from which it pours
At the dark residue it leaves burned at the bottom >>>

NATURE

Organic Iran

Organic Iran

Photo essay: Shahroud, Laloon, Sartakht, Bakhtiari...

by Khashayar Dabestani
26-Nov-2007 (8 comments)

>>>

HOLOCAUST

The lost requiem

Khosrow Sinai's priceless Iranian and Polish historical document

26-Nov-2007 (16 comments)
There are gaps in our history, lost episodes in our collective memory caused not by forgetfulness, but by the deliberate policy of governments and politicians. There are also courageous individuals who fight to bring such material back into the public light. Khosrow Sinai is one such individual. Author of "In the Alleys of Love", “The Inner Monster”, and “Bride of Fire”, Khosrow Sinai is internationally famous for over a hundred short films, documentaries and features. One of his works, “The Lost Requiem”, has never been publicly released. Sidelined and ignored for over a quarter of a century, its content has been deemed too politically sensitive to be shown. Now, at last, its official obscurity is coming to an end>>>