TRAGEDY

مرگ قو

در مرگ علیرضا افسردگی و نومیدی عظیمی نسبت به عدم تغییر در شرایط سیاسی است

08-Jan-2011 (6 comments)
آنچه مرگ علیرضا را هولناک و غم انگیز می کند وضعیت ایرانیان در شرایط فعلی است. نومیدی و خراب شدن همه پل ها در پشت سر و از سوی دیگر عشق بیکران به ایران. سالهایی که ایرانشناسی می خواندم را به یاد آوردم، کمبود وطن را می خواستم با پژوهش و بیشتر دانستن در مورد تاریخ و فرهنگ ایران پر کنم آن استاد ابله که نمی فهمید و با من سر و کله می زد که جای تو اینجا نیست و مگر نمی دانست در دو دانشکده هم زمان ثبت نام کرده ام و ایران شناسی را برای روح سرگردانم می خوانم و ادبیات را برای بیان دل شوریده ام؟ مگر نمی دانست و مگر دانست؟ و مگر فهمید؟ >>>

IRANIANS

Are We Really So Special?

Giving up some specialness to live more in peace and harmony with others

02-Jan-2011 (7 comments)
My children often remind me of how infatuated I am with my Iranianness and how obsessed I am with my cultural distinctiveness. Admittedly, we Iranians are not shy about acknowledging the superiority of our culture, especially of our religion. We have a keen tendency to over-glorify our historical achievements. Some of us are indeed puffed up with pride, particularly when it comes to our past, no matter how upset we are with our present>>>

GRIEF

Laughter has to be the best medicine

I try hard to laugh, but...

31-Dec-2010 (3 comments)
On a rainy day in Southern California, you can’t help but think sad thoughts. And if it just happens that a good friend has recently passed away, those thoughts may be even sadder. However, it is precisely on such days when you need your laughter the most. I’m trying to remember funny incidents, but all can thin k of are stories that have to do with “death.” >>>

AMERICA

The Creek

"I think it will help me figure out how to be their father in America"

31-Dec-2010 (one comment)
They walked to the creek and on the way Hassan thought that his children looked like they'd forgotten all about the attendants though he knew of course that they hadn't. He had thought his children would hear the stories and see only the princes and princesses but they had seen the attendants. The thing he wondered if his heart could match was the way they talked to each other as if it was obvious. They talked like they had already been seeing them before they heard the story>>>

ENGLISH

زبان دهكده جهانی

زبان مادری و انگلیسی بجای زبان فارسی

29-Dec-2010 (10 comments)
جهان امروز را دهكده جهانی می نامند و زبان این دهكده، امروزبدون تعارف زبان انگلیسی است، هركس و هر ملتی كه زبان این دهكده را بهتر بداند وبه آن مسلط شود، از امكانات مادی و معنوی آن بیشتراستفاده خواهد كرد و جایگاه مناسب خود را در آن پیدا كرده و وظیفه و نقش خود را به درستی ایفا خواهدنمود در غیر این صورت، منزوی خواهد شد و ازصحنه بازی كنار خواهد افتاد. >>>

LIFE

It’s The Season

Can memories be erased just because we moved? Nah!

01-Dec-2010 (4 comments)
Year after year, the holiday blues seem to arrive a bit earlier than before. As we join the celebration of a season that matters to the people we’ve come to love, it’s only polite to show enthusiasm. Once again, the stores are swarmed with shoppers and a bad economy seems long forgotten. Now that I don’t have an extended list of gifts to buy, preparation is somewhat easier. As usual, my husband writes many packages of greeting cards in his best handwriting. I do the shopping and food preparations>>>

FRIENDSHIP

Unbelievable bond

While roaming “Cloud Nine” a new friendship had begun

23-Nov-2010
Over the years of life in Chicago, with two jobs and three children, my participation in the Iranian’s literary circles was limited to the annual poetry nights, and/or events of huge presences such as Shamlou, Pezeshkzad, Behbahabi and Amirshahi. Now ten years later, it was a writer’s dream of returning to Chicago to introduce my new book. One could say I worked that entire week, however, this time “work” had a whole new meaning. What had once been a luxury was now considered hard work and sometimes I had to tear myself away from book discussions just so I could visit old friends>>>

BOOK

The Blue Flower of Forgetfulness

Excerpt from novel

21-Nov-2010 (6 comments)
The way I remember it, when we returned from our studies, the nation had not been ready for us. And when the revolution happened, we were not ready for it. We were industrialists, entrepreneurs, doctors and architects, statisticians, adjustors, and comptrollers. We were idealists who had clothed a nation with Barak clothes and Bella shoes, washed a nation with Darugar soap and a nation’s laundry with Snow and with Sea detergents. We had never been politicians, that particular avenue had been closed to us>>>

DIARY

نقره‌هایم را طلا کردم

شدم کنفسیوس و به جای حرف زدن هایکو می گفتم

21-Nov-2010 (8 comments)
یادگرفتم یواش یواش انگلیسی حرف بزنم. دیدم لغت جدید یادم نمی ماند، یاد گرفتم چطوری با همان لغت‌هایی که بلدم سر و ته ماجرا را هم بیاورم. نمی توانستم خیلی توضیح بدهم یاد گرفتم مختصر و مفید حرف بزنم. آنقدر ماجرا را می چلاندم تا در غالب یک مثال یا جمله یا حتی یک عبارت بگنجانم>>>

CLOSEUP

(Life in parentheses)

An intimate portrait of author, director & composer Reza Ghassemi

19-Nov-2010 (6 comments)
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FREEDOM

Journey Without a Camel

Roya Movafegh's "The People With No Camel"

19-Nov-2010 (5 comments)
I paused when I saw the title of Roya Movafegh’s first book, The People With No Camel. The grammar, the possible meaning, and her choice of imagery made me wonder – and want more. This is the reader’s first clue that The People With No Camel is not just another Iranian woman’s post-Revolution memoir. Upon opening the book she explains: “According to the laws of Sharia in Iran, if a Muslim man is murdered, his family may be compensated according to the price of one hundred camels>>>

NUCLEAR

Masking Motives

Iran expert Trita Parsi on nuclear stalemate

12-Nov-2010 (52 comments)
When Trita Parsi founded the National Iranian American Council in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, he hoped to give a voice to Iranians in the United States who condemned the terrorist attacks as vehemently as most natural-born Americans did. In the years since, the council has grown to include several thousand members and its role has taken on a more complex — and some say controversial — mission>>>

KIOSK

Love and Death in the Time of Facebook

First music video from Kiosk's new album

02-Nov-2010 (22 comments)
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ARTIST

The Journey of a Girl to Womanhood

Maryam Hashemi’s paintings

01-Nov-2010 (one comment)
I spent hours looking at her works following her tireless strive to spit back the entrapped feelings of those years living under the iron law of veil and its harsh repressive influence on a growing up girl with flying imagination. Maryam’s painting between 2001 & 2006 shows how she throws back on the canvas that was forced down her throat while dipping her brushes in other styles. She is not a depressive painter, she does not simply stomach what is forced on her. The “Family Day Out” is a universal teenage agony with or without veil>>>

DIARY

کفش‌های خوشگل لعنتی

درست یک سال پیش بهار در بهترین وضعیت آب و هوا بار و بندیلم را برداشته‌ام آمده‌ام اینجا

29-Oct-2010 (9 comments)
خاطره، خاطره، خاطره این خاطره لعنتی ناخن‌های تیزش را فرو می‌کند توی پوستم، گوشتم، قلبم، روحم و روانم. دوست مهاجری می گفت: دلم تنگ می شود چه کنم؟ گفتم: طاقت بیاور. به اندازای که با یک کفش نو اینقدر سر کنی تا کهنه شود، دلتنگی‌ات را با اولین کفش کهنه‌ات دور می‌اندازی و دیگر تمام می‌شود. دیگر توی شهر جدیدت اینقدر خاطرات ریز و درشت و خاطرات بد و خوب داری که سرت گرم می‌شود و مجالی برای دلتنگی نمی‌ماند>>>