Category: Arts
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Sormeh, a Persian Folk Music Band
Golnar Shahyar’s voice, the lead vocalist for the Sormeh Band, is the remedy for a rainy Sunday afternoon, when a cup of coffee and a cigarette is not enough to take you away from it all… Here I am. Powerless, left without my love’s caressing gaze… Left in longing of my lover’s embrace… No fire…
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the Craziness of Being a Woman
Laila Kordbacheh is a woman whose poetry unlocks the innermost fragile layers of being a woman. It is soft, yet stubborn. It is bold, yet beautiful. It is frank yet tactful. She takes her audience through a journey of discovery, of self doubt, at times, the most unattainable feelings filling the heart of a woman.…
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The New Yorker's Cartoonist
Every week more than 1000 cartoons and caricatures are sent to The New Yorker, out of which, only 17 are chosen to be featured In each issue. Tom Cheney is a staff cartoonist with The New Yorker, and his works have appeared in over 500 publications in the US and around the world.
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Unfit Iranian Men and a Movie Called NOTHING
In his film “Nothing,” Abdolreza Kahani expresses his disappointment in Iranian men in an angry tone. That is why he gives the final choice and decision to one of the film’s female characters. In the film’s last scene, we see that Efat, the family’s mother, is wearing her running shoes, an act that underscores her…
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Nick Cave, Foreplay in a Song
«Henry Lee» is a song from the album “Murder Ballads”, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The song is about a crime of passion and tells the story of a woman who kills a man because he did not sleep with her or love her. It is a duet with PJ Harvey, a British…
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Bob Dylan and Iranian lovers
There is speculation that Dylan’s recent album ‘Tempest’ could be his last mainly because the title of his work is almost resonates Shakespeare’s last play ‘ The Tempest’. It is not my cup of tea to contemplate on those kinds of rumor. One of the first songs in that album ‘Duquesne Whistle’ is a big…
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Iranian New Wave Cinema – Fat Shaker
The Fat Shaker, a movie written, produced and directed by Mohammad Shirvani, literally does what its title suggests: it shakes. Shirani’s intentional use of a digital handheld, and very shaky, camera, takes us on a roller coaster of highs and lows surrounding a morbidly obese father, Levon Haftvan, and his deaf, mute, son’s relationship. When…
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Gibberish English Rock Song
This song, Prisecolinensinenciousol, a parody by Adriano Celentano is sung entirely in gibberish designed to sound like American English. Celentano’s intention with the song was to explore communications barriers. «Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did. So at a certain point, because I like American slang…
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Photo Gallery – Four Generations of Iranian Females in One House
We are proud to present a new photo gallery with almost similar ambiance and tone by freelance painter & illustrator Parastou Ahadi. She is very conscious to avoid any slogan or obvious message mainly because the subject of the project has tendency to move toward general themes and issues that are usually expressed by feminism. In…
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Bitter Ending, an Iranian Short Story
Nobody can even think of ignoring the three decades of social, political and psychological turbulence in Iranian society. The combination of Iran’s social mobility and demographic behavior has resulted in nothing but uncertainty. To make it more interesting, add the short story “Bitter Ending” jam-packed with skepticism by Vahid Sharifian, the acclaimed Iranian conceptual Artist.…
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Saudi Arabia's King of YouTube
Alaa Wardi’s wiggling eyebrows and bushy hair are as recognizable as the madcap backdrops to his YouTube videos: the Technicolor Post-it wall from his cover of Lorde’s “Royals,” the floor-to-ceiling cardboard boxes from his interpretation of Rihanna’s “Stay,” and the patterned mattresses from the makeshift sound room where he has paid tribute to Arab singers…
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Immigrants' Cartoonist
The Albanian painter, illustrator and cartoonist Agim Sulaj, first started working in the political and satirical magazine “Hosteni”, producing illustrations and caricatures. At the same time, he was developing the skill of hyperrealistic painting. Agim Sulaj presented his artworks at his first individual exhibition in the National Gallery in Tirana in 1986. In 1994 he…
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Reza Ghassemi, "The Spell Chanted by Lambs"
Reza Ghassemi has written and stages many plays first of which was at the age of eighteen. Before the Islamic revolution his plays won prestigious awards in Iran, but after the revolution they were banned from the theater. This, among other reasons, encouraged him to immigrate to France where he pursued his career as a…
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Man in the Mirror
In his own words, Hossain Rad’s poetry is “the struggles of a bare man in the mirror, with his emotions and sensitivities, so raw, so untouched… “We borrow our souls from women,” He explains, “just like goddesses … We care, we evolve into them so deeply, letting them becoming a part of us, and we…
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DJ of Your Serendipity – Jun Miyake
To introduce you to a unique and different style of musical composition, I have chosen this special piece, Lilies in the Valley, a musical score by Jun Miyake. Miyake is a successful Japanese composer, trumpeter and a UC Berkley graduate, with thirteen solo albums and lots of movie scores and soundtracks to his name. Lilies…
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Philip Roth: The novelist’s obsession is with language
Philip Roth‘s 1979 classic, The Ghost Writer, will be spotlighted at Stanford at a February 25 “Another Look” book club event (see below here). Cynthia Haven interviewed the author in preparation for the event. His weapon-of-choice was the email interview, rather than a telephone conversation. Roth was precise, nuanced and to the point. He turned…
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At the End of 8th Street
With her brother on the death row for murder, Niloofar, Taraneh Alidoosti, has only three days, to come up with blood money, Diya, to be paid to the victim’s next of kin, or her brother will be executed. This is the main story around which a series of events take place in the movie, the…
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Dystopian Trilogy for Teens
Veronica Roth (born August 19, 1988) is an American author known for her debut New York times best selling novels Divergent and Insurgent. Her third book titled Allegiant, completing the Divergent trilogy, was released last year. She is the recipient of the Goodreads Favorite Book of 2011 and the 2012 winner for Best Young Adult…
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DJ of Your Serendipity – 1
I found the magazine very addictive then I thought that there will be many like minded people who love alternative music. So I sent my list of music and a bunch of short anecdotes that goes with it for the collaboration. There…I got the job. I will be the Dj of your very personal moments.…
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Sogand, Iranian – German singer
Sogand was 5 years old when her Iranian parents moved to Germany. She is part of the ever extending diaspora communities all around the globe. In the world that in reality became a global village, the new generations of Diasporas grew up to love their motherland as much as being a proud citizen of host…
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Mississippi John Hurt – Spike driver blues
John Hurt sang of surprisingly violent and frank subjects in a disarmingly tender voice, coupled with an amazing technical mastery of guitar. This music will stay with you and is often quite moving and original, since it combines blues with elements and playing styles normally associated with “folk,” due to the fact that Hurt hardly…
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Drunk With Love
“Drunk With Love”, by Rana Farhan, magnificently mesmerizes with style, and an abundant beauty. Based on a poem by Rumi, the words of an ecstatic love poem, are brought to life in a smooth and serene way. Farhan sings the song in Persian, but in English, the words are searing. Drunk With Love- lyrics by…
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Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly
The opening in Asghar Farhadi’s “About Elly”, is reminiscent of Guillaume Canet’s Little White Lies (2010): a playful group of friends turns out to be childish and overbearing, and their holiday arrangements entirely banal. The Camera dizzily following each person, as the vacationers arrive at the ramshackle beach house, mending broken windows and doors while…
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It is Sung in Yellow
Don’t listen to my voice, it is sung in yellow Don’t touch my heart, it’s sick with coldness Don’t get close to my soul, it’s been abandoned for years Don’t touch my brain, its pain is contagious And from afar, make me feel like a mystic A déjà vu of a creature that once existed…
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Blue Melancholia is Approaching
It’s not about death, or the end drawing near. It’s not about love or hate among sisters, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters or husbands and wives. Nor is it about ” happiness”, with its usual smirk, hiding all the depressing feelings of melancholia. It’s not “about” anything in particular to many who haven’t experienced it. It…
