Watch out, here they come!

"We’re not Pink Floyd" he says. "Why do they expect us to be Pink Floyd?" Those are words from Arash Sobhani, singer/songwriter of Kiosk, the Iranian rock band that has been making quite a name for itself in the past two years. Since the days I wrote and published the conversation we had on Orkut in November 2005, the band has made a major leap in making itself known to the general public, and quite successfully, I might add. As I also run the Kiosk fan community on Orkut, the release of their second album a few months ago gave me the opportunity to have a second conversation with not only Arash, but also with Babak Khiavchi, head of Bamahang Productions (Kiosk’s record label) and Ahmad Kiarostami, the director of the now famed Eshghe Sorat video. >>>

Die, you filthy insect

What do you do with a cockroach? You kill it, most likely. How guilty do you feel if someone dropped one of those exterminator bombs in a hole infested with roaches? Not really guilty, you may even thank them or at least feel relieved. Well, Iranians are now cockroaches and Iran is a roach infested sewer. This cartoon appeared in both Investor’s Business Daily and The Columbus Dispatch. What really gets my goat is not the racist, stupid nature of the cartoonist, Michael Ramirez. No, not at all, I expect that such individuals exist. The real tragedy here is born of us, Iranians.

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اندر جدل ناصر زرافشان با عباس میلانی

متن نوشتار عباس میلانی در روزنامه کیهان را شاید بسیاری به یاد دارند. آن در زمانی دیگر و در شرائطی متفاوت نوشته شده بود و درست و یا نادرست بودن آن قابل گفتگو ست. ولی پرسشی اصلی در این مورد که در واقع زیر بنای نوشتار آقای زرافشان است، اینستکه آیا مصالحه سیاسی در شرائط ویژه، دارای یک انسجام از قبل پیشبنی شده و همه پسندی است که در هنگام گرفتاری همگی ملزم به رعایت آنند؟ و یا این در حد و مرز یک پدیده شخصی باقی میماند؟>>>

نهضت مشروطیت و دیانت بهایی

در حالی که انقلاب مشروطه ایران در سالهای اخیر به طور علمی و دانشگاهی مورد نقد و بررسی مبسوط دانشمندان قرار گرفته است لکن رابطه دیانت بهائی و انقلاب مشروطه ایران تا حد زیادی مجهول مانده است. دیدگاههای بهایی در مورد جنبش مشروطه به اشتباه ساده انگاشته شده و یا به یک یا دو جنبه محدود گشته است. نمونه واضح نوع اوّل ساده اندیشی را می توان در آثار ادوارد براون یافت. او که مهم ترین مستشرق اروپائی آن دوران به شمار میرود معتقد بود که بهائیان به دستور حضرت عبدالبهاء موضعی انفعالی در پیش گرفته بودند.(۴) به عقیده براون بهائیان فاقد برنامه ای جامع و همه شمول برای اطلاحات در ایران بودند>>>

So close

She comes so close
From behind the hope
Wearing an ordinary t-shirt
Which says;
an old friend of mine, once said to me, ...
the escape perfume screams. >>>

In tomorrow

It wouldn't be too far fetched
to say that you'll need
everything you got to face
your blue tomorrow.

I've looked into this for years,
through thick dusty books
filled with alchemy
and theatre of absurd,

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کیوسک در زیر زمین خانه ما

من از گوشه جاز کیوسک به کیوسک وصل شدم. شهروز مولایی ، جازیست گروه کیوسک در یک پیشنهاد بی شرمانه از من خواست که برای ترانه "افسوس" هلهله بزنم. مساله هلهله خدا را شکر منتفی شدم و جایش هلهله عروسی علی کمالی (بیسیت گروه)را جایگزین کردند. ولی من دیگر درگیر شده بودم و این درگیری یعنی بعنوان مثال چند آخر هفته تمام خزیدن در خانه و سیفون نکشیدن برای جلوگیری از ایجاد صدای زاید در هنگام ضبط جاز " تو کجایی " و یا در یک روز منفی چهل و سه درجه کانادایی ، ساعت سه صبح با شهروز کیوسک تا اتاوا رفتن برای اخذ ویزا برای اولین کنسرت کیوسک در سانفرانسیکو . آلبوم عشق سرعت از نظر من یک آلبوم کاملن زیر زمینی است. همه آلبوم در زیر زمین دو خانه در تورنتو ضبط شده است. یک خانه در شمال تورنتو و خانه ما. >>>

Three's company

There are few Western cities where Persian pop music blasts at full volume in shopping malls. Yet this is a daily, natural occurrence at Jerusalem’s high-security downtown bus terminal. Here, in the equivalent of New York’s Penn Station, eighteen-year-old Israeli soldiers wait for their rides home, assault rifles slung over their shoulders, Persian pop legends Moin and Ebi pounding in their ears. Most of the CD stores here are owned by Iranian Jews, and over the past twenty years they have created a market for Persian pop in the very heart of the Jewish State.>>>

The forgotten cemetery

A loved one is buried in Karaj’s Beheshte Sakineh. This cemetery which has always been the burial grounds for Karaj and its surrounding villages, is now developing into a cemetery of choice for many Tehrani’s who would like to avoid Beheshte Zahra’s overbearing crowds and mayhem. In November 1998 on the first anniversary of our loved one’s passing, a small group of friends and family gathered at her gravesite to remember her. My sister had brought her good friend, Akram, with her. In mid-afternoon we gathered and performed the necessary rituals of the anniversary.>>>

The ballad of Howard Baskerville

Don't panic

Reports on an increased possibility of a US attack on Iran are raising some serious concerns. But I don't think it is anything but a psy-op, possibly this time by the liberals to frighten and provoke the Iranian government either to give up the enrichment or to do something stupid that could become a pretext for the more severe UN sanctions. There is absolutely nothing Bush could gain from such attack and this is not something that only the liberals are saying. >>>

I found Azita!

I like to write. I dream of writing wonderful, amazing fiction, but then reality happens, and it’s more amazing and powerful than fiction. Maybe “truth” as it is simply cannot be overshadowed by “truth” as I imagine it should be. Today I read this story about a young Iranian man. His name is Sina. He is 18 years old, and he was going to be hanged. When he was much younger, he killed a drug dealer, and by Iranian law, he had two options: He could wait to be executed on his 18th birthday or he could extract the forgiveness of the victim’s family and pay them the blood money. The amount was not specified in the story I read, but in Iran, each life has an exact price. Those who are rich enough or have the right connections, might consider justice an attainable ambition. >>>