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Photograph by Traveler My younger son and I shared a ride into Berkeley this morning. The clouds had put on a spectacular show in the sky. He asked me if I had my camera along. This is significant, as the two of them are usually rather sick of my
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Painting by Vanecha Ebrahimi Roodbaraki, who is an artist from Gilan, living in Paris. She has a nice collection of paintings. See here for more. Tonight I feel such harmony with my feelings inside when I look at this happy image of Baluchis dancing. You know, I have lived
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Palm tree bearing dates in Ehsan's aunt's backyard in Boushehr. Ehsan is nostalgic about his hometown of Boushehr. Take a look at his blog and see for yourself. Another destination added to my list of things to do before I live a long life! Maybe we could all go
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Let me tell you one of the most beautiful love stories ever written in Persian Literature. It will be summarized. If you would like to read more or in Farsi, let me know and we will figure out a way to make sure you get to see this gem
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These days classes have started both at UC and at my kids' college, as well as in many schools. This marks the beginning of the Fall season in these parts. My mental calendar, however, still considers these days as the last weeks of summer. I am filled with images
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These are pictures of Ghaleh Roodkhan in Fooman mountains in Gilan. This fort is the biggest ancient brick and stone castle in Iran, and is located 25 km southwest of the city of Fooman. It is comprised of an administrative and a military structure, which housed a garrison. People
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Farrokh Shehabi and Dr. Fereshteh Davaran posed for me! (No, they are not the love story subjects! They're just friends.) I went to listen to Dr. Julie Scott Meisami, scholar and author of books about Arabic and Persian Poetry, formerly of Tehran, Oxford, and Harvard Universities, who talked about
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I was on “super slow motion,” today (you know, the feature used in video re-plays of sports competitions on TV). Everything was slower than usual, and whatever didn’t absolutely have to be done, wasn’t. I was slowing down from a lot of stress, speed, responsibility, and intensity in my
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Iranian literature has given the world marvels of beauty, wisdom, and poise in poems written by its many outstanding poets. Our poets such as Hafez, Molana (Rumi), Saadi, and Omar Khayyam, just to name a few, are not only sources of national pride for Iranians, as they are known
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Here's something I wrote for the new Iranian.com, which will be unveiled this weekend. It's entitled: How I Became A Blogger.
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This turned out to be an unusual day after all! Today at work I was running around going to meetings and taking care of things when I realized I had missed lunch. Earlier I had heard yelling noises and police sirens outside my office, and had not considered them
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Ilam's Samireh Region. Photo by Hossein Khadang, IRNA Berkeley Lecture Series will host a talk by Dr. Julie Scott Meisami, Scholar of Near Eastern Languages on the topic of “The Mad Lover: the 'Romance' of Layli and Majnun," on Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 4:00 p.m. at 110 Barrows
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My younger son, also known as The Traveler, turns 18 today. We went to a Japanese restaurant to celebrate this important birthday together over dinner. I talk about my kids a lot. By now I have told you many times that whereas my older son talks and writes and
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Iranians on the Internet A One Day Gathering It has been a crazy few weeks. I am no stranger to volunteer work. I participate in community affairs for the honor and joy of participation. On top of that, I love nothing more than to work with young Iranians who have
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Let me tell you one of the most beautiful love stories ever written in Persian Literature. It will be summarized. If you would like to read more or in Farsi, let me know and we will figure out a way to make sure you get to see this gem
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Another early morning phone call. My heart beats fast, my mouth is dry, my palms are sweaty, and my limbs feel heavy, almost paralyzed as I come face to face with a part of my past I thought I had left behind. Forgetting has been an objective rather painfully
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One of my readers, Pardis, is a young woman from Shiraz. Recently, as we were corresponding back and forth, I reminisced about her home city of Shiraz. I had an uncle who had married a Shirazi girl and settled there to have many children. I had several bona fide
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Torkman girl at a wedding in Bandar Torkman, Photo by Hamed Khorshidi, Fars I love reading. When I read I feel so happy and peaceful all the time. This weekend I realized I hadn't been able to read for such a long time. I spend very long days working
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My sons have been having a house guest for the past week. They have been taking turns spending time with him during the days and the three of them have been hanging out together in the evenings when all three are home, running around to heaven knows where, coming
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I was an audience of one to someone’s sweet Setar for a little while tonight. My soul is longing for Iranian music now. I want to listen to some Daf, but there is no one to play for me, and my Daf playing is simply not good enough to
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At lunch with Katayoun today. Alborz, Berkeley.
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I went to my last class last night. It was another memorable experience, spending time on something that feels so natural for me to love, Persian poetry. It was too short, as usual, leaving us wanting for more. I suppose I should be grateful for the opportunity, though limited.
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I used to think I could never again listen to this song. I thought remembering the memories would surely generate enough pain and emotion to warrant some major physical side effect! I thought I wouldn't be able to handle the parade of memories of lost dreams in my mind.
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My New Piece on Iranian.com "My friends tease me endlessly about my fascination with the radio. Many of them think radio to be a dying or a dead medium, seeing very little use for it. I beg to differ. ....." You can read the rest here.
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This past weekend I drove by the Grand Lake Theater again. As I waited behind the traffic light, I pulled out my camera to snap this picture (please forgive its poor quality). The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland is one of the best-known landmarks in the city. Not only
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Each time one of my friends goes to visit Iran, he or she becomes a window through which I will catch a glimpse of all that I love and I miss there. Though we each go into different families, different settings, and more or less different experiences when we
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Let me tell you one of the most beautiful love stories ever written in Persian Literature. It will be summarized. If you would like to read more or in Farsi, let me know and we will figure out a way to make sure you get to see this gem
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Looking at Tehran from Tochal. Photo by Alef Shin, August 10, 2007 I used to think that Tehran's air pollution was responsible for, among other things, people's hopelessness. I held that if the air cleared up and people could only see the mountains surrounding Tehran everyday, they would find
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With Wanda, Photo by Kathleen I went to my friend Wanda's birthday celebration last Saturday. It was an Afternoon Tea Party. Wanda has been my friend for 24 years. She is warm, wise, and wonderful. I have learned so much from her about American life, politics, race issues, jazz,
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Watch Ostad Bikchekhani on Tar and Otsad Farnam on Dayereh play live at Hafezieh in Shiraz in the early 1970's. I had never seen the Dayereh played like that! Listen to the masters and enjoy. The two of them and Hafez are probably making Heaven sound and feel beautiful
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My Sunday mood, which I present to you with joy. The legendary Shirley Bassey sings one of my most favorite songs in the world. I am keeping quiet as I sort thoughts and ideas upstairs! I am what I am/ I am my own special creation/ So come take
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It is Friday, and I want to talk about dance. In the years I lived in Iran, I went to see what could be seen of Iranian dance. Whereas musical concerts and plays were staged almost all year round, dance productions were no more than two or three a
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Some of you may know that Iranian.com has been going through a transformation. In keeping with the new wave of internet publishing, Iranian.com has been undergoing changes to make its content and software capabilities more up-to-date and easier to access. As a part of this new look, for example,
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I want to share the amazing story of a woman in Iran with you. Her name is Fatemeh Habibizad from Ahwaz, also known as Gordafarid. She is the first female Shahnameh narrator (naghal). The art of reciting the epic Shahnameh or the Book of Kings, was traditionally a male
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Hoda has left a comment, telling me about the cancellation. Thank you so much Hoda Jan for taking the trouble to let me know. You are really kind, and as my kids would say, you are "Ba Maram." So, I guess we will all have to go to Aleph
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In our household, between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. three similar-sounding yet different alarms go off to wake us up. We only have one morning person in our midst. My younger son and I are not morning people. I heard my older son try to wake up his brother this
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I dreamt I was in Tehran again last night. I must be missing it more than I thought. It's Wednesday, and I will have a long day ahead of me, leaving for my poetry class after work and getting home late tonight. I'll come back and tell you all
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Let me tell you one of the most beautiful love stories ever written in Persian Literature. It will be summarized. If you would like to read more or in Farsi, let me know and we will figure out a way to make sure you get to see this gem
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I want to show you what the trees outside my window look like, again. Our house sits on a small hill, and the trees outside are at least 30 years old, and about three stories tall. I can see the branches from the rooms upstairs, and the trunks from
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This photo was on Ghalbe Khoshbakht's blog (I link it as Lucky Heart). What do you suppose the sign is trying to say
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It's a cool August morning. A Sunday. I should have slept longer, but couldn't. So at 7:15, I went to look at the sky, the trees, the wind running through the trees and shrubberies outside, the overnight clouds shifting quickly in the hands of the delicious wind that is
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Remember John the Nurse, the activist I ran into at Shattuck Square on Thursday? He wasn't there yesterday when I left work. In his place was this group. This group believes that George Bush and Dick Cheney must be impeached. They invite everyone to show their solidarity for this
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Do you remember I wrote in both my blog and on Iranian.com about the beautiful music of Aleph Null? They are coming back to Anna's Jazz Island in Berkeley on Sunday, August 12th at 8:00 p.m. I heard from their group leader David Hauer, who also plays the saz
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As I mentioned before, Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam, an accomplished dancer with the Comedie Francaise, who manages his own dance company Nakissa in Paris, will be traveling to North America. Those of you who live in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto, might wish to mark your calendars. I
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The Persian Student Association of Stanford University will have a very special presentation of Dariush Mehrjui’s new movie, Santouri. As you may know, the movie could not obtain a license to screen in Iran. Even after several demanded modifications were made to it, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance
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I am concentrating on writing my piece about the “lost” Iranian artist I have discovered (he wasn’t lost at all—in fact he was a world-renowned artist, but mostly unknown to the Iranian community). It’s a bigger research job that I’m used to handling, and the “story” in it still
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A young friend of mine is going through a difficult, yet important transition. She is acknowledging some difficulties she has and is seeing a specialist for help. I am so very proud of anyone who can gather the courage to face his/her demons and to seek help in driving
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You won't see a picture of this week's executions in Iran here. I cannot tell you how watching those images has affected me. The fact that they happen is bad enough. To watch them and those who watched them is a disgrace to humanity. After seeing them a few
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I fed my sons and several of their friends a family meal tonight. It felt good to brush up on my domestic skills! As I sat down to prepare my Friday post, paying attention to do a good job of it, as I love writing my Friday posts, I
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As I keep telling you, it is never a dull moment in Berkeley. As I was leaving work this afternoon, I ran into this man, John, who is a nurse at a hospital. On his day off, he is an activist for the rights of workers, he said. In
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My son, the Traveler, is a quiet young man. Never says more than he feels is needed. We ran to the supermarket on his day off yesterday. As he was pushing the cart while I was fetching various items and throwing them in the cart, he stopped. I looked
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Today is a very happy day for me. I am going to my Persian Poetry class in Berkeley. Our teacher, Professor Zari Taheri, who now lives and teaches in Japan, returns to her alma mater, Berkeley, where she taught Persian literature for many years after graduation. Each summer she
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